#ITS THE ONLY SONG IM SO TERRIFIED OF IN EXPERT

[chibi-jinchou]

me, when i have to clear gate of the abyss to get the starry live reward:

[nbmudkip]

u are the reason im playing sekai rn so i have to ask. how do u get good at it the only hard level song i can beat reliably is echo

TEEHEE I LOVE HEARING THAT I GOT PPL INTO THIS GAME. okay honestly i have No idea how i have gotten to the point i am at, i started back right around christmas and when i started i could barely handle most songs on hard. i also do play piano so i think i get a bit of an advantage from that but if i had to give a few tips, it would be:

- play with your fingers, not your thumbs!!! i play so much better using my fingers than my thumbs, it’s just way easier to tap accurately. also now that i mostly play master, i usually end up using four fingers per song (both index and both middle fingers). occasionally i even end up throwing in my ring fingers for a tap or two if im desperate. cant do that with thumb playing

- have your device on a flat surface and play from directly above. when i play, im usually either at the kitchen table with my ipad flat on the table, or im sitting cross legged on my bed with my ipad flat on my legs. its best to find a place where its stable enough not to move when tapped and as flat as possible while still being able to have your head directly above the screen. yes i end up hunching a lot in my bed. extra achey shoulders is a price i am willing to pay for fun tappy tappy

- practice practice practice!!! honestly i think i can only play the way i do because i just play a ton. play lots of different songs too so you get a feel for different movements. a good way to do this is to join co-op rooms, as all 5 people get to put in a song and then the one that plays is randomized, so you end up getting a lot of variety in. plus co-op rooms give you more rewards and higher scores

- dont be afraid to step out of your comfort range. obviously if you cant get halfway through a song without dying you should probably step back, but dont shy away from challenges!! when i first got this game i tried an expert level once and thought it was the most terrifying thing in the world, but after a few days i decided to give them another shot, and after a few more days of that i ended up getting my first full combo on expert. i find that after a while of practicing, certain songs that used to seem completely impossible suddenly become pretty manageable!

overall, dont be disheartened if youre improving slowly because slowly is the only way to improve! just keep at it and i promise you’ll find yourself getting better

[jujyfru1t]

Dear Markiplier

*throws confetti/blows noisemaker* HAPPY BIRTHDAY @markiplier YOU FABULOUS HOOMAN BEAN!!!! (ur 4 moths younger than me *quietly fangirls*)

I can’t art or anything but I can write, so. I’ve been a fan of yours since about 2013, and I’m really happy I discovered you. And it’s so heartwarming to read your video comments and see that you were/are a lifeline for so many people. I can’t claim the same, but I do know my life is a lot better with you in it.

I touched on some of this in my donation comment for AbleGamers, but I don’t know if it gets to you and I wanted to expand on it a little bit. (it’s so weird spending a happy b-day comment talking about myself but???)

(this gets ramble-y so have a read more and my apologies to mobile dashes)

 I’m a twin. My brother David died in 2009, right before our 20th birthday, when his heart gave out from fighting Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic, incurable muscle-wasting disease. I will always be a twin. That’s how it works.Duchenne is a rare form of MD that only affects boys. Most DMD boys don’t live past 25, but my brother and I were born 3 months premature (I have moderate cerebral palsy bc of that) so that hastened the progression. By 7 he could no longer walk, though he could still use his hands and upper body.

D and I were lucky enough to be homeschooled by our parents and I am eternally grateful for everything that gave us. It also meant we were together nearly every minute of the day. We had differing interests, of course, but we also had a lot in common. Like... video games. My older-by-11-years sister got an NES for one of her birthdays, and we still had it when bro and I turned 8 (and still have it today actually). That year my brother needed glasses. Turned out the headaches he’d been having were a result of poor eyesight. At that point we’d watched my sister play NES for years (there’s a pic of toddler me derping around with a disconnected controller next to sis) but never played ourselves. The minute my brother wheeled into the front hall, brandy-new glasses on, the first thing he said was “I wanna play Nintendo.” So we fired up Mario Bros. 1 and he was 10000% hooked forever. I was the observer, sitting by biting my nails whenever the “running out of time” jingle played; I don’t think I started playing until we got Nintendo 64 for one of our birthdays, with Mario Kart. And I didn’t play by myself until Ocarina of Time came out. We even played that “together”, me consulting the strategy guide and using the “C” buttons during boss fights while he moved and swung the sword.

