#hope you're well 💜

[liquidstar]

If my mom sees a significant amount of blood she gets lightheaded, and has fainted on some occasions. Once it happened when we were kids, I wasn't there to witness it but I heard the story from my dad. Basically my brothers, around 7 or 8 at the time, were playing outside while my mom was making their lunch, and she accidentally cut her finger. It wasn't anything serious, but it drew a fair bit of blood and she passed out. My dad saw this and rushed over, but he didn't really know what to do so he just sort of started slapping her to wake her up (not recommended, but he had no idea and panicked)

At that exact moment my brothers both came in from playing, and all they saw was our mom unconscious on the floor and our dad slapping her. So, like, without even saying a word to each other they both just INSTANTLY start whaling on him, like, full blown attack mode to defend our mom. Which obviously didn't help the situation, but she did wake up and everything was fine.

Now our dad says that he's actually really glad they attacked him over what they thought was going on, because it means he raised good boys. And I still think that's true, they're very good boys.

[umflowers]

What makes you happier

well, hm. being that you said 'happier' and not 'happy', i'm kind of taking the context to be like. how do i cheer myself up, as opposed to just a list of things that bring me joy? it depends on what's fucking me up. sometimes i go sit outside and force myself to listen to the birds, or stare at the stars. as cliche as it is, there's this like inconceivably massive world around us that just cranks on and on no matter what and it's kind of nice to abruptly realize me and my problems don't mean shit, every once in a while. takes a load off for a little while. honestly one of my go-tos is a very random video on youtube, right here. when you figure that song has existed for 200 years, and the words beethoven incorporated are from a poem calling for peace among all peoples, and it takes so many people to perform the damn thing? and the human desire to create music presumably came from listening to bird calls, and it's one of the most joyous things we have in everything that we've ever done? the desire to make music, to put beauty out into the world, evolving through millennia from people in caves marking the walls with the best places for resonant sound, and then in 1824 beethoven releases a call for peace, an ode to joy, and now 200 years later people are still gathering to perform it, in this case for free for the public, and that public gathers round to have that shared experience and human connection and feel something real and incorruptible for just a few moments in a world that tells us we can never stop because there's always something Productive to be doing? yeah. it makes me very, very emotional and it's hard to stay sad or angry or so bitter i can't breathe after i watch it. my hamster. he's awake right now :) he's all bunched up in a little squishy ball by his water dish havin' a sipsip. he's got his little tiny people hands braced on the side of the dish and his little tiny ears are wiggling. i love him a lot playing with stuffed animals. singing for 8 hours straight until my voice is just a croak, then singing some more. getting the coloring really right on a gifset after a half hour of fucking with it. earning more neopoints on neopets than i was expecting to that day. watching late-night comedians with my husband before he goes to bed and getting to hear him laugh, looking over and his whole face is scrunched up and he's somehow rolled sideways in a recliner and has his legs pulled up and is clutching his belly cuz that joke was so good. realizing i have the energy to cook my own damn food. getting a new tattoo or piercing and feeling like i've reclaimed another little piece of my body. coloring my hair. getting my eyeliner wings relatively neat for once. any day where my pain and/or fatigue levels are less and i feel just a little bit more human. finally reaching a point in my life where, if i see a homeless person, i can afford to get them a hot meal. celebrating every hard-fought victory for equity and equality, no matter how big or small. throwing peanuts in the yard for the crows and listening to them caw to each other in the trees across the road. the fact that we switched to humane traps so we can release mice, not kill them. they're just hungry and cold, after all. honestly, nonnie, one of the best and most important things that i finally allowed myself to realize is i don't need an excuse to take joy in something. y'know those posts that are like "don't wait for a reason to wear the fancy dress or the expensive makeup or the good perfume or to drink the expensive wine?" that goes double here. if you see or do something that gives you that little spark of happiness, relief, or peace, grab it and fucking drown yourself in it. it's okay. you don't have to wait for something big enough to get excited about.

