#i did have my great-grandma as a kid who only communicated with sign language

[stardustvx]

i finally had time to watch the ep4 of ghost host ghost house and i’m just SO happy !!!!!

the sign language scene!

as someone who regularly uses sign language to communicate with others it means so much to me when i see it represented in media. because it’s not something i see often and when i do, well— it’s not always in a good way

i obviously don’t speak thai sign language so i can’t say how correct it was but i was over the moon when kawin was interested in it and not only that but also wanted to learn because i was honestly expecting it to turn into a joke

my heart is full❤️

[votederpycausemufins]

I wonder what people think of the NSMP so far, and how they think of it at the end of the chapter, and just what people think in general

@petrichormeraki the hermit Tommy people and @helleborusangel the online friendo with great rambles!

“So, how are things with Grian?” Grifter looked up as someone sat at the table he was working at.

“Surprisingly well.” Grifter replied. “It took about a day to get him used to standard weapons again, which isn’t too bad. He’s still worried about respawning, which is an obvious fear. Oh, and I’m hoping he’ll be able to hang out with Flora today!”

“Oh, that sounds like a great idea. I know there aren’t many young hermits, so if he’s able to hang with anyone his age- hey maybe I should end lessons early.”

Grifter looked up at the other Listener. “End lessons early? You mean for just one, or both of the kids?”

The Listener shrugged. “Both obviously. Vee probably wants a break as much as their sister, so wouldn’t be fair to give one a break and not the other.”

“You’re not sending Vee to the NSMP, right?” Grifter asked, trying not to have any worry in his voice, and if there was, he quickly tried covering it up. “I mean, I haven’t gotten everything over there fixed. They’re all still used to how Nightmare ran it. And I haven’t gotten around one of the things he put in there.”

The Listener chuckled. “No! Of course not. If I could keep Astrid from wanting to visit, I would. I mean, it sounds like you’d like her to come over for Grian. I could try keeping her out if you want but-”

Grifter rolled his eyes. “Yeah, rebellious teen who’s also got magic. Been there, done that. Speaking of, how long have they been training?”

The Listener perked up at that. “Astrid’s been going for one year and twelve days, and yesterday was Vee’s mark for one year. I got each of them a present of course since it’s pretty much like a birthday and all.”

“Well then, if that’s the case, I think I have a little present for them as well. In the middle of everything yesterday, a Watcher was having a one year party.”

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Though Grian found it easiest to learn and use a sword for pretty obvious reasons. Instead, he kept an axe out. Apparently it could be as powerful or even more dangerous than a sword to the point that a number of people used it as a preferred weapon. It was a bit heavy for him, but to be honest, all of the tools felt a bit heavy in his hands. Gym class didn’t really have the best setup for using stuff like this.

He set his axe down for a few moments to let his arms rest as he pulled out his communicator. Sense apparently needed to fix it up so it would work in this time or something. Seeing as how it was working and even looked upgraded, it looked like the man had succeeded. Grian checked his coordinates, moving it from side to side to figure out which way was which as the numbers changed in real time. He was pretty sure at this point he was very lost, since he was used to streets and maps and not open land and coordinates. The only real street was near the castle, and it didn’t even last that long until it turned into what was practically rubble.

While Grian knew he could just stay in the castle since rooms were offered, part of him wasn’t thrilled at the idea of having to be stuck with what would essentially be roommates again. Especially if he could live elsewhere without having to pay rent. He would have to build his own place and gather the materials for it himself, but he had been interested in architecture and was thinking about going to college for it, and it seemed like it was easier to get the stuff he would need here.

He found a nice small tree to start with and pushed leaves out of the way for a good place to start chopping. When he did, Grian was surprised to find his axe chopping through the wood like it was warm butter, taking a chunk out of it in two swings. After that, he nearly fell over in surprise when he realized the tree was still standing, but after getting back up and feeling the tree to make sure he wasn’t imagining things, Grian could feel a hint of magic there, keeping the tree floating in the air.

Not wanting to leave it there, Grian started to tear down the rest of the tree, glad to see that the leaves were falling on their own since he didn’t want to deal with them too. Since one tree had been easy enough, Grian started on another, and then another. He took breaks between every few trees, not used to the amount of work even if the axe made it easy. But he was too busy during those breaks to catch the fiery orange color darting about in the shadows.

As Grian began to chop down another tree, he was stopped again as he was tackled from the side. In a panic, he swung his axe wildly, managing to hit whatever was attacking him by the sounds they made, but couldn’t be completely sure because he had his eyes closed. Finally, something grabbed his axe and yanked it away, pinning his arms down before he could grab anything else.

“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now.” A voice hissed from above him, and Grian nervously opened his eyes. He immediately focused on the person’s ears, which were definitely not human, but he sighed as he realized they didn’t belong to a rabbit. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to amuse the hybrid as they let go of his one arm and instead pressed their forearm against his neck. “What are you? A hunter?!”

