#literally just made this gif so I can use it as my new header

[pnsteblnme]

wrong impressions ✿ k.m.

pairing: katie mccabe x reader

summary: a misunderstanding leads to conflicts and tension between katie mccabe and arsenal’s newest signing.

warning: cursing, katie and reader being idiots, bad writing 

word count: 5.1k (i don't even know how this happened)

a/n: here’s a little something in honour of ireland's second game today ;) also, this was my first time writing something like this and english isn’t my first language, so bear with me please <3 anyway, i hope you enjoy this and i’m always happy to hear your thoughts :)

“Oh, McCabe isn’t good. She’s borderline reckless and very petulant, plays way too aggressively and all she does is collect cards for her team.”

“The fuck,” muttered Katie with a quiet scoff after hearing Arsenal’s newest signing’s words as she walked into the training facility. Not wanting to hear more comments, she quickly made her way to the locker room and sat down at her designated spot, an annoyed frown still etched onto her face.

As the brunette was tying her shoes, a shoulder nudged hers, “You excited for our new additions?” Katie looked to her left to be met with the buzzing smile of her blonde friend.

“Mhm.”

The corners of Leah’s mouth dropped, “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Finishing the tie on her shoe Katie leaned back up, let out a small sigh and opened her mouth. Before she could utter a word though, the door opened.

“So, as you all know, we have two incredible players joining us this season. I’m sure you’re all acquainted with Alessia,” Jonas pointed to the taller of the two women, who sent everyone a friendly grin, “and this is Y/N Y/L/N. Before coming to us she played for Barcelona but because of an injury, our paths haven’t crossed yet,” after he finished his sentence, you raised your hand for a timid wave and looked at all the girls with a nervous smile, a blush coating your cheeks, resulting in a few excited greetings being thrown your way. “I trust that you’ll make them feel at home and yeah, that’s all. I’ll see you on the pitch in 5,” were his last words before disappearing behind the door.

Turning around to face your new team, you were welcomed with open arms - literally. In front of you, you found almost all the girls waiting to greet you, each pulling you into a hug and introducing themselves.

After you were done introducing yourself, you quickly changed. The warm welcome they gave you resulted in your heartbeat finally slowing down (maybe not to a normal pace, but considerably slower than when you arrived). Later, you would also realise that your hands had stopped shaking halfway through the training, filling your body with warmth, that felt like the sun thawing the frost off of colourful flowers on a warm spring morning.

Right now though, your shoulders slumped as you noticed that the forward you were most very thrilled to play alongside of, didn’t greet you (and if you weren’t imagining things, even sent a glare in your direction).

Shaking off those thoughts, you made your way to the pitch, walking next to Leah. “How are you feeling?” she questioned, looping her arm through yours.

“I’m literally shitting my pants,” you chuckled, “but I’m also excited to play in this amazing team like, I don’t know, I feel like I can learn so much from you.”

Leah waved you off, “Don’t worry, you’re gonna be just fine and I have a feeling it’s gonna be the other way around.” When you felt the blonde’s hand ruffling your hair, you jokingly pushed her away, muttering about how you were going to get back at her.

And that you did. The end of the training came with a scrimmage, in which Leah and you were on opposite teams. Getting the ball from Lotte, you quickly made your way towards their goal and consequently came face to face with the blonde defender. Before she could do much, you nutmegged her and sent the ball straight to the far post, Alessia scoring a goal with a beautiful header.

Fidgeting with your sleeves, you turned to your friend with a sheepish laugh, “Sorry, I just don’t like people messing up my hair.” Chuckles coming from the girl instantly relaxed you as she patted your shoulder, “That was a nice play.”

Heat crawled into your cheeks as you muttered a quiet ‘thanks’ and made your way back to your side.

Sadly, not everyone took the scrimmage as light-hearted as Leah. With the frustration growing after each goal your team scored, the game quickly became physical. You would feel the wrath of that a few moments later.

Running along the sideline, you were just about to send another ball into the penalty box when you felt cleats connecting with your ankle and your legs being swept from under you.

You let out a groan as you held your foot, trying to stand up. Rotating your ankle a bit, you attempted to take a few wobbly steps, the new blonde forward approaching you, “Are you all right? That looked like it hurt.”

“No, it’s fine, I just have to walk it off.”

Limping a few metres, you felt the pain slowly subside and glanced at the girl that had tackled you. Not seeing her making any moves to apologise nor a glimpse of remorse on her face, a crease formed between your eyebrows, wondering why Katie was acting this cold towards you.

When the game continued with you, in particular, being the one the Irish woman directed her fury at, the uncomfortable feeling in your chest grew. That was why, when Leah and you were collecting the balls that had been shot to god knows where, you inquired, “Does Katie not like me?”

“No, what makes you think that?”

Putting the last ball into the bag you shrugged your shoulders, “I don’t know, I just feel like she has it out for me, you know?”

“Hm, it looked like she was already in a lousy mood before you came in, so she probably just had a bad day. I’m sure yous will hit it off tomorrow,” consoled the blonde with a comforting touch to your arm.

Alas, it didn’t seem to get better the next day.

Being on the receiving end of her tackles once again, this time even from the beginning of the training session, your patience was wearing thin. Your dislike for conflict made you keep quiet though, not wanting to cause drama on your second day and because no one else said anything, you just presumed that it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

After a particularly gruesome duel, where Katie had stepped onto your feet multiple times, you couldn’t push your agitation down anymore, the anger bubbling inside of you like an active volcano, fiery red lava spewing out of your mouth, “Okay, what the fuck did I do to you? Why do you hate me?”

Surprised at hearing your angry voice directed at her, the Irish woman turned around with a scoff, “Don’t pretend like you don’t know what you did.”

“I don’t, I wouldn’t be asking if I did, Sherlock.”

You watched as her eyes rolled into the back of her head before she turned around and marched to her position. Feeling a presence behind you, you tried to get your whirring thoughts under control, “Everything alright?”

Pulling your shoulders to your ears and letting them drop again, you returned, “Yeah, I’m not so sure about her not hating me, though,” eliciting a frown on the blonde’s face.

Unfortunately, for you two and for everyone who had to hear your petty arguments, you were paired up with Katie on one of the gym days.

For the most part, everything was fine. Even though the Irish woman couldn’t help but follow a few drops of sweat that rolled down your abs with her grey eyes, which sparked her irritation, wondering how she could be thinking about a person like you like that, you two didn’t exchange any words.

That is until you were supposed to spot Katie. Padding over to her waiting by the bench press, you thought about how you could finally relax for a moment after all the tiring exercises you had to go through.

Boy, how wrong you were.

Standing at the head of the bench you had a perfect view of Katie doing her tasks. It felt like a magnet being pulled to the strongest metal, the way your eyes were glued to the forward’s arms. Not knowing what hit you, you couldn’t pull your gaze away from the heavenly sight.

Katie noticing your dazed expression, rolled her eyes with a smirk, before an idea formed in her head. Pretending to lose her grip on the weight, she laid it down on her chest and let out struggling breaths.

After she tried to get your attention with faux breathless words, you suddenly jumped out of your stupor and quickly lifted the weight off of her.

“Do you want to kill me?!”

“Oh god, I’m so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” you mumbled, regret filling your voice as you looked down sheepishly.

Shaking her head the brunette enjoyed teasing you further, “You can’t do anything, can you?”

“I said I was sorry, relax.”

Across the room, Leah and Alessia were watching the scene unfold with confusion written over their faces, “Where did this weird tension even come from? It looks like they want to kill and fuck each other at the same time.”

“I don’t know,” Leah responded, “but I think we need to separate them or one of those two things will happen any minute now.”

These little quarrels eventually developed into a common component of Arsenal’s training sessions, even being present outside of them, like on team bonding nights.

All the girls were gathered at Leah’s house to watch a few movies and just enjoy each other’s company. Everything was fine until Katie got up from the couch to get another drink for herself. During that time you arrived at the blonde’s flat, having had an appointment before, and unknowingly sat down at the spot that was previously occupied by none other than the fiery winger.

When she strolled back into the living room and saw exactly who had stolen her spot, the brunette let out an annoyed sigh. Making her way towards you, she stopped in front of your frame, “Did you make it your personal life goal to annoy me whenever you can, or what?”

Only being met by you looking at her with those stupid eyes and your stupid button nose and a stupid mischievous grin on your face, she scoffed, “Move out of my seat, you knob.”

About to stand up, you felt a few drops of something land in your lap, which made you look up only to see the brunette raising her eyebrow, “Oh no, I’m so sorry, I guess my glass was too full.”

“Tell me, Katie, is it hard being such a relentless asshole, or does it come naturally to you?” you sent her a fake smile, before moving to the other side of the room, not before jamming your shoulder into hers though.

Before Katie could retaliate, Beth let out a tired sigh, “Girls, can we just enjoy the movie now?”, gaining agreeing mumbles from everyone else.

It all came to a head when Katie tackled Alessia, who you had grown very close to in the last two months and now considered one of your best friends.

You were running along the sideline, waiting for Alessia to pass the ball, when you heard her outcry and immediately stopped. Hastily making your way to the blonde, you kneeled down and softly put your hand on her left leg, trying to calm her down, “Oh my god, Less, are you alright?”

“It hurts,” she groaned, still holding her foot.

“Don’t worry, everything’s gonna be fine, the medics are gonna be here in a second.”

Looking up when they arrived, you also saw the woman that had caused Alessia to fall to the ground.

Only seeing red, you stood up so fast you were surprised you didn’t get whiplash, shoving the brunette with both of your arms, “What the hell is your problem?! You don’t get to just treat people like that, jackass!”

“What did you just say to me?” barked Katie as she invaded your personal space, your faces only a breath apart, meaning you could see the vein on her forehead popping out and almost smoke coming from her ears.

“You heard me, McCabe,” taking one last step towards her, your foreheads touching, you poked your index finger into her chest, “stop playing like a fucking hazardous idiot and go apologise to her right now! I know you hate me and you can come at me all you want, be my guest, but if you ever hurt her again, I’ll break your goddamn kneecaps!” Your chest heaved up and down with the rage inside of you, “Stay. The fuck. Away. From her,” punctuating each word with a jab of your finger, you gave her one last push before turning back to Alessia still laying on the ground.

With it being the last training before the first match, it wasn’t a surprise when the atmosphere was a bit tense.

So, when you accidentally bumped into the one and only Katie McCabe, because the exercise had you all running backwards, and somehow landed on top of her, her snappy remark came almost instantly, “Watch where you’re going and get the fuck off of me.”  

Putting your hands on either side of her head, you started to pull yourself up, scoffing at her overdramatic reaction, “Go take a walk and calm down, babes.”

As she quickly stood up and pushed up against your body with her glowering eyes, that reminded you of the sea after a terrible storm, the gray rolling clouds reflecting onto the almost-blue surface of the water, her intoxicating scent invading your nostrils only infuriating you further, “Why don’t you take a walk back to Barcelona?”

Having had enough of this constant back and forth, you raised both of your arms and let them fall back to your sides, “What’s your goddamn problem?!”

“You! And don’t try your stupid innocent act on me, you know exactly what you did.”

Seeing the frown on your face, Katie continued, “Unless you’re gonna admit it, you can take your shit-talking self elsewhere.”

“God, you’re so full of yourself, I’m not gonna kiss your ass and apologise for something I didn’t even do!”

“Are yo- ”

She was interrupted by Leah separating you two, “Let’s take a deep breath, ladies.” Still glaring at one another you two slowly parted ways.

The locker room was buzzing with everyone’s excitement for Arsenal’s first game of the season, excited chatter coming from every corner. As you were all about to enter the pitch for warm ups, Jonas appeared, “McCabe, Y/L/N, a minute, please.”

He waited for the other girls to leave before addressing you, “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you need to get it together,” his tone emphasising his disappointment. “When I made you the offer, Y/N, I thought you two would come together as a fantastic offense, because I know Katie has wanted to be winger again for a long time now and your styles and techniques just compliment each other perfectly,” the words causing you to look at your shoes shamefully.

“Now I know that you can destroy Liverpool’s defense out there but in order to do that, I need you two to work together, okay?” he looked to the two women in front of him expectantly, causing both of them to nod, his last words only making them repeat the motion, “And if you pull anything like the the shit that went down yesterday, you’re instantly being subbed off, understood?”

Jonas’ words apparently made something inside the both of you switch. Throughout the whole game, Katie and you seemed to link up every chance you could and waltzed through Liverpool’s defense like a hazard. Even when you were behind the Irish woman, she could somehow feel your presence and get the ball to your feet. You had to admit that playing with Katie when you were both working together felt amazing, giving the impression of flying over the pitch.

Even though the game went as well as it did, you went back to being at each other’s throats afterwards.

The snarky comments exchanged in the locker room extinguishing any hope your teammates had that you would at least be civil now.

One day at lunch in the team cafeteria, Katie couldn’t help but let her gaze float towards her self-appointed enemy.

Watching as you laughed with Alessia, made her thoughts run wild. Why would you say that about her? And why was she so bugged by it, when she normally just let the nasty comments brush past her without giving them a second glance?

A fork dropping to the floor startled her, making her eyes flick towards the direction the sound came from. She could see Alessia leaning down to pick it up and noticed you putting your hand between the blonde’s head and the edge of the table, efficiently sparing the forward an uncomfortable collision with the table.

This wasn’t the first time, the brunette picked up on your kindness. All the other times, for example, you staying behind and helping the staff clean up or you giving the girl you’d walked onto the pitch with your jacket, making her wonder why you were treating her so differently.

The heavy feeling in her gut made a crease form between Katie’s eyebrows. Turning to her right she questioned the captain of England’s national team, “Why is she literally the nicest human being to everyone but me?”