[judilyart]

happy first of may!! i need to draw women in love with each other or i wont rest,,,

[xhfics]

Hey, hope you are good! I have a little request, is it possible to do something like the members discover that you play an instrument (like side flute 🙄 not because I play it) or something like that.by the way have a great day and take care ❤️❤️

Will be surprised because the thought of you playing an instrument just never crossed his mind but he ends up going to your practice/concerts etc with you:

Gunil, Jungsu

Had a feeling you played an instrument, is very excited about it and will be your biggest hype man:

Jiseok, Jooyeon

Wants you to teach him a little more about your instrument and maybe you can jam together a little:

Seungmin, Junhan

[stormyoceans]

I don’t want to take First Note of Love away from you but I am here to HIGHLY ENCOURAGE you to watch this week’s Monster Next Door! It’s so cute and fluffy!!!! 💕💕💕

(And this week’s 4minutes was extra spicy 🌶️ but I know that’s not what really entices you lol)

CAUGHT UP WITH BOTH SHOWS TODAY AND YOU ARE SOOOOO RIGHT ANON THIS WEEK'S EPISODE OF MONSTER NEXT DOOR WAS SO CUTE IM STILL GIGGLING BLUSHING KICKING MY FEET LIKE A FOOL

FORGET THE MONA LISA I NEED THIS TO BE HANGING AT THE LOUVRE IN ITS PLACE

i may not be going crazy over monster next door but i need everyone to know that this is entering into my list of comfort shows. it feels exactly like this picture, like a warm loving cuddle after a hard day, a place where you can just BE without having to worry about anything else, and it really is so nice to see these two boys figure out how to love each other and build a relationship together one little step at a time. they're both so very tender and sweet and vulnerable, and there's something so very precious in that

shout out to my man diew for being stronger than i will ever be tho i would have already climbed that man like a tree (and the fact that he hasn't yet is exactly why i WILL be going insane when they finally kiss)

on the other hand im having such a weird relationship with 4 minutes and im currently so annoyed with myself about it, because on paper it seems like the kind of shows i would absolutely love and lose my mind over, and yet im not and it's SO INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING because i don't understand WHY. UGH. i still enjoyed the episode very much tho and im curious to see how things will go from here!!!!!

[tongue-twists]

with all due respect we have so much evidence of the fact that you're a Divine Lay, sir. as in witnesses, extensive documentation, confessions, et cetera.

you just need someone to write you a full report.

-🦐

see intellectually I know this. but also I still want you to whine like a kicked puppy when I give you head. it's validating.

[habitual-creatures]

Literally me whenever someone sends an ask:

/pos, y'all make me so happy.

[midnight-rice]

@lildoodlecat answering this on my sideblog so as not to confuse the tales fans on my main 😅

--

aaaaaa i'm being invited to go off about a random fixation???? thank youuuuu that's so sweet ;_;

OK SO i feel like I should preface by saying I'm probably not the prototypical fan of this show? I watched it more recently when I was older so my nostalgia isn't based off of childhood memories, I just found a really fun show during a kind of depressing time of my life (2020 lol need I say more?). Also a lot of the fans seem into the shipping scene which is fine i guess but i think they're all sleeping on the potential of the adorkable found family of superpowered teenagers who all live together unsupervised and don't even know each other's real names (seriously they're in costume 24/7 and call each other their work names 😂).

I'll guess I'll start this pitch by listing my favorite things about the show in descending order… which means starting with the animation of all things 😅 There are so many well-animated movies and shows out there but I have yet to encounter one so visually appealing to me personally than Teen Titans (2003). I'm a cartoonist at heart, I generally love exaggerated facial expressions for comedic purposes but Teen Titans really hits for me because it's deliberately styled after anime, with familiar visual language like the red blush lines of embarrassment or the large sweatdrop of anxiety. IIRC Teen Titans was produced by Warner Bros, aired on Cartoon Network, and largely outsourced the animation to Korea, but the homage to Japan is so strong that not only is there a variant of the opening theme performed in Japanese but also the one (1) movie they made is set in Tokyo.

