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felassan · 3 years

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Some DA trivia and dev commentary from Twitter

There’s a lot of different tweets, so I’m just pasting and linking to the source rather than screencapping them all or making several different posts or something. Post under cut for length.

User: Was dragon age 2 your favourite in the franchise?

David Gaider: DA2 was the project where my writing team was firing on all cylinders, and they wrote like the wind- because they had to! Second draft? Pfft. Plot reviews? Pfft. I was so proud of what we all accomplished in such a brief time. I didn't think it was possible. [source] DA2 is, however, also where the goal posts kept moving. Things kept getting cut, even while we worked. I had to write that dialogue where Orsino turned even if you sided with him, because his boss battle had been cut and there was no time to fix the plot. A real WTF moment. >:( [source]

Mike Rousseau: I remember bugging that! And then being told it wasn't a bug, and being so confused. Doing QA for DA2 was an experience. Trial by fire. [source]

DG: So I think it's safe to say DA2 is my favorite entry in the DA franchise and also the sort of thing I never want to live through ever again. Mixed feelings galore. [source]

User: (I personally blame whoever it was for ruining most romance arcs in other games for me; they don't live up to Fenris's romance storyline)

DG: I wrote Fenris, so uh - me, I guess? Or maybe his cinematic designer, who put in the puppy dog eyes. [source]

User: If DA2 had just been an expansion, do you think it would have been better received? There was a lot of great stuff in there, and I think my initial dislike of it was because of the zone reuse. If it hadn't needed to be a full game, would that issue not have arisen?

DG: Hard to say. It was either going to be an over-scoped expansion or an under-scoped sequel. If it had stayed an expansion, it might never have received the resources/push it DID get. [source]

User: I'd love to visit the universe where you had an extra year or so to work on it. You did a very good job as it stands, but it definitely had rough edges. Not just the writing team either. The whole game had hit and miss moments, that just a little more dev time could have fixed.

DG: On one hand, DA2 existed to fill a hole in the release schedule. More time was never in the cards. DA2 was originally planned as an expansion! On the other, if we had more time, would we have started doing that thing where we second guess/iterate ourselves into mediocrity? [shrug emoji] [source]

Jennifer Hepler: This is what I love about DA2. Personally, I greatly prefer something that's rough and raw and sincere to something that's had all the soul polished out of it. Extra time would have helped for art and levels, but it would have lost something too. [source]

DG: Right? I think we could have used some time for peer reviews (and fewer cuts), but I think the rawness of the writing lent a certain spark that we usually polished out. [source]

JH: Definitely. I think the structure (more character-driven) and the tightness of the timeframe let each individual writer's voice really come through. Polish can be very homogenizing. [source]

DG: I should add I'm not, by any means, against iteration. Some iteration is good and necessary. The problem that BioWare often had is that we never knew when to stop. Like a goldfish, we would fill the space given to us by constantly re-iterating on things that were "good enough". [source]

Patrick Weekes: I appreciate your incredibly diplomatic use of the past tense on "had". :D [source]

User: DA2 was my gateway into the series and I’m so happy it is. I love the game the way that it is. It’s one of my favorites of all time. But I am also aware of everything that was said here. If it were remastered, do you think it would change?

DG: I'd be surprised if it was ever remastered. If it was, do you really think they'd change things? Do remasters do that? No idea. [source]

User: Both sides got undercut as I recall. Didn't that whole sequence also end with the mage leader embracing blood magic? It was very much "a plague on both your houses" moment, at least for me.

DG: Yep. Orsino was supposed to have his own version of Meredith's end battle, which only happened if you sided with the templars. That got cut, but the team still wanted to use the model we'd made for him. So... that happened. [source]

DG: I would personally say that DA2 is a fantastic game hidden under a mountain of compromises, cut corners, and tight deadlines. If you can see past all that, you'll see a fantastic game. I don't doubt, however, that it's very difficult for most to do that. [source]

PW: I love DAI with all my selfish "I worked on this" heart, but DA2's follower arcs and relationships are probably my favorite in the series. [source]

User: As I've expressed many times, I love the game, especially it's writing and characters but, for me, the most impressive aspect of it, in consideration of it's lack of time for drafts and revisions, is the 2nd act with Arishok. What amazingly complex character and fantastic duel

User: Just played it again and I have to agree. Though he is bound by the harsher tenants of the Qun, he makes valid points about free marcher society. Though it is obvious that he and Hawke will come to blows eventually, the tension builds gradually and understandably

DG: Luke did such a fantastic job with the Arishok I found myself sometimes wishing the Qunari plot had just been THE plot. [source]

User: What do you think would have changed, story wise, if you had more time for DA2?

DG: I would have taken out that thing where Meredith gets the idol. It was forced on me because she needed to be "super-powered" with red lyrium for her final battle. Being "crazy", however, robbed her side of the mage/templar argument of any legitimacy. I hated hated hated that. [source]

User: I deeply lament that there wasn't/couldn't be some sort of DA2 equivalent of Throne of Bhaal's Ascension mod.

DG: I'd have done it, if DA2 had allowed for anything but the most rudimentary of modding. ;) [source]

User: I mean, and I think I understand where you were trying, but how much legitimacy did the Templars and her as top Templar have after they're keeping the mages locked up against their will in the old slave quarters? Feel free to not reply.

DG: I think it's the kind of discussion which requires nuance, and which discussions on the Internet are not prone to. [source]

User: Was a compromise that the quest lines don’t branch? It felt like it was supposed to be that way but then you end up in the same place later regardless of what you pick. Like I hoodwinked the templars so good to help the apostates escape but in Act II they were caught anyway.

DG: I remember us having a lot more branching in the initial planning yes. Most of this got trimmed out in the first or second wave of cuts, in an effort to not cut the plots altogether. [source]

DG: "If you could Zack Snyder DA2, what would you change?" Wow. I'm willing to bet Mark or Mike (or anyone else on the team) would give very different answers than me, but it's enough to give a sober man pause, because that was THE Project of Multiple Regrets. [source] I mean, it's the most hypothetical of hypotheticals. It's never gonna happen. I wouldn't be surprised if EA considered DA2 its embarrassing red-headed stepchild. We'd also need to ignore that in many ways DA2 was as good as it was bad BECAUSE of how it was made. But that aside? [source] First, either restore the progressive changes to Kirkwall we'd planned over the passing of in-game years or reduce the time between acts to months instead of years... which, in hindsight, probably should have been done as soon as the progressive stuff was cut. [source] I'm sure you're like "get rid of repeated levels!" ...but I don't care about that. All I wanted was for Kirkwall to feel like a bigger city. Way more crowded. More alive! Fewer blood mages. [source] I'd want to restore the plot where a mage Hawke came THIS close to becoming an abomination. An entire story spent trapped in one's own head while trapped on the edge of possession. Why? Because Hawke is the only mage who apparently never struggles with this. It was a hard cut. [source]

User: I would LOVE to hear more details about this! I don’t suppose there’s any chance of a short story?

DG: I don't even remember the details of the story, sorry. There was a fight, and you caught the bad guy and then realized none of it was real and woke up idk [source]

DG: I'd want to restore all those alternate lines we cut, meaning people forget they'd met you. Or that they knew you were a mage. Or, oh god, that maybe they'd romanced you in DAO. So much carnage. [source] I'd want to restore the Act 3 plots we cut only because they were worked on too late, but which would have made the buildup to the mage/templar clash less sudden. Though I don't remember what they were, now. Some never got beyond being index cards posted on the wall. [grimace emoji] [source] As I mentioned elsewhere, I'd want to restore Orsino's end battle so he wouldn't need to turn on you even if you sided with him. And I'd want an end fight with the templars that didn't require Meredith to have red lyrium and go full Tetsuo. [source] Heck, maybe an end decision where you sided with neither the mages nor the templars. Because it certainly ended up feeling like you could brand both sides as batshit pretty legitimately, no? That was never planned, tho. No idea how to make that feel like an actual path atm. [source] Maybe an option to go "umm, Anders... what are you DOING?" 👀 [source] And, of course, a Varric romance, because Mary took that "slimy car salesman" character we'd planned and did the impossible with him. I can feel Mary glaring at me for even suggesting this, tho. [source] Lastly, the original expanded opening to the game which allowed you to spend time with Bethany and Carver BEFORE the darkspawn attacked. And, um, that's about it off the top of my head. Zack Snyder, WHAT PANDORA'S BOX HAVE YOU OPENED. [source] Shit, I remembered two more things: 1) Restore the "Varric exaggerates the heck out of the story" at the beginning of every Act, until Cassandra calls him on it. Yes, that was a thing. 2) Make DA: Exodus. Yes, I am still bitter. [source] God damn it, I meant "Make DA: Exalted March". The DA2 expansion, NOT Exodus since that was DA2's original name and makes no sense. Because the expansion ended with Varric dying, and that will always be on my "things left undone" list. [source]

User: Whaaaat?

DG: Well, you know that scene in Wrath of Khan where Spock goes into the dilithium chamber because he's a Vulcan? Well, imagine that but with Varric and red lyrium and because he's a dwarf. ;) [source]

John Epler: I distinctly remember referencing the bit from MGS4 where you crawl through the microwave corridor in the split screen, while cinematic battle rages on the other half. [source]

DG: It would have been glorious, John. Glorious. [source]

JE: I don't think I've ever been so certain what a shot should look like as I did Hawke coming in and finding Varric in the broken throne, just like when he was telling Cassandra his story. [source]

DG: It would have come full circle! Auggghh, it still kills me. [source]

User: Lord, you folks are a little too good at this.

JE: The true secret behind videogame narrative is knowing how to make yourself seem a lot more clever than you actually are. [source] 'Oh, we TOTALLY planned that.' [source]

User: Ok, this thread [the DA2 regrets thread, which is the big chunks above] but Inquisition.

DG: My regrets about Inquisition are, more or less, the normal kind. Nothing so dramatic, I'm afraid. [source]

User: You can keep your Varric romance, I want a Flemeth romance goddamnit!

DG: I would allow for one flirt option, and then a recording of Kate Mulgrew laughing for three minutes straight. [source]

User: I had a hypothesis about the repetitive caves in DA2. They're repetitive because it's Varric telling the story and he didn't consider them important. They're like sets in a play. (Okay, I really suspect it was a time/money/resources thing but I like my fake explanation better.)

DG: Hang a lampshade on it, maybe? Cassandra: "But that's the exact cave you were in last time?" Varric: "Whatever. They all look the same, I'm not THAT kind of dwarf. Can we move on?" [source]

User: that makes sense, hypothetically to make Varric romanceable and keep his arc—that had to happen for the main plot—I imagine you would have to make double the content (or more)? which would've been a tall order given the time/budget constraints the game was under

DG: Right. When it comes to "romance arc" vs. "follower story arc", we generally only had time to do one or the other. Never both. Romancing Varric would have meant not getting the story of his that you did. [source]

Mary Kirby: The one exaggeration I really, REALLY wanted, that we never got to do was Varric narrating his own death scene with Hawke weeping over him, then cutting to Cassandra's pissed off glaring at him. [source]

DG: Haha! The one I wanted was Varric's plot where he takes on the baddies single-handedly, sliding across the floor like Jet Lee, action movie-style, until finally Cassandra gets irritated and he has to admit Hawke & the rest of the party showed up to help. [source]

MK: We did that one! (He didn't do any Jet Lee moves, though.) Jepler gave him letterboxing to get The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly showdown vibes while he shot a ton of mooks single-handed. [source]

DG: Wow. Shows how much I remember. [source]

JE: I found it! I remember seeing this sequence as my treat for doing a bunch of much more challenging work. It was fun to see how far I could push our limited library of animations. [link] [source]

DG: Heh awesome. I could have sworn it was cut, honestly. I think I was even in that meeting. [source]

User: no disrespect but that’s surprising and rich of Mary “Hard in Hightown” Kirby to think DA2 shouldn’t have had a Varric romance when she wrote an entire book of Varric’s self-insert character pining over his Hawke insert character… HIH is the reason we had VHawke Summer 2018

DG: I can't *really* speak for Mary, or how she feels about it now compared to back then. I only know how she felt about it back then, and I'm not sure it was as much the concept of the romance but that Varric's entire story would be bent to "romance arc" ...a very different thing. [source]

JH: I remember pushing to have the first DLC start with Hawke having an option to ask Varric, "Did you tell Cassandra about us?" and if you picked it, Varric would answer, "Of course not, baby. I told her you were sleeping with X..." and then proceed as if you had had a full romance. [source]

DG: I still wonder how that would have gone over. x) [source]

JE: Okay, one more DA2 thing. Putting together the cinematics for this scene was a blast. [link] [source]

MK: These lines are my greatest legacy. I want "Make sure the world knows I died... at Chateau Haine!" inscribed on my tombstone. [source]

JE: I was so glad no one said 'no' to the crane shot. [source]

MK: It needs that crane shot. It's the perfect icing on that cake made from solid cheese. [source]

DG: The designers were all "we need more combat" and I think we were all "I think you underestimate just HOW interesting we can make this dinner party". [source]

JE: And finally. I think @SherylChee wrote the one-liner. I think we had a collection of like, 20. [link] [source]

Sheryl Chee: Yeah! Something like that! I remember submitted a whole bunch and Frank said you only needed one. Wish I'd kept the other fifteen. [source]

JE: A random chooser where, each time through the scene, you get a different one-liner. [source]

JE: DA2 is the project I'm the proudest of. I also absolutely get that it didn't land for a lot of people. But I don't think it's inaccurate to say that, in a lot of ways, DA2 defined my career. [source] Everyone spent a year working at their maximum ability. I was a fresh cinematic designer and was given all of Varric's content, as well as the Act 1 Finale mission. It was a lot for someone who had been doing the Cinematics thing for literally 6 months. [source] There's some stuff in there I can't look at without wincing. And there's some stuff I'm genuinely proud of. Not to mention, it was my introduction to most of the writing team. Several of whom I'm still working with today! Albeit in a different capacity [source] Also, weirdly, one of my most enduring memories of Dragon Age 2 is how much Bad Company 2 we'd play at lunch. It was a LOT. [source] Every game I've worked on has a game I played attached to it. ME2 is Borderlands. DA2 is Bad Company 2. DAI is DayZ. I, hmm. There's a progression there. I don't know how I feel about it. [source]

User: Is DA4 going to be tarkov then?

JE: I've kind of churned out of Tarkov for now. Probably Hunt Showdown, at least right now. [source]

User: I think people also don't take nuance into consideration -- like I FULLY acknowledge the flaws in my favorite games and will openly criticize them, but that doesn't mean they're not my favorite games anymore??? You can like and thing and still be critical of it.

JE: A lot of my favourite shit is deeply flawed! I acknowledge it and I think it's interesting to dissect the flaws. [source]

User: I still wish Justice was an actual character in DA2 rather than a plot point.

DG: There was a moment during DAI where we *almost* put in you running into Justice with the Grey Wardens, and he's all "Kirkwall? I never went to Kirkwall" [source]

User: Does that imply that Justice was shoehorned in to DA2?

DG: Nah, it was an in-joke where we thought it'd be fun to suggest that "Justice" was simply some demon that tricked Anders in DA2. Wooo those tricky demons! We didn't do it, though. [source]

User: [about templars] except, I don't think it had very much legitimacy to begin with. keep in mind, we interact with other characters with the same argument. The one that comes to mind is Cullen, a sane templar in power. The templar's side of the argument is inherently flawed.

DG: I don't doubt that many people agree with you, and yet people can and do argue on behalf of the templars as well. My place isn't to pick a side, but to provide evidence that players can interpret for themselves [source]

User: Can you shed some light for us on how DA was able to do multiple same-sex romance options for different genders but the Mass Effect team treated them like the plague? What process existed for your team that just wasn't their for the other tentpole franchise?

DG: Different people making the decisions, almost different cultures. I don't know what it's like now, but for many years the Mass Effect team and the Dragon Age team were almost like two different studios working within the same building. [source]

User: It truly boggles the mind. Kudos for doing demonstrably better on consistent queer representation than the ME teams. Y'all never needed us to make petitions to try to get the studio's attention and ask them to do better by us. That's the fight we're once again embroiled in now.

DG: Honestly, I don't feel like tut-tutting the Mass Effect team. They did their part, and if they were a bit later to the show than the DA team they certainly did more than almost every other game out there -- and willingly. [source]

Updates begin here

User: So what was the reason for naming Dragon age 2 "Dragon age II" and not using a subtitle?

DG: As I recall, that was purely a publisher decision. I think they wanted to avoid the impression it was an expansion. [source]

User: Is there no chance of ever remaking DA2 under better circumstances? -Somehow remove the repetitiveness of gameplay by making changes and updating the tech and adding much more to the storyline. It could almost be a new very exciting game.

DG: I'd say there's zero chance of that. Let's keep our hopes up for the next DA title instead. [source]

User: I am a little confused here, help me out here please! How exactly was the cut boss battle with Orsino supposed to work out? How it would've kept him from turning against the player?

DG: It means that, if you sided with the templars, the entire boss bottle at the end would have been against Orsino and the mages. No fight against Meredith. The end decision would have been more divergent. [source]

User: I do remember that one of the reasons going around for that, was that resources were going to the transition to Frostbite. I'm still not fully sold on that having been a good choice. I felt that more time should have been given for that transition considering it was made for FPSs

DG: We didn't transition to Frostbite until DAI. Given our time frame for DA2, I don't think we *could* have transitioned to a new engine. [source]

User: Since your talking about the what could have been for DA2. Could you say what your script was for Anthem? Cause I remember reading that you wrote the plot on that game.

DG: I created a setting for Anthem and scripted out a plot - but, as I understand it, almost none of that ended up being used. So it's a bit pointless to talk about what I'd planned, as that'd be for some completely different type of game. [source]

User: [in reference to the exchange above where DG said “Being "crazy", however, robbed her side of the mage/templar argument of any legitimacy. I hated hated hated that.” re: Meredith] except, I don't think it had very much legitimacy to begin with. keep in mind, we interact with other characters with the same argument. The one that comes to mind is Cullen, a sane templar in power. The templar's side of the argument is inherently flawed.

If I missed a tweet, got the wrong source link or included a tweet twice, feel free to let me know and I’ll correct.

