Tried to stay on track for the rewind the tape event by @iwtvfanevents but I’m a binge watcher at heart and could not help but rewatch the entire season in the first week lol :’)

But something I noticed during my rewatch of Episode 6 is the beautiful music playing during this scene, when Louis and Claudia say their goodbyes before Claudia leaves for Europe.

The track is called “Hey Sis You Don’t Need Me” by Daniel Hart, who composed the soundtrack for the show.

Not only was the track lovely and moving, but it was also familiar! It is what plays in Epsiode 5 when Grace and Louis say their goodbyes at the cemetery.

I had to go back and listen again to make sure, but it’s the same tune. Louis saying goodbye to his sisters.

I don’t know if this track appears in other places throughout the show, would love to know if so. This is just a fun thing I hadn’t noticed during my first watch :)

→ Bad Mouth.

gif credit.

pairing: soldier boy x fem!reader.

rating: explicit, pure filth.

warning: domestic ben, non-canon compliant, drug use, cockwarming, daddy kink, brat!reader, choking on huge dick, piv, pet names, minimum plot...

word count: 2.2k

summary: ben wants to netflix and chill with you but on his way.

tagging: @zepskies

→ masterlist | ao3

You and Ben just finished having dinner together. Ben's cleaning the table while you take care of the dishes. You glance over your shoulder at him with pride. Ben is adapting to modern life. Even though it's an excruciatingly slow process, it's still a progress, and you couldn't be prouder. In spite of that, Ben doesn't seem to be so pleased with the drastic changes that happened to the world during his sleep, and it causes him great frustration most of the time. But you're here to help him find his place in the new world. He insists he can handle everything by his own, but the man can't do a thing without screwing everything up, especially that loose tongue of his.

You proceed with your work in the kitchen; putting dry dishes in the cupboard, mopping the floor, and sorting the leftovers from dinner. Ben is now sitting in the living room watching something on TV. You need not to worry about that because you already taught him how to shuffle through networks and pick something up to watch. You've come to notice that unlimited access to media is something he appreciates and even enjoys. He'd sit and absorb the contents for learning purposes, making comments on how cinema quality is fucked up nowadays compared to the glorious days back in his time. You'd giggle at his words, reminding you of your grumpy grandpa. He still watches what now-shitty-Hollywood produces, nevertheless.

You emerge from the kitchen, drying up your wet hands with a towel. Your gaze catches his before he says, “C'mere, sweetheart, want you to sit on my lap.”

You smile, strolling down to the sofa where he's sitting. He cranes his head to look up at you before he adjusts his position for you. You slide up deftly to straddle his strong thighs, coming face to face with his handsome visage. Beautiful green eyes ravishing you with hunger. He flashes you a mischievous grin. “Not what I meant, baby.”

“Oh,” You raise a brow, flashing him a wicked smile of your own, “If that's what you want, Daddy.” You wink.

“Atta girl.”

He helps you to stand up again, shoving his blue sweatpants and underwear down to his mid thighs as you take your panties off; you weren't wearing anything but a hoodie and a thin pair of panties, which is laying on the floor now. He's not hard but not soft either. You moan slightly as you sink on his length, his chest pressing to your back, a strong arm holding you by your waist close to his warm body. He's so well-endowed and thick, you can feel him fill every inch of you; you shiver.

From the side of the couch, Ben fetches his blunt from the small table and lights it up.

You try to distract yourself from the overwhelming sensations that course through your body from the feeling of utter fullness. Eyes glued on the screen, you notice that Ben is watching Narcos: Mexico on Netflix. The events take place in the late seventies and the early eighties, close to his time of claimed death.

Smoke begins to fog up around you, hazing your head and making it lighter. That shit is strong. Minutes elapse, and the whiffs of high is making you naughty. You glimpse at him from the corners of your eyes to find him too focused on the show. You grin giddily and slowly roll your hips on his dick. You earn a low grumble from behind but nothing more. Your faint high is making you braver so you take another shot, snapping your hips again, but more aggressive this time

“Whoa,” He says, “Easy, baby doll—”

You buck your hips again with a giggle, feeling his cock nourishing inside of you. “Hold still, woman,” He growls in a low voice, “Last warning.” Your hips carry on until he snaps impatiently, lifting you up his cock effortlessly and turning you to face him. “Not gonna let Daddy finish the goddamn season with your pretty cunt warming up his cock?”

You giggle playfully, raising a challenging brow, “No,” You emphasise with another snap of your hips. He twitches inside of you, “Come on, don't you wanna fuck me, Daddy? Or you want me to do all the work for your old-ass?”

He furrows his brows at you, but before you receive an answer, you climb down his thighs swiftly and rush towards your bedroom, you grin proudly when you hear his hasty footsteps behind you. You yelp when you find yourself being flung to the bed, your grin widens and you giggle again when you find him above you. You feel his weight on your body, and his cock nudging your opening. With a vigorous thrust he's inside you and between your legs.

“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” You cry, “Please, give me your cock, Daddy!”

You kick your legs playfully as he teases you with his massive cock; slow and deep drags in and out of your dripping cunt.

“Oh, now it's 'Please Daddy', hmm?” He chuckles cruelly, “What happened to the bratty bitch who wouldn't stop rocking her fucking hips on my dick? You fucking cock tease.”

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Daddy!” A thrilled cry tears out of your throat as you look at him with teary eyes. He stops and slides his cock out of you, and you whimper. You try to buck your hips to his cock but he has a steel grip on your wrists above my head. You couldn't move much. You curse his supe strength.

“You're sorry?” Ben sneers, raising a brow, “Sorry won't get you anywhere, sweetheart.” His face slants down so his mouth is nearly brushing yours, “If you want my cock buried in that slutty pussy of yours, you must show me how sorry you are.”

“Please,” You say breathlessly, gulping down while nodding, “Let me show you I can be a good girl, your good girl.”

“Now you wanna be my good girl?” He snickers, “Should've warmed my cock while I smoked that reefer like I told you to instead of pissing me off with your hips.”

You giggle, tilting your head to the side coquettishly, “But Daddy! I love your cock so much; can't help myself when you're inside of me.”

Ben's hands loosen from your wrists and you can move again. He quirks a playful eyebrow at you, a grin slipping into his lips. “You love how my cock fills you up, Princess?”

“Yes!” You gush, sitting up on your thighs and Ben leans back, his face still in yours. “I love it so much, Daddy. I love the feeling of you.” You slip onto the ground between his thighs. His cock is long and thick, hardened and curved up towards his lower torso. Pre-cum is glimmering on the slit of its tip. The sight makes your mouth water. Your tongue takes a long drag on the shaft and Ben growls, his hand is harsh in your hair, yanking your head backwards. You hiss in pain, but tingles of delight sweep over your spine. You like how he manhandles you. He leans down to your face and chuckles, “You want it so bad, don't you?” He drawls, mance swirling in his eyes, “Then take it.”

Ben's grip tightens on your hair, his dick is shoved all the way down your throat. You gag at the sudden fullness in your mouth. You try to lift yourself up to adjust your position, but he doesn't let you. The fucking bastard. He wants you to choke on him.

“Let's put that bad mouth of yours into some good use.”

Drool seeps through the corners of your mouth down to your chin, and tears start to prick your eyes. You hold into his thighs and try to ease your breath through your nose. You taste his pre-cum and salt of his skin. In another circumstance, you'd suck him empty.

“Ah, just like that,” His voice is thick and content, you can hear the smirk in his voice, “Move an inch and you're not allowed to cum for the rest of the week.”

Your eyes fly wide when you comprehend what's going to happen. He's going to fucking smoke again while you warm his cock with your mouth. The asshole. What a fucking dick. But his dominating, deep voice shoots directly to your pussy, making it squeeze around nothing.

You hear him flicking the lighter on and a few moments later you hear him exhale a small cloud of smoke. You whimper in discomfort and your legs shift a bit. His hand pats your hair gently and you look up at him through your bangs.

