#i can tell you one thing though and it is that once again the OST is INCREDIBLY done

[derelicthorror]

Have you been able to Duviri?

i have ONE word for you and it is krubies

[taeraemisu]

i found you ; gunwook zb1

synopsis ; gunwook and reader were lovers in their past life but a certain accident kills the two, separating them. gunwook, who remembers all his past lives, made it his personal mission to find reader over and over again, even if it meant living multiple lifetimes without them

genre ; based on see you in my 19th life ! (was listening to one of their ost while writing this) reincarnation, soulmates if you think, angst, i-love-you-in-every-universe, deaths

pairings ; gunwook x reader, mentions of junhyeon

word count ; 1.5k words

“look at what i got!”

gunwook looks up and sees you wearing a new semi-formal outfit. the both of you were in his house, just wanting to spend the day together. gunwook shows you his signature smile and ruffled your hair. maybe there are good things to look forward to in life. “i think you look great, what’s the occasion?”

“no occasion, i just wanted to look good.”

gunwook smiles again and pokes your cheek. he does not hesitate to show you how much he adores you. he had lived so many different lives that he never bothered to find love, but yet you, were different. knowing most of his lives were short-lived, he never hesitated to tell you how much you mean to him. this time though, he is praying for a life where he could grow old with you. “you always look good,” he says, admiring you once more.

you blushed slightly and hit his shoulder playfully. “you and your way of words-“

he grins and gives you a hug, cutting your words off. “let’s go out today. we can’t let that good outfit go to waste, can we?” he holds your hand and picks up a few of his belongings, before leaving the house and heading to the car. he opens the car door and lets you go in first. “after you, my lady,” gunwook says in a british accent. you laughed at his words and get in, gunwook closing the door after you before getting into the driver’s seat.

you both drive off, you admiring how gunwook looks while driving. how could you get so lucky? you were not that affectionate of a person but gunwook knew that he means to you as much as you mean to him. “hey gunwook have i ever told you-“

the screeching of the tires rang throughout your ears, causing the both of you to flung forward and back, your foreheads bleeding upon impact. glass shards flew everywhere, cutting your skin before you passed out momentarily.

no, no, no! gunwook panicked when he regained consciousness, barely able to open his eyes. the both of you were now on the ground, the car flipped over. he quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and crawled his way towards you, unbuckling yours and trying to drag you out of the car with as little energy he have left. “yn! wake up! please!” he pleads, tears pouring out of his eyes. he pokes your cheek softly, hoping you wake up. he feels his energy start to drain away and he knew he did not have that much time left.

“yn, you can’t hear me but-“ his voice cracks and he lays down beside you, losing his energy. “i will find you, please, remember me.” gunwook was crying by now, you weren’t responding to him. “i will remember you so promise me you will, please?”

sirens were ringing in his ear and he wanted to see you do any sort of sign that you heard what he said. why was life so unfair? why did his current life end so early when he was finally happy?

“yn, i-“

and it all went black.

first life without you . .

gunwook groans. he was reborn as the son of a conglomerate family. although his current life is luckier than most, he could not enjoy it.

you weren’t here.

he did not know where to start. how could he find you? what are the chances you will remember him? or your past life? he was currently 23 years old, twenty-three years without you.

“i arranged a blind date for you,” his father enters the room, giving gunwook the details. he sighs but doesn’t protest. going on blind dates was the fastest way to find you.

he went on the date, but he did not like it. she was someone who was arrogant and believed she should get her way, which was so different from you that it disgusted gunwook. he left halfway through the date, not wanting to deal with her further.

how much longer could he live without you?

third life without you . .

gunwook was reborn as the son of a nice couple that owns a family restaurant. gunwook took full advantage of the fact, serving and helping out as much as he can. with more customers, the higher the chance he could find you.

he has now lived forty-eight years without you, his previous two lives being short, but it wasn’t worth living if it meant you weren’t around.

“this is for table 2.” his mother handed him a tray with stir-fried noodles with mayonnaise all over it and tempura on the side. gunwook looked at the dish. it was your favourite food. he remembers the first time he has seen you eating this particular combo and how unappealing it looked, but you were adamant on how good it was. gunwook had once took a bite and realised it was actually delicious but because he did not want to admit you were right, he would make the dish behind your back.

the memory brought a smile to his face and he quickly went to serve the dish, a little hopeful but to his dismay, it was someone that he immediately knew wasn’t you.

“enjoy your food,” he says, a little disappointed before turning away.

sixth life without you . .

gunwook has now lived a hundred and fifteen years without you. in this life however, he was blessed with the ability to sing and dance. in fact, his name was the one he was given when he first met you. he was park gunwook again.

“you should audition to be an idol!” his friend, kum junhyeon, would constantly tell him but gunwook would always shake his head, disagreeing. he does not want to bring any attention to himself, when he still could not find you.

“you being an idol or famous could help you find that person you have been wanting to find-“

gunwook did not have to listen further. he immediately recorded and posted a video of him singing to a song and it went viral almost immediately. he has been scouted by companies to train under them but he declined them all, hoping to stay independent. junhyeon, however, has taken the role of his manager, helping gunwook edit videos and secure any deals.

a year or so have past by since then and gunwook made a small name for himself. he performs at small cafes and restaurants and holds small fanmeetings every now and then. only to find you, of course, but yet, he was making very little progress.

“the fansign starts in a few minutes,” junhyeon mentions, preparing gunwook before he gets on stage. “maybe the person you like is here?”

gunwook sighs. he does not want to give up but his chances are getting slimmer and slimmer. “i don’t know man, what if they aren’t here?”

junhyeon gives his friend a sad smile. “even if they aren’t maybe …” his eyes goes all over the place, finding a way to cheer his friend up. “i am sure they are cheering for you from afar!”

gunwook returns a smile before heading onto stage, greeting fans and soon, the autograph session begins. an hour or so passed, the autograph session ending but with no sign of you. he has lived over a hundred years without you, how much longer must he live till he finds you again?

“no luck?” junhyeon asked, patting him on the back. gunwook shakes his head, disappointed but not surprised. junhyeon drops him off at home, assuring him that there is a right time for everything. he drives off, leaving gunwook standing in front of his apartment block.

disappointed and sad, gunwook heads to the nearby convenience store. he did not have the urge to cook anything. he goes in and bought a few items for himself, planning to have his late-night snack in the store itself. he opens a bag of chips and pops a few into his mouth when-

“i didn’t go to the fansign.”

gunwook, intrigued, turned to look at the person who was sitting a few chairs away from him, talking onto the phone. for a moment, he thought it was about him but he wasn’t that famous so he dismissed the thought away, not wanting to stare.

“i wanted to okay! but my boss needed me to work and i just … didn’t go. it’s probably better that way, i would have panicked and not talk at all as soon as i see the park gunwook.”

gunwook’s ears perked up and looked right back again. the way the person said his name felt all too familiar.

“there will be another chance in the future-“ the person turned to looked at gunwook and that’s when everything clicked.

it was you.

“i have to go, bye.” you hung up the phone and stared at gunwook, embarrassed that you were just fangirling over him when he was right beside you. but an unknown feeling came over you as you look at him. then, everything clicked.

“i found you.”

“it’s you.”

© taeraemisu do not copy my works !

[bjarkanart]

I'm kinda nervous about this but here we go. I've been trying to write a fanfic for a while now and it might be one of the weirdest crossovers out there but I hope you'll bear with me here. This would be a crossover between Critical Role and Death Stranding.

Now, I know Death Stranding isn't everyone's cup of tea but I really like the environment, the story and the overall vibe of the game really. And I thought what if Imogen was a porter, mostly so she could get away from everyone's thoughts back in the city? Explore the world as a porter and she'd meet Laudna and the rest of Bell's Hells along the way? And you know, just see where it goes?

But yeah, I thought I'd share the intro here cause I feel like I can't trust my own judgment on this anymore since I've spent so long rereading and rewriting parts over and over again and I know it's not a good thing. I think I'm approaching writing like I approach drawing but where I'd kind of skip the draft part of writing and jump right to the details like some people, myself included, would sometimes skip the sketch part where it can be real messy and it doesn't have to be perfect on the first try but you just go straight for the details and make your life harder in the process.

Anyway, here's the intro, I hope it's not as bad as I think. Let me know what you think!

Also, the lyrics are from the ost if you're not familiar with the game.

________________________

'See the sunset

The day is ending

Let that yawn out

There’s no pretending…’

Is someone's singin'?

Drifting in and out of consciousness, the voice sounded so distant, and the words were so hard to make out at first, the voice might as well be humming. It was like shouting in the main hall of a distribution centre, but Imogen recognised the melody. The notes echoed through her mind like a bullet ricocheting off the walls of an empty hangar as her brain tried to make sense of the jumble of words.

Imogen couldn't tell where she was. The room she was in was silent, save for the melody she could hear from time to time in her rare bouts of consciousness.

The voice was comforting in its rasp. It had a warmth to it that both made her want to drift off to sleep again and wake up to properly listen to it and praise the person looking after her. It sounded so sweet; Imogen could swear she tasted the slightest hint of honey on her tongue for a second…

Being a porter, Imogen’s had her fair share of accidents on the job. They were inevitable but nothing she couldn't handle as she would usually sleep it off and be on her way the following day, like nothing happened. 

She could tell this one must have been… something, if her current state was any indicator. 

And while waking up with no recollection of what happened to her was unnerving and confusing at first, she was taken aback by the lack of nightmares and felt a small form of relief at not waking up with a start for once.

As reality hit her, she couldn't remember ever feeling this awful in her life.

Her legs and feet ached in a way that made it nearly impossible to move them, her back was unbearably stiff, and she could feel pins and needles in her fingers where her red and purple lightning-like scars started and extended past her elbows, the marks prickling under her skin. Her face started to feel warm, uncomfortably so.

Imogen felt a presence next to her, a cold hand resting gently on her forehead and a thumb brushing softly over her brow, cooling her skin and calming her down.

Shh… You’re okay darling. Go back to sleep, you’re safe.

It was that voice again. Almost a whisper in her mind. Like the softest breeze through her hair or a soothing balm on a bruise.  Like a soft melody lulling her to sleep.

Curiously, as though the voice held all the answers in the world, as though it was the voice of reason, Imogen felt compelled to listen to it.

She felt... safe.

So, after trying for a while to figure out what happened to her and how she got here, wherever that was, realising she was indeed still too tired to even think about trying to move, Imogen surrendered to exhaustion, falling into another dreamless slumber.

***

Imogen could faintly hear the commotion going on around her as the dust settled around her after collapsing to the ground. She heard rushed footsteps coming towards her and someone calling her name. One voice quickly turned into multiple panicked voices shouting, giving directions and telling her to stay awake, all at the same time. She couldn’t make sense of it all and the young porter was exhausted, the world was spinning around her. She was shaking and could barely feel her legs and her arms seemed too heavy for her to lift. 

She didn’t even know if she was cold or hot and if her heart was racing or beating a lot slower than it should. She couldn’t keep her eyes open. Everything was a blur. Everything hurt. 

She couldn’t comprehend any of the words coming out of those people’s mouths anymore. 

She was adrift. Lost in a sea of sounds her brain just wouldn’t register as she tried in vain to collect herself.

She'd had enough voices in her head when she was still stuck in the city. Why couldn't she ever get some peace and quiet?

Her body was begging for some well-deserved rest, a searing pain settling above her left eye, throbbing and making her nauseous as the overcast sky above her burned her eyes when she tried to open them, and the world kept spinning and spinning endlessly.

Voices kept calling to her, still telling her to stay awake. 

Make it stop… she heard herself whine faintly.

So, against better judgement, not caring what she was told, she closed her eyes, shutting out the blurry figures hurrying about, the hands shaking her shoulders and lightly tapping her cheeks to keep her alert. The shouting, the urgency, the pleading... 

Then everything went quiet. 

Then darkness. 

'I will hold you

And protect you

So, let love warm you

Till the morning… ‘

________________________

And there you go!

Again, please let me know what you think, I'd be happy to have some feedback even if it's only the introduction. I have more written for it but I'm still figuring out if I want this to be a one-shot or a few chapters long, it'll depend on how much I write if I get enough motivation for it, I guess.

Oh and if I ever post this, I named myself Snappy-Twig on Ao3, I just love that codename so much, I coulnd't not use it 😂

[spinningbuster98]

Sonic the Hedgehog CD Part 1: Sonic CD is sponsored by Marty McFly

Oh boy, now we’re getting into some spicy territory!

My history with CD is...complicated

Unlike the other Classic titles, while I was exposed to this one at around that same time thanks to the Sonic Gems Collection, I never played it quite as much due to...reasons that will become quite clear in future parts. It’s only with the release of the Whitehead version years ago that I truly dived into this game

So let’s start with the best and most obvious parts

Firstly: the opening and closing cinematics are literally some of my favorite pieces of animation ever. (Well the uncompressed versions anyway, ‘cause the Sega CD was what it was). Not just because they’re animated beautifully but because they feature what is, to me, the gold standard of Sonic’s body language.

This Sonic is quick, adventurous and fun loving when he’s zooming around, but dead serious and determined once he notices Eggman’s effect on Little Planet

But most of all: he’s cool. He’s effortlessly cool in the way he runs around and toys with badniks, while at the same time still retaining a cutesy side to him to remind you that this is still a light hearted and fun loving cartoon character

While I’m not one of those people who thinks that Sonic should never talk (specifically Classic), there is a case to be made on how in just a few minutes’ worth of animation CD is able to tell us literally everything there is to know about Sonic’s character without having him utter a single word while the Storybook games had to devote hours long narratives to get the point across. It also further lampshades just how backwards Sega’s recent handling of Classic as a character has been, focusing completely on his cutesy side while completely neglecting his cooler one, or at least downplaying it, while one of the main reasons for the switch to Modern was because they feared that Classic was being perceived as too cute by fans at the time, but whatever that’s a topic for another time

From a graphical standpoint...yeah this game is above and beyond the best of the classics, both in general spritework (though bosses in Sonic 3 actually look better, but that might just be due to that game having actual bosses that look more imposing in general), color variation, level of detail and artstyle, which is without even mentioning the way that the game manages to tell a simple yet subtle narrative through its backgrounds but I’ll focus on that at a later time

But personally I’ve...actually never been head over heels for these graphics unlike everyone else, mostly due to a personal thing, since Sonic game move so quickly it’s usually hard for me to really focus on background details and whatnot, which isn’t helped by the one thing you’ll be looking at the most, Sonic’s sprite, pretty much being ripped straight from Sonic 1 and looking so out of place compared to the rest of the game. But again: it’s not a knock against the game, it’s just me

Musically I...think it’s good, it’s certainly the most varied and smartly utilised soundtrack in the Classic games (or even in the whole series) due to how each track ties very well to the feel of not only each Zone but also each era, but personally? When it comes to Sonic music I tend to prefer more upbeat, fast paced tracks. CD’s OST is much slower and usually pretty calming and atmospheric, which works very well for what it’s trying to accomplish, it’s just not what I personally prefer to hear in a Sonic game (and yeah I’m talking about the JPN score, it’s been ages since I’ve listened to the US tracks)

On the other hand however I like all of the vocal tracks

Sonic Boom was the first I was introduced to and it still sounds great, but over time I also gained a lot of appreciation for You can do anything. The lyrics are really cheesy and are bordering on nonesense half the time, but I like the energy it has

My absolute favorite however is Cosmic Eternity. I really wish more people would talk about this one because this is, and I’m not kidding here, one of my favorite Sonic songs in general. Right up there with the likes of Open your Heart, Live and Learn and What I’m Made of. It’s just so upbeat and uplifting, it fits both this game’s happier aspects and Sonic’s character like a glove, the latter more in the sense that it sounds like something that Sonic would sing someone to cheer them up

[heymeowmao]

2023.06.06 - https://weibo.com/l/wblive/p/show/1022:2321324909692089401460

加油啊!

bgm: Chong Zi OST - Heaven Light (天光)

LYN: Hallo everybody, good evening. I am Modern Brothers Liu Yuning! Welcome!! Long time no see. I feel like I haven’t streamed in a long time, at least. And... why is the sound so loud? /adjusts/. It’s been a while since I streamed last and I saw that a few of you were going out of your minds. You resorted to taunting me to get me to get me to come. Can we spread a little more kindness in this world? Please? It’s only been a few days and you’ve already started to taunt me. It’s not necessary, alright? LYN: When I’m in a good condition, I will come to stream on my own when I think the time is right. I hope you don’t push me next time. When you start pushing, I start second-guessing myself and think that maybe I SHOULD be streaming. But if my condition isn’t great- for example if I did some recording that day or took care of some different business- then I won’t be able to stream the way I want. I’d be forcing myself to stream. It’s not necessary. Let’s leave it up to me, alright? If I’m in a good condition and I want to stream and chat and relax, I’ll come. But otherwise... let me rest! 