“Hmm, let me think, maybe because you’ve been nothing but mean to her since day one?” spoke the blonde after tapping her chin with a faux thoughtful face that turned into an ‘are you kidding me’ look.

Grumbling and stabbing her food with her fork she retorted, “She started it.”

“What do you mean? There’s not a bad bone, not even a bad cell, in that girl’s body.”

“Well, when I came in on her first day, I heard her talking to someone and she was saying pretty nasty things about me,” Katie claimed with a defeated tone.

A confused look crossed Leah’s face, “Are you sure it was her? What did she say?”

Thinking back to said day, she tried to get the words together, “Yes, I’m a hundred percent sure, and she was saying something like ‘McCabe is way too aggressive, all she does is get cards and she just isn’t good’ and I don’t know, normally I don’t really care about what people say about me, but I was just so excited to play with her and-”

“Are you serious?!”, exclaimed the blonde incredulously.

“What?”

“Did you listen to her until the end?”

Grimacing, Katie replied, “No, why would I? So that I could hear more of her borderline offensive comments?”

Fishing for her phone in her pocket, Leah grunted, “I can’t believe you sometimes, you useless lesbian.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” the Irish woman starting to feel lost now, as her friend put her phone down in front of her, a video playing.

Scanning the screen she could see the title of said video ‘Y/N Y/L/N’s first Arsenal interview’ and the fog in her brain only thickened. Then she heard a voice behind the camera, “So, what are you most excited about?”

You smiled nervously, fiddling with the rings on your finger,  “Uhm, I’m really excited to play with this team cause their style is so different and I just think, uh, I can learn a lot from these amazing girls.”

“And who are you most excited to play with?”

“Oh, that’s easy, Katie McCabe,” you told the interviewer animatedly, “many people might say like ‘Oh, McCabe isn’t good. She’s borderline reckless and very petulant, plays way too aggressively and all she does is collect cards for her team’,” you imitated while doing air quotations.

“But I’m like, have you seen this girl play? It’s amazing to watch and maybe she’s a bit more physical but it’s working, isn’t it? I don’t know, I just think it’s very admirable and just so unique cause you don’t see a lot of people playing like that, you know? Sorry, I’m rambling,” you chuckled with rosy cheeks.

The blonde taking her phone back, brought Katie back to the real world. The realisation of what she had done came crashing down on her like a ton of bricks.

She hid her face behind her hands before she muttered ashamedly, “I’ve just really been an arsehole to her this whole time for no reason, haven’t I?”

“Yup, you have,” Leah patted her on the shoulder consolingly, “but I’m sure she’ll forgive you if you apologise.”

“Well, here goes nothing.”

When you heard footsteps approaching your table, you looked up from your plate to come face to face with the most infuriating person you knew, “Hey Y/N, could we maybe talk for a minute?”

Expecting her to start another fight, you couldn’t hide your surprise. “Uhm, sure I guess,” you told her as you got up to follow her out of the crowded room, shooting Alessia a confused look and only getting a shrug in response.

You arrived outside and when she stopped, you let your gaze study the woman in front of you. With her head down and her hands fidgeting, your eyes caught a sight you never would’ve thought to see. Used to her confident and feisty persona, you were astounded when you heard her speaking in a voice softer than you’d ever heard it before.

Trying to calm herself down, Katie took one last deep breath, before rising her eyes to meet your questioning ones, “I know you hate me and that this will not make up for the horrible way I’ve treated you and the awful things I’ve said, but I still want to apologise and explain why I acted the way I did.”

Your eyes widened as you took in her words and noticed that she looked to be on the verge of crying, so you sent her an encouraging smile, which she gratefully reciprocated.

“God, this is gonna sound so dumb,” she put one hand on her forehead and the other on her hip and continued, “Uhm, you remember your first day?” You nodded your head. “Well, I came in when you had your interview and I may have overheard a bit of what you were saying, only it was just a snippet of what you actually said, so I got the impression that you hated me, which I hope I didn’t make true, because I walked away before I could hear the rest of your answer.”

“I was just so excited to be able to play with you that I felt devastated after hearing your words, and I don’t really know why I did what I did but I just want you to know that I’m very very sorry, I truly am. When Leah showed me the whole video, I felt like the biggest fool ever. I know that this doesn’t excuse my behaviour but I hope you can forgive me and if not, I totally understand! Just tell me and I won’t get in your way until the end of time,” spoke Katie with her voice wavering on a few words.

The melodious sound of your laugh is what breaks her eye contact with the floor. Perplexed, she looked at you, trying to make out what your reaction meant.

“Sorry,” you let out another chuckle, “this is just the most rom-com movie type of shit I’ve ever experienced.”

You could see the girl in front of you visibly relax at your words, her shoulders finally dropping and letting out a quiet sigh of relief.

“And I should also apologise, it was wrong of me to treat you the way I did, especially because I just joined and don’t really know what everyone’s like and I also shouldn’t’ve provoked you like that and said the things I did, so yeah, I’m sorry too. I hope we can move past this,” seeing the hopeful glint in your shimmering eyes, Katie herself felt something inside of her spark.

With a thrilled smile, the Irish woman held her hand out as she proposed, “Friends?”

A beaming grin broke out on your face, feeling a tingling sensation in your tummy, you nodded giddily and pulled the woman into a tight hug. Your arms wrapped around her back as she leaned up to snake hers around your neck, squeezing tightly.

The warmth that encompassed you couldn’t even compare to drinking a hot chocolate under your fluffy blankets with your favourite movie playing on a snowy winter night.

The following weeks were filled with Katie and you spending more and more time together. One particular day, Katie couldn’t keep her eyes nor her thoughts off of you.

It all started with her struggling to get a glass that had been placed on one of the higher shelves in the cafeteria.

She had been trying to reach the goddamn thing for at least two minutes now and was just about to give up, when she felt the heat of a body behind her. Before she could turn around, the person took one last step towards her, their front touching Katie’s back, and reached out to hand her the item she had been failing to grasp.

If the familiar smell of your vanilla scent wasn’t enough of an indication of who exactly was pressing their body (a very fit one at that, if Katie’s sinful thoughts were anything to go by) against hers, your teasing voice definitely was, “You know, I’ve always wondered, has anyone ever mistaken you for being in middle school before?”

Ripping the glass out of your hand with a glare on her face the brunette retorted, “Fuck you.”

“Don’t mind if you do.”

Seeing her dumbfounded expression only caused your smirk to spread across your whole face, enjoying the sight of the usually confident woman trying to hide the heat rising up her cheeks and squirming in her place.

You found her flushed face extremely adorable, so there was nothing else to do but squish her cheeks between your hands - and that’s exactly what you did.

With you still squishing her warm face you exclaimed, “Aww, aren’t you the cutest?”

Slapping your hands away, she grumbled something unintelligible and turned on her spot, strutting back to her table. The laughter coming from you (which still put a slight grin on her face) didn’t help her face cool down, making the teasing from Leah inevitable.

“If you two don’t get together soon, I’ll lock you in my basement until you do, I just can’t watch this anymore.”

Katie already knew the comment would irk her, so she didn’t try to resist herself, “You don’t have a basement.”

“I don’t care, I’ll find something else to lock you in!”

A few hours later, her lack of concentration led to another incident involving you. She wasn’t paying attention for a minimum of two minutes (her thoughts being on anything but the exercise) when she collided with someone.

Tumbling to the ground, she grunted at the impact of the floor and the person landing on top of her. As soon as she saw who was almost laying on top of her, every last complaint flew right out of her head.

She looked up at your eyes to find them slightly creased at the edges, “I thought we would stop meeting like this, since we’re friends now,” you laughed.

“Maybe I just like having you on top of me,” retorted the girl laying on the ground, sending you a wink, which allowed Katie to see your eyes roll into the back of your head, as you jokingly swatted her arm and walked away.

It was her last straw though, when you two were the last ones in the locker room and you pulled a box out of your bag, “Oh, I almost forgot! I made these blueberry muffins cause you said you haven’t had any in a long time and they were always your favourite.”

You handed her the box and she sent you a grateful smile, the butterflies in her stomach awakening, “That’s really nice, thank you, Y/N!”

You waved her off with a ‘No problem’ and trudged back to your bag to continue changing.

Remembering what you had wanted to add, you snapped your finger, “Also they’re glutenfree so your niece can have some if she wants! She’s coming to yours tomorrow, right?”

The butterflies reappearing with what felt like twice the power, Katie’s whole body was overflowed with a warm tingly feeling as she realised that you had remembered every little detail.

Lost for words, the Irish woman just stared at you from across the room. Unaware of the watching eyes trained on you, you took of your shirt.

On the other side, Katie stood, still in a daze from your kind gesture, and now unable to look away from your almost uncovered upper body. The way the sweat glistened on your toned abs enchanting her with a seemingly unbreakable spell. When she broke out of her stupor, she strode over to you with quick steps.

Hearing the hurried footsteps approaching, you turned around alarmed, “Wha-”

Before you could get out another word, the smaller woman had pushed you against the wall behind you, and like the oceans being pulled towards the moon, your lips found one another.

If before Katie had butterflies, she could now feel a whole zoo dancing in her tummy, a kind of warmth overtaking her that she’d never felt before. When the woman’s soft lips caressed yours, your heart stopped for a moment before picking up at double its pace.

Warm hands landed on your bare waist, pushing you further against the wall and impossibly closer together, you felt the thud of your combined heartbeats getting quicker with every second your lips were connected.  

Your hands quickly found themselves tangled in her brunette hair and when you slightly pulled on it, Katie let out a raspy groan against your lips, sending tingles shooting from your fingers to your toes, the smell of her perfume dizzying you further.

Pulling away and getting a short breath of air into her lungs, you fisted her jersey in your palms and yanked her back, her lips landing on the silky pillow that was your mouth.

Just feeling the careful swipe of her tongue on your bottom lip, you breathed out a blissful sigh before being forced apart by the need for oxygen.

Your eyes were still closed as you felt Katie’s breath wavering across your face, “Why didn’t we do that earlier?”

Finally looking at her, you were enthralled by the sight before you. Katie McCabe with messy hair, rosy cheeks, a dazed look in her dazzling eyes and her swollen red lips slightly parted would be the death of you.

“I don’t know but we need to make up for lost time,” declared the brunette with a dreamy smile and pulled you back in by your waist.

[outlanderfandomfollies]

Once again, in an attempt at a "gotcha" moment, a shipper overlooks an important detail, resulting in a total fail!🤦🏻‍♀️

Someone sent me a screencap of shipper SD's weird commentary on me** and my most recent fandom post. I know I shouldn't bother responding, but the insulting tone of her comments was particularly annoying--especially because SD had so cluelessly overlooked an important detail in coming to at least one of her conclusions.

Which Old Witch?

But first things first, SD said I was one of the "Witches of Mordor."🧙🏻‍♀️😱

How dare she! I'm not a "Witch of Mordor!"

I'm from Oz.😉

Hasn't she seen the header on my Outlander Fandom Follies Blog?

Hasn't she noticed my avatar? It's not just any old witch--it's Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. 🧙🏻‍♀️🪄😉

(Want to bet that some shipper takes what I said above literally, and claims that I admitted that I am a witch? 🙄😂)

When "Gotcha!" Backfires

Now that the "witch" stuff is out of the way, let's talk about the quote from my recent fandom post that made SD think she had found a reason to say "gotcha":

And so once again, I am saying "Really?" Not just for me, but for the small contingent of Tumblr Outlander fans who are not living in an "alternate reality," and who perhaps need to know they are not alone.

SD took this to mean that I was somehow "clumsy" in "inadvertently admitting" that "Shippers are the quiet majority of this fandom, or what is left of it."

It seems that in her "gotcha" excitement, SD overlooked one very important word in my comment: "TUMBLR." Specifically, I wrote: "the small contingent of Tumblr Outlander fans who are not living in an 'alternate reality.'"

I purposely limited my comment about reality-based Outlander fans to those on Tumblr, because hey, I was posting on my Tumblr blog--which is the only place I post about Outlander. And Tumblr is where most conspiracy theorists in the fandom (which includes the shippers***) hang out. Consequently, those of us who are on Tumblr and who aren't involved in conspiratorial thinking are in a minority. But that is NOT the case in the larger Outlander community outside of Tumblr.

Tumblr Outlander Fans Are "Special"

Unfortunately, because so many fandom conspiracy theorists are on Tumblr, the Outlander Tumblr community has a reputation in the larger fandom of being completely out in left field.

I'm not saying that there aren't any SC shippers or closet crew folks on other social media platforms, but I am saying that Tumblr has a reputation for being a place where "alternate reality" fans congregate.

Outside of Tumblr, the vast majority of Outlander fans aren't shippers, nor do they believe that S is gay.

Most Outlander fans don't even know what shippers are--and when they find out, they typically consider SC shipper beliefs to be very strange.

But don't take my word for it, take Diana Gabaldon's...

[Below the cut are some of Diana's spot on observations about SC shippers and Tumblr. In addition, you will find my rebuttal to the following SD insults comments--shown in the screencap below.]

"A Closed Circle of Positive Reinforcement"

Diana wrote some interesting comments on TheLitForum.com in Jan. 2018, after she was attacked on her Facebook page by shippers for having congratulated Cait on her engagement.

Can you imagine being so far down the rabbit hole of SC shipping as to directly accuse Diana of "creating fake news for money"? Can you imagine telling Diana that her congratulating Cait on her engagement "discredits" her?😳

Someone in TheLitForum then asked Diana if she had deleted the awful comments she had received. Diana said that most likely the comments were deleted by the person(s) who posted them, after some of her "700,000 followers" did not take kindly to the comments. 

