#Bprs

[sweetlysimss]

► NOT SO BERRY x BERRY PASTEL RAINBOWCY - AN UPDATED VERSION

as some of you might know, I've written updated versions of the not so berry challenge and the berry pastel rainbowcy before. however, I keep wanting to switch between the two challenges or abandoning my one save for the other. so, on a random Monday evening I figured, why not combine the two for the ultimate updated challenge experience? my lovely fellow simmers over at @berrygameplay convinced me to write stuff down and... the NSB x BPR updated rules was born!

credit goes to @lilsimsie and @alwaysimming for the original nsb rules and @berrysweetboutique for the original berry pastel rainbowcy rules!

►WHAT ABOUT THE RULES

as with my two other updated challenges, i've written the rules in a google doc (that you cannot edit! stop asking for permission to edit the file!). if you want to save the rules for yourself, go to file > create a copy and you're able to save the rules wherever you want and edit them. this will not change the original document.

there are disclaimers, a list of packs you need for this challenge (most packs are optional) and an index to move through generations quickly. each gen has their own introductory story (you don't have to adhere to these stories!), required traits - aspirations - careers, the generational rule (bpr), reward traits to buy, and the list of objectives catered to that generation. feel free to edit these objectives to your hearts desire! this challenge is supposed to be fun :)

► NSBxBPR

if you want to play this challenge, please tag your posts with #nsbxbpr so I can follow and share them!

so. let's get to it:

► SEND ME TO THE RULES

For easy access and to show an example of the rules, here are the first generation’s rules all written out. If you want to look at the other generations, click on the “send me to the rules” link!

generation one: white

coming from a long line of privileged sims, you’re ready to break away from your family and pursue your own dreams. you’ve only really felt close to your grandparent and never told anyone you were the sole heir to their old, rundown farmhouse. starting off with nothing, you pick up the hobby you were never allowed to put into practice: painting. you find it difficult to let other sims in and may come across as rude sometimes. you just need that one special sim to make you feel like it’s all worth it. slowly but surely, your own family starts to grow, but not without its ups and downs…

traits: creative, mean, [open slot]

aspiration: painter extraordinaire OR chief of mischief

career: none (sell paintings, produce, and harvestables)

spouses career: [open slot]

rules

GENERATIONAL RULE: paint a portrait of your heir REWARD TRAITS TO BUY: mentor, speed reader, super green thumb

move into a lot with the ‘simple living’ lot challenge (size is up to you)

max painting skill

max gardening skill

max mischief skill

max logic skill

have multiple different love interests, but do not settle before having a child

date with a purple, pink, AND/OR red sim

have only 1 child with purple, pink, or red sim and 1 alien child

become enemies with the spouse you decide not to go long-term with

optional: make at least 2 enemies

marry a purple, pink OR red sim

sell at least 5 masterpieces

have at least 2 different animals on your farm

choose from the following: horse, goat, lamb, cow, llama, bunny, chicken, cat, dog, rodent

if you choose a horse, max the horse skills: temperament, jumping, agility, endurance

become good friends with all of your children and animals

adult or elder: max the knitting and/or cross-stitch skill

adult or elder: become good friends with at least 1 grandchild

[flocy-sims]

Khm..

[ancenth]

The Empress, The Star, The Moon, The Hanged Man, Death, The Tower

[tainoodles]

There's a writing competition that is promising a super cool prize, so Venus is going to enter!

[incandescentsims]

⁎° ✼ 🐚𝔹𝕖𝕒𝕔𝕙 𝔹𝕒𝕓𝕖𝕤 🪸✼ °⁎

[mmmatchasims]

*alarm beeping*

[dreamywakes]

Euphoria BPR: Gen 20 Purple 

Life has been hectic being one of five children, but your passion for writing has caused you to stand out from your blended family. As heir you have been tasked with carrying on the family name. Being a bit of a homebody proves difficult for you to find a mate, but a once in a lifetime trip brings love to your door.

Heir: Ditto Euphoria

Peach Spouse: Jardan Necture by @1m-dirty-dan thank you so much 🤎

Ditto Euphoria + Jardan Necture =

Cinnamon, Russet, Calico, Saffron

Vote for who should be our Peach heir here

[lazarish]

Dr. Hickory: ... which is why I’ve come to you, on behalf of my late friend.