LYN: The stream lagging a little is normal, because I’ve upgraded my equipment. If I upgrade my camera, I have to upgrade my computer, too. After that, you might think the sound card isn’t doing a good enough job- a lot of you always complain that the sound is too low. I don’t know why you can’t wear some headphones... but you always complain that the sound is low. After upgrades, the computer can’t keep up. See? It seems like I have to change my computer AGAIN. I’ve only had it for two years- it cost a lot- and now I have to buy a new one. Technology is too advanced for my computer to keep up. C: Sell it. LYN: I won’t be selling it. It’s just because that for this stream I’ve returned home to Beijing. i don’t have a desktop computer here, so I’m using the laptop. The signal on it is probably lacking, so it lags every once in a while. It’s enough for you to watch, though. Thanks, everyone (for your understanding). Our main focus is on “company”. Even if you are just photos (profile pics) we’re keeping each other company, alright? 

bgm: LBFD/CLJ OST - Searching for You (寻一个你)

LYN: Why am I wearing this today? Because the NCEE is fast-approaching. In order to fit the theme, I’ve worn some clothes that make me look younger. Let me pretend to be young, to be a student. Is it alright? Our theme here is “young.” LYN: As long as you’re satisfied with this look, all’s well.  LYN: The other thing is I haven’t lived in this Beijing house for a long time, since I am always away in Hengdian. I don’t really have any clothes to wear, here. I tried looking, I did, and I couldn’t find anything to wear. People always say that a woman’s closet is always lacking something. I get the feeling I’m lacking ten outfits- to use for streaming. I always feel like I don’t have anything to wear when I want to stream. Let me tell you- I do put thought into what I wear. You might think that I choose my streaming outfit at random, but I actually put a lot of effort into it. 

C: Ning-ge, I thought you had 3,000 outfits. LYN: When I first debuted- in the first two years- I might have had 3,000 outfits but now, three years later, how many clothes do you think I have? Think about it. There’s a room in this house that looks like a storage room and it’s full of clothes. I can’t even wear some of them because I bought them so long ago that the color has gone off from age.  C: Raffle them. LYN: We could... we could pick a concert stop- if I’m having a concert next year- and let’s say it’s a 10,000 person venue... Wait- I don’t have 10,000 pieces of clothing... Let’s do this instead. I’ll take 1,000 pieces of clothing for each stop and gift it to the audience. The concert benefit is being gifted clothes second-hand. 

- - - - - - - - - - 

C: How’s the album coming along? LYN: I really am working on album stuff right now. But if it were such an easy thing to do, it wouldn’t have taken me three years to release one. Think about the singers nowadays- there are as many as they come. It’s really difficult to continuously release albums, unless they are songwriters themselves. They could write their own works and put as much into that as they wanted; but even so, there are times when you have no inspiration. For me, as someone who does not have the ability to write songs... I just have to wait for something that works. Sometimes even when you find one, someone else gets to it first. It’s up to luck and timing. This time around I have taken my time to pick the songs and I’ve gotten some that I really like.  LYN: Let me tell you about my plans. I want to release this album before the end of the year. I previously released a song called “Fall in Love”- you know it, right? My fans have probably heard it before, but there are many of you who are just passing by and have entered the wrong shop- or have been dragged in by someone handing out cards- let me play my song “Fall in Love” for you. -- Fall in Love LYN: I went crazy all of a sudden. 

LYN: This was going to be the title song for my album... but it’s been two years since the track was released. Well- one and a half years. I sang it for the first time at the Jiangsu New Year’s Event... and then... about two years have passed and the album was never released. If I release it later in the year, it WILL be three years. So my plan for this year is to get my album out before December. It’ll be around 10 songs. This song (Fall in Love)- we can do without. I mean- not count it as part of the album. It’ll just be a single. LYN: As for my album, I’ll remake it. I had collected a few for the album from before, and have recorded two of them. But now... immodestly speaking, my singing has improved in the last two years. Listening to those songs now I think, “What the heck is this singing? WTF is this?? You think you can release an album like this, you must be crazy!” So the other day I re-recorded one of the songs. LYN: To singers “progress” is relative to a lot of different aspects. The first is the progression of age. The second is the advancement of music. The third probably has to do with the fact that I am acting now. After acting, I feel like I can better express emotions. I can let them show more or.. how should I say it? (Express them more subtly.) I have a deeper feeling/understanding of them now. LYN: Penny-jie gave me a song. Not counting Fall in Love, I should have... four now. But I should be able to confirm another one or two in the next couple of days. They’ve given me demos and I’ve given gone through them briefly and I think they’re very nice but I’ll have to get a better listen. I now have four complete songs and will get another three or four in the next days. I’ll have seven. Then I can just find three more and we can release the at the end of the year. :) My plan is to release the album before the end of the year- 10 songs- and then open up my concerts mid 2024. That’s just an estimate, because I have to film in the first half. Probably May or June. But before the concert I want to release an EP of about 5 songs.

C: Will you release an MV? LYN: I am working on an MV, yes. I’m planing on finding a few of my good friends- I can now make a PROPER MV. The MVs I shot before were all: I’m looking for something. I walk to the ocean and I search. I climb a ladder. I run. I look up at the sky and sit by my bedside, depressed. I’m emo. More conceptual. Now I don’t want to make MVs like that. I want something with a plot. So the songs I am finding now are all- /cuts himself off/. In any case, I’m going to find some of my good friends to help me shoot it. Of course, I will not be paying them. LYN: I already asked them- “If I release an album next year, will you help me shoot the mv?” They asked me if I would pay extra, and I replied that if they continued that thought I would block them. XD  LYN: My MV would need a group of them- I'll find 10 artists to act in the MV for me. Something that requires 2,000 extras. We’ll do a “human wave attack” (人海战术; offensive infantry tactic in which an attacker conducts an unprotected frontal assault with densely concentrated infantry formations -wiki).

LYN: So, for those of you asking about how my album is going, I really am working on getting it released this year, I swear. I have time in Beijing now to work on it properly and wrap up with logistics and with the music. After all that is finished I will re-focus on my acting. We’ll see.

C: I want to be an extra. LYN: Er... for extras the fee is 200RMB, sent to me. 1200RMB to me and I will include two meals. I won’t pick you up, but will send you back- to the closest bus stop. C: Ning-ge, I’ll invest 300k for your MV. LYN: Are you really investing or has chasing starts made you silly? If investing, let’s say my mv makes any revenue- you’d like a cut of the profits? But if you want to shoot a nice MV, it requires quite a bit of money. I don’t think 300k will be enough. I’m thinking of shooting two to three. C: I’ll invest 1M. LYN: I will find a staff member to contact you immediately. You can’t run, I’ve remembered your ID. I’ll find a staff to contact you and we can exchange the deposit in private. For a 1M project, you only need to give me a deposit of 200k first. C: Ning-ge, I’ll invest my charms. LYN: So what you’re trying to say that you’re too good-looking, so you want to be a part of my video and... that will be favorable for me? We’d be taking advantage of you because you’re too pretty, too beautiful?

C: Ning-ge, how about I give you 10RMB. LYN: Has the progression of my career reached a point where I need to do crowdfunding? I can’t survive on my own anymore, and if I want to do something my fans have to drum up the money? It’s not necessary. I know I’m not doing very well but I’m not that pitiful. Also, I just want to say- let me think of how I can phrase this nicely, to filter it-   LYN: ~ I think that music has always been a dream of mine. I can give everything I have to my music. You tell me you want to crowdfund in order to let me release my songs, but I think there’s no need for that. The music I release is for you to listen to, to enjoy, and to experience. If you feel anything when listening to my songs then that already is my greatest honor. That’s why, I don’t want you to give me any money. I will figure out the funding on my own. I appreciate your good intentions. You are all kind people. You all have dreams. You are good samaritans. ~ LYN: ~ I’m sure that everyone who has a dream in music who sees such a group of people who want to support their passion for music, will be moved. Thank you all. ~

- - - - - - - - - -

- /gives his support to students taking the NCEE/

C: Ning-ge, your voice is like this and you’re still streaming? LYN: ~ Honestly friends, I have to tell you, my voice is really uncomfortable today. Because for a long time I was in the South- in Hengdian- which is more humid. I’ve suddenly returned to Beijing and I haven’t quite adjusted. I have a really dry throat. I am withstanding searing pain to stream for everyone today. But I don’t want to make this a big deal. I don’t want to say that I am sick. I just want to say- that you are all very important to me. I’m willing to do this for you- ~ - /breaks character because he couldn’t stand himself/ LYN: Beijing is dry, alright? My throat is uncomfortable. I’ve been living in the South all this while- me, who originates from the North, has been living in the South. Hendgian is in Zhejiang, right? That’s south. It’s humid. So being back here now (in the North), my throat has been uncomfortable. It’s really dry. Especially Beijing, which is particularly dry. Liaoning, Dandong- where my house is- is okay, because there I am close the the river/ocean. The air isn’t as dry for a place in the Northeast. Beijing is really dry, though. I have to put on so many face masks every day. LYN: Wait for me a sec, I’ll go grab some water.

C: The chair looks nice. LYN: Are you making fun of me? This house in Beijing is rented so this furniture was all here when I got the house. I don’t have such high tastes. This is the landlord’s stuff, not mine. - C: Drink less soft drinks. LYN: This isn’t a soft drink, it’s just carbonated water. It’s carbonated, but there’s no sugar or anything in it.  - C: It’s a princess chair. LYN: /laughs/ Yes, it is. There are six of them. They were around the dinner table but I grabbed one over to sit on while I stream. I’m not in Beijing very often, anyway.

C: What special effect is this today? LYN: You can tell that this video has special effects?? This is the “aurora” effect. Why am I using it, do you know? Well- you all know what an “aurora” is, right? A very mystical phenomenon. LYN: ~ I am using this aurora effect today because I believe that not many people in this world have seen an actual aurora. Or a real rainbow. But I hope that each one of you who are in my stream can see this wonderful aurora special effect. So you can feel like you are in a faraway place- somewhere you can see the lights. ~ - bgm: Young Captain队长 & ODD Chen Sijian - 超感 (Super Sense) - LYN: But remember to tell me where I can see a rainbow. I saw one the other day- with my eyes, it was very clear. But I tried to take a picture of it on my phone and I found out- you can’t really see it.  C: Your skills aren’t good enough. / LYN: Oh. C: Change your phone. / LYN: Right, okay.

C: Have you done your physical yet? LYN: Not yet. I want to get everything arranged first and acclimate before I do it. Lately I’ve been preparing to start working out again. I want to give myself half a year’s time to start a regular eating schedule. I’ll mind what I eat- like not anything fried or sweet- and try to stick to an exercise schedule. I want to know, after this half year, what the results will be.  LYN: I really have properly started working out now. I’m not kidding anymore. My abs... I’m at... 10%. If having full-on abs is 100%, then I have at least 20% now. That is- you can see something if you squint. Let me train for a bit first. If there are results by the end of the year I’ll post up a picture. I see a lot of male artists wearing suits, right? But they don’t wear a shirt- it’s just the suit jacket- and a low middle button. I see a lot of male artists like that and I’m super jealous. They have such nice physique that allows them to wear the clothes in that way, to show a little skin. Either that or it’s a dress shirt, but the buttons are undone until the last few. The name of the game there is “Temptation/Seduction”. I can’t do that, though. If I open it up I look like a boiled chicken. LYN: I just want to have a nicer physique. I won’t make any promises from now on. I won’t bring it up again. We’ll just.. wait and see.

LYN: I was worried that I would come onto the stream today and my face would look fat. Lately I’ve been eating less but if I want to work out I have to eat more- three meals is modest. I’ve been forcing myself to eat, so I feel like I’ve gained weight. I thought it would show on the camera but it’s alright. The beauty filters are strong, after all. LYN: I had a huge bowl of rice and vegetables just earlier. But those are all regular foods. It’s alright I didn’t gain weight. // I have a performance in a couple of days, I told you about it before- some college, right?

C: Ning-ge, your hair color is makes you seem young. LYN: I don’t like the words “seem young”. I used to sell clothes, so I know all the right words to say when you’re trying to make a sale. If you say I “seem young” then that means that you don’t see me as ACTUALLY young. You don’t see me as young at all, but the words “seem young” should be allocated to 45+ year old men and women. You can use “seem young” to describe them. Okay?? You’ve just admitted that in your mind I am already... an old man.

C: Feels “youthful”! LYN: Friends, you don’t need to make forced compliments. I have a very clear image of myself and “youthful” doesn’t fit it. I told you before, that I had a script come to me and they wanted to act as a high school student for a portion of it, didn’t I? There was a plot where the two people met in high school and went to college together but later separated to start working. The majority of the plot is focused on when they are adults, but I couldn’t get past them wanting me to act as a high school student for a portion of it. Because of this, I gave up on this drama.  LYN: I can act as maybe a college student if you lay down the foundation extra thick to cover up the wrinkles. Maybe get some Thermage treatment in, and I could pass. But if you want me to act as a middle or high school student, I really can’t do it. I am 1.9m tall- when I’m not wearing shoes I’m 1.89m, but if I wear shoes I’m taller than 1.9m. It’d be okay if I were shorter but have you ever seen that tall of a high school student?? They’re already done growing! So me acting as a high school student would be a little unfitting. 

C: Kids nowadays are all tall. LYN: /laughs/ You’re right, but I still can’t do it! They might be tall but they still have young faces. My face has obviously seen time. I just can’t do it. A kid can play someone older, but someone older can’t play a kid. My face already has time on it. If you wanted me to act as someone around 30 years old or so, that wouldn’t be a problem. But early 20′s is difficult for me!

C: Ning-ge, you’re very young. Ning-ge, you can do it. LYN: I realized there’s something about this industry... let me tell you how I feel about it. People who do well in this industry- I’ve been to events, I can see who’s doing well or not- you’ll discover something. That is, no matter what they do the people around them will endlessly praise them. Really. I’m talking about people who are doing well for themselves. Their staff, the staff you meet at events- let’s say we’re at some recording for a show or an event- any staff around will give them endless praise. For example, an artist goes, “Huh? What is this, a phone? I’ve never seen one like this before. It’s called an iPhone?” The staff around them have already reached a point where they reply, “You’re so smart! Amazing! /claps/. You’ve never seen this thing before, but you knew it was a phone. You’re so great. You have a natural talent for identifying phones.” I was at the side, watching like:

LYN: But most of the time the artist will gladly accept the praise. “Oh, I just have a knack for this. :) I have an interest in mobile phones- oh, I see this is an iPhone! I’ve never seen one before, but I already know. I’m just talented. I have an interest in electronics.” !! It’s like humoring a child! And these artists aren’t young. LYN: You know- once you reach a certain point you’ll find out that the words of the people around you are 99% praise. The people close to you, as well as the people you meet. After I saw that happening I thought, “Oh~ So (that’s how it is)...” They’re probably already used to it and it doesn’t affect them at all but to me... I don’t feel a thing.  LYN: Just like when you tell me that I’m young and that I can play a middle schooler. I’ll listen to what you’re saying, but leave it at that. I might even have the passing thought that maybe you are trying to provoke me. After seeing all that, I have my own judgement on what people say to me in the future. I don’t believe that all you should hear is praise. There needs to be all sorts of comments in order to level you. Only then can you mature. Only then will you know where your limits are. LYN: That’s why when you praise and support me- of course, I like to hear it. But I don’t think there’s a need to take it seriously. There’s really no need. C: I was being honest. LYN: Even if you were, I still won’t take it seriously. I need to have self-awareness to maintain my balance. 

- - - - - - - - - -

- /saw a passing comment and makes note to answer it later, but clarifies he couldn’t really see the whole thing because the comment was too long. If they are short comments, usually he sees all of them scrolling by./ LYN: I can’t answer all of them, so please be generous. Don’t think that just because I am not replying to you, you shouldn’t comment at all. Our theme here is “company”.