“You can be such a fucking brat sometimes,” He says after taking a long drag, his hand continues to fondle your hair tenderly. You grumble around his length and he lets out an amused chortle, “What is it, baby doll?” He strokes your scalp again. God, his smirk is so annoying but utterly beautiful, “Too busy to come up with a nasty sass?”

He wants to play dirty? You can play dirty. You flick your tongue on the underside on his shaft and it twitches in response. “Behave,” Ben warns in a grumble, hand tugging your hair. Again, your cunt clenches around nothing. You stop; you don't want him to execute his threat. Because he'd fucking do it. Last time you pushed your limits he denied you your orgasm for a night as a punishment. True, he compensated you the following morning, but it drove you crazy the entire night. Long story short, you don't want to experience that obnoxious feeling of reaching the rim of your high but never get it. Your throat clenches around his cock when you attempt to swallow your saliva.

Minutes elapsed then he muffled his reefer in the ashtray on the bedside table. His grip slides your head gently off his dick and you take a deep breath before gazing up at him. His cock is slickened wet by your spit and his pre-cum.

“Good girl,” He remarks, whipping your face dry with a tissue. When he's finished, he pats the spot next to him, “On bed, all fours.”

Thrill sweeps over your body again as you climb up on the bed again, settling on your hands and knees as he ordered after you took off your hoodie. You hear shuffling behind you; he's taking his clothes off too. You yelp in surprise when his hand smacks your right butt cheek playfully then you giggle. His hand trails down your ass crack, his fingertips teasing the rim of your butt hole and you shiver. “Can't wait to fuck this hole someday.” He comments and you chew your lower lip, “But let us focus on that honeyed pussy now, shall we?”

His blunt nails press to your clit and you moan, “Fucking Christ, you're practically drenched down here, Princess.” He circles the bundle of nerves and your hands grip the sheets beneath you. You mewl when two of his fingers are deep-knuckle inside of you.

“Please Daddy, please,” You groan, rubbing yourself against his hand when doesn't move.

“Wanna cum, baby girl? Fuck yourself on my fingers just like that.” You whimper in frustration but you do it nevertheless.

His other hand reaches out to your breasts, his fingers finding your erect nipples. Ben plays with them as his thumb presses in circles to your clit. He's driving you crazy. He's all over you. His hands toying with you, his firm chest is against your back, his mouth next to your temple whispering the filthiest words into your ears. Overwhelm sweeps over your body, and you squeeze around his fingers. You groan and rub yourself faster. Your knees are growing weak. “Daddy, Daddy! I'm gonna cum. Can I cum, please?”

He growls, “Cum to me, princess, cum to me.”

To ruin you even more, Ben pumps his fingers expertly against your g-spot and as if on cue you crash on his relentless digits. Tears run down your cheeks as the orgasm hits you like a hurricane. Ben doesn't wait, he flips you on your back and plunges himself through your pulsing cunt. He grunts at the wringing and curses under his breath. “Fuck,”

You claw at his back when his cock fills you up and you sigh in pleasure, “I love you, Daddy. I love your cock so much.”

He grins down at you then kisses you briefly, murmuring, “You have no idea how much my cock loves your pussy, doll.”

Ben snaps his hips against yours and you see the stars. He's so huge, so fucking huge. And with every drag of his dick you feel each inch of its skin and every vein friction against your sensitive walls. He fills you up completely. His mouth leaves love bites on your neck, and his tongue leaves a wet stripe on your chin before he kisses you again.

His vigour brings you to my high again and it snaps around him harshly. You scream his name and cry, digging your nails into his skin. He cums hard inside of you, you feel his hot seed painting your walls white.

His dick starts to soften inside, and he shifts to pull out, but you cling to him, looking up at his green eyes. “Stay,” you whisper.

And he does.

Helluva Boss Beelzebub Edit

Okay so I don't usually make these kind of posts myself, partly because others do a better job at explaining, but I wanted to give it a shot.

So Helluva Boss's design of Beelzebub, from an animators perspective, it isn't good.

For those that don't know, the more lines on a character, means that the more work you need to do

The detail on this design makes me want to claw out my own eyes in rage

Okay maybe that's an exaggeration, but it does piss me off (I wish the best for those who had to animate her)

Some notes:

The patterns are completely unnecessary. Like Viv did say that each pattern had some kind of symbolism or was meant to represent something, but Viv, this needs to be explained in the show. Twitter does not count.

Second, the lava lamp thing... just... why?!

Like I know Viv said that her lava lamp stomach is like a stomach on steroids, but again, this needs to be explained in the show! Show her stomach doing its work!

Okay, so if the lava lamp stomach is meant for digesting food, then what about her lava lamp hair and tail?

Patreon leaks show that Bee's stomach was animated via green screen, so why didn't they do it for her hair?! Why include it at all???

(Sorry for the low quality of the video)

Anyways, the design is horrible and not animation-friendly

So here's my edit

I wanted to do a complete redesign, but I didn't really feel motivated to do it.

So, here's my edit

I reduced the lava lamp on her stomach to just 2 colors, got rid of her lava lamp hair, made her tail into an abdomen (since she's BEE-lzebub in this universe) and just cut down on the patterns and details.

I also gave her pupils and eyeshine just because it helped make it look good y'know?

I kept her little symbol between her eyes because I like to imagine it's her third eye she has in her big form but closed

(Update: Yeah I was right it's exactly that oops)

Finally, I fixed her shirt/bra thing because for the love of God how does that work?!

But yeah, that's my edit. I might do a full redesign, but I don't know if I will.

I don't usually make these kinds of posts because I tend to focus more on the bad things Vivziepop herself has done rather than her own shows, but considering the...concerning things Viv has in her show, I might do posts like these in the future. It depends on how I feel.

Please do tell us what your thoughts are on melshi's head rubbing gesture 🥺

Dear friend, it would be my pleasure. <3<3<3

This question comes from a tag I left on this beautiful gif set from @staticwaffles, where I referenced how I overthink the moment when Melshi rubs the back of his head - after Cassian gets called out for resting by Kino and Melshi prompts him to take the drill and get back to work.

Per generous request, I now present you with a non-exhaustive list of ways I have interpreted this gesture:

Pain/exhaustion: we Melshi lovers have long made much of the signs that Melshi is dealing with chronic Narkina-5 effects in his left hand in particular (see gif sets where he climbs or holds on with his right hand only); and throughout this particular assembly sequence in 1.08, there are also a number of other moments where Melshi appears to be quietly wincing or breathing heavily (see low-quality screen shot below). Perhaps part of the point of Cassian getting called out for a moment of rest and Melshi handing him a way to look busy is that Melshi knows Cassian hasn't yet learned how to hide the signs that he's feeling the toll of the work.

Worry/protectiveness: speaking of catching Kino's attention, we know Melshi has intimate knowledge of what can happen if you get on Kino's shit list. I like the idea that maybe Melshi can sense Cassian's starting to push Kino's buttons, and while Melshi has already given Kino his own kind of implicit permission to work off steam by throwing Melshi around, he's not keen on watching Cassian get pushed into walls (and maybe he can already sense the arrangement wouldn't work in the same way for the two of them: it's very dangerous to corner Cassian).

Confirmation: I personally enjoy the version of events where some part of Melshi figures out "Keef" is a pseudonym, and since it takes Cassian a few beats to respond to Melshi using "Keef" to try to get his attention in this scene, I think it's possible to read this moment as the first time Melshi's guessing it's not his real name (and thinking about everything else that might imply).