Edit / Update: Post update 22nd April

#dragon age #bioware #video games #fenris #the Fenaissance #long post #longpost #cassandra pentaghast #my lady paladin #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #mass effect

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arcadialedger · 3 years

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Please note that I am most likely leaving this platform. I am done being abused. But first? We need to have a discussion. A discussion about hate and bullying in fandom.

All online-- I encourage you to read my story below. Reblog and spread awareness. The Dragon Prince fandom especially -- I implore you read my words, every single one of them. The short of it is that I am done.

This all began with losing and being blocked by a friend because I shared something they disagreed with. I don’t care what you feel about my initial reaction to this (which I’ll explain below) -- I’ve apologized for not handling the situation correctly. But I will not be shamed for speaking my mind and standing up for myself.

Because no human being deserves to go through what I have endured since last summer.

Following the “callout” post made about me by one of, if not the largest blogs in this fandom, I received hundreds of threats, harassment messages, and death threats. Messages and posts telling me to kill myself were also prominent, on a multiple times a week basis for awhile.

Messages from people who were well aware I have struggled with being suicidal. Due to one of their favorite Dragon Prince blogs speaking out against me, they thought it was okay to suicide bait me.

And it worked. I already struggle with hating myself, am already insecure, and being flooded with these comments which, while I made mistakes, did nothing to deserve, drove me to try and take my own life after years of progress in my mental health.

Mind you, this is like a 200 follower to 4k follower power dynamic. Which yes, plays a role-- because when you have a large following and influence, you have power. Yet the person behind this had the gall to claim Tumblr clout isn’t real.

People blocking and condemning others instantly at your word? Is power. If people read your words and are influenced, or have their minds changed, or buy or don’t buy something, etc.-- you are an influencer. You have power. And when you’re one of the largest blogs in a fandom, you have a LOT of power.

So take responsibility.

I was hurt because I lost a friend who I had chatted with for months, did a podcast with, and was generally not only one of my favorite blogs but the center of my experience in the Dragon Prince. I may not have been perfect in my words, but when I was asked why I was quiet/ inactive, I explained how I was hurting, anonymously. I was understandably in pain and upset. I had been cut off for just having a different opinion on a matter, for thinking differently. Even though it was within their rights to block and do so, it felt wrong and it weighed on me.

Is that such a crime?

The callout post and previously described abuse followed, lasting for months until later in the year (this began in June, or around then). It also included screenshots of tweets, when this user does not have Tumblr, and they have stated to have screenshots stored up on their computer of my various posts and interactions. This is creepy behavior, and freaked me out. I felt like I was being stalked, “evidence” being filed away for the very purpose of being used against me.

I eventually talked things out with the blog per recommendation of my therapist, and thought all would be fine. For a little while, it was. I largely stayed off of Tumblr to heal. Once in awhile I would have a rough, tearful night because something reminded me of what I lost, but I would make it through. Overall, I was making progress.

Then? My Twitter got hacked by one of the people sending me hate. For what had turned out to be much. And after they tweeted some purposefully incriminating and bigoted things to make me look bad, I came home from a weekend in the mountains to a shitstorm.

Twitter has a love hate relationship for me and I barely opened the app unless actively chatting with a friend. So when I saw 700+ notifications, I was surprised. It had never happened before.

I began to scroll through, and when I saw what had happened, I ran to the bathroom and threw up.

I had lost over half of my followers and a solid 60% of previous Twitter mutuals had blocked me. But worst of all, I had hundreds of hate tweets directed at me replying to the hackers tweets. Messages had been sent in DMs and accounts blocked, followed, and unfollowed as well.

If you have never felt that loss of agency-- that sickening feeling of words you never said next to your profile-- be glad. Because it is traumatic. I value my words. I value what I have to say. And having that taken from me was worse than anything I had been through here on Tumblr, outside of the suicide baiting (the most direct attack to me and my emotions/ insecurities throughout this entire ordeal). Further, this hacker had clearly stalked my tweets based on some of their comments.

Hundreds of tweets bashing me, calling me aphobic slurs (knowing I am asexual mind you, as it was in my bio), making fun of my appearance and targeting all of the insecurities which lead to my first suicide attempt in high school, and taking/ editing images of my face and mocking them. This all culminated in a doxing threat-- a doxing threat which made me feel unsafe on a campus I had already been sexually assaulted on. I was once again, after starting the healing process, thrusted back into the darkest time of my life and spiraled into anxiety and depression. I cried a lot overwhelmed by it all, had difficulty sleeping, and felt sick. I started fall semester and couldn’t concentrate on school. I was a mess.

I had once again been condemned, this time for something I had no part in. I tried to example what happened but nobody listened. I had been hung without trial. People were understandably confused, and my entire reputation on the platform, and my page, became a mess of lies, misunderstandings, and more.

If you don’t know the feeling of already hating yourself and being insecure, and having these beliefs reinforced and spread by hundreds publicly across the internet? Of already feeling lonely and unwanted and having the one space you thought you had taken from you? Consider yourself lucky.

I had a lot of voice actors and creators following me-- accounts I interacted and greatly cherished my mutual with. A handful of them unfollowed, understandably. This online hate mob was sending messages to people demanding they unfollow me, including some of these creators. They had no idea what to make of this mess or what was real and true and just didn’t want to deal with it. Most of the others just stopped interacting with me. @aaronwaltke (tagging so those who don’t follow already click and do so, because he is absolutely fantastic-- he’s a writer for ToA) who had followed me on the platform, graciously wished me peace with the entire situation after I checked to make sure he had not been subjected to messages or hate, either from my hacker or other accounts. His was the greatest compassion I got on Twitter, before I ultimately ended up just having to delete.

I lost podcast deals because of this with Adrian Petriw, Aaron Ehasz, and Justin Richmond. I do not blame them one bit and would have done the same in the confusion not wanting to get dragged into anything.

Only to have one of the friends I lost who helped start this interview these very people on their own podcasts. A slap in the face. A zine I had bought to support them came to my door, with the front page proclaiming to “spread a narrative of love.”

I was never granted that chance. That compassion. I had the vultures sent after me with no mercy. And anyone who has been through online abuse and systemic harassment knows just how much it feels like they’re slowly but surely picking at your flesh ( a metaphor I used in one of my old, since deleted posts discussing the situation, and still find accurate), wearing you down until you have no strength left.

Make no mistake, my story is not a one off situation. Many share the same tale of abuse and being driven off of platforms that once gave them great joy. These attacks are coordinated, systemic, and common hobby for these people-- who largely claim to be loving and accepting of all. They are a cyberbullying phenomenon which has risen with the presence of fandom on the internet. And I want to make clear, with current discussions of “cancel culture”, I mean nothing political in that statement. Some might call my experience cancel culture, but I don’t.

It’s just bullying. It’s just hate. These people get off on ruining people’s lives.

And my life was greatly set back and ruined. I had a stain on my past in fandom I could never be rid of. I had to shut down my podcast, took time off of all social media, and most of what I had built, most of my growth, was taken from me while those who incited and/ or spread hate thrived and continued to grow and find success. That was the greatest sting of all.

I asked the one previous friend who hadn’t blocked me, but had just stopped interacting with me (which I understood and respected, and also greatly respected her perspective, help, and support though this situation in which she largely unfortunately ended up in the middle) for help after explaining everything, and got nothing. They didn’t seem to care, and just blocked me on all platforms. Once in awhile, I would find I was cut off from yet another old friend, or a blog that I had never interacted with before but clicked into, interested. It hurt being cut off, unable to fully interact with the fandom, but I could move on.

That pain would never go away, but I made clear I did not blame them for the actions of those who abused, harassed, and threatened me. I also made it clear they did not owe me anything, including unblocking.

I just wanted to move on peacefully, but those with the power to enable that did not wish to help. I slowly, when I felt ready, began to be more active on Tumblr again, and once again the hate started up.

Sometimes when I was hurting, I expressed my pain and loss to my followers just to reach out, because I was sad. I had no idea how to rebuild from all that had happened. This got me more hate an accusations of emotional manipulation and gaslighting. I had no idea what to do, and got trapped in a cycle of needing to talk about it, and getting hate and backlash, but not knowing where else I could turn.

My doxer came back into my asks, ultimately making me switch schools, and refueled the drama. Speaking up about this got me more backlash-- mostly accounts reblogging (one with tags saying “fuck you”, despite not knowing the full story, and commenting and then blocking me so I could do nothing to respond or get it off of my page. I deleted all posts of the matter, as requested by these people (who validly pointed out they were in the main fandom tags, which I hadn’t thought of and understood), and hoped to move on.

But it hasn’t stopped. I have been beaten down and emotionally bruised for months. I have had my life and safety threatened, my education and by extension life path altered, and lost work (podcast) opportunities due to this-- alongside the irreversible emotional damage from trauma and abuse. My mental health issues and insecurities-- which I have been very open about to destigmatize the subjects and encourage conversation-- were actively targeted to inflict the most pain possible.

And I can’t even talk about it, without enduring more hate and accusations of “playing the victim”.

Death threats, suicide baiting, doxing, months of bullying and harassment to the most vile degree, which a lot of these people don’t know about because they don’t even bother to read my words. Yet I’m playing the victim.

And the accusations of bigotry and being hateful hurt, because it couldn’t be further from what is in my heart. I believing in love and acceptance of all. I don’t know how many are religious here, but I found God after my first suicide attempt and that is what his word has taught me.

I’ve been through too much in life to tolerate this, for lack of a more eloquent term, bullshit. I know what abuse and victim blaming looks like when I see it. And in my 20 years of life, I have gone through too much: constant ridicule and bullying, suicide attempts, sexual assault, major spinal surgery, to just be stomped over and not stand up for my right to basis human decency.

I refuse to put up with this, so unless I get an apology and some semblance of justice for everything I have been through, I am leaving. I will not participate in a space run by hate and toxicity. I will never claim to be perfect, and I have apologized for my mistakes and wrongdoings. Now, hold those who did this accountable. If you’re reading this you know very well who it was, and I am not naming them for those who don’t. Because at the end of the day I still send nothing but love and wish no ill will towards them.

But I’ll be damned if I don’t expect accountability of one of the greatest influencers in the fandom for their complacency in abuse, threats, suicide baiting, and and absolute ruining of my life and online experience. They enabled this and were well aware they had the power to stop it-- to ask their followers to stop-- and did nothing. They didn’t care-- about a human’s life and well being.

@dragonprinceofficial, are you aware that this is what many of the fans of your show, which preaches love and an end to the cycle of vengeance, do to others? That this is happening in your space? If you stand at all by the values you preach, condemn it. @staffTumblr/ @supportTumblr-- shame on you for allowing this abuse to happen and ignoring my reports. Shame on you for permitting these people to operate in your platform and for being okay with hosting hate. People have been driven to suicide on your website-- I am one of the lucky ones.

If you care at all about humanity and stand against this behavior, reblog and spread awareness. Share my story so I may not happen to anyone else. Tag @dragonprinceofficial until they notice and speak out.

This is my story, and so many others. Make sure it doesn’t happen ever again. No human being deserves to be treated how I was. Everyone deserves compassion, decency, and respect. And everyone deserves a place in fandom. Do better. If you want to reach out to me DMs are open, as well as my email, which is attached to my account. Until this change happens and I am given the support/ help needed to safely function on this platform, this blog will not be active outside of that.

Thank you all of the many accounts who have supported me, and I am working on getting back to all who have reached out! Your love means the world. You know who you are, and I don’t want to tag in case people come after you for showing me kindness. I am sorry if this is goodbye, to all that have enjoyed my blog. I enjoyed it for a long time too. I loved sharing my passion for stories, culture, having a space where I could analyze and discuss my favorite things. I loved getting to share what I had to offer with the world, having fun and posting jokes with my unique sense of humor. I loved interacting with intelligent people/ fellow fans and discussing my favorite stories, offering each other new insights and growing together. I loved the many, many kind and wonderful people who reached out to me in a variety of ways and provided support and friendship.

In the end, it just isn’t worth all of this pain and trauma, and I know when to put my foot down. I don’t want pity, I don’t want apologizes, and I’m not a martyr. I just want my story to make a difference-- to spur positive change in fandom culture/ spaces. I will be tagging all fandoms in which I have seen this kind of abuse present as well, to reach as many as possible.

Be safe, and be kind.

- The Arcadia Ledger/ Ryn/ Katie, signing off.

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bisexualdaemon · 4 years

Text

Cake

a/n: when tipsy meets twitter, all bets are off

hello! I woke up three days ago like I’d been reborn in my love for this kid, so I wrote this filth 😅 i’ve posted a few times recently about this video but if you haven’t seen it, scroll my blog or search cake lol trust me it’s worth your time.

(masterlist is linked in my description)

warnings: 3.9k of absolute filth

Movie night had ended hours ago, giving way to sleepy rideshares and drunken footsteps into the second bedroom. Brian was passed out and snoring in the giant armchair across from you. The Top Gun drinking game had gone wrong at around the eighth high five and completely derailed at the sixth “Iceman,” which became a salud of sorts in the room. Beer cans, mango White Claws, and the occasional tequila bottle littered the kitchen island.

“Psst, are you awake?” a toe poked your side from above. Shawn looked down at you with a cocked eyebrow from under his crooked elbow. You’d taken residence behind his legs, resting your head on his hip to watch the movie, bowing out of getting totally trashed. Your lips were still tingly enough to be dangerous.

“Yeah,” you croaked, clearing your throat and stretching, “I’m awake.”

“Are you suuure?” he slurred, tired and tipsy. The smirk was audible, “I thought I felt you drooling through my sweatpants.” His breath came out in a whoosh when you punched him in the abs with your outstretched arm.

“How’s that for awake, fucker?!” He chuckled and caught at your hand, unfisting your fingers and playing with them as he pulled out his phone. You let him. You even opened your hand fully so he could trace little patterns on your palm.

It had been like this for a few months, the flirting, the touching. A drunken night of 20-somethings playing spin the bottle had ended with multiple people clearing their throats with wide eyes as Shawn kissed you.

My God, he had kissed you. Fingers splayed against your neck, his lips gently interlocked with yours. It started out chaste, just two mouths touching, but as soon as he swiped his tongue across your bottom lip, it was game over. The people, the voices, your friends, all melted away and it was just the two of you. His top lip between yours. Gentle sucking pressure. His body heat radiating onto your skin. It was everything you never knew you wanted. Until Connor clapped Shawn on the shoulder and ripped him away, turning the two of you into human embarrassed laughing emojis.

Since then, it had been like this. His hand on your lower back at the coffee shop, lazy naps together after midday movies, play fighting and fake indignation after one too many shots at the bar. Your friends all shared sideways looks and snide smirks every time you hung out but you hadn’t crossed any lines again and you definitely hadn’t talked about it. Whatever it was didn’t need conversation. It was fun. It was nothing. He was busy. He was a globally-famous popstar. You were normal. The last thing you wanted was one of those embarrassing tabloid articles, “15 Things You Need to Know About Shawn Mendes’s New Fling.” So, in the quiet moments, you let him trace patterns on your palm and send shivers down to your toes.

“Hey, come up here, I’m scrolling Twitter,” he swept his fingers down to your wrist and gave it a tug, a little giddiness in his tone. He made space for you in front of him on the couch, giving you his bicep as a pillow. You settled back against his hard chest and let your legs weave into his. He’s so goddamn warm. It was a mistake wearing jean shorts to his condo. There was a part of you that wondered if he turned the A/C down on purpose but you didn’t want to think about why.

Scrolling Twitter, where Shawn saw the most fan activity, was one of your favorite pastimes. Seeing the reactions to this dude you knew in real life was occasionally shocking, sometimes horrifying, but always amusing. He held the phone out in front of you and thumbed through his feed.

Most of his mentions were about missing him. He’d been on a break since the end of his last tour, taking some time to himself without a schedule for every minute of every day. For a guy who had been taking photos with fans pretty much everyday for the last seven years, you understood why they might be freaking out. He’d broken the pattern. Thank God for that.

You tried to keep your eyes from crossing at the repeated “I miss Shawn @shawnmendes” tweets and the feeling of his alcohol-warmed fingers against your hip. I shouldn’t want this.

“Wait!” you snapped a finger at his phone, “what was that?”

“Oh, that?” he scrolled back, “it’s just an old video.” His voice broke a couple octaves on the last bit. The tweet was accompanied by the wide-eyed blushing emoji. Curious. You raised an eyebrow and watched. He was eating a guitar-shaped cake...with his hands. Mouth wide open, his face buried over and over in thick pieces of chocolate cake with some kind of blue frosting on it. It was fucking filthy. You rubbed your thighs together absent-mindedly.

“What do the comments say?” You poked at his phone before he could move it away.

“Oh, nothing really,” his voice was still high, which meant he knew what the comments likely said. You huffed and grabbed at the phone. “Shawn, you know I have Twitter, I’ll see it whether you like it or not!” You rammed your hips backward, pausing for a second when you felt something you weren’t expecting, but not for too long. He sucked in a breath, coughing, and dropped his phone—right into your waiting hands.

“Hahaha!” You jumped up and ran to the other side of the big white couch, kicking your legs in victory, “I win!” He tripped over his own oversized limbs before he got to you, falling to the floor within reach of your feet. He reached out and pulled your legs toward him, framing his face between your thighs. Your giggles stopped short and your face flamed.

“Can you assholes get a room?!” Brian was awake and fussing at the thin fleece blanket he’d scrounged off the back of the couch. He rolled over mumbling something that sounded like just fucking fuck already but you were too busy thinking about Shawn’s head still between your legs to be bothered by it.

Shawn slowly lifted his finger to his lips in the universal sign to be quiet and untangled himself to stand. He reached out a hand and you didn’t hesitate to grab it, leading you to his bedroom down the hall. You held his phone in a death grip, unwilling to let go in case he caught you off guard.

The room was dark, save for his phone, the rectangle reflecting a solid white off the wall of glass facing the city. The CN Tower lights flickered in the late night sky, seemingly suspended in midair. His unmade bed was the biggest and brightest thing in the room. A white comforter hung half on the floor at an odd angle off the corner of the mattress, his white sheets completely exposed. The pillows were all scrunched up at the headboard, like he’d been kicking and pushing all night long. Like he hadn’t slept soundly in weeks.

“Okay, so what you’re about to read…” he shut the door behind him, scrubbing at the back of his neck, “it’s gonna be weird, but like it’s fine I’m used to it. They’re...a little invasive.” Weird? Invasive? Curiouser and curiouser…

You walked over to his bed, picking up the comforter and tossing it haphazardly back onto the bed, and sat on the edge staring at the video and letting it play a few more times. Then you swiped down.