I love Diana's description of Tumblr:

(I don’t go on tumblr—life is Much Too Short—but I saw a few of the first shipper discussions when they started a couple of years ago; it’s a closed circle of positive reinforcement)

Diana underscores how when shippers venture outside of their "closed circle of positive reinforcement" on Tumblr, they are often surprised and dismayed by the fact that most Outlander fans don't support their views. Consequently, they often have to run back to their Tumblr "closed circle" to get the reassurance they need to keep on shipping.

An absurd SC "narrative" is compared to--"Slavery"?😳

I'm honestly astounded by this part of SD's commentary:

I assume the "Ten (but soon to be 12) Years a Slave" is a reference to the shipper's absurd belief that S & C are being "forced" by TPTB to "hide" their love and their "family" for at least the past 10 years--12 years by the time the series ends.

Besides the fact that this absurd shipper "narrative" would be illegal if it actually happened in this day and age, it is beyond the pale to compare this fan-invented SC "narrative" to the horrific institution of slavery.

Please. Try having a little perspective here.

The "Orc Army" and "Normalcy" in Shipperville

SD went from her inappropriate "Slave" comments to complaining about the threat of the "Orc Army."

MAKE UP YOUR MIND: On the one hand, SD is claiming that "Shippers are the quiet majority of this fandom," and those who don't buy into the conspiracy theories are a "small contingent"; yet, on the other hand, she is suggesting there is a whole "Orc Army" out there determined to "fuck up every single shred of normality."

How can a "small contingent" also be an "Orc Army"?

Well, beside the "Orc" insult, in case she hasn't noticed, most of us who used to take time to debunk SC shipper nonsense have moved on. So where is this "Army"?

For instance, aside from my recent "Really?" post, It's been a long time since I've posted a stand alone critique about the fandom, or a conspiracy debunk. As a matter of fact, going back over my archive, except for my occasionally reblogging others' posts and commenting about them, or once in a while reblogging one of my old stand alone posts on the fandom, it appears that the last time (before the "Really" post) that I wrote a new stand alone fandom critique/ conspiracy debunk was NEARLY A YEAR AGO on August 13, 2023.

But even if there are still some fans on Tumblr who are actively critiquing the fandom or debunking SC "receipts" and conspiracies, they weren't the ones "to fuck up every single shred of normality" in Shipperville.

THE "NORMALITY" WAS MESSED UP BY "TINHATTING": Whatever "normality" existed in Shipperville was messed up after Cait became engaged to Tony in 2018. At that time, whoever remained of the SC "wishful shippers" (i.e., the shippers who were reality-based and just wished that SC might be a couple someday) pretty much were replaced or driven out by hardcore "tinhat" shippers.

And although tinhat shipping is ubiquitous, it is the bane of every fandom in which it takes root, because the tinhatters won't see reason, and some even attack other fans, the SOs of the celebrities they ship, and sometimes the celebrities themselves. This is why lots of celebrities don't appreciate tinhat shippers or tinhat stans.

In other words, the tinhat shippers were the ones "to fuck up every single shred of normality" in Shipperville. They're the ones who drove out any wishful shippers who didn't buy into the SC conspiracy "narrative." They're the ones who created block lists so that newbies couldn't learn about different perspectives. They're the ones who went and looked at blurry video footage of events like C's father's FUNERAL to try to prove that SC are still a couple.🙄

On Manipulation

And then we have this comment by SD:

Well, I'm glad SD thinks I'm "not an idiot." However, what on earth is she talking about by calling me "a Manipulator-in-Cheap"?

I have no idea what the "Cheap" is about, but I am NOT trying to "manipulate" anyone. I just post my opinion on my own blog from time to time. I don't go to shipper blogs and comment. The only reason I saw SD's post at all is that someone sent me a screencap.

I figured out back in 2015 that S & C weren't a couple, but that C and T were a couple. I had lightly shipped S & C for two months in Feb. and March of 2015, and I was heartbroken when I figured it out. But it was what it was, and I didn't try to rationalize it all away.

After C married T in 2019, and the MC was later obtained by a number of Outlander fans (including some shippers), it seemed to me that one would really would have to work hard to dismiss all the accumulated information over the years that does not support the ship.

That's what I believe, and that's what I say every once in a while when I post about some shipper nonsense that is brought to my attention. When I choose to post, it is usually just out of frustration with the fact that so many adult women keep fooling themselves.

MY ATTENTION IS ELSEWHERE: But I am NOT very invested in this fandom anymore, so why would I bother to manipulate anyone?

Four years ago, I turned my main CO blog into a general blog, with a progressive American politics emphasis. I also created my Outlander Fandom Follies side blog, which I use when I occasionally post about the fandom or Outlander and its stars (although I also use it to reblog posts for "romance" shows like Bridgerton).

Since I changed the topics on my main CO blog, I have gained tens of thousands new followers (granted, about a third of them are probably bots 🤖😉).

As you can see from this post, I like to make or edit gifs. But I prefer to make gifs about politics these days. You can see an example of the kind of political post I like to make here.

In addition, unlike the Outlander Tumblr community, the Tumblr progressive political community is very supportive, and has zero drama.

I have a busy schedule in my real life, but in my limited time off, I prefer to post about American politics. The Outlander fandom is rarely on my mind. So why on earth would I want to manipulate anyone?

Oh Please!

Finally, we have this little gem from SA's rant:

Like a good conspiracy theorist, SD uses any reaction others have to shipper nonsense to confirm her conspiracy theory.

When I heard about "Kissgate," I rolled my eyes and posted about it because I was flabbergasted that after all these years shippers were still finding videos, enlarging small details, and misinterpreting the resulting fuzzy gifs/ photos, in order to keep their ship afloat.

If any of my nerves were activated when I was told about Kissgate, it was the ones that cued me to roll my eyes.

Sometimes, unfortunately, the truth hurts.

I'm sorry SD if I have offended you by just stating what to me is clearly the truth.

I don't believe SC shippers are "crazy," but I do believe they have succumbed to a very "addictive" conspiracy theory, and to the community that supports that theory.

Good luck to you if you choose to continue to stay on the ship. My fear for you is how you will feel when you finally figure out that you have wasted years on the ship to nowhere.

[edited]

__________ Video sources for my gifs/ my edited gifs: Glinda gif; Gotcha! gif; Pizza Delivery & Fire gif; Orc army gif; Manipulation gif, "Oh, please" gif: 01 + 02 Closed circle/ echo chamber/ bubble manipulated image sources: 01 + 02 Other gif sources: "Wait, What?" gif; "I can't" gif; Eye roll gif; "I've moved on" gif; "The truth hurts" gif Outlander Fandom Follies blog header*and avatar image: The sources for these can be found here; note that the header is a manipulated image with multiple sources. Other image sources: "The Australia Brief" conspiracy wall image NOTE: All gifs/images above (except for "The Australia Brief") were modified from their sources. **SD referred to me with my old "CO" moniker, which is odd for a relative newbie to do. I turned my CO blog into largely an American politics blog 4 years ago. When I write about the fandom now, I do so on my outlanderfandomfollies side blog. ***I'm using the generic "shippers" in this post to refer to "tinhat"/ "extreme" shippers, who actually believe their conspiracy theories. I've generally left off the "tinhat"/ "extreme" qualifiers in this post (except for the section that deals with "tinhatting") because I don't think that "wishful shippers" exist anymore in this fandom. I've never had any quarrel with shippers who just wish that S & C were a couple, but know they're not.

[wosoproblems]

[rggie]

helloooo !! i love your theme and how you organize your whole page 🙏 you seem really talented in graphics 🤭🤭 and i was wondering if you use anything specific to help make create your theme ???

HIII!!! thank u sm!! 😭😭 tbh i think experience video editing actually really helped me with graphics LMAOO i will list everything i used to do my graphics/theme below!!

graphics — ibispaint x

literally just insert a bg photo and go crazy. that’s what i do. layering is the way to go if you want gradients etc

for textures i search keywords on pinterest like: paper texture, grain texture, light leak texture/overlay. then you import it into ibispaint and mess with the blending mode until you get something you like

fonts — dafont

the basic fonts on ibispaint are ugly Af. u DON’T wanna use those. u want cool fonts. pretty fonts!!! the 𝓐𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓬 𝓕𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓼

when you get on the website go to the Top section (they’re popular for a reason) for the good fonts, or u can just browse urself

my personal fave fonts are: New Romantics, Glitten Regular, Bush Forest, Arter, Brittainy Signature

gifs — ezgif.com

^^ low quality watch me edit on ibispaint 💀

you can select different photos and import it into the website to make gifs which is what i did here and here, or convert videos into gifs like i did above :)

filters — picsart, polarr

FILTERS CHANGE THE WHOLE VIBE OF SOMETHING SO MUCH. on every header i have on my page there is some sort of filter on it. (e.g here and here both use the BRL2 filter on picsart.. i think?) polarr is also really good, i don’t use it much anymore but you can find qr codes for different filters on pinterest

overlays — pinterest

i’ve been speaking about this the whole time but pinterest is amazing for anything graphics related for textures

/OR/ aesthetic photos for headers like this (just made this rq💀)

LITERALLY JUST SEARCH “light aesthetic” [other prompts: dark aesthetic, cute aesthetic YOU GET WHAT I MEAN] and keep going

then use picsart to make a collage using the twitter header ratio

AND THATS IT BASICALLY. IF THERE IS ANYTHING ELSE LMK🤭

<- back

[writtenwhalien]

Do you have advice for new fan fic writers wanting to start posting?

hello love! 🥰 absolutely! tbh I still feel like a new writer myself considering I only started writing when I made this tumblr which is a year ago, and especially because my blog hasn’t grown as much as others, I feel like I’m still learning all this stuff myself too! 😊

this might be a little bit long bc I’ll be relating to my own experiences and what I’ve learned :) any writers please add on if you feel I’ve missed something! 😋

firstly, write what you want to write! don’t force ideas/requests.

your best work will come when you’re writing something that you’re excited to write. if someone sends a request, it’s okay to say that nothing is coming to mind, or think on it and come back at a later time (I still have requests in my inbox from like 7 months ago and they’re developing into full length fics (think 20k+) because I liked the idea and wanted to give time to it and now I’m really excited to write them too! that said, sometimes forcing ideas has worked for me (talk slow for example), but it’s how you feel in the moment. (now see how I linked my work just there, that is shameless self promo bc u might decide to check it out — remember this for my last point ;)

take your time! if you’re stuck, come back to it a few hours/days/weeks/more later.

following on from the first point, taking your time can be one of the most valuable things to do. sometimes all you need is a little break to figure out the missing piece from your work. if you’ve got writers block, work on a different wip/take requests, whatever works for you.

if you’re struggling to stay motivated, try: making a playlist/moodboard/banner for your fic or read something instead of writing!

pretty self explanatory, but sometimes we need visual creativity to come into play and help us craft our world so we can write it in words. and reading other fics can help you when you see the way another writer writes — their style/format, and I’ve noticed that almost every writer on this app has something unique in their writing that I can’t always put a finger on, but when I read it, it literally makes me go “yeah, I wanna go and work on my fic now.” — that I can’t explain 😂

make your blog pretty!

this is more to attract followers but it’s also very pleasing for you to see yourself! :) have links in your bio, a header, a theme for desktop tumblr, and most importantly, a masterlist!!!! I wish I’d done this earlier lol, my tumblr was trash for a while 😔

make friends! join networks!

this is a social app — use it to “network”. I can guarantee you’ll meet some amazing people and they can be a great motivation/support when it comes to your writing, whether that’s boosting your fics by reblogging, or encouraging you while you write, or even beta-reading for you. also, discord is always filled with wild conversations lmao.

space out your content!

say you get two fics written in two weeks and you don’t know when your next one will be/it’ll be at least a few weeks until the next one, whatever it is, I’d recommend spacing it out. post one fic first, and when the exposure on that starts going down, then post the second one. and queue your rb’s — remember we’re all on different time/schedules so at 2pm on wednesday you might be asleep while I’m awake, or one week you might be busy on a saturday but another saturday you’re scrolling through tumblr, so, my last point….

reblog your own work without shame! it’s yours, be proud of it! I’m still learning to do this myself but rb’s are important so do it :) + self promo!!! if someone is asking for recs, send your own fic! I have and I’ve been embarrassed to do it but they asked! but don’t do it if they’re not asking bc some authors don’t like it, it can feel forceful/ uncomfortable for them to say no.

I hope this helps somewhat!!!! have a lovely day anon and good luck with your writing! ❤️

[raviposting]

I was looking through my blog and came across a follower celebration that I was supposed to do and definitely never did for some reason and uh. That’s definitely not happening now but I did want to just do something, so I thought - I follow a lot of great content creators, so why not highlight them?