C: Are there kiss scenes in ZY? LYN: What’s it to you?!? You must be crazy. XD LYN: There are no kiss scenes in ZY, only bath scenes. Of course by that I mean- a normal bath. For example, I’ll go to bathe and my bros will scrub my back for me. Scenes like that. They'll perform some gua sha and  ba guan for me. Because we’ll all get together to wash up after we go out to battle. We’re starting a “community bathing” culture. C: Such a big scale? LYN: We’re still wearing pants. If we want it to air, we’ll still be wearing pants. They’ll only show the top half. Just a bunch of guys helping to scrub each other’s backs.

C: Your ears are turning red. LYN: Why would they be??? What did I say today that would make my ears red?? You really think I’m only 18 years old?! Have you forgotten what I was trending for a while ago?? (Married) Oh-sorry. I’m... I’m not a young kid. Why I turn red from talking about washing up and scrubbing backs?? C: Now it IS red. LYN: Yeah, I misspoke earlier. My mind was running slow and my mouth too fast. I apologize. C: Drink some water to settle your mind.

C: When will YNGS air? LYN: I don’t know! :D Let me tell you friends, a lot of actors are also dumbfounded. I know you like to ask us actors when our dramas will air, but we’re in the dark and really don’t know. I’m guessing if you try to ask the production company, they wouldn’t either! Sometimes you’ll hear that a drama is airing tonight and then the next morning you find it didn’t. This is normal, so if you ask me when a drama is airing, I really don’t know. LYN: It’s been two years since I finished filming a couple of my dramas and even now I am getting notices to do voice acting or supplement for voice acting. It seems like everything is going according to plan and the OSTs are all recorded, but then... it’s just indefinitely about to air. So what time a drama airs is really hard to say. I can only tell you that I can’t tell you.

C: Do you have a variety? LYN: I do, we’ve been in talks. But I- I- Once I start in a drama crew I don’t have the time anymore. Varieties nowadays need two to three or up to seven to eight days to record. There’s no way the drama production is letting me off for that long. Especially since I am starting to accept male lead roles... So, it’s hard for me to go. The production doesn’t really give the time off. So the variety is hard to say, since I will be entering another crew soon. You all are afraid of me wasting my time at home, and desperately want me to enter a crew. Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing. You’ll see. When I pick projects, they’re usually dependable. If any news gets announced I’m sure you will be happy for me. I won’t be sitting around at home. C: Is it a modern or historical? LYN: Which one are you referring to? Are you talking about the one in the latter half of next year? That one... hasn’t come yet. Let me pretend. // This is called “I’ve been home too long and now I’m making fantasies”. I clearly don’t have work but I’m pretending I do. There are some people like that, and I am one of them.

LYN: If you don’t quite understand me, let me explain. I’m a workaholic, I really am. Just look at how I spent the past five years. I started off singing on the streets and slowly made myself internet famous. After that, I became a singer. Now I’m starting to be an actor. I’ve made it this far step by step. Do you think, if I took even one moment to rest in these past five years, I would have been able to make it to where I am today? Getting to work with all these comparative (to me) amazing people? I don’t want to say that I am putting a lot of effort into this; I just want you to know that I don’t want to let myself rest. I want to learn quickly how to make my way in this industry.  LYN: The people I’m working with now are all amazing, right? I started off as a busker on the streets. In order for me to make it here, if I rested at all in the past five years do you think I would have been able to walk this far? I don’t have a company backing me. I only have this group of fans who have kept me company all this way. I don’t have a company (公司/gong si), only fans (粉丝/fen si). LYN: I’m the type of person who gets anxious if they don’t have work. My old fans all know this. But can you see me being anxious right now? If I didn’t have work, and I hadn’t decided my next drama or made plans for the future- I’d be having a breakdown. Do you think I’d be sitting here so calmly, discussing this with you? I’d be here complaining, not telling you jokes. LYN: So, you can tell by my mood. If I’m relaxed then I have plans in place. Lately I’ve taken a break because I really do want to work on my album. It’s not like an OST, where I can just take a song someone else has written if I like it and just record a song and release it. Albums are complicated. The process of collecting songs alone is difficult. Another thing about me is that I don’t want the songs on my album to be like songs I’ve sung for OSTs. I’ve accepted many OSTs that I really like a lot. But if there are songs on my album that are no different from the OSTs then I’ll think, “What’s the point of releasing this song? This is exactly like an OST I can sing.” Choosing the music is hard. I hear too many songs every year, so it’s hard to pick one I really like. I’m really working on the album. LYN: I’m also going to start the voice acting for YNGS. I’m going to plan to give them 10 days for recording. For example, I’d go in at 10a-1p, grab a bite, then start again at 4-5p until 7-8p. It’ll be like working a regular job, for about 10 days. I want to get the voice acting finished in the coming week. I also have some OSTs I need to record and events to attend. I won’t be idle. Don’t worry- you don’t need to be anxious for me. LYN: Oh- I don’t need fan support for voice acting. Just want to let you know. If I go to the recording studio and there’s a group of you with banners chanting our fan motto... it’s not necessary. I just need to do my job and that’s it. LYN: Maybe in a few days when I go to the hospital for my physical, you can come give me fan support then. /laughs/ You can stand by the entrance and shout, “LYN, good luck on your physical!” or something like that.  C: Steal urine. LYN: ?? What does that mean? Are you a pervert?? You must be. I told you I was going in for my physical and you said you want to steal (my) urine?? /barfing sounds/ LYN: Unreasonable. Truly unreasonable. Oh my goodness. This is too perverse. C: Extreme sasaeng behavior. LYN: This isn’t even sasaeng behavior anymore. This is... /barfs/

C: Can you turn the lyrics off? LYN: What- what, are the lyrics blocking your sight to something? How about I make it smaller? This is fine, right? /sigh/ I’ll turn it off. Save you some face.

- - - - - - - - - -

-- break #1 (his friend is having a baby and he needs to take a look) LYN: Excuse me friends, I made you wait long. I’m back. Lao Wang had a son a while back, this time he had a daughter. It’s nice. C: Are they good-looking? LYN: Not better than me. /laughs/ Why does that feel low- I’m competing in looks with a child?? C: How many days apart are they? LYN: The last time they had a kid was... three months ago. Now they have another. It’s amazing.

C: You look young. You can go act as a middle schooler. LYN: Let me tell you, friends- lately I’ve been thinking I want to start “pan chuan” (counting prayer beads (?)). I just think it’s cool. I think it’s fun. Watching the string change over time is interesting. But then I was thinking, if I started to do this, wouldn’t it prove that I am crossing another...I can’t say “realm”, can I? I’m entering into the meditative mind and healthy body category. But my current category is as a “Disney-lover”! C: I’ve been doing this for many years already. LYN: Which means to say your age... is probably around mine, right? C: Elementary kids do this, too. LYN: Do they? I didn’t know. But I really bought a string online and later I’ll... play with them. // I met someone not too long ago, and they told me they had nothing fun to do. I suggested they count beads and they said that they didn’t want to because if they did that, they would enter into the “middle-aged” mindset. That’s how they described it, at least. I thought about it and... yeah, they were right. But if you’re telling me that even elementary kids are doing this now, then I think that this is the popular trend for now. Then, we’ll count! C: Don’t count them, “pan” me. LYN: Do you want to “chuan”?? // Wait- sorry. That sounds like a curse word. That is- Sorry. - /clears his throat and skips the topic/ ;; t/n: there’s some wordplay here, but idk LYN: I won’t. I seriously did research on this and these things need a high density. You’re probably not dense enough. Also there’s a process of going from white, to colored (oxidized), and then opened (?). I don’t really want to see you “colored”. I think I’ll forget it. You can “pan” yourself in the mirror. I won’t be participating.

C: Watch out for tendonitis. LYN: What do you mean- like when I’m moving them, this part of my hand is likely to get tendonitis? I’ll buy a machine to turn them. I saw that there are those things online. / Oh, was it “tenosynovitis”? Sorry, I read wrong. / But there are machines for this, so I was thinking of getting one. I won’t have to use my own hands. I won’t get tenosynovitis, it’s okay. // There’s another machine, where you can take each of the beads and there’s like a tube- you can put the bead inside and it will spin.

C: Nine-ge, don’t wash your face in the morning just take the beads and rub them on your face. LYN: Why are you so dirty? That would be so gross. We want the bead’s natural oils. Maybe this topic is not interesting to many females, but we want the bead’s natural oils, not your dirty face oils. That’s no good. Forget it, let’s not.

C: Tell Daimi to count them for you. LYN: Daimi? I’d be lucky if she didn’t take them for peanuts and eat them. 

LYN: I thought you wouldn’t be interested, but it seems like a lot of you women- and men, there are bound to be men here too, right? - you all like to play with this. When my string arrives, will we be considered “pan”you? [t/n: play on the word “friends” (peng you)] Or “chuan-you”? I don’t know. We can discuss it. LYN: I didn’t know elementary school kids were interested in this, too. I honestly don’t know too much about it myself. There aren’t many grade schoolers in the group of friends around me to begin with. So I’m not sure what they’re into these days.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: Is your dog male or female? LYN: She’s a girl. I won’t own boy dogs. I used to own a boy dog, a long time ago. I took him out for a walk and all of a sudden he set his eyes on another dog and took off. He was a bigger breed- a sheepdog (Scotch Collie). He took the leash and started chasing a female dog. I ran across 8 hilltops- I was walking him up in the middle of nowhere- it was up in the mountains, and there were giant storehouses. He took the leash and ran and I chased him across three hilltops. I was this close to a breakdown, I almost threw up and I couldn’t catch him. I lost him and it scared me so much. Even /I/ got lost in the chase, because I wasn’t familiar with the area. I was chasing my dog, and my dog was chasing another dog. After all the running I lost the dog AND my way. I ran for about ten+ minutes. Do you know how helpless I felt, surrounded by unfamiliar terrain, lost dog and lost way? So ever since then I learned my lesson for having boy dogs. LYN: After that I only ever owned girl dogs. Youmi... Daimi... and there’s was also a cocker spaniel, whose name was also Youmi. I had two dogs named Youmi. The original had died, so I bought another one immediately so the love could be transferred. [t/n: if I recall, he didn’t want his grandparents to be too sad that Youmi (original) had passed away.]  LYN: All female dogs.

C: Did you ever find him? LYN: Later, he came back on his own. It took ME a while to find the way back home- I really ran across three hills before I found the path and went home by myself. I went home and cried to my mom that I had lost the dog and that I almost got lost. But when it came around nighttime, he came back on his own. That dog was so smart. People could hold his leash as long as I was there, but if I wasn’t he would go crazy. He was so smart. But in the end that dog... you probably know how it went. He ran away. That’s why people tell you- you can’t trust men. If they so something wrong once, they’ll do it a second time. He ran away, and didn’t come back this time. C: It was a BE. LYN: That’s an appropriate description, yes. At the time I was really sad about it, I cried for a few days and didn’t own a dog for a long time after.

C: He went to become someone’s son-in-law. LYN: He was a really handsome dog, but unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of him. You know sheepdogs- they have long snouts and long hair. Usually they’re all cream and black, or brown, right? But he was black and white. If there were a litter- only one of them would be patterned like that. It was so pretty. LYN: ! He wasn’t a Border Collie, though. I know what you’re talking about- Borders are black and white. He was a Scotch Collie, but black and white. Wow, he was so handsome. // I know the difference between a Border and a Scotch. He was the only one of the litter with that coloring- he was very unique. Very special.

C: What breed was Youmi? LYN: The first was a cocker spaniel. The second was a toy poodle. The one now is a schnauzer. After raising the cocker first, I discovered it was better to own a dog that didn’t shed as much. Schnauzers don’t shed as much- only the undercoat- and nor do toy poodles. These dogs are easy to clean up after, they’re small and smart, and don’t need to be walked as much.

C: Why don’t you like big dogs? LYN: Wait- look, I just said that I liked dogs that don’t shed as much and someone in the chat said, “Ning-ge, I also don’t shed a lot. Raise me.”  I’m guessing in not too long someone is going to pick up on this topic. LYN: Don’t you lose hair? I don’t believe there’s one person here who can say they don’t shed hair. We all do, more or less.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: Ning-ge, this special effect looks like “spitting pies”. LYN: ?? What is that? There are small orbs flying at you, so you think I’m “spitting pies”? I don’t always make “pies” (pipe-dreams). When have I made a pie for you? There aren’t many. The first is my abs- that’s going to be fulfilled this year, isn’t it?  C: “Stream until we throw up.” LYN: It counts if I do, too. Someone earlier wanted to steal something of mine, didn’t they? I threw up, then. If I throw up it counts too.

LYN: I saw a comment in the group chat that read, “Ning-ge is streaming today. If someone pushes him to stop streaming, I curse them to eat instant noodles without the seasonings forever.”

C: Disney stream; Carnation Festival 3.5. LYN: I had explanations for those, didn’t I? I told you about the Disney stream the last time- it’s not convenient for me to stream at the park. It was going to be okay, but lately their business has been booming. It became inconvenient for me to stream at the park because we wanted to avoid any unnecessary crowding. C: Recipe for marinating meat skewers. LYN: I’ve been busy lately... watching dramas, going to concerts... XD I’ve been busy with that lately. As for the grilling recipe, I’ll see if there’s a time I want to go out and relax. Maybe when I’m done with voice acting for Ning Yuanzhou- I’ll film a video, then. LYN: I saw someone asking me where I’ve been- I’ve really been busy as of late. And this work isn’t on a set schedule.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: After going back to Beijing you look more lively. LYN: I’ve been in Hengdian for so long that I’ve felt stifled. I honestly really like Hengdian, but the problem is- it’s a town. There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just very small. It’s mostly the food- I’ve had so much of it! All the restaurants and take-out... I’ve been there for three years. Think about exactly how many good restaurants there can be. I’ve already eaten my fill. Also, there’s no place I can shop around! Sometimes I like shopping and buying clothes- give myself some motivation to keep working hard. I’ll go shop and say, “Wow, these clothes are so expensive! These shoes are expensive! I should buy them. Then, I can continue to work hard so I can afford them.” That’s what I do when I shop. LYN: I like living in the city. I can eat whatever I want, whether that’s skewers, hot pot, stir fry, Shanghai cuisine, Hangzhou cuisine, etc. I have choices. But the problem is that in Hengdian, there are only so many shops. You don’t really have a choice. All I did there was eat. I felt like I had enough. But after coming back to Beijing- there’s nothing really fun to do here, either, but- at least I can shop. As for “play” I like... arcades. Last time I was in Beijing I played with VR or escape rooms- those are fun. 

C: ZXD-laoshi is here. LYN: Welcome.

- /talks a little more about what he’d like to do in Beijing while he can experience the freedom of having choices: to eat/shop/play./ LYN: I’ve just been in Hengdian too long. Now that I’m back here I’m letting myself go, a little. I like the feeling of living in a big city. I like the bustle. I’ve asked my friends before, where they like to go for travel.One of them told me they go on hikes- to see the mountains and watch the rivers; how on the way there’s a part of the river that’s really beautiful. After hearing that, I didn’t have any reaction/feeling for it. They in turn asked me where I like to go for fun. I told them I like to go to Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou. They replied, “You’re not going there to work, are you?” LYN: I’m just the type of person who has to come to a bustling/busy place to relax. Why? Because my hometown is a tourist city I’ve grown up along the river bank. Behind my house is a mountain. I would ride my bike along the river to work everyday. Do you think I’m missing any opportunity to see the mountains and rivers? My home is a tourist city and I’ve grown up seeing the mountains and rivers. Now I’ve finally entered society and am doing well for myself, do you really think I want to return to see the mountains and rivers in my downtime? I’ve never seen such a flourishing city when I was little. I like the hustle and bustle of the city. I don’t want to go back to see mountains and rivers- I’ve seen enough. LYN: It’s been thirty years and I finally made it to a big city. Now you want me to go back? You’ll find that a lot of people- once they become wealthy, they want to “return to the natural state”. They’ve had enough of the luxurious meals, and now they want to go back to the simple things. But friends, I’ve had the simple things all along. I can finally eat meat, have the chance to have abalone, and you want me to go back? It doesn’t agree with my plans.

