#did a bit of scrubbing on my pc today and it seems to be running a bit smoother so hopefully it works alright next time i play

[autumnoakes]

i don't think i should be playing re4 remake on my pc BUT a) it runs and b) i'm on chapter 13 out of 16 so if anything stops me at this point it isn't going to be that

[whoareurl]

Causing Chaos in Pyjamas - 00Q (4/9)

Two and a half minutes both dragged and raced by for Q. It wasn’t a lot of time to get everything done even without the persistent exhaustion making him slow but it was also a long time to have to hold his concentration with a fever boiling his brain. The room held its tension in the silence of Q’s companions as he typed and typed, eyes unblinking in the face of pressure. He was just thankful those horrible building sneezes didn’t disrupt him at what would have been an extremely inopportune moment.

The timer on Ellen’s laptop let out a beep just as Q’s screen froze before turning blue - Christ how old was this thing? - and he sat back on the sofa with a sigh.

“Q?” Bond’s voice sounded far away. Q shut his eyes. Just for a moment. “Q, we have to move.”

Q let out a yawn. “Five more minutes,” he countered but Bond was already dragging him to his feet where he swayed unstably, barely managing to see where he was going before he was bundled back into Bond’s car (sans cat food this time). They were already on their way before Q realised that he��d forgotten his blanket.

“Damn,” he cursed quietly to himself. That was his favourite blanket.

If Bond heard him, he didn’t comment. Q was grateful for that because he was feeling nothing short of dreadful. His face ached with congestion and he could feel a similar pressure settling deep in his lungs. Now really wasn’t the time to be contracting pneumonia but, well, he always did have a bit of a weak chest. Generally, it wasn’t a problem in Q-Branch where he was surrounded by several loyal minions who willingly brought him an endless supply of hot lemon and honey.

Q could only hope it wasn’t going to be a problem now that he was stuck in the field with James bloody Bond. As long as he didn’t have to do too much running he should be fi-

Q glanced at Bond in the driver’s seat and very quickly remembered every mission Bond had ever been on. His heart sank. Yeah, running was undoubtedly going to become necessary at some point.

“ishh’nkg!”

Ducking his head down into his chest, Q squashed the sneeze with his palm, sending a pulse of aching pressure across his cheeks. He winced. Bond muttered a soft gesundheitand Q almost expected to be reprimanded for stifling what with the tension in Bond’s jaw.

He was by no means a field agent, but Q was as observant as they came. Bond had been restless since he first arrived at Q’s flat though he’d hidden it well with banter and stoicism. But Q saw enough of Bond to know that he was acting out of sorts. It was obvious to him now - though the fever had made putting the pieces together difficult - that Bond harboured some kind of...affection for him. Bond saw him as more than a colleague, that much was obvious. If he were feeling bold, Q might go as far as to say that Bond was starting to consider him a friend.

For some strange reason, that made Q smile. He’d never been one for friends before but with Bond...well, perhaps he could get used to the idea.

“Right,” Bond said, startling Q from his bizarrely sentimental thoughts as he pulled into a parking space. Q blinked. “Any specifics for this laptop?”

It took Q a moment to notice that they were parked outside of PC World (the best of both worlds). “Um,” he said, feeling quite unexpectedly tongue-tied. “Core i7 would be best but don’t get anything below an i5 or it’ll take me ten years to get into MI6’s server. I’ll need at least 8GB of RAM but don’t worry about storage memory because-”

Q stopped, noting Bond’s confused expression with exasperation and starting to open the passenger door, swinging his legs out into the cold. “I should just come with you,” he said, suppressing a violent shiver which made him draw instinctively closer to himself.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Q. You’re not even wearing shoes,” Bond scoffed and Q frowned.

“Well, whose fault is that?” He countered. “Didn’t they teach you Cold Care 101 in double-oh training? Dragging someone around London without shoes is considered unadvisable.”

Bond’s ever-snappy reply didn’t come as Q expected. Instead, he lowered his voice and said, “Get back in the car, Q, or you’ll get frostbite.”

Stunned by his agent’s sudden change in demeanor, Q did just that. Bond’s tone had come far too close to gentle for either of their liking, judging by the way Bond cleared his throat and promptly escaped from the car without a word, leaving Q to ponder what the fuck just happened.