A lot of people do multiple things even if I only put them in one category so check out their tags and their work. <3  

Glorious Gifmakers:

@olisgifs makes such fantastic gifs (and she did this lovely header)! Her gifs are so thoughtful of the characters and who they are as people, and you can tell that she really loves all the characters. || Favorite set || Favorite series ||

@anya-chalotra has some of the most amazing gifs I’ve seen on this site. She experiments with such a cool style and every gifset I’ve seen of hers has absolutely taken my breath away, they’re amazing! || Favorite set ||

@tuafives honestly the fact that she believes in Hufflepuff Five already makes them a fantastic blog, but her gifs in general are just fantastic! The coloring is always so pretty and I’m obsessed with them. || Favorite set ||

@charmingqueenie I’m always hit with a blast from the past from her gifs in the best possible way. Some of the best Charmed gifs I’ve seen honestly, and her LNC series has my whole ass heart. || Favorite set || Favorite series ||

@inappropriateexplosions Experiments with such different styles and I love it! [meme voice] She has the range, dahling! I love seeing what different style she’s going to do next and it’s always absolutely lovely. || Favorite series ||

@challengerblue Her gifsets need more love and it is a crime, because LOOK at her edit tag!!! These are all such beautiful gifsets and I am obsessed with each and every one! The coloring! The scenes chosen! The talent! || Favorite set ||

@captain-flint Every time I see one of their sets: “Oh the talent jumped out huh?” Has so many lovely Buddie sets and Eddie sets in general and I love them all!!! || Favorite set || Another Favorite ||

@joel-miller honestly I’m getting repetitive here but I can’t help that every single gif-maker is just so so talented. Has fantastic sets and probably my only mutual who also gifs TLOU which??? I love!!! || Favorite set ||

@chloedoeslucifer has such lovely sets!! I’m a particular fan of her parallel sets because she picks up on SO many parallels that I didn’t even notice and it’s amazing. || Favorite set ||

@i-am-irondad Libby’s sets make me so emotional??? Such great Iron Dad/Iron Fam content in particular and it feeds my soul, I just love these sets and the found families that she gifs. <3 || Favorite series || Favorite set ||

@stevenrogered I think the one good thing about the “since you’ve been gone”/”in your orbit” feature is that I got to see their awesome gifs for SO many fandoms that I’m in (and also made me think I was following them for a very long time and I was so sad when I realized I wasn’t lmao). Just fantastic gifs all around! || Favorite set || 

@diegohargreves I love love love the coloring used in these gifsets! The yellow in particular is always fantastic and I rarely see it used in gifsets, so I appreciate seeing it - they’re always so vibrant and lovely sets! || Favorite set ||

@felicityollies has gifsets that I admire from afar now that I don’t watch Arrow anymore lmaooo but there’s always going to be a part of me that still ships Olicity and that part of me dies with how good her gifs are! Genuinely just *chef’s kiss* || Favorite set ||

@vaughnsgreenwood I also look at Dannii’s sets from afar because we don’t share many fandoms but her skills are just FANTASTIC. Also, even though I’m not going to watch the new Charmed her gifsets make me ship Harry and Macy so thanks for that lol. || Favorite set || 

@marcomardon graciously lets me call her Canada since I had very little reading comprehension when I read her blog, and also makes great sets! I love her stuff, especially when it comes to the rogues!! || Favorite set || 

Amazing Artists(/Graphic Makers):

@undead--hotmess has such lovely art! I’m so in awe of the talent, their paintings I’ve seen I’d say would look like real photographs like...it’s amazing || Favorite piece ||

@superbandnerd99 Okay real talk idk if she has more works on tumblr but I just need to share this one because it’s beautiful and everyone should see it and I’m 1000% updating it when she has the final piece out!!

@the-maidofmischief like some of THE best icons I’ve seen??? I love them all so much??? They’re so vibrant and colorful and absolutely beautiful and I’ve made it a mission to have basically all of her icons on my different social media accounts lmao || Favorite piece ||

@fengshuismirke her art is just. SO good. I was so blown away by a Martin piece that I’m tagging in here but I’m just in awe of her work!!! Check out her “my stuff” tag because she also writes! || Favorite piece || 

Wonderful Writers:

@ginnxtonic Ho boy. Ginny’s fics.....her writing is so good that I am now invested in the lives of AU children of Theon/Sansa in Game of Thrones. That’s how invested her fics will get you. They’re so wonderfully in character and she puts real heart and work into her fics and it shows. || Favorite work || Favorite series ||

@aprilthegayqueen has such wonderful fics! The ones I’ve read have been slice-of-life and character studies and I absolutely love them. They’re also in fandoms I haven’t been in for a while and they make me want to immediately rewatch. :’) || Favorite work ||

@zaritomaz hnnnng Mina has written some of my FAVORITE works of all time. She has such a talent for writing and it’s always just so beautiful, poetic, and lovely. || Favorite work ||

@nightskywriter has such lovely fics!! I personally have read through all her TUA fics and they’re *chef’s kiss* fantastic. She has a very fun style of writing and it really shines through! || Favorite work ||

@incendiaglacies Has such a long and varied history of writing and it’s awesome! I sadly don’t share many fandoms with her anymore but I’ve seen her Dream Movie challenge and I’m reading through her book and she’s just such a talented author with such cool ideas! || Favorite work || Check this out! ||

@hedgiwithapen the ANGST hedgi writes oh my goodness. I’m pretty sure a common tag on multiple people’s blogs for Hedgi’s fics is “dammit hedgi” lmao! Amazing stuff (even if they fill me with pain). || Favorite work ||

@deadtedkord Meg’s writing....it is just......so so good. They’re pieces upon pieces of just fantastic writing and literally any compliment I give here would not measure up to how awesome her fics are. || Favorite work ||

I’m sorry if I missed anyone, know that even if you’re not on here it’s bc I have no brain cells and that your work is awesome (and please send me your stuff, I love to see it)! Be sure to give these folks some love, tags, and comments. Thanks to all the content creators out there, you guys are awesome. <3

[hoedameron]

typically i don’t talk about the gifs that i make for myself but i am in a chatty mood so we’re have a socratic seminar right now.

also, before i get started, you can use these headers if you’d like! literally everything you see on this blog are freebies tbh. just a forewarning that the cas one is not the standard 640 px width because i was experimenting with something so just...be mindful of that <3 no need to credit unless you feel inclined to! just know i spent...quite awhile on them xx

i get most of my ideas for spn gif headers by seeings gifs on the tl that make me go “you know what? this would make for a great header” and run with that. i do pray that the op put the season and episode in the tags and if they don’t...SHH don’t laugh but if i’m desperate enough, i actually go through the tags to see if any hardcore stan knows the exact szn/ep. other times, i write some scenes down in my journal that i think would be great but again, those written down are definitely from scenes i saw in gifsets. call me unoriginal idc i’m just making things that make me happy and i know would be hella sexy.

let’s talk about how fucking LONG it takes to down/load an episode of supernatural like....i deadass spent five hours downloading plucky pennywhistle’s magical menagerie and around three hours to download the man who would be king....is it just best to t/orrent the whole ass season or WHAT like i’m deadass about to do that for any spn gifs i wanna make because that ajsdajksldjksla RIDICULOUSLY FUNNY. i’m not even that mad like it humbles me and it shows how dedicated i am to the craft. if anybody has tips for t/orrenting old spn episodes, please hmu because i would like to make more content in the future but this is a big hurdle on why i hesitate to create content for this show (among other things BUT this is one of the biggest reasons). you could have the fastest wifi speed the world has to offer pero if that bitch has no seeds...

for the castiel header: i had three different colorings for him. i really wanted to bring out his eyes because that is what drew me to make the header in the first place. y’all know that as a gifmaker, i really like making my gifs warmer and using pale/aesthetic coloring is so out of my wheelhouse and not my forte...but i do try to branch out of my comfort zone. back to the eyes, i went through a lot of psds, tinkering with their settings, and came out with three of them: the warm one that i did end up using and two pale-ish ones. the other third one isn’t here because i ultimately determined that it’s basically this one here but a lot lighter. the coloring made cas almost a ghost so i’m like...we still need to keep SOME of his skin tone even if it’s a lack thereof...okay, the reason why that this one doesn’t have the typical 640 px dimension is because i wanted to keep...how do i say this...i wanted to keep some of his facial structure? because the scene is really focused on cas’ face so it’s the entire frame. because tumblr is the way it is, it cuts at a weird spot where he looks like that bitch from doctor who all stretched out. so in an attempt to prevent that, i made it in this dimension where it’s basically me free handing the crop but ultimately it didn’t do anything lol. so i basically went back and made an entirely new gif with one of the colorings i saved and ta-da!

for the sam header: going in, i knew it was going to be a dark lit scene. i knew i had specific spn colorings that have been useful for shows outside of supernatural so i was like...i mean, tried and true, eh? i went through about six colorings until i finally settled on like...four. the first two of the six, though colorful, really made sam’s skin a bit...washed out. the next two were...basic. one of those basic coloring was the dark spn coloring and though it looked okay, there wasn’t any flavor to it. if i can be colorful in a gif, i will definitely climb up that tree. i love and admire vibrant gifs so if i can do that, oh man, it’s such a fun feeling because it’s like WOW i actually did that! then there were two colorings that were really, REALLY good because one of them was vibrant but it also had a subtlety to the gif. the other one was vibrant and brought out the blue in the background. it was a hard decision but i did save both of them and was like well, this is a problem for future me. i was actually surprised that the glitter on sam’s jacket and shirt didn’t up the mb because it definitely had me worried there. i also thought about making this gif header as another scene but realized it was a little too short for my liking (it was when he was surrounded by clowns but they magically disappear into thin air, leaving glitter in their wake). really love how this gif turned out :)

and yeah, that’s all i got to say about them. everything went smoothly with the sharpening, no problems on that front...i thought about opening up my inbox for suggestions of what scenes i should gif pero i’m afraid that 1) nobody will respond, 2) i will get some strange requests, or 3) i will get a lot of them. i would love to create more but i am like..creatively stuck. i don’t typically make those fancy edits with templates, i am more of a practical gifmaker aka i just stick to the original material. who knows...maybe i’ll be pushed and motivated...thanks for taking the time to read this !!

[tenglows]

in the name of the old days

summary: it’s the last day of the year and you’re feeling nostalgic. you come across the twitter of the boy who used to be your best friend a few years ago, and decide to message him.

category: fluff, a bit of angst? maybe??, internet friend!mark

it was currently december 31, at half past one am, and you were scrolling on twitter

some chuckles here and there while reading your friend’s posts about timothee chalamet

you were about to close the app to go brush your teeth and prepare for bed

when your eyes wandered off and focused on another tweet

“almost 2020 and still no flying cars” read the tweet

from @/markly_

this made you sit straight in your mattress

you clicked on his profile

you two still followed each other

there weren’t a lot of recents tweets, so that’s why you figured you hadn’t come across the boy’s twitter sooner

plus; lately you weren’t the type to be so active on social media either

you mentally counted the years since you first met mark lee

it was 2019 (almost 2020) now and you guys had met in 2015

you had gotten involved in a drama with a one direction stan, you being part of 5sos stan twitter

and mark, little mix stan, had defended you

it was in the middle of the zayn and perrie scandal, so he assured both of your teams had to stick together to defeat one direction’s fans

you became mutuals after that

and you soon realized that mark had the tendency to initiate lots of twitter fights

often with the people that would bash perrie and her group

your friendship rose as the two of you took turns defending the other one on those enfrentations

you don’t know how but all of the sudden there was no day you wouldn’t talk to mark

you were both 16 at the time, you being older just by a few months

you guys would talk about everything and anything

and basically grew up together

you were there for him when school got hard and future scared him

he was there for you when you faced a pretty bad relationship

and you honestly considered him your best friend

sleepless nights with him on facetime were one of the things you looked forward to the most

hearing him talk about his day

him showing you a new song he learned on the guitar, or him playing some melodies and lyrics he composed himself every now and then

watching the same movie or show at the same time on your respective screens

struggling to press play together to match the exact second

“i totally knew he was gonna die”

“shut up you’re way ahead!!!!”

you had other friends at school, too

but mark was just mark

and you two had such a loving bond, you were so close you took him with you to everywhere you went

you just wished you had him closer

at least you were both from canada

him being from vancouver and you from quebec

you had made lots of plans about meeting in real life, and you genuinely believed they would come about

but it is true that time passes and people drift apart

you were about to begin college and made new friends

mark moved out to toronto

and gradually, the responses took longer

and the calls had kinda been left aside

until one of you just stopped replying

you honestly don’t remember who it was

but there isn’t really a reason, either

you just parted ways

and it’s fine, it’s human and natural and normal

but now looking at his profile picture: a polaroid of him hugging another boy

you felt as if a bucket of cold and frostbound nostalgia had been dumped over your head

you recognized his moles, and how he had the same smile

his header picture was a guitar

and it wasn’t the same he used to have, but something about him still liking music made you feel warm

it’s always astonishing to see how the life of a person who is no longer in yours just,,,

goes on

and you aren’t aware of a thing about their existence

or even think about them

so it’s almost as they don’t exist

but now you know mark still exists

and it’s so weird to think about how your lives had been so overlapped, so united

and now you didn’t know anything about him

the mix of reminiscence about this and the year ending

resulted in your impulsive fingers pressing the envelope icon in mark’s profile

you stayed like that for a few minutes, writing and deleting messages. the sentences you thought about never feeling enough

you sighed as you told yourself this would be the last attempt

“hi mark, i’m not sure if you remember me but i saw you on my tl and it made me want to check on you! maybe this message will disappear into thin air but i just wanted to try. i hope you’re doing well <3”

you stared at the blue bubble of text almost without blinking for a moment

maybe he didn’t want to talk to you, and it was okay. you stopped talking in 2017, almost three years had passed

you thought looking at yourself in the mirror while you brushed your teeth

you came back to your room and turned off your lights, ready to go to sleep

but when you grabbed your phone with the intention to charge it, you saw you had a twitter notification

“y/n! how could i forget about you? haha it’s been so long two years without talking. how are you? how’s life? tell me something”

an instant smile started growing upon your face

the way he texted was the same as before

and you missed his haha

two and a half hours into the night you felt as if you were stuck in 2015 all over again

you had always had this fluidity at the time of talking with mark

the conversation just,, bloomed

he told you he still lived in new york, but he was actually gonna move back to toronto in a couple of months

he was majoring in music and owned a soundcloud rap account, and he had gotten quite popular as well

you mentioned how you had changed majors

what started as you being a marketing management major ended up on you leaning towards philosophy

something that no one had seen coming

so you expected the same reaction from mark

“i can totally see it, you always liked to think and question everything a little too much”

and that comment made you feel thrilled in your stomach, to say the least

even after all these years

mark was probably the person who knew you the most

days passed

weeks, even

and what you thought was just a conversation remembering the old days and filling the other in on your life

just,,, never stopped

mark and you went back to talking every day

everything felt the same as it did before

because after all, it was the same mark. it was always mark

still, the day you had agreed on facetiming for the first time again you felt kinda nervous

what if you ran out of what to talk about? what if it was suddenly weird?

and when you picked up the call and found yourself face to face with a flustered mark you knew he felt the same

you both hesitated as to who would speak first

him being the one to break the ice

“hey y/n” he giggled

“wow, your voice has gotten deeper”

he laughed loudly at your honesty, making you laugh back

“your hair is shorter”

“i know right? it was so long, i just got fed up of it reaching my waist”

“i like it, it looks pretty” he paused “you look pretty”

and in that moment you wondered how your heart could be beating this hard at a blurry screen with poor connection

comments like that kept making an appearance as time went by, sometimes from mark and eventually from your part

and that was the only thing that differed from the relationship you used to have with the one you had now

was it flirting? you didn’t know

but you had never thought of mark the way you think about him now

“so? what do you think?”

you set the phone on your desk as you walked away and showed mark your white dress. you were on your way to a costume party one of your friend’s brother was throwing, and even though it was cliché, you couldn’t be bothered to think of a more ingenious costume than a traditional angel

mark took his time fixing his gaze on you, his eyes getting closer to concentrate on what the vague wifi let him

“i can’t recognize the costume”

“what do you mean? i’m literally wearing wings and a halo”

“could it be because you always look like an angel?”