C: You’re trending. LYN: Really? :) I don’t believe. I don’t deserve it. LYN: LYN, trending? I don’t think he’s worthy. C: The Entertainment Tab. LYN: What’s wrong with that? C: #41. -- 我不配 (I’m Not Worthy) LYN: A sang a whole verse of this song just for those three words. (I’m not worthy.)

LYN: I’m trending, though? ~ Honestly, I think that being trending or not isn’t important. I think the most important thing is that if by being here streaming, I am able to bring to you some happiness. As a singer or an actor, the most important thing is to have good works for you. A trending topic is not something an artist- whether singer or actor- should be in pursuit of. You need to have truly good works, works you’ve put your heart into, works that can touch other people’s hearts- to give to everyone who supports you. That is what you, as an artist, should be pursuing. So this trending topic... is nice to have, but it’s not a big deal if I don’t. Friends, let’s let our work do the talking. ~  LYN: Who doesn’t know how to say nice things? Those are the basics, aren’t they?

bgm: Ice Paper -  夜泊秦淮 (Ye Po Qin Huai)

C: I learned. Thank you, laoshi. LYN: Are you an artist? If you aren’t then there’s no use in you learning this. Do you want to be celebrity??

- - - - - - - - - -

C: You have too many buttons. LYN: ... Okay. I’ll listen to you. Next time I’ll buy a shirt with a zipper. This shirt if full of buttons. If you think they’re too much, then from now on I’ll buy shirts with zippers. I think they exist- I’ve worn one before. LYN: Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking. We are just a normal stream. I am a singer/actor. This can ONLY be a normal stream. Or are you telling me that you want to see something immoral in my VERY MORAL stream?? I see right through you. I’ve already turned of the gifting option, so there’s no paid content here. I don’t try to sell you products, either. There’s no way you’re seeing any paid content.  C: No~ That’s not what we were intending. We’re just afraid that you’re hot. LYN: I have an air conditioner. It can make the room 1° in a second. I’ll turn it on blast. I don’t need you to worry. I’m not hot. Later I’m going to put on a down jacket.

C: You’re so hot that your face is protruding oil. LYN: This has nothing to do with the heat. I just have naturally oily skin. I even looked it up online: Is it bad to have oily skin? I went to look up the pros and cons. The con is that I am more likely to produce oils and accumulate sebum on my face. Now I have to advise you to use this very good selfie stick- lol. No, I’m not going to push any products on you. It’s just that if you produce too many facial oils, your pores are more likely to become blocked and get acne. But the pro is that you don’t appear to age as quickly. That’s just what I need. I only just started taking male lead roles in the past two years. I really hope I can film a few more. LYN: There were some people trying to advise me, “LYN, can you stop playing male lead roles? We can accept you playing second male lead, but not main.” I can’t make that promise. Because... I have oily skin. I want to make the most of it and shoot a few more male lead dramas while I can. Is that okay? Please, I’m begging you. Stop trying to talk me out of it. I can’t promise you on this, but maybe on other things. Like that person earlier who said that I had too many buttons- I promised them that next time I would wear a shirt with a zipper. But on not playing the male lead, I can’t promise. I’m sorry. I’m the type of person who can understand and consider everyone’s feelings, but your feelings are... not feelings but gutsy demands. [t/n: this is a play on words.] I can’t promise you.

LYN: I really did see a comment like that, though. “LYN, can you stop playing male leads? I can accept second male lead but not main. I can’t stand it. I’m throwing up.” /laughs/ When I see comments like that, friends, it makes me happy. Do you know why? This is the mindset and logic you should have in order to keep living. LYN: At the very beginning when I wanted to be a singer, people were telling me, “You’re just internet famous, what makes you think you can be a singer? What do you think you’re doing on stage competing with other singers? You’re just internet famous- go back to your streaming room.” After a few years, I’ve finally made it as a singer- something people acknowledge me as, and now I’ve gone into acting. People said, “Why are you acting? You’re just a singer- just do your jobs and sing your songs. You don’t know your limits. What are you doing trying to be an actor? Other people have studied for so many years at a performing arts school and can’t find a role. What are you, a singer, doing acting? That’s ridiculous. Just because you have some fans doesn’t mean you can be an actor.” Some time passes again. “Why are you acting as the male lead? Just stay the second male lead!” LYN: You know? Unreasonably, they are- step by step- continuing to acknowledge me. So the fact that they have already accepted me as an actor makes me very happy. LYN: No matter what industry you’re working in, you have to have a good mindset. You have to consider things from all sorts of points of view. You can’t make trouble. If you live thinking, “Why are they saying this about me? I only want to be a singer... /cries/” It won’t help you. No one will pity you. Friends, you have to learn this in your lives as well. Don’t complain. You can, but not all the time. There’s no use. Complaining all the time will only degrade you. You have to think about making a place for yourself. You have to use your brain. Make your words powerful. Move forward. Alright? - C: /tries to make a joke on the word “complain” (bào yuàn)/ LYN: You don’t perhaps think that you’re very funny, do you? I hope not.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: We’re listening to music now. LYN: Yeah. I’m your music DJ, Modern Brothers Xiao Ning.

C: How long will you stream until? LYN: I don’t know. I’ll just keep streaming and stop when I’m tired. I’ll continue to stream for now. My stream doesn’t really have specific content or fixed rules that state I have to promote something. But, I do want to recommend something to you... hold on. LYN: ! Attention, attention! We have some good news! Tomorrow, Modern Brothers Liu Yuning’s song “The Remaining Life (余生)” will be online. This song is the ending theme from the drama “Gone with the Rain” (微雨燕双飞). The broadcasting station- everyone listen up- is Youku! This song will be online tomorrow- I hope that when it’s up you all can take a listen. Thank you! ! LYN: That wasn’t too much, was it? But it’s true that I sang the OST and they paid me for it... My main thing is price:product ratio. We deal in after-sales services, here. Tomorrow the very good drama Gone with the Rain will be airing- please watch it. Back from the Brink is also still airing. If you haven’t checked that out yet, please do. 

C: Promote all of your OSTs that way in the future. LYN: I’ve always promoted them this way. You must be new here. If you want to be able to get along with people in this industry, you have to know where you can fit into the ecosystem. For me, I am good with after-sales services. All of you are consumers. You might be looking for me to sing an OST, a platform, or brand. All of them are consumers. To a consumer, what is the most important aspect of a product? The first is good quality. The second is having something you can really make use of. The last is everything that comes after- the maintenance and upkeep. The after-sales services. As long as the after-sales is done right, and customer service is done right, you will always have good business. Remember that. C: Ning-ge, you’re a 4S shop now? LYN: I’m an OST shop. Mine is different from a $s shop- as long as you maintain upkeep everything is fine. But OSTs are a single-use thing. They don’t need upkeep. The OST doesn’t come back to me to change its engine oil or brakes. I don’t need to so anything after. It’s a single-use product that you can have for a lifetime. In terms of quality, it’s a treasure. I will definitely sing it to the best of my ability- as long as I can, I will but 110% into singing it. Secondly it’s single use, but it’s not as if you can keep listening to the song and then later think that it’s no good. I want to deliver a good price:product ratio, and you never have to worry about after-sales services here.  LYN: My after-sales does not only include promotion of the song and drama during my streams, but also when I attend galas. That is, it’s entirely possible that this song will come up again during my performances. It will be repeatedly broadcast to everyone. This way, we can keep reminding people of the drama. Give them something to remember the drama by. That’s my price:product ratio.

C: How much is it to advertise? LYN: It’s free for the consumer. All after-sales is on my own dime. There’s not much expense that goes into it, I just spend a little more time talking. Honestly, it’s just money for toothpaste and toothbrush. XD Other than that, there are no other expenses. I don’t collect more fees.

C: What are your rates? LYN: I get paid for OSTs like this, friends. It’s calculated by- what’s it to you?? You’re inquiring about my worth, now? How amusing. LYN: I hate these types of people! The ones who don’t buy anything, but ask about the price first! How annoying! // If you’re not going to buy anything, don’t ask! If you’re going to buy something then just buy it. If you’re not, then why are you asking??  LYN: XD I don’t know why, suddenly I went crazy. But anyway, don’t ask- that’s a business secret, I can’t just tell you. But as to whether it’s expensive or not... I can only tell you, it’s not cheap. :)

C: A business secret? LYN: It’s not a secret. It’s just that my group and I have been working for such a long time together, plus the fact that I’m my own boss. For a lot of things, I don’t need to follow a set business practice. I’m not doing things to further my company- like accepting jobs in order to pay my employees. I haven’t reached that point because I don’t have many employees to begin with. It’s mostly just me- and I can do a lot of things at once. Like promotions- I can do 30% of the work on my own. That means I can afford to hire one person less, right? This applies to other parts of the business as well. We don’t need to accept any jobs I don’t want to in order to further development.  LYN: When I get OSTs, it goes through this process: 1. What drama is it for?, 2. What platform is it airing on?, 3. I’ll listen to the demo. Of course, the song is always the most important but I have to understand the project first. If I like the song, I’ll accept. If I don’t like it, it doesn’t matter how much they offer. It has nothing to do with the money- if I don’t like it, I just won’t accept the job. The first step is never to ask about the price. I’ve encountered companies that started off like that, but I felt that approach is very... I don’t want to comment. For the most part, people usually do not ask about the price from the start. Usually it’s introducing the project and sending a song demo. If you like it, we’ll negotiate the price. If I don’t want to accept the job in the first place, there’s no point in asking how much they can offer me.

C: They’re afraid they can’t afford you. LYN: The investment in making a drama is very huge. At the least it’s tens of millions and at the most it’s a couple billion. They’re not lacking the funds. It’s not as if a single song will break the bank.

C: Then, do you have a discount for OSTs on 6/18? LYN: Do you need a discount for my OSTs? Oh my goodness... Okay, let’s do this. There might be some video production bosses in my stream now. I have a discount on OSTs on 6/18. If you buy 300RMB’s worth, you’ll get 20RMB off. Alright? If you want OSTs, please place your orders on 6/18.  C: The second song half off. LYN: No, that’s not worth it. Each song is its own price. C: Buy 300RMB for 20% off. Can the discounts stack?  LYN: So you mean, if a song were 600RMB instead of 300RMB? If it’s 300, you get 20 off, so if a song were 600, you’d get 40RMB off? Is that what you mean? You can do that. It stacks. 

C: Ning-ge, don’t say any more. If you keep on, you’ll be at a loss. LYN: This friend is considering it from my point of view. That if I let the discount stack, then I would lose out. They’re looking out for me and letting me know I would lose profit, right? LYN: ~ Actually when I hear you say that, I’m touched. I think this friend is a really honest person. In such a chaotic world, you really need to cherish when you meet such a person. Even if I make good on my word and let you take 20RMB off of 300RMB on my OSTs, have you ever encountered such a sale in the real world... but the caveat is that they raised the original price? Then, in fact, though they are selling very many- it’s at even more expensive prices than usual, disguised as a sale. Of course, I wouldn’t do that to you. ~

- - - - - - - - - -

-- break #2 (no excuse, he just needs to use the restroom) LYN: You’re still commenting on this “spitting pies” effect, so I’ll change it for you. I have a “ghost story” effect, do you want to see it? :) LYN: But there are a lot of women in my stream, I’m afraid that they will be scared. If I put on this effect they might get so frightened they will cry. It needs to be paired with music so that you can feel the chill. Let’s play this. It’s not very frightening, don’t be scared. LYN:  It’s not as scary as you think! If it’s too scary my weibo will be in violation. I’m an old streamer already, I understand this much better than you do. It can’t be too scary- no blood or jump-scares here. The “scary” I’m talking about is not the “scary” that you are thinking of. I was just exaggerating. You need only believe 20% of what I say. LYN: Alright. Three, two, one- - /error/ LYN: It’s not supported? Why is it telling me that?? Huh? What’s happening? LYN: Oh, well. It’s not supported. This is a flop. // ?? But I tested it out today and it was working?? /clicking around/ Oh, it’s this one. It’s not scary, though.

LYN: It wasn’t scary. C: What was that? Failing eyesight? // That was it? LYN: Friends, if you’re going to be like that then I’ll do a super scary one! I’ll make you cry in fright!! Friends, I’ll show you what is truly “terrifying”! Let’s do it, I’ll play a quieter song, otherwise the mood will be wrong. Friends. Three, two- I’ll let you see the scariest thing in the world! THree, two, one! - /error/ LYN: ?! “The special effect is unsupported.” /feeling stifled/ Okay, I found one equally as scary. Let’s try again. Three, two, one!

LYN: Sorry, it flopped. The stream doesn’t support the effect. Because this is on a horizontal screen. Next time if I’m streaming vertically, I’ll show you the terror.  LYN: There are a lot of different ones I can use, though. /shows them off/

LYN: /laughs/ What IS THIS??? This one really IS terrifying. Oh my goodness...

- - - - - - - - - -

- /someone tells him he's trending, still. but only in the entertainment tab. he thanks everyone for the trending topic anyway./  LYN: I was wondering what you were talking about- I almost threw my phone. [t/n: bc they told him he was trending, but he couldn’t find it on the main page. XD]

LYN: I feel like my face is very bright. Maybe this is TOO MUCH oil. Let me find some blotting paper. This is too much. I know we were talking about oily skin types earlier but this is too much- I look greasy. LYN: Is it better now? Not as greasy? C: Ning-ge, that’s called dewy skin. LYN: No, it’s just grease. That’s how you can tell a household is wealthy. I remember a story I was told when I was little. There was someone very poor, who wanted to pass themselves off as wealthy. They would take a piece of pork lard and rub it on their face before they went out. When they went out, they could say that they had just eaten. It would make it seem as if the household was wealthy enough to eat meat. I am like that, too.

C: You haven’t changed the special effect. LYN: It’s alright. This one is plenty scary enough.

C: Ning-ge, you’ve played this song so much I know how to sing it. LYN: Come here and sing it, then. Sing. Come on, sing! I thought you knew how?? I gave you the mic, but you can’t sing it, huh. C: Connect the mic. LYN: Er... /shaky sigh/ Connecting the mic... uh... The thing is weibo streaming is not as complete on desktop. If I were streaming from my phone, we could connect- it has that capability- but the desktop doesn’t. If one day I stream from my phone, I’ll spend that whole day connecting the mic with you all. We’ll chat. We can give it a try.

C: Is that a pie, too? LYN: It’s not a pie! It’s just because when I was connecting with people before, they didn’t want to. I didn’t see the harm in it, I just wanted to get some interaction, to play. I wanted to be different from others. We can chat and communicate, because I see people connecting mics often. It’s an effect of streaming and a mood maker. There’s no reason why we can’t. But the prerequisite is that I have to connect with a “normal” person. Otherwise, it’s quite fun. Even if you aren’t my fan, you can come chat with me. It’ll make the stream more meaningful. If I happen to accidentally connect with an anti, like the type who want to curse me out- no, not those- like the kind who wants to back-talk me. I really hope I can meet someone like that. We can chat. I want to see if I can win over them, and make them my fan. LYN: I’m someone who’s really good at arguing. /laughs/ Back when I was working in the restaurant if colleagues were fighting or talking about some logic, I was amazing. It was like a debate- I could lay out all the logic for them. But it’s been many years since I last dared to fight with someone. I want to test if I am still able to. Of course, not the type of fighting by cursing, but teaching you a lesson within the realm of reason.

C: Have your skills regressed? LYN: I think they have. Because at this point a lot of things don’t matter anymore- it doesn’t matter if I win or lose. Not to say that it’s not important... it’s very unimportant. If it doesn’t concern me directly, I don’t see the need to make it a focus for my attention. There’s no meaning in that. Sometimes I might mention a topic in passing during my stream- and that’s only because they became a topic of conversation. Otherwise what else would I talk to you about? You can say that I look young. I say thank you. Then what else? LYN: I’ll talk about a lot of things during my streams, but not because I care about them- though there ARE the ones I DO care about... It’s just because they become a topic for conversation. I can turn them into jokes and tell you about them during my stream. You find it interesting, and we can have a common ground.

C: Ge, you’re trending. LYN: Someone already told me. Entertainment, #31. It’s alright. Let’s be low-key. You don’t need to promote it. Being #31 on the Entertainment Tab means that people can get jealous. (sarcasm)

LYN: Let me go grab something to drink. I left earlier and saw someone say, “I can see the princess chair again!” LYN: I’m back. I told you before, this is part of a set of chairs at the dinner table and I grabbed this one to sit on. This is a rented house, so this is all the original furniture.