Grian quickly shook his head. He would say something, but talking was pretty hard when being choked. He saw a tree out of the corner of his eye and then looked back and forth between the tree and the hybrid, hoping they would understand what he meant. While it seemed like they didn’t, they at least eased up on his neck, letting him breathe better and speak. “I was just getting supplies.” He wheezed out, taking a break to catch his breath. “Grifter said-”

“Grifter?” The hybrid asked in surprise, then let Grian go for a moment before grabbing him again. “Wait, explain why you look so much like him. How do I know you’re not lying about him. Are you even on his good side?”

“We’re relat-” Was all Grian got out before the arm was against his neck again. “Right, sure you are. How come I haven’t heard of you before? I mean, I know my family pretty well.”

Grian wracked his brain for some way, any way to get this person to leave him alone. He at the very least had access to one hand, since the arm trapping it before was now on his neck, but he had no way of knowing if the person would understand him. He used his pointer finger to point to the side, then crossed his fingers, put his hands into a fist with his pinky out, then a fist with his thumb to the side, then finally put his thumb between his middle and ring fingers while it was in a fist. He repeated that a few times before the arm on his neck pulled back slightly

“Gry-an?” The hybrid asked, and Grian winced, but nodded, pointing to himself. “Alright, and what about Grifter? Who is he to you?” And he was glad his arm was left free. He pointed to himself again, then brushed the side of his cheek twice with the back of his hand, then had his hand go forward, palm down. “Or really? Then where are your wings?” And grian shook his hand like he slammed it in something. “Oh.”

Finally the hybrid moved away, freeing Grian from the ground. He rubbed his neck, coughing a little. “I see what he said about me needing to train…”

“So Gryan, what are you doing around my place?” The hybrid asked, standing up, not offering a hand to Grian.

“It’s Grian, and I was just trying to gather supplies. Grifter said I could stay in the castle, but to be honest, I’d like a place of my own. I went looking and found this place, so I was going to collect some wood. I didn’t realize this place belonged to you. But I’m glad you know BSL.”

The hybrid raised an eyebrow. “BSL? You mean sign language?”

“Uh, yeah. Your accent didn’t quite sound British, so I was worried you might have used ASL, or something else.”

“What’s the difference?”

“A lot. There’s also the two handed alphabet, and I'm pretty sure the sign for future is different if hurt isn’t.” Grian explained, finally pushing himself up to his feet.

“I just used what I was taught by my Grandma.” the hybrid shrugged. “She said something like it was bonzel? Or something like that.”

“BANZSL?” Grian said, fingerspelling it at the same time. “I mean, essentially the same thing. It’s just easier to say BSL.”

“I don’t understand anything you just said, I just know I understand the way your hands move.”

“Good enough.” Grian nodded. “So, your forest? I guess I cut down too many trees, huh?”

The hybrid shook their head. “Pfft, no. I can just replant them. You were just in what I think of as my place, and I’m not a fan of unfamiliar people showing up.”

“And Grifter is… is he allowed or not?”

“Oh he’s definitely allowed.” The hybrid smiled. “Coolest uncle around and now the admin, why wouldn’t I want him hanging at my place?”

“Cool.” Grian smiled, but then his eyes widened. “Wait so I’m an uncle?!”

The hybrid shrugged. “I dunno. You’re from the past, right? I doubt I’m born yet for you- how old are you?”

“Eighteen.”

“What the fuck, I’m older than you!” The hybrid exclaimed “Sort of. Long story. Short version is the old admin was a bitch.”

“So, does that mean you were born at that point?”

They rubbed their chin. “No, not yet. I’m trying to remember how old I was and how old dad was when I was adopted.”

“Oh, you were adopted?”

“I think. It’s easier than saying my real dad ran out on my mom and then she dated and married this new guy who’s now my dad.”

“Yeah, that does sound easier.”

“So, I don’t think I gave my name. I’m Fleur.”

Grian smiled and shook their hand. “Nice to meet you.”

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Mumbo wanted to find Grian and leave right now. He was pretty sure the others thought the same, but right now they were all split up. They had started to explore before EX had caught up to them. Before he could say why, they were soon attacked by a creeper hybrid going by the name Euro. Mumbo could tell it was obviously the same one that was Techno’s Hels version based on the way they fought, managing to go hand to hand with the piglin hybrid.

Even with that, Euro had been strong enough to keep them split up, and now Mumbo was worried about Grian and Grum. He was especially worried from the fact that they had been there for about a day and he hadn’t seen any sign of Grian or his hels copy. It also didn’t help that the mobs here seemed to be more powerful than the ones on hermitcraft, which caused even more problems. Even in the day, he was getting trouble from zombies and skeletons that were wearing helmets, protecting them from the sun.