@canadianmendussy: ALEXA PLAY BIRTHDAY CAKE BY RIHANNAAAAA

@perfectlyru1n: oh my goD does he really go down like thAT?!

“Oh...my God,” you covered your mouth to keep from laughing, “you’ve seen this before?”

He bounced on the mattress facedown, mumbling something into the sheets.

“What was that?” you asked, with Southern sweet tea levels of sugar. You ruffled his hair, brushing through his curls. He turned his head, his face flushed with more than just alcohol.

“I said yes, I’ve seen it before…” he opened one eye and looked up at you, “I usually just ignore them.”

There were over 400 replies on this tweet, some people chiding the horny stans for posting something Shawn can see, others just piling on.

@illuminateruin: is that cake gluten-free?

@kidinlover: @illuminateruin idk but I know pussy is

@particularbenito: CAN HE EAT PUSSY LIKE THAT?!?!?!

“Can he eat pussy like that...” you read out loud under your breath, your mind conjuring up that image of his face between your thighs. Shawn’s head shot up, eyes wide.

“What???” His face was practically magenta at this point, “is that a serious question??”

“What? Uhh, no. Not serious. A reply actually,” you rushed, giving him a sideways look. I mean...maybe it was a serious question? The curiosity was going to kill you. Oh, no. No, no, no. Your lips tingled.

“Well, I mean….can you?” You could hear the glint in your eye.

Fuck it all.

“Can I….w-what?” he stuttered, the air crackling between the two of you. He looked like a cornered animal, like the wrong move would get him killed.

“Can you,” you pushed a loose curl out of his face and nodded toward his phone, “eat pussy like that?”

Oh, God, did I just…?

“I’ve never gotten any complaints,” your head popped up at his self-satisfied tone. Gone was the red-faced shy boy talking about embarrassing fans. The Shawn in front of you was...confident. Hungry. His fingers grazed your ankles resting beside him. It didn’t escape your notice. You shivered.

It wasn’t cold.

“M-maybe they were just too afraid to tell a big, famous rockstar that he sucked,” you were the one stuttering now, face heating by the second.

“Oh, sucking was definitely part of it,” his fingers traced the indent in your calf. You refused to pull away even though you should, even though part of you—a small, shrinking part—knew that if this went where it was definitely going, things were going to change. You snuck a finger under his chin to pull his gaze to yours.

“Is that a promise?”

“I don’t know,” he flashed a toothy smile, gravity and sheer force of will pulling his body toward yours, “is that an invitation?”

I’m probably gonna regret this in the morning.

Your lips crashed into his, giving him your answer. His mouth was hot, his breathing heavy. Tongues and teeth and lips wrestled together, refusing to part while he made his way above you, crawling on hands and knees between your legs as you settled against the pillows. He licked up into your mouth just before nibbling on your bottom lip, forcing a moan from deep inside you. This was primal, the need you felt with him. Like once you came together, nothing could break you apart.

His hands moved up your body, scratching gently at your exposed legs and slipping beneath your hoodie. He broke away from your lips to shuck off your top and expose all your delicate skin. His fingers slipped beneath your lace bralette and he played with the tiny clasp between your breasts.

“Is this okay?” he asked, a little out of breath, his thin t-shirt pressing against your skin.

You nodded so quickly you thought your neck might snap. He popped the clasp and spread his calloused hands across your chest. The friction was glorious. Your body chased his fingers involuntarily, bowing up off the high thread count sheets.

“Be still, baby,” he whispered, dipping his head and placing an open mouthed kiss just above your belly button. Your eyes rolled back at the pet name, another moan escaping your lips. Warmth rushed between your legs.

“Shawn,” you gasped, trying to control your breathing so he didn’t know just how fucked you were, “when I gave you an invitation, I didn’t expect you to be late to the party.” You rocked your hips up into his chest pointedly.

“Well, I can't just jump to the entrée, can I?” He fiddled with the button on your denim shorts, loosening it with a little pop. Teasing, he licked at a freckle just above your hip before sucking at it with enough force to leave a mark.

“Fuck!” Your hands shot down to his mop of curls, fingers buried in the thick locks. He pulled and nibbled at that spot over and over, all while grazing his fingers just beneath the waistband of your simple cotton cheeky panties.

When he pulled away, an angry red violet half-moon colored the skin. He took one last lick, smiling at your gasp in response.

“I love that sound,” he sat back on his heels between your legs, looking down at your heaving chest.

“I’ll make it again if you take that shirt off,” you reached for him with grabby hands, trying to Harry Potter that shit. He laughed and did the boy thing, grabbing his shirt at the back of his neck before tugging it forward off his body.

The gasp came again. Not even on purpose or because you’s promised him, but because he was so stupid gorgeous in the low light of the city you couldn’t help yourself. You’d seen him in hot tubs and at sweaty summer parties and in those fucking Calvin Klein pictures, but none of that compared to having him shirtless between your thighs just a few inches from your outstretched fingers.

His chest was flushed, some combination of adrenaline and alcohol. Little freckles dotted his lightly tanned skin all the way up his torso to the dusting of chest hair that colored his chest. His perfect pink nipples were hard against the cool air of the room, begging for you to touch or kiss or bite. Or all of the above. You reached out to trace his appendix scar where it peaked out of his low-slung sweatpants. His body danced away from you as he caught at your hand.

“Don’t,” he growled, weaving his fingers between yours and pressing his lips onto the back of your palm like a fucking Victorian gentleman. Like he wasn’t staring down at your hardening nipples thinking about how good they would feel pinched warm between his fingers. He tipped forward, bracing himself against the mattress, his mouth just a few centimeters from your skin. Dragging flesh against flesh, he left kisses at random in the valley between your breasts. Moving farther and farther down your body, he paused, sitting up on his heels.

“Are you sure?” He was breathing heavy, looking straight through you, both hands hovering around the edges of your shorts. You were nodding before he even finished his question.

He curled his fingers around all the fabric in his way, denim and cotton both, and dragged the offending pieces of clothing down your legs, lifting them off and tossing them against the wall across the room. You breathed steady, looking at him looking at you. His mouth hung open in speechless wonder.

“You’re fucking beautiful,” he whispered, settling back between your thighs, a mirror of his earlier pose on the couch. Another wave of heat rushed straight to your clit, silently screaming for him.

“I know,” you brushed through his curls, giving him a suggestive grin when he looked up at you, “I taste good too.��

That was all the permission he needed. A second later, he buried his face between your legs, nudging your knees over his shoulders. His tongue swirled in circles around your clit finishing in random flicks. He moaned into you, his lips closing around your swollen folds with gently sucking pressure.

“Shit, Shawn!” you shouted, praying to the gods that everyone still in the condo was too drunk and passed out to hear you. The white sheets bunched in your fists, arms spread wide. Your thighs clamped down against his ears.

He continued his licks and flicks, snaking his hands up your legs and gently prying your legs apart. You clenched hard as he pinned your thighs to the mattress, holding you open with his forearms. Filthy sounds echoed off the walls, wet sucking, moaning from both of you. He dipped his chin and circled your entrance with his tongue, lapping at you.

“Christ!” your hands shot into his damp curls. He was working hard down there, flexing and moaning and fighting your spasms. You looked down and saw his hips impatiently rutting into the mattress. It only made you wetter, gushing onto his waiting tongue. He drank everything you gave him.

“He’s not here,” he said in a low and gravelly voice, a little breathless. He pulled back, the bottom half of his face shining in the dark. His fingers toyed with your sensitive, wet lips, watching as you twitched and trembled, so close to the edge. A firm circle around your clit had your back bowing, contorting backward off the bed. A single tear rolled down your temple.

“I’m so close,” you panted, trapping his outstretched hand against your skin.

“Shawn, I need you.”

“Need me?” His fingers paused, “need me where?”

“Oh, God, don’t stop,” you choked out, a sob threatening. Your back arched up off the sheets again to find friction. “I need...I need you inside me.”

At some point between your words and the needy moan that followed, he’d removed his sweatpants and a black pair of Calvins. You heard him rustling his hand inside the bedside table followed by the metallic sound of foil and the sharp scent of latex. Thank fuck he’s prepared.

When he dropped down onto his forearms, hovering an inch from where you needed him, you were dripping onto the sheets, grinding down into the mattress waiting desperately for him. He ran his nose over your collarbone, peppering kisses along your neck. It was slow and deliberate. A fucking tease.

“Shawn,” you pulled his face up to yours, all squished between your hands, “if you don’t fuck me right now, I swear I will…”

He pressed inside to the hilt in one swift motion, cutting off your threat.

“What are you swearing to do, princess?” he asked, a smirk and a fire in his eyes. The moan that escaped you in response was embarrassingly loud. He stilled and closed his eyes, allowing you to adjust. You took even breaths, relaxing into his hips, holding on to his shoulders for dear life. His cock was perfect. He was perfect.

I am so fucked.

He moved, slowly at first, stroking all the right places. When his hips separated from yours, pulling almost all the way out, he rutted back inside. It was deep, long thrusts touching some place inside you weren’t sure you knew was there. Your head thrashed against the pillows. Your grip on his shoulders turned sharp, clawing long red-raw marks into his pale skin.

“I’m not gonna last long,” he hissed into your ear, “fuck, you’re so tight.” His abs scraped against your body like a washboard, the tension clear in his muscles. He was wound up, ready to shatter. He crashed into you, repeatedly slapping skin against skin. His fingers found your clit, rubbing tight, slow circles in contrast with the punishing rhythm of his hips. He lifted one of your legs over his hip to change the angle, to make you even tighter around him. A bead of salty-sweet sweat dropped from his chest into your mouth.

“Right...there,” you groaned, your eyes rolling back, “I’m gonna come!”

“That’s right, honey,” he grunted, flattening his fingers across your clit with intense pressure, “come for me.”

The room went white. The sound of your hips colliding was replaced with a high-pitched ring. Your world seemed to implode, your muscles moving independently. He wrapped his arms around your middle and held you as he fucked you through the waves, his weight the only thing keeping you from being swept away in the current.

“Stay here with me,” he cooed, sweet but taut in his throat. Your heart slammed against your ribs in rhythm with his hips. He grunted once, twice, three times with his final thrusts and came undone, pumping into the condom. Biting down on your shoulder to stifle his sounds, he sucked hard enough to leave an angry mark. You contracted around him, both inside and out, curling around his thighs and back and neck, letting the full weight of his completely spent body bring you back to full consciousness.

“Hey,” you fingered his frizzed and fucked curls, “Shawn?”

“Hmm?” he nuzzled into your hands and squeezed you a little tighter.

“You’re crushing me,” you exhaled, strained.

“Oh, fuck! I’m sorry!”

He shifted to his side, accidentally pulling out too quickly, making both of you wince.

“Shit, shit, I’m so sorry,” he was so cute when he was scrambling. He got up and threw out the used condom, quickly returning from the adjoining bathroom with a damp cloth.

“Come here,” he held his arms out, making a perfect you-sized place in front of him. You slid into it easily and let him press the cloth between your legs, wincing again.

“Did I hurt you?” There was so much concern in his voice.

“No, no, I just…” you held onto his arm, glad to be facing away, “I haven’t been fucked like that in awhile.”

“Glad to be of service.” You didn’t have to be looking at him to see his smug smile. Reaching back, you slapped his thigh in retaliation. He caught your hand and kissed it like a Victorian gentleman again, like it made up for his cockiness. You tried to convince yourself that it didn’t, flushing even harder than your just-fucked body should have allowed. He wrapped his arm around your front and intertwined your legs, snuggling his face into the nape of your neck.

“So, uhhh, are we gonna do this again?” he asked, barely concealing the hope in his voice.

“Shhh,” you said, yawning for effect, “we’ll talk about it in the morning. Just sleep.”

He exhaled against your back, placing one last kiss on the mark you were sure he’d left in the midst of his orgasm. You stared out into the Toronto skyline as his breathing evened, his quiet snores barely audible against the screaming voices in your head. As the light crept into the room, as morning dawned on your sleepless night, you repeated his question over and over again.

Are we gonna do this again?

There was an easy answer: yes. Yes, yes, yes, my God, yes you were going to do this again. But there was another, harder question to answer beneath it. If we do this again, will we ever be able to stop?

***

taglist: @justanotherfangurl272 @siennarossi @trustfundshawn @alone-in-madness @harryandmolly @thatindiannerdygirl @fromthicctosticcc @softmendesss @sinplisticshawn @nedthegay @september-lace @itrocksmysocks @disaster-rose @mendesoft @luvluvxx @i-play-video-games @ihearthemcallingforyou @gentleshawn @kitykatnumber @enchantingbrowneyedgirl @ijustreallylikeshawnokay @shhhawnmendes @shawnsblue @imaginashawnns @mendesficsxbombay @shawn-youth @kerwritesthings @starlightsivann @lavenderhoneymndes @begginyouformendes @fallinallincurls @shawn-youth @linanilssonfurberg @lostinshawnsmemory @bucky-ish

(as always let me know if you want on/off the tag list...I realize I don’t post regularly and like half of these people could be out of the fandom lol)

#shawn mendes #shawn mendes imagine #shawn mendes fic #shawn mendes fanfiction #shawn mendes smut #shawn peter raul mendes #my writing #yeah it took me a little more than an hour but it's HERE and that's all that MATTERS

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mosh-4 · 4 years

Text

“we’re really funny” pt. 2

harry styles imagine

“we’re really funny” pt. 2 - the aftermath of the tiktok

“we’re really funny”

you woke up the next morning to your phone blowing up. you rolled over to grab your phone from your nightstand. you had notifications from practically every social media app you had and text messages from almost all of your friends and family. you had multiple texts from your cousin.

(y/c/n): im so sorry

(y/c/n): that was such a bad idea

(y/c/n): shit

(y/c/n): i think some of the fans followed my Instagram

(y/c/n): i posted those pictures from your wedding

(y/c/n): it’s all good now. i made my account private

you let out a sigh and rolled back over to face your sleeping husband. you drew your attention back to your phone and replied to your cousin.

you: it’s okay. don’t stress.

after you hit send, you opened your Instagram. you were thankful for your account being private, but now you had thousands of follow requests. they must have gotten your Instagram from the pictures on your cousin’s account that you were tagged in.

you scroll down to the picture from your wedding.

you smile at the picture. thankfully, your cousin hadn’t tagged you or Harry. you laughed to yourself at your comment on her post. why had you decided to wear those gigantic heels?

Harry stirred next to you before turning to face you with his eyes barely open.

“good morning,” he mumbled still half asleep.

“good morning, lovie,” you reply admiring his sleepy appearance. his hair was disheveled with curls all over the place.

“hmmm,” he hummed opening his eyes to look at you. “so what’s the damage?”

“i haven’t really looked. (y/c/n) said a bunch of fans followed her before she could make her account private.”

Harry reached for his phone on his nightstand. his thumbs tapped over the screen for a minute before he spoke up. he got on twitter and looked through his mentions. some of the pictures of the two of you together were already circulating. they were pictures that the fans had already seen, yet now they had paid more attention to your presence in each picture. some fans had theories that you two were together. others thought you were just a friend.

the pictures they had taken from (y/c/n)’s account added fuel to the fire. she had posted pictures of the her, you, and Harry from christmas and thanksgiving. he was also seen in the background of some pictures. the picture from the wedding seemed to be the most popular. even though he wasn’t featured in the picture, fans were trying to connect the dots between the you and Harry. if you were married, did that make Harry just a friend? the fans didn’t know what to think, which really fueled their speculation and theories.

“i got a few messages from Jeff and Grimmy,” he said breaking the silence. “Jeff wants to know if we are going public, and Grimmy said if we were going public, he wants us to come on his show.”

you were silent for a minute. did you want to go public? so soon? yet, there was no purpose of keeping it secret anymore. you were married now. nothing was gonna change that.

“should we?” you ask him.

his eyes moved to you before placed his phone on the bed and turning fully toward you.

“do you want to?”

“i’d be okay with it,” you said. “it’s not like they would know every aspect of our lives. they would just know about us.”

“you’d be giving up your privacy though,” he said. “i can’t ask you to do that.”

you sat up. the sheets pooled at your waist as you did so.

“hey dingbat,” you started. “i married you. i knew what i was getting into. i’m okay with it.”

he laughed at you. you only called him “dingbat” when he said something stupid or idiotic. you had a habit of calling the people you love by insulting names. it was one of your ways of showing affection. he never really understood it. maybe, it had something to do with growing up with your older cousins who would pick on you, but he wasn’t sure.

“i know. i just worry about you. you could get mobbed by fans or paps. you are going to lose part of your freedom of flying under the radar,” he said taking your hand in his. “i just want to keep you safe.”

“and i will be, haz. i’m always cautious.” you place your hands on his cheeks. “we’ll be alright.”

Harry was silent for a beat. you could tell he was contemplating the pros and cons of the situation.

“so we’re doing it then?” he asked. “you’re absolutely sure?”

“yes. i am absolutely sure,” you say dropping your hands from his face. “i think it’s time we let a few more people into our little world.”

Harry sat up with you reaching for his phone.

“and by a few, you mean a couple thousands, maybe millions?”

“sure,” you shrug.

he gave you a goofy grin before he began typing on his phone.

“how should we do it?” he asked looking to you. “should i post something? or tweet something?”

“you could post pictures from the wedding, and i can make my account public. i have wedding pictures on there.”

he nodded before his gaze was fixed on his screen while he scrolled. he started to smirk.

“you’re gonna have to help me pick. you’re so beautiful in all of these.”

you gave him a goofy smile before tucking yourself under his arm. you laid your head onto his chest so you could see his phone screen.

Harry sent a text to Jeff and Grimmy letting them both know that they were going public before he went back to the wedding pictures. you both scrolled through them remembering the day.

“i love this one,” you said stopping at the picture of the two of you holding each other. you could only see the back of your dress and hair with his hair and hands. it was beautiful and perfect for posting on his Instagram. it was intimate, yet there wasn’t a lot of PDA.

“i do, too,” he said. “should i use this one?”

“yeah, i like it. it’s perfect.”

you watching him as he uploaded the picture to his Instagram. he captioned it with your wedding date before posting it.

