#but i was scrolling through twitter and thought 'rad!'

[nightmaregilear]

Hey gang! Not d20 related, but Brendad is out here on Twitter reminding y'all to vote as we lead into contests in CA and across the US :) A ton states (and American Samoa) have their primaries/caucuses tomorrow (March 3rd) and some states even offer same-day registration!

[obae-me]

Sweet and Sour Demons

Note: Thank you for 400 followers! It means so much to me that so many people appreciate what I do and write, and I’m excited to keep improving! So as a thank you, I wrote this little piece with some added visuals!

Disclaimer: I made these creations on Picrew, and I wanted to make sure I give proper credit, so, here’s all the places you can find this wonderful artist! Go support their work and make some cute chibis!

Picrew

Their Twitter

Their Website

You had no idea why you made these things. At first, it seemed like a great idea, you had sat there in a hallway at RAD, waiting just outside the door of the Student Council room. They were all having a meeting, which, of course, you weren’t allowed to attend. However, you were also barred from going anywhere by yourself, so here you were, waiting like a dog on a leash. It was, to say the least, absolutely mind-numbingly boring. You had scrolled and double-scrolled through everything on your phone, you had given up trying to read-you just weren’t in the right headspace- and even the occasional entertaining shouts and exclamations from the brothers had died down. So, you resorted to random websites, and in one, you did something you never should’ve done.

You created cute and heart-squeezingly adorable stickers of the brothers you knew so well. You knew the consequences, you had been there for the texting ban which came after those stickers were created of Lucifer and Diavolo. The house had been in chaos, and yet you made these anyway. You couldn’t help it! You were bored and your creativity and curiosity was begging you to see what they would all look like as kawaii dessert chibis. Plus, after you had made them, it had brought enough warmth in your heart to let you survive a harsh winter using nothing but your body heat.

You knew the trouble it would bring, you knew the moral consequences, so you had planned on not showing them to anybody. They’d just be your secret and yours alone, never to be shown to the world. The D.D.D. you possessed just skyrocketed in value.

Plans and secrets were hard to keep in the Devildom, especially for you, and despite what you had prepared for, you weren’t prepared for the meeting to end early. Today of all days. Right while you were giggling and hugging your phone to your chest, the doors swung wide open, each of the brothers catching you in the act.

Mammon sped past you like a whirlwind, a simple blur of white and gold. The phone was gone. Your phone was taken! Still left on the screen where all the little pictures were saved. Your heart almost stopped, that warmth snuffed out in seconds. Mammon just waved the phone around in his hand.

“What’s got you so giddy, eh? Who’re you talking to?” He frowned, the gold color of his eyes getting darker. “Since I’m so nice, I’ll let you tell me before I look.”

Before you could even open your mouth to respond, Beel came over and plucked the phone from him. “Mammon, it’s not nice to invade MC’s privacy.” You were saved!

At least until Asmo came and snatched those hopes and dreams away. “Aw, but I want to know! The drama, the intrigue, who can resist?” These brothers were playing hot potato with your phone. None of them had seen what was on it yet, for some reason all of them assumed you were talking to someone. It was only a matter of time before…

Levi rushed over to Asmo. “They’re talking to someone other than us?” His envy almost started dripping from his body. “I need to see who it is!”

Satan aggressively grabbed Asmo’s wrist and tore the phone away from his brothers. “Honestly, all of you are such children.”

A tail knocked the phone out from Satan’s grasp and into the air, landing perfectly in Belphie’s palms. He was in demon form, already enraged somehow. “Who…” was all he could mutter.

“Please, it’s no one!” You pleaded, surprised you could still breathe and say words at this point. What played out before you was like some cartoon. Was it possible to still salvage this?

The eldest brother, annoyed by his siblings’s antics, used his powers to magically move your phone into his gloved hands. He had a deep scowl on his face. “The next person to touch MC’s D.D.D. without their permission is going to have a special punishment.” He shook his head and looked into your eyes. “Here you go, MC.” There was such a thing as miracles after all! You couldn’t believe it. “I’m sorry abou-” Lucifer cut himself off short, his eyes had just briefly flickered over your phone screen. Had he really just tried to take a sneaky look after everything he just said?

Everything was in shambles. The phone that had almost been in your possession once again, just inches from your fingertips, was snapped away, plastered near Lucifer’s face as he looked upon your screen with an expression for the ages. Confusion. Slight amusement. Then bafflement. Now he was in his demon form.

“MC…” his voice was a rumbling sound, almost deep enough to make the floor shake. “What are these?” His brothers all looked intensely curious, but none of them even dared move.

“I wasn’t going to do anything with them, I swear! No sharing, no money, no nothing. I was just bored and...I thought they were cute?” You even questioned it yourself, your confidence wavering. Lucifer was silent...much too silent. You were prepared for anything, a lecture, your D.D.D. confiscated, even death.

His scowl turned into a smile, an evil smile. “I think it’s only fitting to share these with everyone else, right, MC? Once we get home, I want to see you in my study.” With a menacing glint in his eyes, he held his hand out to let his brothers, rabid with curiosity, claw their way at your phone to look at the contents.

Lucifer

Dessert: Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

Description: Despite their simplicity, this dessert is widely popular and renowned for its flavor. It doesn’t need to be overly flashy to be a prideful fan favorite. It’s not sickeningly sweet or rich like lots of other desserts. Its strong fruity tartness mixed with a sweet outer layer makes this the perfect dessert for the demon of Pride.

He’ll admit, he was shocked to his core when he saw the creation on your phone. He had felt deeply insulted that you would make him look like that. On the other hand, the fact that you had gone out of your way to make something in his likeness--no matter how disgustingly cute and humiliating it was--mixed with the look you had on your face when he opened the door left a feeling in him no human had stirred up in him before.

When you came into his study after the event, he saw you with your head hanging low, eyes sullen. He had to control himself to keep him from smiling. He only showed you a cold expression, crossing his legs in his chair behind his desk as he waved you over with one hand.

“Come here.”

His demand sent a shiver down your spine, and your face burnt up as you obeyed his order. You stood right next to his side, looking deep into his eyes as his glower burrowed into your skull. You noticed a box in his lap, red, covered in a single ribbon. Lucifer finally let his tart countenance fall, a smile on his face. He held your chin in his hand as he made you look at him. He stroked the lid of the package with one hand before gracefully opening it. Inside laid an assortment of chocolate covered strawberries, each pristine and neat. You blinked. It wasn’t nearly as terrifying as you thought the contents would be.

“What is…” you stammered, trying to look for words to express your confusion, but Lucifer’s thumb brushed over your bottom lip, making you lose your voice immediately, your face starting to almost share the shade of some of those strawberries.

“Your...punishment,” Lucifer explained. “Believe me, I had something else planned, but then I thought, if you helped make me look so cute in strawberries, how about I do the same thing to you?” Before even giving you a chance to catch your breath, he placed the box on his desk, reserving the space for you. With a hand around your wrist and the other on your waist, he pulled you into his lap, relishing your little gasps as you tried to get some air in your lungs.

Everything about him was making you squirm, his rich voice, the slight bobbing of his knee as you remained on his legs, his eyes flickering a deep crimson. To make things worse, he helped guide your hands behind your back, his hand big enough to reach around both your wrists. Your heart was racing a thousand miles a minute, your head going dizzy and light. One hand keeping you bound, the other one grasping one of the treats from the box, holding it tauntingly at your mouth. He brushed it across your lips, the look on his face telling you that what he was putting you through was sweeter to him than any dessert.

“Be a sweetheart and say Ahh.”

Mammon

Dessert: Lemon Tart

Description: A classy little pastry that’s a great mix of zesty citrus and sweet custard that sticks with you despite being surrounded by a flaky crust exterior. The bold flavor along with the gold and white motif makes this a good match for the greedy second-born.

As much as his brothers wanted to see him embarrassed, even he was surprised to feel...proud of the thing resembling him on your device. You made something of him. It may have been demeaning and overly cutesy, but you really took time out of your day to make something about him. Something that made you happy and that you appreciated. You didn’t make fun of him and tease him about it, you had planned on keeping it a secret for you to enjoy.

He dragged you away, both of you headed out of RAD, past stores and shops that he usually took you to, and instead headed into a popular Devildom bakery. Everyone in the shop swiveled around, and you couldn’t help but try to hide your face as Mammon shouted enough to be heard two stores over. He demanded the best lemon tart money could buy. Despite the other demons waiting, everyone hustled to get what Mammon needed. They knew who he was, and if he didn’t get what he wanted when he asked for it, there would be worse things to worry about.

“Mammon, slow down.” You were starting to get out of breath from all the running around he was doing, refusing to let your hand go. He had you and you couldn’t say otherwise. You realized the path you both were on now was heading back towards the House of Lamentation. As you slowed down due to exhaustion, his impatience kicked in, his wings spreading from his back as he swooped you off your feet, pressing his body deep into yours as he flew the rest of the way.

He didn’t stop moving till both of you were inside his room, slamming the door behind him. He crawled onto his bed with you still clinging to his neck, his knees by your side. You heard him undo the package the tart had come in. He made sure you watched as he bit into it, the crust crumbling, some of the custard lingering on his lips.

It was hard to stay focused, but you dropped one of your arms that was around his body, ready to grab a piece for yourself, but he stopped you, his irises glowing a dark gold behind his lids. He used his hand to direct your arm back to its place around him. His eyelashes fluttered as you instinctively latched onto his hair. His gaze had you so enamored, you didn’t notice his horns now sticking out of his head. He got in close, very close, close enough that your noses were almost touching and all you could smell was sweet citrus.

“Do you want to come try some?”

Levi

Dessert: Mochi Ice Cream

Description: A small round treat consisting of soft sticky pounded Mochi with cold and flavorful ice cream on the inside. It’s able to change color and flavors to adapt to people’s moods and preferences to make sure people like them. Perfect for the envious otaku.

He was used to seeing characters like those, but he never thought you would make him into one. He was equal parts embarrassed and envious. The way you looked at your phone like that over a fake digital character, the same way he often did. He could do that, but when you did it, it tied his insides in knots.

He still couldn’t get it out of his head, so later that night, he headed to your room, a bowl of treats in his hand. He would show you that, for once, the real thing was better than any 2D picture. When you opened the door, he stormed in, causing you to back up to keep him from bowling you over. He was in his demon form, his tail flipping back and forth. His face was flushed, but he was determined.

He backed you up to the bed, forcing you to sit down, still confused by the rush of actions happening in rapid succession. He looked down at you, his cheeks tinted pink, his tail brushing against the skin on your arm as it curled around your body, the scales as cold as ice.