An arrow nearly hit Mumbo, breaking him out of his thoughts and making him start to run so he could find new cover. He barely got a shield up in time to block an arrow before he dove into a cave and pulled out a spare redstone torch for some semblance of light. The redstoner backed up, hoping for a bit more cover, but then he bumped into something that was unmistakably someone else. He was about to scream, but then his mouth was covered by a hand, so he struggled instead.

“Calm down, it’s just me!” A voice spoke that was just a little too cheerful for the situation they were in. Mumbo stopped struggling and was let go, able to turn around and see Wilbur was in the cave with him.

“Oh thank goodness. I was worried I wasn’t going to find anyone else.” He looked Wilbur over. “How are you doing?”

“Well, once you’ve died once, the fear of dying again isn’t that bad, especially since we get respawns here.” Wilbur replied, not as chipper as before.

“Yes, but that’s only with respawn anchors, and last I checked, we weren’t linked up to any of those. And if we are, we don’t know where it is and if it's broken or not.”

“Hmm, that’s true.” Wilbur replied, tilting his head slightly in thought. “Well, I’m sure there’s something for if you die and don’t have one yet. I’m sure they wouldn’t make it that easy to actually die.”

“I suppose that’s true.” Mumbo conceded. “But we should still be careful.”

The pair prepared themselves to move out of the cave and get through the landscape, not as worried now that neither of them were completely alone. They were just about to leave when Wilbur grabbed Mumbo’s shoulder and pulled him back. “Wait, there was something I wanted to tell you.”

“What was that?” Mumbo asked, turning back to look at the other man, who seemed to currently be struggling with trying to remember. He remembered at the party hearing mention that Wilbur had still been struggling with his memory after officially being revived, so Mumbo was patient with the man.

“Techno… he mentioned something about when Grifter was in the Dream SMP. About Euro.”

“I think I remember overhearing a tad bit of that when you were both over for Grum’s party.” Mumbo replied. “Something about Grifter talking about his family.”

Wilbur nodded. “Yeah, it was… That’s what it was!” And he smiled, finally remembering, before frowning again at whatever he remembered. “That was Euro who attacked us, but from what I heard, Grifter bragged about him being some sort of coward. That seemed like the opposite of what we saw. Do you think it was a lie? Or maybe that was someone else.”

“I’m not sure.” Mumbo replied. “Maybe he was just using the element of surprise. If we see him again and attack, it could scare him.”

“You’re right, that’s probably it.” Wilbur agreed. “If we see him again, I’ll try attacking and he’ll run off, letting us look for the others.”

“You think they’re alright?”

Wilbur shrugged. “Depends on if any of them are with someone else or by themselves.”

“I guess that’s true. So, what can you tell me about the people from your world? It might help us know what to expect.”

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Grum smiled as he cut down another zombie, getting approval from Techno. The two of them had quickly found each other again after Euro split them up, mainly since Techno stayed behind to fight the hels smp’er, and Grum hid nearby. Since then, they fortunately hadn’t run into anyone else, but the longer they went without seeing anyone at all, the more suspicious it became.

“Do you think they’re planning an ambush?” Grum suggested, making Techno shrug.

“If it were me, I’d probably try that. But this isn’t the SMP I’m used to.”

“Yeah, but it also looks like this place is still pretty dangerous. Nightmare was just as bad as Dream… and Theseus wasn’t that nice either.”

“Could also be that the rest of them are just idiots and cowards.” Techno said, hoping to lighten the mood. “They see us out here slaying monsters left and right and know not to deal with us.” That seemed to work as Grum giggled a little. “They’ve seen true terror! A pig and a child, truly a force to be reckoned with.”

They were able to keep the mood up for a bit longer, but then Grum was feeling sad again. “I really hope my dad is okay. He got really hurt last time we saw Grifter. I did too…” And his screen flickered a little.

Techno noticed Grum’s distress and picked the bot up, putting him on his shoulders and trying to ignore chat’s cooing. “Yeah, well now you’ve got me, and Phil’s around here somewhere, so we can take him on.”

“Yeah, and we also have Paul.”

“Still not sure what his deal is, but chat seems to know something about him. They’re just shouting all over each other so I can’t tell what they’re talking about other than it being him.”

Grum nodded, quiet as they walked a bit, then he leaned down and looked at Techno. “Hey, maybe we can find out. He’s supposed to be a king, right?”

“Unfortunately, yeah.” Techno replied. “Why?”

Grum sat back up and crossed his arms, Techno lifting his own arms up worried that Grum was about to fall off his shoulders. “It’s more of a fortunately. I’ve got extra diamonds and you can use those so I can get access to my mayoral reservoirs.”

Techno stopped walking. “You sure that’s a good idea? How do we know it’ll even work for him? Or, you know, even work for you?”

“Well,” Grum conceded. “We don’t really know. I mean, we’re in a hels dimension, so I might not be able to access anything. Or it might crash again, though I think that was just your old admin’s fault.”

