#I'm open to suggestions. Since this playlist is public i want other people to enjoy listening to it too

[kennys-parka-jacket]

Alright, I think my kenny and bebe playlist is in a mostly finalized state. Probably won't add or remove anything from it for a good while

[cozy-neko]

The Cherry On Top • 02 • 03 | Charity stream disaster • 04

Kenma checked his stream overlay one last time to make sure everything was set up correctly. The streamer was only ten minutes away from his scheduled 24-hour charity stream that Akaashi had set up for him in partnership with the energy drink company, Black Sheep. For every donation Kenma receives during his live stream, all proceeds will be 100% donated to help animal shelters in need of supplies.

For once, Kenma was actually excited about a partnership. As a lover of cats and raising three rescues himself, it wasn’t particularly a hard decision for Kenma to make when Black Sheep had approached him and brought up the idea of a partnership and a charity stream campaign in conjunction with the animal shelter Black Sheep was associated with.

That was why when his sponsorship with Black Sheep had been threatened by a rumor, Kenma ultimately made a public announcement to deny the rumor and personally reached out to the PR/Influencer team at Black Sheep to talk it out with them.

Now, three minutes prior to going live, Kenma’s phone buzzed multiple times. He glanced at the lit up screen and rolled his eyes. It was Kuroo who was blowing up his phone, and Kenma had a fairly decent idea of what the texts were about.

Last week, Kuroo and Kenma had met up with Akaashi and Bokuto for their monthly dinner meet up when Akaashi had mentioned Kenma’s upcoming charity stream.

“A 24-hour stream is too easy for Kenma; the gremlin routinely stays up at least 36-hours once a week anyways.” Kuroo let out a barking laugh as he flipped the meat that was grilling in front of the four friends.

“That’s besides the point, Kuroo.” Kenma rolled his eyes and leaned back in the vinyl booth. “I’m doing a charity stream. All donations I get during the stream goes towards the animal shelter that Black Sheep partners with.” Kenma made sure to slowly emphasize the word “charity” when he explained his upcoming project.

“You know, I’ve never seen Kenma so excited about a project,” Bokuto quipped as he eagerly tucked into his meal.

“It’s for a good cause and Kozume was quick to say yes,” Akaashi added as he flashed a small smile towards the flushed streamer. Kenma still wasn’t used to hearing people praise him, no matter how often he was always featured in esports commentary and articles.

“I have three cat rescues myself, so it was a no brainer,” he mumbled, averting eye contact. He opted to push around the burnt pieces of meat with his chopsticks around his plate instead.

“Aw, you’re embarrassed that you got caught being openly excited for your next project!” Kuroo smirked and nudged his friend. It was all friendly-banter, and Kenma knew that Kuroo meant well and was extremely happy for him, but he flushed harder as Bokuto and Akaashi chimed in to cheer on their friend.

“I’m just being a nice person. Maybe you should try it some day,” Kenma shot back.

“What do you mean?” Kuroo scoffed. “I’m always a nice person.”

Akaashi and Kenma rolled their eyes at Kuroo while Bokuto let out a good-natured laugh at Kuroo’s response.

“Hey, wait! You know what you should do to make your 24-hour stream more spicy?” There was a mischievous glint in Bokuto’s eyes as he waited for his friends to respond. 

“Bokuto-san, whatever you’re thinking probably isn’t a go--” 

“Drunk 24-hour stream!” 

“Oh, nice!” Kuroo snapped his fingers and grinned his infamous Cheshire Cat smirk. Akaashi sighed and Kenma grimaced. 

"I’m not going to take ideas from two drunks. And we barely sat down to eat, how are you two this drunk already?” Kenma wrinkled his nose.

Kenma unlocked his phone and quickly scanned through his group chat. Yup. There it was: a barrage of texts from Kuroo asking Kenma if he had his booze ready followed by a spam of suggestive eye emojis by Bokuto. Kenma was quick to notice that Akaashi had purposely chosen to ignore the group texts and offered no help in diverting the suggestions.

Kenma snorted quietly at Bokuto's message as he locked his phone. He looked up at the monitor to his right and read some comments that were starting to flood in his stream chat. He gave his camera a small smile and leaned back in his chair, answering some questions that caught his attention and saying "hi" to others.

Kenma usually liked to start his stream off rather chill by interacting with his viewers. After playing his music playlist and adjusting the volume, he finally announced his agenda for the day after a few minutes.

"Today I'm partnering with Black Sheep for a charity stream. It's going to be a 24-hour stream and we're gonna spend most of the time playing some League. All donations I get will go towards helping an animal shelter which you guys know I'm all for." Kenma paused as his donation notification sounded and his text-to-speech setting began to read the donation to him and his viewers.

"meowriachi donated $25: 24-hour stream? too ezpz kodzuken"

Kenma laughed and ran a hand through his messy half-up styled hair.