He picked up a Mochi ball, placing it in his mouth, his orange eyes swimming with something other than envy. This was one of the only times he wasn’t shying away. He leaned close to you, preventing you from leaning back away from him with his tail pinning hard against your back. He pressed the soft ice cream against your lips, waiting for you to take it from him like one of his favorite Pocky games. You could feel the tip of his tail wagging against your shoulder blades, expectant.

You took the treat from him, puncturing through the mochi with your teeth only to feel the nerves of your mouth freeze as the ice cream came through. With one of his fingers, Levi helped pop the rest of the mochi in your mouth, a look of sweet satisfaction spread over his face. You shuddered, the ice cream and his cool scales sending a cold chill down your spine.

He wrapped you in his arms, the boldness melting away like the ice cream in your mouth as he leaned into your body to keep you warm.

“Don’t look at anything like that other than me.”

Satan

Dessert: Mint Brownie

Description: A hot and powerful tasting treat that not only has the bitter sensation of dark chocolate, but the strong and flavorful mint. An array of tastes under the simple and calm looking brown dessert matches the demon of wrath perfectly.

He was angry, which was the expected response. The way Lucifer and his other brothers teased his sticker form. It took a lot of control to not fight them off right then and there, destroying your D.D.D in the process, but he couldn’t stop looking at it. He was angry at you for making it, but also...he felt something else. He stormed away from the group, making his way home. You felt guilty, but decided to try to give him some time to cool off, but he had other plans.

He called you to meet him when he got home. As you approached his door, you couldn’t help but smell something sweet coming from his room. As you came inside, you smelt the strong scent of chocolate and mint. It filled your nose and overwhelmed your senses so much, you didn’t notice Satan standing right behind you. He wrapped you in his arms from behind, and you could feel his tail curling around your ankle.

“Here, have these.” He presented to you a plate with a single brownie on top of it, a thin layer of green frosting over the surface. They must’ve been fairly fresh since they still were giving off waves of heat. “I made them for you, since you think I’m so sweet.” You could feel his hot breath right near your ear as he curled his lips into a smile.

They were still so scorching, they almost burnt your fingers, but you picked a corner and shoved some in your mouth anyway. It was deliciously dark and minty, the temperature and flavor making your eyes water. The tail around your leg wound tighter as one of Satan’s hands came to brush away your tears. His boa around his neck tickled your skin, giving you goosebumps.

“Satan?” You swayed, overwhelmed by the heat coming from the pastry and Satan’s body, you were unable to tell which one was burning you more right now. He held you tight, keeping you planted in place. He used the fingers that had touched your face to pick up the rest of the brownie on the dish. He brought it up to you, and while you couldn’t see his face, you could feel his eyes staring you down.

“Go on, they taste best when they’re this hot, trust me.”

Asmo

Dessert: Cupcakes

Description: Undeniably sweet in every sense of the word. Soft cake, fluffy icing, not to mention you can use whatever filling or toppings you want. You can dress it up and make this dessert as fashionable as you please, the flawless comparison to flashy fifth-born demon.

He thought it was adorable. He was flattered you’d made sure to make him look as amazing as possible. He was sickeningly sweet, but something about the way you looked at your phone made his heart flutter. He had a plan. He was going to do a comparison, and you would be none the wiser.

Already he had everything prepared by the time you got home. He hunted you down and dragged you to his room, not giving you a chance to say no. As you entered, everything hit you at once. He had a plate of cupcakes on his nightstand, white cake with pink frosting. Asmo was almost glowing as he came over to get you one. You looked him up and down, noticing he had changed his clothes to make himself resemble the treat he gave you. A pink top, white bottoms, he even wore a pearl necklace and matching bracelets to resemble the pearly beads on top of the frosting.

“Asmo…” You hesitated, knowing he was up to something, just not quite sure what yet. Or even if you did have an inkling of what he wanted, it still left you breathless. He just looked at you with begging eyes, and you sighed figuring there was nothing wrong with eating a cupcake.

You peeled the paper off the base slowly and watched as Asmo blushed, getting closer to your body. You raised a quizzical eyebrow at him as you opened your mouth to get a good bite of the dessert, making a happy little noise when you tasted how delicious it was.

“Yay, yay, my turn!” He came over quickly, making you back up against his bedroom door as he stared you straight in the eyes as he took a bite of the cake in your hands. He took a finger and curled it around your hair. Your face turned bright red. “Lets keep going, I don’t like to waste things.” You kept taking turns biting your own end of the cupcake, watching it get smaller and smaller as your mouths were getting tauntingly close. When there seemed to be only one bite left, he made a little whine. “Aw it’s your turn, you win.” He let you take the last bite, some of the frosting depositing itself on your lips.

Asmo let you press your back deeper into his door as he got even closer, his lids heavy. His wings and horns now exposed as his lips got closer to yours.

“Time for me to check which one is sweeter.”

Beel

Dessert: Pancakes

Description: Not your typical form of dessert, but with its fluffy texture and satisfying nature, it’s capable of being a good meal for any part of the day. With stacks upon stacks, it’s a great match for the demon of gluttony.

Just seeing how you dressed up his little likeness made him hungry. He wanted to eat everything he saw, in fact, it was a miracle he hadn’t eaten your D.D.D. when he had it in his possession. All he could think about was making something like that with you. You made everything taste so much better, if he could let you finish making it anyway.

He dragged you to the kitchen once the two of you got home. There was a little spring in his step, being the happiest he had been in a long time as he watched you mix the batter. You had to order him to stay put to make sure he didn’t eat it before it could even get in the pan. He watched you move around the kitchen, and you could’ve sworn you watched him almost drool as he looked you dead in the eyes, not even at the stove.

It was almost like art the way you placed the pancakes on his plate, and as you turned around to get yours, he had already downed his in a single breath. You figured he’d do something like this, but you weren’t ready for him to watch you eat, him licking his lips every time you opened your mouth.

“Beel, do you want these?” You slid your plate towards him, only having taken a few bites of the syrupy cake.

“No, I want you to eat.” He slid his own chair around the table to be seated right next to you, legs touching. His response left you stunned, your mouth just slightly ajar in your shock. His gaze turned bright, snatching your fork away from you. “Ah so you want me to feed you, I can do that.”

Your little cry of a protest was muffled as he placed the fluffy pancake in your mouth. Some of the syrup escaped down your chin and he wiped it up with his forefinger before licking it clean. He hummed to himself in glee.

“So delicious.”

Belphie

Dessert: Hot Chocolate

Description: A hot beverage consisting of sweet chocolate and creamy milk. It leaves you feeling warm and cozy after drinking it, coaxing you to take a nap. It’s simple to whip up and quick to make, an easy comparison for the demon of sloth.

He wasn’t sure which one had left him more irritated, the fact that he thought you were messaging someone that left you giggling, or the fact that a digital image of him was. Either way left him exhausted, but restless. However, he wasn’t someone to let something go. He always felt like he had to get even. He wouldn't be able to get any sort of sleep till he ensured you looked as cute to him in real life as you made him on your phone.

So, when you came back home from RAD that evening, he was already waiting for you. How he had gotten there faster than you was a mystery. He was laying on the steps, still in demon form, clutching his pillow in his hands. As soon as he saw you, he was up faster than you had ever seen him move. With a twitchy tail, he grasped your arm and dragged you to the attic, the place he always seemed to take you when he wanted to be alone with you.

“Belphie, what’re you?”

He pointed to the bed, glaring pins and needles at you. He wordlessly watched you sit on the bed in confusion. You glanced to a small table and noticed that there was one mug on it, steam emanating from the top, the smell of sweet chocolate drifting through the air. He strided over to the mug, picking it up in his hands before doing something you weren’t ready for.

He came over, placing himself in your lap, knees pinned to your sides, towering over you as he pressed the warm mug to your face. You immediately flushed, and you watched his top lip twitch as he prevented himself from smiling.

“Too hot?” He droned. He brought the cup to his lips to gently blow at the drink to make it ‘cooler’ for you. It didn’t stop you from burning up. His tail came up to brush against your cheek as he let the ceramic touch your lips. “Well?”

You parted your lips to let the sweet liquid fill your body, the milky chocolate making you warm. The sight of Belphie staring you down, his tail patting your head as the smirk he had tried hard to contain finally revealed itself. He didn’t stop until every drop was gone, and then he put the drink to the side, using his sleeve to wipe away remnants around your mouth.

“We’re not close to being even yet.”

[ohpuckthat]

Twitter Hunt (Tyler Seguin)

I’ve just been in a Tyler Seguin mood so... Here you go 😁

She walked into the arena with little Brandon, the make a wish kid she had been working with for a few months. His mother, Jo was standing right next to her, both watching him run up just in front of them. They had just finished dinner at a restaurant near the arena and they were now on their way in. They made their way to the main doors and showed their tickets to the man at the door and then waited in the front lobby for our ‘tour guide’. 

“Brando, are you excited?” I asked, kneeling down slightly. 

“Yeah! I wanna meet Segs, and Chubbs, and Klinger, and Rads, and-” Before he could finish listing all the players, we saw a woman walking towards us. 

“Hello. My name is Christa Melia, feel free to call me Christa. I’m assuming you are Brandon?” She said, leaning down slightly to be on the same level as him. Brandon took a step closer to her and held his hand out to shake with her. He had always been so polite. Christa shook his hand and then turned her attention to us. 

“I’m Y/N and this is Jo, Brandon’s mom. It’s so nice to meet you.” We both took a turn to shake her hand and then turned our attention towards Brandon. 

“So Brandon, how about we go through the plan for the night? Soon, we’re going to make our way down to the Stars dressing room and you can meet the team. Then you’ll get to skate out with the boys, and sit on the bench while they warm up. After that, we’ll bring you to your seats. How does that sound?” 

“This is going to be the best night!” Brandon said, jumping up and down. Christa nodded and then led us down a series of hallways before we stopped in front of a set of double doors. She knocked on one of them before one of them swung open. We made our way inside and looked around. 

“Hey man. You must be Brandon. I’m Jamie.” He said, kneeling down in front of Brandon. “We have some gifts for you.” He then turned his head towards some of his teammates and they stepped towards Brandon with hands full of Dallas Stars swag. I looked over at Jo and saw her smile and tears in her eyes. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Yeah. I just haven’t seen him this happy in a while. It’s so different from seeing him in a mess of wires and tubes.” She said, before patting her pockets and widened her eyes when she didn’t find what she was looking for. “I forgot my phone in the car. Do you mind watching him while I go get it?” 

“You can just use my phone. You want to take some pictures?” I went to grab my phone and then passed it to her. 