“Then let’s not risk it just yet. We don’t need to know about that and if it goes wrong, it will go really wrong and leave you out of commission.” Techno explained, starting to walk again, but then immediately stopped, only moving to bend down and set Grum down on the ground and grab his weapon.

Seeing what he did, Grum grabbed his own sword, ready to attack whatever Techno noticed. For a few moments, everything was completely quiet. Then, before either of them could react, both Grum and Techno were suddenly trapped in bedrock.

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Paul sliced through another group of mobs in the way, then helped Tommy up to the ledge he was on. Tommy had yet to even swing his sword with Paul tearing through anything in the way. At the very least he had been able to use a bow to shoot things down from afar, but Tommy prefered melee to ranged. The teen wouldn’t have been too frustrated if it weren’t also for the fact that the man was going out of his way to kill any chicken they saw as well.

“I still don’t fucking get why you keep killing chickens. Why do they matter?” Tommy asked, picking up some feathers left behind.

“All chickens are spies, or at least a good enough portion that it’s best to get rid of any you see.” Paul explained, suddenly swinging at a creeper that had snuck up on them. “They’ve been a problem for as long as I can remember. At first, I had know clue why, it was just a sort of gut feeling. Like I knew when I didn’t actually know.”

“Alright, and so you just took it as fact?” Tommy asked, rolling his eyes.

“Not, of course not.” Paul replied. “I mean, only dumb people would do that, and there’s three types of people in this world, those who can do math, and those who can’t.”

“Bitch that’s two types of people.”

Paul sighed and looked back at Tommy. “Yeah, that’s the joke.”

“Oh…”

“Anyway, one time I found one messing with my things. I thought it was just a fluke until it happened again. At this point, I was already in the show biz a bit, so I played along. I trapped the chicken and then started jokingly interrogating it. When it actually started writing its chicken scratch on a sign, I thought I was going crazy at first.”

“So, it was actually a spy?” Tommy asked, not fully believing him.

“Yeah, it was. And from there things started unravelling until I finally met Punch.”

Tommy frowned. “And Punch is your hels version?”

“As far as I can tell, yeah.” Paul affirmed. “Pablo Punchwood, god of unwilling death. Most people think of ravens, crows and vultures as birds signalling death, but chickens can be ruthless. Whoever thought of calling cowards chickens did not meet a real chicken.”

“Really? What harm could they do?” But Paul didn’t answer Tommy verbally. Instead, he pulled out a book bound with black leather and opened it, following along with a page. A moment later, a rift of a sort of camo green color opened in the air next to the pair, and Paul reached his hand in, pulling out what looked like a dead mouse. “What the fuck was that?!”

“Think of it like a sort of multiworld enderchest.” Paul explained, though still not answering Tommy’s question about the chicken. When they next encountered some monsters, Paul had them take a more covert route, hiding instead of fighting.  Finally, they reached a pair of chickens while the pair of them crouched in the grass. Paul pulled the rat out again, then bit at the inside of his cheek a bit before using the blood from the wound he caused to put blood on the rat.

Tommy watched as the man then threw the animal towards the chickens, surprised by how quietly it went through the air. Then it landed and caught the attention of the chickens, who then started pecking at the creature. After a few seconds, Tommy looked away, not able to stomach what he saw.

“So, that’s chickens for you. Anything about that size that’s injured, and they’ll tear it to shreds. Sometimes there are even chickens that are confident enough to go after people, but bluckers are the ones you need to look out for. They really like to bite.”

“So chickens have been dangerous spies this entire time?!” Tommy asked as they started to move, looking back to see only the bones of the rat were left behind.

“Sure have been. It’s part of why avians are a class all of their own when talking about hybrids.” Paul explained, getting them through another rough patch of monsters. “See, ages ago, there were dinosaurs, and those eventually found their way to being various birds. Technically, there’s a longer explanation, but that’s all you really need to know right now.”

“So avian hybrid people are technically part dinosaur?” Tommy asked, surprised.

“Sort of. See, when you get into the nitty gritty of it all, part of the reason avians are called that and not bird hybrids is because of the fact that they tend to be more shifter than hybrid.”

“More what?”

“Shifter. There’s different classes of what most people generally call hybrids. There’s standard humans, hybrids, shifters, and naturals. Of course, technically humans count as naturals, but the categories were made by a human so it’s a bit of prejudice there.”

“Can you fucking cut to the chase?” Tommy asked, not wanting a lecture.

“Sure.” Paul shrugged. “Punchwood is my evil version, he’s got a thing with chickens, even though he should be staying in this dimension, he’s messed with things, avians are some sort of descendant deity now, and that makes categorizing them odd.”

Tommy was completely silent for a few moments, even stopping in place as Paul continued walking. Then, he came to his senses and ran to catch up. “What the fuck? None of that made any sense! Where do dinosaurs come into that? Why the fuck are there avians here then if he’s hels? Why isn’t it just fucking chickens then?”