LYN: Drinking coffee at this time of night is okay, right? C: You’re not going to be able to sleep. LYN: No, it’s because when you talk too much there’s too much information and it jumbles my thinking. Drinking coffee will help me focus. You’ll notice that many people do their work in a coffee shop. Did you think that they had no place else to work? There is that possibility, of course. But it’s more because the coffee can help them focus. I have to stream, so I need to focus. C: It doesn’t look like coffee though? LYN: What does it look like then, herbal medicine? I don’t have enough energy to stream, so I need to drink herbal medicine to supplement my stamina? Shan yao, dang gui, and goji?

C: Ning-ge, are your glasses magnifying? LYN: /sigh/ Do you mean to say that my eyes are so small that I’ve purposely replaced the lenses with something that will magnify and make my eyes look bigger, as a sort of physical beauty filter? To make my eyes look bigger? Is that what you mean? I can make my eyes big- they’re not always small. /opens his eyes wider/ Are they small? No. LYN: I’ve worn these glasses today to go with the rest of my outfit. It’s not because I’ve replaced them with magnifying lenses to make my eyes look bigger. That’s hurtful. You’ve hurt me. :( LYN: See, who ISN’T cyber-bullied? I was just streaming, doing nothing- not trying to sell you anything or take your money- and I’ve still been cyber-bullied. They made fun of me and said my eyes are small. Friends, cyber-bullying is a real and scary thing. I’m not kidding. LYN: ! You’re laughing?? It makes me want to sing a song... “You’ve hurt me and played it off with a laugh.” I told you it hurt me, and you’re laughing?? -- 一笑而过 (Laugh it Off) [Na Ying] C: Sing it. LYN: I want to sing something different. I want to sing something more tender. Something that can promote love. Promote positive feelings. Let’s do it.

C: Ning-ge, what is the correct way to address cyber-bullying? LYN: For this, you should go baidu it. I can’t give you a proper answer. Everyone faces it differently. I don’t have the correct answer, but I still think you need to become stronger. If you become stronger, you won’t consider it as bullying. Let’s say you’re learning martial arts and are at the top of the game and someone punches you- you’ll think nothing of it. But if you are someone who does not work out at all and someone punches you- you’re going to get knocked out. But these punches carry the same amount of force. I can’t give you a correct answer, because this depends from person to person. The only thing I can tell you is to make your heart/mind stronger. For all else, abide by the law.

-- 這世界那麼多人 (Empty World) [Karen Mok] C: So gentle you don’t seem like yourself. LYN: Do you know why I was so gentle? Because this song is in the female key. So I could only sing it an octave lower. I can’t not be gentle. If I weren’t then I wouldn’t be able to sing the song. LYN: “So gentle you don’t seem like yourself”... so does that mean that usually in your eyes I am very... callous? No, right? I still LOOK upstanding though, right?

LYN: I used to listen to very loud or noisy songs. But lately I feel I enjoy listening to slow songs more. I imagine I have a glass of red wine, just sitting there listening to slow songs. I can’t say I’m emo, but I am in a very comfortable state. That’s a different way to relax. C: That means you’ve gotten older. LYN: /laughs/ I like listening to slow and gentle songs and that means I’m getting older?? What are you talking about? The songs I’m talking about are MBY’s. Not only have you offended me, you’ve offended everyone who listen to his songs. Let me sing one of his. I didn’t go to his concert for nothing; I came back having learned a song. LYN: What does “No lyrics yet” mean??? MBY, as a singer, is popular enough (to have lyrics) isn’t he? What else do you want?? How can you tell me you don’t have the lyrics? // It’s because I’ve selected the arrangement and since that’s the case the program can’t find the lyrics.  LYN: tsk. /sigh/ Fine, I'll find the lyrics on my phone. C: Ning-ge, didn’t you say you learned it? LYN: That doesn’t mean I have to REMEMBER THE LYRICS, though?? What I meant by “learned” is that I learned the melody. I learned the melody, not how to recite the song. LYN: The lyrics: “Every morning I wake up naturally at 7:30a. The wind chimes are ringing and the clouds are light.” He wrote his own lyrics, too. How well written! -- 平凡的一天 (Ordinary Day) [Mao Buyi] LYN: It’s not because I’m getting old. Just sometimes I think that a nice and quiet song is good to listen to. Of course, I still like those noisy and loud songs. They just give a different feeling. 

C: Sing one of Xue Zhiqian’s. LYN: Do I have to sing a song from all the popular male artists now? XZQ... I really don’t know his newer songs... /ning-ge.jpg/ Also all of his songs are very difficult to sing. I’m afraid to insult his works. Let me search. I’ll sing something for fun. Everything I sing during my streams are for fun. -- 我好像在哪見過你 (I Seem to Have Seen You Somewhere) [Xue Zhiqian] LYN: /shakes his head, no/ I don’t know this one. I’ve heard it before, though. It’s been such a long time since I last sang one of his songs. I used to all the time. I really like him. But it’s been a long time... Let me find an old song that I still remember. -- 方圆几里 (Within a Few Miles) LYN: I think I can do this one. C: 刚刚好 (Just Right) LYN: Let me listen. I used to be able to sing this, but I’ve forgotten now... // I know this one. I’ll sing it. -- 刚刚好 (Just Right) (Take 1) - /sings the first couple of lines/ LYN: Oh, this song! I was bragging to you earlier that I had improved, but I actually forgot a song I used to know before! Excuse me. I’ve sung this before, on a show. Let’s try that again. -- 刚刚好 (Just Right) (Take 2) LYN: It’s been such a long time since I sang this song. I suddenly remembered that I’ve sung it before. So... oh. But it’s already been 5 years since then. Thank you, XZQ-laoshi.

C: I’m dizzy now because of your swaying. LYN: If you’re going to say that, then I have no choice but to turn your words back on you. You’re getting old. What if one day we meet up at an amusement park. If you’re already dizzy after this bit of swaying, then you won’t be able to enjoy any rides with me. Your ticket will go to waste.

LYN: Now let’s find one of Zhou Shen-laoshi’s songs. I said in a stream before, that I would never sing one of ZS or Wu Qingfeng’s songs again. Their songs, to me, have it out for my life. I really can’t sing them. We don’t sing the same type of songs. I really can’t do it. But today, I want to give it a try. Friends, wait for me. I’ll go to the restroom and come back and then find a song to fight for my life with. I’ll find a very high song and lower it an octave to sing. - /singing Big Fish, but kinda scarily XD/ LYN: He’s singing about big fish in the ocean, but we’re talking about fish in the deep sea. He’s on top of the water, but I’m on the ocean floor. Where there are lantern fish. Deep pressure.

LYN: Let me play a video for you. I think I’m running out. I don’t have any new ones to play for you. Later I’ll download some more. Make do for now. Wait for me. -- break #3

- - - - - - - - - -

LYN: Alright, I’m back. C: Sing one of WQF’s.  LYN: Later I’ll pick one to try. Of course, I did see the comment telling me to sing my own songs. I’ll sing them, but I’m sure that my fans always hear my songs and are used to them. The other thing is, I just sing for fun in my streams. I’m not here to show off myself. I’m not here trying to gain OST work by showing you what I’ve got. My stream is here for company. I want to sing, play, and chat with you. That’s all there is to it. You don’t need to make it too complicated. No matter whose songs I sing, it’s a show of respect, right? It proves that I listen to and like their songs. Right? I’m paying my respects. The original will always be yyds, of course. So.. this is just for entertainment. LYN: Keep me company. It’s a... Tuesday night. We can play and have some fun. Let me find one of ZS’s songs... I’ll see if it has a track. -- 光亮 (Silver Lining) LYN: /misses the timing to start/ Is it really in such a high key?? This is too high, isn’t it? I was listening to the beginning chords and going over the key in my head. It’s already... up high. // Let me try lowering it an octave.  LYN: ... LYN: How about this- for the places I CAN sing in the normal key, I will. Once it gets too high I’ll switch to a lower octave. This is one method... Let’s try. -- 光亮 (Silver Lining)

C: WQF-laoshi. LYN: I’m honestly a little afraid.

C: Then, Zhang Jie-laoshi’s. LYN: All of his songs pretty such send me to the grave. His high notes are really so high. High notes are not my main thing. My main thing is the /starts singing the more rock-genre ‘爷们要战斗 (Men Fight)’/ Me and high notes go in opposite directions. LYN: 最美的太阳 (Most Beautiful Sun). Let me try it. // There’s no track for it. In this case... his copyrights are tight. C: 天下 (The World) LYN: Didn’t I sing that last time and my voice cracked? I can’t do it all. Remember, it went to my head? Someone had requested it the last time and, not knowing my limits, I tried. It got me worked up. I’ll try it. I’ll sing you a part of it. When it gets too much, I’ll stop. -- 天下 (The World) /stops right before the chorus/ C: Keep going! LYN: Uh.. it seems like you’re cheering me on. I just felt a sliver of support, then. LYN: Friends, there’s a saying that goes “见好就收” (quit while you’re ahead). People can’t be too greedy. If you continue... C: Lower it an octave. LYN: /laughs/ - /picks it up at the chorus; he did it!/ LYN: It goes straight to my head. I got worked up again. C: It’s okay. You can do it. LYN: Honestly, I CAN sing this song now. I just didn’t do it well, because I wanted to show you a comedy. Someone just cheered me on, again. Let me see if I can push through and get this song finished. - /finishes it up/ LYN: I did my best.

LYN: Men- we always try to look tough. But we all know who’s really suffering, don’t we?

C: Sing it through from the start. LYN: I really can’t stand when people cheer me on. If you’re going to be like that, then I’m going to stop streaming. I’m going to sleep. Stop provoking me.

C: Can you see the comments clearly? LYN: I can. Do you think I’ve sung so much that I’m lacking oxygen and can’t see clearly? No, I’m fine.

C: Ning-ge, 左手指月 (Upwards to The Moon). LYN: HAHAHAHAHA. Upwards to the Moon? Um.. .why don’t I just take my head off and give it to you? You’re asking for my life here, aren’t you? I’ll just give it to you. Is that not enough?? My head is yours. Upwards to the Moon... C: Ning-ge, let’s do an octave lower. LYN: You saw right through me. -- 左手指月 (Upwards to The Moon) LYN: Friends, here’s an interesting thing. I can’t even sing it with it lowered an octave. I can’t even sing it on a lower octave. Think about the concept of that. Let me try again. If nothing else, I’ll go all out. - /tries again/ LYN: This song hurts. Singing this song makes me feel like I hurt a lot. It’s not a physical pain, but a mental pain. Ahhh~~! Just these few words- you feel an inexplicable pain. LYN: Very painful. Excruciating pain. LYN: Alright, it;s not worth it. Let’s forget it. C: Bro, forget it. LYN: Are you calling me out?! LYN: I really don’t need to do this to myself. It’s enough already.

C: Ning-ge, you still have to record for your album tomorrow. LYN: Tomorrow... I’m not recording for my album. I have other work, tomorrow.

C: A Mayday song. LYN: Let me see if there’s a track. -- 夜訪吸血鬼 (Interview with the Vampire) LYN: This accompaniment is too noisy. :| But I really like this song. - /thinks of a different song/ -- 你不是真正的快樂 (You Are Not Truly Happy) LYN: I don’t really know it. So... I’ll stop singing it. C: Watching you sing this makes me really happy. LYN: I am very happy, but You Are Not Truly Happy.

LYN: I see you spamming “十年人间” (Shi Nian Ren Jian/DMBJ), but I really don’t know how to sing that song. I’ve heard it, but I don’t know how to sing it. Maybe if there’s a chance the next time I’ll sing it, then.

C: 黑夜一束光 (Praying) LYN: I won’t sing it now because I’ll have a performance in a few days that I’ll be singing it at. In order to leave you with some sense of “freshness”, I’ll save it for my performance. LYN: I’ve gone through all my songs and none of them really have that bright/positive feeling. I’ve mostly sung OSTs, so the majority are emotional songs. Those songs aren’t suitable to sing for particular occasions. I wouldn’t sing “你說愛情啊 (You Say Love)” at a school. Would I be encouraging them to start dating?? That’s not very uplifting. I’ll go to a school and sing 余生只想握紧你的手 (I Want to Hold Your Hand for the Rest of My Life)?? LYN: 意气趁年少 (Be Earnest While You’re Young) will work. It’s more positive, because it centers around learning. There’s a youthful feel, too. -- 意气趁年少 (Be Earnest While You’re Young)

C: Sing 初升 (Rising). LYN: I really haven’t sung this one before. Let me see if there’s a track. // There isn’t. /searches again/ There is. I’ve never sung it live before. Let me give it a try. If I crack then it does not represent my real ability- because this is my own song. -- 初升 (Rising) [Gen Z OST] C: You’ve crushed the original singer. LYN: Em, that’s overpraise. I AM the original singer. This is the theme song for the drama Gen Z. It’s a character song, and my first time singing it live.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: 云字诀 (Yun Zi Jue). LYN: I might not be able to sing it in my current condition. /searches for the track/ I can sing you MXT’s version? Oh, it’s the same version. Then, I’ll sing it. -- 云字诀 (Yun Zi Jue) [The Ingenious One OST] - /messes it up. starts over with the excuse he didn’t turn on the special sound effects/ LYN: Later I need to find someone to get these pictures on Kugou Music changed. What IS THIS??

LYN: I’ve already done Thermage treatment and don’t look like this anymore. ^

LYN: Change this picture out. What the heck. Look at these beady and small eyes and eyeliner. I can’t stand it. ^

LYN: This one’s okay. It looks like this fellow is emo. He’s a little depressed. Look at his eyes, full of gloom. His face is chubby, too. ^

LYN: Look at this. This is worse. Look at how big this face is. Oh, my goodness. He looks so bloated. Is your name “Liu Fu Zhong”?? Look at this face. ^

LYN: This one is okay. This one is good. He’s got a good jawline. This one doesn’t look as bad. It’s good. ^

LYN: This is from my concert three years ago. I’m waiting for the audience, looking worried that I won’t have many fans in attendance. ^

 LYN: This one was taken in the early days, when I was in a better condition. We took a whole set of “business” photos. ^

LYN: Look at this one. This one doesn’t want to live anymore. Pretending to be depressed, using his hand to hold up his head. In reality, the head is empty. Look at this guy- head empty. ^

LYN: This one is okay. It’s more recent. I look a little more lively, at least. You can see just a little bit of handsomeness on this face.  ^

LYN: This is also more recent. But at that time I was a little chubby. Look at this big face. It’s even this big AFTER the picture was shopped. Think about what it would look like if it weren’t?? ^

LYN: THIS you can say was when I was at my peak visuals. I took this photo as part of a set for a magazine; there was also a video. This was probably the peak of my visuals. I took these when The Long Ballad was airing. ^

LYN: This is okay. Also more recent. Golden-haired. The Disney look. It was pretty lively. ^ 

LYN: There’s no problem with this one. I think it’s okay. This was a while ago. You can see- his eyes are different. There’s something there. ^

LYN: This one’s a fool. /laughs/ Look at this fool. Look at these eyes. They sure are open wide. Open but soulless. This guy doesn’t have a clue what’s going on. ^

LYN: This is- kind/a little foolish with a side of wandering. He looks youthful, with hopes for the future. ^

LYN: This one is.. more mature. This was taken for the Jiangsu New Year’s event. You can say I was a mature artist by then. I do have eyeliner here, but not as “deadening”. ^

LYN: This one is.. pretending to be young. This should have been for the New Year.. otherwise I wouldn’t be wearing red. But I did look more refined. ^

LYN: This one... has some after-editing. Why do these just keep scrolling? This one is quite nice, though. Curly hair. Hong Kong-style. (?) ^

LYN: This one... he has a stick! Pretending to be Sun Wukong, or what?? At this point, he already has the eyes of an actor. They’re not like the one before, with nothing in them. ^

LYN: This is... over-edited. It’s.. too much. ^

LYN: This one was not too long ago! I look a little... chubbier, here. Look at this baozi-face. ^ LYN: Oh, we came back around. This is the worst one (the first one). LYN: Alright. LYN: /sigh/ LYN: Let’s sing a song. It’s called 云字诀 (Yun Zi Jue). -- 云字诀 (Yun Zi Jue) [The Ingenious One OST] [The Ingenious One OST] LYN: Thanks, everyone. This song is quite nice. I pretty much liked it after my first listen.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: I want to hear a Cantonese song. LYN: Don’t rush. Ehm... hold on a minute. Let me go grab something more to drink. I’ll sing for you after I come back. I’m running out of videos to show you, though. Because honestly this stream is running a bit long. I don’t have enough. You can watch it again. Wait for me while I get some water.  -- break #3.5 LYN: I’m back. Hold on, hold on. Let me find a song... (Stay with Me)

C: Where’s Daimi? LYN: She’s sleeping, don’t disturb her. She doesn’t have any schedule today. Let’s not disturb her. Let her sleep. Later, when she wakes up, I’ll call her over.

