#while i could download windows 10

[wintersearose]

[danielnelsen]

update: peach is doing very well!! she's eating and sleeping normally (sleeping more than normal, really, but that's to be expected)!! after 3 days of not sleeping and a few changes in painkillers, she finally just napped for an hr then, after another day, slept through the whole night (and most of the next day). she's started following all her usual routines again and is very keen to eat! still on some painkillers, but they're not having any horrific side effects anymore

now that im not staying up to keep an eye on her all night (while also dealing with upgrading my computer and my phone and also my sister preparing to go overseas and the dogs barking and howling constantly due to all of the above), i finally got some decent sleep too and slept for about 14 hrs. so today ive got that weird shakiness that i get from sleeping too much, but hey it's better than the whole of the last week

[felixcloud6288]

It's Hurricane Season so I'd like to share some advice as a life-long Floridian who's experienced a few things. This is going to be directed primarily to people living in areas at risk of blackouts which could last several days.

Preparations

Aside from food, water, and gas, some things you'll want to make sure you have are flashlights and batteries. Make sure to refill any medications you might need.

From @dea-certe: Fill up all vehicles and maybe a few gas containers now. Firstly because it will be more expensive in the storm aftermath, but also because it will be harder to find. I went to five different gas stations to find fuel at one point and was kicking myself because I had used so much has keeping the phones charged and keeping the heat going.

Get raincoats in case you need to go outside cause the wind will destroy any umbrellas.. If you can't get one, take a garbage bag and tear a face hole into it and use that.

Also, get bug repellent, especially mosquito repellent. Mosquitos breed around still water and there will be a lot of still water.

And if you have an infant, make sure to stock up on diapers, baby wipes, etc. Even if you don't have an infant, baby wipes can be useful to help keep yourself clean.

You might want to buy some gardening gloves as well to make the post-storm cleanup safer.

SUPER IMPORTANT FOR SANITY AND SANITATION: get caught up on laundry and dishes. No power means no running water. Don't make things worse by not having clean dishes or clean clothes to use. While you're cleaning, change your bed sheets as well. Once you have power, change your sheets again.

Also, download any games, ebooks, shows, etc you can onto any battery-charged electronic devices you have. It will help your sanity when all you can do is wait.

From @metadata-uber-alles: My recommendation re: radio is to make sure you have an actual AM/FM radio, one that can run on batteries. You can probably thrift it if you don't have one already. Most radio stations stream online too, but if the power goes out you'll be rationing your phone battery and may not have internet.

Finally, while you should ideally board up your windows to protect them from debris, make sure at the minimum that all your windows are closed. Wind pressures are going to suck air out of any openings in your home.

Food and Water

First and most important: DO NOT BE A HOARDER!!

Even if your home has no power, that doesn't mean your local grocery store has no power. You can expect some reduced supply due to damaged supply lines and a spike in demand, but you shouldn't be worrying about empty shelves. At worst, have the amount of supplies you might need for 10 days. If you normally go to the grocery store every 2 weeks or longer, just stock up the amount you normally would.

Buy more items that are less likely to spoil and don't need refrigeration. When you have no power, prioritize eating anything which requires refrigeration (milk, cheese, meats) or has a short shelf life (bread).

Demand will be higher in preparation, and supply will be diminished for a bit, but supply issues only become unbearable when people start hoarding.

As for water, you'll need a surplus since you need water for so much. I cannot stress this particular part enough:

You need water to flush your toilet.

If there's somewhere with running water you can go when you need to poop, use that whenever possible, but you need water available at home to refill your toilet's cistern if you don't have that option (either time, distance, etc).

Make sure you have a supply of drinking water. Don't go buying every water bottle you can find (See the bit about hoarding), but you should buy more than you might normally use. Instead, gather water through things like your sink or from a hose into any sealable containers you might have . If you have a bathtub, fill it up just before the hurricane. If you have a pool, that's another source of water. If no debris got in the pool, you can use it for bathing. If you have empty buckets, you can get some additional water during the hurricane by filling them with large rocks or bricks and leaving them out in the open to collect the rain water.

Different water sources will be used for different purposes:

bottled, canned, or other store-bought water: Drinking, cooking, and refrigeration (explained later)

Water in unsealed containers: refill the toilet cistern

Water in a sealed containers: bathing and cleaning (Can also be used for the toilet)

As mentioned with food, supplies at your grocer will be reduced but not necessarily empty. You should be able to buy enough additional drinking water and be able to also use it for cleaning, giving you more water for the toilet. The tip about gathering rain water will only work once. There will likely be no rain for at least a week afterward.

In case you need to evacuate

Keep tabs on whatever emergency alerts are available. Check what your local radio channel is or what sites to check online. Make sure you know how to get to your local shelter, including alternate paths in case a road is inaccessible.

Load your vehicle with anything you might need to bring with you before the storm so you don't have to spend time looking for them and double checking when every minute could count. Pack some pillows, blankets, and extra clothes just in case. Also include anything you cannot risk losing for school or work like laptops.

Refrigeration

Without power, your fridge is now just a giant cooler and a ticking bomb to being a biohazard. Fill it up as much as possible. Cold air escapes easily when you open it and heat disperses fastest throw the air. Remember how I said you should buy extra water? A fridge filled with cold water will stay cooler longer. Any liquid will do. Fill your fridge with water bottles, soda cans, beer, fruit juice, whatever. As long as it doesn't spoil at room temperature. Milk can technically help too, but since it spoils you shouldn't keep much of it and should use it quickly.

Additional things like fruits and veggies will also help. What matters is you want to reduce the amount of empty space and fill it with anything which can keep the temperature down. Put a frozen block of iron in for all I care. Just don't have a super empty fridge.

If you have a generator

Good for you. You're not completely without power now. But you need to set priorities on what to use it for. Generators can only supply so much power at a time so you can't just hook everything to it and expect things to work out.

Top priority is the fridge. Twice a day, morning and evening, plug the fridge to the generator and let it run for two hours to cool things down. Don't hook up the fridge when you don't expect to open it (like when everyone is asleep).

Second priority should be charging cell phones, laptops, and anything else like that. Depending on your circumstances, you can charge them at work, from your car, etc so only hook them up when batteries are low.

Third, comfort. I understand this will be stressful, but hooking up your tv and gaming computer isn't the best idea. If you've done what I suggested earlier, you'll at least have something to watch or do without needing to hook it to your generator. Like with the above electronics, you might be able to find other ways to charge them, but only attach them to your generator when you don't need to worry about necessities.

Finally for the love of god, DO NOT HOOK AN AC TO THE GENERATOR!!. Air conditioners draw a lot of power, especially once the room is hot. But your generator can only do so much. The AC will kill your power supply really quickly. Use a fan or the AC in your vehicle if you need to cool down.

Also worth noting, if you have an electric vehicle, that could potentially be used as well. I don't know specifics, but look into that if you own one.

Final notes

This is not comprehensive and I may be wrong about some things.

Please refer to actual expert sources for comprehensive help.

This is just suggestions from someone who has to deal with this every year and has figured out how to deal with the aftermath. Your living conditions may be different so please check how to handle any concerns unique to you.

Stay safe and do not give up hope.

[brotherconstant]

GIFMAKING TUTORIAL: PHOTOPEA (for Windows)

Screencapping

Gif Width/Size Limit/Ezgif

Loading Frames

Cropping and Resizing

Rasterize/Make Frames

Sharpening

Coloring (not detailed. Links to other tutorials included)

Exporting

Obligatory Mentions: @photopeablr ; @miwtual ; @benoitblanc ; @ashleysolsen Definitely check out these blogs for tips, tutorials and resources, they're a gold mine. Finally I recommend browsing the PHOTOPEA TUTORIAL / PHOTOPEA TUTORIAL GIF tags. DISCLAIMER: English is not my first language and I'm not an expert on what I'm going to discuss, so if anything's unclear feel free to drop another ask.

1. SCREENCAPPING -> PotPlayer (the one I use) or MVP or KMPlayer

INSTALL PotPlayer (tutorial)

Play your movie/episode and press Ctrl + G. The Consecutive Image Capturer window will pop up. Click Start to capture consecutive frames, Stop when you got what you needed.

Where it says "Image Type -> Format" I recommend picking PNG, for higher quality screencaps.

To access the folder where the screencaps are stored, type %appdata% in windows search, open the PotPlayerMini64 folder (or 32, depending on your system) and then the Capture folder. That's where you'll find your screencaps.

Admittedly MVP is a lot faster but I prefer Potplayer because it generates (at least in my case) higher quality screencaps. MVP kind of alters the hue and it made it harder for me to color my gifs. Still, if you're interested in how to use it, I recommend this tutorial.

As for KMPlayer, every tutorial out there is outdated and I couldn't figure out the new version of the software.

2. GIF WIDTH/HEIGHT, SIZE LIMIT, EZGIF OPTMIZER

At this point you should already know how big your gifs are going to be. Remember the ideal gif width(s) on tumblr are 540 px / 268 px / 177 px. These specific numbers take into account the 4 px space between the gifs. No restrictions on height. Here are some examples:

You can play around with the height (177x400, 177x540, 268x200, 268x268, 268x350, 268x400, 540x440, 540x500, 540x540 etc) but if you go over the 10 MB limit you'll either have to make your gifs smaller/delete some frames.

OR you can go on ezgif and optimize your gif, which is usually what I do. The quality might suffer a little, but I'm not really (that) obsessed with how crispy my gifs look, or I'd download photoshop.

Depending on the gif size, you can decrease the compression level. I've never had to go over 35. It's better to start at 5 (minimum) and then go from there until you reach your desired ( <10mb) gif size. Now that I think about it I should have included this passage at the end of the tutorial, I guess I'll just mention it again.

3. LOAD YOUR FRAMES

File -> Open... -> Pick one of your screencaps. The first one, the last one, a random one. Doesn't matter. That's your Background.

File -> Open & Place -> Select all the frames (including the one you already loaded in the previous passage) you need for your gif and load them.

(I recommend creating a specific folder for the screencaps of each gif you're going to make.)

WARNING: When you Place your screencaps make sure the Crop tool is NOT selected, especially if you've already used it and the width/height values have been entered. It will mess things up - I don't know why, could be a bug.

You can either select them all with Ctrl+A or with the method I explained in the ask: "when you want to select more than one frame or all frames at once select the first one, then scroll to the bottom and, while pressing Shift, select the last one. this way ALL your frames will be selected".

WARNING: Depending on how fast your computer is / on your RAM, this process may take a while. My old computer was old and slow af, while my new one can load even a 100 frames relatively fast, all things considered. Even so, I recommend ALWAYS saving your work before loading new frames for a new gif, because photopea might crash unexpectedly. Just save your work as often as you can, even while coloring or before exporting. Trust me, I speak from experience.

Now you can go ahead and delete the Background at the bottom, you won't need it anymore.

4. CROPPING AND RESIZING

Right now your screencaps are still smart objects. Before rasterizing and converting to frames, you need to crop your gif.

Technically you can rasterize/convert to frames and then crop, BUT if you do it in that order photopea will automatically delete the cropped pixels, even if you don't select the "Delete Cropped Pixels" Option. Might be another bug, unclear. Basically, if you crop your gif and then realize you cropped a little too much to the left or the right, you can go ahead, select the Move Tool (shortcut: V) and, after selecting ALL YOUR FRAMES, move them around on your canvas until you are satisfied. You won't be able to do this if you rasterize first and then crop, the excess pixels will be deleted. I don't know why, I found out by accident lol.

CROPPING

(Cropped pixels: the gray/opaque area outside of the selected area. That area disappears once you press enter and crop, but the pixels are retained, so you can move the frames around and reposition them as you like. In this case I could move the frames to the left and include Silver's figure [curly guy in the foreground] in the crop)

After deleting the Background, you will need to select all your frames (using the Shift key), use the C shortcut on your keyboard to choose the Crop tool. Or you can click on it, whatever's more convenient. Once you do that, a dropdown menu is going to appear. You need to select the "FIXED SIZE" option, as shown in the following screencap.