Myrtle: Were you Mr. Rose’s doctor for long?

Dr. Hickory: I’d known the man for years. In a way, I can’t believe he’s really gone...

Mr. Grove: And you were the first person called to the scene?

[silversims]

Candle: Ugh, I wish...

Parsley: Lazy and freaks? *scoff* What a mess you all are.

[omixlith]

“in the land of plenty, we don't know what the word no means give it to me, give me all the things I want.”

playlist | cast | episode one document | next episode

[boysplanetrecaps]

Build Up Episode 1: Don’t Go

Hello and welcome back to my Build Up recaps! In the last one, we covered the first two “Pre-4” Mission performances -- If You and Every Moment of You. In this post, we’ll cover Don’t Go (Kajima) and wrap up episode 1, finally!

I found some decent links to watch the episodes. 

Episode 1

Episode 2

I’m deliberately hiding them behind a read more since I’m not sure if MNET knows about them and/or if they’ll be there forever, so watch while you can! 

Just a little note before we dive in -- I noticed after I had posted the previous one that Seunghun from CIX has braces! 

I’m just really surprised, because I would have guessed that his agency would have made him take them off for this show, or something. I’m glad he has them if he needs them, for sure -- it’s just a surprise. Knowing this helps explain why he smiles so strangely sometimes. 

Anyway! 

Don’t Go

The next performance is Kajima, Kajima (Don’t Go, Don’t Go). 

A little about the song before we get to the performance. It was originally performed by a singing duo called Brown Eyes, which, per Wikipedia, is “considered one of South Korea's most important R&B groups, given their immense commercial success.” The duo consists of Yoon Gun and Naul, both of whom have gone on to do other stuff. Naul recently did a duo with Sung Sikyung, the guy who first sang Every Moment of You (the previous song on this show). The song Kajima, Kajima won the Best Ballad/R&B Performance award at the 2008 MNET Asian Music awards.

Kajima, Kajima is the miserable wail of a deserted lover begging their partner to come back. Some of the lyrics, per a blog I found: “Stupidly / I still live for you / Where are you? / I need you so much / Oh baby, my only one / Please stop and come back now / Just tell me this is a joke / Simply return to me.” 

Mini Korean lesson: You might recognize the -jima ending from the GOT7 song Stop It, when they say “hajima, hajima” over and over (“hajima” means “don’t). And you heard the “ka” verb at the beginning of the Oneus song Lit, when they say, “Kaja!” (let’s go!) So ka is for go, and -jima is a negative command, so kajima is “don’t go”. Woot! 

Kajima, Kajima is known for a really high note -- a high G#5. I would have to warm up to hit that note at all -- and I’m not confident I could hit it with much resonance. And I’m a mezzo-soprano -- it would be insane to hit that note as a tenor!  Like the other ballads on this show, it’s known for being particularly emotional, but in this case it’s also tricky to sing. That’s why the other guys call it a “hell song.”

So, who would want to take this song on? Why, mister high notes himself, Park Jeup.

Park Jeup was second to choose and chose this song right off, but it took a while for anyone else to join him, to the point that he started to get nervous. But after a bit, 16th ranked Detective Donghun from A.C.E. chose it while there were still spots open in every song. It turns out that Donghun really wanted to sing Breath but chose this song so that he could work with Jeup. Aww! They were on I Can See Your Voice 4 together, so Donghun may have admired Jeup’s voice for a while. They’re “chingus” in the sense that they were born in the same year, 1993, and in Korean culture having someone around who is the same age as you is sort of meaningful, almost like when you meet someone from your home country when you’re abroad.

“Will I be able to sing this song well?” … “I’m sure you’ll do well.”

Also, Donghun proved he’s not scared to tackle tough material when he did an EXO song for his teaser performance. 

By the time Neon chose the song, Ditto, Tomboy, and Shall I Love You Again  were closed, but he seems to choose this song without hesitation. By the time 36th place Hyukjin choose it, the only songs open were this song, Every Moment Of You (the one we just saw), or Breath, but I think he might have really wanted this song anyway. Based on his teaser performance -- that wild metal performance -- he also likes to tackle tough material. (Hyukjin was also born in 1993, making him also a chingu to Jeup and Donghun. Neon is a little younger, about 28 years old.)