He didn’t get much time to ponder it, however, before his nose had other ideas and his eyes were fluttering half-open half-shut in that ridiculous way that made him look dazed and confused. His chest heaved (and wheezed but Q’s attention was occupied elsewhere and so he paid it little mind), expanded. He was right on the brink but he couldn't, he couldn’t quite get there. His hand came up to hover by his nose though he didn’t remember consciously deciding to do that. And just as he felt like his lungs had reached maximum capacity, he took another gasping breath and

“ehhTISHHhOO! hh’hiinGISHHOO! ehh… oh ngh… ahHh hhikyh’ITSSKHEW!”

Q slapped a hand over his runny nose, wildly glancing outside to see if anybody had witnessed his embarrassment but he seemed to be in luck. Well, it was about time something went his way today. As he rifled through the glove compartment for some tissues, however, he found that his luck was extremely short lived.

“And back to our regularly scheduled programming,” he muttered to himself, finally giving up on his hunt for anything to clean himself up with. Eventually, he looked at his sleeve and grimaced. Apparently he was stooping to several new lows today.

With his nose mopped up as best it could be given the situation, Q settled back against the chair and sighed. He still rather desperately needed to blow his nose but he could hardly go wandering into Tesco barefoot in bright red pyjamas looking like death warmed up. But he could certainly do with a tissue. Why hadn’t he thought to tuck a space handkerchief into the pocket on the chest of his pyjamas for situations just like this one? Clearly he was going to have to update his provisions to include supplies for surviving a fugitive situation with 007 and a nasty cold.

Q was abruptly awoken from his doze - when had he fallen asleep? - by 007 thundering back into the car. He instinctively clutched at his pounding head at the noise until a carrier bag landed in his arms. Curious, Q peered into the bag while Bond shoved a laptop box into the passenger footwell and started the engine.

Beecham’s Cold and Flu Relief. Kleenex. Bottle of water.

“What’s all this?” Q asked stupidly.

Bond cleared his throat, clearly feeling just as awkward as Q did. “I was passing a corner shop. Thought it might help.”

For the first time in a long time, Q found himself speechless. He muttered a breathless thanks before tearing into the tissues and giving his nose a much-needed blow. Without bothering with the medicine, he pulled up the laptop box and started setting it up on his lap.

“It’ll likely need charged,” Q noted as the laptop started booting up. It was a nice laptop. Bond had done well considering his limited technical expertise. By far Bond’s best trait when it came to gadgets was his uncanny ability to destroy any equipment he was given with spectacular flair.

Bond grunted. “There’s a café nearby with plugs. Two minutes.”

~

The café was small but modern with a crazy paving pattern on the stone floor; a stone floor which, unfortunately, nipped at Q’s cold toes. Any other time, he’d accuse Bond of either deliberate sabotage or poor planning but there were more important matters at hand so he instead focused his attention on making sure his agents didn’t die at his hands.

(Perhaps that was somewhat dramatic but Q blamed himself and if a single one of his people ended up dead, he didn’t think he’d ever be able to live with himself and he wasn’t really feeling up to supplying Bond with a constant stream of witty banter at the moment. So he focused. Quietly.)

“I’m going to contact M,” said Bond, finally ceasing his incessant fidgeting and disappearing onto the street to find a payphone. Bond had left his mobile at Ellen’s on the off-chance that Q’s hackers could trace them through it. It was a slim chance - they’d have to have an inside man at MI6 to make it even remotely feasible, really - but Bond had said he didn’t want to take chances. For once, Q had to agree.

So Q kept working and sipping at a blessedly hot cup of chamomile tea. He was too congested to taste it but the heat alone made him feel a little better. His nose still itched, though, and he had to scrub impatiently at his twitching nostrils every minute or so to quell the tickle.

Methodically, Q worked his way through the agents on the list, wiping their location data. Each agent he made disappear lifted a weight off his chest. He was just finishing off 009’s data removal when Bond returned, settling down in the seat opposite Q with what could only be described as an old man noise.

“I spoke to your replacement,” Bond said, voice laced with distaste. “He gave me some very interesting ideas about where to shove my gun.”

Q huffed a laugh. “Congratulations. You’ve managed to piss off your new Quartermaster in record time.”

“He’s not the Quartermaster,” said Bond with surprising force, making Q raise his eyebrows in surprise. Before he had much time to think on Bond’s reaction, he was speaking again. “He’s not competent enough to have earned that title. You should have seen him this morning, bumbling around Q-Branch like an overinflated idiot.”