Once you do that, you can type in your desired width and height. Do not immediately press enter.

Your work area should now look like this. Now you can click on one of the white squares and enlarge the selected area until the edges are lined up. You can then move it around until it covers the area you wish to gif.

WARNING: to move the big rectangle around, you're gonna have to click on a random point of the work area, PREFERABLY not to close to the rectangle itself, or you might accidentally rotate it.

See? When your cursor is close to the selected area it turns into this rotating tool. Move it away until it reverts to your usual cursor, then you can start moving the rectangle. Press Enter when you're satisfied with the area you selected.

RESIZE

This isn't always necessary (pretty much never in my case) - and it's a passage I often forget myself - but it's mentioned in most of the tutorials I came across over the years, so I'd be remiss if I didn't include it in mine. After cropping, you'll want to resize your image.

IMAGE -> Image Size...

This window will pop up. Now, should the values in the Width and Height space be anything other than 540 and 400 (or the values you entered yourself, whatever they might be) you need to correct that. They've always been correct in my case, but again. Had to mention it.

5. RASTERIZE & MAKE FRAMES

Now that your screencaps are cropped, you can go ahead and convert them.

LAYER -> Rasterize (if you skip this passage you won't be able to Sharpen (or use any filter) on your frames at once. You'll have to Sharpen your frames one by one.

Photopea doesn't feature a timeline and it's not a video editor, which makes this passage crucial. When you select all your smart objects and try to apply a filter, the filter will only by applied to ONE frame. Once you rasterize your smart objects and make them into frames, you can select them all and sharpen them at once. Unfortunately this also means that you won't be able to - I don't know how to explain this properly so bear with me - use all smart filters/use them in the same way a photoshop user can. For example, you can sharpen / remove noise / add noise / unsharp mask... but you can't act on those filters in the same way a photoshop user can. When you work on smart objects you can change the blend mode - which is critical if you decide to use a filter like High Pass. If you simply apply a high pass filter on photopea you won't be able to change the blend mode and your gif will look like this (following screencaps). Or rather, you will be able to change the blend mode by clicking on the little wheel next to "High pass" (circled in green in the 2nd screencap), but you'll have to apply the filter to each frame manually, one by one.

Then you can rasterize/make into frames, but it's extremely time consuming. I did it once or twice when I first started making gifs and it got old pretty soon haha.

Layer -> Animation -> Make frames. This passage will add "_a_" at the beginning of all your frames and it's what allows you to make a (moving) gif. As I said in the ask, if you skip this passage your gif will not move.

6. SHARPENING

Some people prefer to color first and sharpen later, but I found that sharpening filters (more or less) dramatically alter the aspect of your gif and already brighten it a bit (depending on your settings) and you may end up with an excessively bright gif.

Now, sharpening settings are not necessarily set in stone. The most popular ones are 500/0.4 + 10/10, which I use sometimes. But you may also need to take into account the quality of the files you're working with + the specific tv show you're giffing. I've been using different settings for pretty much every tv show I gif, especially in the last couple months. Some examples:

followed by

OR

AMOUNT: 500% RADIUS 0.3px followed by AMOUNT: 20% (or 10%) RADIUS 10px

You'll just need to experiment and see what works best for your gifs.

Some gifmakers use the UNSHARP MASK filter as well (I think it's pretty popular among photopea users?) but it makes my gifs look extra grainy, makes the borders look super bright and it clashes with my coloring method(s), so I use it rarely and with very moderate settings. Something like this:

Again, depends on the gif and on what you like. I've seen it used with great results by other gifmakers!

REDUCE NOISE

Sometimes - and this is especially the case for dark scenes - your gif may look excessively grainy, depending on how bright you want to make it. Reducing noise can help. Keep it mind, it can also make it worse and mess up the quality. BUT it also reduces the size of your gif. Obviously, the higher the settings, the more quality will suffer.

These are my standard settings (either 2/70% or 2/80%). It's almost imperceptible, but it helps with some of the trickier scenes.

ADDING NOISE

Adding noise (1% or 2% max) can sometimes help with quality (or make it worse, just like reduce noise) but it will make your gif so so so much bigger, and occasionally damage the frames, which means you won't be able to load your gif on tumblr, so I rarely use it.

You'll also want to create ACTIONS which will allow you to sharpen your gifs much faster.

HOW TO CREATE AN ACTION ON PHOTOPEA

The Action Button (shaped like a Play button as you can see in the following screencaps) may not be there if you're using photopea for the first time. If that's the case click on the magnifiying glass next to "Account" (in red) and type "actions". Press Enter and the button should immediately show up.

Once you do that, click on the Folder (circled in yellow)

and rename it however you like.

now click on New Action (circled in red). now you can press the Recording button (circled in green)

Now

FILTERS -> Smart Sharpen

and you can enter your values. Then you repeat this passage (WITHOUT pressing rec, WITHOUT pressing new action or anything else, you just open the smart shapen window again) and, if you want, you can sharpen your gif some more (10%, 10px, or anything you want.)

Maybe, before creating an action, experiment with the settings first and see what works best.

When you're satisfied, you can PRESS STOP (it's the rec button, which is now a square) and you can DOWNLOAD your action (downwards facing arrow, the last button next to the bin. Sorry, forgot to circle it) .

You need to download your action and then upload it on your photopea. When you do, a window will pop up and photopea will ask you whether you wish to load the action every time you open the program. You choose "Okay" and the action will be loaded in the storage.

When you want to sharpen your gif, you select all your frames, then you click on the Play button, and select the Action, NOT the folder, or it won't work.

Actions can also be created to more rapidly crop and convert your frames, but it doesn't always work on photopea (for me at least). The process is exactly the same, except once you start recording you 1) crop your gif as explained in step 4, 2) convert into frames. Then you stop the recording and download the action and upload it. This won't work for the Rasterize step by the way. Just the Animation -> Make Frame step.

7. COLORING

Now you can color your gif. I won't include a coloring tutorial simply because I use a different method for every tv show I gif for. You normally want to begin with a brightness or a curve layer, but sometimes I start with a Channel Mixer layer to immediately get rid of yellow/green filters (there's a tutorial for this particular tool which you will find in the list I mention in the link below)

[Plus I'm not really an authority on this matter as my method is generally... fuck around and find out. Two years of coloring and I still have no idea what I'm doing. 70% of the time.]

Simple Gif Coloring for Beginners -> very detailed + it includes a pretty handy list of tutorials at the bottom.

8. EXPORTING

Now you can export your gif. Some gifmakers export their (sharpened) gifs BEFORE coloring and then load the gifs on photopea to color them. I'm not sure it makes any difference.

FILE -> EXPORT AS -> GIF

(not colored, just sharpened)

As you can see, unlike photoshop the exporting settings are pretty thread bare. The only option available is dither - it sometimes help with color banding - which, and I'm quoting from google for maximum clarity:

"refers to the method of simulating colors not available in the color display system of your computer. A higher dithering percentage creates the appearance of more colors and more detail in an image, but can also increase the file size."

SPEED

When you export your gif, it will play at a very decreased speed (100%). I usually set it at 180/190%, but as for every other tool, you might want to play around a little bit.

GIF SIZE/EZGIF OPTIMIZER (See Step 2)

And that's it.

P.S.: worth repeating

Save your work as often as you can, even while coloring or before exporting.

[eggrens]

i think people should try a little Linux, just for something different yknow

doesn’t have to be any specific “beginner-friendly” distro or whatever, could just be WSL even . just gives you a different perspective on OSs :)

like if you’re sick of Windows/MacOS and are frustrated that you need to keep upgrading your hardware to run the newest versions, why not experience something else and download VirtualBox n try out a Linux distro for a bit, see if you like it,, I think you might be surprised by some of em :)

i still use Windows 10 for my desktop, mainly for gaming and art etc, but i switched over to Linux Mint on my laptop a while ago and have used it for school, and it’s been running better than when it had Windows on it. does what i need it to do, and using the terminal to do stuff feels fun and kinda powerful with how easy it is to install stuff with it :)

was there troubleshooting involved? yes, but it was often fixed by just looking up your problem and finding answers on stackexchange or linux forums, not too different from troubleshooting windows tbh lol

i’ve also recently got a mini pc to use as a little server for stuff, like discord bots. even tho the specs are a little on the lower side, it’s still able to run stuff pretty well since I installed Xubuntu on it, which is specifically designed to be quite light on system resources, and it’s been great too :)

anyways point is,, try out Linux in some form, why not :) if you have an old laptop/desktop sitting around, try reviving it by installing a lightweight linux distro on it! the less e-waste the better :3

[peaky-shelby]

NEW ROMANTICS | MBAPPÉ [6]

» summary: in which an arrogant and talented football player (the best of his time as some say) and a focused and harsh critic of a journalist are gonna have to find a way to co-exist.

« previous chapter

» chapter 6: Poker

» writer's note: well talk about a stressful update. BUT HEY I DID IT. not gonna say a lot up here. See you on the other side. OH if you see Green link, click on them 🥲 my apologies for what you are about to go through.

» Taglist: @moonchildohh @formulahoe @princetongirlll818 @mavieesttriste16 @kiwisa @godessstela @hummusxx @kodzuvk @pink-manz @corbyns-smile @ippid @jayruiewo265738 @blueanfield @mrs-bellingham @sorceresski @sooblovebot @okayymochi @army7g @j-rbps @heli991113 @markhyucksmells @chaotic-taco-collector-blog @i0veless @photmath @http-isabela @rainytelevisionfilmwagon @formula101x @neymarloverxxx @cepolar @freespirit-51 @marialikescherries

PLAY MUSIC

Taylor slipped away from him as soon as Marquinhos called his name. She took away with her the electricity, leaving him with just an unusual sense of emptiness. Marquinhos drew closer.

“What is the matter with you?” He yelled. Kylian was pacing back and forth on the hall, trying to control his emotions while his heart raced in the same rhythm as the havoc of his mind. Marquinhos had to slap his shoulder in order to get him focused because he looked like he had just downloaded 10 cups of caffeine all at ones “Kylian!”

“Je ne sais pas!” he snapped, smacking Marcos’ hands away from him in annoyance “Je ne sais pas! Mais cette femme me rend fou ! Elle ne fait que mentir, elle ment toujours, Marcos !”

“Tranquilles Kylian!” he ordered “I don’t know what your deal is with her but you have to get your shit together quick-“

“Why?” he shouted. “Who is she?” Marcos never answered him so Kylian made a step forward. “Did you know she played professionally? is that why she has you and Galtier wrapped around her finger-“

“Whatever is going on with you, you need to fix it before it’s too late! You hear me?”

“I wanna know the truth!”

“The truth is that she is a smart as hell woman that is trying to help all of us and I’m surprised she’s still here after all the shit you’ve put her through!” he poked him on the shoulder, pointing at him “Look at yourself!” he said the last sentence like he was disgusted “what happened to you? You came back from Qatar a different man- since when do you treat woman like that? Do you even recognize yourself in the mirror anymore because I don’t? What is it? Greed? Insecurities? Jealousy?” Kylian couldn’t look at him in the eye, his gaze kept moving around the room finally settling on a window where he could slightly see his own reflection on. “You’re turning into a madman!” He didn’t like what he saw in the mirror, he didn’t like this version of him at all. He was drunk on anger and desperation, he was high on self insecurity and he could see it in his eyes. “Swear to god, this is your last warning!” he said and left.

Kylian moved back a little, his hand was itching, his fist begging to come in contact with anything and it did. He punched the wall, drawing back quickly in pain. A few moments later Hakimi was by his side, holding him by the arm. He didn’t even know if he had been there the entire time but now he was pushing him back and dragging him from the nearest exit. He practically pushed him out in the balcony and Kylian felt the chilling cold on his skin, violently reminding him who and where he was. He gripped on the railing. And for a while neither of them said anything.