“you should post one, too.” he said looking down to you. “we are doing this together, after all.”

you laugh.

“okay,” you picked your phone up from the bed. “help me find a picture. we should do a different one than the one you posted. the fans are going to want more content.”

“i swear to god if you weren’t married to me, you’d be one of them,” he laughed.

you sit up a bit leaning up to look at him with a shocked face placing a hand on your chest.

“excuse me,” you scoffed. “i may have matured a bit, but i am still a fan of one direction. i know my people.”

he laughed before placing a kiss on your forehead.

“yes, you do, love. yes, you do,” he murmured into your hair.

you scrolled through the rest of the pictures until you got to the fun ones taken at your reception. you both laughed at the pictures of your brother and cousins attempting to dance as if they were in a nightclub. there was one of you and your cousin in the middle of your secret handshake while you were dancing with Harry and she was dancing with her boyfriend. you finally landed on another one of your favorites.

“ooo,” Harry said stopping you. “i like this one.”

it was a picture of the two of you dancing with you looking up at him laughing and him smiling down at you.

“me too,” you hummed in agreement. “should i post it?”

“yeah, i love that one. it’s got your smile.” he wrapped his arms around you a bit tighter.

“you’re a sap,” you said laughing.

“hmmm. i know.”

you entered your Instagram, and you made your account public. you uploaded the post and began to write your caption before you posted it.

you both laid back in bed while you scrolled through the comments and tweets about the two of you. you watched the chaos of your husband’s fans, and you laughed together at some of their tweets.

you both sent messages to each of your families letting them that you announced it to the world and that it was safe for them to share it as well.

Grimmy sent Harry another text.

grimmy: so will i see you on radio 1?

Harry turned to you.

“Grimmy wants to know if we’ll go on his show,” he said.

you looked up from your phone.

“the both of us?”

“yeah, you up for it?”

“hmmm,” you hummed while you thought about it. “i guess so.”

“it’s Grimmy. what’s could go wrong?” Harry shrugged.

you sat up.

“literally everything. literally everything could go wrong. have you met him?” you joked.

he laughed in agreement. Grimmy was a friend, but he did have his way of embarrassing the both of you.

“i’ll tell him we’ll do it,” he laughed while typing on his phone.

“mkay,” you said laying back down on Harry’s shoulder.

you scrolled through the comments a bit more laughing at your friend’s and cousin’s responses and reactions. you were glad that you went public. you got to share your love with the world, and it was so refreshing.

you were so grateful for that damn tiktok.

hope you enjoyed! feel free to send requests - mosh

#harry styles #harry styles imagines #harry styles imagine #harry styles x reader #harrystyles #harry styles x y/n #one direction #onedirection #one direction imagines

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wickedpact · 3 years

Note

what's your favorite headcanon and what's your least favorite headcanon?

OKAY so i have two for favorite bc one of them i think technically counts as a theory bc it COULD reasonably be canon and the other one is just a hc of mine BUT

fav hc: italian is kind of a comfort language for the whole OG squad. not bc of any particular history or talent with it for most of them, but bc italian is nicky’s best language BY FAR (including english) and nicky is also somewhat slow at learning new languages-- at least in comparison to the others.

so whenever someone needs something translated or if someone -just in general- needs a complicated idea explained to them, everyone defaults to italian to do so rather than english, bc nicky is usually the one who needs said translations/explanations. and it just came to a point where they all associated explaining things like that with italian.

this results in several scenarios where nile is left staring blankly at joe/booker/andy/quynh/nicky when she asks them what something in a language She Doesnt Know means and she gets babbled at in italian (another language she doesnt know) for a solid thirty seconds

fav hc that IS ACTUALLY MORE OF A THEORY: you know how... when merrick brings up shakespheare at the penthouse joe and nicky Look(TM) at each other, and joe is like :/ and nicky is Almost Smiling... and... you know.... gina’s one tweet where she confirmed joe and nicky canonly knew shakespheare. well i have sort of read two(2) of shakespheare‘s plays and ive forgotten most of both of them

but I HAVE read shakespheare‘s Fair Youth sonnets (all like 100 something of them) and nicky being shakespheare‘s Fair Youth makes (almost) ALL THE SENSE IN THE WORLD ive got an essay in me about it. i could write a dissertation about it. aside from a couple small details it makes A LOT OF SENSE if u look at some of the sonnets. anyways so nicky is shakespheare‘s Fair Youth thats the theory

least fav hc: i. ive seen this a couple times and it boggles me. but you know the whole ‘nicky is the knife’ thing? THATS cute i dont have a problem with that, but when you see people talking abt joe and nicky cuddling + Nicky Being The Knife sometimes you see people give this weird implication that. joe and nicky spoon... Because nicky is the knife?

like obviously, nicky sleeps between joe and the door bc joe wakes up slow and nicky’s looking out for him. id argue that thats even the setup in the comic bc the one time you see joe and nicky sleeping in said comic you see nicky has his sword in arm’s reach. so like nicky positioning him and joe so that nicky is in a place to deal w incoming threats while joe is still 60% asleep: yeah alright okay good.

but i see people saying, even in the replies/tags of some of my own posts sometimes, that like. thats the reason they cuddle. like. nicky is the little spoon because hes the knife. and like..... no. they cuddle bc thats what they find. cozy.

like, they live this lifestyle where, like andy says, you get sleep where you can. their work is thoroughly exhausting, right. and theyve been together for 900 years, theyve almost certainly broken Sleeping In The Same Bed down to its bare essentials and they came out the other end of doing that spooning literally every night of their lives. what with their lifestyle and how long theyve lived i doubt theyre sleeping in ANY way besides the one that they find to be Maximum Comfy

i see people implying that the spooning is So nicky can protect joe but... nicky could protect joe at night without the spooning. they could share a bed without the spooning. joe could sleep between nicky and the wall without the spooning. as a matter of fact the spooning might make reacting to a threat even HARDER bc theyre all tangled up together. and its just weird to me that ppl can look at the Snuggles and go ‘oh theyre doing that so nicky can protect joe’ its like..... sucking all the romance out of the thing. it sounds like something a hetero historian would say.

like an art historian looking at a painting of two dudes spooning and being like ‘ah yes the warrior in the front is clearly looking out for his comrade by placing himself closer to the door--’ like nah dude theyre cuddling. like idk what people got against cuddling that theyre implying the only reason joe and nicky cuddle is strategy but ive seen it multiple times now and every time im just??? boggled

#Anonymous #like nicky Being The Knife and The Spooning #are 2 things that happen 2 coexist #but saying joe and nicky spoon Because nicky is the knife #idk i dont like that. they spoon bc they like the snuggles #like why would you make SNUGGLES strategic it just sucks all the fun out of the thing

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enchantedpickaxe · 3 years

Text

Talk Me Down

DNF fic written for the 404cord gift exchange.

3.1k words of angst and fluff for my favorite discord server. Enjoy the read <3

George has not been feeling well. He is usually not one to fall prey to hate about himself over the internet, but he has been boxing himself in his room with the door locked, his emotions building and building until the floor is no longer visible and oxygen has no way to enter. He is suffocating.

His blinds have been shut for weeks, leaving his room stale and his furniture rotting. Plates are scattered on every surface of his room, which lead to him stubbing his toe multiple times as he has had to step over week old plates growing fuzz. In addition to his mound of plates, water bottles and dirty clothes have been steadily accumulating on his floor, adding to the ghastly smell his room gives off.

He spilled rice eight days ago. The ants thank him for their meal. He tipped over milk tea onto his keyboard six days ago. His fingers stick a little whenever he types. His body radiates a stench that causes his eyes to water whenever he smells himself. He still does not shower. His eyes are sunken in from exhaustion, his back screams in agony from how long he stays hunched over his phone in bed, furiously scrolling through hate comments to find one, just one, good comment from them.

Their names are Haley and Corey. The people who have been sending him hate these past weeks. Yes, he knows he should not let the words of two people stomp him into the dirt so harshly when he has millions of people who adore him, but these people are everywhere. Each new YouTube video, Haley comments about his voice, saying it is grating to her eardrums. Each new stream, Corey makes burner Twitch accounts saying he should just bend over and be pretty, because that is all he is good at. Every tweet he posts, Corey replies saying he is worthless, and would not be where he is without Dream. The tweets, the comments, the donations, the DM’s, it is too much. It is all too much, and he is sinking into a wasteland with no motivation to grab onto a nearby branch so he can stay above ground. He feels broken.

A knock rumbles throughout the quiet dark room, shaking him from his incessant scrolling. His eyes burn from staring at his phone and his fingers feel locked in a position that can only support the small device. With unsteady legs, George throws on a pair of pants and shuffles to his door, accidentally stepping on food that has turned crunchy with age. He cracks open the door to find Dream, standing with his arms crossed and a look of worry scribbled onto his face. He opens his mouth to speak but chokes halfway once he gets a whiff of the odor protruding from George’s room.

“God, George, what the hell died in here?” Dream blows air out of his nose in angry tuffs, frantically pushing the smells of decay from his nostrils. George just stared and shrugged his shoulders.

“Okay, well,” Dream started, “Are you doing alright? Sapnap and I have noticed you’ve been acting a little off this past week or so. We were trying to give you space but you’re worrying us, George. What’s going on?” George continued to peek behind his door at Dream. His stance was stiff, and his eyes remained locked on Dream’s chest, seeming to look past him. Dream’s worry only deepened as he looked at the usually lively boy dull and devoid of any emotion.

“Can I come in?” Dream tries and to his surprise, George steps back and opens his door fully to let the tall man inside. The second the swing of the door disturbed the stagnant air around the two, the smell Dream had gotten used to penetrated his nose once more, causing him to clear his throat in disgust and concern. What was wrong with George?

“Uh, better yet, why don’t you come to my room instead?” With no response from George, Dream slowly reached over to George’s hand until it was grasped into his own. The only sign he got that the man was present was the weak squeeze given to his hand. He tugged George until he stood in the hallway beside him, still with his eyes glazed over and head running faster than either could comprehend. Dream shut the door and walked down the hallway. George quietly followed. Halfway through shuffling to his bedroom, Dream had a change of heart and turned into the room a few doors before his. Once they reached the door to Dream’s office, he shut the door and locked it, not wanting Sapnap to barge in.

“Sorry. I was gonna go to my room, but I figured my office would be better since it has the noise cancelling pads on the wall. Come on, sit.” Dream tugged the man to the couch he had placed against the back wall and sat down, pulling the British man onto his lap. It only took Dream’s hand to start rubbing circles into his back for the man to break down into gut wrenching sobs. George’s arms circled tightly around Dream’s neck, with his face shoved into the crook of his shoulder. Dream’s heart shattered hearing the man he cares about so deeply in such guttural pain. Why didn’t he catch him sooner?

Dream shifted George so he was straddling his lap and wrapped his arms around his midsection, hugging him tightly as George started sputtering in-between his weeps. Dream only held him tighter.

“George, I can’t understand you. You gotta calm down a little, doll. Can you do that for me?” A sniffle accompanied with a small nod was felt against Dream’s neck. So, he waited. Dream sat and waited for George’s body to stop quaking with tears. He waited for George to stop hyperventilating. He waited for George’s hiccups to calm down. He waited until George was reduced to nothing but small sniffles and a tight grip on Dream’s now wrinkled shirt. Finally, with a raw throat, George spoke for the first time in weeks.

“I ... It started a few weeks ago.” George spoke with a hoarse voice, evidence of its misuse. Dream only squeezed him harder to his chest, waiting for him to continue.

“I had just uploaded my new video. The one where I used my colorblind glasses. I really liked it and I thought it was nice, but then I went down to the comments and I saw these people.” George’s voice cracked and his throat burned as he tried to hold back his tears from spilling onto Dream’s damp shoulder.

“They, they were just being so mean, Dream. Calling me ugly and dainty. Saying I don’t deserve where I am. Wishing misfortune upon my family. It was just awful. I don’t…I don’t usually let that stuff get to me, so I just brushed it off and thought that would be the end of it, but it wasn’t. They kept coming back.” Tears started to prick at George’s eyes again, threatening to create another waterfall of anguish.

“They were everywhere! Haley and…and Corey. Every video, every tweet, every stream, those two were just there! They wouldn’t leave me alone, and I didn’t know what they wanted! At least if I did, I could’ve changed so it would make them calm down, but nothing would get through to them. Nothing would.” George’s face was flush with tears once again. His face was hot with an angry red blush on it, skin shiny with remnants of tears and snot he didn’t care to wipe. It tore Dream from the inside out.

“George…why didn’t you tell me? Or tell Sapnap? Why did you go through this by yourself? We would’ve helped.” Dream softly carded his fingers through George’s tangled hair, untangling the knots that got caught on his knuckles.

“Didn’t wanna bother. Thought I could handle it.”

“Yet here you are smelling like shit and living in the equivalent of Shrek’s swamp.” At Dream’s sentence, George blushed and curled in on himself in shame. God, he forgot he hasn’t showered in what, two, three weeks? All he knows is he fucking reeks, yet he haphazardly sat on Dream’s lap and threw his arms around his neck and-

“Hey now, get outta that head of yours. It was a joke. I shouldn’t have made that. I’m sorry.” George softly muffled that he accepted Dream’s apology, and tried to slide off his lap, but to no avail as Dream seemed adamant to keep the Brit snuggled in his arms. George opened his mouth but instead of words, a yelp of surprise erupted from his mouth as Dream stood up with George in his arms. George wrapped his arms tightly around Dream’s neck with wide eyes and a beating chest.

“Dream! What are you doing? Put me down!” Dream softly laughed at George’s response and walked to the door of his office.

“Nope! You sir are going to use some soap and water, so you stop smelling like a skunkape and then we are gonna cheer you up!” Dream steadily carried George out his office, ignoring George’s whines and protests. On the way to the bathroom, he passed Sapnap as he was exiting his room to go downstairs. He glanced up from his phone and took in the sight of Dream carrying an embarrassed George in his arms.

“Good job, dude.” Sapnap gave a thumbs up as he continued his descent down the stairs.

“Thanks, Sap!” Dream exclaimed with a smile on his face and George left out an annoyed huff.

Dream reached the bathroom and sat the flushed man on the sink. He turned to the shower and plugged the tub drain, leaving the Brit in a state of confusion. He proceeded to turn the knob, letting the bathroom be filled with the sound of rushing water. George sat still and watched from his perch as Dream continued to do small laps around the bathroom: bath salts added to the tub, aromatherapy soap poured into the growing vat of water, small rose petals thrown in which George frankly didn’t know why he had those, and lastly, he turned on the shower head.

“Why are you turning on the shower head if I’m going to be in the bath?” George’s head unconsciously tilted in confusion.

“Oh, well, it’s not gonna be on full blast. Like a little sprinkle to almost simulate being outside in the rain, ya know? It’s calming.” George nodded his head and continued to watch Dream as he prepared his bath. Within time, George had stripped his clothes and laid in the tub until it turned cold, and the tub was at risk of overflowing. After he drained the tub and changed into fresh clothes, he stepped out of the bathroom to be immediately met with a grinning Dream struggling to carry a mass of sheets and pillows.

“Blanket fort! We’re gonna make a blanket fort!” Dream was hopping in anticipation while he stared at George, enthusiasm flooding his pupils. George couldn’t help but soften his features and let a smile grace his face as he watched Dream speak in a childlike manner. With a confirmation from George, Dream turned and started off down the hallway and down the stairs, leaving George in the wind. With an exasperated laugh, George followed.

Downstairs in the living room, George was greeted with the sight of Dream dragging more blankets, pillows, and comforters to the already ungodly pile of sheets on the living room floor. Various snacks and drinks were laid across the coffee table pushed against the wall. The sight of Dream going to such lengths to make George feel comforted and included and happy hurt him in the best way possible. He had no words to describe what he was feeling except pain that he welcomed with open arms. George’s chest was overcome with affection for the man doing something as childish as making a blanket fort from their living room furniture. His chest felt like it was filled with concrete that was home to seeds forcing their roots through the rocks to bloom inside George’s lungs. It’s depriving him of oxygen, it’s making him dizzy, and he couldn’t ask for anything better.

George stood still and continued to watch as Dream put the finishing touches on the fort. The support base was the two living room couches pushed together and multiple kitchen chairs. Scotch tape was applied to the sheet that served as the roof and was stuck to the wall to keep an outside draft from slipping into the fort. A soft hum was heard throughout the room and the breeze tickling George’s feet told him a fan was inside the fort, keeping it cool and afloat. Movement caught George’s eye and he looked in amusement as the man invading his mind lately emerged from the fort, crawling on his hands and knees. He motioned for George to crawl in the fort with him, a huge grin spread on his face.

George scooted his body into the fort and had to pause in disbelief. The inside of the fort had small lights hung from the chairs and other furniture used to keep the fort standing. The floor was cushioned with thick comforters so the men inside would not be laying directly on the floor. A pile of over fifteen pillows were stacked against the two sofas, with an extra ring of body pillows to encase the space in a safe circle. Blankets were splayed within the fort to use as covers and stuffed animals were set against the fort’s wall as an extra layer of comfort. A small stepping stool served as a table and it hosted multiple bags of potato chips, animal crackers, cookies, cupcakes, and other snacks including water and tea. Near the front of the fort, another stool had a laptop perched on it with the first Harry Potter movie paused on the screen. The whole sight took George’s breath away.

“So, do you like it? I know it isn’t much, but I did what I could with the limited time frame. I knew you would be happy with anything, but I wanted to at least -” Dream’s words were cut off as George unsystematically threw his arms around Dream’s middle, his body shaking.

“George? What’s the matter? Did I do something wrong? I can fix it - ”

“Shut up,” George whispered, “Shut up, just shut up. This is perfect. I love it so much. Oh my god, I can’t believe you did all of this in what, fifteen minutes? Dream, thank you so so much. I love it.” George kept rambling as Dream’s face flushed and a smile flourished like a newly watered plant.

“You’re welcome, love.” Both men moved to the mound of pillows near the back of the fort. Dream laid down first and pulled George with him, so the other man was positioned with his arms wrapped around Dream’s waist and his head resting on his chest. From where George was situated, he could hear the rapid beating of Dream’s heart. He’s sure his heart is doing no better.