Tommy didn’t have a chance to answer as suddenly Paul dodged an attack. Tommy himself barely pushed away, just in time to dodge an attack from a woman wielding a pink axe. He swung his netherite sword at the woman, which hit the blade of her axe, sending sparks into the air. “Hey! Are you going to help me fight or what?”

With those words, Paul attacked the woman as well, looking much sloppier than he had fighting the monsters. Though Tommy couldn’t do much about that right then, he still filed it away for later. After they dealt with whoever this was.

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Doc tried to hold back another hiss. When he first ended up finding Phil, he was just glad to have someone else on his side. The monsters were a slight hassle, but between the two of them, they were getting through them well. So well that they actually had enough time to just walk and chat. Doc was even the one to suggest Phil come up with a topic to talk about. And he decided to ask about Doc’s interaction with gods.

Though the hybrid wanted to yell at Phil, he knew that was more the fault of Theseus, Paul and himself for opening things up to that conversation. So reluctantly Doc answered the questions Phil had.

“So why are you just calling it the Perd now?”

Doc rolled his eye a little. “Yeah. Easier to mishear and harder to search for. It’s not like we really want anyone releasing Notch into the world again.”

“Why would anyone want to let him out?” Phil asked incredulously. “He was a tyrant god. People were looking for a way to trap him for years.”

“Yeah, people were, but other people continued to worship him before and even after he was finally imprisoned. God apples being called that is still a recent change.” They paused the conversation to deal with some mobs before Doc continued the answer. “Not everyone is so long lived to remember those days. Heck, some people think Herobrine’s still not a nice dude because of that old propaganda that always got put out. I mean, he can be violent if need be, but you saw how tame he tends to be.”

“I have?”

“That’s Joe. The guy hanging with Cleo and wearing glasses. Eret’s dad.”

“Really? Wouldn’t have guessed.” Phil replied, and Doc was glad for the slightly lighter subject. But that took both of them off guard, meaning neither of them was ready when they were suddenly attacked by an enderman.

Phil was the first one attacked, the monster sending him a few meters back with the amount of force behind the attack. It swung at Doc next, hitting his right arm and leaving a dent in the prosthetic. When it tried to swing at Doc again, Phil had jumped back to his feet and swung his axe, the blade hitting the monster and making them teleport a few blocks away.

With the short break in fighting, Phil and Doc were able to get a good look at their foe. The enderman stood there, slouched over a bit, yet still taller than a regular enderman. Their normally small paw like hands were now large enough that Doc was pretty sure just one could wrap around his head, and that wasn’t counting that the monster had four arms instead of just two.

The last things of note was the fact that half of the enderman was a pale lavender instead of being all black, and they were also wearing a hawaiian shirt of all things. But that was enough for Phil to realize that they were dealing with Ranboo’s hels version.

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Xisuma sighed as he got back to his feet. While he was glad to not have ended up completely alone in an unfamiliar world and dimension, he wasn’t the biggest fan of having only found his brother. X had tried a casual discussion, but EX always found a way to turn it into a fight.

And that also didn’t mention the trouble they were already having from mobs. Xisuma was defending the both of them while his brother refused to help, leaving the monsters with the upper hand. Xisuma could usually keep his cool fairly well, but at this point, Xannes was starting to get on his nerves.

“Could you move faster? You’re slowing us down.” EX said, making his point by walking faster than he was before.

“We would be making more progress if you were fighting the monsters instead of me.” Xisuma grumbled, making his point by shooting a nearby spider.

“Oh, I’m sure you wouldn’t want me getting in the way.” EX replied smugly. “I’m sure you’d rather ban me again than have me sticking around. Who knows, maybe it would stick this time.”

“At this point, it would probably help.” Xisuma replied, though under his breath, not wanting his brother to hear him, then spoke in a more audible tone. “I’m sure you’d find a way around it.”

Xannes just chuckled, slowing down and finally letting Xisuma catch up again before tripping the admin with a laugh. Xisuma looked up in frustration at his brother before just lying on the ground for a moment to calm down, not wanting to fight back. And then Xisuma was suddenly dragged back with a yell as something grabbed his ankle.

Xannes turned around to see why X had yelled, only to find a trail in the ground and his brother missing. “What? Oh, ha ha. Very funny, brother. I’m sure even with my setbacks, us sticking together is still a better option.” He was quiet, waiting for a response, but none came. “Oh alright, I’ll be a bit nicer. Just come back.” But there was still no answer.

Now more worried, EX took his sword out, the blade a tad shaky in his hands. “Brother, I get your point now. My little jokes aren’t actually funny. Is that what you want right now?” Yet again, there was still no answer, except this time, there was the snap of a branch or something in the nearby area, leaving Xannes whirling around, weapon at the ready. “Br-Xisuma! Where are you?! Stop messing around!”