Grim habit: I also can't avoid noticing that the head-rubbing gesture resembles one half of the on-program position, and I'm both heartbroken and compelled by the possibility that this shows us a Melshi who has half-internalized the command to assume a posture of compliance automatically in times of stress or under scrutiny from authorities: maybe it's even started to feel perversely soothing. It's significant, then, that Melshi's gesture is only half the position: an early sign that despite the cynicism and pessimism of the intellect he's cultivated to protect his mind from believing in a way out, part of him remains hopefully/hopelessly open to the appeal of Cassian's defiance.

your gifs are sooo gorgeous, i love your work!! <3 if you don't mind me asking, do you have any tips or tricks, save settings, adjustments, etc. on how to get them to look so crisp and high quality?

anon, this made my entire day and thank you so much!! i'll link some gifmaking tutorials below since they deal with making high quality gifs, but i'll also share some of my own tips & tricks in response to your questions! also just some tips about giffing on tumblr in general. more under the cut, i hope this is helpful!

save settings

i always save my gifs under selective diffusion! when making a super colourful gif, sometimes i'll do adaptive pattern, but 99.9% of the time my gifs are selective diffusion with 256 colours

when making black & white gifs, you might be able to get away with lowering the number of colours, allowing you to squeeze more frames in.

keep every gif below 10mb because that's tumblr's size limit, so i keep my big 540px x 540px gifs to about 40-50 frames and my dialogue gifs to about 55 frames. mostly i just keep as many frames in as possible to push the 10mb limit

adjustments

sharpen your gifs! my sharpening settings are 500 at 0.3 radius and then 10 at 10.0 radius!

i start every colouring with a curves layer, then a levels layer. i like my gifs bright, so sometimes i add a brightness contrast layer on screen before i use curves

i loveee bright gifs. i love the whites in my gif to be white and the blacks to be black, so i use levels a lot in my gifs

my usual colouring process starts with brightness/contrast on screen (if applicable), curves, then levels

usually i try to keep the number of adjustment layers low because a lot of adjustments tends to mess with the quality

colour balance is your best friend. a lot of movies & tv shows have a yellow tint, so upping the blues can help decrease that — i use this a lot because i don't want my gifs coming out too yellow

selective colour is also your best friend. this helps you target specific colours in the gif, like reds and greens and magentas, and is especially helpful when correcting skin tones

channel mixer is the best for removing tints. whole scene coloured red? use channel mixer to make it look natural! showmakers decided the scene should just be yellow? channel mixer here to save the day! you can use this tutorial as a lovely guide to using it

overall, i like my gifs more colourful, so i also use vibrance and hue/saturation a lot!

make sure not to red/yellow/pink/white-wash the people in your gifs! having reference photos with decent lighting up helps a lot when colouring to make sure you're staying true to their skin tone

general tips and tricks

always, always, ALWAYS gif 1080p or 4k footage if you can get it. anything above 10gb will work just fine! honestly, the size of the actual file doesn't really matter that much unless you're doing large gifs (like 540px x 540px or 540px x 800px), but there'll be a quality difference between a 720p 1gb file from youtube and a 4k 12gb file for sure

(in all honesty.... the secret to my crisp gifs is the fact that i have massive files. my star wars movie files are 4k 38gb and i just downloaded a 50gb file for dunkirk because I Am A Nerd.) this is not required at all i am just blessed with a lot of storage and i love having the best files possible for my favourite media, but generally, large files = better quality. HOWEVER, the difference between 17gb and 38gb is practically negligible so don't worry

large files are also better for colour manipulation because the quality doesn't drop as quickly

tumblr dimensions are ALWAYS 540px for the width. you could go wider but tumblr compresses it down to 540px width anyways so you might as well just start at 540px to preserve it. i tend to do 540 x 540 for sets like this, 540 x 350 for dialogue, and 540 x 300 for wide shot scenes.

i like having colour schemes in my sets. if you look through some of my movie sets, you'll notice they usually have a theme — this a new hope set is mostly pink, while this dunkirk set is mostly blue. that's just personal preference but i find it helps me so much when picking scenes, and makes it a lot more cohesive imo

WATERMARK YOUR GIFS. twitter loooooves to repost gifs from here unfortunately and sometimes other people on this website will steal them too, so it's just a good idea to always watermark. i designed a fun little one for myself and it just makes me happy to see it on my gifs. you can just add a little text with your url down at the bottom of your gif!

tag people on your sets! tag source blogs, tag other creators, tag the general edit tags for your media, whatever! i usually tag the blogs i see post a lot within the fandom and my mutuals. most users will have their tracking tag in their bio, mine for example is #userkosmos

create a general edit tag for your works, and link it in your bio. makes it a lot easier for people to browse your works and also makes it easier for yourself to organise!

most importantly, have fun! gifmaking shouldn't be a chore, and sometimes taking a step away (or maybe ten steps away...) does wonders for your creativity

gifmaking tutorials

how to make hq gifs by cal-kestis

giffing 101 by cillianmurphy

giffing tutorial by breakbleheavens

gifmaking for beginners by hayaosmiyazaki

gif tutorial by kylos

how to colour yellow-tinted shots by nobodynocrime

how to avoid colourwashing

how to avoid pink and yellow washing by jeonwonwoo

how to fix orange-washed characters by zoyanazyalensky

Buyer Beware: Cushing Curiosities

I don't normally do this. My aim is to keep things positive in this space, as much as possible. But I need to talk about the new Severin Films box set dedicated to Peter Cushing and basically beg anyone who loves Peter Cushing to not waste their money on this. When I saw they were, after multiple Christopher Lee sets, finally doing one for Cushing, I admit I got too excited and impulsively pre-ordered it. I have regretted it ever since. Okay, that's too strong. It was way too much money and time wasted on something that's about one-third good. One third is not enough, and even then I'm probably being too generous. 

The box art and presentation are beautiful. If that's all that matters to you, then you'll be delighted. The GIANT book that comes with it is also really awesome. It's informative and thorough with a lot of really cool images. I can't deny that they really went above and beyond, turning a booklet into an actual book that is well worth owning. These are a couple of the highest points you're going to experience with this set. Let's dig into the movies. 

Cone of Silence. Jesus, what a waste of fucking time. This thing was a slog. An absolute bore. If you care a whole lot about planes... Fuck, even then, you probably won't be able to sit through this, because it's so old-fashioned and drags its feet. Is this what thrillers used to be? I shudder to think. Cushing's role is small and that of a misguided villain character. He shows up to accuse a pilot of being bad at his job, gets put in his place at the end, and that's really it. I'll go ahead and make a blanket statement now that he's always good, always worth watching, but that doesn't make most of these movies worth sitting through. 

Suspect. Here's a movie that goes around and around, struggling to get to the point, trying to imitate Hitchcock but without any of the style that goes along with that. Just stationary middle shots of people talking. But don't you worry, it's not just boring! Multiple characters make cracks about how women shouldn't be working in science (Cushing's character included, which makes this an utter loser of a movie to watch for his role). The "villain" is a man with a disability who eventually kills himself, and that's treated like a GOOD OUTCOME. Some movies are old. This movie is old-minded, and it brought what was already not very engaging down to a pile of shit for me. And again, a theme you'll notice, Cushing is a side character who isn't given hardly anything to do and little screen time. Oh, and Donald Pleasence shows up and makes this face: O.O

The Man Who Finally Died. So this was at least engaging. Maybe by this point the bar was just VERY low for me, but I actually enjoyed this. It had lots of twists and turns. Despite being pre-giallo, it had a lot of those storytelling conventions, so I found myself, you know... actually watching the movie instead of struggling to stay awake. The rewatch value feels low, because once you've experienced those twists and turns, they won't shock you next time. But at least it wasn't a total wash. AND ONCE MORE CUSHING WAS BARELY IN IT, SO REGARDLESS OF THE QUALITY OF THE FILM IT WASN'T REALLY A CUSHING FILM, WAS IT? 

Sherlock Holmes. Ohhhhh God. This was not good. I managed one and a half episodes before shutting it off. I couldn't believe how shoddy everything about this was. It's a BBC Sherlock Holmes show! What happened!? I mean, I'm still not clear, but after some googling I did find out that Cushing was a fast replacement for another actor who was leaving in a huff. And the reason he left in a huff was because everything about the production truly sucked ass. It shows. And it didn't improve when Cushing came on. Everything was so clearly rushed. You can feel how everyone's just trying to remember their lines and where to stand, because they were given zero time to rehearse and prepare. I thought this would be a highlight of the set, but it's probably one of the worst aspects. At least Cushing is the main character? 