“You are the best. I don’t know how we’re going to live without having you around.” 

“You know that even after this, you can call me and I will be over in seconds.”

“I know.” She put her arm over my shoulders and then turned her attention towards her son. He looked over to us and waved us over. We walked towards him and stood behind him. 

“Should we take a picture?” Jamie asked. Brandon would not stop smiling and nodded frantically. “Okay.” Jo passed one of the guys my phone and we all grouped up and took a many pictures. There were some other cameras around also taking pictures but I couldn’t help but focus on the man beside me. I had heard of Tyler Seguin, but never in a million years would I think that I would be standing next to him. Some of the shit that I have heard about him hasn’t been the best but I try my best not to judge people by what the media says. 

“Alright boys, I think we should start getting ready.” Jamie said, breaking up the group and heading to his cubby. There was an empty cubby near the door with a set of skates small enough for him. Jo, Brandon and I made our way over to that cubby and sat him on the small bench. I helped him put his skates on and then helped him stand up. Tyler came over and knelt down in front of Brandon and whispered in his ears. Jo and I looked at each other and chuckled slightly. 

“So you’re going to get to skate out with Jamie and I. Is that okay?” 

“Absolutely okay!” Brandon answered. Tyler stood up and turned to Jo and I. 

“Jim is going to walk you guys over to bench to meet Brandon after he skates around with us for a bit.” 

“Thank you.” Brandon went with Tyler towards Jamie while Jo and I made our way towards Jim. 

When the game was over, we were about to make our way out to the exit when we saw Christa running over to us. 

“Thank goodness I found you guys before you left. The boys have asked to see you all in the locker room real quick.” She nodded towards the locker room and we followed her back. When we made our way in, the boys started clapping. Brandon’s smile hasn’t dissipated at all during the night, but as soon as we walked in, his smile became even bigger. 

“Brandon! Welcome back. We thought you’d want to be here for our after game speech. Feel free to take a seat in your cubby.” Brandon sat down and we stood just beside him. “I’d like to first say that I think that we all played really well tonight, and for our guests, we usually give out a hat to one of the boys but tonight, I think I should go to our buddy Brandon. Every time we looked over at you, you were full of energy and I think that helped us immensely take this win so this is for you bud.” Jamie walked over to Brandon and placed the hat on him. This is a night he will never forget.

When I finally dropped Jo and Brandon off at their hotel, I started making my way to my room. As we drove, I could hear my phone going ballistic. I apologized to Jo and Brandon and then hurried to my room and grabbed my phone from the center console before unlocking it to see a whole lot of text messages and twitter mentions. I looked through my text messages first to see a bunch of my friends asking if I had been on twitter. I abandoned the messaging app and opened my twitter to see my notifications filled with Tyler Seguin’s name. I went to his profile to see that he had posted a cropped version of the group picture we had taken and asked his followers to help find me. As I scrolled through the replies, I found a few of my friends link my profile. I had doubted that he would have seen my account in the sea of replies so I put my phone down and got ready for bed. When I was done and snuggled up in my sheets, I went to plug my phone in and saw another twitter notification, but this time, it was a dm. I quickly unlocked my phone to see that Mr. Seguin himself had actually seen my friends replies and had messaged me. 

@/tseguinofficial Sorry for all the commotion. I just knew that I had to find you. Would you maybe want to meet for coffee some time?

That was the start of a night I would never forget...

Part two??

Part Two Here...

[ourheroictommo]

Lol. Y'all sound like larries. People aren't blaming Louis for releasing merch. People are calling out Louies for your hypocrisy. Harry's t-shirt was completely charity oriented, WHO supported, ethically produced under "earth positive" and "fair wear foundation". But louies jumped to hate him. They even made and spread lies about digital download attachment. Louies were busted the moment WHO shared the charity drive. Continue the hypocrisy though. Larries are louies are the birds of same flock.

Anonymous said: The thing is Harry didn't use pandemic for profit or promo, like you trying to say. He literally did a charity. So double standarts.

1) It weren’t louies who “made and spread lies about digital download attachment” - it was @cherryIoneIy - a fan of Harry on twitter. I scrolled through their tweets and apparently it was a misunderstanding on their part and later they cleared it up. So that’s what is needed to be spread - that there wasn’t any download link, therefore any profit and no need for anyone to be outraged. Why attack Louis who has nothing to do with anything and why throw tantrums under the tweets from his own team who has nothing to do with all of that either?

2) https://harold-has-style.tumblr.com/post/616579083552391168/i-saw-on-twitter-that-someone-got-a-digital-album that was the post I saw calling Harry out. Guess what I saw it? On a harrie blog. Guess who liked and reblogged it? All parts of 1d fandom - harries, narries, louies, liam fans, niall fans, rads and larries. It wasn’t because they specifically ‘jumped to hate him’. It was because they thought he was making a profit out of pandemic and were understandably outraged. 

3) If you have problems with fans of Louis who hate Harry for no reason (aka rads, whom, I agree, are “the birds of the same flock with larries” because both of them are conspiracy theorists) then call out them, not Louis himself! If you have problems with people creating the whole t-shirt drama, then call out other parts of the fandom as well - including fellow harries! And stop blaming artists for the things their fandom does. Should I throw tantrums under Harry’s and his team’s tweets every time harries shit on Louis?

[hockeyandstuff91]

How did this happen? - Part 1

Word count: 1,614

Players: Tyler Seguin, Alexander Radulov

Authors note: This story is more of a fanfic not really an imagine. It was a random idea that I had pop in my head while bored at work the other day and I just had to write it down. It's dedicated to my lovely friend that I met on here, she is so great and I knew she would enjoy this a lot.

Like with a normal imagine story I wrote it in the perspective of the reader, however in this case the perspective is the character Brooke instead of Y/N. If I do more parts of this story I might jump back and forth between Brooke and Ashlyn's perspective but it will be clear who is who. :)

(Also note: I switch between calling Alexander Radulov by his first name, last name, and nicknames so I hope that's not too confusing. I mostly refer to Tyler Seguin as just Tyler but sometimes by his nicknames as well)

Hope you enjoy!

**update!** I have gone back and fixed a few things here and there, and changed it from imagine format (using you) to what the rest of the story turned into (using I) :)

Part 2

Ashlyn gasped, gently smacking my arm. I looked up from my, food giving Ashlyn a questioning look.

"What the hell was that for?" I laugh as I took another bite of the cesar salad that I had ordered with the entree.

"Brooke, look over there. But don't make it look like you are looking," Ashlyn whispered.

"Okaaaay.." I whispered back and slowly looked over towards the direction that Ashlyn was motioning towards.

As I looked up I immediately realized why Ashlyn had smacked my arm to get my attention. My eyes went wide and I looked back over at her.

"I know! What are the odds?" Ashlyn laughed as I took another peek over. There they were, sitting in a booth eating lunch. It just happened to be both of our favorite hockey players that we got to see two nights ago at the American Airlines Center, Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov.

It had only been a year since I started watching hockey but during that whole time Tyler had always been my favorite. He was so talented on the ice, and being that he was super handsome was definitely a plus.

Ashlyn had always liked Alexander and we both had joked about how we were going to marry the hockey players and be best friends for life, going to games together, and all the other events that hockey players and their wives got to go to.

"Should we say hi?" She asked.

"No I don't want to bother them," I said shaking my head. I bit my lip, really wanting to say hi though. I didn't want to be one of those people who bothered celebrities while they were out trying to have a nice time, and I for sure did not want to come off as a puck bunny either.

"Come on Brooke when are we ever going to see them again besides at a game?"

"I know.."

"Hey I have an idea, why don't you take a picture and tweet it at them, see if they answer," She laughed.

"That doesn't sound stalkery at all," I laughed back.

"Well I mean we were here first. We had no idea they were going to be here," Ashlyn responded.

"True.. alright I guess," I respond as I pull out my phone. "Wait a second why do I have to be the one to do it? It was your idea," I said, squinting at her.

"Because! I have to go to the bathroom," she said and got up from her side of the booth and smirked.

"Oh I see how it is," I laughed and shook my head.

She laughed and turned, walking towards the bathrooms.

I tried my best to sneak a picture and then quickly tweeted it at them, trying to not be super creepy, I added a caption that said "We didn't want to bother you guys, but hope you are having a good lunch! Ps the game a couple nights ago was great :)" How did she talk me into doing this, I had no idea, but it was too late now as I just hit send.

I scrolled through Instagram for a moment, liking a few random puppy pictures that I saw. As soon as I looked back up from my phone I saw that Radulov had gotten up as well, leaving Tyler there by himself.. looking at his phone.

My eyes went wide as I felt my phone vibrate in my hands, I glanced down, nervous, seeing a notification from twitter. I hesitated to open it but after a moment did. I saw that it was actually from Tyler's account and it had a picture attached.. one of me staring at my phone. The caption read "Lunch is great, hope yours was too! Don't be scared to come say hi ;)"

"Oh. my. god," I laughed and covered half my face with one of my hands, looking down at the tweet. I liked the tweet and slowly peeked up, seeing that he was still alone. I took a deep breath and sighed. I scooted out of the booth and slowly walked over to where he was sitting.

He must of heard my footsteps behind him and turned his head, smiling at me.

"Hello," He said.

"Hi," I smiled back.

"Would you like to sit?" he asked motioning to the spot across from him.

"Sure," I responded and moved to sit across from him. "I hope that tweet wasn't too creepy.. my friend made me do it," I laughed.

Tyler laughed back and shook his head "No I thought it was funny," he said. "Creative, most girls would not care about bothering us and just come up asking us a million questions and then get pictures. I appreciate someone who is thoughtful of others."

"Aw well thank you," I smiled at him sheepishly.

"So whats your name?" He said.

"Brooke."

"Very nice to meet you, Brooke. So you and your friend went to the game a couple nights ago?"

"Yeah it was awesome. It was actually my first NHL game I have ever been to, I was super excited," I smiled and look over, seeing that Ashlyn still wasn't back yet.

"Oh that's awesome. Well I'm glad we could play a good one for you for your first game," he smiled. "So are you from around here?"

"No sadly not. Though I am looking into moving down here. I came to visit for a few weeks, kind of bouncing around from friend to friend before I go home. I sort of needed a long break from where I live so I bought a one way ticket, have enough saved for one when I decide to go back, and I'm here until then I guess," I laughed a bit, realizing how crazy that probably sounds.

"Oh that's awesome! Especially to have friends that will let you stay with them for a while. Where are you from originally?"

"Oh New Hampshire."

"Oh yeah so this is a big difference then huh?"