But on top of the silliness of the visual gags the rest of the show is also super well animated, especially the fight scenes!!! Sure some sequences are a little stiff but you can tell that's because they were saving the budget for something like a 360 rotation of the entire group mid-battle (something that seriously impresses me in 2D animation) or a hand-to-hand death match that was almost certainly mo-capped of professional martial artists. Robin in particular is my favorite to watch because he is canonically skilled as an acrobat AND a martial artist and the animators Understood That!! The squash and stretch! The swipes! The smears! I'm swooning 😍 He is a skrunkly rubber band and I love him. (also random side note but i love how much their team's strategies involve yeeting each other at the enemy 😂 like "there is a problem, i'm gonna solve it by throwing my friends at it. i'm sure it's fine BeastBoy will probably turn into an elephant by the time he gets there and not go splat against the monster literally made of concrete")

Moving on from the gorgeous and creatively choreographed fight scenes, I'll try to capture the overall vibes I love about it the most. I'm someone who's always down for a story that's character-driven, balanced between comedy and angst, and above all is genuine and true to itself. In other words, I really respect the tone and way a show handles itself, and Teen Titans (2003) really delivers here. Some episodes are the wackiest nonsense you can imagine (every season has one episode I dub the "pink elephant episode" because its whole purpose is to flex the East coast animation influences in purely abstract sequences often accompanied by music). Some episodes are alarmingly dark and edgy (as an angst and whump lover, my favorite episode is S3 ep31 Haunted in which Robin has a mental breakdown and violent delusions so intense they're worried he's going to go into cardiac arrest… in a kid's show 😅) But what matters most is that both types of episodes are presented with as much gusto and geniuine effort as it is possible to cram into a 23 minute runtime.

They don't hold back with the visuals (so many unique POVs and I love the sponge-like texture in the backgrounds), or the acting (all of the voice actors are top-notch though I can't unhear Lloyd Irving as Robin 😅), or even the score (seriously this time around I was marveling at how well the music accents the emotions of the scene as well as the content, like supervillain Billy Numerous having a repeating banjo motif to represent his duplication powers and Southern US origins). I actually think the worst part of the show is the content itself 😅 this is where it becomes clear it's a kid's show, through cliched tropes, ham-fisted morals, and predictable dialogue, but as someone who's still obsessed with Tales of Graces you can probably guess that cliches aren't something that bother me too much, not when they're being performed with whole-pussy effort 😂

When I first watched the show I watched every episode (all 5 seasons, the movie, and even the lost episode) and made a list of ones that I felt like I enjoyed the most. That's what I've been using to guide my current rewatch, because there are episodes that are a little too childish or moralized or weird to me. If you want me to forward you the list I'd be happy to, but I will admit my selection is very biased toward my own tastes that you might not agree with, and that even my least favorite episodes still have decent entertainment value… with the exception of season 5 😅 idk if this is a controversial opinion in the fandom but I do not care for the last season of Teen Titans at all, you can skip it. I don't know the exact details but there were clearly some developmental and probably networking issues at this point in the series' life, and it shows in the drastic drop in quality (especially in the animation, going from glorious sakuga to powerpoint slides hurts my soul 😭). The content also suffers a bit, going from 4 seasons purely focused on the main 5 with some side characters along the way, to expanding those side characters into the main focus which, although I like them, means that none of the characters feel quite as developed since the focus is spread across too many.

Anyway I guess that's the gist of my pitch 😁 thanks for lending me a platform from which to yell from, I have no idea why I fell back into this fixation rn but it's twice as satisfying when I get to talk about it with a willing audience 💜 thanks Jay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hopeinthebox]

not gonna lie i had to google ur tag - i now understand. i am also not sorry.

UNREPENTANT????!?!?????!

[thjslove]

Long, long live the walls we crashed through

[ravio-the-cabinet-man]

hello. an offering of Bobbie for you. 😘

(those are her water bottles btw. she only drinks cold bottled water while us pathetic humans drink from the tap)

hiiii bobbie!!!!!! that so funny- she needs her good water, obviously!

i offer a silly attention loving noodle in response

[beautifulpersonpeach]

I like the sound and vibe of On the Street, and I respect and can appreciate J Cole’s writing, but I’m confused about why that was the message chosen for this collab. Army is bombarding comment sections by repeating that it’s a ‘see you later’ song because Hobi is enlisting, but other than the chorus, what about these lyrics conveys that message? Their verses feel like they belong to separate songs to me. I’m not trying to be disrespectful, facetious, condescending, or sarcastic here, I really am confused and would like to understand, and I would appreciate any insights you might be willing to share.