Dream reached to the side and grabbed his phone. With a tap, he started the movie on the laptop. A fuzzy blanket was thrown over the two men, encasing them in a bubble of comfort. George let out a sigh of content and sunk further into Dream’s warmth, letting the sounds of the movie he has seen ten times over echo in the background. Dream’s fingers were slowly running through George’s now washed and smooth brown hair. George melted further and further into Dream’s chest as with each new swipe of his fingers in his hair, he lightly scratched at George’s scalp, leaving shivers in his wake. George reached over until he found Dream’s discarded hand near his phone and gripped it. He rubbed soothing circles on the back of Dream’s hand and gave a squeeze, hoping Dream was able to read the appreciation and adoration in his gesture. He squeezed back, tugging George closer to his chest.

Hours passed as the two men comfortably laid in silence, watching movie after movie pass by on the screen. Every now and then, a hand leaves the other to grab a chip or take a swig of water, but they always immediately gravitate back to one another. Dream was the first to break the silence.

“Feeling better?” His voice boomed throughout the fort despite his hushed tone. George stretched out his legs and arms, resulting in a satisfying pop which was followed by a content sigh. He shifted up until he was able to push his face into Dream’s neck, this time lazily throwing his arm over the man’s shoulder. A leg was thrown over Dream’s lap which he ended up holding,

gently massaging the smooth skin under the blanket.

“It’s perfect. Thank you.” George whispered his gratitude to the quiet space, his breath tickling Dream’s neck. He gave George’s leg a tight squeeze and placed a small kiss on the man's forehead.

“Anything for you. Please don’t hesitate to tell me if this happens again.”

“I promise.” Both men fell into a silence again as the movie playing on the laptop sat forgotten. George stretched his neck and left a peck on Dream’s jaw before relaxing back into the arms that gave him a sense of comfort he never thought he would ever experience. Dream pulled the blanket higher up on the two and hugged George one last time before closing his eyes and drifting off to the sound of George’s steadying breathing. Drifting off to the fan humming on the side of the blanket fort. Drifting off to the sound of another Harry Potter movie playing through the speakers. Drifting off knowing he’s holding the one thing in the world that can make all of his rainy days sunny and dry.

He knows they will have to address what made George so upset in more depth when he wakes up. He knows he’s going to have to help George clean his room. He knows he’s going to have to hear the boy he cares for so fucking much cry again as he retells how he has been feeling the past few weeks, but that’s okay as long as he will be there to hold George and let him know he has a support system. Dream has everything he could ever need right now wrapped in his arms, safe and sound.

#dreamnotfound #dnf #dnf fic #dreamwastaken #georgenotfound #404cord gift exchange #fic post #text post #this is also on ao3 but find it yourself nerds

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emmy-writes-sometimes · 4 years

Text

Lost Time

Chris becomes your temporary roommate. You think all he sees you as is a little sister, but when the rest of the world starts to notice how close you are, you can’t help but wonder if there’s something more there.

“You look like you’ve been through hell,” you pointed out as Chris took a seat in the makeup trailer beside you. His makeup artist was on the way, and he looked like he needed it. His eyes were exhausted, his body was slumped over slightly, and you could tell that his head had nothing in it.

“Yeah, you’re telling me,” he sighed. “The house flooded last night in that storm. Insurance guys have been there since sunrise.”

“Ouch,” you responded.

“And they said it’ll be a week before they can get me back in there. If not longer.”

“You can stay with me,” you volunteered. He scoffed, rubbing his eyes. “Really, Chris. I have a guest bedroom that I don’t even use. Don’t pay for a hotel or something. I’m right down the street, too.” He looked at you, thinking you were joking, but you weren’t. You were completely serious.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Just take my key and get settled in since you finish before me today.” You reached for your key ring and handed him the apartment key. This was a definite role reversal; it was usually Chris that was taking care of you, making sure you ate, helping you move furniture around or helping you fix your car, because you were all but his little sister when it came to things like that. But this time, he needed you, and you’d be there.

“Thanks, Y/n,” he said. “You’re a lifesaver.” You looked at the time and saw you were due back on set, so you stood up and walked out of the trailer. You sent Chris your address, even though you knew he already had it, and the code to get into the apartment complex. He said he was heading over soon so you just went on about your day.

When you got home that afternoon he was already settled in – you could see that he’d brought a few bags over, just enough to get him through until he could go home again, and he was cooking in the kitchen you’d used a total of three or four times.

“I honestly didn’t even know that oven worked,” you remarked as you saw him pre-heating it. You were only half joking. “What are you making?”

“Lasagna. I got groceries. I figured the least I can do is cook for you.”

“Why didn’t I get another roommate?” You wondered out loud. Chris chuckled. “I’m going to take a shower.” You went into your bathroom and took a shower, then headed back out to the kitchen.

“You really need some more plates,” Chris said as he watched you emerge from your bedroom. “And some silverware that isn’t plastic. And you should probably have more than one pan, too.” You rolled your eyes.

“I’m 22, Chris, people in my generation don’t cook. I have three plates, that’s enough.”

“People in mine do,” he replied, “and while I’m here you will never starve.”

“My hero.” You reached into the fridge to see that he had gotten groceries, and that most of them would be absolutely no use to you after he left. He had gotten you some more beer, thankfully, and you grabbed two of them. You’d had a long day of stunts and the only thing you wanted was some food and alcohol.

You set the table with two sets of plastic everything, further proving Chris’s point that you needed to get some real silverware, and helped him bring the food over. You talked mostly about his house and the fact that it was a few thousand dollars worth of damage, but luckily he’d gotten home in time to move the more valuable stuff up to the second floor. He had just picked out his backsplash three months ago and was having to do it all over again. You felt bad, really bad.

“I’m sorry I’m being such a bummer,” he said as he handed you a plate to start washing in the sink. Conveniently, your dishwasher was broken. “But thanks for letting me stay here. It means a lot.” He gave you a little smile and you just made it a point to hit his shoulder with yours.

“That’s what friends do,” you said with a shrug. You finished doing the dishes and with a friendly hug, he was excusing himself. “By the way, the water knobs in your bathroom are switched. Use the cold for hot and hot for cold. I’ve been meaning to get it fixed.” He shrugged.

“I’ll take a look at it over the weekend. Thanks.” He put a hand on your back and you watched as he walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs. You finished putting the leftovers up for lunch tomorrow, putting the few clean dishes you had away, and went to bed on your own.

You quickly grew used to having Chris around. You had someone to drive to and from with, you had someone to watch stupid movies with, and you had someone to cook dinner. It was nice. Really nice. So nice that even when he was able to go back to his house, he stayed with you an extra nice. And then he asked you if you wanted to split hotels during the press tour, since most of your interviews were scheduled together, and of course you said yes. You loved hanging out with him. And as you did, you slowly realized that you had a crush on him. You knew he obviously didn’t feel the same way about you, and you definitely weren’t going to confront him about it. You assumed he just saw you as a little sister – that’s what you really would be, anyway, with such a dramatic age gap. So when he came out in just a towel your first night there, you couldn’t help but scan up and down his chest as he reached for clothes in his bag. You just kept scrolling through your phone, looking at some of your mentions on Twitter.

“Good news and bad news,” you said eventually as he finally emerged from the bathroom for the last time.

“Ooh, do tell. Bad news first.”

“Bad news is that I didn’t realize how bad the zit on my chin was until someone posted about it,” you started. He chuckled. “And the good news is that the internet loves our friendship and wants to see the rest of the press tour.”

“What, were you worried about it?” You shook your head.

“Not really, no. I think we’re friends.” Chris smiled at you, his award-winning, nominated for the sexiest man alive smile, and took a little bit too long to answer you.

“Besties, right?” You rolled your eyes.

“Are you done in the bathroom?”

“Yep.” You stood up, only realizing that your shorts were shorter now that you’d been sitting, and they literally exposed almost your entire ass. But Chris wasn’t looking, thankfully, so you didn’t mention it. You just shoved the shorts in the bottom of your bag the next day, hoping they wouldn’t make an appearance.

You and Chris only continued to get closer over the course of the press tour – you would gradually sit close to each other until his arm was around your shoulder during interviews, or he would always put a hand on your back to let you walk in front of him. He would always introduce you to interviewers first, or let you get into the car first. He brought you coffee and he knew exactly how you liked it, and if you tried to Venmo him for it he would just give it right back. The last interview of the press tour was a night on Jimmy Fallon, and it was safe to say that you were nervous as hell.

“You’re going to be fine,” Chris said to you as the stage assistants hooked a microphone to his waist. “You look beautiful. And you’re a natural, you’ll be fine up there.” You looked down at the heels you were wearing. They were far too expensive to be your own, but you liked them. They made you almost tall enough to touch Chris’s shoulders without standing on your toes.

“I’m just so nervous still,” you replied, “I’ve never done a talk show before.” Chris walked over to you when they finished him and pulled you in for a quick hug.

“You’re gonna do amazing. Just look at me if you need help, okay? We went over most of the questions earlier in the car, remember?” You nodded. His large hand splayed across your back, trying to make you feel better. “You want me to hold your hand on the way out?”

“Chris!” You laughed.

“I’m serious!”

“CHRIS EVANS, Y/N, ON IN A MINUTE! PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE STAGE!” The intercom said loudly. Chris offered you his hand, and you took it. He walked beside you, not in front of you or behind you, and that was your first indication that maybe you weren’t crazy and maybe he liked you too. He held your hand all the way until you were walking on stage, when he just smiled at you and said you’d be fine. He let you go first, and like you had in interviews before, you ended up so close to him that his arm was behind you on the couch.

“You two are kind of mortal enemies to begin with in the movie, do you think that speaks true to your relationship at all when you were filming?”

“Oh, God, no,” Chris replied, “from the moment I met her I knew she was going to be one of my favorite people. And my house actually flooded a couple months ago so we were temporary roomies there and we’ve been together on the press tour mostly just because it’s so much cheaper and easier on the studio, so I’d say we’re pretty good friends.” Jimmy smiled.

“Well, now that you think you’re pretty good friends, I’ve actually got a game for you. Chris, you’ve played this before, only you knew it as Know Your Bro. For the two of you, Y/n, if I could just get you to put these headphones on…” You aced the game, as you expected, and Chris only got one question wrong. It finally ended and as soon as you got back to the hotel you were staying at, you passed out. And you woke up the next morning, the morning of the premiere, to a million or so Tweets and tagged posts.

You rolled over to see that Chris was still in bed, scrolling on his phone. He smiled when he saw you.

“I’m Postmating some coffee in, do you want the usual?”

“Thank you.” You sat up a little, starting to go through your phone. Oh, no. People really took what Chris said to heart. As in, they thought you were together. The entire world thought you were together, citing multiple interviews, the way Chris was always holding you somehow, the way he was always talking about you, and what he’d said last night on Fallon. Even your sister texted you asking if you were dating.

“Oh, my God,” you said out loud.

“What?” He asked.

“People think we’re together.”

“Yeah, I figured that might happen. Just ignore it and we’ll say something about it tonight at the premiere, alright?”

“Chris, you’re literally my date to the premiere.” He shrugged.

“So? Let people think what they wanna think. And, besides, would it really be that bad to pretend like we’re dating? You’re breakin’ my heart here.” You laughed.

“No, I guess not.” Chris’s phone chimed about the coffee.

“I’ll be back up in a minute.” Chris got back with the coffee, handing you yours, and you watched a quick episode of what was on TV before starting to get ready. You were being put in separate suites at a different hotel to get ready, and you had to admit that you were having not only regular anxiety but separation anxiety. It was the first time you’d been without Chris to tell you to calm down in months. And he evidently couldn’t stay away, either, because he made an excuse to bring you another coffee before they started on your makeup.

“Thank you so much,” you said as he handed it to you. You made grabby hands toward it until the straw was in your mouth and you were tasting the sweetness of the milk and espresso mixed together.

“Anything for you. I’ll pick you up at six and we can walk down together,” he said. “I’ll see you then, sweetheart, alright?” You nodded, smiling, and with a wink he left the room and you were alone. You couldn’t help but squeal on the inside. You knew there was still no way he probably liked you the way that you liked him, and the way that the internet seemed to think he did, but you were still giddy. You loved spending time with him, even if it didn’t count as a date. You met him outside the hotel suite at the exact time he told you to – and, like you’d picked out previously, your dress matched his suit. If this didn’t fuel the rumors, nothing would.

“You look so gorgeous,” he said as he approached you, smiling at you as he looked at your dress.

“You look pretty handsome yourself,” you responded. He did. His beard was finally tamed, his jacket and pants a burgundy velvet that matched the color of pink you were wearing. “Shall we?”

“We shall.” He took your arm and pressed the button for the elevator. He helped you in, too, making sure you didn’t slip on your dress train or the heels that were far too high for you. The elevator was ridiculously slow to shut the doors back, so much so that Chris had pressed the button to get the doors to close. “This elevator hates us,” he said.

“Yeah, it was doing that earlier,” you replied. The doors finally creaked shut and you could feel it starting to move. You stood toward the back, in case someone else got on, and Chris was looking through his phone. And then the elevator stopped. Just stopped. Just straight up fucking stopped.

“Oh, no,” Chris said quietly. He pushed the emergency stop button, then the call button. The hotel confirmed that the elevator was stuck, and that they’d call someone to help get them out.

“Oh, God,” you sighed. “This is the worst thing that could have possibly happened. We’re going to be late to our own movie, and then people will probably think something else happened, and then…” Chris looked back at you.

“Why are you so stressed out about what other people think of us?” You shrugged, blushing, and realized that the air in the elevator was much colder than the rest of the hotel. Chris must have noticed, because before you even answered he was putting his jacket around your shoulders.

“Because,” you sighed, “I just do, okay?” He looked you up and down before shaking his head.

“I don’t believe you. There’s another reason.” You looked at him and then looked away again, looking down at the carpet on the floor.

“Because I don’t want you to think that there’s any truth to it. Because it would basically be career suicide for you and I don’t want to do that to you.” He scoffed.

“Career suicide? What? It doesn’t matter if we’re friends or we’re dating, that has absolutely nothing to do with anything.”

“But it does. I’m 22, Chris, I’m basically still a kid, and it doesn’t matter if I have a crush on you or not. It just matters that the rest of the world would judge you and me and they already do and I just…” You sighed, watching as realization took over his face.

“That’s why you care so much,” he understood. “Because you like me.”

“No, I…”

“Don’t try and turn it around now, you already said something so now we have to talk about it.”

“Or we could just forget about it. Because it could ruin things, and that’s why I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want to lose you as a friend.”

“What if I don’t care if it ruined anything?” He asked. You looked up at him, tilting your head to the side. “What if I like you? Did you ever think that might be a possibility?”

“No, not really,” you admitted. “Because you’re… You.”

“And you’re you. And what if I want the world to think we’re together because I want to be together and I just didn’t know how to tell you because I was terrified it would ruin everything?” Your heart sank a little. Did he really think that? All this time?

“We really wasted all that time, didn’t we?” You asked. He nodded, a little smile coming over his face. “I’m sorry, Chris. I was so stupid.”

“No, Y/n, I was the stupid one.” He walked forward to you, closing the distance between you, and looked down at you. The elevator call was still on, you realized, and whoever was on the line could hear you. You cocked your head at it.

“Mr. Evans, the elevator will be manually brought down to the first floor in the next few minutes.”

“Thank you,” Chris said. The call cut off, this time actually leaving you with Chris and only Chris. His eyes turned back to you. “I really want to kiss you right now.”

“Then why aren’t you doing it? We have to make up for lost time, remember?” He smiled, taking the edges of the jacket that he’d wrapped around your shoulders, and pulled you into a kiss. Your characters had kissed in the movie, once, but this was different. He actually meant this. His lips were rough but soft at the same time, and you realized you would have to stop before his beard brushed against your skin any more.

“Makeup,” you reminded him as he pulled away.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” You took his hands in yours as you felt the elevator start moving again. “So what do you say you be my actual date? Dinner after the movie? And we can give this thing a try?”

“Of course.” His lips pressed against your forehead as the elevator moved so slowly that you could barely feel it. By the time the doors opened, he let you out of the elevator first, hand on your back like he always did. This time, it was slightly more confident as he led you out to the limo.

A/N: I hereby volunteer myself to get stuck in an elevator with Chris Evans. I hope you guys like this as much as I do!

#chris evans fluff #chris evans x reader #chris evans imagine

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withered-rose-unbreakable-lotus · 3 years

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So, I’m going to put this story out here cause it is bothering me again (guilt galore no other reason) and because I also don’t want that to happen to anyone else. (side note: At first I only spoke about it with my own people because I didn’t feel it was anyone else’s business that I fucked up, but through all these months that have passed since then, I have noticed some fans going for something I tried to do and fucked up big time so I want to give them all some heads up so that you don’t end up being hated by an artist you admire, or an artist that means a lot to you in some way, anyway.)

If you are a visual kei fan you’ve probably noticed by now that compared to other artists in the world, visual kei bands tend to be more personal, even to the point of replying to fan comments regularly or mails etc. Some of them do it to gain traction for their band and others because they genuinely want to develop some sort of communication, away from the stage, with their fans (the latter one is a minority so I never know whether that’s true or not but some of them have proved they have no other motives).

So yeah, one time, one of my favorite rockers was really hurt about something and started talking shit about himself more than usual, and, having been his fan for sometime, I was tired of no one saying something (see this is the thing, I have 0 confidence in myself yet there have been so many times people praised me for being able to calm them down and help them being heard and understood (not only people I knew personally, even strangers online that I only spoke once to in case I saw they were speaking about a problem in a post) that at that point I felt that maybe I could do it now for someone I acually cared for, which was a big mistake). He has hit rock bottom multiple times but dammit, even now, I believe in his talent and what he is all about, because he fucking loves visual kei and I think he deserves better chances so I tried to speak up. I have been learning Japanese for 2 years now but back then it was roughly 1 and a half years so I hadn’t realized that in order to speak Japanese, you don’t only have to translate your words right, but also use the right type of grammar to pass that you are caring for someone and not lecturing. As you might have understood from all this, I tried to tell him that I did care and that I don’t think he is shit and that life is a fuckin train-wreck but also that I really really didn’t want him to give up on life. He was like “There is nth fun about life“ and even though I agreed with that post he had made, I tried to be positive (not too much cause I know how fucking annoying it is when you’re super down and people come to you to say all the fun things about life that you don’t see) and told him that maybe he will find sth in the future and all (like maybe in the future sth you like will pop up). I told him he is not alone cause there are a couple of jrockers he seems to be really close to so I was like hey look, you are close with these guys for many years (or at least for as long as i’ve known him he’s been doing things with these guys) etc. I said many things, okay? And once this was all over, I apologized about any parts that might not make sense cause I didn’t know good Japanese and I was using a translator to help me.