"Yeah back home its snowing and here its sunny so I for sure like it here a lot better right now," I laughed.

"I don't blame you. I remember the snow all too well, and as pretty as it is, I don't really miss it that much," Tyler smiled.

"Yeah I don't either. Gets old after a while."

"That it does. So how are you liking it down here then?"

"It's great! I love it to be honest. I'm just trying to find somewhere that is affordable."

"Ah yeah that's the hard part."

"Yeah.. And I don't want to be a burden to my friends. They have been sweet to let me stay and thankfully I have enough saved up to cover all of my own costs its just I know they probably would like their personal space back," I laugh a bit. "I might just get a hotel or something soon. I really don't want to go home yet."

"I don't blame you," he smiled.

We talked for a few more minutes before I turned to see that Ashlyn was walking back. I smiled and waved at her, only then realizing who was walking beside her. I smirked knowing that she must of ran into Radulov on the way back from the bathroom. She smiled at me and the two of them joined us in the booth. We all talked for a while before the boys realized what time it was, having to leave for some pregame meeting.

Ashlyn and I walked out with both Tyler and Alexander and took quick pictures outside.

"It was really great meeting you guys," I smiled at them.

"You too!" Tyler responded as we all waved to one another before they started to walk over to Tyler's car.

"I can't believe we just got to talk to them for the last like half hour," I said and Ashlyn nodded.

"Aren't you glad I made you tweet him?"

"Yeah.." I laughed before turning after hearing your name called from the direction that Tyler and Rad had walked.

I saw that Tyler was jogging in our direction "Hey! Rad and I were just talking on the way to the car. I was mentioning how you were thinking about going to the game tonight but weren't able to make it. Would you still like to go?" He smiled as he caught up with us.

"I mean yeah of course we would but-" I started to say.

"No buts! It's on us," he said pointing back to where Rad was standing by the car, smiling at us.

"Are you serious?!" Ashlyn gasped.

"Yeah and after the game maybe we could all hang out or something. Give you a little tour?"

"Oh my god that would be amazing! Thank you so much," I smile brightly.

"Of course! You two are some of the most down to earth fans we have met. Especially for girls.. you didn't scream and beg for pictures. You just hung out and had a nice conversation. We both appreciate being treated like everyone else," He responded.

"Aw well of course!" I smile.

"Ok so I'll send someone to hang out by the front door to get you two around like 5ish? I know its two hours early but its a good idea so you can be there for the pregame skate and we'll have time to get you all set up," he smiled as he started to walk back to his car.

"Ok thank you so much! See you then."

"Oh my god today has been seriously the best," Ashlyn said as we get into her car.

"Right?!" I responded, not able to stop smiling.

[sagegothel]

SCISSOR SISTERS → STI

TAGGING → Izzie Bash (@izziebash), Tia La Bouff (@tiaisms) & Sage Gothel

TIMELINE → October 5th, 2018

SETTING → Walt U Homecoming Football Game

SUMMARY → After Sage tweets something weird and disappears in the middle of hte game, Tia and Izzie take it upon themselves to go find her. 

Izzie cheered for the football game before her to get her mind off of what was troubling her. The halftime performance was only like, fifteen minutes away and Sage was nowhere to be found. She had been there once, but then she ran off and hadn't come back. Maybe she'd wandered off and fell in a well, or got insecure about Wayland and ran off to torment Meadow some more, or something else dumb. But this was the homecoming game. One of their biggest performances of the year! Why would she miss it? Then Izzie thought about what Meadow had told her, and how down Sage had been feeling, and while she wanted to be a good friend to Meadow, she couldn't help but feel a little bad for Sage. She just hoped she was alright. Izzie walked off to get some water at a nearby cooler and checked her phone for a moment, scrolling through Twitter. Out of curiosity, she searched up @sizzlingsage and quickly unblocked her, relieved that she hadn't been blocked back so she could see her posts, only to be shocked by what she found. The most recent one read "time to go bye bye" with a cryptic scissor emoji. Izzie furrowed her brow, trying to wrack her brain for what that could possibly mean. Sage wasn't the smartest, but her twitter was never so bleak. There was no going back now, Izzie was in full worry-mode. Spotting Tia nearby, Izzie accosted her with the tweet on her screen facing out to her. "Look, I know we hate each other now, and the feeling is definitely mutual, but look at this. Do you know anything about this?" she asked Tia, handing her her phone.

Tia was busy minding her own business stretching out her hamstrings as she prepared herself mentally for Halftime when Izzie came running up to her with a phone in her hand. Tia read the screen for a moment before glancing at Izzie in confusion. "Does she mean she's going to have sex with girls now? Cuz last I checked she and your cousin are still disgusting. But what else could it mean?" She asked, looking back at the phone just as it buzzed with an incoming text message. Tia couldn't help but read the message in the notification bar since it could possibly be clarification from Sage herself, and then immediately blushed when it turned out to be from someone else entirely. "By the way L'ogan really likes your cheer skirt." She giggled, handing her ex-bestie her phone back.

Izzie felt her cheeks go red as Tia recited L'ogan's text to her and snatched her phone back. "No, no one comes out like that. Not even Sage is that dense," Izzie rolled her eyes before exhaling and running a hand through her hair. "I don't know, I just have like...a really bad gut feeling. Vivi-- Meadow," she was quick to correct herself, " -- told me that Sage had been really sad and insecure and annoying lately about her and Wayland, and I dunno, you have Wes and Charlie and the @ pack and I have my new roommates, but I don't know who Sage has been hanging out with. You live with her. Does she seem any different? Lonelier or something?" She didn't want to outright say what she was worried the tweet might mean, and hoped Tia might fill in the blanks without her having to.

Tia shrugged and started to go back to stretching. "I dunno, Charlie came out by having sex with a bunch of people and that's kind of on brand for Sage. As Izzie continued talking, Tia slowly started to understand what she was trying to say. Tia finally stopped worrying about the halftime performance and started thinking hard about Sage's recent behavior. "Gosh, I don't know either. I haven't been paying that much attention to her when i'm not...um keeping her out of my parties. You don't think she's cutting herself like that girl from Netflix, right?" She asked, practically whispering her question in terror as her face paled at the thought.

Izzie cocked a brow, considering that for a second. "Charlie's queer?" she frowned contemplatively, wondering how her gaydar could have been so off about the younger La Bouff. But then she snapped herself out of that, and started focusing on the actual topic here: Sage. "Yeah, Lux told me about your brilliant little plan at that party. You locked her in her own room in her own cottage? How mean." She wasn't really mad at Tia for it, and her tone showed. Tia could do worse. She was moreso thinking like Sage in that situation, and how terrible that must have made her feel. "And I've been calling her stupid to Meadow behind her back...That's not like, mean in person, but it puts out negative energy that I'm sure she had to feel." Izzie gnawed on her bottom lip as Tia voiced exactly what she'd been thinking. "I don't know, maybe? She wouldn't do something like that, do you think? She's not..." Izzie shrugged vaguely, not knowing how to finish that sentence. Instead, she jumped to her next idea. "We need to find her. Like, now. She tweeted this almost ten minutes ago, we could be too late already."

Tia blinked. "No? She's bi." She replied, wondering where in the talk of bi did she get the word queer. "Why's he snitching to you? Sage was mean first and I was mean better." She replied, crossing her arms over her chest a little petulantly before immediately dropping them since now wasn't the time to defend herself. "I don't know what'd she do. On one hand she doesn't seem that Hannah Bakery. But on the other, if Wayland was my only friend i'd go bye bye too." Tia frowned even more when Izzie said they might already bee too late and felt tears quickly begin to well up in her eyes. "Where would she go then? If she walked back to our cottage we could run and try to catch up with her. Would that work?"

Izzie huffed some air out through her cheeks with a roll of the eyes, not exactly in the mood to explain LGBTQ+ labels to Tia, or be offended at the joke she made at her cousin’s expense. She didn’t even want to explain that the only reason Tia thought Sage had been mean first was because she had been standing up for her. This wasn’t the time to fight. It was the time to find Sage. Izzie caught her bottom lip between her teeth, and gave a shrug. She really had no clue. “I don’t know. I mean, I guess we could try? That seems like our best bet,” she nodded, suddenly remembering how that Netflix season ended and got a little queasy. “Come on,” Izzie started for the nearest exit in a light jog so as to not draw too much attention to the two cheerleaders who were ditching the game right before halftime. Just as they passed the bathroom closest to the WU gym, Izzie heard a scream. She sent Tia a worried glance, but didn’t hesitate to barge in.

Sage was so sick of feeling sad and heavy and gross all of the time. She'd tried everything that normally worked to make her feel better already - her super rad diet, cuddling with Wayland, wearing purple, making up new dances - but all of her old tricks seemed to be failing. It seemed that nothing cheered a person up when they suddenly had no friends, and it felt like every time she tried to make a new one, she got shut down. Lux was nice to her, but he had his little demon girlfriend who like, death glared Sage whenever possible. She would have tried to make Freddie be her friend, but Izzie like, beat her to it. She'd even thought maybe Wayland's best friend would be nice to her if she was like, trying to find her a boyfriend too, but apparently being nicer than usual just made people hate Sage more. She wasn't the smart one like Izzie, she wasn't the rich boss-lady one like Tia, and she must not even be the pretty one anymore because nobody seemed to want to be around. Did that make Sage the nothing one? Being the nothing one was sad. Sage had started thinking more and more about just leaving Walt and going back home to her mom. At least Mother Gothel loved her and would never abandon her - she'd been sending her more and more notes inviting her to come back after she'd peaced out during the summer on the worst trip ever, and Sage was mega close to just doing it. She had to try one more thing first, though. A haircut had like, turned Kori's whole life around, even making her little sibling a hottie homecoming queen candidate. And it had made Kori nice to her for the first time ever. So when even cheering at the homecoming game wasn't making Sage happy anymore - the opposite, really; she'd left the field because she'd started to feel her eyes pricking with tears, seeing Izzie and Tia's big smiles and how much they didn't need her and maybe never had - she decided to go ahead and just follow Kori's lead. Maybe a magic hair cut would solve all of her problems, and if it didn't... Well, then maybe more than Sage's hair could go bye bye. She'd tell Wayland she loved him and like, thanks for being the only one who still cared, but that he could be with someone smarter and prettier like Meadow now too and she'd just go back to her tower and leave everyone alone. Sage ran her fingers through her long, dark hair one last time, loving the silky smooth feel of it. Then the used one hand to hold it out to the side, as straight as she could, as she raised the scissors she'd brought to the bathroom with her other hand and snipped. It took a minute for Sage to process what she was seeing in the mirror. The messed up make up and tear streaked face were nothing new, but she let the clump of short hair fall back to her head as she clutched inches and inches of detached hair in her fist, and blinked in horror before letting out a blood-curdling scream.