Bloodsuckers. This was great. I can finally say something was GREAT. What a relief. Cushing is still barely in it, but at least it was entertaining. It's your standard, early seventies, vampire romp. With some psychedelic weirdness thrown in toward the beginning and lots of overly sexual shenanigans. In particular, Johnny Sekka gives a great performance, and in a more modern movie, they would have made the character gay as he should have been. Also, Edward Woodward shows up for a single scene and steals the entire movie. Definitely worth watching, regardless of Cushing's ten minutes of screen time. Even though I thought the point was for it to be a CUSHING box set... 

Tender Dracula. Last but actually the best. This is an absolute ride of a movie. I loved it. My problem is this is such a crazy film, with tonal shifts galore and an unsensible plot, that I could actually see people hating it. It's a movie that is not for everyone, not by a long shot. It breaks the fourth wall, plays with stereotypes and tropes, throws out humor that sometimes lands and sometimes doesn't, and leaves your head spinning. Plenty of viewers might find the experience frustrating and not rewarding. I happened to love it and got a lot out of it, but it feels very poor for a movie like this to be probably the best thing about a shoddy box set. That's not exactly promising your customers the best they could get. BUT CUSHING IS THE STAR! Finally! One (arguably) good movie where he's the main attraction. Christ, that took long enough. 

So what do we have after all that? A set of movies that, for the most part, only tangentially involve Cushing, with his name slapped on the side of the box. Trotting out a beloved actor who isn't here to approve of what's being done for a quick buck feels pretty damn gross. Severin has made a multitude of mistakes over the years in how they've conducted their business, but this is by far the worst of them. Even with the compliments I've given this set, do not buy it. It isn't even close to being worth the price point. The fact that I spent as much as I did on this leaves me shamefaced. 

Sony RX100 VII Thoughts After Two Months

PROS:

Stacked sensors are the future. Well, technically the present considering that Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, and OM Systems all use stacked sensors in their top of the line cameras. Either way, finally getting to experience shooting with one on a daily basis has made me want one in pretty much any camera going forward. The benefits are twofold: Not only do you get shutter speeds up to 20 frames per second, and without a mechanical shutter flipping in the way obscuring your view in between shots, but you also get no rolling shutter while doing it. Pretty much every Sony camera can shoot 10 fps bursts with the silent shutter, but any movement can give you a jello-like effect since the sensor reads out so slow on non-stacked cameras. The only con, at least on this camera, is that you can’t shoot flash at higher than 1/100 with the electronic shutter. That’s still plenty fast for a lot of stuff, but well below the 1/2000 you get when shooting the mechanical shutter. 

The fast frame rate wouldn’t make much of a difference if the camera was bad at autofocusing, but this camera is great at it. It has a lot of the same fancy focusing stuff that my full frame Sony has like human/animal eye autofocus and all the tracking modes I’m used to. It actually makes the camera pretty solid for wildlife if you can get close enough at the 200mm end. 

Speaking of that, the 24-200mm equivalent is a great range, and one that I missed a lot since I traded away my Tamron 28-200 to help cover the cost of my A7RIV. The small size and extra 4mm on the wide end actually makes it even more convenient than that Tamron. 

Aside from covering a broader range than the 24-70 equivalent lens from the older RX100 cameras, this lens also seems noticeably sharper. The last RX100 model I had, the Mk. IV, just didn’t seem as crispy as this lens is. 

It has a touchscreen! It’s wild to think that the previous RX100 cameras I owned didn’t have this basic ass feature, but Sony was very late in putting touch screens in their cameras. Ironically, I don’t really use it in this one because the AF is good enough that I can just do focus and recompose with tracking. 

CONS:

It’s still only a 1” style sensor so high ISO isn’t the cameras strong suit. Programs like DXO PureRAW help a lot and let you get somewhat usable images at ISO 6400 in a pinch, but you’re kinda pushing things at that point. 

While the lens is sharper and covers a wider range than the older models, it’s also significantly slower. At 24mm equivalent it’s already at f/2.8 where the old cameras were f/1.8. It’s f/3.2 at 25mm, f/3.5 at 33mm, and f/4 at 40mm. From 109mm to 200mm you’re at f/4.5. The relative slowness of the lens combined with the small sensor means that this can struggle getting quality images in low light without a tripod or something. 

No USB-C. My Fuji, Ricoh, and larger Sony all have USB-C charging, which is amazingly convenient when traveling. I haven’t really gone anywhere with this camera yet, but having to account for a micro USB cable is annoying since pretty much everything aside from my iPhone uses USB-C. 

It’s expensive. Just like my Mk III and Mk IV I got it used so it was cheaper than retail, but the copy I got cost about twice what I paid for the previous models. 

Start up time is just a tad bit slower than I’d like. The GRIII and X100V both beat it that regards, albeit those aren’t zoom lens so I have to cut the Sony some slack. 

SAMPLE PHOTOS: 

(The sample photos were edited in Lightroom Classic and DXO PureRAW2. Also, the sensor creates a roughly 2.7x crop factor, so the 9-72mm lens equates to 24-200ish)

Young Bird | ISO 160. 72mm. f/4.5. 1/200. 

Graffiti Shot from a Car | ISO 100. 33.98mm. f/4. 1/400.

Stickers | ISO 100. 29.67mm. f/4.5. 1/100.

City Hall | ISO 100. 38.13mm. f/4.5. 1/200. 

Flip Up Screen Selfie with My Friend Hanae | ISO 3200. 9mm. f/2.8. 1/40. 

Zoomed in Graffiti | ISO 640. 72mm. f/4.5. 1/500. 

Fishing Store Neon | ISO 800. 28.67mm. f/8. 1/200. 

Flowers | ISO 200. 72mm. f/5. 1/640.

Selfie Shots with My Sister | ISO 3200. 9mm. f/2.8. 1/100. 

Unauthorized reposts onto the other platforms strike again

So this happened

A Tumblr user @jeanmydearest very kindly reached out to me and informed me about a certain Jean-centric blog on Twitter @ITSJEANBO that has been reposting (copying) posts from Tumblr — and one of my posts has been copied

My post // The copied post on Twitter

So the photos used in the second post are the ones that I made, and the caption wording is eerily similar (with use of "low quality" which is a pretty weird and obscure thing to mention), and also it was published 20 minutes after mine

It's not that I own a sequence of screen shots or anything but for fucks sake this person didn't even bother to spend 5 minutes to make the screen grabs themselves and just chose to use the ones that I made

It's happened to another Tumblr blog but I don't really know how deep the problem is, so all Jean-centric blogs pls be on the look-out, it well may be that one of your posts has also been reposted

For all the further updates pls refer to @jeanmydearest — they posted about this problem on Tumblr, Twitter and Insta (they've created the Tumblr blog quite recently so that's why there may not be a lot of traction hence I'm making this post to spread the info further)

I'm in general not against reposting as long as permission is asked. I can't believe that there're people out there who still don't grasp such common and widely accepted rules

Omg i feel so stupid now lol.. thank you for helping! That seems to be the problem why DOF doesnt work for me in bg3 since i’ve only tried using the regular shaders like cinematic or adof.. i’m gonna try Otis shader and see!! I have another question tho, you said it can take long like 30min to render the picture - is that the case even if you chose to not hotsample too, or only when hotsampling? And in cutscenes etc when I wanna be quick with getting a specific shot or serveral, is that possible like can i screenshot serveral times after another immediately and it renders like 2-4 pictures then, or do i have to take one - let it render - before i can move on to take a new one? Hope that makes sense. I usually smash the screenshot button sometimes cause i dont want to miss a specific scene/shot. Or get several screenshots of like the same moment. Thank you so much anyway!!!

If you want to use IGCS DoF you have to be slow and considered.

Otis' website has instructions how to use it, make sure you read them carefully and you'll understand what's involved, but the tl;dr:

Basically, the way the DoF works is completely different to a DoF shader. It moves the camera very slightly over and over again and takes a temporary screenshot each time to slowly build up the final scene (all of those temporary screenshots will be deleted once it's done). This way it gets very accurate information about what's in the scene, which is why it produces such an excellent result.