His reply made me understand that, what he had understood from my last phrase was that I was looking down on his ability to understand what people are telling him cause he said “Don’t worry, even I understood what you said.“. I thought maybe it was translated wrong or sth and then he posted an angry tweet, right after replying to me, questioning wtf is fun about life and that if I had an idea what was fun then maybe I should tell him, cause he sees nth like that. I felt like a spear went through my chest and took sometime to think. I reviewed what I sent, I translated again phrase after phrase while crying and trying to find it but I couldn’t so I wrote a long ass apology for intervening with his life and told him I didn’t want to tell him what to do cause every person has their own life and it’s all about “your life your rules“ for me and I only wished to show him he has fans who like him about his work too and that we cared about his well-being and yeah, I said i will never send anything like that again i won’t bother him, maybe send some wish on bdays and stuff, and that i am stupid for speaking without being asked. Anyway he didn’t reply so I rushed to research about dealing with someone that hurts that much (cause I’ve always thought what he is going through is worse than me, which is why I refrained from giving specific examples of what could be fun to try for him). Long story short I found several articles in encyclopedias and not, discussing the fact that apologizing after hurting someone by taking all the blame makes it look like you make it about yourself. That you apologize because you can’t stand not being forgiven. I erased the apology part in a heartbeat. That was mistake no 2. Cause days later he posted about that “my life my rules“ thing and that he had discussed it with his boss who told him that there are times you can’t follow your rules in his opinion cause you have to think of what people might think (obviously that phrase for me doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take other people’s feelings into consideration, I just wanted to point out I am not lecturing cause it’s not my business to tell others what to do but that’s how it seems he received it), and he was thinking about it. From that post and another one he was thinking about it alone, he made it look like he didn’t remember where he saw it so I thought that maybe he read it when I sent it and then the next day, seeing it gone, made him think that maybe he imagined it or sth.

Anyway. On Xmas I sent a Merry Christmas under a Merry Christmas post and he liked it so I was like....are we fine now? Anyway I said nth more. And then months later Corona came up and for several days he wasn’t posting anything which made me worry cause he used to post everyday until then or with a few days break? (i know this sounds like I was stalking and maybe that’s what you call it when you care about someone’s well-being during a pandemic, but I always check a couple out of all my favorites’ twitters more often than the rest, either because they are often talking about suicide like this guy I am talking about, or because I simply enjoy their posts more.agree with what they say more, etc. Other than that I am just scrolling down my feed and like photos, or posts I find okay or that I really like or agree with *shrugs*) Anyway I took the courage to ask if he is okay. If he and his family are okay and said that of course he doesn’t have to reply, I just wondered due to the whole pandemic and I wish he and his own people are safe. He first posted a tweet after that, saying that he knows what game someone is playing and that he is not fucking with tanuki(sly) girls like her so she had better drop it and that he doesn’t need her help and other lovely adjectives about someone who pretends to care in order to sleep with him? What would you take after that? And he also posted two videos which I didn’t even watch but it was to speak about the band I guess or where he is at the moment? I don’t know. I knew I wouldn’t understand so I didn’t bother. I never send anything after that. I spoke about it with my own people and my teacher, though, and my teacher was sooo willing to help me clear the misunderstanding and explain herself that I am still learning and that she knows me and that I’d never try to “pretend I care“ in order to “fuck“ or gain anything else from anyone, but I said no, let him be and that we can’t be liked by everyone. If that is what he got from me then it’s my fault and we should end it there. And I did just that, I let it be.

Today he spoke about visual kei again. He says he will never give up and got me back to the reasons I liked him in the first place. It seems that he went back to the idea that visual kei is fun and his reason to be so, I am glad. I am glad he has sth to hold on to and that he is glad to represent. His bandmates made him an all gold guitar recently too and he seemed ecstatic so this is enough for me. :) But let this be a lesson for you fellow fans out there, especially if you don’t speak the language that even if you care, even if you are trying to be supportive, you can’t guarantee your words will be passed to the other persont the way you intend. Sometimes people receive our words differently and you end up feeling guilty because your “kind words ended up hurting them“. Don’t do that to yourself. Be careful how you approach the artists you love and if it comes off the wrong way and, after hours overthinking what to send and going through one single phrase you sent that came off the opposite way of what you wished, let it go. We are responsible for what we say not what other people understand from them so...be careful. Personally I still feel guilty, even though I understand the mistakes I made now that I know that formal and informal speaking isn’t that easy to define in Japanese without appearing rude but yeah...it’s not easy accepting you tried to help someone you care about or make them smile but ended up hurting them even more. One day I hope I will accept it and stop blaming me for it. The blame is mine yes, but people have to move on. He moved on so I can, too.

#there i said it

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publishinggoblin · 4 years

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How to Run a Kickstarter pt 6

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

Yesterday I covered the final steps you have to take on their website before you can submit your project to be ready for launch. So today... we do it.

LAUNCHING YOUR PROJECT

Make Sure People Know: By now, you should have been sharing the project preview link around a bunch. You can see on the project preview page itself how many people have actually hit the “Notify me on Launch” button. Note that while that number might even look big-- big enough to fund you day one-- it is tricky.

It’s not that people are liars. It’s not that they actually hate the project. It’s just that hitting a button that says “notify me” is so much less of a commitment than actually going and pledging your money. It’s like when people say “Oh my gosh this design is awesome, if it was on a shirt I’d buy it!” It’s a throwaway motion of support, meant to make you feel good and loved and seen. It’s almost always done with love. That being said, you will probably have a 20-30% conversion rate of people ACTUALLY backing it from that notify number. Don’t be discouraged. This is normal.

Pick a Good Time: Do not launch at 1 AM. Do not launch at 11 PM. Consider your time zones a bit if you think most of your backers will be international, but otherwise try for sometime in the late morning or around noon. People are active on the internet during lunch time, and shortly after work, around 5 or 6pm. Also consider the date while you’re doing it. A Kickstarter around Christmas sounds nice, but then you consider that you won’t actually get the item to them until AFTER Christmas, and it doesn’t sound as nice of a time. Last I looked, October is one of the best months, but otherwise you should feel free to launch almost whenever. I’d just avoid November/December/January, personally.

When You Launch, POST EVERYWHERE: Have a twitter? A tumblr? A facebook? A reddit? Post on your own wall, make a tweet, tumble a tumbl, then find communities on reddit, on facebook, groups on pillowfort, all your discords-- wherever you are. Make sure everyone you have any connection to knows you launched.

Then do it again. You should be doing it around noon, around 5/6pm, and again in the morning the next day. Rinse and repeat. Some people might see the multiple posts and be annoyed, but most people won’t see any, or will just happen upon one of them. You’re less annoying than you think.

This is different for groups, circles, or reddits you are not a regularly active member of, or who have rules of any kind. BE MINDFUL! If you break their rules spam posting, you will lose that avenue entirely for sharing your post in.

AFTER LAUNCHING YOUR PROJECT

Your Work Has Just Begun: Reach out to online blogs, websites, review places for your product type, and begin pitching your project to them immediately. If they can do a story with a link to your campaign, perfect. For most of the bigger ones, this is actually something to do BEFORE launching, as they have a backlog of articles. Try to line it up to match your launch if you can, and make sure they have your project preview link, as that will go to your project once it’s live.

Day 1 is the most important. As noted before, it creates the standard for how visible your project will be on their site, since their algorithm cares about unique backer count per day. So the more people you get day 1, the more visible you are day 2, and the more likely you get more people just perusing which feeds into the cycle. Make day 1 count. Be active. Post a lot.

You will want to post once a day or so on your various social media about the state of your campaign, how much money you are away from the goal (or how many backers, ie “We need just 10 more people to make our goal, are you one of those 10?”), or from the next stretch goal.

Then there’s all the management to do.

Following the Numbers: Do not watch a pot. It won’t boil. But do feel free to check in from time to time to see how the pot is doing. Basically? Check in hourly on the first day to see how the money/backer count is going. After that, you can check a few times a day, but don’t make it overly habitual. You will burn out and begin to over worry.

Cancellations: You will have people pledge, only to later cancel, sometimes the same day! Unless you get a ton of them all at once, you didn’t do anything wrong. It always happens. People realize they want that money for something else, won’t have that money when they need it, or just couldn’t afford it in the first place. It’s okay, don’t take it personally.

Post Updates: I prefer to post one update at the end of the first 24 hours, when we meet the base funding goal (and each stretch goal), and otherwise once a week. Some campaigns update each day. This is up to you, but make sure you are posting some. If you post none, it looks like a dead campaign with no one watching it. Do be mindful that each one you post sends an email out to backers, so don’t spam, and avoid doing multiple a day if you can help it.

If you are getting lots of questions in comments or direct messages, answer them in updates as well as replying to those comments and messages.

Comments and Messages: Kill them with kindness. Some people say shitty things, and you need to just smile through it. Mostly you’ll get compliments in comments. Reply to them! Show them you are engaged. Same with messages.

Note that you will get lots of messages from people claiming their can boost your numbers if you sign up with them. Report it for spam and never, ever reply. They have basically all been shown to be scams.

The Lull: After the first few days, or the first week, the campaign tends to stagnate a bit. You keep getting more people or money, but way less than before. This is normal. It will pick up again near the end. You can afford to be a little more lax in posting about it at this period to give people a cool down from your constant marketing.

Keep it Fresh: If you have stretch goals, now is the time to really bust them out and show what they are. Change your marketing to be about what else can be unlocked. If your campaign is struggling to hit its mark halfway through, now is the time to include an extra incentive or two. Find things that are price-negligible or free to include-- such as your signature on every copy, a PDF for everyone of something else you made, or an extra digital copy.

That Final Week: If the first few days are the most important, the final few are equally so. You will often see almost as many people or as much money, as you begin to ramp up your promotion again and as people who favorited the project will get notifications in the final 48 hours by email that the project is nearly ended, and now is the time to back.

It’s okay to become annoying during this time. Post a ton. It’s almost over, so people won’t have to live through it for too long.

Then it ends. If you were successful, congratulations! If you weren’t-- that’s okay! Take a look at the numbers, what happened? Was it a lackluster first day? Then next time, you need to capture more people’s attention before launch. Build up a following, and try again later.

If you realize you set the goal too high? You can always relaunch with a lower goal that’s more attainable, and let people from this campaign know.

In either case, ABSOLUTELY POST AN UPDATE WHEN IT ENDS.

Tomorrow, we talk about what to do AFTER the Kickstarter ends.

#how to run a kickstarter #how to #kickstarter #advice

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booksandgalore · 5 years

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The Importance of Feedback on Fanfiction

I’ve been on multiple writing platforms––from AO3, Tumblr, Asianfanfics, WattPad, FanFiction.net, Quotev––and there seems to be something that they all share in common: the dreaded “update soon” and its counterpart, the lack of a comment on otherwise great stories.

Now, don’t get me wrong! Readers are in no way shape or form obligated to give out a comment just as an author of a story is in no way shape or form obligated to post a new chapter, but there is this mutual relationship between the readers and authors, and I’d like to explore it a bit more.

First, how many of you can raise your hand and say that you’ve read a super cool piece that’s set in your favorite fandom? I think that’s all of us. Next, how many of you can say that your super cool fandom piece is completed? Okay. A couple of hands went down.

Have you ever wondered why? I’d like to pitch in my two cents.

We can assume that the author is busy doing stuff with their life. They’re in high school, and final exams are coming up. Or they’re in college, and working part-time in order to pay the rent and tuition, so updating their fanfic is the last thing on their mind. Perhaps they’re in graduate school, too! Even if the author is out of the education system, family life and work matters can drain them of their energy and temporarily put their fanfic on hiatus.

However, let’s assume that these life thingy mcjigs are taken care of. There is time for the authors to actually write a chapter. They are capable of balancing their workload with their writing load.

BUT the authors?

The authors still don’t update.

Why is that? I’d like to point out one reasoning which is the lack of commentary––or the lack of good commentary.

Demanding for updates right after the author posted the chapter (even if it’s two or three days ago) is not the proper way to express your excitement for their fic.

If anything, you sound brash.

Then, I see comments that sound...well...downright rude, and it’s when readers think they are entitled to have an update despite the obvious hiatus of a fic.

“You can’t just abandon your story like that,” they say. “At least give us an author’s note and say that you aren’t going to continue working on this story or make an announcement on when you’re going to update and don’t leave us hanging.”

I’m not lying when I say that I saw this exact type of comment on a story that hasn’t been updated in a year.

Honey, take a step back and examine yourself. You only typed out a comment when the author was gone. You spoke out your thoughts when your favorite fic wasn’t updating anymore.

Where were you when they posted the chapter? And even then (I’m not saying this applies to all readers because some are sweet darlings!!!), the only types of comments that you’d leave were update soon, when’s the next update?, please update, I NEED MOAR!!, and any variant of an update comment, really.

Authors get discouraged by this, not encouraged. Are we machines that churn out chapters with no rest? Do we not spend hours on a chapter only for the readers to briefly scan the chapter for 5 minutes yet not comment out their thoughts and expect to have another chapter the following week?

The lack of feedback is the same as commenting that update soon sentence. Wait. Is it even a sentence? It’s just two words. There’s no meaning, no thoughtfulness behind it.

Because of this, writers leave their work and never touch it again. They don’t realize that people were with them in their writing journey, because no one spoke out in the first place. The readers took them for granted.

After all, we’re humans first behind this writing persona we have. We can get hurt. We can get unmotivated. We can overthink and blame the lack of comments on our subpar writing skills when in actuality our writing skills are anything but subpar.

And this is why it is important to take the time to comment on your favorite fic. Contrary to what readers may think, we aren’t writing solely for ourselves. We are also writing for our readers, who share the same excitement for our story with us! How wonderful!

BUT then the readers say, “The author isn’t replying back to me. It discourages me from commenting.”

Now, I want to bring this situation to the author’s attention.

The reader took the time out of their day to comment on your story, and it was a long, thoughtful comment, but there wasn’t any reply. You see it, but you don’t bother to say thank you or return the same amount of effort they gave you to them. You think, “Well, the chapter that I posted is enough. I don’t need to reply to comments.”

That’s where your thinking makes you take the commenters for granted.

Of course, you don’t have to reply to those short “good!” or “nice!” types of comments (which, frankly, in my opinion are kind of the same as update comments), but for the readers who do take their time to explain why (X) character is their favorite character and etc., don’t dismiss them.

We have a give-and-take relationship in this fandom. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it means there is an understanding of reciprocation.

You churn out the best chapter you can do for your readers, whom, in turn, churn out the best feedback that they can give to you.

Although you, the author, or you, the reader, may be shy, there’s an option to do anon on some sites, and you can create another account for commenting if you don’t want to do it on your main account on the site.

Let’s say you don’t have an account at all and are just reading offline.

Find a way! There’s always a way! :)

That goes the same for authors. Find a way to make time for your readers because they stepped out of their bubble to approach you, and you may seem intimidating even though you don’t think of yourself like that.

Anyway, I will leave a quote for whoever reads this, and I hope that it can let you think on the impact of writing itself––be it story writing, commenting, tweeting, and/or texting.

“And so I write. I write my life. I write to escape real life. I write to live moments over again. I write to rewrite the moments I’ve lived over in a way that makes more sense to me. I write the moments to heal. I write the moments I hope never happen. And I write the moments I hope will happen.” ― R.B. O'Brien

#fanfiction writer #writer problems #writing thoughts #writing #fanfic #fanfic problems #fanfic thoughts

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zynita · 4 years

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My Decade in Books

I was tagged by the lovely @brightbeautifulthings and her blog is filled with exactly that, so please jump over and give her a follow.

The 2010's were good years - they weren't perfect by any means and they involved a lot of growing up/learning what it means to be an adult, but I think that I came out of them a much better person and better prepared for what the world has in store for me. Looking back, I read a lot of amazing books! When I went back to make my choices for this post I was surprised to find that I read 333 books from 2012 through 2019! 2012 was the year that I created my Goodreads account and since then I have used it to track my reading progress over the years, so looking back at 2010 and 2011 may be a bit hazy, but there are a couple of special reading moments near and dear to my heart that I can share. So let's get into this~

The Rules: Respond to the prompt “My Decade in Books” however you want and then tag some people! I decided to share a book and/or series which defined the year along with some of my memories/reasons as to for doing so. You can do that or make up a response that is entirely your own, there is no wrong way to go about it.

2010: Yep, like many I got caught up in the Twilight craze and while I still find sparkly vampires a bit odd/silly, this series did motivate me to start reading again on a regular basis. Prior to that, I had been in a car accident in the late fall/early winter of 2006 and then my daughter was born April 2007. Unfortunately, my mental health was not the greatest as I was dealing with post-partum depression in combination with my pre-existing depression and possible/slight post-concussive changes. In 2010 I was given a boxed set of the series as a birthday gift and reading it ultimately helped spark my interest in books again - this was one of the first steps to breaking out of my apathetic depression. I will always be thankful for Twilight because it showed me that I was still capable of feeling real living breathing changing emotions.

2011: This year was marked by the completion of my Associate's Degree in Accounting/Business Administration that spring and acceptance to continue studying accounting at the local state university. My daughter was 4 years old and about to start preschool. We were able to get a place of our own moving in with my wife (then girlfriend) into a cute 2-bedroom apartment - we became a family. One of the best memories I have from our time living there was how at night I would read the story of the boy wizard who lived in a closet under the stairs to our daughter. This series would go on to define so much of our lives as it became her favorite for a number of years - the first major book series she read entirely on her own, eventually going on to do so in Spanish as well. We became a small flock of Ravenclaws and she has bloomed into quite the reader herself. I will always have a soft spot in my heart and memory for this series because of the story it tells and for the part it played in our story.

2012: I previously read King's Dark Tower in the mid 2000's and the story deeply resonated with me. When I found out that King was planning to release a new Dark Tower book, The Wind Through the Keyhole, I knew that I had to reread the series. The series' story feels dark and gritty, the tale of a knight from a world that has moved on fulfilling his quest to reach the Tower, revered as the center of all worlds. There is a certain tragic nostalgic romance to the story of an old knight in a dying world haunted by his past questing with what initially seems to be an unlikely group, only to eventually come together as something more - as ka-tet. This is a series that I know I will return to in the future.