I did see one comment on YouTube that said: “I heard someone say they wanted a second verse from J Hope but then they realized he did give us a second verse… in his first language, dance. And he did it beautifully” and I think this is my favorite take so far. Thank you for your time (sorry if this ask is dumb).

*

Ask 2: Can you pls review On The Street BPP?

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Ask 3: Oh Hobi T T... OH JUNG HOSEOK T T... Oh this song T T...,,, Ugh my heart! Our sunshine, thank you for this wonderful music, experience, and feelings. You got me to the finals. I hope you can watch after me today, too. lol I LOVE YOU JUNK HOSEOK. I hope you are happy. I hope your toughest struggle is something you can overcome. I hope your sweetest memories have people who truly love you to share with if you so wish. Hope the world to you J-HOPE!!!!

*

Ask 4: I don't want to be rude but "as the moon jumps over the cow"??? Wut?? Isn't J Cole supposed to be some good lyricist? I saw khh and kpop fans questioning this collab and this lyric in particular and I think they're right. BTS should stop giving khh a bad name because now people will hate kpop.

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Ask 5: Hi BPP, a lot of people are offended over J.Cole’s verse on atheists being stupid for not believing in a higher people, which further proves to me that they take everything a person says to be something to be Personally offended over, not an honest expression of ones thoughts. And why I think a reason why so many arent listening to true hiphop, true rap, the same ones that the rap line no doubt listened to… It just symbolises to me that these same people are so used to the sanitized version of music that a lot of kpop produces too because jcole’s verse wasnt even that bad honestly… i don’t know, it just came across to me as the same reaction religious people will have when you tell them god doesn’t exist, and a lot of people wont take issue with that too. I know I don’t as someone who belives in a god same way I don’t care that jcole thinks atheists are stupid lool I don’t know im just seeing the hypocrisy and them being unable to let art be art, let music be music.

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Ask 6: heyya bbp~!

first of all, congrats to our hobi for another great track!!! haven’t been able to stop looping it bcuz it’s that good!! not only is army loving it, i’ve also seen jcole fans saying good things too and some really checked out hobi’s discography and were impressed,,which is what i’d call a successful collab! out of curiosity i checked the khiphop reddit to read what theyre reactions are but no surprise they only praised jcole and wanted other khiphop artists to have done it instead of hobi hah! i’m surprised that they’re still as snooty towards k-idols turned rappers,,but at the same time snooty ppl be snooty lol. but i’m curious if korean khiphop fans are still turning away the rapline’s work? esp hobi since he’s really made an effort to flex his skills in jitb,,i only ever seen ifans’ opinions and they’re hardly the representative when it comes to khiphop hah!

ofc whatever they’re opinions are it doesn’t impact hobi and suga and rm’s work in the long run,,especially since they’ve earned enough respect from their idols to be able to work with them,,i’m just curious! thankss bpp!

***

These six asks more or less cover the range of questions I've been getting, so I've collated selected asks here to answer all at once. :)

Hi Anon(s),

I'll try to keep this short.

Overall and Abridged Review: On The Street for me is a solid 10/10.

The Lyrics (as I understand them)

Anon in Ask 1, first I’d like to refer you to Hobi’s interview in Variety where he talks about the song (linked here) and I’ve posted an excerpt screenshot below.

*

Personally, rather than On The Street having a “see you later” message (probably inferred from Hobi waving goodbye to a kid in the opening scene), I see it more as a song marking a pivotal moment in both Hobi and Cole’s careers, as Hobi reflects on the paths he has walked to this point even as he continues on this street called life, and J. Cole wonders out loud if it’s time for a change, to grow beyond his identity as a rapper. It only feels like a “see you later” song in the sense that it will be a companion song, for me personally, while Hobi serves and until he returns from enlistment. I agree with the interpretation in the YouTube comment that Hobi is also storytelling/writing his second verse through dance while J. Cole is rapping, and that this is a beautiful way to see it too - but I’ll expound more on this below in Dance and the Message.