You set up a shot, you go into the addons tab and choose IGCS, click start session, and the DoF controls will come up (make sure you have the IGCS DoF shader enabled first - that shader does nothing, but it's required for the addon to work).

Then you choose your bokeh strength, and you set up your focus. You have to be very, very precise with the focus. You choose a few other things, like the shape of the bokeh, and you choose the quality. (Those settings will carry over to next time, but you'll have to set up your focus again.)

The quality is what determines how long the shot will take to render. It will tell you at the bottom how many pictures it will take. The higher the quality you choose, the more of those temporary screenshots it needs to take to get more accurate information and a better image quality. Imagine pressing the print screen key 1,000 times and how long that would take.

The lower your fps the longer it will take. If you have high fps it can fire off those screenshots nice and quick. If you have low fps each screenshot takes a bit longer. If you're hotsampling, you're going to have lower fps.

Because my PC is old, I have a quality that results in about 800 screenshots. When hotsampling and using RTGI etc that can take a long, long, long time to render.

Once the shot is rendered you take your own screenshot as normal, and then you end the session.

One thing, anon. You know you can pause cutscenes, yes? Any current dialogue animation may keep playing until that line has finished, but otherwise it will pause.

The thing about using premium tools from Otis and others, if you're just firing off cutscene screenshots hoping one will look okay you're never going to get the most out of them. They're designed for serious screenshooting (obv anyone can use them if they want). Taking your time to set up a shot, being precise about the composition, the lighting, the aspect ratio, the whole scene, is a lengthy process. I'm not especially great at composition, so my screenshots are only so-so, but I try very hard with each one, and it can take me an hour to get one I'm happy with (this is why I'm still in Act 2). Slowing down improves your skill.

favourite boutique bluray you own? favourite 4K you own? what movie deserves a 4K the most? most overrated 4K? physical media pet-peeve?

My favourite, favourite boutique is the Criterion The New World bluray. I mean just look at it. The Tree of Life Criterion is in very similiar packaging but it's slightly thinner and is decorated by stills from the movie and not original artwork. The Tree of Life Criterion is also amongst my faves but this one is just the Top Dog.

My favourite 4K is the Lawrence of Arabia limited edition steelbook. It was my White Wale for so long as I got into the movie right after the steelbook went out of sale and I even remember seeing it being launched and thinking "oh wow that steelbook looks great and this is supposed to be one of those classic GOATs. Should I blind-buy it?" but then I was too money-sensible... But it is mine now! And even with the amount of hype and expectations I built up from a year of pining for it it didn't disappoint. It's the most beautiful 4K scan of one of the most beautiful movies ever made and I'm so glad I own it and get to watch it in quality that good!❤️

And the movie that most desperately needs a 4K release is a contemporary of LoA: Ben-Hur (1959). I don't understand why WB won't release a 4K when the film was scanned in 8K for the bluray release! They're sitting on a HQ scan of one of the most beautiful, epic, critically and commercially acclaimed movies of all time and they're satisfied with it not having a 4K?? Seeing how marvelous the LoA 4K looks made me thirst all the harder for a Ben-Hur 4K and more classic 70MM films on 4K in general. @ Warner Brothers get your house in order and give the people what they want!

I don't have any one specific 4K I'd call overrated but most modern movies I've watched on 4K have been very underwhelming... I think classic movies, shot on film and with different conventions and attitudes wrt: lighting, production design, effects, colour, etc etc show up much better on 4K than modern digital photography and all that entails do. They look better than their bluray counterparts, no doubt, but the only modern movie I've seen in 4K that really wow'ed me was Interstellar with it's full-screen IMAX scenes - whereas almost all classic movies I've seen of 4K has really blown my socks off.

As for physical media pet-peeves: double-stacking the 4K discs so they get scratched super easily, the slipcover lottery, 4K's that don't come with a standard bluray (like my Arrow Robocop 4K), how difficult and expensive it can be to find the movies I want when my taste is older and more niche cinema... And I was really pissed by the way the Avatar 4K's were sold. When Avatar: TWOW came out on physical they released the original Avatar on 4K as well, and I bought the TWOW 4K steelbook. Then a year later both Avatar and Avatar: TWOW get new collectors editition 4K steels with Dolby Vision and lots of extra special features?? That was low.

I attended the Notting Hill Carnival (27 Aug 2023 – 28 Aug 2023) for the second time and high expectations were met. It was a great time, but I must admit, my interaction with the carnival isn't quite like most people's. I go there to photograph and document the event, but I do it as part of my “artistic expression” (sorry for the fake highbrow). While others revel with friends to party, I'm more of a memory hoarder and archivist for the carnival. A girl with a hump and cap looking through a camera.

Don't get me wrong; I dance, admire the stunning costumes, and have fun, but not quite in the typical way it's intended. It's my way of enjoying the carnival, and I can't imagine going and not photographing it. That's my main desire at the carnival—to be a mirror for it, a tiny grain looking outward into that vast sea of energy.

For the past two years, I've focused on a photojournalism style because the event itself and the people within it are fascinating to me. I want to reflect the carnival as it is, but even in this approach, it's still very subjective photography. I choose who to photograph, under what circumstances, how to frame the image, and later, I select and edit the pictures. So, it's not reality, but it's the carnival through my experience.

Btw I welcome any notes or comments on this series :)

I observed numerous photographers and videographers on-site and had the pleasure of discovering their work on social media. It's a joy to see their personal reflections of the carnival. Capturing this incredible party filled with culture and people who open their hearts and identities for the camera is like a gift for a photographer. They reveal themselves in all their euphoria, and it's an unforgettable experience to be a part of.

One of the reasons I feel very fortunate to be living in London (or more like surviving London) is the opportunity to attend this J'ouvert. It's one of the few parties where I have an absolute blast.

This year, it took me a while to process my own work and edit it. Part of the reason is that I took more pictures and spent more hours at the carnival than last year. However, this doesn't necessarily mean the pictures are better; there were just more to go through, and I needed to take my time. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed with this year's photos compared to last. I'm not sure if it's because the novelty has worn off a bit or if I wasn't at the top of my game those two days. I'm quite rusty since I hardly take my camera out anymore and I really should do it more since even the camera's batteries die on me from lack of use!

My success depends on finding stories and interesting individuals at the carnival and being able to react quickly to capture the moment. Many times, I've seen something worth photographing and fumbled the opportunity. I hate when that happens, but it's bound to occur.

Additionally, while editing the pictures, I quickly realized that I had used the wrong camera settings (What a delight!). The pictures were noisy and looked of low quality. They seemed fine on the tiny camera screen, but on the computer, they resembled images taken with a 2000s Nokia. Lesson learned, or maybe not so much, as it seems I did worse than last year. But I'll certainly be more cautious in the future, ensuring I set the right parameters on the camera and invest in a better lens for fast-paced events. There should be no excuses, but as I mentioned last year, I often have mere seconds to capture a shot, dealing with whatever light conditions the sun or tree shadows throw at me and the speed at which my subjects move. So, it's not easy.

The AI noise reduction tool in Photoshop has helped salvage some of these photos that might otherwise have been discarded due to cases of "this person looks amazing, but the picture is shit". So, if you notice unreal smooth skin or odd lines in shadows, it's probably the AI at work.

As I write this text, I'm using an AI to assist me (hi chat), and it will be processed and grammatically corrected by it. Thus, both the images and text in this series bear the touch of artificial intelligence. Part of it is due to my mistakes, lack of time and skill, but it's also because AI is a valuable collaborator. I appreciate the style it adds to the photographs (and the grammar haha), making it a great creative partner for now. Let's see how it evolves in the future…

Another noteworthy aspect is that I've been sharing a lot about my experiences at the Notting Hill Carnival with a close friend, Carmen (too humble/shy to share last name). She always provides interesting interpretations and insightful comments on everything I tell her. She seemed amused by my stories and photos of the carnival, so I asked her if she'd be interested in creating some text based on the photographs.