In my original assessment of Jeup, I noted that I loved his technique but wasn’t sure about his timbre, but that I’d give him a chance to grow on me. For Hyukjin, I recognized the ambition of what he tried to do and again decided to reserve judgment. About Neon, I said that he has nice, clean vocals, with good technique and a lot of power. And I said that Donghun has an appealing warm vocal color with good breath support, but strains his throat a bit. If I had to pick a favorite voice of the four based on their teaser song, I’d choose Neon, but Donghun wouldn’t be too far behind. This is a group of powerful vocalists, regardless of the category they chose, and I am hopeful that it will turn out well.

The group seems pretty happy to all be working together, and they view each other as talented colleagues, which might make it tricky to divvy up the parts. They’re all really good, so who should sing what? 

Look at how shiny Hyukjin’s suit is! Those gray lines are just lights reflecting off of creases in the material. 

They begin singing the song a bit to test out the waters, and Jeup’s strong clear tenor fills the studio. Over in team Beautiful, Lim Sang Hyun wonders out loud, “Is that the original song playing?” 

LTR: Lim Sanghyun, Taewoo, Jeong Yunseo, Kim Minseo 

They take turns singing a bit and they all sound fantastic. They’re not really sure what to do, because Jeup doesn’t want to take the verse, which he thinks is too low for him, and so he wants to do the chorus, which is a long part. Donghun also wants to do that long part, but decides that it suits Jeup more and decides to do a different part that is more emotional, even if it’s shorter. The rest of the part distribution goes well.

Then we go into a mini montage of Donghun’s struggles in his life. He’s always wanted to sing, and went on various shows to make that happen, but though he made top 10 of Superstar K5 that wasn’t quite good enough, and then he made the debut lineup of that shitshow that was MIXNINE but of course that group didn’t debut. He thought that debuting (in A.C.E.) would make it ok, but it didn’t. I beg to differ, sir! People really like A.C.E.! But I guess it’s not like A.C.E. have hit the highs of BTS and Seventeen, so I understand what he’s saying. “Actually the survival program itself was a bit of a trauma for me,” he adds, and I feel that. These shows seriously should gift each contestant at least 20 hours of a post-show mental health counseling. 

The guys are meeting in some sort of staff room, probably at one of their agencies. Looks like three of them were drinking something cool, but smart Jeup is drinking something hot. Cold stuff is bad for your throat, my friends. Jeup knows where it’s at.

Left to right: Hyukjin, Neon, Donghun, and Jeup

Also, I think Jeup looks so much nicer with his hair this way, sort of parted and brushed back, instead of down over his face like bangs.

Anyway, at this meeting, Donghun is saying, “I want us to decide what kind of thoughts we’ll have when we sing this song, so that we have a unified approach. The song title is Don’t Go, Don’t Go. We can make it about our dreams. I haven’t seen my dream lately, and I hope it comes to me now.”    

The editors play some sad piano music as Donghun’s words sink in. All four of them know what he’s talking about. Honestly, Hyukjin and Jeup know what he means even more than he does -- A.C.E. is about 100x more popular than Jeup’s group was, and about 100,000x more popular than Hyukjin’s current group. 

Hyukjin, partly quoting from the song, says, “Living like a fool is heartbreaking. But we keep living like fools.” Then he smiles incredulously, as if he almost can’t believe that he’s made that connection. Donghun has really hit a nerve here. 

Donghun agrees with Hyukjin, and says, “yes, we keep singing like fools.” He interviews that he wants to reclaim his dream and get it back. 

As the lights go down on performance day, Donghun voiceovers, I want to sing my heart out with no regrets. 

Here’s the full version, no reactions. 

My thoughts:

Damn, that was good. 

Let me nitpick for just a few seconds. Yes, Hyukjin’s voice is a little thin and he strained on the highest notes, and Jeup’s voice is a bit too high in timbre to be my favorite, and Donghun’s voice still sounds strained, like he must be hurting his throat. 