“ayee mark that was cheesy”

“i know, i’m sorry” you both laughed

“but really, you look amazing. go and have fun babe”

then pet names came into play

you weren’t sure what you were doing, but flirting with mark was sweet and fun and innocent

you always found yourself wanting for more

you were yearning for mark, you wanted to see him, listen to him, touch him

and you didn’t know what to do with yourself

until one day he called you out of the blue, which startled you, since he always asked before calling

“hey! were you busy?”

“no no i’m just doing the dishes, what’s up?”

“okay, so you know how i’m moving to toronto in two weeks, right?” you nodded “well, i just managed to change my flight so i would go to quebec for some days before properly settling in toronto, you know since it’s not that far”

“you’re kidding”

“i’m going to visit you!!!!!!!”

he squealed in your ear and you squealed back, scaring your poor cat who was sleeping soundly

after some more yelling, the excitement died out a bit and you stayed in silence for just a few seconds

“i don’t really have a place to stay though” he snorted, embarrassed

“you can always stay with me, mark”

after some long and never-ending hours and days (you had seriously convinced yourself some wrinkles had appeared on your forehead from all the waiting)

it was finally the day you would see mark

it was currently 11 am, mark’s flight was at 1 pm and he would arrive at quebec at approximately a bit less than 3 pm

now, he was at new york’s airport taking care of all the travelling procedures

and you were cleaning up the same spots in your aparment for the fourth time in a row

to say you were nervous was an understanding

you felt like you were going insane

you barely had gotten any sleep the night before, not being able to defeat the crowding thoughts about finally meeting your long-time friend

(who now you wanted to be more than a friend and seeing him physically could totally help with that)

you arranged some lunch for you and your cat (magnus) and sat in front of the tv, wanting to find literally anything that would keep your mind occupied

luckily, it worked, and you let yourself lose track of time

until your phone beeped, indicating you had received a text

“i’m boarding now!! i’ll text you when i get there, can’t wait to see you”

“have a safe flight love”

you sighed dramatically and rested your arm against your forehead

magnus stared at you in confusion and boredom

“magnus, i think i’m going to die”

as promised, mark texted you as soon as the plane landed

you offered to go pick him up at the airport, but he denied, saying he had already scheduled a taxi

so now you were ready and dressed, going all over your apartment non stop

mark was texting you through all the taxi drive and updating you on his location, you growing more and more anxious as you knew he was getting closer

you went to the bathroom and as soon as you stepped out, a knock was heard on your door

it was soft and steady, and you opened your eyes widely when the realization of who the owner of the hand was hit you

you panicked, one last time

you even eyed your room window to check if you had any chance of jumping out and running away

but you took a deep breath and walked decidedly towards your door

you just had to remind yourself it was the same mark as always, and nothing could go wrong if there was him

thus, you opened the door

and the facetime pixels and instagram pictures could have never prepared you for how dreamy mark looked

you two stayed like that for a bit

just watching the other with shy eyes and smiles

you eventually snapped out of your trance and helped mark get his luggage inside

"it's a bit small but i hope you can make yourself comfortable"

"oh please it's perfect, don't worry" he gave you a reassuring smile before getting totally distracted by the fluffy ball of hair in your couch

"oh my god is that magnus!!!!"

after letting mark get comfortable and installed, you guys decided to take a walk and go over your apartment zone, showing mark all your favorite places and memories you had there

it was a bit cold and you were both tightened around your coats

eventually, it was getting late and more chilly

so you opted for going back to your place

as you walked there in a bit of silence, you could feel mark's body getting more close in proximity

you looked at him, his gaze fixed upon the path with a small grin on his lips

you got closer too

and you liked it

it was cold outside but when mark brushed against your body

canada has never felt more like summer

you guys were really close now

as you took step after step, your jackets made static sounds, rubbing against the other

you looked at mark and delicately touched one of his fingers with your pinky, as if asking for permission

he finally looked up from the way and focused on your eyes instead, breaking into a smile once again

he took a peek at your close hands and softly intertwined your fingers

both of your faces reddening, from the low temperature and the feelings that were growing in your stomach

when you got to your apartment you guys were still holding hands, but you realized you had to open the door with that one, and couldn't find the keys in your pocket

"y/n, you will have to let go of my hand to get the keys"

"that's the point. i don't want to"

"y/n, i'm freezing. please open the door i can still hold your hand when we're inside"

and yeah,,

he did

you changed into comfortable and warm clothes and prepared some hot chocolate while mark chose a movie in your laptop

when you entered the room, two mugs in hand

mark was lying on his stomach on your bed, his hand on his chin with his mouth a bit open while concentrating on the variation of movies netflix offered

you felt a shiver down your spine

he really was here

after taking a while to decide on a movie, or at least its genre, you just selected a random title

you turned off the lights and went back to your bed, getting under the covers

and you just felt warm

and whole

maybe more because of mark than the actual sheets that were meant to keep you heated

(he also held your hand the entire time, rubbing his thumb against your palm and drawing invisible figures on it)

your head rested on his shoulder and you went up as the same time his chest did with every breath he took

in some moment you stopped paying attention to the movie

your mind wandered off to thoughts about the boy, about how you have never felt this close to him. you felt like you were really inside his ribcage

still from his shoulder, you moved a bit so you could look at him

his face was glowing

yeah, the images and lights of the computer were reflecting on him

but you meant this boy glowed in the dark

he just had something in him

it was either rays of sunshine or neon paint

but he, in this frosty and amusing night within your bedroom walls, glowed on his own

he turned his gaze towards you too, and tightened the grip on your hand

you felt mark’s arm on your waist and he rearranged the position so you would be on his chest

hearing his heartbeat, it was music

mark always did music. and he himself was music too, his heart creating your new favorite beat

“markie”

“hm?”

“i’m falling asleep” you confessed with a drowsy voice, making him laugh

“let’s turn off the movie, shall we? we can continue it tomorrow”

he shut the laptop closed and placed it on your desk, quickly making his way back to the bed so he would hold you

you had prepared him another bed next to you, a mattress already covered

but he was showing no intentions of moving a muscle

“are you going to sleep here?”

“that was the plan, yeah” he giggled on your neck. you shuddered

“i made the bed just in case”

“i can go there if you prefer”

“no” pause “i want you here”

and he smiled proudly as he hid his face in the crook of your neck

you smelled nice, like coconut and vainilla and all his sweetest dreams combined

and with his arms around your waist he felt strong, like he could defeat anything that the world aimed at him

“do you think it was meant to be that we’re here after all this years? would you consider it destiny?” he thought out loud, gazing at you

“i can’t give you an answer right now”

“fine, philosophy major” he mocked, making you both laugh

“as a philosophy major, i don’t know. destiny is always a tricky thing to discuss”

“but as y/n, yeah, i believe it was meant to be”

he stared at you in awe

“i really want to kiss you right now”

[hellyeahheroes]

I goddamn hate the X-men

Any X-men writers or fans come at me for this. Fine. You can ignore my hate for this franchise because honestly, I will never be a fan of this series. Everytime this franchise is mentioned or even brought up in conversation around me, I will be the wet fucking blanket because honestly, it was a concept that never appealed to me or will never appeal to me.

Against my better judgement, I decided to pick up the New Uncanny X-men because I tried. I read and like the post Ultimatum X-men and I guess I am the only person in the world that did. I read and loved the New X-Men series that you just dropped off the face of the Earth for...nostalgia of everything I hate about this franchise.

So I figured that since my good online pal @majingojira loves the X-men and the admin of this blog @filipfatalattractionrblog constantly posts about what is going in comics in general and @newx-menfan has introduced me to the only X-men content that I actually respect is actually despondent about what is going on with you writers. I decided to pick it up and see what is the fuss about.

And my god, we are ten issues in and yeah, I now really hate your series, writers and fans.

I hate the concept of the X-men. I hate that they base themselves around the Civil Rights movement but most of the core characters are white. You want to know what really did it for me? When Wolverine lectured Luke Cage for not understanding the mutant plight.

I will never like the concept of allegorical racism in narrative form in a contemporary when most of the characters are non-people of color. And I sure as shit won’t like allegorical LGBTQI oppression and hatred in a narrative form when most of your characters are coded straight. This is why I tend to like the X-books that stray away from that mutantphobia bullshit or apply whole universe wide so it at least makes narrative sense why Firestar is hated while Johnny Storm is celebrated(and if you didn’t pick up on that reference, post-Ultimatum X-men or the Ultimate Universe in general, super powered people aren’t just not liked in general).

Because if you want to write about racism, maybe you should just use a character of color. If you want to write about LGBTQI issues, maybe you should write an LGBTQI character. The cognitive dissonance is so thick in this fandom that it is an actual commonality where there are X-men fans that are MAGA supporters. Build the wall the lowly tumblr jackass says with Cyclops leading a mutant resistance in his header while touting Magneto is right.

I’m a bi-black man and as of late, I don’t feel particularly empowered or represented in a series that uses the United States History of the Civil Rights movement as it’s core theme. That is depressing. If only Black People created a paramilitary peace keeping taskforce?

Whoops.

And it’s not like you fucking jackasses aren’t aware of the social commentary. The Champions make social justice their core theme and you fuckers do nothing but whine about it, but when the X-Men do it, it is high fucking literature because all of the characters are white. Could you imagine a super powered Black Panthers, Young Lords, Brown Berets, or Yellow Peril? I don’t hate the X-men because it is an outdated metaphor for racism. I hate them because it is a misplaced concept for racism or oppression in general.

So I pick up this series and honestly,  I have to ask this question. Who exactly is this book for? 

It is not for kids as you will literally send kid characters to the sewers and treat them as lesser X-men.

Okay, Jean, your super power and what you are pretty much known for other than dying is pretty much nuclear temper tantrum. You don’t get to call anyone out for being childish, especially since you do not treat any of these kids with respect yet you demand it out of them. Oh and look, here are the few panels where Ororo actually speaks and  says something and isn’t the token black person in the core X-men.

@filipfatalattractionrblog, the admin of the blog, had the right metaphor for this series as it is pretty much baby boomers rule and millennial and Gen Z drool the comic book version. Because outside of Laura who is doing her best Logan impersonation, there are no other young folks and X-23 really does not say anything of substance other than just be the distaff Logan. 

This entire comic book is nostalgia gate keeping. If you aren’t familiar with X-Men lore, then you are lost from the get-go. For example, the chief villain for this series is the alternate universe son of Jean Gray and Scott Summers.

...are you fucking serious?

First off, it shows a lack of commitment. You could have just made them have a kid and kept it in Universe but no, we have the added convoluted layer of alternate dimension for a villain that calls himself X-Man. That’s decades of obscurity and history that you just expect comic readers to grasp and accept as soon as you pick up a book.

And don’t get me started on using older characters that can’t possibly function as gateways for new reader. X-Men is probably the most narcissistic reading experience I’ve seen in comics. And no, not all comics are like this. Spider-Man, if recall correctly, has the highest number of issues in marvel but at any given point or at least at the beginning of an arc, you can pick up a Peter Parker Spider-Man book and don’t have to be familiar with past convoluted plot points especially in the fucking first issue of a new volume.

Your characters are overwritten like reading through the history of Jean Grey is like literary acid trip. Comic books get this reputation of being hard to get into but I don’t think there is a franchise that exemplifies this more than the fucking X-Men.

And it is a quick and easy fix. Use newer characters. I could have picked up the New X-Men comic and binge read all 40 issues without having to know the complicated history of the X-men. And it is not like the old guard weren’t around. It was more that the old guard weren’t crucial to the story. And that is important.

And finally, the nostalgia wankery just turns me off. How many times can you sit there and rerun the same plots from Claremont? You know what I like to do?

When there is a super team being made and I want to come up with a dream roster, I literally go TV Tropes X-Men page and just read up on 2000s and on X-characters. Why? Because they are rarely used and obscure enough to not be weighed down on X-bullshit. I actually get mad at X-Men fans who want to make Kamala a mutant. Say what you want about the Inhumans but at least they diversified and made newer characters and made them a staple. The X-Men’s greatest success since 2000 was X-23 and that was not even something the comic writers made but the cartoon show did. It’s 2019 and Magneto, a Holocaust survivor is still using that as his main motivation to why he hates bigotry?

Don’t listen to me. I hate this franchise and it fills me with glee that the misplaced nostalgia will be the death of you all. Every other Marvel property adapted but the fucking X-Men. I mean fuck, the Fantastic 4 are now the Fantastic 6 with 3 of the 4 married and Johnny Storm wanting to settle down and get married. Fucking Peter Parker had an entire series being married with child. And yet, it appears your characters are in a perpetual state of 80s. God.