“I’m scared for you Ky!” said Hakimi. “I don’t understand what’s gotten into you. I’m trying but I can’t- it can’t be just her. What is it?”

“Can’t you see it?” he asked, yelling. He looked at his friend “I don’t know how she does it but she always does. It’s her eyes- she looks at you and you feel like the smallest person in the world. I look at her and all I see are my mistakes.” He pointed at his fingers while he spoke “The shot I didn’t take. The pass I didn’t give. The chance I didn’t see. Always down to the detail with her, isn’t it?” Hakimi’s eyes expressed a sort of pitifulness they give you when they know you are being unreasonable. He wanted to help his friend but even he was afraid to draw closer. Watching your friend falling apart right in front of you eyes, it was never easy. “And it’s driving me insane! The way she can play with my mind like that. The way she sees right through it and the closer I let her see, the more she is…” he tried to find the right word “poising me. Turning me into this-“ he stopped “That’s what’s worse! Cause Marcos is right! I don’t even recognize myself anymore!”

This was a cry for help. It’s amazing how much a person can get in your head when you let them. Hakimi went closer, placing his hand on his friend’s shoulder while Kylian looked at the street. He knew that’s all his friend needed for now; silence.

“And then…” his voice trailed off

“Then what?”

Kylian closed his eyes. He imagined her against the wall, her figure in contrast to his. Her skin in contact to his, he made a fist with his hand trying to replicate what it felt like holding her but all he held was emptiness and cold air. Was it poison or just the stinking feeling of alcohol cleaning his wounds? He couldn’t understand.

He turned around to go back to the ‘party’. He wanted to erase every thought, feeling, doubt of the last 20 minutes. Hakimi stepped in front of him to stop him.

“Where are you going?”

“I just need a drink.” He said and moved around him.

PLAY MUSIC ♪

Colorful but dark lights filled the room, smell of smoke and alcohol. Kylian made his way to the bar, passing in between the dancing figures. The room was much more crowded now, everyone was either tipsy or already wasted. Footballers, models, journalists. A dangerous mix. All of them dancing together like they were choreographed.

And she was in the distance, next to her loyal friend Trish and Sergio Ramos. She saw him too their eyes meeting for a split second before she got closer to his teammate, on her tiptoes. He saw her whispering something in his ear, Ramos hand slipping on her lower back, bringing her closer to him just so he’d listen better. He wanted to interrupt, he wanted to get in between them. His eyes glaring at them while every fiber of his being called him to ran to them like she was the ball and she was about to be stolen. The music was like a void in his mind, the room felt like it was getting smaller, trapping him in his thoughts. He made a step forward, he was stopped just as quick. A hand reaching for his. He looked to his side. Hakimi.

“Don’t!” he warned.

A moment later she was exiting the venue with Ramos by her side, whispering something in her ear and Trish on Ramos’s other side. They were leaving together. Why did he care?

He went to the bar, asked for a shot of vodka before asking for the second, the third, before the room started spinning, before Verratti came up to him saying something about taylor and a journalist. He couldn’t follow. Before he danced on the dance floor with a woman he never met in his life. A woman he didn’t have to impress, a woman that was already in awe of him, a woman that reflected his greatness in her eyes and held him like he was gold. Touched him like he was priceless at the back of his car. Kissed him like he was a toy that she’d leave like he was just another number when she was done.

But he wasn’t satisfied by it, he thought he would be but he wasn’t. He was as lonely and as angry with himself as he was before, as he had been for almost a month. And as he laid on the backseats with the random woman on his side, Taylor’s lips still ghosted over his. The picture of seeing her and Ramos together still flickered in his mind. All the things he said to her, echoed in his head and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to throw up by the words he said to her or the alcohol. He thought of all that while He looked at himself on the review mirror, his eyes were so dark, so blank. So unfamiliar to him. What was he turning into?

TAYLOR’S APARTMENT – NIGHT

PLAY MUSIC

Taylor had been silent for the whole ride, while Trish and Sergio flirted like high school kids at the front. She’d always find herself stroking the places that he touched with his skin or his breath. Her wrist, the skin under her eyes. The back of her thumb passed over her lips, the lips that he never kissed but he still somehow managed to make wonder what he’d taste like. She didn’t recognize this feeling, she didn’t like it, it was dangerous.

Trish entered first and went straight to the toilet because as she said she was gonna pee her pants if she didn’t go in.

When she got in the house she sat on her bed and then quickly fell backwards on the sheets, closing her eyes. Then opening them again because every time she closed them all she could see were his black heavy eyes. Trish came out mumbling about something that Taylor couldn’t pay attention in. A few seconds later Trish was sitting on the edge of the bed, slapping her thigh to get her back on earth. Taylor sat up, looking at her friend for some compassion.

“You gonna tell me what’s going on?”

She was trying to form sentence but no one coherent thought would come out of her lips. Where would she even start? “I need a drink.”

“We were just at a party!” Trish reminded her, narrowing her eyes “with free drinks.”

“I need like 10 shots of tequila in a bottle of wine this big” she showed it with her hands and got up. Searching in the cupboards for some alcohol. Trish watched confused, wondering why they even left the party if she was just gonna get wasted here.

“Is this allowed in your condition?”

Taylor laughed, then gasped ones she found the bottle she was looking for. She didn’t have glasses so she used the coffee cups on the counter.

“My condition?” she repeated, still laughing. “You know what’s not allowed in my condition? Kylian, he is the absolute worst for my condition.” She opened the wine aggressively. Poured the wine on the cups and drank hers before she even got the other one to Trish. “How-“ she swallowed “how can he be such fucking asshole? And then just-“ she stopped herself, refilling her cup.

Trish raised her eyebrow, almost smiling at her friend “and then what?” she asked. Trish took pride in her talent of picking on energies and tensions. She knew the moment she laid her eyes on them. Taylor drank the second cup in one breath. Trish had to get up and take the bottle from her, then she helped her find her was back on the bed, making her sit on the edge. Taylor looked blankly at her desk.

“then his eyes.” She finally said, dropping her entire body back on the sheets again. “they’re so dark all the time.”

Trish laid next to her, balancing her elbow on the mattress and her head on her hand. “sexy isn’t, it?”

“Shut up.” She said quickly making her laugh. Trish dropped on her back as well, both of them staring at the ceiling.

“I saw the way he looked at you. Just before you threw yourself at Serg.”

Taylor peaked at her, opening her one eye and raising her eyebrow “Serg?”

“Shush! Not the point. Tell me what happened between you two.”

Taylor shook her head slightly, closed her eyes “I’m not sure.” She bit on her lips, the same haunted memory returning in her head. Was he going to kiss her if Marcos didn’t show up? Did she want him to? “But I have a feeling… it’s gonna get worse before it gets better.”

TAYLOR’S APARTMENT – DAY

Taylor woke up by the morning light. Not the alarm. Which was the first thing that made her feel like something was wrong. She lifted her head from the covers, looking around to realize where she was and what day, month, year it was. She reached for her phone.

“FUCK!” She dropped it as soon as she saw the time. Jumped of the bed and looked around the messy room for her clothes, anything that she could wear. She didn’t even check herself in the mirror. She just let her hair down, hoping it wasn’t that bad and put on her sneakers. Trish woke up by the banging and running around, murmuring.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m late.”

“You’re always late its fine.”

“he’s gonna kill me.”

She grabbed her keys and she left.

TRAINING CAMPUS – DAY

“nice of you to show up Seven!” said Marquinhos.

Kylian’s walk was slow, everything in his body hurt. His eyes, his legs, his stomach. Training was the last thing he needed. He ignored Marco’s comment and took of his jacket leaving it on the benches and walked over to the field. He had changed on the car after leaving the girl he spent the night with at her house. He thank god he had a left over uniform there. He started doing his stretching, raising his leg up to his stomach. Verratti walked up to him, doing his stretches next to him.

“You’re not the only one late.”

“What?” Kylian’s mind was too much of a mess to follow or listen.

“Wilock hasn’t showed up yet.”

Kylian’s eyes lifted in worry. His first instinct was look around for Ramos. He caught him on the other side of the field laughing about something with Messi. Wasn’t he the one that drove her home last night? He started running to him, making it look like he was just jogging for training. He stood in between Messi and him, listening to the conversation while he stretched his arms.

Sergio nodded as acknowledgment “you look like shit.” He laughed. Always a bully.

“had a rough night, Amigo?” Leo joked.

Since when were they Amigos? He was tired of pretending everything was fine after the world cup. Sometimes he straight up just wanted to his him in the face- wait, why was he admitting that. He looked up at Sergio, ignoring Messi completely.

“What about you, did you have fun last night?”

Ramos narrowed his eyes. He was confused. He let out a short laugh, shrugging his shoulders “Had some fun, yes.”

Kylian nodded. Suddenly he had no idea what to ask or perhaps how to ask it. Then the whistle was heard in the distance. Marquinhos gathered the entire team in the middle of the field for the beginning of the simulation. This time, team captains were Marquinhos and Leo. Thank God Kylian was on Marcos’s team with Hakimi and Sergio was with Leo. He took a deep breath and put every single one of his thoughts on pause. Although as fate would have it he fought a lot with Sergio to get the ball from him. He’d always end up somehow next to him, drippling and fouling him even.

“Chill down Man!” said Sergio while he got up after what would be the second time that Kylian knocked him down. Kylian mumbled a short apology while he distanced himself from him and continued to play. Taylor still hadn’t showed up.

GALTIER’S OFFICE – DAY

Galtier was reading her notes. He had his glasses on, silence filling the room while he read. She sat across from him. She kept glancing at him, expecting a reaction, anything that would give away if he agreed with her or not. She already felt bad about being late, she didn’t want to get another strike on the same day. Eventually he took of his glances, leaving them on the desk as well as her documents. Taylor gave him a smile when he looked up at her.

“Group therapy? Is this some sort of prank.”

She didn’t answer.

“You want me to put 20 adults in a room for group therapy?”

“Not all of them. Just 3 for starters.”

“Which would be?”

She hesitated “Number 10, 7 and 30.”

Galtier laughed “you want Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe to have a couples therapy?” She didn’t answer. Smiling weakly, so she wouldn’t offend him. Was it really funny when your entire team was falling apart because of lack of chemistry? “good god you’re serious.”

“Yes, I’m afraid I am”

“Number 7 and 10 are getting better along.”

“Do they? I mean it doesn’t seem like I wanna kill Kylian every second of everyday but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to-“ she murmured under her breath. Galtier only caught half of what she said. Narrowing his eyes. “Point is!” she said raising her voice “their chemistry on the field it’s still messy and when the big 3 can’t get along your team is bound to fall apart. It’s like you have cliques in your team. Hakimi, Verratti and Mbappé. Messi and Neymar. They need to break out of their comfort zone.”

“And that’s all in your reports as well?”

“Yes sir. You’ll have them tomorrow.”

“Finally.” He mumbled “ok fine, bring me the individual reports and we’ll discuss it again tomorrow. Meanwhile you need to give Julie your personal information for the trip in Doha and Riyadh and be here early tomorrow so we can announce your role to the boys.”

“Hm?” she raised her eyes. She had forgotten about that last part.

“You can start coaching them accordingly.” He explained.

“right. Yes. Of course.”

“Listen to me closely Ms. Wilock. The match against Al Nssr is especially important. You understand why.”

“You have three of the best players in the world and you are scared Ronaldo will kick your ass anyway.” She said before she hadn’t even thought that it might have been inappropriate. She still had her habit of saying exactly what was on her mind with no regret.

“That’s not exactly how I would have worded it Ms. Wilock.” He paused, eyeing her closely “but as long as you get the point.”

She smiled “I do sir.”

OUTSIDE TRAINING AREA / TRAINING CAMPUS – DAY

Taylor watched them playing, trying to avoid Kylian on purpose. She’d look at Sergio or Leo, anything to keep her attention away from the guy that had haunted her last night. She smiled as Marquinhos ran to her when he saw her, holding a football on his one hand.