"I was telling my friends about today's stream and Kuroo said the same thing. Maybe in our next collaboration we'll do a longer stream if you guys want that. We'll also be able to have more fun and do more things, too."

Kenma was smart and sneaky. He always was. Kuroo did always say he was the brains of the team back in high school when they played volleyball together. Kenma was good at analyzing situations, and because of this strength, Kenma knew when to use certain words and situations to create benefits for him and his career. This was no exception. The streamer knew Black Sheep would be moderating his stream, so now the company had slight pressure to partner with him again if there was an in demand from his fans. And this was Kodzuken we were talking about. There was no doubt Kenma knew there would already be a second sponsorship in the works.

Kenma smirked. Easy peasy stream indeed.

Kenma loved his job. He truly did. It wasn't every day someone could wake up every day and actually look forward to going to work, and for that, Kenma was thankful. He was thankful that he had the skillsets to do well in competitive gaming and that he had a knack of being able to pick up mechanics of new games so easily. He was thankful that he had a fanbase that enjoyed his commentary and sarcastic humor, and a fanbase that supported and helped him build his brand from ground up.

Kenma knew he owed one-third of his success to his fans and another one-third to his own hard work and passion. But Kenma also knew he owed the last one-third of his success to his friends.

Not once did Kenma regret making Akaashi his manager; Akaashi had gotten him way more sponsorships than Kenma himself could've if he was still balancing streaming, content creation, and managing his own projects.

Kenma was thankful for Kuroo for always challenging him to step outside his comfort zone. Even when Kenma was irritated and didn't want to hear Kuroo's words of advice and encouragement, Kenma was still grateful for it all.

And Bokuto. Kenma guesses he can be thankful for Bokuto for always hyping him up when he needed it the most. Especially when he was extremely hung over from a night out of (forced) drinking and had barely ten minutes to wake up and set up his stream on time.

Yes, Kenma was truly thankful for his friends. But right now, Kenma wanted to kill them. He wanted to kill Kuroo and Bokuto for coming over to his house uninvited even after he warned them not to and for raiding his stream in real life.

Right now, Kenma was seething. One, he was in the middle of a very important sponsorship deal. Two, he was in the middle of a ranked game in League of Legends and he didn't want to lose his winning streak. And three, his two goofball friends had showed up to his house with alcohol and announced out loud to his viewers that Kenma would now be participating in a drunk 24-hour stream.

Kenma doesn't remember the last time he got this mad. What's worse was that Kenma's fans were all for it. His stream chat was getting spammed with poggers emotes, and it was difficult for Kenma to admit that he had been getting more and more donations ever since Kuroo and Bokuto had shown up and the alcohol was brought out. And because of that, Kenma had begrudgingly surrendered and cracked open a White Claw.

Except he didn't stop only at one; not if Kuroo and Bokuto could help it. And at only about 5'8" with a smaller build, Kenma unfortunately fell victim to being a lightweight. And with Kuroo and Bokuto, kings of being instigators, were there to egg him on along with his stream chat, Kenma downed can after can.

Just a little something to take the edge off a work week, right?

end notes:

→ kenma’s twitch stream took me 30 minutes to piece together 😪

→ if you see the same comments on kenma’s twitch chat twice... no you didn’t 😀🔪

→ also peep the stream title change 👀

→ kenma’s the type to use scuffed candids of his friends as their contact photos, but it didn’t work out too well. he actually respects akaashi enough to use a decent photo, and bokuto never takes a bad photo. ever. i guess kuroo’s the only one he can easily clown.

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[waffles-hamato]

Helping With Anxiety

Since I feel like I dont contribute much to this site I've decided to make mty own guide to helping with some forms of anxiety. I'm only going to cover ones I have though as to not step over a line.

How to Deal with Social Anxiety:

Social Anxiety is a fear of social situations like parties or sometimes just going to school/work. My social anxiety was bad growing up but I've learned to deal with it better now.

1. Little Movements: For me I got socially anxious because I never know what to do with my hands and felt like people were judging me for that. So sometimes playing with something small helped to get my nerves down.

I personally enjoy my fidget spinner and cube but there are other things you can use. Just have anything you're comfortable with and you'll do great ❤

2. Writing: In school I usually get super anxious but whenever I do I write down my thoughts and start to calm down. It's just something about getting it out that made me feel better, like if you have a stomach virus and vomit it out through the process. Always carry a notebook if you want to get the thoughts out somehow but have no one to talk to at the moment, decorate the book however you want so it feels like YOUR book and only yours, and unless you give consent, no one is allowed to read it. Let it be your safe space where there is no judgment.

3. Discreet Meditation: Through my counseling my therapist taught me a few meditation tricks that helped lower my anxiety level. But only one can actually be done in public as far as I know. This one just helps to make it easier to make your stress/anxiety to disappear. (Step one: Clear your head as best you can, if you can't then that's okay but try to focus as much as possible.

(Step two: Start focusing down to your feet, think of how your shoe feels around it, your socks, how tight the laces are, etc.