“Careful, 007. You’re verging dangerously on sentimentality,” Q said with a teasing smile. Bond seemed to have a knack for bringing out Q’s trademark snark even when he felt utterly dreadful.

Bond chose not to respond to that, instead folding his arms on the table and saying, “Well, Not-Q suggested I get you to a safehouse and, shockingly, I’m inclined to agree with him.”

Q’s expression hardened. “No. I need to get to MI6 if I’m going to be of any use.”

“You won’t be of much use to anyone if you keel over on your keyboard,” Bond retorted.

“As you so kindly pointed you earlier, 007, it’s a cold. I’m hardly dying,” Q replied icily. He was in no mood to debate his level of responsibility in this whole mess but he felt a crushing weight of guilt resting on his chest coupled with an overwhelming desire to do anything to help. “MI6 is where I need to be, Bo-”

“Shh,” Bond said suddenly.

Q felt rage rise in his throat. “Bond, I-”

“Be quiet, Q,” Bond said desperately and it was only then that Q noticed the way Bond looked like a rabbit aware it was being hunted.

His eyes were trained on the wall behind Q which sported a large window and the café door. Turning in his seat, Q spotted a black car outside. A man emerged. When his suit jacket blew back as he got out of the car, Q saw that he was armed. His chest tightened.

“Q,” said Bond but terror had seized the Q’s motor functions and he found himself glued to the spot. Bond grabbed his shoulder and heaved him round to face him, already pulling off his suit jacket which he wrapped around Q’s shoulders. Seeing Q’s distress, he said, “It’s alright. We’re just two people having a meal.”

Instinctively, Q tried to turn around again but Bond caught his hands. His thumbs rubbed gently over Q’s knuckles.

“Don’t turn round. Just look at me.”

Q forced himself to look up to Bond’s eyes and was thankful to find some semblance of calm there. He tried to remember that this was Bond’s job and was definitely not an unusual situation. Q had been in his ear through situations exactly like this one but being in the middle of it is messing with his practiced cool head.

“Okay, they’re moving on,” Bond said, standing and keeping his eyes trained over Q’s shoulder as he folded up the laptop. Q unplugged it and gathered it up in his arms as Bond said, “We’re going to sneak out the back. I’m sorry, Q.” Bond bit his lip as he glanced down at Q’s - still bare - feet and then back up at his red-nosed and bleary-eyes expression. “But we’re going to have to run.”

[hausofskuh-blog]

Skincare Routine

Heeyoooo, Pavos. So it's been a minute since I've been on here. To be honest, January is my least favorite month.  The weather is usually lame (unless there is snow!), and I just feel like it's slow.  There isn't much to look forward too, and it kinda puts me in a slump.  Lately, my weekends have been packed, so when I do have down time, I'm trying to play catchup on things that need to get done.  I'm usually pretty good about posting to tha gram, but it's harder for me to do blog posts. I had worked so hard on an earlier post, but it ended up being too behind the times and frustrating, so I bagged it altogether.   Instead, I'm coming at you today with my newly updated skincare routine, and I hope you enjoy!

    So skincare is my ish, has been since I was in high school.  Through research and growing up, I've learned how important taking care of your skin is, and I'd love to share with y'all how I keep mine in shape.  People always think I'm younger than I actually am, but that won't automatically keep my skin young as I age.  This past year, I became dissatisfied with my old routine, and needed to switch things up. My skin is combination, which means my T-zone is more oily, and the surrounding areas are normal-dry. Below I'll discuss my morning and night routine, and why I love each product I'm using!

Morning:

Cleanser: Bare Minerals Trio - I started off using "Clay Chameleon", and then bought this trio at Christmas time.  To me, a morning cleanser doesn't need to be anything too fancy or special. I just need something that will take off any excess residue from the night before without stripping my skin too much. These cleansers came in smaller sizes so that the consumer could test each one, which of course, lured me in. I liked "Clay Chameleon", but wanted to try the others, so this worked well for me.

Toner: Pixi Glow Tonic - Obviously, this is just a baby sample, but I first picked it up to make sure the product didn't irritate my sensitive skin. I've since purchased the "Glow To Go" Glow Tonic pre-moistened pads, and I love them!  These have glycolic acid in them, which helps to exfoliate your face in a gentle way.  I have blackheads and large pores, so this is essential to my skincare regimen. One of my goals for 2017 is to really tackle my blackheads and keep my pores clear, so I'll keep y'all updated on my progress!