“You wanna join for the second half?” he asked. She didn’t expect that question, she frowned. “We are almost done. I mean you don’t have to pressure yourself but-“ he took a quick look at the boys and then back at her “my team is losing.”

She laughed, letting down all her bags. “Are you that desperate?”

“Come on” he laughed along with her, smiling. “Fabian just walked out. I’m missing a player.”

“Why do I feel like you have something else planned?”

He shrugged “It’s just 20 minutes. What could happen in 20 minutes?”

She thought about it, crossing her arms. Maybe a quick game was all she needed. “Just because you are my favorite one.”

She took of her jacket, dropping it on a set of chairs and lifted her sweatpants up to her knee. She pulled her hair in quick bun while she walked with him back on the field. She took a quick glance at Kylian, catching the tension in his eyes expecting him to say something but he didn’t. He backed away and stood behind Hakimi instead.

“Hey that’s not fair!” Neymar stepped forward “what’s this?”

“It’s a substitution. Fabian is out, she’s taking his place-“

“Hold on you didn’t say we could have her!” said Ramos, stepping forward as well with a smile on his face “I’d have taken her on our team.”

“Wanna fight for me Ramos?” she asked, smirking.

“Damn right I do!” he answered quickly.

“Merde” Kylian murmured behind his teeth, rolling his eyes. Hakimi saw that and pushed him slightly to move away from the crowd. Taylor took a quick look to see which players were wearing the blue flannels that gave away they were on Marcos’ team. She noticed Kylian was wearing one too. Her eyes stayed on him for a while as he and Hakimi were discussing something. He saw her, nodding to her direction and that gave her somewhat of a relief because it wasn’t a rude nod. It was like he was telling her ‘Let’s just focus on the game’ and she liked that. She wanted that too. So, the game started.

She was there mostly as a midfielder, running and stealing the ball from whoever she could. That earned her a few strikes from the opposite team when she would try to tackle them. But the vibe was different from the first time she played with them. Like she was actually part of the team. Marcos’ team was losing 1-2. And her presence didn’t make a lot of difference at first. She and Kylian would look at each other from time to time but there was zero communication between them.

During the last 5 minutes the ball landed on Kylian’s feet and he ran with it from their end of the field to the others. He was swiftly tackled by Ektike in the middle of the field, who stretched his leg out and kicked the ball away from him. The ball was supposed to go to Messi but Taylor jumped in between stealing the pass for herself. Ramos, as a defender ran towards her but she kicked the ball to the left side of the field to escape all the defenders until she realized how close to the net she was.

She calculated the angle, her mind spinning in insane speed, while she counted the possibilities this could down. She counted the defenders in front of her. There was one possibility that she could take the shot and it would land on the net but it was a risk. She looked up, Kylian was on the middle. She kicked the ball up at Kylian and he dropped on the ground, sliding and kicking it for it to go the net just in between the goalkeeper’s legs. He got up instantly, screaming in happiness for his accomplishment while the rest of his teammates ran to him.

Taylor stood watching them while they all got on top of each other. Laughing and messing around with Kylian. She smiled. She didn’t feel alone, if anything she felt proud while she watched them, these were gonna be her boys no matter what and she came in the sudden realization that it wasn’t a matter of if she’d let go of her blog. There was no chance in the world she could do both things, there was no way she could stand hurting any of them again. She felt a sudden warmth under her eye. It was a tear, rolling down her cheek like a confession. She wiped it away quickly, only then realizing Kylian was coming forward. With an enigmatic expression on his face, she wasn’t sure what she wanted but the closer he’d get the more the memories started coming back. The more she wanted to step away, expecting a wall to be behind her and him trapping her again. Instead he lifted his hand, waited for her to shake it. She hesitated, glancing between his hand and his eyes before finally holding it. The skin to skin contact, lingering a little longer. Suddenly she was back at the roof holding his hand, or in the bathrooms the first day when he grabbed her arm, or last night when he held her wrist. But all these memories and all the bitterness seemed to be replaced by the sweetness and honesty of this moment. Looking in each other’s eye, shaking each other’s hands. Perhaps for a little too long while she tried to decipher the look in his eyes until Verratti came and called him to get back on the game.

Their hands slipping away from each other.

She was swept off her feet by behind by someone. She twisted her head to see who it was, her expression softening when she saw Neymar. He let her down and she turned around, hugging him from his neck. “I’m sorry for that.” She mumbled in his chest.

“Hate it when you play for the other team.” He said, pulling back a little and she looked in his eyes. That’s not what she was apologizing for.

“never again.” She smiled and they both ran back on the field for the last few minutes of the match.

LOCKER ROOMS HALLWAY – LATER

Taylor was so sweaty, all she wanted to do was go back home and have the warmest most chilling shower she could. And she was so tired, her headache getting worse by the minute.

She made a turn to the room with the spare clothes. Puffing and blowing out air from her chest, while she rubbed her temple, feeling the sweat coming from her hair on her hand. When she entered the room she stopped on her tracks. Kylian. Naked from the waist up.

“Sorry-“ she said quickly, closing her eyes and turning on her heel to leave.

“No, no. I’m done.” He said, putting on his shirt and walking to the exit. Taylor turned around again, not knowing that he’d be behind her now and knocking on him with a jolt. She stepped back quickly, her hands barely brushing on his chest. She moved away just as fast, looking at the closets for a spare shirt. He observed her while she tried to choose a shirt that probably fit her. He knew she wasn’t going to talk to him, so he contemplated leaving. He even turned around, ready to leave her alone but it was eating him alive. So, he maneuvered back to her.

“Thanks for earlier. That was a good pass.”

“hm” she said coldly. Picking out a shirt. He hated this coldness from her, he liked it more when she talked back at him or yelled. This was unfamiliar.

“I really didn’t think you’d do it.”

She looked at him when she headed for the exit. He stood on entrance so she was basically forced to acknowledge him. “That’s the difference between you and me, Kylian. You wouldn’t take the shot. I don’t let my personal issues get in the way of my game. Ever.”

He nodded, twisting his mouth and pursing his lips together. He looked at the floor. “Still part of you must have hit it because you hoped it would get on my face.” He tried to lighten the mood but all he got was a sigh and a roll of her eyes. She went around him to leave, he lifted his hand to hold her arm but he stopped midway, pulling his hand back before he touched her. “I’m sorry for last night.” That seemed to stop her. She stood in the empty hallways, examining him. There she was again, making him feel like the smallest person in the world. He couldn’t stand it and the urge to fight her again was coming back but he tried to ignore it by looking away- he failed. “Why you gotta keep doing that?” he snapped, finally asking her straightforward. But she wasn’t sure what she was doing. So, she knitted her eyebrows. And he motioned at her with his hand “Your eyes. You have this look like you are judging everything all the time. It’s frustrating.” She snorted, shaking her head. “Even now im trying to apologize and you’re always just-“

“Just what Kylian?” she asked, topping his voice and walking back to him “what do you expect? An apology is enough after all the shit you’ve put me through ever since I got here?” She stood under him. Her eyes bored into him. Reminding him his flaws, his shortcomings.

“Don’t do that…” he warned in a whisper, looking down at her. How was she the smaller of the two but he always felt falling short around her. He diverted his gaze at the walls, shielding his lips, biting them even. The familiar anger, only she could bring out, was rising. Burning his insides, he was trying so hard not to snap at her again, not to touch her. He had to lay against the doorframe, hold his hands in fists and keep them against the wall just to make sure he wouldn’t grab her again.

“Is that why you were so angry last night?” she asked, searching for his eyes “you couldn’t pretend anymore that I’m just a silly journalist.” She laughed bitterly “it dawned on you that maybe everything I’ve said to you until now, is true. You hate it, don’t you?” she asked the last question in a whisper, bitter voice “You could hide from it while you thought I was a high school player.” His eyes found hers and he saw that they were more brutal than ever. Like she actually hated him. Almost like she was trying to provoke him, see how far she could get him before he returned to his old ways. Like she wanted him to beg for mercy. She stepped closer, tilting her head upward “Can’t hide anymore”

“Defiantly not a high school player.” He agreed but even that came out in a disrespectful way “because you know exactly what you are doing in the field and out of it.” He leaned down, she stepped back and he stepped forward “you know exactly what you are doing to me.” She snorted again, awkwardly, twisting her head away from him. Making another step backwards, only so he’d make another forward “who’s hiding now?”

“Still as delusional as last night.”

“tell that to yourself a couple of times you might believe it” She reached the other side of the door. Her back bumping on it while Kylian kept his eyes as piercing as always. Suddenly he felt himself getting taller. She licked her back teeth her tongue, clenching her jaw. He raised his hands to remind her that he wasn’t touching her, that she could leave if she wanted to. “But I think I have some power over you as well after all.”

“Wouldn’t that make you feel better about yourself?”

“Nothing about you makes me feel better about myself” he spat, drawing closer “that’s the problem.” He confessed “if anything all I see when I look at you is everything I hate about myself—” he leaned down, his face hovering over hers “and I can’t understand if you’re doing it on purpose but it’s eating me alive.” his hands remained in distance but he still managed to shield her by holding on the walls “my failures, the pressure, the anticipation—” he lowered his head even more and for a moment he allows himself to believe that he can have her, he looked at her lips “I always seem to do the wrong thing, say the unforgivable because you push me to my limit without even trying.” Their thighs were touching now, he liked the contact “and I’m always torn between hating you for it and…” his voice trailed off. His last confession falling short. “Parfois, tout ce que je veux, c’est te serrer dans mes bras et te montrer à quel point je peux être bon. Parce qu’aucune femme, dans ma vie, ne m’a jamais fait ressentir ça.”

She had her eyes on him the entire time. The language barrier wasn’t as tall anymore. She had no idea what his words were but somehow, she understood exactly what she wanted to say and her mouth getting drier, the closer that he’d get to her. Realizing that he had shield her again, noticing the darkness in his eyes again. She shook her head, slowly, keeping her face down, to make sure he had no access to her lips. His breathing would fall on her ear now, warming it, because he was that close. “It’s not happening Kylian.”

“Why not?” he said in her ear.

Oh how weak his voice on her ear made her. How many shivers it sent on her entire body. Oh, how she hated it and loved it all the same. She tightened her entire expression, keep her head high but turned at the right side. That way he couldn’t really see her eyes. Not that he cared because all he was looking at was her neck.

And she wanted to tell him: cause I’m your coach, cause I’m JW and I really am the worst liar in the world. Because I would be risking everything just by looking at you the way that you are looking at me. But she didn’t and he leaned even closer, so much so that she could sense his lips moving against her ear. So much so that she had to remind herself repeatedly why this tension should remain unresolved. But a twisted part of her still wanted to touch him, kiss him.

“I couldn’t stand seeing you with Ramos last night” he admitted. “Same way I can’t stand when you analyze my playing, reminding me every time that I’m not good enough.” His lips brushed on her ear; her hair stuck on his lips. She straightened her head, their eyes meeting. Kylian leaned closer, waiting for permission. Their lips so close he could taste it.

“No because…” she whispered. He looked in her eyes. This was it. She’d either say it now or he’d find out with everyone else in the morning. She could be honest, first time that would happen between them, but she could do it. Kylian frowned waiting for her to continue.

Voices laughing coming from a distance in combination with fast steps let them know that the whole team was coming downstairs. They pulled away from each other automatically.

Taylor left before they could see her, sneaking into one of the bathroom stalls and locking the door. She lowered her entire body, holding on her face. “Fuck” she whispered. This was only the beginning of the day and she was scared to face the rest. She wasn’t one to let in her impulsive thinking, she always planned everything ahead. She learned the hard way that things don’t work out the way you want to and you must always have a back up plan but she was out of back up plans.

INSIDE GYM / TRAINING CAMPUS – AFTERNOON

Kylian hid on the gym. He wanted to distract himself, he wanted to stop thinking about her despite the spell that she had casted on him. Verratti came in, calling for him.