All that happened was another sound from nearby, making Xannes flinch, but with few other options he moved towards it. He needed to push through a bit of foliage, but then he finally saw his brother. The admin was tied up and hanging upside down, a very tall person standing next to him in a light blue cloak with gold accents, two pairs of wings on their back and a golden circlet on their head over the hood of their cloak.

Xannes crept forward, trying to make as little noise as possible. His eyes connected with Xisuma’s, who was trying to signal something, but the hels admin couldn't piece it out in time. Xannes looked back at the figure, only to see them turning back towards him. He tried to hide again, only to have his shoulder grabbed at the last moment and be yanked back.

EX got a glimpse of the person’s face, them similar enough to the demon from the DSMP that he made the connection. “Oh, and I can get a matching set out of this.”

Xannes kicked at the angel demon thing. “Let go of me you bastard! Or I promise you will regret it!”

“Oh, is that so?” They asked, tilting their head. “Well, I guess you’ll have to show me.” And they started to tie Xannes up as well.

When he was hanging next to Xisuma, the admin wriggled a bit to turn himself towards Xannes. “Why didn’t you do anything? I’m sure lightning could take down even an angel.” But Xannes just grumbled. “Look, I can’t get us out of this one, you can’t make me do everything.”

“Oh shut up!”

“Why? I’m not an admin here. I can only get us in and out of worlds, and at the very least I need to stay for the others. I can’t do anything to get us out, so you have to instead.”

“Well sure! Let me just, I don’t know, pull up my kill aura to attack him, hmm? Oh wait, I-”

And then Xannes stopped talking as suddenly the angel was attacked by an invisible force. The pair of admins watched as their captor was attacked until they finally died from damage, and a few moments later, Xannes and Xisuma were both freed from their bindings. “Took you long enough.”

Xannes picked himself off the ground. “That wasn’t you?”

“I told you I can’t do anything since I’m not the admin here. You were the one just talking about kill auras.”

“Well… I can’t actually… access any of my hacks here.” Xannes hesitantly admitted. “And I never got to go to any of the fancy schools you got to go to, so I’m always relying on them for combat.”

“You’re saying you can’t actually fight? Is that why you weren’t helping?” Xisuma asked, taking his brother crossing his arms and looking away as a yes. “Well, we have ample time while making our way through this world looking through the others. I’m sure active experience would help.”

“I don’t want your help.” Xannes replied defensively. He started to walk off in a huff, then paused, looking back. “Why not pretend to teach your viewers or whatever you record things for? Pretend like you’re doing something useful.”

Xisuma chuckled and followed behind his brother. That was probably the best he was going to get from EX, but it was better than nothing. The two of them continued through the world, Xisuma defending against monsters they encountered. And if there were a few less, the pair didn’t notice, just as they didn’t notice the person in a frowning mask following behind them.

[wssebastian]

well , well , well . . . would you look at what the cat dragged in ! ╰(◡‿◡✿╰)  umm quick story i was here a v short time before with the always lovely oh haeil c: i loved him sm but i’m sure no one even remembers him atp HAHA anywho life got wayyy too crazy but i’m in a much better place now !! so i’d like to reintroduce myself - i’m jada and it’s very nice to meet you all !! i’m coming to you with a muuuch different muse, sebastian kang , meta’s walking , drumming . . . trainwreck ! despite him being a p messy muse , i put a lot of time into him so i hope u enjoy !! i have some lovely friends here and i’m so excited to be back, so pls like this if you’d like to plot !! otherwiiiise here’s my profile , plots page, bio , and below you can find trivia !! pheeew lot of words so sorry but let’s get to it !!

background !!

just a general note i did a lot of freewriting for him before creating him officially, so some of that will be copied from the free write <33 i’m saying this bc if you see something written overly casual / conversational ,,, you’ll know why besties lol

born in auckland, new zealand, into an older family who had no kids. both his parents were engineers who didn’t feel they had time for kids, couldn’t get pregnant so kinda gave up ? until v late into their careers when they v shockingly got pregnant, mom was a whole 45 when sebastian was born and dad was a whole 50 !!!

he was seen as a legitimate miracle baby, his parents thought he was a precious child who couldn’t be harmed by society ! which i get but like .... ok they took it too far lol. it wasn’t even that bad until one day sebastian thought it’d be a great idea to chase a fucking balloon into the bird exhibit at the zoo, got lost on his way there, and boy his parents FLIPPED

his mom especially paaanicked, he was lost for hours bc he hid & they thought they’d loss their precious son forever. she literally took him and never has really been the same since, vowed since that day she would homeschool and well … she did !