Tia glanced at Izzie at the exact same time as she glanced at her and burst into the bathroom with her. Immediately she felt relief at seeing Sage clearly not dead and then let out a bloodcurdling scream as she realized what was happening with Sage's head. Other than purple, long mermaid like hair was major Sage iconography. "What happened to your head!?" She screeched, running over like Sage really did have a razor blade jammed in her wrist and threw the scissors across the room before surveying the hair damage up close.

Izzie didn’t know exactly what she was looking at when she came into the bathroom. It wasn’t until she saw the clumps of hair detached from Sage’s body did she bring the palm of her hand to her mouth with a gasp. She followed behind Tia, coming up on Sage with a more calm demeanor — she didn’t want to scare her when she was clearly already disturbed. “What Tia means to say is....Why are you cutting your hair and why are you doing it in a bathroom at a football game? Rapunzel’s like, totally has a homecoming discount right now.” She took Sage’s chopped ends into her hands and fluffed them out to survey the damage. She was glad that Sage seemed to be okay, but then remembered that that girl from the show had also cut her hair. It was one of those things that people sometimes did when they wanted to feel something. “Are you....okay?” Izzie asked tenderly, combing her fingers through Sage’s longer strands.

Sage didn't know how long she screamed for before Izzie and Tia barged into the bathroom. It could have been five seconds or it could have been five years; time felt all blurry and weird to Sage, and she was pretty sure she had to be hallucinating now anyway. Tia and Izzie would never have come to search for her, especially not together, and Sage sniffled, the tears starting again as she realized how sad that made her. The two girls were the best thing that had ever happened to her, and she apparently missed them so much that she was seeing them where they couldn't possibly be. Except the scissors skittering across the floor sounded real, and the feel of Izzie's fingers felt real, too. And when she looked in the mirror they were actually in the reflection with her, too, and Sage took a minute to stop her chest from heaving with quiet sobs before she said anything. "No," she wailed, calm enough to talk but still not as calm as she would have liked to have been. "I look like weirdo punk rock Avril Lavigne got hit by a weed whacker or something!" she said, looking at her hair in horror before looking at the two of them. She didn't know if she was really supposed to answer Izzie's other questions; they might be here now, but if she said she wasn't okay because she missed them, she risked them telling her that they didn't miss her at all. Maybe they were only here because they needed to pee or because she was messing up the homecoming cheer routine, and she bit on her lip. "I don't know, a hair cut made Kori way more likeable, I thought I could like... try it or something," she replied, blinking her eyes until they felt dryer. "And Rapunzel's is still expensive, so like... sorry?" she trailed off lamely.

Tia felt terrible watching Sage cry like that, especially with most of her hair gone, she felt like she was watching the most surreal and terrible production of Les Mis ever. She wanted to hug her so bad that it only took half a second of wondering if that was appropriate before she actually did it. "You totally look worse than that, oh my god." Tia said, crying into Sage's shoulder before sobbing even harder because it had been so long since the last time they had hugged last and Sage was usually her favorite shoulder to cry on so there was like a weird Pavlovian effect happening there too. "You didn't have to wreck your head to be more likable, you're so great. And also please don't kill youself because your hair is bad and you don't have friends because I locked you in your room. You're like the best person ever and I'm sorry that you didn't feel like it enough to risk ruining your hair like this. It's all me and Izzie's fault!" She ramble wailed at Sage, lacking every bit of the ability Sage had at eventually composing herself. So Tia was still crying like a crazy person when she pulled away from hugging Sage to look at her hair again. "I think I could probably even it out to look cute enough until we can book you an appointment at Rapunzel's. Would that be okay?"

Izzie caught her bottom lip between her teeth, biting back tears as she watched Sage sob and heard Tia totally not help that fact as she sobbed too. "No, you look fine! It's just shorter, and hair always grows back, and me and T have had bobs and they're super cute!" she tried. But then Tia went on her big mess of a ramble, and Izzie's quivering lower lip finally gave way to tears, too. "It's so our fault. I should never have told you about ViviMeadow and Wayland. It was so mean and dumb and Wayland totally has so many reasons to like you better, because you're amazing." What she'd said to Sage that day in Tennessee had haunted her for months, she was so glad to get it off of her chest that she didn't really think Wayland had no reasons to like her. She leaned her head on Sage's other shoulder and sobbed, letting it finally hit her how much she missed being with the two of them. She hadn't smelled the combination of all three of their perfumes in so long, when she inhaled the realization only made her cry harder. Pulling away, she nodded frantically in agreement with Tia. "Yeah! This could be like, a lob! Those look good on everyone," Izzie sniffled, tucking a few strands behind Sage's ear before looking at the three of them -- three sobbing messes -- in the mirror. She picked up the scissors and handed them to Tia, not knowing how to voice what she wanted so badly to say. "I'm so glad we found you," she gave Sage's shoulders a squeeze. "I um....kind of really miss you guys. Like, what happened in Tennessee still hurts when I think about it, but feeling like we're never going to be friends again hurts even more."

Sage 's mouth parted slightly in confusion when Tia told her not to kill herself, of all things. She knew that her eating habits sometimes were so not a good idea and might like, end up with that happening to her, but she'd never tried to hurt herself like that on purpose. She was too happy that Tia and Izzie were here and crowding around her like they used to before to even care if that was the only reason they'd come looking, though. Sage wrapped her arms around both of them, not wanting to let them get too far away from her ever again. "I'm so not going anywhere now," she promised, tears streaming down her cheeks again. This time they were happy ones, though; she'd never felt as much relief as she felt knowing that they didn't still hate her after all, and that maybe things were actually going to be okay. "I was like, thinking about just leaving Walt forever and going back to my tower or something, if I was going to be locked in places anyway, but I like it here so, so much better. You know, with you guys," Sage said, her voice watery from all the crying. She probably looked like a raccoon now on top of the butt-ugly hair, but she could be the most hideous person in the whole universe right now and Sage thought maybe that would be okay as long as Tia and Izzie didn't leave. "Are you guys sure?" she asked them hopefully, not sure if she was asking about them fixing her hair or about whether they actually still loved her.

Tia tried wiping at her eyes and nodded in agreement with Izzie. "Yeah, it's so our fault. I should've never been so mean to you for standing up for Izzie or to Izzie for sleeping with Huntley when i was the one keeping secrets in the first place. You guys are the bestest best friends in the world and i'm so so sorry I made you both feel like you weren't." She cried, moving to hug Izzie too. She arguably owed Izzie way more than a teary apology and a one armed hug because she still wasn't ready to let go of Sage yet, but that was what she had right then and she hoped it would do for now. "Oh my gosh, I know I didn't act like it but I would've missed you so so much if you'd gone back to your tower. It was supes cray cray of me to lock you up like that and I can't even say i'm sorry enough for that but please be my friend again anyway?" Taking the scissors from, Izzie and stepped back a bit to get a better look at Sage's hair then went to comb all the way through it with her fingers before she began cutting. "I'm so sure. Your face will look so skinny and cute with a really good lob. After a while you'll forget you even had all that hair." Tia promised, glancing into the sink sadly.

Izzie probably would have jumped back into STI even if she hadn't gotten an official apology from Tia, but the fact that she did just made things so much better. It showed that her friends really missed her as much as she'd missed them. "I'm sorry for calling you a spoiled brat, you're just rich! That doesn't make you a bad person." Izzie gave a large squeeze when Tia reached across Sage and hugged her, too, blubbering mascara tears onto Sage's neck. Cheer makeup was so not made for crying sessions. "Never ever ever go back to your tower forever. You belong here, with us," Izzie said tenderly, clutching Sage's hand in her own as she watched Tia start to trim. "Yeah, and besides, hair always grows back. For now, this is just something fresh and new and exciting and it'll be great." So maybe she wasn't talking about Sage's haircut anymore, but Izzie loved a good metaphor.

Sage blinked her still watery eyes. Was she supposed to say it was her fault now, too? Both of them were blaming themselves, and she swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat from crying. "I'm so sorry, I should have figured out a better way to be good friends to both of you guys instead of like, picking a side," she said finally. She had felt bad, seeing the look on Tia's face when she'd defended Izzie over her. Tia had always done so much to make her life better, and she'd acted like one friend was more important than the other. So not cool. "And I'm super sorry for getting mad at you about Vivdow or whatever her name is now," she added to Izzie. "It was super not fair, I know that like, you guys have known her longer and stuff." It was hard for her to get it, since she'd only had Baz and Kori growing up, but she was trying. She was going to try so, so hard to make sure nothing like this ever, ever happened again. "My tower's super lonely, I would have missed you guys so much. Even just like, seeing you guys at cheer practice when you weren't talking to me was the best part of my day," Sage admitted, holding her breath as Tia and Izzie fussed over her hair. The snip of the scissors almost made her flinch again, but this time she was in good hands -- Tia's instead of her own, and she let out a breath of relief when she noticed that all the same length, her hair didn't look nearly as chunky and stupid as it had when she'd only hacked off part of it. "You guys are my favorite people in the whole wide world," Sage told them, trying not to start crying again -- happy tears this time. She didn't want to jerk around and mess up her hair more, but she had a feeling even if she walked out of this bathroom the ugliest girl in Walt, it wouldn't matter to her as long as she had Tia and Izzie by her side.

[vitabenedetta-blog]

Vita Benedetta

Hey everyone! My name is Kassidy Steyer (everyone knows me by Kas) and I have a passion for capturing the perfect picture of epic eats. You can catch me running between spin class, grabbing a matcha latte, shopping at Whole Foods, or strolling through the farmers market with my mom.

I am studying marketing and communications at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. I will be graduating with my bachelor’s degree in May 2019. College has taught me the importance of balance, positive thoughts, self-care, exercise, and fueling my body. My goal is to be transparent by showing both sides of wellness. While I love me some avocado toast and going for a hike, letting loose on thirsty Thursday and devouring burgers and fries (every once in a while) with friends is part of that balance. 

I want to show you all the grub goodness that can be found in unfamiliar places from Madison, WI and beyond. Thank you so much for visiting Vita Benedetta. I look forward to sharing with you! 

You are probably wondering, “What does Vita Benedetta mean?” From Italian, translated to English, Vita Benedetta stands for blessed life. I come from an awesomely large Italian family—my mom has seven brothers and they all grew up in a two-bedroom house downtown Madison, WI. Growing up with 8 dads has been pretty rad to say the least, and for that I am blessed. As you will see, and I will reiterate, this theme is present throughout all aspects of my life. 