@ubernegro

[aharris00britney]

ASKS 16

haha remember in July when I said I was gonna answer stuff every month... yeah me neither 🙈🙈 anyways lots of stuff under the cut

Anonymous said: You should get along with other Simblrs and start a new cc group now that PTS is disbanded, your hairs and clothes are always amazing! :D

Firstly thank you! Most of the clothing in AxA is 99% ayoshi with me going in after and cleaning/adding some stuff. So I give him props for the clothes :P As far as a ‘new PTS’ style group idk, there are a lot of amazing creators on simblr but I think the reason PTS was such a special thing is because the bond they all had. I feel that when working on collabs with some of my really close friends (such as the one coming out this month with @dogsill​ and @ayoshi​) because we have known each other for over 2 years now. A group of friends built only for collabing purposes would be more of a hassle than an enjoyment imo. <3

Anonymous said: HELLLOOOO! just curious bc why not but what is your favorite creation that you have made??

It varies every month to be honest lmao. If you asked me to pick a favorite hair from each month? Easy, always the last release of the month. But favorite hair ever? Awwww shucks 🤠 lmao I would say my Madison Hair is one of my favorite hair releases, I am planning to revamp it soon to work with my Mia ombre accessories and tidy the mesh up some. 

Anonymous said: hello, when will this collection be free for public download please? /post/186706149526/patreon-08-19

That came out in August luv, go to my downloads page and click AxA 2019

Anonymous said: Hi! Idk if you do wcif!!!! But if you do, wcif the freckles on the girl with the short hair on the BOP AHOOB collab?? If you know! Thank you much in advance!!!!!

Hey! You’ll need to send Bowl-Of-Plumbobs a message for that WCIF, that was his Sim otherwise I would link you. Sorry hun

@lumalinrose-sims​ said: Not a question, but you are like so cool I can't even--

thank you lmao I appreciate it, your profile pic it pretty cool :P

@ang3lba3 said: sarah is so pretty!!! is there a way to download how she looks in its entirety, or no? (sorry if this is a silly question im pretty new to the sims) 

not silly don’t worry :P the Sarah hair is for download on the post, the sim can be downloaded here but she is a bit outdated as I have changed her somewhat since then. 

Anonymous said: Hihi just stopping by to tell you how much I love your hairs!!

thank you so much! I appreciate the love<3

Anonymous said: hi! i just wanted to say that i love your cc so much i and always look forward to your posts! you make the cutest cc ever and honestly you're probably my favorite cc maker. you also seem like such a chill and genuine person we truly stan.

fgvhbjn thank you lmao I am literally TOO CHILL irl lmao I let people run over me so much but it’s whatever. Thank you again for the super sweet message. Have a great day if you’re reading this :)

Anonymous said: Heeeey we have the same name

Austin club :P great name til you’re trying to sign something and it looks awful (at least for me I can’t do my signature for shit)

Anonymous said: the collab with bop is so boring and dull it’s drier than a cracker it’s a no from me

well not everything is going to be someones cup of tea lmao I’m sure there is someone that enjoys it which counters you’re negative view <3

Anonymous said: Hi I love your cc! I have almost all of it in my game and I love your tropical punch palette so much I was wondering if you would ever consider releasing the palette.

If I ever make an ombre accessory tutorial video I will release a set of actions for the palette. If you wanna use the palette feel free to grab the hex codes from S4S.

Anonymous said: How did you become a ea game changer? Was it through Tumblr or youtube?

About a year ago SimGuruKate was the community manager and had applications for Tumblr Game Changers, I applied and got accepted. Follow SimGuruFrost on Twitter to stay up to date on when new applications are open.

Anonymous said: Are you going to upload the hair you made on your livestream? I literally love your work and am a Patreon subscriber!!!

Hey! The hair will be in my October voting (I think) and if it wins, release will be November. If it doesn’t win I will put it in November voting and so forth til it wins. Also thank you for watching the stream and supporting me on Patreon 

Anonymous said: hello!! i just wanted to see if knew is there’s anyway i can save my cc and save files somehow where i can download them again if my computer breaks so i don’t have to download it all again.?

zip your Sims 4 folder and upload it to Google Drive/SimsFileShare/OneDrive. Then when you install Sims 4 again you just replace the folder made in Electronic Arts in your Documents.

Anonymous said: what face do you make when your in love with a bee?

this is an old anon so I doubt they’re gonna check for this, and I can’t find the joke on Google so.... anybody know it?

Anonymous said: i love these collab sets they are honestly gifts from above

mhmm gifts from above for every collab except those in October... those are from below  👹 😳

Anonymous said: the pack is sooooo cute i love everything omg!!!! The male stuff is so adorable i can’t wait to download   

Anonymous said: you guys are the only ones i go to for packs i would love to see build buy items in the future we don’t get a lot mm stuff like that

Anonymous said:i just want to say thank you for putting in so much time and hard work and dedication to creating cc for us. i hope there's never a moment when you feel unappreciated, and i want you to know we all love you!

@primadonnaliferiseandfall​ said: all hail you and ayoshi for the cc pack its so pretty omg!!!!

Anonymous said: omg the kings have delivered!!

Anonymous said: since we got axa 2019 and 2018 will there be an axa 2020? 👀

Anonymous said: Great job on the pack! Everyone's items look gorgeous! Thank you for making this, you talented human being.

Anonymous said: ilysm! that’s all 💓💫

Anonymous said: just wanted to let you know that your content is absolutely amazing and i love it all :) sending love from the uk👍

Anonymous said: would you and ayoshi consider sharing the psds for some of the stuff in your collab? please?

thank you guys so much! Me and Ayoshi were super super happy with the AxA 2019 release and we are so happy with how many people have liked it. AxA 2020 will be a thing, yes. Also I have been working on PSDs that are super easy to navigate. I will get those up soon hopefully.

@graphicpickles​ said: Hey um, I dont know if you were aware of this but your discord link is broken ^^"

hey! this is super late sorry, discord link should be working now. If not: https://discord.gg/CtQR9tb

Anonymous said: Why would you include a cc hair in a preview for a cas review

because I liked the hair and wanted to use it 😗

@goddesssimmerina​ said: I just stopped by to tell you how much I LOVE your content. *_* I just went through and downloaded soooo much! xD I actually just switched to using MM hair and i'm so glad I did because I'm finding so many of you amazing creators and I thank you all sm! :*

awe thank you!! I appreciate it. Welcome to MM hair world :P

@moonbrightsims said: whats ur origin id?

AHarris00Britney

Anonymous said: how are your photos/screenshots so high quality? seriously, do you use a mod for it or idk editing? or maybe your settings?

Ultra Settings, and I use SRWE for HQ pics. 

Anonymous said: if you don’t answer this ask you’re straight

It has been answered. I am no longer straight. Was a hard two months not answering this 😔😔😔

Anonymous said: Hi, would you mind teaching us how you make the LoDs of your hairs? I opened one of them in S4S and found out your LoDs are great looking. I use decimate tool in blender and they look really bad.

I edge split everything before I decimate in Blender, I also delete the hairline and extrude the mesh inside the head before decimating as well. Really confusing to explain in words sorry. Might make a tutorial.

Anonymous said: omg ur cc finds blog has apink namjoo as icon and header. i'm.. sCREAMING. austin knows royalty

yes ma’am now where is the comeback

- it was at this point I realized I have caught up with my last asks post and have answered 4 things over again from Asks 15. Well... I guess that’s it folks

see yall in asks 17 in 2 months.... maybe the end of October idk

[justlightthefirstspark]

As promised, my analysis/opinion/thought piece on today’s MUWFC game vs Spurs. Everything is chronological which I feel like should go without saying but in the interest of clarity 🤷🏽‍♀️ but not everything is tagged to the minute cause I am an idiot that didn’t realise that that would be helpful til like the 2nd half. Also, if I missed anything, or got players mixed up or anything pls lemme know and I’ll edit accordingly! I’ve never really done any from of sports based writing before (I don’t think tweets count lol) so pls be nice, merci 😘

Line up as follows, I guess this is pretty common knowledge but you know, coherency and such.

Tbh it was kinda hard to see *a lot* of this game, especially on the far side of the pitch and by both goals because of the weather, felt like I was watching Silent Hill for a little while there, but I did my best. My wifi is also horrendous atm, and we all know that the FA Player can be problematic so there’s a very good chance I might have missed something due to a lag or buffering btw. Just drop me an ask if you notice anything that mightn’t be quite right, and I’ll fix it asap! Some ~analysis~ (if you could call it that lol) is more detailed than other bits cause there was a lot happening and today I learned that it’s kinda hard to write one thing and watch another at the same time lol

First half:

Quick, fast and almost successful start. A much-needed improvement on the stagnancy vs Bristol a few weeks ago, and obviously we couldn’t see the midweek game vs Brighton so I can’t compare them.

I have to say I’m not a massive fan of all the back passes, all the time. I think a more attacking FB might be needed in the summer, or maybe Ökvist should be given some time to acclimatise to the WSL soon? I was never the biggest fan of Harris last season, I personally don’t think she’s fast enough – she gets outpaced down the flank by attackers 90% of the time, which isn’t good. I think A. Turner is the strongest FB option currently, at least defensively, and she’s shown she has a decent attacking ability, and has a wicked long ball, as well as crossing. My only issue is sometimes those tackles of hers can be a liability, giving away unnecessary fouls. It’s almost like she doesn’t think before she flies in sometimes, which is a shame, cause I love them. A lot.

There were a couple of really good chances in the first half, including a great ball in and run up from Galton, which should have resulted in probably the opening goal but whether it was as a result of the weather or just misjudged timing and placement from both Ross and Sigsworth, the chance went to waste. Groenen had an excellent chance to net her first for United but unfortunately sent it just wide. Another glorious link up between A. Turner and Galton led to another decent chance, a gorgeous cross in from the right to the opposite side of the box, and the perfect header which unfortunately was aimed straight at the keeper. Very unlucky to head in at the break with nothing.

There was an incredible double save from Earps around halfway through the first half. I have to say, I have some anxieties with her sometimes. She is quite good, but has a tendency to make some silly mistakes, and doesn’t always make the right call for a save. But my god she was on her game today, even if a potential error might have led to the first save. Didn’t disappoint me anytime she was called on this afternoon.

A few frustrations started to show around the 30 min mark, a few sloppy passes and challenges making the rounds. It was also around this time that I realized I’d picked a pretty poor game to start this thing on because I could barely see anything.

Zelem seems to be back in form, which can only be a good thing. But I would very much like it if somehow she could drag some of the other girls back up with her.

There were a fair few soft calls going Spurs way, which I wasn’t entirely convinced by. But then again I’m probably just naturally biased towards my girls.

Another great ball in to Sigsworth from A. Turner which was just *chefs kiss* but unfortunately came to nothing. There was also a spin move either to commit or avoid a challenge, I couldn’t really tell tbh, which was very impressive, as was her chase down on Mitchell at around 43 mins. (Amy’s my favourite player, can you tell?)

Booking for Kirsty Smith just before half time, but I gotta be honest I couldn’t see it due to the fog, so I have no idea what happened. Couldn’t find anything about it in the United post-match report either so apparently we’re just deleting that from the history of the earth which is completely fine by me to be honest.

Second half:

My main takeaway from this game is that both Sigsworth and Ross always seem to be looking for the same ball in the penalty area, and there very rarely seems to be anybody else around looking for a potential rebound. I think that James (who missed today’s game due to suspension) seems to be our main (only?) front line creator and finisher; Sigsworth is fine, that girl works like a dog and always gets the job done, I think she may have just needed another goal to boost her confidence, but I have no real concerns with her. Ross, however, I’m not entirely convinced by, I think a lot of her finishes have been a bit lucky and flukey so far. I’d start Toone over her for the rest of the season to be honest, Ross hasn’t done anything that tells me she deserves the starting place. Feel free to disagree with this of course, this is just my own personal opinion.

56 mins – confusion has entered the chat. McManus ends up pretty much through on goal, and then the ref whistles for what I assumed to be an offside. So naturally I nearly kicked my laptop out the window. The ref then awards a United penalty, and I’m even more confused now than I was in the beginning. I genuinely didn’t see anything but did hear a few shouts from what I’m assuming was the United bench for handball, so I have no idea what happened here.

‘58 – GOAL. Who else? God bless Katie Zelem is all I’m saying.

‘61 – Hanson 🔁 Ross. I think this was a good swap. I don’t think Ross was particularly good today, and Hanson immediately sparked that RW. I would have subbed Ross off sooner but that’s my only issue.

’64 – GOAL – Sigsworth with a pretty perfect if slightly scruffy strike from a corner.

A much better corner than previous attempts, and Spurs hadn’t defended any of them particularly well. I think that we have a major issue with set pieces, I dunno what exactly the problem is, whether they need to allocate a new taker or whatever but before today had we scored from a corner all season? Lemme knowwww.

’65 – A few decent chances for Spurs around this time. One pretty clear run in from the right, and one or two shots bounced right of the crossbar and the post. Basically my heart stopped for about 8 mins.

’66 – I DO NOT WANT TO SEE BACK PASSES IN THE BOX AS OPPOSITION PLAYERS SWARM IN. CLEAR IT. I DON’T CARE WHERE IT GOES JUST GET IT OUT. (sorry for the caps but my anxiety was out in force this afternoon)

United started playing much better after both goals, think they just needed a kick up the arse. *Ahem* A confidence boost. 👀 Much better intensity for the final 30 mins than the previous 60 imo.

’68 – Another decent chance for Spurs, with Earps coming way too far off her line than sat right with me. Very lucky nothing came of that.