Moisturizer: Pond's Clarant B3 lotion:  This lotion was given to me by my bae's mom because she didn't like it. I used to have a sample size and I knew it worked on my skin, so I snatched it up.  This cream helps to eliminate or fade dark spots and scars.  I don't have a ton of acne scars, nor do I get rad zits very often, but this helps fade any discoloration I may have.  The smell is minimal and clean, and the lotion leaves my face feeling moisturized, but not greasy.

Eye Cream: 100% Pure Caffeine Eye Cream - I got a lil sample of this in my old Birchbox subscription and immediately fell in love! It smells like chocolate, and works well for dark circles.  I have since purchased a full size.  Some people may not want to use an eye cream in the morning, but because I bake my under-eyes and I have dark circles, I need it.  

Night:

Cleanser - Yes to Coconut: Cream Cleanser - I used to have the Yes to Coconut Moringa Seed Oil Cleanser, but I switched when I started running out. I still have a smidge of it left, but I couldn't find it when I went back to Target.  The new cream cleanser is essentially the same, just a different formula.  The older formula is incredible at "melting off" your makeup (it's on the packaging), so just for info, I'll tell y'all how I used it.  I would apply it dry to my face and really work it in. The formula was greasy, so it spread well.  Then I'd rinse it off, and voila!  My face was clean as a whistle.  The cream cleanser works much in the same way, but I don't usually use it dry. It tends to need a bit of water to work it up.  Both left my face feeling clean, but also very hydrated.

Toner - Paula's Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant - This is another one of those things I wanted to try for my pores. The BHA (Beta Hydroxy Acid) helps clear pores, redness, wrinkles, and diminish pore-size.  I read some reviews online that it was irritating, so when I ordered it, I also ordered some lil samples. (Side perk: PC has everything in sample form, so you can try anything)  I figured I'd use the samples to ensure I didn't have a reaction.  If it had irritated my skin, I could have returned the unopened full size.  Within the first couple days of using this, I noticed that my skin seemed brighter and smoother.  It did dry out areas on my forehead, so I made sure to heavily moisturize at night.  I'll have to do a 3-4 month update, because my pores are going to take awhile.

Moisturizer: St. Ive's Timeless Skin:  This stuff is the bomb. It retails for around $5 dollars at Walmart, and smells fresh.  The formula isn't super heavy, but it does a great job of keeping my skin hydrated.  The collagen and elastin help with anti-aging and wrinkles, two things I'm paranoid about.  I decided to try this after having seen another beauty blogger rave about it, and I'm so glad I did.  For the price, you get an amazing amount of product, and it works!

Exfoliator: St. Ive's Green Tea Blackhead Scrub - I've had samples of this a few times, but never really thought to buy it. I always liked it, but I had some other full size exfoliator on hand.  A few months ago, I purchased a Yes To Grapefruit exfoliating cleanser, and was honestly disappointed.  That spurred me to go ahead and buy this one because I remembered how I'd liked it before.  The ingredients are all natural, it does an amazing job exfoliating without being too harsh, and it smells yummy!  I'm really glad I decided to go in on this product, because it has proved to be a favorite. I use it about twice a week to slough off any dead skin, and it works like a dream!

Eye Cream - Nip+Fab Viper Venom - I got this product on sale at Ulta after randomly perusing the aisles, but I actually really like it.  It came in a big tube, so it's lasted me a fairly long while.  It helps to plump up fine lines and keep my eyes feeling fresh.  I may go for a different eye cream when this one's done, but for now, I'm a fan.

    That's it for my normal routine, but I'd like to add that I try and do a face mask at least once a week, and sometimes I supplement in my Bare Minerals Brilliant Future serum.  If I need an extra layer of moisture and vitamins, I pack this puppy on.  I originally used their skingevity serum, but I honestly wasn't very impressed. Lots of people raved about it, but I didn't really see any difference in my skin.  This serum is better, because it could work well on it's own, but also works great as a supplement.  The other serum wasn't moisturizing enough to be used on it's own.  

    I also just bought a pore-refining gel from Yes To Grapefruit. I haven't actually used it yet, but I'm excited to see how it performs. It's sort of a treatment type thing, so it's something I'd use a few nights a week.  

    That's all for my skincare routine!! See y'all next time!