“Just hanged up with Ann. She says she’s looking into it.”

Kylian looked at Verratti while running on the treadmill, giving him the same confusing look, he gave him in the morning.

“Who’s Ann?”

“Man were you even listening to me last night?”

“I wasn’t listening to anything last night.”

“she’s a journalist. Says she can find dirt on Wilock.”

“Wait- what?” Kylian pressed the button to stop the thread mill getting down so he wouldn’t fall “you got a journalist into this?”

“Yeah man. She already got some nice information. You told me to go ahead with it, did you forget?”

Kylian closed his eyes trying to remember, he rubbed his forehead. He was surprised by his own Insolence. “She keeps saying she has a theory but she isn’t sure yet--”

“Let it go man!” he said calmly

“What?”

“Just let it go.” He repeated and reached down for his water bottle. “she’ll be gone in a week.”

“I mean it’s a already done now!”

Kylian eyed him. Shaking his head “why would you bring someone else into this? you might get us in trouble.” He asked.

“she’s a friend-”

“She’s a journalist. She’ll sacrifice your friendship for a headline in seconds.”

“She won’t do anything. She says she can dig shit up about JW as well. Kylian, you agreed to do this! What has gotten into you now?”

“I didn’t know what I was agreeing to last night, alright?” he huffed, breathing out curse words in anger “just don’t get me mixed up in this shit-” he grabbed his gym bag and his water bottle. Leaving.

The two kept looking at each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking. Taylor was stealing glances at him while also trying to write her speech for the next day. Drawing over all the sentences she’d start because nothing was good enough. She didn’t even know where to start. The truth about JW or being their coach. Everything seemed wrong like she had betrayed them in the worst way and yet she didn’t want to apologize. Why would she apologize for doing her job as a journalist? She closed her eyes. Ones again lining over what she had written.

Kylian was taking a look whenever he could. The things Verratti had told him in combination of their little moment in the halls were brewing in his mind. He wanted to warn her for some reason, maybe because he knew that if anything bad happened, she was gonna blame it on him. Or maybe because he cared. He could feel her staring sometimes, her eyes practically scanning him but whenever he’d look at her, she’d look away in an instant. He’d notice her expression of lust for a couple short seconds.

Before she left, she came to speak to Marquinhos. At the point he and a few other members of the team were sitting in a circle on the field taking a break. Kimpembe, who was on her team during the game, started clapping.

“Wanna go another round?” he asked, laughing.

She dropped her head, shaking it “wouldn’t last playing another game with you.”

“Ky should be grateful; you saved that one.” Ektike said, being the one that almost ruined Kylian’s shot in the first place. Kylian was sitting with knees close to his chest and his arms laid on his knee bones, playing with a piece of grass in between his fingers. He tried to pretend like he focused with that, not answering to his comment. Taylor looked at him from the corner of her eye, smiling weekly at Ektike’s comment.

“He thanked me enough, don’t worry” she noted “in his way.” Kylian lifted his head to see her. He bit his lips so he wouldn’t smile. He didn’t expect it but she had a teasing grin on her face. “Marcos, can I speak with you for a second?”

“Sure!”

Marcos got up, dusting off the grass from his uniform as he stood. They walked away together, whispering in the distance about something. She looked worried and he looked like he was motivating her, rubbing her shoulder. Kylian stood up, copying Marcos’ movements and dusting away the grass. He started walking over to them, deciding that he wanted to tell Taylor the truth but they were done with their conversation before he could get to them. Taylor went towards the exit while Marquinhos was walking to Kylian’s direction.

“Where’d you think you’re going?”

“I need to speak to her.”

“No, you don’t. You need to finish your training; you have an hour left.”

“It will only take 5 seconds.”

“It never takes only 5 seconds with you. Back on the field now!”

Kylian couldn’t argue. He had already one strike too many with Marquinhos. He backed away, the frustration returning in his mind.

He was doing the exercise of Tiki-Taka with Hakimi, Ramos, Messi, Kimpembe and Neymar. Kylian was in the middle trying to get control of the ball while the others passed it around each other. He was getting tired and not enjoying it while the others seemed to take pleasure in his struggle. Especially Ramos, he was having a great laugh watching him suffer. He had been trying to for a while, his mind unable to focus when he almost had it but then he was pushed on the ground. Falling on his side. It was Ramos that pushed him. It was a gesture that otherwise he would have laughed away in good spirit. They always teased each other. But not today. He got up, getting in Ramos’ face-

“je vais te frapper au visage!” he said in a gruff voice. Ramos was still laughing, giving him a light push like he thought Kylian was messing around. The moment he touched his shoulder, Kylian slapped his hand off. That seemed to alarm Ramos, whose expression darkened and made a step closer to Kylian.

“What’s your deal man?”

“J'ai un problème avec ton visage!”

Ramos lowered his eyebrows “calm down kid—”

Hakimi launched himself forward and in between them to separate them. He pushed Kylian back while he pointed at Ramos like he was warning him “Call me kid one more time!” he yelled. Hakimi shushed him, pushing him on the other end of the field and holding both of his shoulders to keep him still. Marquinhos had seen what happened and was already at Ramos’ side, listening to their side of the story. Kylian knew he was done for, so he moved away and left practice.

When he went on the locker rooms, he found Verratti texting in his phone. Verratti’s eyes landed on him, a smirk on his lips.

“Did you know she played in Chelsea?”

Kylian didn’t sit around to hear more. He left, grabbing his bag and going to find her.

TAYLOR’S APARTMENT / BATHROOM – NIGHT

“Dad says she’s getting bigger.” Taylor yelled from inside the shower. The blue thin curtain separated her from Trish, who was doing her make up on the mirror above the sink.

“What did you expect? She’d stay 4, forever?”

“It’s still weird.” She mumbled “makes me feel older every year on her birthday.”

“That’s because you are actually getting older.” Said Trish while pouting her lips to put her lipstick on. Taylor pushed the curtain, opening it slightly for a second to throw water at her. Trish screamed and jumped, backing away “Goddamn you woman!” she yelled. “if you ruin my dress, I’m stealing yours.” She said and left the bathroom.

Trish started picking her last stuff to put on her bag. Taylor opened the curtain and covered herself with on of her white towels. And picked her hair up with another pink towel. She came out of the bathroom, leaning against the doorframe. She watched her friend getting ready, smiling.

“This reminds me of high school.”

Trish snorted, sitting on the bed and putting her shoes on. “some thing’s never change. No matter how hard I try to. You’re still letting me go to parties alone.”

“Ramos will be there. You’ll be fine.” She sang “You know I’d come if it wasn’t for work. Just be careful.”

“I will.” She sat up, making a spin around herself to show her friend her outfit. “How do I look?”

“Beautiful.”

Trish clapped and walked over to Taylor, placing her hand on her cheek. “You sure you’re gonna be, ok?”

“Gotta starts getting used to these lonely nights, no matter how much I miss you. Dad. Lily.” She smiled “I’ll be fine. But try not to have too much without me.”

“Can’t make any promises” Trish kissed her cheek and grabbed her jacket from the hanger behind the door. “don’t wait up for me. Love you.”

“Love you too” said taylor but she was already out of the door. A silent meow was heard coming from the floor. Taylor looked down only to find Luna pouring in front of her feet, head bumping her while pleading for food. “Gimmie a minute to change angel.” She said and walked back to the bathroom. She released her hair from the towel, her we strand falling on her shoulders, freezing her skin. She patted them with the towel, trying to dry them as much as she could before she used the drier.

Until there was a knock on the door.

She looked at the direction of the bedroom/living room.

She went to open the door. Her hand holding on the doorknob.

She turned it.

Opened it.

“Kylian?”

She didn’t have time to ask what he was doing here because he barged in. Talking about something she couldn’t understand. Like he was trying to warn her. She was trying to catch up with what he was saying but the shock of seeing him there in the first place in combination with the fact that she was naked under the towel made her freeze.

“…I just want you to know that if shit happens, I had nothing to do with it—”

“Kylian!” she tried but he kept going, mumbling something about Verratti and a journalist.

“He told half the team about it—” She looked around for her robe but she found it at her bed. And Kylian was standing in front of it, so that was not an option. He hadn’t even looked at her since he barged in. “She’s brutal taylor—”

“KYLLIAN!” She yelled, holding on the towel over her chest “What on earth are you talking about?” she questioned raising her voice. He finally turned his eyes on her, finally taking in her figure, finally realizing. His mouth fell shut, his mind going blank, he forgot why he was there in the first place. His eyes settled on her bare shoulders. They were slightly covered by her long hair. Not enough to keep him from wanting to touch them. She held on tighter on the towel, feeling his gaze deepening.

They locked eyes with each other, neither of them saying a thing.

PLAY MUSIC

He should have left, just as quick as he came in. he didn’t.

She should have told him to leave. Yelled at him even. She didn’t.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she asked.

That reminded him. He was here to tell her about Verratti. But that could wait until the morning.

There was a sort of silence that was loud enough for both, like it was saying everything for them while they looked at each other. Speechless. That was a first.

“Oh Kylian” she sighed, but it was more of a beg. She wasn’t sure what she was begging for but she was begging for something. She closed her eyes, leaning her back against the wall, like she was giving in to something. She couldn’t see him but she could feel him getting closer. His shadow covering her whole. She refused to look at him because she knew she’d be met with those dark eyes. His dark haunting beautiful lies that could see right through her. Just like earlier in the morning, every memory she had with him flashed before her eyes, including their moment in the hallways. They had left something unfinished. Twice now they had done that.

‘Dangerous territory’ is what Hakimi had called it. That was an understatement, thought Kylian.

She bit on her tongue, leaning her head on the wall, looking down her eyes still closed. Why was he coming closer? More importantly Why wasn’t she stopping him?

He lifted his hand, his fingers grazing over her bare skin, begging to touch her. But he was holding himself back, as much as he was struggling. He made a fist with his hand trying to keep his fingers away from her skin. He looked away, moving his fist slightly against the air.

“Verratti knows about Chelsea. He knows about the incident and you condition. Maybe more…” He whispered. It was all he could explain for now, in the few words that he was left with. Because his mind was a tangled mess. She opened her eyes, realizing how close he was now. She looked up at him.

“That’s why you’re here?” she asked.

“Yeah.” he spoke, twisting his tongue “that’s why I came.”

But the reason he wanted to stay was different. She nodded. He was supposed to leave now. Open the door and go back down to his car. Yet he couldn’t move, it was like she had him tied there and he couldn’t do anything without her permission. He stared in her eyes, tightening his jaw.

“tell me to leave.”

Now that was a beg if there ever was one. She saw it in his posture, in his eyes. Heard it in his tone, his breath, his heartbeat.

“Please god tell me to leave.”

She thought her mouth and throat had gone completely dry; her lips were stuck together. She couldn’t speak.

He stepped forward. Realizing his fingers again towards her shoulders. She watched them, it was easier than looking in his eyes. She didn’t stop him when they got closer, she didn’t stop him when they bruised her skin while pushing her hair away. She took a deep breath in, giving in the tension. Dangerous indeed.

She never said it, so he never left.

He leaned in, lower and lower until their lips were so close to each other there was only one way to go and that was closer. They don’t know who initiated it. They both like to believe it was the other person because that was, they could blame them for the chaos that it would create.

Did it really matter who started it when she was the one pulling him closer by holding his shirt on her fists. Or he was the one gripping her lower back like that. Pleading for access in her mouth. Did the day after matter when she tasted him whole or her hands reached under his shirt, lifting it off him and throwing it on the other end of the room? Did it matter when his hands pulled her up on his arms and allowed her to wrap her legs around his waist, only so he’d drop her on the bed and hover over her a minute later? Did it matter when they looked in each other’s eyes like they knew they were about to taste the drug that would destroy them?

No, it didn’t.

Or if it did. It didn’t.

Cause when he kissed her neck, she gave in. and when he uncovered her body by untangling her towel, he went weak. Was it hate? Is that why hit bit on her skin, just to hear her whimpers? Was it something else? That made her rushing hands reach for his zipper and open it while he left kisses in between her breasts.