Anon in Ask 4, J. Cole is a brilliant lyricist and it’s funny you mentioned that line in particular because when I first heard it I nearly burst out laughing at how witty and brilliant it is. That line is an example of a classic Jermaine pun. I’ll explain: A lot of people grew up learning nursery rhymes, and one of the more popular ones I recall is Hey Diddle Diddle, which has the rhyme “the cow jumped over the moon”. This nursery rhyme is also the source of the English expression to be “over the moon” I.e. excited, elated, happy. J. Cole took that children’s rhyme and flipped it on it’s head to then mean the passage of time, “as the moon jumps over the cow”. He uses it to express time passing merrily for him as he contemplates his next career move. It’s also an absolutely brilliant way to rhyme with the previous bar that ends in “Golden Corral” (which is easily one of the sickest burns in his verse).

Anon in Ask 5, I agree with you almost fully. Outrage is the name of the game and has been the zeitgeist for at least 5 years now. Like what are you doing on the internet in 2023 if you’re not here annoyed, mocking something, being critical, and raging about something else? Even if that something is another autonomous human being expressing their opinion on God on their own song… Personally, when I come across HCP personalities online, I ignore them. If they interact with me I tell them they’ll somehow find a way to manage and cope, and we’ll all be alright in the end. In the case of this song, ignore them. They'll deal.

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Dance and the Message (as I understand it)

Hobi's verse in this song is only 8 bars. J-hope practically gifts this song to J. Cole who spits 32 solid bars on this track. We all know J. Cole - a veteran in the rap game who has earned respect from everyone from Hov, Ye, Kendrick, down to avantgarde heavyweights like Jay Electronica - is one of Hobi's idols and so it's heartwarming to see the way Hobi expresses his respect for J. Cole, dancing underground while J. Cole raps on top of a building with nothing but the sky above him.

J-Hope dances the entirety of J. Cole's verse, just feeling himself, losing himself to the music while his idol spits fire. It's so fucking decadent. At the end of J. Cole's verse, Hobi walks out of the subway and climbs to the top to meet J. Cole as equals.

Hobi begins the song in an NYC alley that opens up into a main street where Hobi performs the song's main choreography on. This is the same location in J. Cole's Simba - the song that starts the Simba trilogy in J. Cole's discography, which was the first main track on J. Cole's debut mixtape The Come Up that established him as a force to be reckoned with on the American rap scene at only 22 years old. The setting alone is a callback and homage to J. Cole's beginnings, on which Hobi raps about his own path, wanting to repay those who have helped formed him into what he is, and the hope he has going forward.

Hobi has done something like this before, calling his first mixtape Hope World reminiscent of J. Cole's debut studio album called Cole World.

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The Media and the Message (as I understand it)

One thing I absolutely adore about BTS's songs and music videos, is that they infuse them with the sort of depth that only comes from intimately knowing and respecting the subject matter, and they do so in such a subtle way that it's obvious they expect whoever is watching to actually know both the artist and the subject. They don't spoon-feed anything to the viewer, just present the art as is and if you've done your homework, that means you're their target audience and you're right in the middle of it with them. In the Variety interview I linked above, J-hope references his documentary (Anon who sent me the ask to review it, I've only seen clips and I'm yet to watch the full thing. When I do, I'll write about it 💜), where it shows Hobi meeting J. Cole and how he struggles but ultimately communicates his adoration and respect to Jermaine, and how Jermaine graciously receives it.

Take for instance how Hobi approached Chicken Noodle Soup originally by Bianca a.k.a. Young B who at the time she made that song and its iconic choreo, was only 16 years old. The song went viral but most of the royalties went to her uncle and she received almost nothing, she never got signed to a label, and was so badly burned by the industry that she only attempted making music again nearly 10 years after Chicken Noodle Soup. Hobi credits that song as one of the catalysts that sparked his love for hip hop and street dance. He reached out to Bianca and paid full rights (not just for a sample), to her (not her uncle), to use the song, and the music video is peppered with references to Harlem, NYC, where the song and dance originated. Showing that level of courtesy to smaller Black artists is rare in the US and virtually unheard of in Korea where the Korean hiphop (KHH) community is more notorious for wearing Black drag and appropriating a history of violence and a wealth of culture that they know absolutely nothing about, except that it looks cool.