2013: If you go through my Tumblr history, specifically on my book blog, you will come across my reviews and a large portion of my reviews written in 2013 dealt with my read through of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series - 22 books and 1 novella (Guilty Pleasures through Affliction). I first picked up Guilty Pleasures during a book sale in ~2011 and I recall reading it and a couple of the subsequent books (maybe 3 of them at most). At first, I was drawn in by Anita herself but when I came back to the books in 2013 and read the entire series I found myself intrigued by the many characters around Anita and her relationships with them. The series started as one thing and developed into something different - changing focus from a supernatural police procedural to being more character driven. This doesn't mean that Anita doesn't still go out and hunt the bad guys, but it is no longer the absolute main focus of the story and I am okay with that. Anita and her relationship struggles helped me to understand/come to terms with the concept that love isn't the same across all relationships, that people love differently and that is okay. It helped me to become comfortable in the knowledge that I can love others and it doesn't compromise/lessen the love that I have for my wife. For that reason alone, I will always have a strong admiration/fondness for Anita Blake. I plan on reading the two most recent releases (Crimson Death and Serpentine) some time this year!~

2014: This year was a very very difficult year for me and my wife and I spiraled into a deep depression. Due to my mental health difficulties I failed to complete my bachelor's degree program and had to leave school. I ultimately wound up doing nothing more than sleeping, playing video games, and attempting to read when I could. I remember that I was scrolling through Tumblr and I saw a post praising The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - I was immediately enamoured with the cover, the starkness of the black/white/red, a circus, magic, and intrigue, I had to read it. My first read through took me 4 days because I never wanted it to end. This book helped me break a major reading slump through its beautiful lyrical prose of opponents turned lovers forged and bound within the fire locked behind the blackened gates of the traveling Les Cirques des Reves. I have read this book a total of 4 times and each time has only further deepened my love and appreciation for it - this book is my ultimate comfort read (though it may now have strong competition from her sophomore novel, The Starless Sea).

2015: At the behest of my love and my pseudo brother (I basically adopted him as the younger brother I never had) I picked up/started reading Robert Jordan's epic fantasy saga Wheel of Time which was ultimately completed by Brandon Sanderson following the death of Jordan. The series made up a great deal of my 2015 reading though I did make time for other books as well. What I particularly loved about the series was a combination of the richness of the world and the complexity of the characters. We witness these characters as they mature and grow into themselves ultimately becoming worthy of the title of ta'veren placed upon them by the Wheel. With the Amazon TV show on the horizon, I will likely pick up the series again and with subsequent readthroughs comes the opportunity to pick up on little things/foreshadowing that may have been missed before.

2016: This was another year where I didn't read a lot of books (only 38), but the majority of the ones I read were ones that I really enjoyed and Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate Series was a notable favorite. While I was working on my bachelor's degree I had the opportunity to take an upper division English course focused on Victorian Era literature and what started as a spark of interest became a warm comforting fire. Parasol Protectorate combined two genres which I had enjoyed on their own (historical fiction and paranormal/fantasy[?]) into something which felt entirely unique. I fell in love with the characters and thoroughly enjoyed the series - so much so that I have returned to Carriger's Victorian Era with my current read through of her Finishing School Series, an upcoming re-read of Parasol Protectorate, and a first time read through of the sequel series The Custard Protocol.

2017: So much of 2017 is honestly a blur... I was hired in July 2015 as a medical transcriptionist but over the following years would continue to gain increased responsibilities (with associated pay increases) allowing for some pretty notable things to occur leading up to my girlfriend and I getting married!~ We had been dating/living together in addition to having been friends for so much time before that it just made sense for us to get married and I can't picture my life without her in it. My favorite read that year was E.K. Johnston's That Inevitable Victorian Thing for so many reasons. The novel plays with history as we know it and speculates on what would have occurred had colonialism never taken root and instead a utopia was formed under the British Empire - an empire without racism, homophobia, and classism built upon mutual respect and harmony. This book is full of diversity/representation/LGBTQIA+/etc. while exploring identity, orientation, and relationships in a respectful/open-minded manner. I have already slated this book for a re-read as soon as I finish my current read through of Carriger's works.

2018: This book is probably one of the most important books I have ever read. I can't remember how exactly I came across it but I knew that I had to read it as soon as I read the synopsis. I then shared it with my daughter (who was then 11 years old) and we decided to buddy read it. This book...this is the book that I wish I had had the opportunity to read when I was that same age attempting to learn about and understand my own sexuality. This book has also allowed my wife and me to have a continuing, open dialogue with our daughter (now turning 13 in April). I actually Tweeted this basic sentiment to Ms. Blake upon finishing the book and she actually replied to me!~

Since then my daughter has read the book multiple times and we bought her a hardback copy for Christmas. Maybe one day we can attend a signing and thank Ms. Blake for Ivy's story personally.

2019: My favorite of read of 2019 was Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity. ((I know, I could have easily posted and gushed about Erin Morgenstern's The Starless Sea which I absolutely love but given that I had previously mentioned The Night Circus I felt it prudent to discuss something else.)) When I was book blogging in 2013-2014 I remember seeing a lot of posts talking about it and its unique approach to storytelling. I remember picking up the ebook but I was so caught up in reading other things at the time that it sat on my TBR shelf. Fast forward to last year and I finally decided to take the time and read it. Color me 100% floored and angry at myself for waiting so long to read it! I fell absolutely in love with Verity/Julie, with the story that she wove, with the friendship between her and Maddie. The synopsis describes the book as "harrowing" and "beautifully written," descriptors that I wholeheartedly agree with. My wife knew how much I enjoyed it and I received a copy of the hardback edition which will eventually grace my bookshelf (sort of kind of need to buy one first).

So that is My Decade in Books! I am very bad about tagging people in things, but if you saw the post and feel so inclined to make one of your own please do and tag me in it to check out. If you stuck through this post to the end, I greatly appreciate it and wish you well in the new reading decade.

*Zyn/Melanie*

#mine #zynita #brightbeautifulthings #my decade in books #books #booklr #bookish #novels #reading

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laurasroyalblog · 5 years

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So omid just tweeted that he got almost 15 million Twitter impressions from this tour and it reminded of what you where talking about yesterday, about how not clicking hurts more. If omid can get that many impressions in 28 days I can't imagine what happens every time people reply and link to those articles? From multiple companies,and some of those even getting a lot of attention sometimes, since last year?

I think that’s the hard part of thinking about some of the criticism of the media. It’s easy to say “the big bad media are evil” and there’s definitely some real truth to that. But why do they do some of the things they do? Their life blood is clicks and views. That’s what sends ad prices up and pays their bills/lines their pockets. So it’s devoid of logic to think that this is *just* a media problem. I also think it’s a bit of a cop out to blame solely the bigots and exclude yourself from the conversation.

Hate clicks and rant threads (raises my hand as guilty of both) are part of a larger issue with social media. Some of my favorite bloggers Tom & Lorenzo always rant when a really stupid, bigoted, or otherwise awful tweet from a person with 20 followers gets RTed by people looking to prove a point. Their perspective is that you’re basically giving a bigot with no platform a platform.

Now obviously the media is different in that they do have a platform. But every click and especially every share increases that platform. I actually think the public/fandom became a little hip to that with Thomas. With each new “exclusive” I saw more people tweet “Don’t read anything about Thomas” without linking which is IMO a perfectly appropriate response, and now exclusives from him are far less frequent.It all comes back to the idea of voting with your eyes (and social media accounts).

I’ve definitely tried to be more cognizant of what I link to and talk about on here and on Twitter. It’s weird because my follower growth on both Tumblr and Twitter has been so gradual that I don’t always realize how many people could be looking at something I say. If even 5 or 10% of the people who follow me click a link I post to rant about well that helps the media outlet more than my rant hurts them. It’s a tough pill to swallow and remember, but it’s an important one.

#royal #royals #royal fandom #Anonymous #answered

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mackmacoskey · 6 years

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My 10 Tips for Being Better at Social Media Marketing

Every now and then someone will find out that I was a social media manager in my past life and they’ll ask me for tips for how to improve their social media marketing. The internet has a LOT of great resources available, so I never know what exactly to tell people except to check out Social Media Examiner, because they were my favorite resource for all the things related to social media when that was my job.

However, there are some fairly common mistakes that I see people, especially my friends and family members with small businesses, making that are super simple fixes.

Tailor your photos to your platform.

This is my biggest pet peeve because it’s the easiest one to fix! Why cut off your image or mangle it when you can use a tool like Canva to size your social media images to the platforms you’re using. (Also, Canva is a fabulous tool to create images for social media. It’s free and easy and I don’t know what I would have done without it.) Don’t know what dimensions work best for each platform? Check out Sprout Social’s Cheat Sheet.

Take advantage of scheduling tools.

No one thinks they have time to constantly be adding content to social media and that is a straight up lie. Set aside one hour a week and schedule out all of your content for the week in advance. It super easy to schedule posts on Facebook and to use free tools like Tweetdeck to schedule promotional tweets. Got a little extra $$? Try out a social media management tool like Buffer to schedule posts across multiple platforms.

Use IFTTT (If This, Then That) to cross post content.

(I say this with the caveat that IFTTT let’s other people know that you’re being lazy and using it to post the same content to multiple channels. I think this can be a bit impersonal and can feel a little cheap. This could just be me though.)

That being said, IFTTT is a fantastic way to get content onto multiple platforms without having to put in a lot of work. Just set up your formulas for what you want to post and where and BAM! Every time you post something to Instagram, you post it to Twitter too. Or everything you post to Twitter get posted to Facebook. Or some other combination. It's really quite something.

Set aside time weekly to find out what’s trending and tailor your content towards those things.

It doesn’t have to be a lot of time, especially if you're someone who already pays attention to the news and to what people are talking about on Facebook or Twitter. Just take note of what that content is and if you can spin it to apply to your business. Use that as fodder for one or two timely posts a month and all of a sudden you are using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies in your marketing. It also shows your followers that you’re in the know and care about what’s going on in the world, which never hurts.

Choose platforms that you will actually use and get rid of the rest.

You do not have to be on every new social media platform that arises, I promise.

Your social media marketing is only as good as the content you create, so if you know that you’re not ever going to use Instagram to promote your business, it’s okay to go ahead and delete that account. Focus your attention on platforms that you’re comfortable with creating content for. You’ll find that you have more time to create engaging content for the social media platforms you actually care about and your followers will definitely appreciate it.

(If you decide to delete a social media account or two, just make sure that you update your website to reflect the platforms you're using. Nothing is worse than clicking on a social media icon only to discover a broken link.)

Interact with your community.

A lot of people forget that social media should be ... social. Reply to comments on your posts! Thank people for leaving reviews! Comment on other posts that are relevant to your business! Get in there and let people know who you are and what you do! Creating opportunities for conversation is an important aspect of social media marketing that I see a lot of people forgetting.

Use video.

I hated this when I was working in social media, but the hard truth is that video is VERY important to your social media marketing. It got big around 2014 and it is not going away. Accept it now and move on.

The good news is that it's pretty easy to create videos for your social media platforms using a smartphone or tablet. And you don't even need a YouTube channel to do it. (Although I suggest you create one for a video archive, if nothing else. You don't have to advertise that it's there.)

Set up an information session where you answer basic questions about your business. Take your followers on a virtual tour of your space. Schedule a live Q&A. Show off something you think is super cool. Video, especially live video, has become a mainstay for social media marketing.

My advice for video is to try to keep your pre-recorded videos pretty short (under 30 seconds) and your live videos at least 15 minutes long. Short pre-recorded videos mean that people will actually be able to watch the whole thing while they're scrolling through their feed and longer live videos allow for more time for viewers to engage with you.

Respond to comments (And turn on your notifications).

I touched on this earlier, but it bears repeating. Social media should be social. And in the social media world, your response times should be FAST. Many experts say that you should never let a comment or post sit there without interaction for more than 60 minutes. I personally think that this is overkill, especially if you’re a small business owner who has a lot on your plate. But don’t make your followers wait longer than 24 hours for a response either.

If you don’t have notifications for your social media turned on, do that now. It’s so much easier to respond to comments in a timely manner if you are actually aware that a comment has been made on one of your posts.

Be a resource for your followers.

Please don’t post nothing but promotional content. Your followers aren’t going to be engaged with your social media you if all you do is post promotional. At the very best, they will just start to ignore your posts; at the very worst, they will unfollow you.

Instead, share an article relevant to your business with commentary about why you found it interesting. Review a book or a recipe (as long as you can tie it back to your business). Share other people’s videos or a quote that inspires you. Your followers want your expertise and will rely on you to provide them with reliable information regarding your work. Some of the very best social media accounts for small businesses that I follow barely share any promotional content and they have the most loyal fan bases of anyone on the internet.

Be a real person.

If you don't pay attention to anything else in this article, pay attention to this. You should be a real person when you're writing social media posts for your business.

People buy from people. They might follow you on social media for your brand, but they’ll pay attention to your posts because you’re a person they like and care about. So use personal pronouns and share selfies. Don't use overly formal language. Tell stories about your day or something funny that happened on your way to work. Give the humans who follow you a chance to know who you are as a person and what you care about. I promise, it will pay off.

#my writing #social media marketing #social media management #marketing online #social media #marketing tips #SEO #Facebook marketing #Twitter marketing

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dailynailee-blog · 6 years

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Hailee & Niall Timeline

Timeline provided for the events/occurrence between Hailee Steinfeld and Niall Horan.

May 17, 2015: Hailee and Niall attend the BBMAs and Taylor Swift’s afterparty (unsure of whether they met).

November 22, 2015: Hailee and Niall attend the AMAs and later both attend the AMAs Purpose afterparty with Selena Gomez.

December 4, 2015: Hailee and Niall perform at KIIS FM’s Jingle Ball.

October 1, 2016: Hailee tweets about This Town and Niall replies.

October 3, 2016: Hailee likes Niall’s tweet to her.

October 9, 2016: Hailee (indirectly) chooses to snog Niall in a game of Snog, Marry, or Kill?

December 1, 2016: Niall and Hailee perform at the WiLD 94.9 Jingle Ball in Santa Clara and are seen hugging and talking backstage.

December 9, 2016: Niall and Hailee perform at Z100 Jingle Ball in New York and were scheduled to sing together but didn’t have time to rehearse, so Niall ends up introducing Hailee instead.

"There’s been a couple of times where we’ve talked about it and then you turn up on the day and you see everyone has the soundcheck and then you don’t get a lot of time to practice about things on stage.. like, sometimes meself and Shawn have talked about doing something before and meself and Hailee Steinfeld have talked about getting up and playing and hopefully this time.. now that we know that that’s the problem, we can resolve that and maybe do something. It’s just so cool, it’s rare that you get all of us artists in the same room, in the same building and so.. you know, people are waiting, having won competitions and stuff like that.. you kinda wanna give them a little bit more than just our songs. So, it’d be nice to get up and do something." -Niall

“Alright well, I’ve been given the job to tell you who’s coming next and it’s a very very special girl and a very good friend of mine and I’m glad that I get to do this. Ladies and gentlemen, Hailee Steinfeld! HAILEE STEINFELD!”

December 12, 2016: Niall starts following Hailee on Twitter.

December 14, 2016: Niall and Hailee perform at KISS Jingle Ball in Chicago and Hailee posts stories of their “fight”.

April 1, 2017: Hailee likes a post about Niall on Instagram.

May 4, 2017: Hailee likes a post about Niall on Instagram.

May 6, 2017: Niall likes Hailee’s tweet.

May 7, 2017: Hailee tweets Niall and Niall replies.

May 10, 2017: Hailee follows Niall back on Twitter.

May 12, 2017: Niall and Hailee perform at 93.3 Summer Kickoff concert in San Diego and Niall posts a video of Hailee. (Gifs credit)

May 13, 2017: Niall and Hailee perform at Wango Tango and Hailee posts stories of Niall’s soundcheck. Niall gets spotted by fans watching Hailee’s performance.

May 15, 2017: Niall talks about Hailee in an interview with Zach Sang.

May 19, 2017: Hailee posts a snapchat of her listening to Slow Hands.

May 20, 2017: Niall and Hailee perform at SPF 2017 in Vegas.

June 10, 2017: Niall and Hailee perform at Capital Summertime Ball in London. Hailee talks about Niall on the red carpet.

“Niall is a great friend and I’m very excited to see him, as well.”

June 12, 2017: Hailee likes Niall’s tweet.

June 24, 2017: Niall and Hailee perform at B96 Summer Bash and Hailee uploads multiple stories of her watching Niall’s performance.

June 27, 2017: Niall starts following Hailee on Instagram.

September 8, 2017: Hailee likes Niall’s tweet.

September 13, 2017: Hailee wishes Niall a happy birthday on Twitter.

September 13, 2017: Hailee likes Niall’s tweet.

September 15, 2017: Hailee likes Niall’s Instagram post.

September 17, 2017: Hailee likes Niall’s post on Instagram.

September 23, 2017: Hailee likes posts about Niall on Instagram.

September 24, 2017: Hailee likes Niall’s tweet.

October 27, 2017: Niall cites Hailee as his favorite female artist.

"Hailee Steinfeld's a good friend of mine – banging out the new tunes.” -Niall

November 2, 2017: Niall likes Hailee’s post on Instagram.

November 4, 2017: Hailee likes Niall’s post on Instagram.

November 9, 2017: Hailee likes Niall’s post on Instagram.

November 18, 2017: Niall rehearses for the AMAs and Niall mentions Hailee as one of the performers he’s excited for. "My good friend Hailee Steinfeld, looking forward. I know she's nervous, she was telling me she's nervous, and rightfully so, it’s a big night.” -Niall

November 19, 2017: Hailee likes Niall’s tweet.

November 19, 2017: Hailee and Niall perform at the AMAs and attend the same afterparty.

November 20, 2017: Niall leaves a comment on one of Hailee’s Instagram post and likes the other. Hailee likes his comment and Niall likes a tweet about him and Hailee.

November 28, 2017: Niall and Hailee perform at 106.1 KISS Jingle Ball. Hailee takes over iHeartRadio’s snapchat and documents Niall’s full performance. After Niall’s performance, Hailee and Niall go watch The Chainsmokers’ performance.