Inspiration 

My inspiration for this blog primarily came from my experiences in college. College, the best four years of your life: supposedly. For me college has been a challenge. A challenge to find balance. Balance between social norm expectations and what I wanted for myself. Balance between mindless fun and exhaustion. Balance between fitting in and standing out. Finding myself was a challenge. 

La Crosse—a city with more taverns per capita than any other U.S city of its size. A city where if a friend states he/she is going to the library, you can assume that person is referring to the bar. Many weekends went like this. I would watch the lights flicker off as a sign of bar close, take the “drunk bus” home at 2:30 a.m., and crawl into bed after eating a triple order of Topperstix. Mornings I would wake to the scent of a Howie’s deep fried burger and fries creeping through my window, faced with a full night of hung-over studying, notorious as the Sunday Scaries. Purely exhausted. 

Undeniably my self-esteem began to dwindle. College presented me with millions of others girls: prettier than me, taller than me, with a whiter smile than me, and much less flab where a girl doesn’t want flab. These girls portrayed their lives as if they were out of a Legally Blonde movie, attending frat parties on the weekends, and posing in pictures eating Big Macs, yet still somehow maintaining flawless figures. 

Deciding to focus on my education and health, I stood out. Contrary to what many people believe this came with consequences. In our binge drinking obsessed culture, deciding not to engage alienated me. I lost the majority of my friends, only later to notice that these relationships were solely characterized by weekends and drinking, and had no substance or depth. The hard part: finding new friends as a junior in college. Friend groups were already tightly formed. Without parties or bars to make friends, this left class, the library, and the gym, all places where college students want to get in and get out as fast as they can.   

Thanks to social media, I found a community where I belonged, where I could engage and contribute. Wonderful humans such as @shutthekaleup and @thetruespoon have shown me what it feels like to: get a good night sleep, eat whole real food (none of that toxic processed ish), and spend time with people who support me. These women portray real lives of self-care, exercise, health, balance, and emphasize fueling your body. I follow their lives for inspiration on: recipes, skin care, athleisure companies, and mainly inspiration to lead my own life—disinterested in comparing myself to others. I finally found the importance behind talking about wellness, and I gained hella confidence along the way. 

Present Over Perfect 

As I began my wellness journey I stumbled across the issue of perfectionism. Did I use the correct Valencia filter for that picture? Did the editor app take away the coffee stains on my teeth? Should I spend a couple more days trying to come up with a more creative Instagram caption? To be completely honest, sometimes I would take so long to capture the most epically epic picture of my food that my meal would be cold to a crisp by the time I ate it (whoops). Yeah I know what you are thinking, this girl is crazy! It was hard to put down my phone. 

It is OKAY not take yourself so seriously. Live in the moment. Put down your phone and go for a hike. Have a meaningful conversation with someone you love. Your phone will still be there. Three things have significantly helped me become more present and aware in my life. 

Morning and Bedtime Social Media Detox 

How many of you are guilty of the a.m. mindless social media scroll? What about scrolling until your eyes can barely take it anymore before hitting the hay? This was my worst habit. When the first and last things you are seeing everyday are other people and perfection, it is hard not to compare and get caught up in everything other than yourself. Instead, try getting up and doing something else for the first part of your day. Go for a walk, read a book, make a smoothie, DO YOU. At bedtime think about your day and what went well. Positive thoughts go a long way to becoming more present. 

Setting Intentions 

How many of you say you are going to do something and days later completely forget about it? Like on January 1st when you got a gym membership and never went back. You are not alone. Writing down intentions is important! This way you can hold yourself accountable. Intentions can be what you read in the morning or at night instead of scrolling on social media. You are able to go back to see whether or not you are achieving them and what you would like to change/adjust. I will leave my intentions below to get you all thinking.

♥ Take each day one at a time 

♥ Spend fifteen minutes a day without Internet connection 

♥ Do your best everyday. Kick a** & do not give up 

♥ Eat mindfully. Nourish your body 

♥ Reflect on the three best parts of each day 

♥ Give back 

♥ Spend more time with family members 

♥ Love fearlessly 

Self-Care 

Because we all need a little me time to be selfish. Taking time for you can seem like a guilty pleasure, but it shouldn’t. As a college student juggling classwork, student organizations, two jobs, and a long-distance relationship, while still squeezing in time to work out, sleep, eat healthy, and umm have a life is tiring to say the least. It is important to honor your body. Know when enough is enough. Know when to call it for the night, even if it means saying no to margs with your girlfriends. For me, this means choosing to walk to the farmers market on a Saturday morning instead of going out to darty. It means being in bed by 10 p.m. on weeknights to make it to my early a.m. spin class. Balance looks different to everyone; however, when the going gets tough (and it will) here are a couple of things that make me feel superbly selfish: 

☆ Cocokind Chlorophyll Face Mask 

☆ Honest Hazel Collagen Eye Gels 

☆ Reishi Mushroom Elixir (supports sleep and stress) 

☆ Watching re-runs of “The Hills” 

☆ Turning on an oil diffusor with essential oils 

☆ Putting in a coconut oil bun 

☆ Going to a spin class (get in the zone to Kayne West/Odesza) 

☆ Yoga to get your zen on 

☆ Going on a hike alone or with a friend 

Finale 

You will look silly, it will take time, but you will feel better. Finding balance throughout all aspects of my life has been my challenge. I am starting to realize that every day is a new opportunity to better myself. I cannot stress enough how much better I feel now that I have started to take care of myself. I sleep better, I have more energy, and I am more positive. Positive thoughts are powerful. Your mind is powerful. Begin. Start. Take on one small change at a time. I look forward to interacting with each and every one of you who decide to embrace wellness! 

Thank you for visiting and you will be hearing from me soon ♥ Make sure to follow my other social media handles: 

Instagram: @vitabenedetta 

Facebook: @ViBenedetta 

Twitter: @ViBenedetta

[recentanimenews]

What Do The 2020 Academy Award Nominees Think About Anime?

  The 2020 Academy Awards are coming up soon this year, an event where we celebrate talent, craft and cinematic ingenuity while desperately trying to ignore the films that should've actually been nominated. And that's nice and all, but I feel like it's avoiding the REAL issue: What do the nominees think about anime and manga? I'm gonna run through the films that are up for Best Picture and see if any of the people involved with them have an interest in the most blessed of art forms. 

  FORD VS FERRARI

  In 2017, Ford vs Ferrari director James Mangold basically gave us the X-Men equivalent of Lone Wolf and Cub with Logan. It was an aging samurai story filtered through a comic book movie lense and it was outstanding. But Mangold is definitely at least aware of anime, as he described the character of the assassin Yukio as "almost kind of sprung from the anime world" when promoting the predecessor to Logan, The Wolverine.

  Meanwhile, stars Christian Bale and Matt Damon have both participated in the English dubs of Studio Ghibli films (Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo, respectively.) 

  THE IRISHMAN

  The internet spent most of 2019 in a tailspin over the fact that *gasp* famed director of crime dramas and psychological thrillers, Martin Scorsese, didn't care much for Age of Ultron. Sadly, he didn't also offer up his thoughts on Naruto. 

  The stars of The Irishman seem similarly disinterested. However, in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, the Hitman Team includes a short, nervous, passionate member named "Pesci." And since "short," "nervous" and "passionate" tend to fit Joe Pesci's character description in most Scorsese films, there's a solid chance that it might be a homage.

  JOJO RABBIT

  Most notably, Taika Waititi was involved with a live action remake of Akira until fairly recently. However, due to his commitment to Thor: Love and Thunder and the Akira script taking a while to work out, the film has been pushed to a later date. Waititi still seems passionate about it though, as the original anime is apparently one of his favorite films.

  JOKER

  Sadly, neither Todd Phillips nor Joaquin Phoenix seemed to have much to say about anime, despite the absolute flood of fan art that occurs when you Google "anime joker." Break the silence, Joaquin! Tell us your opinion on DeviantArt!

  LITTLE WOMEN

  This well seems to be pretty dry, too, though producer Amy Pascal did oversee the extremely anime-influenced Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse, which is the best superhero film of the last decade. 

  MARRIAGE STORY

  Though "Adam Driver anime" is another Google search that leads to plentiful results, the main attraction here is Scarlett Johansson and her relationship to the anime world. Notably, she starred in the live action version of Ghost in the Shell which had some nice visuals at times and, ummm, not much else to offer.

   1917

  Despite directing the most rad anime-looking sequence in any James Bond film (the fight scene in Shanghai in Skyfall,) 1917 director Sam Mendes hasn't talked about anime, like, ever. However star Mark Strong did voice Pod in Studio Ghibli's Arriety. 

  ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

  Obviously we're not going to be rushing to draw Crunchyroll Hime in a Pulp Fiction outfit any time soon, but director Quentin Tarantino isn't exactly averse to anime. Most notably, Kill Bill: Volume 1 included an anime sequence by Production I.G (the studio behind Psycho-Pass, Ghost in the Shell, and Haikyu!!), and Tarantino used to float the idea of maybe doing an anime prequel to the saga of the Bride. He also almost assisted with the English dub for Princess Mononoke.

Star Margot Robbie was once in talks to play Motoko in a live action Ghost in the Shell back in 2014, but the real treat here seems to be Leonardo DiCaprio's enthusiasm.

    He told MTV in 2008 "I'm a big fan of Japanese anime" as he tried to get live action productions of Akira and Ninja Scroll going. So thanks for that, Leo. The mental image of you, surrounded by models and party guests in your mansion, telling everyone to "keep it down" because you're "tryin' to watch Evangelion" will be stuck with me forever. 

  PARASITE

  This is my favorite film that's being nominated this year, but it gives us very little anime news. However, director Bong Joon-ho's Okja is the closest thing that we may ever get to a live action Studio Ghibli film, and if anyone wants to turn The Host and Snowpiercer (both terrific movies) into awesome anime series, I wouldn't diss the effort. In fact, just go watch Bong Joon-ho movies today: Parasite, Okja, Snowpiercer, The Host, Mother, Memories of Murder and the rest. The dude is our best modern director, so tell your boss that you're taking the day off. It's officially a Bong Joon-ho holiday. 

  Have you seen any of these films? Do you have any predictions for the winners? Let me know in the comments!

  ------------------

  Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[oh-mother-of-darkness]

“There are three separate complaints that you held up traffic to pet a cat,” said Dick, flashing his phone screen in Damian’s direction. Damian didn’t look up from his book, which was about what Tim expected. They’d gotten this far without a reaction.

“I wanted to pet the cat,” Damian said, calmly turning a page.