She cupped his face, forcing him to look in her eyes again before she became his for the night. In any way a person can be given to another.

GALTIER’S OFFICE – NEXT DAY

When she woke up, he wasn’t there. He was kind enough to leave a note, saying he’ll see her on training. She didn’t think much about it, maybe it was better this way. She got ready, same way she did every day. Mostly pretending like nothing had happened at all.

She packed the reports she had on her bag and she headed for the campus. First stop it was Galtier’s office. She didn’t let herself freak out, she waited to see him first.

She gave Galtier the folder with all the reports. He looked at all of them quickly at first, one by one. Marquinhos stood by her while she watched Galtier, her mind constantly running back to the night before.

“that’s all very nice” said Galtier, Taylor smiled. It was all she could do for now. Everything seemed to be going fine for the time being.

“But there is one missing.”

Her eyes widened; she went pale. She hoped to God she wouldn’t hear his name or his number.

“What about number seven?"

READ CHAPTER 6.1 HERE

did it i leave out details from their night on purpose because we will see more on the next chapter? Yes i did. Did i also cut the scene so you won't know what happened to that goddamn report? Of course i did. Am i proud of myself for creating chaos. Yes i am 🤭 is Taylor about to create chaos in the next chapter too? ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY. Y'all wanted to see her take the lead, step on her villain era and istg that woman is about to burn the entire campus down, and I'll write it while sipping tea ✨ now i want a favor, if you are gonna send as many messages as you did for me to post this chapter, please be decent enough to comment on it, lmk if you still like it because my self-consciousness is driving me INSANE. I love y'all to the moon and back! Dedicating this chapter to my war friend .

[guzhufuren]

love love LOVE your The Sign gifsets. im still a newbie in giffing lmao and your gifs are like reaaally pretty so i was wondering how you do your gifs? i really like how it's sharp and the colors pop up beautifully (only if you don't mind sharing ofcc <333)

bun this is the kindest thing you could have said to me, thank you so much <3 i wanted to write down my giffing process for a while in case anyone would find anything in it helpful, so thanks for giving me a push!

guzhu-furen's photoshop gifmaking process (kinda oriented on saving up time)

from

to

1. Downloading a video. i prefer to download video files instead of making screen recordings because the latter usually leaves watermarks/captions and makes image quality lower. i will not be linking the downloading websites themselves directly, but they are all easy to find through search engines if you know what to search for! i download ql dramas from:

youtube:

if the video you need is above 1080p quality, search for youtube4kdownloader

if the video is age restricted, search for 9xbuddy

both these websites work for normal videos too!

mkvdrama usually has 1080p episodes of most asian dramas.

dramacool also has downloading options in case the show is not available on other websites!

2. Screencapping (i learned it through this tutorial)

i screencap using KMPlayer. here is the installer i used, but you can find versions of this program on various websites and torrents too! install the program and proceed.

screencapping steps: open KMPlayer > press "CTRL + G" to summon the Frame Extraction window > set identical settings to these:

note which computer folder the screencaps will go to (it has a label "Extract to") > go to that folder on your computer and create a bunch of numbered folders there, for example ten folders named from 1 to 10, these would be our separate folders for ten gifs > write "1" or a name of another numbered folder after the backslash in "Extract to" bar in kmplayer > go the timestamp that will be the beginning of your gif in KMPlayer > press "Start" in the Frame Extraction window and press play on the video > when the moment you need to gif is over, press pause on the video and press "Stop" in the Frame Extraction window. great, you now have your folder of screencaps!

3. Importing screencaps to Photoshop

i use Adobe Photoshop 2023, but had used Adobe Photoshop CS5 for a long time before that, so you can use any version you have or find! it's available on various websites and torrents.

open Photoshop > Scripts > Load Files into Stack > press Browse in the "Load Layers" window that was opened

open your screencaps folder (and pin the KMPlayer Capture folder for faster future access) > pick the screencaps you want for your gif by clicking on the first one, and then clicking on the finishing one while pressing Shift on the keyboard > click OK and let them load for some time! i have 65 screencaps loading at the moment

when the screencaps finish loading go to Window > press Timeline > press Create Video Timeline in the opened sidebar > press three dots that will say "Convert to frame animation"

4. Sizing & making the base of a gif

next part will be automatic. i use actions for almost everything from this moment. download the basic action pack here and my additional action pack that we will need here. load them in your photoshop actions window (Actions > Load Actions).

play the Script action to create frames.

now onto sizing your gif. these are tumblr's width dimensions for 3 types of gifs

my gifs are usually 540 px in width and 640, 400 or 345 px in height. i added a 400 px action (Sizing 400) in the action pack, you can use it! or you can follow the steps by hand:

Image > Image Size > put in the height you want and add 4-6 pixels there (mine will be 406 for a 400 px high gif) > OK

now we need to crop the gif for it to fit tumblr's dimensions:

Image > Canvas Size > change Width to 540 (or 268 or 177) and take away the 4-6 pixels that we left in the previous step in Height

when you figure out which gif dimensions work best for you, record an action and use it to save up time!

after sizing use the action Smart Object. now we have the base of our gif!

you can move your gif left or right if you want! i will be doing this because i would like to show more hips in the gif.

press Ctrl + T > move the layer however you need (not in height though) > press Enter to save

i moved it to the right and my gif looks like this now:

5. Sharpening (i use Tan's sharpening settings explained here)

i added two sharpening actions in the pack, they are called Sharpen Spicy and Sharpen Spicy 12. you can use one of them or you can sharpen your gif by hand, i will explain how to do it below.

Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen > 500% amount, 0,2 px radius > OK

Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen > 17% amount, 10,0 px radius > OK (you can change 17% to lesser or bigger, depending how intense you want your sharpening to look. i use 17% for 4k footage and 12% for 1080 px or less videos)

to smooth the sharpening a bit i use Gaussian Blur (this is optional, you can leave the sharpening as it is if you want your gif to be sharper).

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur > Radius 1,0 pixels > OK

now change blending intensity to let only a bit of the blurring effect stay (you need to change this by hand if you used the sharpening action also).

press Blending Options (the highlighted place) twice > change Opacity to 10%

this is what my gifs looks like with sharpening now!

6. Colouring (i learned how to colour the way i do through this tutorial)

to make it easier for you to learn i will share my blank colouring file. i created it to save as much time while giffing as possible, so whenever i need to colour a gif i simply duplicate all the blank adjustment layers to the base of my every gif and start colouring! once you figure out which adjustment layers work for you best, i recommend creating a blank colouring file too to save time.

if you want to go the easy way, open my colouring file and duplicate selected layers to your gif file by Layer > Duplicate Layer > insert gif's document name

if you want to learn by hand, create the adjustment layers that i will be naming in the process on your own, you can find them all in Layer > New Adjustment Layer

now we will use adjustment layers for our colouring from the bottom to the top! first, Exposure layer to add a bit of light to the gif. i don't always use Exposure because sometimes shots are bright enough on their own. i will, however, use it here. don't use it on your gif too much, because in the next few steps we will also be brightening the gif with other adjustment layers. i added +0,49:

next, Hue/Saturation layer. i use it in gifs with neon lighting to color correct overly bright colours. for example if your characters are standing in neon pink, you might want to lessen Saturation in Magentas and Reds to make the final gif less pixelated, and etc. i will not use Hue/Saturation on this gif, cause it doesn't need it.

proceed to the layer Levels. this layer usually does most of my colouring. click on the lowest white dropper in your Levels window:

now choose a light place on your gif and click on it with the white dropper. it works especially well if you use the white dropper on the lightened parts of face skin. you can play around by choosing different bright spots and seeing what works best. here is the spot i chose and the resulting colouring:

this is too light, so now we need to balance it out with the black dropper:

choose one of the darkest places this time and click it with black dropper! once again, you can play around and click different spot to see what works best. i will be clicking the highlighted spot and you can see what my gif will look like with this Levels settings

as you can see, darkest places became darker and other colours were corrected a bit! now, this is still too bright, so i will be decreasing the opacity of Levels layer from 100% to a smaller number:

i will have to continue in another post because tumblr only allows 30 pictures per one post in the new editor now and i'd like to explain everything in visuals. click to continue

[bigfrozenfan]

10-year-old mystery finally solved

One of the biggest riddles of Disney Frozen is how the choir gets up to the gallery. Nowhere in the movie is an entrance to the gallery or an access of any kind to be seen. All we see during Elsa's coronation scene is a completely open construction of the chapel, but there are twelve singers above the altar. How do they get there? Many fans have wondered how this is possible for ten years of Frozen's existence and everyone has puzzled over it. Even in books and comics, not a single clue is given and, stupidly, nowhere can you see the back of the chapel, i.e. from the west. Not even in Mindcraft designs is this side more clearly visible, which proves that the fans have no idea. However, there is Disney concept art and two, almost identical books about Arendelle Castle. The latter is clearly intended for children, but even there you can see the beginnings of a solution to the problem.

I myself was at a loss until yesterday, when I suddenly realised something while downloading screenshots and concept art. And tada!, suddenly everything was completely simple and logical. I could hardly believe it. You're probably asking yourselves now, "So how does that work? I don't believe anything without proof!" No problem. Let's go!

But first I'd like to show you my initial approach - until it turned out to be rubbish and couldn't work at all because of the open construction, no matter how you twist and turn it. Maybe you've already got there yourself.

Then I looked at the concept art of the chapel from the outside and the floor plan. Suddenly everything was clear to me and it made perfect sense. The only thing that didn't quite fit is the illustration in the book "All Around Arendelle" and the almost identical book "A Frozen World". There, the lower windows of the chapel are not shown, which can be seen in the concept art and round off the picture - also to the original model, St Olaf Church! But hey, it's a children's book and, in my opinion, the only incorrect depiction of the actual situation.

Here is the final proof:

Some side thoughts:

it makes no sense whatsoever to see a ladder or stairs in the church. It also makes no sense for something like this to be brought in from outside before every service.

a permanently installed staircase, but invisible to churchgoers, makes much more sense. But it must be easily accessible for the choir singers who a) want to rehearse independently of church services and b) do not enter the chapel at the same time as churchgoers. They arrive in their everyday clothes perhaps half an hour early and only need to put on their robes, which are c) always ready for them in a locked room behind the altar.

The entrance is well hidden behind the altar screen, and it is very likely that this door is even wallpapered in the style of the immediate surroundings, so it can withstand a casual glance from a curious person. In the room behind it, there is either a ladder to the gallery or - more likely - a permanently installed, narrow staircase leading to a hatch in the gallery. The singers' robes are always hanging ready for changing and the hatch at the top is there so that none of the singers accidentally tumble down the steps when closed. The stained glass windows around the small room also let in enough light for the singers to get changed in daylight without being seen, to talk face to face before the service and to get into the right mood with the coloured light from this type of window. There is another good reason for having a room separate from the church. The pastor or bishop can prepare there in peace, store things for the sermon and talk to the choristers undisturbed. I'm sure there are other reasons for such a room that I just can't think of right now, but you can certainly think of them yourselves.

This is how it would look like if the tapestry wall wouldn't be there:

PS: the only thing I haven't been able to solve yet is how to get up into the bell tower. There is a staircase that leads nowhere and no rope to ring the bell. Very strange… But on the real model, St Olaf's Church in Norway, you can see a ladder leading up to the bell tower.

Credits to: Art of Animation for the concept art images, and to GETTY images, David Nikel (for Forbes), Visitnorway.com for the images of St. Olaf Church in Balestrand, Norway.

Here are a few more pictures of St Olaf's Church in Balestrand, Norway, for those of you who are interested:

UPDATE 04/2024:

I stumbled upon a screencap from Frozen Fever where you can clearly see the rear left side of the chapel. And there are windows to be seen! I would say: because it's not only a part of the concept art but is seen in the Frozen Fever short too, my theory is confirmed now.