November 28, 2017: Hailee likes a tweet about watching Niall’s performance.

November 29, 2017: Niall and Hailee fly to San Francisco together.

November 29, 2017: Niall gets spotted at Christmas in the Park and Hailee posts a story from it. Both of their teams upload stories at Christmas in the Park at the same time.

November 30, 2017: Hailee and Niall perform at WiLD 94.9′s Jingle Ball in San Jose. Niall gets spotted watching Hailee’s performance. Most of Niall’s team starts following Hailee on Instagram.

December 1, 2017: Hailee likes a post about Niall on Instagram.

December 4, 2017: Hailee shares a screenshot of her listening to “Lost on You” by Lewis Capaldi, Niall’s favorite song, in her Instagram story after the Jingle Balls.

December 7, 2017: Hailee gets asked about seeing Niall during PP3 promo in London.

“And you’re in London, British talent, you’ve told me you’re friends with Niall. He’s doing so well!” “He is!” “Do you get to see much of the brits these days?” “I always find that when I’m here, none of them are, which is currently the case. So hopefully, I need to come back when I can just hang, when I’m not working and see all of them for sure.”

December 8, 2017: Louis Tomlinson starts following Hailee on Instagram.

December 11, 2017: Niall wishes Hailee a happy birthday on Instagram. Hailee likes and comments on the post.

December 15, 2017: The PP3 cast visits a USO base and Niall seems to be a popular topic.

January 1, 2018: Deo Devine (Niall’s cousin) starts following Hailee on Instagram.

January 2, 2018: Hailee and Niall go see Hamilton in London.

January 5, 2018: Hailee leaves London and tweets about Millie Bobby Brown.

January 8, 2018: Niall tweets about finishing Stranger Things.

January 11, 2018: Hailee has a press day for Lip Sync Battle and Rob (her stylist) starts following Niall.

January 13, 2018: Niall joins the Steinfeld’s and friends for Griffin’s (Hailee’s brother) birthday. Hailee wears Niall’s coat.

January 18, 2018: Hailee responds to the rumors of her and Niall dating. “I feel so lucky that [my fans] care enough about me to know what I’m doing every second of every day, but I think that sometimes it’s hard for people in general to realize that there are boundaries to a person’s life and personal life. I am a very private person, I do love that I have the opportunity to share with them what I’m comfortable with and they’re there to listen and support me.”

January 19, 2018: Niall wears the coat Hailee was wearing at Griffin’s birthday party.

January 27, 2018: Hailee’s cousin’s step-daughter tweets about Hailee and Niall.

(for reference, that it’s about Hailee)

January 28, 2018: Hailee’s dad likes a comment about Hailee and Niall on Instagram.

January 29, 2018: Niall likes Hailee’s post on Instagram.

February 4, 2018: Hailee uploads a story of her watching PP2 on Niall’s TV.

February 5, 2018: Hailee and Niall are seen shopping for music and movies in LA.

February 9, 2018: Niall films the On The Loose music video and Conor McDonnell (photographer on set) starts following Hailee on Instagram.

February 10, 2018: Hailee and Niall are seen together outside of LA.

February 17, 2018: Hailee and Niall attend a BSB concert and XS Nightclub in Vegas.

“A source confirms to E! News that after the concert the duo hit up at XS Nightclub where they sat together at a stage table with a few friends, sipping on Absolut Elyx cocktails and taking in a DJ set by Diplo.”

February 19, 2018: People talks to a “source” and publishes an article about Hailee and Niall.

“She’s not actively pursuing anything, Niall is really into her but she’s unsure if she wants to get into something new right away. They’ve been friends for a long, long time and are very comfortable with each other, but it’s nothing serious right now.”

February 23, 2018: Hailee picks up on some Irish lingo.

February 24, 2018: On Air With Ryan Seacrest talks about Hailee and Niall rumors and Tanya Rad (one of Hailee’s best friends and OAWRS host) doesn’t comment and RSVP Live publishes an article about a “source” confirming Niall and Hailee’s relationship.

“Niall and Hailee have been getting very close. They’re very cute together. They’re like best friends.”

March 8, 2018: Hailee gets asked about Niall in an interview.

CD: And you are one of those people who are close with lots of musicians. Just say, you and Julia Michaels are best friends. Niall Horan is also included in your list (as best friends). How do you stay communicated with them with your busy schedules?

Hailee: One thing that’s fun is, accidentally our paths cross when we are on tour, and we won’t always be in the same place at the same time. But, when it happens, we always try as much as possible to see each other.

March 12, 2018: Hailee likes Niall’s post on Instagram.

March 17, 2018: Hailee goes to Glasgow to spend St. Patrick’s Day with Niall. (Gif credit)

March 17-19, 2018: More of Niall’s team and opening act (Lewis Capaldi) starts following Hailee on Instagram.

March 19, 2018: Hailee uploads a story backstage and is seen watching Niall backstage.

March 22, 2018: Hailee misses her mom’s birthday to perform with Julia Michaels at Flicker World Tour London. Hailee watches Niall perform and sings along to every song, according to fans. (Tweet about her singing along has since been deleted).

March 27, 2018: A “source” confirms Niall and Hailee are dating to E News.

“It's true that Hailee and Niall are dating, but at this point it's still pretty casual”

March 28, 2018: Niall likes Hailee’s post on Instagram.

March 28, 2018: Niall’s cousin comments on a post about Hailee and Niall.

April 2, 2018: Niall adds Capital Letters to his “Niall Horan’s Tunes” Spotify playlist.

April 7, 2018: Hailee joins Niall in Augusta, GA for The Masters.

April 8, 2018: Hailee and Niall attend The Masters.

April 8, 2018: Hailee joins Niall on his annual trip to the Bahamas with Justin Rose.

April 10, 2018: Hailee and Niall are seen in The Bahamas.

April 13, 2018: Julia Michaels talks about Niall and Hailee watching her soundcheck. “He watches every soundcheck that I do. And I had Hailee come out to perform with me in London so they were both watching my soundcheck and then Niall all of a sudden takes off his shirt and starts running down the aisles like a crazy person just to get me to laugh.”

April 25, 2018: Niall blacklists Hailee as a topic in interviews.

April 26, 2018: Niall likes Hailee’s post on Instagram.

April 28, 2018 - May 2, 2018: Niall posts an Instagram story saying “ssshhteamin!” and a couple days later Hailee posts an Instagram story saying “Shmood.”

April 29, 2018: Interviewer asks Hailee to choose between 5 Seconds of Summer or One Direction.

“Oh my goodness gracious, 5 sec- OH NO, that’s gonna get me in trouble. I can’t choose, I love them both.” -Hailee

May 15, 2018: Hailee and Niall meet fans at Pink Taco in LA.

May 19, 2018: Hailee and Niall get spotted at Saddle Ranch in LA.

May 21, 2018: Hailee and Niall are spotted holding hands at E.P. & L.P. in LA.

May 22, 2018: Nick Grimshaw talks about teasing Niall about Hailee. Anitta likes a post about Hailee and Niall on Instagram.

May 27, 2018: Niall and Hailee perform at BBC’s Biggest Weekend in Swansea and Niall watches Hailee perform from side of stage. x/x/x “Niall Horan is currently watching Hailee Steinfeld side of stage, and earlier was spotted having a kiss and cuddle with her.“ - Scott Mills

BBC reveal Hailee and Niall have each other blacklisted as topics for interviews.

Hailee talks about the BSB concert she attended with Niall: “It was so great, I grew up hearing their music and it was amazing to be there. Any show in Vegas is incredible to see, no matter who it is. It was hit after hit and I actually knew way more songs than I thought I did.”

May 27, 2018: Hailee and Niall hang out with Niall’s friends in London.

May 28, 2018: Deo Devine (Niall’s cousin) posts a picture of Hailee, Niall, and friends on his story.

June 8, 2018: Cheri Steinfeld (Hailee’s mom) likes Niall’s post on Instagram.

June 15, 2018: Christian Tierney (Hailee’s current photographer and Niall’s former photographer) likes two comments about Hailee and Niall on Instagram.

June 17, 2018: Terry George uploads a photo with Niall at the Ed Sheeran concert and follows Hailee and Niall’s cousins that attended it with him.

June 18, 2018: Hailee introduces Starving by saying “This is a song I like to sing when I’m in love.”

June 23, 2018: Hailee is listed as a VIP Guest at Niall’s “Horan & Rose” charity event, but doesn’t make it. Niall gets asked about Hailee.

Olly Murs, TV’s Kirsty Gallacher and cricketer Kevin Pietersen were among guests, but Niall’s rumoured girlfriend Hailee Steinfield couldn’t make it.

Asked if they are together, he said: “Private life, I’ll keep that one to myself.”

June 25, 2018: Niall travels to Newcastle to see Hailee perform on Witness: The Tour. Hailee and Niall stay to watch Katy perform.

June 26, 2018: Niall likes Hailee’s post on Instagram.

June 26, 2018: Hailee joins in on Lewis Capaldi’s joke that Niall has constantly taken part of.

June 30, 2018: Niall travels to Portugal to support Hailee at Rock in Rio Lisboa.

July 4, 2018: Hailee’s backup dancer likes and comments on Niall’s Instagram posts.

July 10, 2018: Hailee wears one of Niall’s shirts.

July 11, 2018: Hailee introduces her new song, “Used to This”, by saying:

“I’m a pretty independent woman, I like to do things by myself, for myself… Uhm and it can be small things, like from taking the day off or eating alone, right?… Sprawl out on a couch that can fit around 12 people, I’m taking up all the space and that goes for like a lot of different things. It wasn’t until, I fell in love that I realized some of those things about yourself sort of start to change. You become a little less selfish and you scoot over and make room for the other person, because you love them.”

July 11, 2018: Hailee makes a playlist of some of her and Niall’s favorite songs.

Lewis Capaldi – Lost On You

Wonderwall – Oasis

The Chain – Fleetwood Mac

New Kids In Town – Eagles

July 13, 2018: Hailee watches a live periscope of Niall’s concert in Mexico.

July 16, 2018: Niall travels to New York City to see Hailee perform on The Voicenotes Tour.

“Niall flew to New York City to hang out with Hailee during his three-day break from tour,” the insider says. “He had a show in Mexico on Saturday and another one in Houston on Wednesday.”Horan, 24, is using this trip as an opportunity to spend quality time with Steinfeld, 21, without prying eyes. “He’s in New York alone — no staff, crew, friends, etc.,” the source adds. “They’ve been staying at a hotel together in New York.”

The couple were spotted leaving their hotel in great spirits on Monday, July 16. “They left the hotel, holding hands, smiling and looking very happy,” the source explains. “They then went to Saks Fifth Avenue and went shopping.” –Us Weekly

July 16, 2018: Hailee’s hairstylist starts following Niall on Instagram.

July 24, 2018: Hailee adds more details to her “Used To This” speech.

“Let’s cut to the chase on this one, I fell in love for the first time. And umm, for the longest time, a part of me was like, ‘This is not love. It’s fun and it’s great, but it’s definitely not love. I’m fine, I’m fine. This person could leave tomorrow, and I’d be fine!’ And then I realized no I wouldn’t, this is love. This is love. And then I sorta started to learn that when you fall in love with someone, things about yourself sorta start to change. You become a little less selfish. I found that I, like, scoot over on the couch, leave some room for them, and I share my ice cream and stuff like that.”

July 25, 2018: Conor McDonnell likes a comment about Niall and Hailee on Instagram.

July 29, 2018: Hailee and Niall are spotted together by two fans in Chicago during their day off from tour.

July 31, 2018: Niall likes Hailee’s post on Instagram.

August 1, 2018: Hailee likes a tweet that includes a fan wearing Niall merchandise.

August 1, 2018: Justin Rose starts following Hailee on Instagram.

August 6, 2018: Niall likes Hailee’s post on Instagram.

August 7, 2018: Hailee likes Niall’s tweet.

August 8, 2018: Hailee’s close friends and co-writers, Justin Tranter and Brandon Colbein, attend Niall’s concert in LA. Brandon starts following Niall on Instagram.

August 10, 2018: Niall and Hailee are mentioned in Lewis Capaldi’s newsletter.

August 13, 2018: Hailee and Niall are seen at Disneyland.

August 14, 2018: Niall attends The Voicenotes Tour.

August 15, 2018: Hailee and Niall are spotted at Target and on the way to Hailee’s show in Irvine.

August 16, 2018: Julia Michaels likes a tweet about Hailee and Niall.

August 17, 2018: Kay Cannon: screenwriter of the Pitch Perfect films, co-producer of Pitch Perfect 2 & 3 (starring Hailee Steinfeld), and director of Blockers (featuring This Town & Love Myself) tweets about Hailee and Niall.

August 18, 2018: Hailee likes Sean Mulholland (Niall’s best friend and housemate)’s post featuring Niall on Instagram.

August 19, 2018: Trey Baxter (Hailee’s co-star in the Capital Letters music video) talks abut filming with her boyfriend on set.

August 20, 2018: Niall liked Hailee’s post on Instagram.

August 20, 2018: Shawn Mendes talks about Hailee and Niall.

“Niall and Hailee? They’re two of my favorite people in the whole world. Niall is one of my greatest friends and I was one of the first people she [Hailee] worked with in music. I thought that this was common knowledge, I guess it was common knowledge for me because I’m close friends with them both.”

September 2, 2018: Hailee attends the Flicker World Tour in Allentown and is seen backstage with Niall.

September 5, 2018: A video of Hailee’s phone background is posted, in which it looks like a photo of her and Niall.

September 6, 2018: Niall liked Hailee’s post on Instagram.

September 7, 2018: Niall is given socks to give to Hailee by a fan and Hailee is spotted by fans at Flicker World Tour in Darien Lake.

September 8, 2018: Hailee is spotted by fans at Flicker World Tour in Mansfield.

September 9, 2018: Hailee and Niall are spotted in Portsmouth, NH.

September 10, 2018: Niall confronts a “fan” on Twitter about mean tweets about Hailee.

September 12, 2018: Hailee attends Flicker World Tour in Jones Beach, NY. Niall talks about Hailee with a fan during M&G.

September 14, 2018: Hailee gets spotted by fans in the background of Niall’s Instagram live and backstage at Flicker World Tour in Hartford.

#nailee #niall x hailee #this took weeks #this is why this blog looks so bad #priorities were this this post instead #will keep adding as time goes #some dates may be a little dodgy it's been a while but it's mostly right #message if anything has been forgotten #or is missing #but here it is #your real life friends to loves story #in one post #*#also call out any typos pls

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Using Twitter for marketing & promotion - PROS:

1. You know your followers are going to get your message. Unlike other social networking sites, you have 100% certainty that your followers are going to see the tweets you send out. There’s no algorithm which requires engagement for posts to be seen. This allows you to spend more time creating content for your followers and less time trying to figure out how many people are actually getting to see your content on any given day.

2. It doesn’t take long to create a good tweet. Because the length of a tweet on Twitter is limited, it doesn’t take much effort to provide a specific message to your followers. You might invest a lot of time and effort into the content of your site, but it really only takes a couple of minutes to craft a tweet at most. In doing so, you’ll be able to connect your followers to your site or distribute brand images with ease and keep your business at the top of the minds of your followers.

3. You can reach out to almost any corner of the planet. There are very few places where Twitter is unable to reach. Even in nations that block this social site, many users work diligently to get around those blocks. This can help a business break into a foreign market much more quickly than in the traditional sense because you can have brand recognition. Think about it: a tweet which takes two minutes to write could potentially reach millions of people in just seconds. That is a powerful marketing mechanism which shouldn’t be ignored.

4. It is easy to track the data collected through Twitter. Whether you want to see the reactions you get to specific hashtags or you’re just looking to see the reach of a tweet through the number of favorites and retweets it received, there are multiple ways to track the data which gets collected. You can even look at data by the hour if you wish. This information can also be exported into helpful graphs so you can visualize the data for a better understanding of it.

5. You don’t have to stay online to reach people. One of the fascinating evolutionary elements of Twitter is called the “TweetUp.” This is a gathering of like-minded Twitter users who are within a geographical region that occurs off-line. Your business can schedule a TweetUp virtually anywhere, invite followers in that area to come meet you, and this allows you to make what you’re offering even more real than it already is.

6. You don’t need to use link shortening tools. Although bit.ly and other link shortening tools are quite helpful, they are not always necessary on Twitter. The social network will automatically shorten any links you include with a tweet as much as they possibly can. You’ll always see how many characters you have left for your tweet as well, so you can structure the content being shared very effectively in real time.

7. You can automate Twitter for Business. Don’t have time to create 5-6 tweets per day for your followers? Thanks to the helpful tools on this platform, you can completely automate the sharing process. Spend an hour crafting tweets for the week, schedule out when you want your tweets to go out, and you’re done. All you’ve got to do is periodically check your account for @ replies or questions to what you’ve shared. This means you could even go on vacation for an extended period of time, but still not lose the marketing momentum that you’ve established.

8. It is easy to extend the reach of your company. If you send out a tweet which one of your followers really likes, then there is a good chance they will retweet it. Once that happens, your account will then reach all of their followers. Now one of their followers might really like it as well. They decide to follow your account and then retweet your content again. This process makes it very, very easy to expand the reach of your brand because each retweet acts as its own ambassador.

9. It becomes easy to share your voice with other brands. Maybe you’ve only got 500 followers on your Twitter for Business account right now. Your competition might have 5 million. You might not be able to compete in the follower count, but there is a good chance that at least a few of your followers have your competition on their feeds in addition to your brand. Talking with other companies, sharing your voice, and having personal opinions broadcast over a wide spectrum is incredibly easy thanks to the format of Twitter. Sometimes your competition can also become one of your biggest allies.

10. Twitter for Business does a great job of reaching the younger generations. For kids that were born before a world filled with landline phones, 56k modems, and AOL chat rooms being the best thing you could do online, Twitter is perfectly suited to their needs. Many of today’s kids are trying to do 5 things at once and they do a pretty good job of it. The environment on Twitter is constantly changing and your brand gets to become part of that experience. It’s an easy way to establish the trust needed to begin a relationship.

11. It can be free. You could pay for promoted tweets. You could pay someone to run your Twitter account. Or you could sign up for free and manage everything yourself. Twitter for Business is a budget-friendly way to give your message some added influence.

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