Carmen has done some great work to accompany one of these series, the LOVE series (the text is in Spanish btw). She has never attended the Notting Hill carnival, so she based the experience on these pics. I really like how she writes, so I was very happy to have her included here.

I hope you enjoy the photographs and the information I tried to dig up on the culture behind the costumes and the traditions I saw. Of course, if you want to know more do your research and don't stop here, as there's lots to discover. Also, I want to make a disclaimer that the specific meaning of these scenes at the Notting Hill Carnival can vary widely among participants. Carnival costumes and symbols are highly individualistic and can be influenced by a person's cultural background, personal beliefs, or creative inspirations.

Thank you for reading!

Cris

hiiiii is ur name hellhoundlair because the hell hound lair is where are the puppies are at?

REAL TALK i originally chose the url hellhoundlair bc i wanted to have my blogs desktop theme to be a recreation of the website hellhoundslair.com from 1x17 hell house. the url hellhoundslair with the s was already taken by a now inactive user, but i actually like hellhoundlair better anyway.

im putting the rest under the cut because this post got long, but there are a few assets i made under the cut that are free to use for yourself if youre planning on making your own canon replica blog!

i spent ages trying to put together that website banner. i cant find the gif version i made that had text glow like how it looks in the show, but i also spent ages trying to hunt down that font. the things i do for a supernatural blog. i never got up to attempting to do that glitchy lens flare effect.

i did this and attempted to customize a theme enough to kind of resemble the original website but i ended up scrapping the theme because it was ugly. who knows though, maybe ill try to hellhoundslair.com-ify my blog theme again because its a really fun idea and id like to do it in a way thats maybe a little less faithful to the show but maybe a little more aesthetically pleasing!

(fun fact! the hellhoundslair website was once real! nowadays it redirects to the cw website but it used to host like 12 scary ghost stories. it was pretty shit. it also looked nothing like it did on the show. you can still visit it on the wayback machine)

i also tried to make my tumblr theme resemble sams laptop desktop from ye olde interractive supernatural point and click type website but it was also really ugly and not well done lol, but heres some assets i made for that!

[the blog background! made hd using waifu2x and elongated to fit modern computer screens. blank spot in the middle for the posts to go]

[fake desktop icons! very low quality and kinda shit because i figured theyd be small so no one would notice imperfections anyway]

the original website these assets are made after doesnt exist anymore and cant be accessed via the wayback machine either, probably because it was 100% consisted of flash player shit (rip) but i adore how it looks (i especially love the interior shot of baby, which looks nothing like a 67 chevy impala) and would also love to see it be remade!

Friends in Unlikely Places

Chapter 2

Previous Chapter Here | Next Chapter Here

Tags: Mentions of past noncon/rape, manipulation

It’s happened on occasion that people were genuinely disrespectful towards Eugene.

Roy had hit a rough patch in his life when he was, the disgruntled Roseda employee was recently forced to couch surf after being evicted from his apartment, and on top of that Eugene demanded he work overtime during this crucial quarter, even saying at one point that he “Surely wouldn’t mind staying late, now that he had no place of his own”.

It all came to a head at the coffee machine where Roy, exhausted and visibly unkempt, was unfortunate enough to run into Eugene who reminded him that they did have a dress code and he was expected to look presentable.

Roy just glared as he slowly turned his head to make eye contact with his boss. Even after two years of loyal service he couldn’t be bothered to show him just a bit of leniency during one of the worst times of his life.

“Well, I’m very sorry you have to stare at this tired worn-out face during your coffee trips, but we can’t all afford regular Botox.” He retorted, earning a snicker from another employee currently on break.

“I beg your pardon?” Eugene said, noticeably insulted. “I made no mention of your face, it's mostly your attire that is unacceptable. And I don’t appreciate you implying that I had work done.”

“Oh, please I can see that filler migration from here, you’d think that someone who lives off of a couple hundred people’s labor could afford a better doctor.” He walked past Eugene as he finished the sentence, nearly bumping into his shoulder on his way out. Eugene was left in the spotlight with a dozen eyes on him, whispering, giggling, and enjoying the entertaining ordeal that gave them a break from their mundane routine, before he too turned around and went back to his office.

The rumor spread like wildfire, his secretary even made it a note to tell him he shouldn’t be ashamed, “My sister had that done too.” She reassured him.

“Roy is just having a difficult time,” he replied, “I don’t hold it against him.”

That evening when everyone had gone home, Eugene returned to the office with a newly purchased bottle of vodka, the cheap kind. He opened the cap and poured himself about a shots worth into a coffee cup, which he drank in one sip, wincing at the low-quality taste. After resealing it, he carefully placed it in the drawer under Roy’s desk.

 ---

The next morning, Eugene hovered around him like a hawk, deliberately standing behind him and looking over his shoulder at the screen, asking for updates on his latest progress, and eventually asking for an item Roy almost certainly had in his drawer.

He absentmindedly opened it, only to be met with the unfamiliar sight of bottled vodka.

His eyes went wide as a deep panic set in, he immediately shut it again, making a loud clunk noise that alerted the whole room. He turned around, meeting Eugene’s stern face which confirmed beyond a doubt that he had seen it too.

“That’s not mine, I don’t know how that got there!”

“Roy,” Eugene responded, feigning surprise. “I know you’ve been having a tough time, but I didn’t know it had gotten that bad.”

Any chatter around them went mute, his colleagues stole gazes from the distraught looking Roy, stumbling over his words and failing to come up with a response.

“I’m going to need you to come to my office.”

“I-I swear it’s not mi-“

“Now.”

Roy took a seat across Eugene’s desk, he couldn’t make sense of the situation. Did he store that there and forget about it? No, he never brought alcohol into work. Then again, he had been drinking more than usual lately, could he really be that far gone?

“You understand that I cannot let this slide.” Eugene began, breaking him away from his thoughts. “These past two years you’ve been a valuable employee, but I’m afraid that-”

“Wait, stop I’ll-“

“after this incident I’m going to have to let you go.”

“No!” he jumped up from his seat. “Please! No! You-you can’t fire me now, my friend is only letting me stay at his place till the end of the month! I won’t find a new apartment if I don’t have a job!” he grasped at his hair, breathing erratically.  “Please, I don’t wanna be homeless.”

Eugene took a good look at the eyes desperately holding back tears. He knew, and he’d been looking forward all night to seeing this man beg for his livelihood.

“If I continue to employ you in your current position, I will risk the welfare of my company.”

“It wasn’t mine!” Roy cried out, trying one last time, “I… Uh, maybe someone-“

“I don’t want to hear it!” Eugene snarled.  

Roy slowly sank back into the chair, there was no use trying to convince him, he would look guilty no matter what he said.

“I need this job…” he stammered out at last, sniffling.

“I don’t like this either Roy but I-” He paused, sighing in dismay “I can’t afford to give you your job back, but I will see if there’s anything I can do for you, okay?”

Roy just stared back, anymore words and he’d start bawling.

Eugene leaned forward, displaying his most sympathetic face “I will do my best, but you have to get your act together.”

A high-pitched “Okay.” Was all that he could muster.

“In the meantime, clear out your desk and go home. I will give you a call later.”

 ---

The phone call came at the end of the day, after Roy spent many hours stressing about it. He anxiously picked up the phone, awaiting his fate.

“Eugene…?”

“Hello Roy, yes this is Eugene, I’m calling about the incident that happened earlier today.”

“…Yes?”

“As you know I’m not currently equipped to undo your termination, but after some consideration I believe I may have found a temporary solution for you.”

Roy let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

“Patty, one of the janitors will be relocating next month, I’m willing to offer you her position despite your apparent problem. On the condition that you work hard, and I don’t find any more hidden substances that shouldn’t be at the workplace.”

Roy didn’t need to think it over, it’s this or nothing. “I’ll take it, thank you very much.”

“Listen, Roy, I wish you all the best with your apartment search, but if anything like this ever happens again, I cannot help you any further, do you understand?”

“Yes, it won’t, I promise.”