When k-pop stans wax lyrical about how BTS is racist or does a Blaccent (this personally makes me chuckle because the people you often see saying this are white people who couldn't tell you the difference between an affected accent by a non-native speaker and a Blaccent if each slapped them on either side of their face), or that BTS doesn't have the respect of the Korean (or American) hip hop scene, et cetera, I chuckle and move on. Because as I've said, none of these people actually know what they're talking about.

The OGs of the KHH scene recognized the talent of BTS's rapline since debut, and have only expressed more respect for BTS as the years have gone by. I'm talking Tablo, the rest of Epik High, Tiger JK, etc. The Jay Parks of the world took some time to catch up, and if 'studio picture-gate' is any indication, they too have quickly come around to recognizing where they fit in the landscape relative to BTS. Rappers are generally egotistical people. They usually spend their time rapping about how they're the shit. What earns you respect is if you can actually back that shit up. And once you have that respect, you don't feel threatened by another rapper because you know anyone who gets to the top has had to earn it. It's what informs the mindset of "real recognize real". Namjoon, Yoongi, and Hoseok passed that hurdle, in my opinion, way back in 2016 with the release of Cypher Pt 4. Everything they've done since then is just jarra. And those at the very top, the Black rappers who imbibe the culture and history of rap music, have long recognized the rapline of BTS for what they are.

Personally, I love the song. The music, the whistling, the chord progression, the jazz and acoustic guitar instrumentation. Everything about it is perfect.

On The Street is an excellent example of what sets BTS apart from other idols and artists in Korea for me. This is a song conceived 100% in the mind of Jung Hoseok, and the seamlessness in execution, the maturity inherent in the respect paid to those whose music and culture they use as a medium, is present at every single point in the song. It's tastefully done, and 100% driven by the artist, and all I can do in the face of art like this, is respect it.

[gideongrovel]

HIII GIDEON!! HAPPY V-DAY!! :D 💜 I hope this little surprise finds you well :3c I was tempted to draw you with one of your OP f/o’s but I just couldn’t resist drawing you and Chop!! I have such a soft spot for you two and I tried my best to capture your guys’ contagious fun energy!! 🥹🧡

CAITIE!!!!????!??! OH MY GOSH!! ANSJSNSKSJSSN THIS IS SO UNEXPECTED AND SO SWEET OF YOU!!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💘💘💘💘💘💘💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💕💕💕💕💕💕 ABHHSNSKSMZKS THANK YOU FOR THIS!!! 😭💖💖💖💖💖

we look so freaking adorable and soft in your style!!! 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 sjdnissniszkzkso I love this so so much!! the more I look at it the more my heart fills up with warmth!! AHHHH🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[violetmuses]

@yassbishimvintage 👀

[xhfics]

Hiiii! If you’re still taking requests, could you do the “It appears A made B blush, and in response their own cheeks heat up” prompt from the blushing prompt list with Hyeongjun? Maybe he can be personal A, your the reader is person B?

Thank you sm :) hope you’re having a good day! Take care 🫶🏻

"I had a really lovely time." You say softly, looking at Hyeongjun.

He nods in agreement, takes your hand in his and softly swings it as the two of you walk to your bus stop.

Hyeongjun turns to you and gives you a small smile. "Can I kiss you?"

You let out an almost silent gasp and feel your cheeks burning.

"Oh, you're blushing." Hyeongjun quickly continues, his own cheeks getting slightly red too. "I didn't mean to."

You chuckle and look at him. "It's okay. You can most definitely kiss me."

He gives your hand a little squeeze and leans in to give you a quick kiss on the lips. You know the both of you are blushing like crazy right now.

[from this list]

[stormyoceans]

ITS STILL THE 28TH FOR ME BUT HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONICA!!!!! 🧡🧡

CCAAAASSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 🥰🥰🥰

fun(?) fact: when i wrote to you yesterday it was still the 28 for me as well, but when i saw your post saying you were back i was like THAT'S MY BIRTHDAY GIFT FROM THE UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!! (and then i immediately passed out because i was really tired but that's neither here nor there ;;;;;;;)

ANYWAY. thank you so much, dear!!!!! and more importantly, welcome back!!!!! it's so nice to have you back, im so looking forward to your posts about perfect 10 liners!!!!!! im sending you the biggest hug 💜