“You have a cat,” Tim reminded him.

“I don’t have that cat. It was orange.”

“You’re right, it all makes sense now.” 

Damian rolled his eyes as expressively as he could without taking his face out of his novel. It was good enough for Tim to get the picture, so he turned back to Dick, who was still scrolling through Twitter. 

“I heard Nightwing say that Robin’s grounded again,” Dick read, “but the kid is definitely perched on my balcony right now, so #imtellingbatman.” He shot Damian a look. “I’m shocked.” 

“When was that?”

“April seventeenth.”

Damian nodded, half-smirking. “He doesn’t read them, then. He never noticed I was gone.”

“I don’t know,” said Tim. “That could be what he wants us to think. You sneak out, what, twice a week? Enforcing a curfew once isn’t worth burning a source.”

“True,” said Damian, considering it.

“Unless he wanted to use it as a deterrent system,” Dick put in. “Not that possible consequences have ever actually deterred us. For example…” He frowned down at his phone. “Never mind, this one isn’t about you.”

Dick sighed, turning to Jason instead. “It says you blew up a dumpster?”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“Business,” Jason shrugged. “Mind your own.”

That was also about what Tim expected. He watched in amusement as Dick crossed his arms, obviously debating whether it would be worth it to push for information— Jason might be hiding something important, but it wouldn’t be easy to get out of him. In the end, Dick let it go.

“Fine,” he decided. “But you have almost as many of these as Damian.”

“That figures.”

“I’m 99% sure that Red Hood and Robin are playing on the playground across my street,” Dick read. “#imtellingbatman.”

“Stakeout,” Damian corrected, while Jason nodded in confirmation. “Not playing.”

“Update: they definitely are, and Robin just shoved Hood off a slide #imtellingbatman.”

Damian grinned. “Now that I did,” he agreed, then immediately ducked sideways to dodge the pillow Jason threw at his head. “We still weren’t playing. It was a strategic location.”

“Where else would a toddler like him blend in?” Jason muttered, grabbing for a second pillow. 

“Fair.” Dick kept scrolling. “What else? Oh, apparently Damian stabbed a school bus. On multiple occasions.”

Damian shrugged, clearly unconcerned, and pointedly turned another page. “I stab lots of things.”

“You’re supposed to aim for people,” Tim suggested.

“I can add you to the list.”

“Don’t start,” Dick sighed. “Church break in. Saw Robin playing in the stained glass- he climbed the Madonna statue to stick his hand in the blue light #imtellingbatman.”

“I didn’t.”

“That sounds exactly like you.”

“It doesn’t.”

“Sure, Damian,” said Dick, rolling his eyes in Tim’s direction to communicate that yes, it did sound like Damian, and it was kind of endearing. Tim wouldn’t have said it out loud, but he agreed: that was exactly the kind of thing that Damian would do and hide. He’d be afraid of coming across as childish. 

Damian was a child, of course, but he didn’t like people bringing it up. 

“Can I see?” Tim asked. Dick handed over the phone, and Tim swiped through a few pages worth of tweets, scanning for more about Damian. It didn’t take long to find one.

“2nd & Main: some costume taunted Robin about RR. Ambulance en route. Robin looks really upset? #imtellingbatman so he can check on… his kid….” Tim trailed awkwardly away.

On the couch below him, Damian went very still. 

“That never happened.”

“Damn,” Tim muttered. “I didn’t realize you cared.”

“I didn’t,” said Damian. “And I don’t. It never happened.”

“You thought I was dead, okay? It’s not weird to be emotional about that.”

“Never,” Damian insisted. “Happened.”

Tim glanced over at Jason and Dick, who were both watching attentively, though admittedly in very different ways; Jason looked like he was thirty seconds from making popcorn, while Dick nodded encouragingly in Damian’s direction.

“Uh. Thanks?” Tim really was touched. It wasn’t that he wanted Damian to be upset, exactly— too many of the important people in Tim’s life had died for him to wish that on anyone else— but it was nice to know where he stood. After all, Tim had been devastated when Damian died. Apparently Damian had returned the favor. 

“I could murder you right now and laugh at your funeral.”

“Did he?” Tim asked.

Dick shook his head. “He cried. A lot.”

“Liar!” Damian slammed his book shut, glaring at the pair of them. He looked dangerously close to violence, which was probably why Jason decided to egg him on.

“You might as well admit it,” he said. “You’re not fooling anyone.”

Damian made a grab for something in his belt that was almost definitely a weapon. Evidently, Dick had been expecting that— he snatched Damian’s wrist as it went by and pulled him back onto the couch. 

“Shut up,” he told Jason. “And Damian?”

“What?”

“Calm down.”

“I’m always calm.”

“You’ve never been calm in your life, and you know it,” Tim told him.

“Fight me,” said Damian, glaring. 

Dick ran his free hand through his hair. “Okay that’s… that’s not calm.”

“Fine.” Damian closed his eyes long enough to take a single deep breath and wipe the expression from his face. “Can I go now?”

Dick raised an eyebrow at Tim. Tim did not want to continue the conversation.

“Please.”

Damian bolted for the door as soon as Dick let go of his wrist. He paused in the hallway long enough to point at Tim— “Never happened.”— and then he was gone. 

Right, Tim figured. Sure.

Based on this post by @callmeofficergrayson :)

For @unlocklist‘s birthday! It’s late now, but y’all should go check Bobby out. She’s rad and ridiculously talented (main/art only)

[thepennydarling]

Happy (rainy) Wednesday, Penny Darlings!

We are bewitchingly close to the big spooky day, and as All Hallows’ Eve approaches – I am doing all the things I’m supposed to be doing. I’ve watched Hocus Pocus, drank ALL the PSLs, stocked up on candy for trick-or-treaters, and most importantly: got some costumes!

Now, if you’re like me, then I’m sorry.

Ha! Just kidding!

But seriously, I have CURLY CURLY CURLY hair and it is TOUGH to style. It doesn’t hold style very well (it’s also SUPER fine and silky!), it gets frizzy the second I start sweating or thinking about humidity, and it deflates to being totally flat in under an hour.

I’m also not that great at doing really inventive hairstyles – but I love an excuse to do my hair up nice and fancy or to get to experiment with something new. I knew that I definitely needed something to beat the heat, humidity, frizz, and last my whole Halloween party long: so obvious choice is: Not Your Mother’s She’s a Tease Volumizing Hairspray!  (which you can shop at your local Ulta, CVS & a million other places!)

If you don’t have curly hair, don’t want curly hair, etc. these tips and styles should still work (with some slight variations) and you can totally just ignore step one!

  Step One

For my hair looks, I started out with “day to day” hair treatment to get my curls looking fly with my Not Your Mother’s line! I did a whole post on this back in the spring – so check out my step by step process here!

A little mini-review for the TL;DR-type-readers:

After washing (or rinsing) my hair until it is totally wet, I wrap in a cotton t-shirt (SO much better for curls than a towel!), then spray some Beach Babe Texturizing Spray near the roots. Next, I scrunch my hair from tip to root to give it a little boost. Next, a decent dollop of Curl Talk Defining Cream followed by more scrunching. Third, you guessed it, another scrunch with Curl Talk Curl Activating Mousse. Then I let it air-dry!

  Cinderella

This is one I’ve been wanting to tackle for awhile now!

So for this look, I had all the ingredients (like a dress and shoes!), but I was trying to get an easy bun with a bit of a bump in the front for the classic princess look!

how to get that royally perfect bun

Step 1: Listed above. Follow it. Believe. Step 2: Once hair is dry, apply a healthy layer of She’s a Tease Volumizing Hairspray Step 3: Take a comb (I used a regular comb, but a teasing comb with have worked better) and comb on your top-most layer of hair. Step 4: Put your hair in a ponytail. Step 5: Loop the ponytail halfway through the holder, creating a messy bun. Separate * fluff to desired bun size. Step 6: More hairspray Step 7: Take your index fingers from your hairline back to the bun, lifting a small section, but not so much that it falls out of the bun to create a small bump or lift in front Step 8: More hairspray Step 9: Finish with a ribbon (or scrunchie, like I did) for that royal bun with the bump Step 10: One last layer of hairspray all around the hairline (for any frizz or flyaways!).

Fun Fact: while taking this photo, a group of probably 30-40 Italian & French tourists walked by Preston & I at the exact moment I kicked off my shoe (pictured below). They all stopped and took pictures and videos on their iPad and phones of us! #MortifiedButLaughing –  And a lovely young Italian man with bleach blonde & yellow hair wearing a leather vest yelled: “Slaaaay Queen” in the HEAVIEST ITALIAN ACCENT of all time. I cannot express how awesome it was! (hence my intense laughter in this pic!)

  Bew*tched!

I grew up totally obsessed with Samantha on Bewitched. I thought she was so rad and her costumes were totally envy-inducing. I was forever trying to wiggle my nose and see if any magic happened.

For this hair look, I wanted a softer, more brushed out, and looser blonde curls to pair with this retro dress & vintage sofa!

Step 1: I literally just told all of you what step one is. Scroll back up, ya nerd! Step 2: Wait for hair to completely dry! Step 3: Spray (dry) hair with She’s a Tease Volumizing Hairspray & let dry Step 4: Brush out curls – STOP 1-2 INCHES BEFORE THE ENDS! Don’t brush THROUGH your hair. Step 5: More She’s a Tease Volumizing Hairspray Step 6: Repeat brush process from the under side of hair, leaving tips unbrushed. *When you split the ends, that’s when the frizz gets crazy for me and the ‘bushy’ hair starts – by not brushing the tips, it only softens the curls in the middle.* Step 7: Spray underside of hair

You are on your way to a nose-wiggling good time!

Britney Spears

Obvi, a 90’s queen had to make this list – so I went ALLLLLLLL the way back to the most iconic music video of all time* – Hit Me Baby One More Time

*not a fact

I wanted to do her iconic pink hair scrunchies mixed with pigtails. My hair is a little too short to make the braided version work – so I did a variation with pigtails!

get those iconic 90’s pigtails

Step 1: Listed above, for real, get it together. Step 2: Separate dry hair into two sections and gather towards the shoulders. Step 3: With small elastic bands create two ponytails just above and behind your ears. Step 4: When tightening them, pull at a wide angle to create some volume. Step 5: Spray with She’s a Tease Volumizing Hairspray Step 6: *OPTIONAL* braid both pigtails and tie at the end with small elastic bands. My hair CAN’T do this, so I modified and that’s totally fine! Step 7: Obvi, spray that hair – braided or unbraided – it’s gotta survive your Halloween plans! Step 8: Accessorize! I got my pink scrunchies at Claire’s in the mall, and when I told the girl what I needed them for (Britney Spears costume) she went, “Who?” and I nearly DIED ON THE SPOT OF OLD AGE. Step 9: One last spritz of She’s a Tease Volumizing Hairspray for hold & for good luck! Ha!