Every morning he walked by Roy on the way to his office and greeted him with a smile, one that’s returned right back to him. Sometimes he would even stop to make small talk for a minute, ask how the search was going, and make sure he got the corners of the floor just as good as Patty did, she was a pro after all.

---

Eugene arrives home in the early morning hours, having paid little attention to traffic after his escape from Warner. He closes the door behind him and lets himself fall against the wall. His hands are still shaking, he puts his head in them trying to somehow ease the burning headache and dissociating trance the drug still has him in a day later. He moves towards the bathroom, taking off his clothes as he goes. He tosses them on the floor to wash later, unsure if he’ll ever wear them again.

He takes just a moment to look in the mirror, red eyes staring back at him, his hair a tangled mess with dried disheveled hair gel clinging onto it. He quickly pulls away before jumping into the shower.

This time it isn’t a game, he doesn’t get excited thinking of how he could outdo him, and neither does he care about being perceived as the good guy. He wants to see Warner miserable and he wants him to know why.

Part of him wants to go back, bring a weapon, and hurt him properly. But the consequences of assault and possibly murder are some he isn’t quite sure he could evade. He briefly entertains the thought of filing a report, imagining himself having to explain to someone face to face that he, was raped by that lowlife. Absolutely not. Besides, he’s already washed off any evidence.

He needs to rest first, think on it later. Right now he’s disoriented and exhausted, he’ll get him back soon, where he knows it’ll hurt.

That evening, Warner’s phone rings.

“Ello?” He says, picking up.

“Hello this Eugene from Roseda Corporations, we met-“

“Holy fucking shit Eugene? Didn’t expect to hear from you this soon. What’s up? Back for more?”

“Warn- Ugh, god. Warner, I feel it necessary to have a talk with you about what happened, in person.”

“Jeez, can I be honest? That doesn’t sound very fun, think I’ll pass.”

Eugene can’t stop a heavy sigh from being audible over the phone as he lowers his head into his hand. “You can do that, and I’ll be forced to take legal action against you, but I’d much prefer it if we could settle this between the two of us.” 

“I’m getting the feeling that by “settling” you mean punching me in the dick again.”

“No, I’m not going to hurt you, I merely mean to talk-“

“You promise? Cause that hurt, I need assurance that you won’t do that again.”

Eugene shuts his eyes firmly, grimacing, hating that he must go along with his own degradation, for god’s sake it has never been this hard to keep up the act.

“I promise.”

“Alright then, but I’m keeping a close eye on you, don’t try anything.”

“Not to worry.”

“Looking forward to our date, sweetie.”

---

“I hope it’s okay that I’m not accepting any drinks?” Eugene jokes, standing in the doorway.

Warner chuckles, relieved to see Eugene in a seemingly good mood.

“More for me I guess,” he smiles “come in.”

Eugene takes place on the same couch where it happened, momentarily feeling a pinch of disgust as the distorted memories force their way back into his head. He pushes it down, bringing his facial expression back to warm and friendly.

“What’s there to talk about?” Warner says, sitting down across from him, throwing his hands up. “Am I in trouble, officer?”

“On the contrary,” Eugene begins, “there is something I must tell you, that I could not risk saying over the phone.” His friendly smile fades, he meets Warner’s eyes with an almost sympathetic demeanor “I understand why you did it, and I’m not mad.”

Warner’s brows furrow, making a puzzled expression. The words don’t quite compile in his head, he tries to speak but remains quiet, waiting for an explanation.

Eugene hesitates for a moment, taking a deep breath, before making eye contact, and whispering the confession.

“I’ve done it too…”

Warner’s eyes grow wide, his mouth falls slightly open. All too quickly he returns the brightest smile as he leans back into his chair. “No… You?”

Eugene looks away, grinning, it feels strangely good to say it, he hadn’t anticipated how much he would enjoy a positive reaction. He returns his gaze and a smile. “Numerous times.”

“I knew there was a reason I liked you.” Warner says, astonishment still plastered on his face. “You stood out to me, you know.”

“I have used that same method before,” Eugene continues, “I of all people should’ve seen it coming, it’s just that… I didn’t think I’d be anyone’s target.”

“Aw you don’t think you’re pretty?” Warner coos, “Well, I think you’re very pretty, pretty enough for me to rape.”

“Oh, shut up,” he spits through his teeth, smiling still despite nearly losing his composure in the face of that comment. He takes a look at Warner, the man is staring at him with a newfound affection. It makes him uncomfortable, but he’ll have to bear it. He wants him to feel safe and happy enough to let his guard down, for now.

“May I use your bathroom for a minute?” Eugene asks.

“Sure, down the hall door to the left, can’t miss it.”

Eugene makes his way through the dimly lit hallway, slowly changing lights are radiating through the open door at the end, illuminating the floor. He enters the room, it’s sparsely furnished by a bed tucked away against the wall and the large corner desk, adorned with led lights underneath it and three monitors on top. At the end of the desk there is a sizable desktop computer with multiple colored fans spinning inside and RGB lights shining from its components.

Eugene checks the door, it can be locked from the inside.

Perfect.

Click

He takes an expandable baton out from his inner coat pocket, readies it in one fell swoop, and promptly smashes the computer’s glass side panel, before striking the inside of the still running device, causing sparks to fly.

Warner jumps up from his chair upon hearing the commotion, he runs towards his bedroom only to find it locked, and starts banging on the door in a panic.

“What the fuck is going on in there?”

Eugene doesn’t answer, he continues to massacre Warner’s precious setup, moving on to the monitors when he was sure the PC was irreparable. 

He could recover from getting charged with property damage, he couldn’t care less if he were court ordered to replace the entire rig, as long as he gets to have his revenge.

“Eugene!” Warner screams, bashing on the door until the wood starts to crack. He finally resorts to kicking next to the lock, forcing it open after a few tries. He stumbles through the doorway, looking up at Eugene hurling what’s left of the machinery off the table.

“Why the fuck are you doing this?” His voice cracks, staring in disbelief at the scene before him. “I thought you weren’t mad!”

“You really believed I wasn’t fucking mad?” Eugene roars, having to restrain himself from using the weapon on Warner after all.

“But you said you understood!” he cries.

“I do! Perfectly, in fact.” He smashes the screen of the last surviving monitor, “But you made one mistake fucker,” and stomps on it for good measure “you did it to me!” he yells as he delivers one final blow to the broken pile of electronics.

Warner sinks to the floor, sitting down and hugging his legs. He looks vacantly at his destroyed sanctuary. “All my files…” he whimpers, hiding his face away in his hands.

Eugene walks past him, hearing him softly cry as he leaves the room.

Warner returns to his living room moments later, holding himself steady against the wall, his face twisted in that miserable expression Eugene was craving to see.

He finds him occupying his chair, panting, clutching his baton and wearing a slight grin.

“Now we’re even.”

Taglist: @lonesome--hunter

I have a good amount of cameras but my favorite that I own is my Canon EOS Rebel sl1. I got that one from a friend in high school (2017) and it has always been my goto camera.

This is my list of cameras I own and my observations of each one. It could be different for others, my favorite could be someone's least favorite. Just gotta find what fits for you.

Canon EOS Rebel sl1 — Amazing for concert photography, really good in low light settings. It's also touch screen so that's nice. I think this is a really good first camera. It's simple and easy to learn from. A lot of times I'm happy with the product that I don't do much editing after (unless I'm going for something specific). Highly recommend this one.

Canon ESO Rebel T6 — More bulky than the sl1, it's the "upgrade" but I still prefer the sl1. Haven't used it much, it's still "new" to me (bought it off a friend). It's not bad, it's gives off good quality.

Canon G7X Zoom Lens — This one is a little hand camera, not a detachable lens. It's good for videos like for vlogs or other small stuff, not like video production. The screen flips up so it's just perfect for videoing yourself. Horrible pictures though at least when it comes to concerts. It's probably fine for pictures with friends and shit.

Sony RX100 // ZEISS Vario-Sonnar — This also a little hand camera zoom lens. This one was my favorite to bring to concerts when I couldn't have professional/detachable lens cameras. For being a little guy it took some really good photos. I asked in a photography group what the best hand camera was and they said this one. Which is heartbreaking guy it's broken 😭 the zoom lens started not wanting to open. So I'm on the look out for another one or something similar cause it really was a good one.