(Step three: Start moving your focus through your ankles and up yours legs. Think of how your pants feel/the air around your legs.

(Step four: Move the focus up your torso, think of how your stomach feels at the moment, your chest, your sides. Do you feel any form of bad feeling/anxiety/stress? If you do focus more on that feeling and think 'Unimportant' over and over. After a while the feeling should go away. If it doesnt go fully away then that's completely fine, you're still doing great.

(Step five and final step: Move the focus up your neck and to your head (if possible an inch above your head) and think of how your brain is doing, how your hair feels, the sounds your hearing. Is there any form of bad thinking/anxiety/stress? If so then do the same as you wouldve done if it was in your torso area. But remember if the feeling doesnt fully go away it's alright. You're doing an amazing job going through it.

4. Listening to Music: I absolutely love music and sometimes when I'm feeling anxious in a social situation it's a great escape and helps to calm me. Make a playlist for that special occasion of personal therapy.

I personally love hearing Thomas Sanders voice because I have connected him to a happy part of my brain. If you have a good connection to an artist and one or more of their songs then I suggest starting your playlist with that. As you can see I have a lot of songs but that's because I'm scattered and can never tell my mood for when I want to listen but I always start with Thomas to get me in a beginning of a good mood. Just put in your playlist whatever feels right for you and itll be great.

How to Deal with Regular Anxiety:

I also have the normal form of anxiety which my therapist just calls extreme paranoia and overthinking. You dont even ahve to be in a social situation or anything special to have this it just....happens. This also connects to mty phobias but I dont believe I shall get into those now.

1. Little/Big Movements: This is the same thing I do with my social anxiety but it still works by yourself. Just play with a small thing or if you want you can even hug a beloved stuffed animal. If you have a loved one nearby maybe cuddling them or getting a hug will help. (I dont like being touched a lot but that's just me personally) You could even do little exercises to get that dopemine running, although I dont recommend a full on big workout while you're anxious because your brain may not take it well and neither will your body so just do small ones.

2. Listening to Music: Yes this is also the same but it still works. Pop out that playlist and listen to those glorious jams your beautiful brain chose just for you.

3. Meditation: Meditation works more effectively here because you get to do more and imagine more. I was only told two so theres this one and the other one for social anxiety. Usually I have another person talking the instructions to me so if you want you can do that or get a recording of the instructions because your brain should be mostly clear for this and not remembering them. (Step one: Sit down and close your eyes, your hands on your legs with your palms facing up

(Step two: Imagine you're in a forest. What kind of trees are there? Do you smell anything? Hear any sounds? (If you cant answer them it's okay, just keep going)

(Step three: Start walking through the forest, focus on the swish of the grass, crunch of the leaves, or clicking of the gravel as you do so

(Step four: Walk through. aclesring of the trees so you're at a lake. Sit down by the lake and focus. Do you hear the sound of the water flowing? Are you sitting by anything? Do you feel anything at the tip of your fingers? How about any sounds?

(Step five: Take a deep breath and close your eyes in the imagination. Let out the breath and slowly take in another

(Step six: Open your eyes. How do you feel?

4. Talk it Out: If you're comfortable enough with someone to the point you're able to talk to them about your problems then go ahead. Let it all flow out. If you know that person will support you through those thoughts and that talk then go for it. Get a hug from them, get their feedback, just get it all out on the table.

5. Counseling: If you're struggling even more than you thought then I suggest seeing a professional. They give you a new insight of the problems you face and will even give you more ways to face them then you could have imagined. Sometimes it's better to have someone who hasnt seen your stuff first hand but hears it from you. When I went, I had never felt like telling my friends my problems because I thought I would hurt them or they wouldnt care so it felt great to actually go to someone I didnt know and that didnt know me even if it was awkward at first. She listened, gave me advice, and at one point we became pretty cool with each other. It's worth a shot to go see a counselor so just give it a shot okay buddy?

6. Take A Nap: Being anxious can also be exhausting. Sometimes I wont get a good night's sleep because of my nerves and I see that as unhealthy. Not getting enough sleep can hurt your mind and make you weak. If you're tired, take a quick nap to clear your head and regain your strength. Anxiety shouldn't be allowed to physically hurt you so dont let it, start fighting back by just sleeping even for five more minutes.

7. Breath: When you're feeling really anxious it can be hard to take full breaths. Just try to relax as much as possible and slow down your breathing. I got my routine from Thomas Sanders and it helps a lot. Breath in for 5 seconds, hold in for 7 seconds, and breath out for 8 seconds. Keep going until you feel better. If that routine doesn't work for you then continue experimenting and find tyour own routine to help YOU. It's your choice on how to breathe, just make sure it a deep breath.

I hope some of this will help someone out there. I'm still figuring stuff out myself so it's okay if none of it works for you because I know people find their own special ways to deal with anxiety. So remember that I will support you in spirit with whatever helps you. See you in the next post everyone ❤