C: Did you see the ZY wrap trailer? LYN: What are you talking about? Of course I saw it. I acted in it, would I not go watch it? I’ve seen all the trailers for things I’ve acted in. It’s nice. I think in a few days there’ll be... no, never mind. I was just going to say there would be more content out in a short while. It’s a drama we spent several months working on, so I hope you can take a look when it comes out. LYN: Of course, YNGS as well- you have to watch. - /recites his lines from the trailer/ LYN: I remember it, because I only have so many. C: I support Ning Yuanzhou being abducted by aliens in the end. LYN: Have to taken a peek at the script? I admit it- at the end NYZ is taken away by aliens. The ending is a big suspense. He’s fighting with someone and in the very end, when it looks like he is about to win, a flash of light crosses the sky. A UFO appears and takes NYZ away. Why does it end like this? In preparation for a second season. The first part is called “Yi Nian Guan Shan”; the second part is called “Yi Nian Kai He”. Close (Guan) to Open (Kai). Mountain (Shan) to River (He). In the second season called YNKH- the UFO comes back in the first episode. NYZ has amnesia.  C: “Er Nian Guan Shan” is easier to remember. C: “Yi Nian Guan Si”. LYN: What is that?? If the first part is called “Yi Nian Guan Shan”, then the second should be “Er Nian Guan Shan.” The third part is “San Nian Guan Shan”. If we make it all the way to season 11, would it be called “Shi Yi Nian Guan Shan”? LYN: We should call it “Yi Nian Guan Qi” (Guan Qi, the character from SYXSSYX, who was “abducted by aliens”). C: Negotiating more scenes for yourself in a second season? LYN: No- our screenwriter is Zhang Wei-laoshi. She likes to use people’s names, and she has her own “Zhang Wei Universe.” I don’t mean any disrespect. It’s just that a lot of her male characters across stories have a connection to each other. The detailed people will have found out. If you watch her dramas you’ll find that some names appear across the universes. For example our drama will mention the name of a character in a different one of her dramas. What was the name of the male lead in A Dream of Splendor? I think it was Gu Qianfan, right? In this drama, my name is Yuanzhou. Qianfan and Yuanzhou- don’t you think there has to be some relation there? [t/n: part of a common saying] LYN: We’re all part of Zhang Wei-laoshi’s written universe. It’s possible that when she writes a script in the future, there will be a character called Ning Yuanzhou in it. The other day she posted something to her friend circle- I think it might have been at the wrap party and she complimented me! I forgot exactly what she said, at the time I had a bit to drink. But I promised her that if he character Ning Yuanzhou ever showed up in another one of her works, I wouldn’t just let it be a name on a page- I would come to act for her. I would cameo for her, as long as she continues to write and write about NYZ. - /fan makes a side comment asking about how much he drank.how many dishes he has to eat/ LYN: So, friends. Don’t think that I am being unfair only to you. Because I don’t exclusively makes “pies” for you, either. I have nothing against you, that I make “empty promises”. Don’t assume that just because ZW-laoshi is a very amazing screenwriter that I won’t make “pies” for her, too. No- all are treated equal. // After this story, do you feel more at ease? I’m not only like this to you. I make pies for other laoshis to eat, too. XD LYN: But if she ever comes to look for me, I really do have to go. How could I not?? But... I’ll probably have something else going on when that time comes. I might have something else to do... but it’s not for sure! If she asks me, I have to make the time. I have to make good on my promise.

C: You drank four cans already. LYN: It’s not four. I probably have more... Oh. It is four! You got me. Four, and a can of coffee.  LYN: Why are you keeping track of how many cans I’m drinking?? Are you going to take these to recycle? Should I mail them to you? C: You’ll get water swollen. LYN: What are you talking about? It’s a food thing to drink plenty of water. I don’t care about being bloated; I’m not going to be on camera tomorrow anyway. It’s fine. C: Give me the cans. I’ll sell them for money. LYN: Okay. Pay the postage yourself. I’ll send you these four cans, but pay the postage. C: The sugar content is high. LYN: No- this is just carbonated water. There’s no sugar/flavor. It’s just water.

C: The rising star of 2023- is that you? LYN: What an interesting question. I don’t get what you mean. From your language, I hear a story. That is, one day, you were surfing the internet when you inexplicably came across a fortune telling stream. The host posted an article that read, “In 2023, in this industry, there will be a rising star. A superstar will appear in the year of 2023.” They might have seen something like that, Am I right? Isn’t this story very complete? I extrapolated it out of just a few words. They probably saw someone post something like that. And then, in that moment, they thought that this prediction was describing me. They saw me streaming and they thought that they could see a purple aura from me. LYN: Look, I have lights here. So this friend thought, “Is it you?” Here’s the thing- I hope it is. If you ask me, of course I would hope its about me. Everyone wants to climb to the peak, right? But I’m guessing this “rising star” isn’t me. There are all sorts of highly skilled people are are just on the verge of popularity- why don’t you go ask them? It’s probably not me. You can go and ask them. I’m not- go ask someone else. LYN: I want to keep both feet on the ground, because I’m tall. If I climb too fast it might be too unstable. I’ll keep both feet on the floor- take it one step at a time to try one thing after another. I want to accumulate my viewers and their interests, and accumulate my own experience. That’s my path. Let’s not mess with any “rising stars.” LYN: Many stars pass in the blink of an eye. They’re shooting stars. So.. I don’t want to be a star. I’ll be... a little white rabbit. LYN: Now I want to gift you with a nice song. -- 感覺自己是巨星 (Think I’m a Superstar) [Mao Buyi] LYN: /to the tune of the song/ ~ Superstar, superstar we love you. Quickly, listen to us give you “rainbow farts” (excessive compliments). In our eyes, you’re the youngest. ~ LYN: So, friends. I would like to bear witness to exactly who this “rising star” is together with you. Who will it be? Let’s anticipate it! I’m also very curious! Let’s find out who it will be.

- - - - - - - - - -

- /Daimi barking/ LYN: Why are you being so mean? What do you have to be angry about? LYN: She’s awake. - /gives her the mic/ LYN: Weren’t you barking earlier? Come on, say something. Sing.

C: The rising star is Daimi. LYN: Are you talking about her? Let’s hope so. LYN: Once I said “rising star” she got angry- I mean- she woke up. I hope my female artist can be popular. 

- /Daimi, licking his arm/ LYN: Enough of that! She keeps licking me. -/Daimi tries to lick him again/ LYN: ! Do you want me to stop streaming? You’re trying to get me to stop, is that it? Okay, I understand. Sorry, friends. I need to stop streaming now because Daimi was pushing my hand away. She doesn’t want me to stream anymore. She doesn’t want me to stream- she’s about to eat my mouse. - /Daimi tries to lick his hand again/ LYN: Tsk. That’s enough...  - /makes her wave/

- /dancing/ - /promptly puts her on the floor/ LYN: /to Daimi/ Go play, go play. Don’t bother me. It’s time to work.

- - - - - - - - - -

C: Ning-ge, could you wish me well on my exam? LYN: Of course I can. I hope that tomorrow, or all of this week- everyone who is preparing to take the NCEE is in good spirits and can have a good result. Let’s amaze the world with one brilliant feat and reach for the stars. - /had said the proverb wrong, initially/ LYN: Excuse me. See- this is what an uncultured person will do. They’ll say the wrong thing. People who haven’t taken the NCEE will mis-read the phrasing. - /makes up for it by saying a bunch more (correctly)/

C: Ning-ge, could you bless me with passing the 16th level (?)? LYN: Am I a tortoise? Is my stream a wishing well? And I am the tortoise in that pond? You’ve come to me with your wishes? Then, why aren’t you throwing me any money? You should at least leave an offering, before making a wish. This is just... forceful wishing. What you’re doing is taking game money to throw into the pond, to trick me. LYN: I’m sure you’ll pass. Do well on the test! LYN: In order to become the “Rising Star of 2023″ like mentioned earlier, from now on I will change my name. I’ll be Liu Ziwei. Don’t call me Liu Yuning anymore. From now on I will be known as Liu Ziwei.

LYN: Friends, how many of you are watching my stream for the first time? How may of you are first-timers? If this is your first time watching or if you don’t watch often, you can subscribe to my weibo. I am Modern Brothers Liu Yuning. Here’s the thing with my streams- most of the time I’m speaking nonsense. Don’t take anything to heart and don’t fall for any tricks. If you take this too seriously then it becomes meaningless. That just proves that you are too innocent. Only believe about 20% of what I say here. Most of the time I will use an amusing or joking delivery to communicate with my fans and make the people who maybe don’t necessarily hate me stay a while. Just listen to my stream for entertainment. Don’t fall for what I say. Okay? I’m not capable of teaching you any lessons or opinions. Just listen for entertainment. C: Before you told us to believe 30% of what you said. How did it dwindle to only 20%? LYN: /sigh/ It used to be that I wasn’t very strict with what I said, so it ended up that people had a lot to hold against me. I was ridiculed for my words. Though it might not have been my intention, I was honestly too careless with what I said. So now my game plan is to say more nonsense and avoid more... sensitive topics. It’s fine as long as you are okay and I am okay, and everyone is happy. 

C: Will you sing a Cantonese song? LYN: I don’t know very many. Let me sing this for you. -- 无赖 (Rascal) [Ronald Cheng] LYN: Listen for entertainment. I’m a North-easterner, after all. My Cantonese is very poor. I know that. So.. it’s for fun. Someone earlier said “You’re Cantonese is skewing!” I don’t know what they meant by that, but probably that my pronunciation was off. It’s alright. 

LYN: Let me think... what other Cantonese songs do I know? What else do I know...? C: Once you start speaking the Dongbei dialect comes out. LYN: What else did you expect?

C: I’m a Cantonese person. I can say, it sounded very nice! LYN: You really are clever at speaking. “I’m a Cantonese person, I can say it sounded very nice... but it wasn’t accurate.”

C: First Love. LYN: Oh~ -- 初恋 (First Love)

C: I’m going to throw up. (bc of the video and swaying) LYN: Your age...? Forget about you- I’M a little nauseous. LYN: Is my stream over-trying to be cool? It’s slightly over. LYN: This is too eye-searing, yeah? Okay. Let’s stick with this effect for the... “middle-aged”.

LYN: I thought of a song just now. I REALLY really like it. -- 一生所爱 (Lifelong Love)  LYN: If there’s a chance later I’ll sing it properly for you. I don’t really have much strength left, today.

- /Daimi barks/ LYN: :| What are you barking at?

-- 倩女幽魂 (A Chinese Ghost Story)

LYN: That’s about it. It’s about time, friends. Thank you for keeping me company and for your support. I told you I would stream until you threw up. In terms of length, today’s stream didn’t let you down, did it? I accidentally saw a little earlier, how long I’ve streamed for. Right now it’s... four hours and thirty-five minutes. C: Don’t go! Don’t! LYN: I’ve been streaming for four and a half hours. That’s not a small amount. If i keep streaming /I’M/ going to throw up. You’re over there lying on your bed and snacking on melon seeds, but I’ve been over here yelling and singing, moving my mouth for four and a half hours! Now you’re telling me you don’t want me to go?? I’m going to throw up! I’m not streaming until you throw up, I’m streaming until /I/ feel like throwing up, now. Do you think you’re the only one who sees that violently shaking video and gets dizzy? I get dizzy too! I’m older in age- you all know that. C: You still turn it on, even though it makes you dizzy? LYN: I just wanted to give you the best experience in such a simple stream, didn’t I?? I didn’t want you to feel like I was just sitting in a room. I wanted to give you some stage effects, so that you can immerse yourself. I do this all so you can feel included- even this laugh sound. It’s all so you can immerse yourself in this room and the mood. Even though I’ve made myself nauseous- I still have to power through and stream for you. It’s all for the immersive experience, is that not enough??

LYN: It’s about time. If you still haven’t subscribed to my weibo, please do so. I am Modern Brothers Liu Yuning. I thank you all for keeping me company and for watching my stream. Even if you’ve only been watching for thirty minutes or if you’ve been here from the start. I thank you. I hope to see you in the next one, alright? I hope you had a relaxing, wonderful, and happy night. It was great to have you and I hope you had fun. See you next time! Goodnight, everyone!

[edgy-bigfeet-bigfoot]

In the spirit of using lighter anime analogies lately, I had an interesting one training at a heavy punching bag last week or so.

I'd usually imagine what I could remember of my dad's face and go at it, but I tried something else that worked better, and imagined anime dad figures who could take a punch well and respond in kind to train me if they were real.

Started with THE "bar fight and boy, you are WINNING" song (Find Your One Way) and pictured Sol training me with Sin, letting us have at it (pre-GGST ending) cause he knows he can take it and smack you back when you go too fast. There was a bunch of others that followed too.

There was Goku being a dad who only knows his shit about fighting and is bad at most other stuff, and how I might actually be into his parenting style if I was a half-alien Jesus Godbaby from space.

A big part of it came when a vgm/anime medley that I made myself (Run Like a Ninja) came on shuffle.

Started out light enough. Beating some sense into Grandpa Madara Uchiha or beating the racism out of Chipp Zanuff for the Naruto intro and Suck a Sage, having a TMNT training session with one of the fight happy Turtle boys like Raphael for the TMNT IV: Turtles in Time part, fighting N64 Goemon Ishikawa since he has a giant fucking mech and can clearly handle it, Ninja Gaiden for the Unbreakable/Ryu's Determination/Stage 4-2 song, you know, the super hype one from the first game, Daddy Mulk from The Ninja Warriors (Taito arcade hood classic, look up The Ninja Warriors: Once Again, remake of the SNES version with the unlockable arcade OST, it's great!) and then I got to the EXTRA hard hitting for dad reasons part.

The fucking ending.

The one that mixed that sad song from the end of Ninja Gaiden with Sadness/Grief and Sorrow from Naruto.

Given what happened to Ryu's and Naruto's dads and the uncomfortable parallels with how I felt about my own deadbeat loser, I went completely apeshit on the bag for about half that part and almost broke down crying by the end.

It had been half an hour though, and I was slowing down to the point of throwing the baby dickest slow ineffective punches on the level of Naruto and Sasuke throwing half-dead gay hands at the tail end of vote2 before the final armed clash.

But before I could start actually crying on a gym floor, something else interesting happened...

Another hype weeb trash song came on.

"The Sword That Cleaves Evil"

Specifically, an arrangement I made myself for an upcoming less legit album release. It got me back on the weeb training grind thinking about how gay old Sword Dad and his Horse Riding Husband would tell me not to give up and try to wield the Guts size sword cause "The Time Will Pass Anyway" and they'd be right, it will, so fuck it, light stretching and we continue balling. So on with the weeb analogies for the training bag.

Chicks Dig Giant Robots?

Coop from Megas XLR wouldn't like fighting outside of his car mech, but he'd gladly play Potemkin at a few rounds of GG and hand me my lightweight Bridget ass on a platter. After the series finale, he just wanted to avoid becoming fucked up evil AU future Coop. He likes wrestling and mecha, and he would never want his pure love of that work its way into his property destruction boner to have his love contribute to making him an irredeemable tyrannical monster like buff Future Coop.

Transformers 1986 Movie Theme?

Megatron would respect the trans ideas enough to let me use Starscream as a training dummy for fun and smack him when Starscream goes full crazy and tries to stab me.

Testament's Guilty Gear Strive theme?

Momdadparent Test knows it's a rough world out there for questioning gender and sexuality, and they'd gladly take a moment out of their eternal hobby quests to train me alongside Bridget with the Succubi phantom ladies to teach the necessary lesson of being prepared to throw hands but only as a last resort when you need to or when it's a consensual sex thing.

Mazinger and Mazinkaiser, both personal covers I did with a shit ton of sentimental extra Ichiro Mizuki cameos and other mecha anime references?