’69-72 – Around this time I started to get *very* confused between Amy and Abbie cause they both had yellow boots on and literally the only thing I could see on the far side of the pitch was feet. That was fun.

’73 – The wasteful corners made a return. Slightly less panicked about that one considering we were already 2-0 up but still, I would like to see the glaring set piece issue sorted asap thanks girls x

’75ish – Toone 🔁 Groenen. Man I love Jackie Groenen. She really has been immense for us so far, and there’s a definite difference in how we play without her.

’78 – Harris 🔁 M. Turner. I’ve said my piece about Harris above but man, can we take a second to appreciate Millie Turner. She never, ever stops. Literally the heart of our defence.

’86 – GOAL – Oh captain, my captain. Beautiful strike from a free kick just outside the box, with the perfect bend around the wall and subsequently the keeper to make it 3-0.

United were very obviously stronger in the second half, almost looked like a completely different team at times. Whether they just got the hairdryer treatment at the half (I would imagine Casey is terrifying when she’s mad.) or the goals gave them that spark they desperately needed to kick on, they definitely made up for all the missed chances in the first half.

’90 – 4 additional minutes.

’92 – Another United free kick. McManus found herself almost clear in (again!), but due to an unlucky fumble with the ball at her feet unfortunately nothing came from this one. Surely a 4th goal otherwise.

’93 – FIIIIIIIIGHT. Kinda. You love to see it. Spend a little while conducting some, scientific research 🌚 and have concluded that Toone was tackled from behind just as the ball left her feet, which led to the ~scuffle~. Have to say that Amy walking away with Ella was extremely 🥰🥰🥰 (This is my research - https://twitter.com/48hours8/status/1218896406020349953?s=21)

’94 – Red card for Tooney. I would assume for her reaction more than anything but the camera didn’t catch it so I guess we’ll never know. I would have thought a yellow would suffice, considering that’s all the Spurs player in question received, but apparently not. 🤔 I’m still kinda confused tbh.

’95 – Full time.

Thus concludes what was certainly an interesting match. Please enjoy this comparison of United vs Spurs chaotic energy from @danieljamesmufc

Also thanks for reading if you got this far, it’s a bit stop-starty and clunky cause I just wrote down thoughts and whatever as they came into my head and then pieced it all together later on. I also just wanna say that I was massively impressed with Smith today. She hasn’t had many chances to prove herself this season, but that combo of herself and Galton down the left was lethal today imo. 🔥

Some extra thoughts:

I’m not a huge fan (like, at all) of fans singing men’s orientated chants. Let the women’s rivalries develop on their own, in their own way, and don’t drag the vulgarities across! That said, I do think that particular group of United fans has the potential to be a very, very good thing.

Also, just wanna say that these are my girls, and I would die for every single one of them. None of my criticism is meant to be intentionally negative, I just tried to be as objective and realistic as possible, without being a fangirl lol. Even my faves aren’t immune to criticism unfortunately.

And this picture is now my favourite thing ever to exist

[the-elemental-sides]

Urban fantasy AU: The Sides are four spirits trapped in an amulet. When Thomas finds it and puts it on, he gains the powers of the four elements…or that’s what should have happened, but mistakes were made. Now the Sides have to coach him in their respective elements while Thomas deals with both his new powers and his ability to see into the magical realm. Not only is magic real, but there’s some pretty intimidating stuff out there, and only Thomas and the Sides have the power to stop it.

A/N: Surprise, the chapter’s early! Logan’s time with Thomas turned out long enough to be its own thing. On the bright side, I got to make an entirely Logan header and I think it’s much better than my original plan.

Taglist: @shinylyni, @hissesssss, @vexation-virgil, @madd-catter, @rptheturk, @ed-tries-to-be-cool, @nienna14, @ryuity, @asofterfan, @robanilla, @k9cat

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 

***

Logan stared at Thomas over the kitchen table. Thomas stared back, occasionally looking away uncomfortably. Logan did have that “teacher” air around him, and he was clearly a serious person, judging by that necktie. But Patton had assured him (whilst eating half a box of pizza) that Logan was nothing but a box of candy-coated Nerds.

“Shall we begin the lesson?” Logan asked.

“Shoot, Teach.”

Logan brushed his (solid) hands together, and when his hands came apart, he was holding a rock the size of a golf ball. He placed it on the table with great care.

“Here is your objective,” stated Logan. “Levitate this rock.”

“That’s it?” said Thomas.

“That is it.”

Thomas concentrated as hard as he could. He brought his hands as close to the rock as possible without touching it and pulled upwards like he was tugging on puppet strings. Predictably, nothing happened.

“I think you have to be more specific.”

“What else is there to say?”

“Patton and Roman both said something about their feelings…?”

“Feelings!” Logan said in disgust. “Of course they’d peddle that nonsense. You don’t need feelings for a formula. It’s a proof: given that you focus on the rock, that rock shall move. It’s a hypothesis: if you focus on the rock, then the rock will move, because icky emotion is not required in the manipulation of an inanimate object.”

“Then show me how you do it,” Thomas challenged.

“Of course.” Logan rested his elbow on the table, tapped his fingers twice, and raised his hand. The rock smoothly rose with it.

Thomas raised his hand to match, thought about how easily Roman had given and taken his fire, and pulled. Nothing  happened. Thomas snuck a look at Logan’s steely eyes and knew that he’d have to find his own path in this logical railroad of a lesson.

“I think you do have feelings,” Thomas began.

“That is a falsehood.”

“No, come on.” Thomas adjusted his elbow, which was pressing into the table. Now it looked like he and Logan were about to arm wrestle. “I’ve seen you. You’ve been in my house for four days.”

“Do you have proof?”

“I completely do. What were you doing at three in the morning eating Crofter’s jam from the jar?”

The rock moved a quarter turn in Thomas’ direction.

“At least cover the crystal or something!” Logan hissed, flapping his free hand at the amulet. “They can see and hear us!”

“OH, you were saying, Logan?”

“Get back in the mind palace, Roman, this does not concern you.”

“I’m just saying, there’s no shame in being happy that Thomas shares our favorite jam brand.”

“We are in the middle of something here, though, Roman,” Thomas said. “You had your part, so…”

“Very well!” Roman disappeared. Logan adjusted his necktie.

“Anyways,” Thomas said, and Logan rolled his eyes. “You binged jam in the middle of the night, you snapped at Roman literally two seconds ago, and I KNOW you were laughing at that one video of the Boston robot dog.”

“That doesn’t count, that dog is a blessing.”

“True.”

“So you’re hiding something, Logan.” Thomas attempted to stare the spirit down. “Why don’t you want to talk about how you feel?”

The rock wavered like a magnet caught between attractions.

Logan modulated his voice—technically Thomas’ voice, Thomas remembered, which temporarily brought the weird factor back—until it was down to a monotone. “Those were anomalous moments,” he said calmly. “I admit that I do like jam, and I may have shed some tears on the night of my awakening upon learning the fate of Stephen Hawkings—“

“Rest in peace,” Thomas added.

“Agreed. But these moments are the exception, not the rule. I do not need to express myself. I am fine.”

“What’s this? I think I’m gaining control of the rock, here. Ooh, look! I made it move!”

“Einstein’s combover, Thomas, will you respect that I am a reasonable individual?”

“Maybe if you admitted that you’re not a robot!”

“If you want to talk to someone about their feelings, go find Patton.”

“Oh, that reminds me. Patton told me you’d given him a cat hoodie! What’s your reasoning behind that?”

The rock plummeted. Thomas’ hand jerked as if twenty pounds of weight had been added to it, but he managed to freeze the rock an inch from the table’s surface.

Logan looked shocked. “I wasn’t aware that he told you that,” he said stiffly.

“You weren’t watching us practice?”

“I was-- preoccupied.”

He looked like he wanted to say something else, so Thomas stayed quiet and watched the rock bob around in the air. He’d always thought he would be an earthbender.

“I suppose I do associate a state of mind with my powers,” Logan said finally, “but it isn’t a pleasant one, and I don’t want you to take it up, okay? To be honest, I feel a certain amount of personal responsibility for the situation the four of us are currently in. Any time I use this geokinesis serves as a reminder.”

“You’re guilty,” Thomas guessed.

“Yes.”

“Aw, Logan—it isn’t that bad, right? You’re all here now, and you seem okay to me. You were supposed to give everyone their magic powers, right? The procedure?” Logan gave a quick nod. “Then that part worked out fine, and maybe they didn’t quite transfer to me, but I’m learning them now, aren’t I? Look!” Thomas waved his arms expansively, and the rock followed his hand like it was attached by an invisible thread, boomeranging around through the air.

“It’s not just that,” Logan under his breath, then sighed. “I feel—especially guilty to Patton, because he was the reason we started the crystallization process in the first place.”

“Why?”

Logan looked ashen. “I can’t talk about it. But I will tell you that I was the first to suggest sealing us in that crystal. I even argued my position. I deeply regret that now.”

“I’m sure Patton isn’t mad,” Thomas said.

“Of course not,” said Logan, but that made him look even sadder.

“Hey,” Thomas said. “Why do teenagers travel in groups of odd numbers?”

“Hmm? Why?”

“Because they can’t even.”

Logan blinked. “Oh. That was a math joke, appealing to my sensibilities, wasn’t it? At the same time, it was a play on some contemporary slang. Ha ha.”

“It’s pretty funny.”

“‘Can’t...even,’” Logan muttered, writing furiously on an index card. “That’s one for the flashcards.”

Thomas stood up from the table, offering Logan a hand. “Feel better?”

“I...I do. It was, if nothing else, fun to teach a lesson.”

“I actually wasn’t really sure what I was doing,” Thomas said with a helpless shrug. “And now, uh, I can’t get this rock off my hand.”

“Oh! Of course. Let me give you some help with that…”

***

Next Chapter

[themesparadise]

New Post has been published on Themesparadise

New Post has been published on http://themesparadise.com/mingle-multi-purpose-wordpress-theme/

Mingle - Multi-purpose WordPress Theme

A WordPress and BuddyPress Theme

Mingle is an amazing WordPress theme and it’s BuddyPress ready! If you’re not familiar with BuddyPress, it’s a social network plugin for WordPress allowing your website to become a fully functional community portal. BuddyPress lets your users interract through groups, forums, friends, status updates, private messaging and a lot more.

Mingle has been designed as an adaptable and highly intuitive WordPress theme. It includes administration features giving you complete control of your website’s layout and design. The unique and easy to manage design ensures your site will stand out and be remembered.

Looking for theme support?

Post support questions to our Help Center for faster responses and better support.

Parallelus Help Center

Drag and Drop Layout Manager

Using the drag-and-drop “Layout Manager” you can create custom layouts for any page or post. Attach custom headers and footers to your layouts and interchange them as needed. This provides incredible flexibility so that you decide how your site looks instead of the theme deciding for you.

Contact Form Builder

You can add custom fields to your contact forms from the admin options. Any number of custom fields can be created and attached individually to any form. Includes options for custom validation, custom error messages, CAPTCHA and more.

Unbranded White Label Admin

An unbranded administrative interface with options to add your logo to the admin as well as and other company details, set permissions to restrict client access to theme options and more. To disable access to advanced developer features you can optionally hide the developer panels before turning the site over to your client.

Sidebar Generator

Create unlimited sidebars and add them to your custom layouts. You can also insert sidebars directly into any content area using a special shortcode!

Coded with Care

The theme uses HTML5 and CSS3 to create advanced styles using the latest technologies. Proper heading tags and coding standards are used to ensure outstanding search engine optimization. We take pride in creating well formatted and easily managed code.

And a lot more!

We’ve built this theme jam packed with so many incredible features and functionality they can’t all be listed here.

Find out more and see the theme in action on the Mingle Demo Website.

Some nice things customers are saying…

You would be crazy not to purchase this theme, itís got Everything!!! – furious373

Congrats on a great theme. I only wish I had found this sooner and not wasted my money on other themes. – Cheers Tony

This great theme is created by someone with a great vision. Iíve been playing with it for a while now and all I can say is ìwowî. This could very well be the future of WordPress. I really think it is!

It is just beautifulówell crafted and deep in its options. Thank you for the fine work.

It’s actually the best theme out of more than the 100 themes I bought on the forest…

This is an amazing looking theme. YOU HAVE JUST RAISED THE BAR when it comes to themeforest designs. Thank you!!!.

I just bought this theme like 2 days ago and wanted to say, out of the hundreds of WordPress themes Iíve used this is literally the best and pretty much makes the rest obsolete since you have so many options, with containers/layouts and shortcode especially. I won’t even have the need to look for another WordPress theme for a long time. 35 dollars is a steal!!

Firstly this is a fantastic theme. Iíve never seen a slider like that before, and the admin options are astounding.

This Theme may be the best theme ever made. I am a novice at WordPress, but Andy has built a templete even I can use. It takes some time for sure to find all the cool things you can do. I have already begun to migrate my Joomla corporate site over to wordpress because this theme has everything I need. The most powerful feature may even be the custom forms.

I have purchased about 10 themes on here and the support given by this seller is clearly the best!

Another awesome theme! I think I own all of your themes!

I bought this theme sometime last week and have been working to set it up on my test site, learning the ropes as they say and I think there is a lot of power in the theme. It caught my eye from the first moment and I purchased it. I think the power lies in the fact that it can be customized for almost any page, different settings for headers, layout, footers etc.

Above and beyond what others are doing, it has endless possibilities.

This theme rocks! OK, so I am a fairly experienced WordPress Developer but you can slot together a website in 60 minutes flat! That has to be a record! Nice job with this theme. Love the new config options, whole new way of putting together a WordPress theme

Iím just beginning to understand the features of this WordPress theme and I can say, damn, this is the best WordPress theme Iíve ever seen!