Pokemon arrived, I got a Game Boy Color with Pokemon Yellow when I was ten, next thing you know bro and I are Pokemon experts/fans/cultists and IT’S ALL DOWNHILL FROM THERE. We were console/Nintendo devotees for sure, though we had a handful of computer games later on too.

All this is to say that gaming was a huge part of our lives and still is in mine. I’ve branched out to PC gaming (still with a controller, as my hands are not dexterous enough for mouse+keyboard gaming), and several of those games I learned about through YOU, lovely Markimoo!! Dead Space (an hour in, too scared to go back for now) Undertale. To the Moon (the only one I’ve completed, also AUGH MY FEELS). Transistor. Even Outlast, which I haven’t even Steamstalled yet bc I’m legit terrified (D was the horror movie/game fan, I had to watch through my fingers at Resident Evil 4; he patiently put up with my screeching).

So, yeah. 2013 was year 4 of After David. The pain’s never going away, it will just dull. I found a lot to sustain me through the years. I don’t remember 99% of 09, 2012 was also awful grief-wise, for some reason. ’13 was more of an up year. I can’t recall how I discovered you, guess it was my YT account recommended videos. I knew about LPs for a while but never much cared until “ohhhh I can watch games I’m not gonna buy but wanna know about!!” pretty sure my intro to you was an Amnesia compilation and then Electronic Super Joy (where I tripped and faceplanted onto a massive crush on your voice and then you im so sorry). So I can’t say I’ve always been there or I’ve seen every one of your vids but *shrugs*

you made memories come back I hadn’t thought about much because they hurt. D and I screaming and hollering over whatever games we played, D patting my arm saying “it’s ok Juj” every time I freaked out trying RE4’s first level, attending our first Pokemon convention for its 10th anniversary… and so many memories didn’t hurt anymore bc your enthusiasm and joy and epic silliness reminded me of happiness, not sadness. And when you cried I could cry with you, over similar and different things. Which reminds me, your 6mil subscriber gift video? That one song and your reaction to it single-handedly made me want to play To The Moon. And also cry buckets bc the lyrics are… very relevant. I only joined Steam a few months ago, having got a new computer with better hardware and running into a freaking $1.99 sale of the Tomb Raider reboot which almost made me buy a new console just for it but yay I didn’t have to I DIGRESS SORRY.

So I refused to watch more than part 1 of your TTM LP, I wanted to experience it for myself and boy howdy that was the right decision. [spoilers ahead if anyone’s still reading *sweating*] By the time Everything’s Alright started playing in context? After everything that happened in-game?? I was a goddamn mess and didn’t go back until a week later and then!!! The big reveal of Joey being restored in Johnny’s memories in place of River destroyed my heart.. TTM brought up so many questions. If I could have D back, but lose another important person in my life… if it wasn’t even real… would I take the opportunity? And River coming back… maybe my memories too would restore that other person, but it wouldn’t change my life as I’d lived it. I can’t never bring David back, DMD-free or otherwise.

“He’ll only have one brother.” So many heartrending moments but THAT LINE. That one hit my soul because I’ve been through it. I knew TTM would be emotional but had no idea that it would speak to me more personally than anything I’ve ever played. And I probably wouldn’t have known about it if not for you, Mark.

I don’t even know if you’ll see this, or read to the end if you do see it. But I had to let this out, and hope you do see it and know you’ve touched yet another person’s life. And I really really think that if D were alive today, he’d be your fan too.

Love and appreciation,

JujYFru1T, aka RitsukaYukiLuvr on YT, aka Julia