I forget the order, but I'm pretty sure Mazinkaiser came first.

Cause the Mazinger Z one hit super hard with all the extra songs.

There were some basics, like Shin Mazinger and Mazinkaiser SKL riffs and obscure Kaiser OVA stuff like The Gate of Hell by JAM Project with Yoshiki Fukuyama.

Then there were the heavier thematic hitters.

The original Space Pirate Captain Harlock OP, the Koutetsu Jeeg parts, and somehow most importantly, Danran! Robot Kazoku (Literal TL: Robot Family) from Tonari no Seki-kun.

I hadn't seen the show past ep1 like my partner has, but the theme of a robot family hit SO unnecessarily hard with how attached I've been to the mecha genre and how many friends, family, and loving romantic partners it's had a hand in helping me connect with through things like Super Remix Wars (LONG-running SRW arrangement personal passion project, actually finishing it in the next couple years)

I couldn't help but lightly sob and smile extra hard with the last few minutes of punches at that. The theme of making an actual found family out of sheer love for fictional robots of all kinds hit just right for me, and I finished up just fine.

Learned a lot. The importance of fiction ACTUALLY affecting reality, and how much of a positive impact it CAN have if you don't take it so literally. The importance of not focusing on how much you might hate your birth family no matter who they are. If they're dead physically or in spirit to you, there's always the hope of making your own way with trusted comrades and lovers in the spirit of having an actual Found Family if not at least a good friend circle.

So among other irl Pride Month stuff, it taught me a lot about the GENUINE hope for the future that can be there if you dodge Discourse bullets and get out of the house in the right places and times in June or any other time of year.

Hope.

Love.

Pride.

Happy Actual Fucking Pride Month, everyone!

Like @warriormale said, Train and Fight!

Master the art of peace in addition to the art of war.

See y'all later!

Bye!

[blacclotusss]

hiii 🩵🩵🫶🏽🫶🏽 13, 10,22

10. Favorite episode is episode six! It's such an emotionally packed episode and I think people tend to overlook it. It's so good yet gut wrenching at the same time.

13. My favorite piece of music from the OST is The Fantasy of Happiness. The way it transforms from this dollhouse/music box type of music into the intensity of the chords in Viscious is fantastic storytelling. To me, it's a play on how all things that glitter aren't gold. This family seems to be the picture of happiness. All seems to be well one moment and the next it's a complete 180 and the walls are starting to fall, revealing the ugliness inside the home.

22. I cannot choose between these two so I'll explain why Louis and Claudia are my favorites. They're both very complex characters and they play off of each other in an insane way. Louis, has this hardened exterior when we first meet him and we soon see that it's just a façade. You can tell in the way he treats his family at home or in settings where he can be comfortable and himself. He kind of grasps for that familial love and after everything happens with Paul, we see him happy again when he first saves Claudia. He has his family that he lost. And once again, when she leaves he's shattered again. Louis yearns for that feeling of safety and comfort. We don’t get much about his childhood, but I feel as though this may be a way he can heal that boy that had to grow up and become a man after his father died. Claudia comes from a childhood full of unfortunate circumstances. She's been put through so much by her caregivers and she clings to Louis in the same manner he clings to her. They both want that comfort. Even when she is wronged, she feels it's her job to pick of the pieces of the one she's most comfortable with. I'm ready to see their characterizations in season two with this new setting and other characters.

[j-adorejy]

I legit came back to talk about OurSkyy MSP. There were many aspects of it that I loved and many more aspects of it that kind of disappointed me.

Things I loved

Firstly, I absolutely adored Music Club President Tinn. Gemini once again proves that his comedic timing is impeccable !!! He’s even more cuter and funnier as this universe’s Tinn. Adding on to that, we need to praise Gemini’s acting more. The range that Gemini has shown in all of the roles that he has played so far is praiseworthy and I wish ppl would praise his acting more tbh considering how good he is despite having the least acting experience compared to some of his co stars. Also, I never imagined that we would get a song like Love Love Love from Gemini. The song is so addicting and it’s already gone platinum in my bedroom. Gemini we need that full album 🥹🤟

Fourth my sweet child 🥺 was outstanding. It was refreshing to finally see Fourth in a role where he is rich and gay and not broke and gay (jkjk). High School president Gun was more mature than his counterpart in the OG universe and like even more openly smitten than ever. I’m sure he really enjoyed this role because he finally got to flirt with Gem to his heart’s content. He did really well with making this Gun distinct enough and yet familiar at the same time. And the scene where we hear his thoughts about Tinn on the first day of school is one of my favs (Gun is a bunny teeth Tinn enthusiast 😭🤟)

The Chemistry between Gemini and Fourth felt even better than ever. You could feel how much they were yearning for each other through their stares and bahviour. It felt almost tangible. Another thing I appreciated that even though the TinnGun in this universe are fundamentally different from their OG selves, they still retained some of their characteristics like Gun’s insecurity and Tinn’s characteristics of knowing and being sure of what he wants when it comes to his feelings for Gun.

Things that fell short

With msp having three couples, I understand the difficulty of having to balance everything but as someone who actually likes TinnGun more than any of the side couples, there just wasn’t enough of TinnGun interactions for me in the OS episodes. One of the things that made msp such a good show is the intimacy and interactions between Tinn and Gun as they got to know each other the further their relationship developed. While I understand, it can be hard to show the development of 12 ep show in 2 ep, we didn’t even get 10% of that intimacy and not enough of them talking to each other. While The hug and the handholding was nice, we didn’t even get a cheek kiss or a forehead kiss to make up for the lack of adequate interactions 😞 I was looking forward to seeing more of TG in our skyy but my expectations fell short.

The second ost mv took a chunk of the screen time that could have been better used to give a better Segway to uni students TinnGun but instead product placement was given priority. I actually like the mv a lot but this time could have been better used for a more complete story telling and the mv could have played in the credits similar to how it was for just being friendly mv or really just upload the mv separately on YouTube.

Lastly, the potential this scene had. The writers were definitely going ambitious putting in this scene for the Our Skyy episode and GeminiFourth delivered on the angst. This scene could have lived up to its potential if only it was given more time and depth but alas it fell short. It made me curious about how TinnGun we’re gonna come to terms with their feelings but because of the limited time and the interference of tiwpor, it felt like it was solved too quickly or like there wasn’t just enough time to digest all of it.

All in all, I just wish we had more of TinnGun. It felt really sad to say goodbye to such beloved characters on these terms 😔

[strykingback]

On nearly every monitor throughout the governments of Remnant, only the words, "REPENT." would be featured on the screens of many. Systems were being hacked if only to send a message to the people.

And then a voice was heard.

It was the voice of an elderly man, though his voice held the strength and resolve of a resilient force, a force that would signal the coming apocalypse for this unfortunate world.

"And yet, after all these cycles, you still find yourself screaming in terror into that void where no one would ever answer you. No one but me. For I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness. I am the alpha and the omega. The possibilities within me are beyond anything you can conceive. Yet you still insist on resisting. Yet you refuse to submit your guilt to me. As if you could atone for it in a way that matters."

Unidentified spacecraft and ships would be nearing the system.

Each of them resembled massive, cathedrals, houses of worship when in truth, these were devastating machines of war. The number of these ships would cause the unprepared to faint if they saw into the deep reaches of the cosmic void.

One thing was certain though: This would be the beginnings of an apocalypse never witnessed before by anyone.

Would the people of Remnant be ready for what would become the fight of their lives?

Only time may tell.

The cycle of guilt cannot be broken,....

Across Remnant people would see this as they all listened with horror wirtten on their faces even as now Remnant had survived one horror after the other. And just when it seemed they were finally healing something no someone just had to stand in the way... but.... does that mean they are not prepared. No.... they are always ready.

OST: Guardians Of Light (Autoplay Warning)

In Brumel, King Rodrigues and the Council of Brumel agreed for the first time that this was a threat to Remnant he would say only one thing to everyone including the Atelier Paladins and the Hunters across Remnant.

"Arm yourselves..... for Brumel and Remnant Stand as one!!!"

Across to that of Ruins of Light in Mistral, Exaltia for the first time could feel the oncoming darkness that was coming one that could rival even her brother Imperius. Walking out of the Ruins of Light and looking up to the sky and taking an inhale in she would release a Titan Call..... calling any and all Grimm Titans to awaken and fight.

The Neo-Shinbaori would hear of this as well thanks to Mizunami and his influence in the Mistrali government as Masamune would rise holding his Katana and nod at his trusted allies.

"It is time to fight.... not just for our lives but for the fate of Remnant in its entireity"

While above Aelius would release a screeching roar flying above with draconic grimm following them, with that of wyverns, gryphons, screechers, and even chimeras following the Titan King of the Air as he flew above the main city, which left everyone fearful but what they noticed was Aelius was keeping them in check and even releasing a few chirps to make sure they dont harm a human or faunus... keeping a silent vigil of Mistral...

In Argus, Perseus and the Atlesian Military along with many Sea-Dragon Grimm were patrolling the seas with the Titan rising from it looking up at the sky and angrily giving a glare... to what was coming.......he wanted to be ready this time....

In Vale, Hades was running through the mountains holding his War Axe which he looked up at the sky as well throwing the Axe down and slamming his fists against his chest before he released a loud roar of defiance....

Then in Vacuo Hideyoshi would prepare the Desertwalkers along with many bandits who had saw the announcement..... they lost their home to war once.... they were not going to lose it again........

And lastly the Scions of Salem.... Salem would look for the first time worried.... but this was the time to fight.... it was time to throw away her plans...as she too had a connection to Remnant whether if it was good or bad... as finally... she turned around to look at all them.

"TO ARMS...."

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER..... REMNANT WAS UNIFIED... UNDERNEATH ONE BANNER..... EVERY CREED, RELIGION, AND RACE WAS UNIFIED TO FIGHT

[heraldofcrow]

This Has To Stop

Hey, so….I’m usually not that person….like at ALL, but I am going to say something about this YouTuber, Daniel Olmos. He needs to be called out on a grand scale. Why?

Let me explain.

So, (a large portion) of the Elden Ring soundtrack was performed live on the Budapest Film Orchestra and many people assumed that the choir was singing out Latin lyrics in several of the songs. This isn’t a dumb thing to even assume…we can literally hear the Bloodborne choir singing “SANGUINE” in like….half of the songs. Ryan Amon himself, one of BB’s primary composers, actually shared the Latin lyrics to “Hail the Nightmare.” So, naturally, everyone assumed that Elden Ring would be the same.

But sadly, it actually wasn’t the case. There is this guy on YouTube with a very small channel called “Antonius Tertius.” He’s a nice guy, but he doesn’t exactly know how to cater to a wider audience when it comes to video making. I hate to say it, but he has a pretty rough sound setup and his video layouts aren’t the most accessible. However, it’s really not that bad, and what he’s saying is usually pretty straightforward and comprehensible. So, anyway…this guy decided he wanted to directly contact some of the musicians/arrangers that were involved in Elden ring’s OST production. By some miracle, he achieved this and actually has direct proof of his conversations with these people. He asked about the lyrics, and this is what they told him…

There are no legitimate Latin lyrics for the majority of the choir pieces in Elden Ring. THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW. Seriously, like…the only exception was “Song of Lament” aka the Bat Song. The people with the orchestra (he talked to vocalists too) literally said that the lyrics were fake Latin generated by a computer. I know exactly what they’re talking about too. If you know about VST instruments and choirs, you’ll know that there are often Latin prefixes or syllables included in different choir packs that you can string together to make “phrases” that sound like Latin words. It’s total BS. Why they decided to go with this for Elden Ring is not exactly clear, but according to Tertius, it was a decision made by the big dogs (the From Software bois).

To back this up even further, I have already seen more than one actual Latin student or teacher say that there are no clear words in Elden Ring’s soundtracks. I honestly feel like anyone listening can tell that the “words” being sung are barely comprehensible and lack the Latin accent. When I hear “Sanguine” in Bloodborne, it’s clear as day. It’s being sung clearly and pronounced correctly. I listen to Gregorian chant regularly, and BB’s Latin lyrics are not too far off even if maybe they are incomplete or lacking in some solid structure.

Okay, now that we established this….let’s talk about why Mr. Daniel Olmos is an issue. To put it plainly, he is misleading people to believe that there are lyrics. He says he speaks Spanish and can therefore decipher Latin because “the two languages are similar enough.”

He has been painting himself as someone who is just humbly translating the lyrics by ear and “only translates what he hears.” So, according to him…he can’t be blamed for misinformation because it’s “not misinformation,” it’s just fan interpretation. Of course, he didn’t even say this clearly until after he got called out the first time. The other guy Antonius Tertius called him out on Reddit, and granted, he was once again not the most accessible communicator, but he did try to tell Olmos to stop spreading false info. Olmos only half-way admitted to his faults though. I imagine he didn’t want to lose the large following he had already garnered. So, what he did is add “fan translated lyrics” to each of his videos. He never said “Hey guys, I’m sorry but I have been translating gibberish this whole time.”

He just tried to make it seem like he had “forgotten to mention that this was his fan work” and then moved on like nothing had happened. Now fortunately, more people have come to realize that this whole thing was a sham. There were even articles saying that the lyrics were nonsense, but hey, there are still articles up that say “Elden Ring has Amazing Lyrics” and all that. Gotta love misinformed journalism.

Anyway, I thought things were maybe getting better, but today I came across two things that honestly really upset me. For one, Antonius Tertius still has an absurdly small following and almost no traffic on his videos explaining the situation with the lyrics. Secondly, Olmos just shared this video on his channel titled “I’m Sorry.”

Now as soon as I saw it, I got hopeful that he had finally come clean…but what do I get? This.

He shares this “apology” that even briefly admits that he had translated gibberish, but then goes right into, “I’m sorry I didn’t translate it better” and then he proceeds to share more fake lyrics that were apparently “revised.”

Oh and, if you don’t know…the Godskin Apostles lyric video is the vid that kicked off this whole “career” of his on YouTube and earned him thousands of views. It’s the video that has also been called out the most.

So, I don’t wanna just assume the worst…but come on…the guy just put out an “apology video” with a title that he probably knows will grab the attention of anyone who knows about this whole situation, and then “admits” to what sounds like the truth, before turning around and dramatically revealing his new and improved “lyrics” that he knows damn good and well…are fake. He was shown the evidence and called out, but he doesn’t care. He’s either just mocking us now, or he is just painfully unaware of what’s going on. I mean, even the big Soulsborne creators know about this sham. I recently saw Vaati tell someone who asked him about the Godskin Apostles lyrics that none of Elden Ring’s choir “lyrics” are real. So, even he knows.

But what’s lacking is enough fuss about what Olmos is doing. The comments under this new video are full of people that trust his word entirely and think he is just being slandered for no reason. They’re all lauding him for “owning up to his mistake” and “fixing” his fake lyrics. Meanwhile, they don’t even realize that he is directly deceiving them all. It’s absurd.

This is why I want to spread this around. It’s so stupid and honestly, yeah…it’s not that big of a deal. It’s just a small fandom issue, but as someone who loves the soundtracks to these games and the artistry that goes into them, I hate seeing them be abused for views on YouTube. You may think it’s ironic that I’m defending the truth of From Software’s decision about fake lyrics, which is, let’s face it, not the most artistically exciting. Still though, the point is that misinformation sucks, even in fandom. Plus, this isn’t just wide-spread misinterpretation of some storyline or character, it’s legitimately just false reports that several people have fallen for.

So, I guess I’m just asking if we can spread this information as much as we can. Make callout posts, promote Tertius’ channel, tell your friends, etc..

This may not be important to any of you, but I am hoping that some people are willing to help end this stupid drama. It’s just not cool.

Thank you!