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Looking for information about new releases and theme updates? Subscribe to our emails or follow us on Twitter and we’ll do our best to keep you informed.

Updates and notifications

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.8.4.3 (December 20th 2016)

Security.

Strengthened sidebar security.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.8.4.2 (September 1st 2016)

Fixes.

Fixed some more PHP notices.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.8.4.1 (April 8th 2016)

Fixes.

Fixed some PHP notices.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.8.4 (December 8th 2015)

Bug fixes.

Fixed missing activity Post Update button.

Fixed missing Crop Image button when adding/updating profile photo.

Fixed some PHP notices.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.8.3.2 (January 1st 2015)

Bug fixes.

Fixed layouts editor not working with WordPress 4.1.

Fixed <!-more-> tag not working with blog shortcode.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.8.3.1 (July 4th 2014)

Bug fixes.

Fixed Parallelus shortcode inserter.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.8.3 (May 6th 2014)

Updates.

Updated layout manager for custom post types, register template files and bbPress.

Updated translation strings.

Fixed [slideshow] shortcode generating JavaScript error.

Fixed templates defaulting to Home Page layout.

Fixed layout and template settings for BuddyPress pages.

Fixed displaying issue in “Members” and “Single Member” pages.

Fixed Events Calendar plugin not displaying post thumbnails.

Fixed included_items notice.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.8.2 (October 14th 2013)

Bug fixes.

Fixed debug information in template engine.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.8.1 (October 12th 2013)

Bug fixes.

Fixed avatar sizes in BP groups and widgets.

Fixed missing sidebar settings in layouts.

Fixed assigning layouts to BP areas.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.8 (October 7th 2013)

Various updates.

Updated template engine.

Updated version of Colorbox lightbox.

Fixed conflict with NextGEN Gallery plugin.

Fixed BuddyPress tabs display.

Fixed BuddyPress avatars in widget areas.

Fixed pagination for BuddyPress areas.

Fixed slide show paging display for large monitors.

Fixed some notices displaying.

Fixed drag and drop feature in Layout Manager.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.7 (May 17th 2013)

BuddyPress updates.

BuddyPress 1.7 Updates

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.6.5 (February 19th 2013)

Updates.

Update to lightbox script for fullscreen Vimeo

Added BP translation references for JS files

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.6.4 (December 17th 2012)

Updates for WP 3.5, bug fixs, etc.

Drag and drop layout manager update for WP 3.5.

Updated the $content_width variable for WP embed tags.

Update to prevent error if menus are not set.

Corrected typos in admin.

Fix for custom body font setting.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.6.3 (October 10th 2012)

Bug fixes.

More fixes for BP AJAX requests.

Updated search resluts page.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.6.2 (August 9th 2012)

Bug fixes.

Fix for BP AJAX requests.

Fix for “Load more” button on BP activity page.

Admin bar style fix for logged out users.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.6.1 (August 8th 2012)

Bug fixes.

Admin bar style fix for BP v1.6.

Fixed BP user name not always showing in activity.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.6 (August 6th 2012)

Minor bug fixes and BuddyPress 1.6 update.

BuddyPress v1.6 compatibility updates.

Added missing semi-colon to header graphic CSS.

Updated Cufon font list.

Fixed error in field height of contact form.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.5.3 (March 16th 2012)

Bug fix for BuddyPress areas.

Updated BuddyPress registration page.

Updated BuddyPress forums tab on member page.

Updated BuddyPress members header.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.5.2 (February 6th 2012)

Feature, bug fix and security update.

Modified loading of design files – Improves plugin support.

Added missing translations in login popup.

Contact form – CAPTCHA update and apostrophe fix.

Minor updates for WP 3.3.

Modified settings export function.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.5.1 (October 20th 2011)

Minor update.

Added custom template file for search results.

Updated translation files.

Fixed BP Grops “create” link.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.5 (September 22nd 2011)

Feature update.

BuddyPress v1.5+ Compatibility Update

New feature: BuddyPress links menu.

Changed load priority of scripts.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.4.2 (August 28th 2011)

Bug fix update.

Changed #LoginPopup path in WP menus to ignore WP added path.

Fixed typo, BP avatar image tag.

Fixed bug, error showing avatar in admin.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.4 (August 22nd 2011)

Major feature update.

New feature: BuddyPress integration – This theme is BuddyPress ready.

New feature: Breadcrumbs – Via shortcode or PHP funciton add and configure breadcrumbs.

New feature: Login popup – Open a login lightbox using custom links.

New feature: Menu filtering – Dynamically show/hide menu items with class names to test conditions: “function-is-home”, “function-is-user-logged-in”, etc.

New feature: Shortcodes in menu titles and URLs (limited by WP menu functionality)

New feature: Inline content popups – Open hidden page content in a lightbox.

Updated tab styles on Skin 4.

Changed z-index of menus for better results.

Fixed bug, search layout reset by first search result.

Fixed bug, thank you message in contact shortcode not working.

Updated jQuery to v1.6.2

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.3 (May 20th 2011)

Minor feaature updates as well as bug fixes.

New feature: Post list, images open in lightbox if “media” field populated.

New feature: Slide transition speed opton.

New feature: Pause slide show on hover option.

New feature: “1/4 – 1/2 – 1/4” container to layout manager.

Styled image shortcode, modified to accept lightbox=’no’ or media ID as image source.

Added support for multi-page content <!--nextpage-->

Fixed issue with multiple slide shows on same page.

Fixed Vimeo videos in slide show.

Fixed bug, “read_more” in shortcodes didn’t fallback to default setting.

Fixed bug, HTML characters (», etc.) in “read_more” option.

Fixed bug, z-index of menus with top graphics in IE. (Thanks cagger)

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.2 (May 16th 2011)

This update includes new feaatures as well as bug fixes. I recommend upgrading your install to this version as it catches many common errors and alerts the user before they become a problem. Below is a list of new features:

New feature: Disable auto paragraphs in editor (wpautop) to fix common layout issues.

New feature: Exclude from search, hide selected page/post from search results.

New feature: Added shortcode for “[page_title]”.

New feature: Added optional “Read more…” link in blog excerpts. Includes new blog shortcode parameter “read_more”.

Added new error message for contact form if fields exist.

Added check for image resize to ensures destination folder is writable.

Updated menu functions for improved error checking and customization.

Updated layout function to recognize custom “context” settings.

Updated error message text for common errors.

Minified core CSS files.

Fixed bug in JavaScript returning “unknown” for “this.href” with contact forms.

Fixed bug, home page skin not changed when setting default skin.

Fixed bug, not using default layout if no layout set for current page/post.

THEME UPDATE – VERSION 1.1 (May 5th 2011)

This update includes new feaatures as well as bug fixes. Below is a list of new features:

Translation ready – the theme is now fully translation ready including all administration panels.

Shortcode button on editor – insert shortcodes using a custom editor button.

Added tabs and toggle (FAQs) shortcodes – for details see the demo site: http://para.llel.us/themes/mingle-wp/shortcodes/tabs-and-toggles/

Added pricing table shortcodes – for details see the demo site: http://para.llel.us/themes/mingle-wp/shortcodes/pricing-table/

Improved mobile device support – the theme now displays properly on mobile browsers.

Fixed home page layout bug.

Fixed localhost error reported in “email-functions.php”.

How to Update

You can re-download the new version from your account: “My account > Downloads”. After the files are downloaded, copy the new theme folder to your server using your FTP application, overwriting the existing version.

Purchase Now

[aharris00britney]

ASKS 11

wip pic, complements ;-;, some meshing questions, and other stufffff

Anonymous said: Would you ever consider doing a version of your Sam and Briana hairs with the halo braid but as a pixie cut?          

hehe this ask inspired me to make something kind of similar but not a pixie cut SORRY ;n; here is a pic ; this will be the next speed meshing video/hair

@bluupxels​ said: what's ur opinion on dance the night away (TWICE comeback)?

I don’t hate it but it is in the bottom 2 for my title tracks ranking for them :( (OOH AAH is the bottom lmao ya’ll hear somethin?) The MV was pretty though and I like the side tracks on the album

Anonymous said: post selfies more often ;)

i never take photos of myself edfhvnb here is a pic i took a few nights ago bc i was wearing the same shirt Lucas had on in some pic of him lmao he just had some sweater over it

Anonymous said: Hey, for your meshing videos, are all the hairs yours? and are they WIPS? they all look great!

yeah they’re all my WIP hairs! I just do stuff a lot earlier than they get released and hairs get released through a voting system so it is kind of out of my hands on which/when hairs get released.

Anonymous said: AHH AJSHFL u are so cute hehe u have a pretty face :')

thank you omg ;n; I don’t think I do but ill take the complement XD

Anonymous said: r u gay? ♡

yes

Anonymous said: Not a question, i just want to say that i LOVE your cc hair's they are stunning <3

thank you so much!!! I am glad you like them <3

@garoto-estelar​ said: u're one of the best mm cc creators!! pls we need more male hair with bangss

I am super bad at doing male hairs @ayoshi-sims​ can vouch for me on this omg I am just... not able to do any good ones egdfbv I will try something though :P also ur header is gorgeous

Anonymous said: OMG THE SIM IN YOUR LATEST TUTORIAL LOOKS LIKE FANTINE FROM THE STAGE MUSICAL OF LES MISÉRABLES LMAO

had to look this up but omg the hair looks super similar rgfgbrgfdc

Anonymous said: where did you get blender from?

S4S has them linked but : Blender 2.76 (32x)  |  Blender 2.76 (64x)

Anonymous said: Oh gosh your content is perfect 💖 really love your blog ~alesimmers

thank you!!!! <3

@lrby01​ said: your sims are so prettyyy!! whats your secret?

most of the time i get a random off the gallery and use that as a base tbh, duplicate one of my main 3 sims, or use one of @ayoshi-sims​

Anonymous said: Hiya! Would the accessories you made in your newest speed meshing video also work w your Paige and Jennie hairs? Since they have the same headband? Thanks!

I think I moved the headband shape some so I’m not entirely sure, I will check before release though.

Anonymous said: WHY U SAY  IN JULY WHEN IT JULY

??

Anonymous said: You are f*cking perfect! love you

thank you ;-; I am no where near being perfect though lmao

Anonymous said: Sorry of you already are going to do this but will you upload that cute hair from your speed meshing video you uploaded? The half up half down one? It's so cute!!! I love your cc 😍😍😍

depends on voting :( currently I don’t think it will be released in August (there are 4 hairs that have more votes then it). Voting ends the 24th though so go vote if u want it :P

Anonymous said: do u watch reacttothek or like other kpop react channels? seems like ur into kpop haha and they’re my fave

I have seen some of the reacttothek videos!!! mainly just when someone I stan releases something new

Anonymous said: omg how ur soo organized 😂

I like neatness ;-;

Anonymous said: Hi, what's your ID? There I can find the sims that you use for every hair? Thank you <3

origin ID is aharris00britney

Anonymous said: I adore your hairs! I have so many of them in my game and it makes me so happy when I see what you have coming up. I was wondering if you have ever considered converting some of the hairs for kids as well as teens and older? I would love some kid hairs from you. Thanks for all that you do! <3

me and @ayoshi-sims​ are talking about collabing again and if we do then it will have some kids hair conversions :P

Anonymous said: Does the anathema palette you use for ur hairs have one for eyebrows?

I don’t think so :( not many people use the palette but I use the WMS eyebrows and then someone recolored the CC eyebrows I use in the WMS palette too. Links are on my resource page (which i know is broken rn but links still work)

Anonymous said: hi im sorry but are you a boy? ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

yeah! i am a boy lmao :P

Anonymous said: when i go to your resources page none of the pictures work?

I know ;n; all of my photos broke a few weeks ago (including all 140+ of my download page photos) so I had to change the links of the images from imgur to tumblr and it was a huge mess. I’m not happy with my current resource page so I am planning on redoing it eventually.

Anonymous said: Are you wcif friendly? If so where can I find the fruit choker on your last lovely sim. If not no worries. Hoping you’re having a rad day friend ❤️            

@ayoshi-sims​ drew it on, sorry ;-; thank you btw

Anonymous said: how close are you with ayoshi?

we’re engaged, wedding in winter

Anonymous said: let me just say I love the kpop references like the Minnie hair cause  kpop is my spirit animal but anyways I love you

yasssss

Anonymous said: f(x)?🧡💛

yeah i went to the funeral, what about it?

Anonymous said: So I just watched your speed mesh video and found myself wondering, what is the purpose of using edge split? I'm currently learning blender and though I've googled for various explanations, I'm unsure of what it achieves in terms of TS4 meshing.

sometimes when you remove doubles from the entire mesh, it makes weird shadows (you can see them in solid mode) that are super dark. Edge splitting gets rid of them without causing a seam to show in the mesh

Anonymous said: Wow, I've never sent an ask to you but I thought I'd just send some love your way! Your an amazing creator and I love that you take your time with each one of your creations. I love your edits and they inspire me to do better with mine! I love that you not only do straight hair but also curly, wavy and braided hair! Your sims are so beautiful and so are you! I always look forward to your cc too! :) Hope you have a great day/night!

thank you so so so much omfg i really appreciate it!!!

Anonymous said: hope this doesn’t sound rude, but why don’t you just release all the hair? I don’t know much about making custom content but it looks to me as if they’re finished, but I could be completely wrong of course. I was basically just wondering why you choose to do it this way if you don’t mind me asking :-)

I am trying to make sure I have enough to release if college gets super busy and releasing 3 a month is enough to have a pretty good amount of 36 hairs a year. Wasn’t a rude question at all btw :P

Anonymous said: OH MY GOD YOU'RE ADORABLE Anonymous said: omg you are literally the hottest thing ive seen all day and its 100 degrees outside *heart eyes motherfucker*         Anonymous said: ur cute    

i choked at these omg XD thank you