But it all ended up working. I don’t know, man, this was good. For one thing, all the voices are really good individually, and then they also are a great mix. You’ve got the slightly tart Jeup, like a strawberry. You’ve got the bright voice of Hyukjin, like a raspberry. You’ve got the slightly challenging voice of Donghun, a pineapple. And then the smoothest voice, Neon, as a slice of banana mixed in to smooth the whole thing down. It fucking works. I don’t even like this song and I liked listening to their performance. I mean, this is going on my playlist, you guys. This is good shit.

I particularly like Neon’s voice, even though I recognize that it’s not quite as powerful or well trained as the others’. To me, he sounds just a little like Do Kyungsoo and that’s just about the highest compliment I can give to a singer. 

Also, damn, I don’t normally talk about this kind of thing exactly but Park Jeup, in addition to being a real sweetheart, is a really good looking dude. I’m not made of steel, you guys. 

Those cheekbones! Those shoulders! Am I alone on this…? 

The MNET edit, like all the edits so far, is pretty restrained. I guess they told their editors to not do a whole bag of coke before they sat down to their editing control panel. There are a few instant replays of high notes, but they’re blended in to the background mix so it’s not so jarring to listen to. 

All the reaction shots are positive. We see the judges just loving all of them. Vocal Coach Guy even asks, “wait, is this live or playback?” The love seems slightly more focused on Jeup and Donghun, less so on Neon and even less so on Hyukjin, but all four of them get some love, which is nice. 

Solar likes it. I think. I guess? Not sure.

She’s excited Jeup hit that one high note! She tries to hit it too and kind of can’t! 

Backstage, the guys all kind of fall over hearing Jeup’s high note. They almost can’t believe it. Hwanhee kind of hits his own knees with his hands involuntarily. 

When they’re done, the judges give them a standing ovation!

They lavish praise on all of them, again focusing a little less on Hyukjin and a little more on Donghun. They think that the four of them could just debut as a group the way they are. Basically, the judges agree with me, so that’s good.

Vocal Coach Guy points out that Jeup doesn’t just hit high notes -- he sings with emotions. Then he adds that Jeup has nice shoulders, so that was funny. Wendy asks about Jeup’s range, and he says that he can sing any male song, that they’re all in his range. 

Dahee says that it was nothing but compliments, so the question is, who could win? Backstage, the boys aren’t sure either. No one floats Hyukjin’s name as top tier, but the other three get named, and the boys think that all four were excellent. 

So, who wins…?

Baekho, Solar, and Vocal Coach Guy all vote for Donghun from A.C.E. 

Eunkwang and Jaehwan vote for Neon, and Wendy votes for Park Jeup. 

So, Donghun wins! Vocal Coach Guy lavishes a bit more praise on him, saying that it was an easy choice to pick Donghun because his voice is so good. 

And then, oh guys, it’s so sad. Donghun starts to cry, saying it’s the first time he’s been recognized like this. 

The judges are a little uncomfortable because the “win” is kind of a minor one, and they’re surprised at his reaction. It’s like this is what Donghun has been waiting his whole life to hear. 

Donghun adds that he didn’t expect to win, that he was focusing on working well with his team.

Backstage, the guys are like, oof, wouldn’t want to have to follow that! 

So who is up next? Team Breath. The editors do that thing like they’re trying to trick you into thinking that the performance is starting, but the episode is almost over and this obviously just a teaser. Thanks, editors. Theditors. 

Since we’re at the end of the episode, I’ll end the post here. Woo! Finally to the end of the first episode! I'm only two full episodes behind... great! Anyway, I'll see you in the next one, and thanks as always for reading. <3

[flocy-sims]

Kaia was painting a picture of Milkshake(the foal) and look at Biscuit and Marshmallow lololol, why are they judging😭😭

[ancenth]

Callista's self portrait 🥀

[tainoodles]

I thought I sent you two to bed....

[incandescentsims]

⁎° ✼ 🐚𝔹𝕖𝕒𝕔𝕙 𝔹𝕒𝕓𝕖𝕤 🪸✼ °⁎

[mmmatchasims]

Dream BPR Style Swap 🤍💜🩷🧡

inspired by @ancenth who was inspired by @lazarish 💖