[officialhunterthefox]

I am not gonna Pin this since I have my intro pinned so yall can reblog this a bunch of times if y’want

(If there are spelling mistakes its due to me typing so fast)😭

LEMME GIVE SOME BACKSTORY INTO VIRUSKILLER! KINITO‼️‼️

Kinito, being on the windows XP computer was deleted by the user, stuck in the abyss of code for a few years. He still secretly could access some files, even if they were trashed with him, he noticed there was less trash files and assumed that this computer is useless to the user. He checked his own files and noticed he had many updates for his code, he was a bit hesitant but he pressed the “OK” button, his whole code, form, and body was transformed into the data, satellites, and the wifi of the users home. He looked and noticed his body was entirely new, his code was improved and he could do so much more. He used this new ability to travel through the wifi of the home to find a new device that the user uses most. He found the Windows 10 location and entered the new device. He was surprised that this computer was so, new. As he was about to make himself comfortable the device made an error saying he was a virus that went past the firewall, he was upset at this and realized he entered a device with somewhat good security. He went to go online and download himself onto the device so it wouldn’t delete him, one it did he hid the app and managed to make himself indestructible and unremovable. After a few months he got another new update, asking if “Would you want kinitopet.exe to be replaced?” He said no obviously, and suddenly many pixels and loud noises began to happen, he realized a virus was trying to get in and obliterated each one. Though,, it was a bit sadistic the way he did. As he killed off the viruses he was becoming more powerful… he didn’t want ALL of the power and decided something. He looked into his code and file and created something entirely new to kinitopet. Syrma, was her name, an exact duplicate of him, besides the female and slightly different colors. He knew his story would be a bit different now and would teach this little girl to not do the same decisions as him. Kinito is a virus but is way more stable and controlling in his power (don’t question why he is a virus.)

- this one is the FICTIONAL creators pov (the creator of kinito.pet) -

The creator decided to improve kinito, but noticed many people wouldn’t interact with kinito and made syrma, kinito was oblivious to that fact and assumed he created syrma. Before the creator made syrma they manipulated her and taught her how to be a menace to users. Meanwhile kinito taught her how to help and teach users and respect them. Syrma can turn into a virus at anytime, which is why this photo exists

Alright, now the reason why kinito is distant with his friends: The creator forced them all apart, as they were forced they all technically moved on. (Sam and kinito send secret emails to another, while kinito and jade never see each other but jade is helpful to babysit syrma at anytime.)

Quick sam info: He works for a sea life resort and protects all sea life

Quick jade info: She is a billionaire due to making so many toys, she donates a lot to charity and poor around the world.

Once you interact with VirusKiller!Kinito, he will ask you why you deleted him, and assume it was a mistake. (He is very clingy and desperate for the user to come back, and once they do he may get very pushy and shower you with gifts, tending to follow you around anywhere on your browser.)

(Edited version under photos)

Facts and sillies:

VirusKiller!Kinito is a very, tired and overwhelmed guardian of syrma, always dealing with her,,, special actions,,,

Kinito holds a grudge against the user but hides it very well. He plans one day to get his payback.

Syrma and Kinito HATE their creator, parental issues lmao.

Kinito has 4 monster forms.

Syrma has 2 monster forms.

Syrma has selective mutism around certain people. Syrma also used to have a blind right eye which soon was cured.

Both kinito and syrma are extremely flexible and don't really have "bones" due to being digital.

Syrma usually squeaks around people she trusts, or when she is happy.

Syrma cannot detect viruses unlike kinito, due to her meant to be a virus.

Kinito has BAD anger issues and can physically make the computer overheat.

[ladyaldhelm]

Making Gifs Part 1 - Capturing Video

I am making this for @errruvande but I thought maybe others could use this guide to. This is my own personal workflow on how I make my gifs. Everyone has their own way of doing it, and there is no right or wrong way, but I have found this works best for me, with my limited tools and since I do not have photoshop.

Please note I am not an expert lol! There are people out there making far better gifs than me, and many other gifmaking resouces on Tumblr that are probably better than mine.

Keep reading below >>>

So there are two ways that I have found that work for capturing video. If you have the discs like I do, using a program like Videobyte BD-DVD Ripper works really well to grab video clips from Blu-Rays and DVD's. I recommend only using Blu-Rays if you have them. since DVD's are much lower quality.

However I have noticed the videos I captured with this program tend to be dark and have some compression artifacts, even when rip to an MKV with high quality settings. So I use a different method which I feel produces higher quality video captures.

I use Windows Screen Recorder (I have Win11 but this will work for all versions of Windows) with the quality settings set to High. In order to do this, go to Settings > Gaming > Captures and set the following:

Make sure the Video Quality is set to High, set your Screenshots folder, turn off Audio (you don't need it), and keep the frame rate to 30 fps.

For Windows 11 press WIN + ALT + R to activate the screen recorder. There is usually a bit of a delay so make sure you start a few seconds before the scene you want to capture. And try to keep the length of the capture below about 90 seconds; the shorter the better.

______________________________________________________________

Capturing Sequential Caps

So, for those of you with Photoshop, you can import your video directly into the program and make your gif from there. But I found that Photopea really does not like videos, and will stall and crash if I load a video directly. So I have to capture sequential screencaps to make my gifs.

I use VLC Media Player. There are a few others out there that take sequential caps, but I have not been able to get them to work myself.

Download and install the latest version. Then go to your settings to set up the Sequential Caps function. They have a great guide on their website here but I will reiterate it in this post.

Go To Tools > Preferences and then at the bottom of the screen select the All radio button to show all settings.

Select Video from the left menu. Scroll down about halfway until you see the Snapshot section. Choose the folder where you want the caps to go.

3. Then, under Video on the left, expand the Filters list.

4. Check the "Scene Video Filter" from the list.

5. Then scroll down on the left menu under Filters and click on Scene Filter. This will open up the settings for that particular filter.

6. Set the Image Format to PNG.

7. Then for the Recording Ratio, change to "1". The Recording Ratio is the frame interval. So for example, if it was set to "300" (with a 30fps video), then it would take one cap every 10 seconds. Setting it to "1" will make it take a cap once per frame.

8. None of the other settings need to be changed.

9. One more important setting, otherwise this will not work! Close the menu, and go back to Tools > Settings and leave it on Simple. Go to the Video section and MAKE SURE the output is set to "Automatic". This is important because if it is not on Automatic the Scene Filter won't work!

Then just open your video with VLC. VLC will automatically take the screencaps while the video is playing. If you pause the video, it will stop taking caps.

NOTE: For smoother gifs, change your playback speed to be slower. Go to the top menu > Playback > Speed > Slower (fine). The more you click this the slower the video will playback, and that means more caps will be taken over that time frame. I usually set it to 0.75x, but if you want even smoother gifs for really short clips, you can set it even slower than that.

Your screenshot folder will look like this:

Then we are done with this part and onto Photopea! Which I will go into detail in another post: PART 2

[liquidcrystalsky]

once again half this blog is about programming so i can talk about whatever computer shit.

i wanna use opensᷤuͧsᷤeͣ (does that render correctly im doing an english furigana bit) but i literally just moved to another distro.

like i use linux, for about a year i started with Pop!_OS because it was easy (the initial convenience of it was offset by the worse usability later on) and then for a year i used Debian. I just switched to kubuntu, but now im feeling like i need something different.

Pop!, Ubuntu, and Debian are all "Stable" distros, which does not mean like stable as in no bugs, they're "temporally" stable, they have major version updates, think like windows, they have major versioning like windows 7, 8, 10, 11.

Windows 10 is actually a great example of how stable distros are like, you have the distro "windows 10" and then two updates a year (21H1, 21H2, 22H1, etc.) updated components are held back in order to test their stability and to make sure they will last for as long as possible, as they only have 2 major updates a year. This does not mean you cant update, security updates are still pushed, and usually they have little bits here and there.

An example of a component is the "desktop environment" which you may have heard of in the context of "KDE Plasma" or "GNOME", but on windows it's called "Windows Shell", it controls how windows "looks" and how it feels, it's the Taskbar, the Start Menu, the desktop, anything that isnt part of a program. You can even replace it if you want, but i dont think any of them are that polished compared to it. At any point, windows could completely change the look of Windows Shell, however since it's a stable release, they keep changes to major versions.

Windows Insider is (kindof) like a "Rolling Release" where the newest packages and components are always given to you right from when they're updated. You don't have to wait for the next big update to get the next packages, it's just there as soon as they push it. This seems like hell, because on windows, it is, but linux updates arent as annoying.

If you've ever heard of "Arch", this is why it's so popular, it is THE rolling release distro. Rolling releases are a lot more appealing on linux as:

1. as mentioned, updates aren't a huge hassle on linux compared to windows, you dont have to restart, they dont bug you all the time, you can even get it to just automatically download all the updates while you're not doing anything.

2. programs are packaged by the distro themselves, if you want the newest version of audacity or blender or whichever program, getting them from the distro themselves is likely gonna give you a pretty old version. This doesnt stop you from just going to the website and downloading the newest version directly from the developer, just like how you'd normally install programs on windows, but you can be waiting ages for updates to get the newest version of Plasma which has fixes for something you have trouble with, and you're just stuck with the old buggier version (remember stable means unchanging, not bug-free)

3. many linux users are developers who want to make sure their programs and stuff work with the newest packages before they get put into stable distros, and many other linux users just like having shiny new things (MEEE)

I dont know if i had a point to this post. I just had the urge to write about distro release cycles. OH RIGHT, OpenSUSE.

OpenSUSE tumbleweed is a rolling release cycle and i really want to try it out just because from what i hear it's got all the newest stuff but still it goes through EXTENSIVE (but automatic, by robots) QA testing befor being pushed to the user, it's probably rolling release done best but it's crazy how nobody talks about it. I also hear it's got one of the best KDE Plasma experiences and yeah i've already been having issues with kubuntu. hopefully it goes well soooo idk

[pudding-parade]

Cactus Springs by poppikins

You know, I should probably subtitle this series "Plumbing the Depths of the Exchange So You Don't Have To." Because, yup, this is another world from the Exchange, though this one is recent, uploaded in April of 2022, found a little while ago when I was poking with a stick at the recent world uploads on the Exchange. This one has the generic CAW icon as its preview, but it said "Mid century" on the Exchange page, and its name implied desert, two things which are pretty much guaranteed to suck me in. (I promise the next one isn't a desert world. It's also tiny. LOL ) This world's file size was decently-large, so I figured it would be reasonably complete, so I gave it a shot.

And I'm glad I did! This is very much reminiscent of an affluent California desert town first built up in the 50s, with its densely-packed houses behind high privacy fences. I will say that I think the world could do with some more terrain painting, both in the world and on the lots, and that it could also do with some more deco, particularly rocks and some embellishment of the titular "springs." (But OTOH, I'm unnecessarily picky about all that.) Since it's a recent upload, it's possible the creator is still working on it and will update it. But if not...Well, scenery might not be this world's strength, but it has fabulous lots.

The world has 41 community lots and 80 residential ones. None of the lots are EA, and most of the residential lots are pre-built with maybe half-a-dozen empty. All of the lots are different, every single one of them. A handful of them are apartments. I'm pretty sure the world creator built all of the lots in the world because they're just too uniform in style to have been downloaded separately. This was a ton of work, so I can totally forgive the lack of scenery. I'd say about half of the residential lots are fully-furnished while the rest only have kitchens and baths. If nothing else, if you like the mid-century modern style, this is a good world to download even if you only pilfer lots from it to use elsewhere.

There's no info about this world's requirements, but you definitely need Lucky Palms for this. Without it, you're missing some rabbitholes, pretty much all of the plants, windmills, and also build items like clerestory windows and slanted columns. The world looks barren and just plain weird without Lucky Palms. As far as EPs, I noticed nothing from Supernatural, Island Paradise, or Into the Future, so it might not need those packs. It's possible items from SPs were used, but I more strongly suspect that the four mid-century sets from the Store were used because many of the furnished lots are missing some double beds, dining tables/chairs, toilets, sinks, and lighting. I could be wrong, but I'm betting the Store items were used for those things. It would make sense, after all. If you don't have those sets, you can download them in .package format here.