so sebastian was raised homeschooled & pretty isolated which is … eh. like if a kid would talk to baby him they’d lowkey be like “wtf are u talking about??” bc he was constantly between talking like a kid tv show character and a boomer because tbh those were his only influences growing up

sidenote to all my homeschooled gang pls i know all our parents were not like this LMAO i am aware as i was homeschooled for a while however the kangs are a ... special case

sebastian’s dad only has partial hearing in his left ear , so he grew up bilingual in english & new zealand sign language as it’s how he primarily communicates when at home w his father. his first exposure to music was actually through him tho, as his dad and mom both loved funk rock of the 70′s & 80′s. his dad would always say that he loved despite being hard of hearing, he loved he could still feel  the instruments in his chest and that really stuck w sebastian from then on !!

his parents felt kinda bad for not having him in school tho so they did let him try out all different types of lessons, so growing up picked up hobbies such as gardening, baking, origami, etc. but the main ones that stuck were writing and drum lessons ! fun fact his parents only let him play drums once thinking it wouldn’t stick but kinda hated it did, from then on he begged and begged for a chance to play and they kinda just looked at him LMAO. yeahhh it took him a whole year but he finally got his first drum set and was hooked !! named his drum set mila after his celebrity crush mila kunis omg ....

anywho time skip he felt really detatched from korean culture, spoke baaaare minimum korean only to like, wish his grandma happy chuseok. so at around 16 he started gaining an interest in his culture ?? and around the same time he got into online video games bc well ... it made him feel like he had friends ? u know how this story goes, meta meets and decides to meet in person !!

but well before flying out to korea him & his parents had a huuuge fight. they were against the idea of him going out on his own, but he was an adult now so he was v stubborn !! they had a huge falling out and it caused a v uncomfy rift for a vlong time they’re just recently getting over 

also funny story - the whole time sebastian was playing video games w meta online he felt pressured to be some mysterious foreigner even tho literally no one asked ?? but the second they met in person he was socially awkward 2000x and it was pretty obvious he was fronting ?? long story short meta saw through his shit p easily and it took a loooong glow up process for him to actually be charismatic , like he is now !

personality

ok phew. onto the fun stuff !! now sebastian has quite literally did a complete 180 compared to his younger self.  he often jokes that he was a born charmer who was raised by the wrong family. bc the second he was out of his parent’s grasp he flourished socially. 

nowadays his korean i would say is upper advanced. from the time he started meeting meta online to around 2018 he went SUPER hard trying to learn, and obv he learns by speaking it everyday. but after that he kind of took a more casual learning approach? he can convey most everything he wants to say but if it’s something that’s a little deeper sometimes it takes him a second to rearrange the sentence in his head and it really frustrates him. if u tell him a korean metaphor or like bigger word not used in common convo he might just kinda . . . blink at u HAHA

looooves meta. no,  i mean he looooooves meta. he feels so incredibly lucky to be in a band as he NEVER would’ve thought it was possible, they were honestly his first real friends so being able to make a career out of making good music w them ?? he’s honestly still in amazement today.

idk what was in that hongdae air but those first years in meta made him have a whole vibe switch ?? he let his hair grow out, took a lot of inspiration from hongdae street styles, and had a looot of practice talking to pretty people in clubs. he also got his first tattoos ! he felt like he had to play catch up on all those years he was just cooped up at home, so quite literally went c r a z y w the partying after a while.

i’m ngl he probably has a very real fear he got some random girl pregnant in seoul and she’s just waiting on meta to get bigger before dropping the news LMAOAOAO

the funny thing is basically since he arrived he’s been branded the “sexy foreigner” or something LMAO, and it’s p laughable to the rest of his members when they know how he used to be. like he’s charming now yes but there’s no denying he was iiincredibly awk to start off with. visibly cringes if they mention any old blackmail

ok but here’s where he gets a little messier. over the past few years fame has really been getting to his head ? meta isn’t even as big as some groups but truthfully sebastian already thinks he’s the shit and will say it out loud too ?? too many pretty people told him he was pretty too, now he’s honestly cocky and is starting to develop the mindset he “deserves” his lifestyle bc of his fame ?? yo meta PLSSSS actively humble tf out of this man !! he really needs it bc it’s just getting progressively worse

also alongside this, bc he’s in a band and not a traditional idol group he’s kinda developed this superiority complex ?? feels meta is “real music” or whatever so he can sometimes come off as a bit pretentious to traditional idols, esp the younger ones ?? though the more time he spends in wishbone the less he feels this is true, he’s slowly gaining respect after learning how brutal training is

ok but that brings me to ladybug. maaaan he loves ladybug. in fact when it comes to girls he is v much so the likes powerful woman who look like they can step on him vibe ?? lowkey a milf stan too ?? LMAO pls forgive me i’m just the messenger ok. all i’m trying to say is sebastian talks a lot of shit but somehow knows every line of ddd .... hmmm ??

ok i didn’t know where else to put this but people call him both sebastian and ian ?? you’ll prob mainly see me use sebastian for writing purposes, but irl the usage is 50 / 50 ? his parents & long-term friends mainly call him sebastian, tho his newer friends or the ones who just like ian call him ian ?? do what u want he has no preference !

u know i’m really grateful for jaewon being his fc because they literally take photos the EXACT same way ?? like his stans probably are on twt begging for just one normal photo bc everything he posts looks like this, this, this, or this LMAO ?? what can he say he likes a good blurry aesthetic !!