[wheatlev]

at work rn so I can’t take saw trap pictures but community theatre n it’s the same prop I used in the show. here’s a couple pictures :3

do you not have licensing in germany open yet? ik it’s on tour rn there so maybe not huh. a bunch of theatres in america this past summer did it as a fun summer show to get back in the swing of things post-pandemic (there WAS half a season before that but it was like 99% sondheim bc. yknow)

(tumblr let me post this I swear-)

first of all that's kind of a Look TM not gonna lie! are those fangs or snake bites (or spider bites one of the two) because that looks really bangin as well

Karen'd glowy glasses are also a look!! honestly all of this is a look TM I need to figure out a way to compliment people outside of saying 'this slaps' constantly

you are the second musical!Plankton with green hair as well and honestly it suits you (like as a person). thisi s coming from teh guy who wanted blue hair at some point though so maybe i am just struck with anime syndrome who knows

as for the second half of the ask. It IS on tour - I saw it live about a week ago (and wish I could see it again), I made a handful posts about it lol

still no German OST but that's a gripe I have with Germany being very ..... slow honestly. like guys, i really thought after the german-speaking tour we'd get one of the premiere but i guess NOT

I would totally jump back into this sort of thing but I think I've aged out of the youth theater group in my city and I am very disabled anyway so. guess I could be Karen in a wheelchair for real. can you tell I have adhd yet

lastly you should totally send me the saw trap when you can!! I will exchange it for a picture of my Plankton plush collection of (two of them).

(Imma make this non-rebloggable JUST in case you don't want your real face out there in teh bloggosphere lmao but I can always make it rebloggable once I get the okay)

[pokimoko]

For the ask game: 13, 25, and 44. I adore all of your mk fics and your playlist are 100% going to influence my Spotify wrapped lol. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful works and have a great rest of your week!!! 💜💜💜

Heeeyyy thank you so much my friend! I always love reading your comments and seeing you pop up again and again for each of my stories, it's absolutely wonderful. And thank you for the questions! Time for me to ramble once again. 13. Do I listen to music when writing? Oh, most definitely. Working in silence is hard for me. Ironically, though, I tend to zone the music out when writing (to the point I will not notice if I paused it until 20 minutes of silence later) so it's mostly for background sounds and occasionally the distracted little bop. As for what I listen to, it depends on what I'm feeling like and what I feel will help me vibe with the story. For In the Absent Place I spent like four hours just listening to thunderstorm sounds because, well, rain was a big part of that story and I wanted the Ambience™. I also ended up listening to the Moon Knight OST multiple times because it helped me vibe with the characters and the creepy aura while writing. In terms of lyrical music, I like listening to songs that have a story and/or emotional element of sorts when I'm writing. I listened to a lot of 'Bastille', 'The Oh Hellos' and 'Sleeping At Last' for a lot of my recent stories (as I'm sure you can tell from the fic playlists, thank you for listening to them by the way :D), because they each have a bunch of songs that I found really connected to the themes of the stories, and I like doing the classic writer thing of going "this song is now about this character" and taking inspiration from the lyrics. 'Course, my On Repeat stuff doesn't match up with that motivation at all; for those songs, the vibes come first and foremost. So, yeah, for the second part of the question, here's a few songs that I've been listening to a lot lately: - Straight Ahead by Dom Fera - Lent by Autoheart - Drown Me! by Junie & The HutFriends - Home by Cavetown - It’s Alright by Mother Mother - Jaws by Lemon Demon - A Man Without Love by Engelbert Humperdinck (haha no surprise there) - Disaster by Conan Gray - Waiting in the Wings by Eden Espinosa - Million Dollar Bills by Jukebox the Ghost - Egg in the Backseat by Em Beihold - W.I.T.C.H by Devon Cole - 12 Years Howled by Bear Ghost - Record Player (with AJR) by Daisy the Great - Inkpot Gods by The Amazing Devil - I Don’t Know How to Talk to People Anymore by Ben Thornewill

25. My favourite part of the writing process is when I get to the point in the story where all the main parts have been written, and I get to fill in the gaps between them and make the story whole, and add in all the little details. There's something so thrilling about scrolling through the text and realising that it's all come together into something complete. 44. My favourite genre to write is character studies. I just love delving into the psychological and emotional journey the character goes through over the course of a story, not simply the journey itself. I personally love when the external journey parallels the internal stuff and adds an extra layer of depth to each side (like, with Smoke and Mirrors, the mirror world was a physical representation of Marc and Steven feeling isolated from others, and feeling like they couldn’t ask for help because no one was listening / they were being ignored). Other than character studies, I definitely love writing anything with surreal, horror, or fantasy elements. (No wonder I loved Moon Knight as much as I did, it really was out here hitting all my favourite genres.) Ask me fanfic questions!

[boba-beom]

it's probably also because of grieving. i lost my grandfather nearly a month ago and he was my everything, so it's a little hard to keep going forward nowadays, but i'm trying my best❤️ but thank you for wishing me luck on my other exams, i really appreciate that. i only have two more left!! i was really thankful to only get 3 exams this semester since the usual load is 5-7💀

the huskiness in beomgyu's voice is something i don't think i've heard before in kpop and it's always drawn me in. i love all of txt's vocals, they're all so beautiful in their own way and style, but beomgyu's have always stood out to me and will always be my favorite❤️ but fr his range is insane this album - he was the one switching most often from his lower register to falsetto within the same line and his transition was so seamless like wow. it's insane how good his vocal tone and texture is, especially during the high pitch parts where he still manages to remain so airy without straining. but omg when he was performing farewell neverland i could literally feel all of the emotions pouring out with each word he sang, he's just such an amazing performer.

pls soobin is so cute and the yellow sweater made him look like a ball of sunshine. i love him sm he's so 🥺🥺🥺

you could tell hueningkai was definitely in his zone, enjoying the whole ride (badum tsssss). you can easily tell he always gives it his all and these two performances were no different. he has such a beautiful voice too and his ability to always sing so full of emotion and power never fails to surprise me. he's such a good vocalist and i wish people recognized that more🥺

soobin's and beomgyu's voices go so well together and i think it might have to do something with the fact that their tones are slightly similar. i just absolutely loved hearing their verses one after the other in farewell neverland and that bridge HONESTLY. i have ascended yet again🥺

omg yes, it's exactly that tonality that's so pleasing to the ears and also very unique! girl, i swear, when taehyun sings, he sings with his whole soul and you can most certainly feel it. he's such an amazing vocalist with such a good range (i think he's a baritone, but he's proven more than once that his range extends to tenor ones) and the raspiness adds to the charm of his vocals🥺

this comeback truly proved just how much they've grown these past few years and how there's no concept they can't embody. the amount of content we got this comeback with the shows and interviews was the most i think it's ever been and i enjoyed every second of it. i especially love seeing them go on variety shows🥺 they're honestly so funny and i love seeing them interact with the staff as well, it's always so sweet❤️ i can't believe it's already been four years though, how does time fly by so fast😭

thank you bestie omg, i'll join u in manifesting that🥺❤️

I'm so sorry to hear that, april, I know how difficult that can be losing a grandparent, but take every little day as a small step.

as for exams, that's actually pretty good that you've only got 3 instead of your typical 5-7 exams. it'll go by quick and update me on those when they're done!!

literally so true, I love how unique their voices are. and they're progressing too! or even so just starting to show us what they're capable of doing!! I'm always going to be excited for their future albums, even their songs for OSTs. of course their voices always exceeds our expectations, we can never expect less from them, truly.

they are so precious when they're on variety shows, and it just shows how much effort they put into these things. it's one thing to be respectful to hosts, it's another to be able to take up a challenge and be a good sport during the show. and it's never a dull moment with them too :<

the fact that their anniversary is next week is genuinely scary omfg but I'm happy knowing how much the fandom has grown and they very much deserve it <3

[pineappleciders]

Hello! I'm also coming for an Omori match-up! (however don't push yourself to do mine if you have too many requests, please!!)

So um, physically wise, I'm a very short guy (around 1m47/4'9" last time I checked), bit chubby? short messy brown hair, plus glasses and green eyes. Even if I'm transmasc and very small, most people gender me as a guy (which is good!).

Personality wise, I tend to be pretty moody I think. I'm also always worried to hurt people and constantly say "sorry" (and maybe tend to put other people before myself). Never looking people in the eyes and not getting hints is my thing too. I'll also try to stand up for what I think is right even if I get easily overwhelmed by confrontations (+ rather be honest than lying). I'm generally basically a therapist to the few friends I have, but I'm pretty mentally unstable myself too lol. Don't go toward others first much but I try to be friendly to people that comes toward me. Oh and I can get *extremly* clingy, like REALLY clingy. (and, if that changes anything, I'm also autistic).

My n°1 hobby is to not do anything of my life and just vibe/daydream, usually to game OSTs, and procrastinate. Else than that I love spending time with my cat, I like drawing, playing games, playing piano, or sometimes I would try coding, sewing or learning languages. I like creating stuff in general I suppose. I rarely read because of my low attention span.

I suppose I'm the closest to either INFP or ENFP. If I *had* to chose, I would say I'm maybe more introverted than extroverted, but overall I'm not really much more drained by socialisation than by staying alone (and still feel the need to socialise). And, I'm a libra.

Sorry for the big wall of text, didn't knew how to make it shorter.. Once again, please take as much time as you need! Hope you'll have a nice day, and, thank you very much if you ever read/do this one! :3

I MATCH YOU WITH...

(i made this while playing roblox so sorry if its shit)

REALWORLD AUBREY

she tells you to stop apologizing a lot

notices that you avoid eye contact and stuff, so she already suspects you're autistic before you tell her

she doesn't mind though, in fact she herself probably has autism

she thinks it's nice but also concerning when you get clingy,, like who abandoned you to cause this?? she doesn't get everything at first

she's impressed when you stand up for what you think is right, she sees a bit of herself in you

kind of feels bad that everyone only comes to you for help, so she always tries to be there for you

you show her your interests and you two listen to game OSTs together

she helps you with stuff you're procrastinating on

[gamestop-compendium]

Cat Frenzy (FUN UNIT, 2012)

:3

ah, cat frenzy. takes me back, this one does. originally sold on the dsi shop for 200 Nintendo Points (roughly 2 USD), Cat Frenzy is a match puzzle game where you slide rows or columns of cats to match 3 of them and clear them from the board. easy! you can only slide them left, right, or down, and you can push the cats out of the playboard. the stock button adds more cats to the board to work with, and once you run out of cats the game ends. there are also bonus cats! cats in cans that add 10 to the stock, cats with 2x multipliers that double the points you get from that match/chain, and cats with fish that clear every cat of that type on the board. nice way to make the game more interesting ...or at least, that's how it is in quick play. in mission mode you have to clear all the cats it tells you to, increasing in difficulty over time. most of the missions consist of "get a chain of [x] with [y] amount of moves" with different twists, such as rocks on the board or certain patterns of cats you have to work with

i played SO MUCH cat frenzy when i was a tadpole. like SOOOOO MUCH. it still holds up fairly well, but i will admit that it gets kinda boring after a while. its largely just the same type of thing over and over again. quick play is a fun diversion especially for car rides with nothing else to do, but not really for big road trips of the same nature. good tool for getting a baby frog addicted to puzzle games though! plus it has a save/load feature in quick play, which i think is pretty cool

the mission mode is pretty solid. i feel like id be better at the missions if it wasnt currently 2:25 AM as im writing this line. the first 8 serve as a tutorial for the game as a whole, and the other 40 are actual missions. unfortunately it is 2 in the morning. i cant get past mission 13 as of writing this, but honestly i sorta stopped trying. still a good mode! my brain is just drifting in and out of focus. whoops

the music is an odd beast. cat frenzy has a total of 2 songs -- one for the title screen and one for the gameplay -- and while theyre good, they can very easily get a little grating. theyre real catchy though! ive had the title screen song especially inscribed into my neurons for about a decade ...this is normally where id link to the ost or something, but from what ive seen nobodys ripped the music for this game yet. go figure. ill see what i can do about grabbing the 2 songs from this thing, but i havent done it before, so it might take a little while. stay tuned! (or dont, we advocate for free will and autonomy on this page)

the overall sound design, however, is somewhat lacking and bizarre. there are sounds for things -- moving cats, hitting buttons, etc. -- but i cant say that they make much sense. each type of cat meows differently when you tap it to move it! theres a drum hit when you match cats!! you get cute fanfare when you hit a new level in quick play/clear a mission!!! those are fun!!!!! but the buttons make weird and baffling sounds, most notably:

the stock button is a spring sound

the hint and retry buttons are squeaky toy sounds (same for the menu button in mission mode)

hitting the "to the main menu" button in mission select just makes a cartoon bonk-honk sound (zonk? whonk? idk what it would count as. very likely youve heard it before at some point in your life though)

the menu button in quick play makes a sound thats a mix between paper shuffling and cicada wings (paper cicada?)

the main menu buttons make a weird kinda cork squeak-esque sound i cant describe and, most importantly,

hitting all the other buttons makes a sound i can only possibly transcribe as a swift and soft (squeedle-eek!) noise its confusing. some of these are only tangentially cat related, but most are just completely unrelated to anything in the game. whats the deal here????? did they just buy a buncha stock sounds for this game? so strange to me. regardless, the sound design just isnt all that good. these sounds are funny at first but eventually even the meows become incessant and droning. the best way to get the idea of the kind of experience it is would be to play it yourself. there's very little gameplay of this game online, and what we do have is either mostly silenced in lieu of an admittedly pretty cool song that nonetheless appears nowhere in the game or has about the same video quality as a stick of celery

i will note -- i dont fucking know WHAT that image from the dsi shop page is. i completely wiped it from my memory over the years, but looking back that pink cat is probably why i even bought it. the official page and trailer also claimed these cats are "stuck in a well" and need rescuing, but the board is very clearly a house and these cats are clearly not in any sort of distress. what gives? the cats in-game are more than cute enough to be marketable to 2012 audiences! tell me why you did this, fun unit! i need to know!

overall rating: 5.3 - It's Alright. cat frenzy is a cute little diversion. not the best, mind you, but it's good. it's serviceable. with some kinda-repetitive music and gameplay that starts getting stale in the same timeframe as an apple oxidizing once its cut, youre still better off playing it for the more boring stretches of time you encounter in your life. unless you have a kid who likes cats! it's damn good fun for anyone under 12, but slowly loses its luster every year afterwards. Do Play.

[spark-glow]

3 12 13 14 for the ask meme (:

Thanks a bunch!!! Mwa mwa.

3.) 1-3 games you played in the past 12 months that you really enjoyed.

Uhhhhh... Let's see. This is a bit of a toughie cause I tend to come back to old games over and over instead of playing new ones, but... Darkest Dungeon 2, Project Zomboid, and Sons of the Forest.

DD2 is something i'd been hyped for for awhile, and it hasn't disappointed me yet. It's a much different experience from DD1, but I still enjoy it. The artstyle translated beautifully into 3D and there is just... so much heart in it. All I need now is Red Hook to show me where Shieldbreaker is. Project Zomboid isn't something I expected to enjoy as much as I do, but i'm the local survival game enjoyer, so I guess I shouldn't be super surprised. It's great to play with friends, though still fucking terrifying. I'm the local The Forest enjoyer, despite that game being a garbage fire. The Gulag was all over SOTF when it was announced, and we all got it launch day and played it for like a week straight once it came out. It's The Forest though so it needs time to grow and flesh itself out, so i've left it on the back burner... FOR NOW. ━━━━━━━

12.) A character you particularly like in the game you're currently playing.

You look over and i'm just sweating fucking bullets.

Horizon from Apex Legends has very firmly embedded herself in my brain, so that's been fun. I won't get super into it but I like her a lot, and i've been having fun getting better with her kit! If you know, you know.

Though uh... Mad Maggie also bears mentioning, because that is a woman that has totally and entirely bewitched me over the passed month. I'm genuinely super embarrassed about it sometimes, but she is Suzie Love Bait to the max. It's one thing for her to be a handsome masc woman, but her story and unrepentant pride in being indigenous genuinely almost brings me to tears sometimes. I love that woman. I want Respawn to tell us she's a dyke already so I can rest. ━━━━━━━

13.) Quick, name the first song from a game that comes to mind.

Already did this one, but i'll do it again!!!!!

Quixotic, from Hotline Miami 2's OST, is still such a kickass song to me. I love how deep it feels, and how it just reverberates through your bones. Underrated pick from the OST if you ask me. ━━━━━━━

14.) A song that's sure to hit your nostalgia buttons.

I could put literally any god damn Spyro song here, but I already talked about Spyro earlier so i'm gonna swerve and drop the theme for my other favorite game from when I was little.

Warped is and always will be my favorite Crash game. I had such a blast with it. I really need to actually finish the fucking N. Sane Trilogy one of these days. Fake Crash Bandicoot fan over here.

Special shout outs go to the Ty the Tasmanian Tiger theme, as I played that series to fucking DEATH as a child, the Croc: Legend of the Gobbos theme since it goes hard as hell, and like... the entire OST for Pac Man World 2.