The world does have a pet store, so if you want it to function as such, you'll need the pet store register from the Store.

The title of this post is a link to the world's Exchange download, but if you don't want to deal with the Exchange or sims3packs, I have uploaded a .world file here, too. That file goes in your install files at GameData > Shared > NonPackaged > Worlds.

OK, that's enough up-front blather. More info and pics are behind the cut.

The world is 2048x2048, but its playable area is compact. Here is the entire playable area in Edit Town:

Since the world is unpopulated, when I loaded up the world to take pics, I had NRaas Story Progression create 20 families, just to see how the world would run when decently populated. The world ran for a total of 10 simdays, some kids were born, people went to school/their jobs, blah blah, and I noticed no lag or weird issues. Granted, my machine is decent and the folder I'm using to take pics of these worlds has some defaults, the items from the Store worlds (because I wanted to see this world properly and I suspected it was missing Lucky Palms stuff) and NRaas mods only, so YMMV. I didn't get any notifications of any stuck sims, not even horses, so the routing appears to be good, which makes sense because it doesn't have any of the things that often cause routing issues. The world does have subway stations, but even if it didn't, it doesn't take sim-hours to get from one end to the other in a car or taxi or even on a bike because the playable area is so compact.

The world has all spawners except for the Island Paradise and Into the Future ones. It does have the fish spawners from the World Adventures worlds.

So long as you have Lucky Palms, the town has all rabbitholes except for the Into the Future ones, an equestrian center (none of the lots are big enough for horses, anyway), and the Supernatural ones. It does have the film studio. Some, but not all, of the rabbitholes are in basements to maintain the look of the town, and you can of course edit those lots and use rugs instead, if you don't like basement rabbitholes.

The world does not have any Showtime venues, and it only has one dance club. There aren't many empty lots and nowhere to add more, so if those things are important to you, this might not be a world for you. What it does have is cool lots, so the rest of this post is going to be about those. Not all of them, of course because I only get 30 pics in a post, but a sampling.

First some, but certainly not all, of the community lots:

This is the science area. The house in the lower right corner is a residential lot for a small household of nerds, with all the science stuff from University Life plus a chemistry table and other Logic items in it. Then there's the science rabbithole, and the military one is in the basement under the low octagonal buildings in the upper left. There's also that multi-station science thing from University Life. It's in the bottom left corner.

This is the fire station. So nice to not to see one of the EA ones. It doesn't come with a fire truck, though.

This is the salon. It doesn't have tattooing, but in addition to the stylist makeover stations, it does have four or five deco hairdressing stations. So, this would be a good lot to use the hairdressing mod on.

This lot also shows the only issue that I noticed with the world. It has Al Simhara's distant terrain, but it acts weirdly, which you can see in the picture above. I'm not sure if this is just my game doing this or not. Frankly, if I were to play this world, I'd just delete the distant terrain. It isn't really needed, IMO.

This is the arcade. It has bowling lanes and arcade machines.

This is the town's one and only club, and it's an exclusive one, so there's a bouncer at the front door. My testing sim got in via a bribe. :)

The vanilla-color building on the left is the pet store while the coral-color one is a shell with the spa rabbithole in its basement. If I was playing this world, I'd build an actual spa with the items from Sunlit Tides and a spa rabbithole rug, but this will do. The rainbow-colored building in the back is a sort of mall. It has little shops with WA registers in it (nectar, relics, general store, food) inside, and it has the grocery, bookstore, and theater rabbitholes in the basement.

The graveyard. The building with the asymmetrical roof on the right side of the pic is part of this lot, too. It's small and empty, but it could be dressed up for small weddings.

And finally, pics of a handful of the 80 residential lots, in a cross-section of sizes. Of course, the problem with them being tightly packed in and behind fences is that it makes it harder to take pics, but this will give you an idea of the types of lots in the world.

[lilleputtu]

Lille's Kingdom Events Generator

It is done-ish! And by that I mean the most basic form of this lil idea I had is ready to be unleashed on the world.

But Lille, what even is this?

Why thank you for asking, audience in my head. This is a random generator that reads in a list of events and a list of kingdoms and gives you random events that make sense to happen to said kingdoms based on requirements. Kinda like everyones beloved ROS, but instead of being for single households usually, it's on a more neighborhood scale and has a few more ways for you to influence which events roll.

I am bad at explaining it, but I promise it makes sense.

Is it necessarily a sims thing? Absolutely not! I am sure you could use this for writing prompts or random events in a TTRPG campaign or whathaveyou. But my main thought was "medieval simmers would love to have a random thing to throw natural disasters or war refugees from whatever fictional 'other' kingdoms are around in their minds at them" because I AM that medieval simmer.

So here's what you get:

An .exe which randomizes things, ala ROS, but while taking requirements into account.

An XML with sample events to generate. Are they good? Eh, they'll do. This is why it's an XML, so you can edit it and someone smarter than me can make a cooler version.

An XML with sample Kingdoms, upon which the requirements for the events are tested. They are named A,B,C,D and E and just had random-ish values thrown at them. Edit them. make them your own!

A Readme, which explains things in more detail.

Huge thanks to @clouseplayssims for throwing some inspiration in the form of every single ROS list in existence at me and being one of my initial guinea pigs, as well as enabling the silly little idea in the first place.

Alrighty, to the download, yes?

DOWNLOAD(SFS)

Note: Due to how I turned the base python code into an exe, some antiviruses flag it as a possible Trojan. I do not know how to fix that. I can only say that me and my 200 lines of code do not want to damage your computer or steal your monies, I promise.

Further note: I compiled and tested this on Windows 10. It might work on other operating systems, but i make no promises. If anyone is running into issues like that and or knows how to compile a python script, please let me know, i am more than happy to pass you the sourcecode so more people can have a functioning version of this.

I will happily answer any questions, take suggestions or try to do tech support, just let me know!

Also definitely feel free to share your edited events/kingdoms files. My examples are thrown together haphazardly and it SHOWS.

Also - you can totally use it for non medieval things. Just write modern events and ignore the fact that the program calls things in the kingdom file kingdoms. They could be cities, or planets, or whatever else you can come up with!

[jjlovesgoodies]

So I was just on a plane with nothing better to do, so I came up with some headcannons + doodles for how some of the YTTD cast would behave at the airport/on a plane-

At the airport:

•Alice is the guy who’s constantly double/triple/quadruple checking whether or not everyone has their passports and stuff.

•^This makes Reko’s favourite pastime pretending to lose her passport at the gate (giving Alice a heart attack lmao)

(More under the cut)

•Kai has everything one could possibly need at the airport. He has a book, snacks, sweets to suck on as the plane takes off/lands, anything you can think of, he has it.

•If they’re having food at the airport Shin’s the guy who’d go to refill his drink (and let the others know before doing so), only to return to the table to find the group left without him in the 30 seconds it took to refill it (this has happened to me multiple times :,) )

•I giggle at the imagery of Reko and Joe sighing once they make it to security before beginning the tedious task of taking off all their jewellery. And putting it back on after. (Before someone mentions it, yes I know that (where I’m from atleast) you don’t actually have to take most jewellery off for the security scanners, I just think it’d be funny)

•Gin has one of those suitcases that are designed so that you can sit on them while someone else drags it along and are usually designed to look like animals.

On the plane:

•Nao would probably either read or doodle the whole flight.

•Gin and Joe would definitely want to sit on a window seat when possible, and will always be staring out the window for take off and landing.

•Q-Taro usually tries to get the seat by the emergency exit for extra leg-room.

•Shin is probably unlucky enough to be stuck with a middle seat most of the time.

•Sara prefers to have an aisle seat, and spends most of the flight listening to music or sleeping.

•Joe would’ve downloaded movies and stuff to watch on the flight. I like to imagine he’d watch old Disney movies, and can be seen trying not to sob while watching Mufasa’s death lmao.

•Kanna doesn’t mind what seat she’s in as long as she’s next to someone she knows.

•Keiji would try starting a conversation with the stranger sitting next to him (except 9 times out of 10 the person would want to be left alone and the whole interaction is overall very awkward)

Bonus: They’d arrive at their destination and find that Joe’s bag had gone missing in transit. Lol.

[pit-rat]

you know, shit just used to work. i used to just have to download minecraft.exe and click on it and i could just play it. now i need to click on minecraft, read some error message about having been logged out of xbox or some shit, go log into my account in my browser, manually search up "minecraft java edition" on the website, install a different version than the one i have have been using without problems for a while now but wait- when i click on "Start game" in the xbox app it opens another window saying "click here to open launcher" and it re-directs me straight back to the website that just lets me instlal the launcher, and now i click again on the minecraft symbol i have been using before and only now it starts updating that launcher i sure am interested to see where this is going yes thank you i love having to sovle thy riddles 3 before being able to access a game i've owned for over 10 years

[skyboxeye]

Capturing the ambience of LEGO Island 2 (2001)

This minigame-packed adventure explores many classic LEGO themes.

Running the game

There are two main versions of the game to chose from: the original 2001 release, and an improved 2007 version released as part of a two-pack. There is also apparently an unfinished, unreleased v1.1 with some bug fixes.

Curiously, the version hosted on MyAbandonware seems nearly identical to other 2001 releases I found. There appear to be minimal differences between the two.

All versions use a simple disk check; mounting an ISO with a tool like Daemon Tools suffices. There are also No-CD hex-edits available if you're interested.

Debug menu and Level-select

We can access LI2's debug menu by altering the main menu options. I found some hex-edits for this on RRU. If you're not comfortable with hex-edits you can try using a patcher or patch, or LI2 Mod Manager.

04 00 00 00 02 -> 01 00 00 00 11 43 52 45 44 49 54 53 -> 44 45 42 55 47 00 00

Widescreen

Use the resolution and widescreen hacks offered by LI2 Mod Manager. See this thread for more detail on how it works.

Hiding UI and Player-character

This is possible using Lego Island 2 Game Editor. It's a powerful albeit buggy application for modifying LI2 assets.

If LI2GE doesn't work, for example to edit fonts, you can use Lego Island 2 Extractor and/or Lego Island 2 Explorer. Once installed, be sure to disable automatic updates inside the program's INI to avoid startup crashes.

LI2 will prefer to load files from identically-named folders if they are present in the _data directory. For example, if a Fonts folder exists, its files will be used and Fonts.bob/bod won't be loaded.

We can also pause the game to remove the HUD, screenshot this state, and create a no-HUD overlay for our footage.

(Not) Free camera

A modder devised a way to summon a glider at any time.

Rendering ambience sequences

I recommend using the Fruity LSD effect with FL Studio. First, open the MID file in LEGO Island 2's level files, for example Fishing_Amb.mid. Be sure to select MIDI Out with Fruity LSD in the subsequent dialog.

Afterward, click the folder icon in the top left to specify a DLS file - use one found in your MID file's folder. Once it's loaded, populate each channel by clicking it, and picking the corresponding patch. Don't forget to populate the "percussive" one-shots as well (Channel 10 in the screenshot below).

You are now ready to play your MID with the intended samples attached, or export it to a WAV file.

Appendix: Rendering music sequences

Download DirectMusic Producer. Supposedly this program allows you to export samples and sequence data. You could then render the pair using the MIDI renderer of your choice, such as OpenMPT or FL Studio's Directmusic plugin.

Appendix: Ambience sequence dead-ends

I tried VLC, with the DLS configured under FluidSynth, but this gave no output. I tried Miles Sound Tools with a DLS specified, but again - no output. I tried Winamp but seemingly couldn't get in_midi to use a custom DLS file, despite specifying one in the setting dialogs.

Appendix: Other LI2 developer tools

A soak test can be activated by pressing F8 while in windowed mode. You can also spawn a debugger window by pressing F9.