I believe these are shot with that camera

Sony Alpha 6000 // APS-C 24.3 megapixel — This is is poor in low lighting so concert photography isn't the best, but for portraits and anything outdoors, absolutely beautiful. Its shutter speed is so fast. With this one I love having my models spin or do any type of motion. I could only assume it's great for sports too.

Nikon D7000 — This is my big boy, the bulky one. Mainly just bring it for show cause the others are so small and this one looks the most professional... but I hate it 🫣 I don't know if it's got something wrong with it but it just doesn't bring a sharp imagine. I don't ever use it. I try every once in a while with different things but it just is a poor quality camera. Again, it could just be something messed up with it and all it needs is fixed. Cause I use to use it a lot when working with a photographer it was his camera and I got it as a gift) I don't remember it ever being an issue.

So I'm really not sure on that one…

I also recommend read this if you are completely new and don't know about settings or just wanna learn more about what the setting mean / do.

My Movie/Show thread

So after a bit of deliberation i've decided that i'll be making a separate thread for movies/shows since my main media thread was for games only. Now i already have my anilist and letterboxd already however i think i'll use tumblr here to talk about some of the stuff that doesn't fit quite in on either platform such as ratboy genius. The rating system will be the same as my media thread so go check my pinned for the rating categories.

Finally i'll be using the tag #beeb's movie/show thread for this thread so use it for your own searching convenience.

Anyways without further ado here's the first entry to this thread:

Oh my god ratboy genius is fucking insane, like i think the best way to describe this is surreal as hell. The whole show does actively reference earlier uploads sometimes which like ratboy fucking genius having continuity between its episodes and series is genuinely flooring and something i literally never could have expected going in. Imo the show is kinda boring early on and mainly hangs on through its shockingly amazing music, the man behind ratboy genius is actually a really skilled musician/composer from what i know cause like a good chunk of ratboy genius is a musical which despite the text to speech voices has shockingly good sounding songs. Once you finally get to ratboy genius dreams minecraft the show really starts picking up and you get introduced to the incredible little king john, the story's antagonist, who's an absolute blast to see on screen. And then after ratboy genius dreams minecraft we enter little king john "the flood" and starship genius where the plot goes from 0 to 11 like i don't have words to describe how much insane lore shit comes from those two intertwined series. So my final thoughts on if you should watch ratboy genius are... Maybe - Ratboy genius probably isn't for everyone but like if you can handle truly bizarre low quality animation and weird text to speech voices then like i'd honestly say give the series a shot i got legitimately invested during the flood and starship genius like it's fucking crazy

Gumraah (2023): A Disastrous Mystery Of Two Aditya Roy Kapurs

Nobody owns life, but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death. A murder mystery made its theatrical release on April 7, 2023. Titled “Gumraah” and translated as “Mislead”, this crime-thriller stars Aditya Roy Kapur as the prime murder suspect. Not one, but there are two Aditya Roy Kapurs in this crime drama. Both are suspects. You have to watch till the end to find out which one of these Aditya Roy Kapurs is the actual murderer! Excuse my joking nature! Sub-inspector Shivani Mathur (Mrunal Thakur) is investigating a man’s murder and while doing so, she comes across two exact look-alike suspects, Arjun Sehgal and Sooraj Rana (Aditya Roy Kapur in a dual role). She is convinced that Sooraj is the murderer while her boss, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dhiren Yadav (Ronit Roy) thinks Arjun is the one who has committed the murder. So, let the drama unfold till you get to know who the real murderer is! Gumraah (2023) Official Trailer: https://youtu.be/E7APBBJG34E The Good: Hardcore Action Sequences! The action and fight sequences in Gumraah were thrilling to watch. Intense one-on-one combats coupled with loud gun action steal the show! Lately, I have seen Aditya Roy Kapur behaving like Sunny Deol on the big screens. He was once a romantic hero and from that he transitioned into a hardcore action hero who roars and bashes up villains. Such hardcore action scenes do not suit his image because he may behave like Sunny Deol on-screen but are nowhere near Sunny Deol in terms of physicality. But still, the guy is trying, and that’s what earns him some respect. Average Performances The performances of the actors in Gumraah are not bad, but just about average. Aditya Roy’s acting and dialogue delivery is average throughout the movie. After giving super-flops like "Rashtra Kavach Om", his image sure has deteriorated. The main supporting actors, Mrunal Thakur, and Ronit Roy, carried out their roles as the two police officers well. However, the characters of these two cops, as per the script’s demand, are direly unidimensional with fixed expressions which can at times bore the audiences. Of course, there are many other actors and actresses who had brief appearances throughout the drama. https://youtu.be/LyK2yWfQqcQ The Bad: The Plot And Screenplay Gumraah is the official remake of the 2019 Tamil-language crime thriller Thadam. As Bollywood is following the trend of copying South Indian films and remaking them in Hindi, this wouldn’t do them any good. You need to know what you are making and whether you will get any benefit after making it. The plot and screenplay of Gumraah are such that they will not engage the audience. The excitement just does not build up! Firstly, Aditya Roy Kapur can be the “talk of the town” among women. But as for us men, we are least bothered to see him or his time-pass activities on the screens. And even we are least bothered to know which one of the Aditya Roy Kapurs has committed the murder. Be it Aditya Roy No. 1 or Aditya Roy No. 2, in the end, it will be Aditya Roy only who will be tagged as a criminal! So the thing is when you know that it is Aditya Roy only who will be convicted at the end, then the story becomes very much uninteresting. Not just predictable, but it can bore you as well. The two look-alikes appear so much similar that the sympathy of the audience does not build up for any of them. No doubt, this may be the reason why this film has underperformed at the box office. The credits for this disastrous adapted screenplay go to Aseem Arora. A Romantic Track Featuring Aditya Roy Kapur And Vedika Pinto From Gumraah (2023) https://youtu.be/LQjc7WFfDiU Low-Grade Camerawork And Sloppy Editing The visuals and camerawork by Vinnet Malhotra in Gumraah are low-quality. For instance, many scenes were shady. These scenes, which involved police interrogation in cells and some of Aditya Roy’s weird stunts, were mostly shot during the night. Some of these scenes were difficult to comprehend due to their fast-paced nature and dull and dark cinematography. I also feel that the editing of this film was done abruptly by Sahil Nayar just to make it fast-paced within a run duration of 2 hours and 10 minutes. In fact, he ended up making the drama superfast with abrupt scenes here and there due to which it lost its thrill. The Verdict: Gumraah has been directed by Vardhan Ketkar. Ketkar brother, please shower some mercy on the poor audiences. Even one Aditya Roy Kapur is intolerable, and you have shown two of them! And God knows how you came up with the idea of remaking Thadam in Hindi and that too with Aditya Roy Kapur. Thadam was a blockbuster because of its charismatic South Indian cast and the classy directional style in which South Indian films are made, which Bollywood will never be able to copy. So, a blockbuster in South India may turn out to be a disaster if it is remade in Hindi with improper casting and direction. Also, this is the first time I am seeing Mrunal Thakur in a serious role as a police officer. I am used to seeing her in romantic roles and item number songs only. But this film didn’t turn out well for her in spite of her serious acting. Gumraah also showcases how abusive Indian policemen can be. People who are committing crimes in India may not be as lucky as Aditya Roy Kapur. Instead of a gorgeous lady police officer like Mrunal Thakur, one may end up getting arrested by a fat slob of an abusive policeman who himself may look like some child molester. So, don’t get too inspired by this movie. And you should not be because in certain scenes, Aditya Roy Kapur is hung from the ceiling and beaten up black and blue by policemen inside a cell. Gumraah for sure is a crime-thriller but watching this movie is a crime in itself! By the way, the story revolves around murdering for revenge. One of the Aditya Roys had murdered the man due to some past enmity with him which you will find out after watching the movie.   Read the full article