  TA-DA! Those are my Halloween hair looks.

…for those of us who are only okay at doing our own hair, welcome friends. Ha!

Double bonus: I can pick these up at CVS or Ulta, just around the corner, without breaking the bank!

I find my hair to be such a big part of my confidence and my femininity that I love to take care of it and find products I can stick with for a long time and use again after I’m done being spooky. I hate buying products that I use once and then end up sitting around until they’re crusty – get some supplies that last!

Seriously, switch out your hair towel for a tee and thank me later!

Everyone – be safe & spooky & awesome & haunted & make good choices & look cute & don’t forget to put an extra coat of hairspray on & eat candy.

CHECK OUT NOT YOUR MOTHER’S ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Website Facebook Instagram Twitter

  *this post is sponsored by Not Your Mother’s Brand, however all thoughts and opinions are my own!*

SO HERE’S THE “END OF BLOG” SPIEL!

If you are at all interested in doing a collab or working with me – please feel free to check out my new Contact Me! page!

Follow me on Instagram: @thepennydarling

If you want to follow my darling, Preston – you can click here!

Like my Facebook page here!

Follow me on Twitter here!

Subscribe for updates!

If you’d like to donate to help me keep Penny Darling going – click here!

Thank you for all that you do. You are truly extraordinary.

Love all you wonderful ladies (and gents!) out there!

How Very,

Abby

3 Super Easy-DIY Halloween Hair Looks Happy (rainy) Wednesday, Penny Darlings! We are bewitchingly close to the big spooky day, and as All Hallows' Eve approaches - I am doing all the things I'm supposed to be doing.

[makeitwithmike]

1 Million Views and More on GIPHY!

By Crowdfire

The tale of our glorious rise to 1.5m views in GIF-dom

http://bit.ly/2jSSvxZ

All right, let’s face it, GIFs rule the internet! Just our humble opinion, folks. They’re gratifying, amusing, and if done right, probably a lot more engaging than plain text.

If ever you find yourself scrolling through Crowdfire’s Twitter timeline, you’ll find a bunch of these magical moving images on our conversations. As big fans of this popular visual format, we sometimes don’t even feel the need for words (pfft, words).

It’s not that we’re obsessed with GIFs (okay, maybe we are) but some times, they just say what we want to say in a better way.

*Side note: This is important. We pronounce GIF with a “J”. As in JIF.

Since we just hit 1 million views on our GIPHY channel, we wanted to reflect and share our GIF-journey with all of you.

The Crowdfire GIPHY Journey…

Conception

Around six months ago, one of our Community Champs jumped up from his seat and announced, “PEOPLE. We NEED to have our own GIPHY channel!” Caught up in the flurry of enthusiasm, we all got on board and started making lists, plans, and gathering serious research material. We were always digging around for the perfect GIF, so having a set of our own custom-made ones made a whole lot of sense. We’d no longer have to scour the world wide web for our more visual responses!

Wanting to create a handy collection of reactions and expressions, we were excited about getting our faces and/or limbs on camera. We also wanted to explore the GIPHY space and see if we could create something that others could relate to and extend.

Inspiration

Mailchimp undoubtedly has an amazing GIPHY channel — not only did their work make us giggle uncontrollably, they inspired us to take the first step. We also checked out a LOT of other GIPHY channels and individual GIFs for inspiration. We looked at Joey Graceffa a lot and we also looked through the trending GIFs to come up with a list of ideas we wanted to start with.

However fun it sounds, like any other task, there were a set of challenges that we faced. Though we’re still learning, here’s our first set of challenges and our current approach towards them –

Choice

Challenge – To zero down on what each GIF would be all about was a task in itself. We needed the basic idea, references and a workable approach. We also needed an easy way to define which expressions would be a part of our collection, and which ones wouldn’t make the cut.

Our approach – One thing we were sure about was that ALL our GIFs would radiate good vibes only. We have no room for any negative emotions (the world needs more love ❤). We decided to stick with gratitude, positivity, happiness, surprise, excitement and then some. We looked for different ways to say thank you, different ways to show excitement and decided it best to have some variations of these common expressions so that we don’t end up using the same GIFs repeatedly.

Process

Challenge – GIFs aren’t supposed to be perfect — if you look at a classic ol’ GIF, you’ll notice its raw, grainy quality. But who knew the making of imperfection could be challenging, too! Should we use a phone camera to shoot? Or would a DSLR be more professional? Should there be post-production colour corrections? Which software should we use for this? You get the drift…

Our approach – This involved a whole lot of trial and error and, hand to heart, we’re not GIF royalty. We tried recording the videos on our phone cameras as well as on a DSLR. At this point, we prefer videos taken on our phones

When a video is converted to a GIF the quality is affected and hence a lot of post production processes didn’t make sense. Our process is simple. Shoot a video, trim it, change the speed if required, add our watermark and, voila — upload it to GIPHY!

Casting

Challenge – Sometimes we are clear in our heads about the expressions we want, the end result we’re looking for and the message that we want to convey. However, we also need to capture just the right facial expressions and for that, we needed to get the right people to jump in front of the lens. So what if we couldn’t afford Jimmy Fallon’s buffoonery or Beyonce’s rad dance moves?

Our approach – Go for simpler expressions like smiling, being surprised and doing effortless actions like hi-fives and hugs. Our secret weapon? We’ve got some amazingly talented Firestarters at HQ! They’re sporting enough to mosey in front of the camera and deliver when asked, nicely.

Your burning GIF questions, answered…

So, how long does it take to make a GIF?

Though we haven’t gone all out on our GIFs and tend to make a batch of 3–4 once a week, we can safely say that every GIF has its own set of challenges and the production time varies depending on these.

One of our most famous GIFs took 30 minutes from conception to the final product

http://bit.ly/2xY0L65

While we had another one which took over a day to think up, a couple of hours to shoot and a few more of post production ⬇️

http://bit.ly/2jP34SR

How many people do these GIFs reach?

Here are some fancy numbers from the Crowdfire channel –

1.5M — total views

http://bit.ly/2jRl7Yv

372,527 — views on the most popular GIF — this one right here ⤵️

http://bit.ly/2xY0MHb

1,435 — views on the least popular GIF

http://bit.ly/2xY0NuJ

Where do we use all these GIFs?

We use them extensively on our Twitter timeline in response to our community’s messages.

Apart from Twitter we also use these GIFs in our product emails, on our blog posts and even in some of our support emails

What are you up to this #Friday? http://bit.ly/2jRl92z

 — @Crowdfire

All our GIFs are available for you to use, folks Type ‘Crowdfire’ in the GIF search on Twitter and pick your favourite #Tip http://bit.ly/2xY0OyN

 — @Crowdfire

It’s time to #GoBig, folks! Share your Prescriptions for the day and keep growing http://bit.ly/2xY0Pml

 — @Crowdfire

Do your daily Prescriptions and boost your timeline in a minute! Tap. Tap. BOOM http://bit.ly/2xY0RdX

 — @Crowdfire

A BIG thank you to all of you for joining us on #cfchat today! We love you all!❤️ http://bit.ly/2jRl9Q7

 — @Crowdfire

How can you make your own? ✨

If you’re a creator, a YouTuber, a small business or just someone looking to have fun creating your own collection of GIFs for the world to use, here’s how to get started –

1.Define why you want to create your own GIFs. Give it some thought. Do you want to customise your existing content or create something truly original?

2. Make a list of expressions you want to cover or messages you want to send. It’s 128740 times easier when you know what you want to do. Here’s a great reference for expressions — http://gph.is/2xY0Kz3.

3. Creating your account is the most important part. All the GIFs uploaded on GIPHY are private till you share them (unless you’re a GIPHY partner or an Artist, more on this in a bit). Anyone can create an account on GIPHY but if you want your work to be Public so others can use your GIFs you need to go a step further.

If you’re a business, you can partner with GIPHY (just like we did). You can go to this link http://gph.is/2xY0S1v and click on “Become a Partner”. You’ll be asked to fill up a form and they’ll get in touch with you about your application.

If you’re an Artist, you can shoot them an email with a link to your blog/portfolio/website over on artists@giphy.com and they’ll take it ahead from there.

4. Start shooting! Once you have everything in place and you know what to shoot, it’s time to start shooting. Though the quality of GIFs isn’t super important, you should focus a little bit on lighting and colour contrasts to make them stand out.

5. Tools? You can use your phone camera or DSLR to shoot and if you need only basic edits, you can use software like iMovies to trim.

6. Make sure the GIF isn’t longer than 15 seconds and the file size doesn’t exceed 100MB

7. To make your GIFs searchable, add relevant keywords when you upload them. We use the keyword “Crowdfire” in all our GIFs so if you’re looking for any Crowdfire GIF all you need to do is search with this keyword on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram and Slack! The indexing happens only if you’re a GIPHY partner or an Artist though.

8. If you want your GIF game to be strong there are a lot of other options available to deck them up, shoot ’em faster and edit like a boss.

GIPHY Creation tools on web — http://gph.is/2xY5THg

GIPHY Capture the Mac app — http://gph.is/2jQm7vX

GIPHY Cam app for Android and iOS — http://gph.is/2xY6hWt

These tools will help you add that extra sparkle to give your GIFs a distinct personality.

Lastly, don’t forget to share your masterpiece. The more GIFs you make and share, the more views you’ll get!

How does our GIPHY channel help?

It’s not just been about creating GIFs instead of using one of the millions of others that are on the internet. We want our Community to know the faces behind Crowdfire, and showing them our creative side helps us do that. GIFs help us express ourselves the way we are!

Here are some fun behind the scenes GIFs of our GIF-making

I guess that particular jump overwhelmed the camera man

They were only supposed to point once, really

Hard work can cause neck ache

Over to you…

So, how often do you use GIFs? Got any favourites from the Crowdfire GIPHY channel? We’d love to hear from you in the comments ❤️

And hey, if you liked this post, you know what to do with that cursor

Sam hosts #cfchat on Twitter and is Crowdfire’s resident GIF-maker. She truly got the Friday feelin’ tonight.

http://bit.ly/2fdv8dI

1 Million Views and More on GIPHY! was originally published in Going Big — The Official Crowdfire Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post 1 Million Views and More on GIPHY! appeared first on Make It With Michael.

from 1 Million Views and More on GIPHY!