( smoking, drug & drinking tw ) he’s a drinker & smoker, as well as stamped off a v wide range of substances ? he wouldn’t say he has an addiction to anything but nicotine though. he started off with regular cigarettes but has ben transitioning to vaping recently. wishes he could at least smoke less but at this time doesn’t have much hope to do so

bc he didn't grow up in korea age heirarchy doesn’t really make sense to him ? he feels respect has to be earned, which can sometime create some drama ?? he’s not too afraid to challenge older ideas if he disagrees, but on that same token if they’ve done something impressive he has no problem giving respect to younger people ?

his concept isn’t too far off from his real persona ?? except in the public his flirty side is less nsfw player, more attainable charmer ?? despite not having a lot of action on stages, when interacting w fans he has a lot of fun teasing them within reason and has that whole “i’m your idol boyfriend” thing going on ?? frequently “marries” fans and likes to make them shy ! probably has had to be told to tone it down LMAO

on that note he also loves variety bc he loves to let people see a side of him they couldn’t through music, has no problem speaking up for quieter members if they don’t wanna talk ?? the kind of member to put the group tea on BLAST tho LMAO, think the whole seventeen insomnia-zero episode ???? like sir SHUT UP UR GONNA GET US FIRED

because he craves affection he’s constantly flirting and in situationships / hookup culture, but bc he’s a free spirit rn he doesn’t wanna be tied down ?? so u get ... a v flirty man who will give u everythig u need physically but will RUN at the sign of commitment

loooves the drums omg he’s on a whole different level on stage. uhh he can’t stop breaking drum sticks tho LMAO ! anyways his personal drum set is still named mila, except the one in korea is called mila 2.0 ? y’all i know he’s embarrassing let’s not ... anyways despite usually being in the back he has a lot of fun w his facial expressions, occasional solos, and just rocking w the songs bc he honestly loves their discography ?? is this me projecting the inner day6 stan in me listening to wanna go back as we speak ?? .....

music-wise, still v into funk rock ! but nowadays he prefers actually listening to hip hop & experimental pop ? but he’s still v much a fan of rock in general, and it’s his favorite kind of music to actually perform

career-wise, he’s pretty satisfied rn ! he honestly preferred the early days bc it was all so new and he had more freedom. but he can’t help but acknowledge how good of a deal they got, maintaining creative freedom while gaining financial security ?? he really loves songwriting, so hopes to do that even more, as well as mcing in the future !!

i think that’s all !! this is so much i know but i doubt i’m finished i’ll probably still add more LOLL. if u got this far tho seriously you’re an angel i’m so impressed thank u for listening to my rambling and giving sebastian a fair chance <33

[beckygomez-news]

Becky G on “LBD,” and Navigating Her Own Identity

A bicultural upbringing can sometimes be alienating: Attempting to straddle both can draw as much criticism as aligning yourself with just one side. An Inglewood-born Chicana, Becky G knows the feeling — and rather than fight the polar pulls, she's embracing the spectrum that is her identity.

Having launched out of Disney and English-language commercial pop and, in the past few years, headfirst into the Latinx market, Becky G undoubtedly solidified herself a bonafide urbano star in 2018. Trepidations about whether or not she'd be welcomed into the market quickly subsided with help from reggaeton king Daddy Yankee, who enlisted the young singer for the "Dura" remix alongside Natti Natasha, her collaborator in the single "Sin Pijama."

Then there's "Mayores," featuring Bad Bunny — released ahead of the other two, the track was enough, on its own, to earn her a place on any decent contemporary reggaeton playlist.

But in 2019, Becky G is returning to singing in English: Starting with "LBD," released earlier this month. PAPER caught up with the singer ahead of its release to hear more about what's next in her career, and how lessons in navigating her own identity will guide her going forward.

You've posted in the past about your fears around acceptance from the Latinx music community. It really feels like you're being embraced, though, especially considered all your Univision Premio lo Nuestro nominations. How do you feel about those fears lately?

It's been, I don't know, how many years since I got signed at 14 for my first record deal. And obviously I started with singing English music when I got signed, and I always knew, since the beginning, that one day I would want to embark on that journey of singing Spanish music, but I just didn't know when that time would be. I always had this subconscious fear, and I don't know if it was instilled by watching the movie Selena too many times — when her dad is like, "You're either too Mexican for the Americans, or too American for the Mexicans! — and you're just like, OK, I'm in the middle. I'm clearly so proud of my upbringing and being submerged in both cultures, and obviously the Latina side of me being such a huge inspiration in all of my videos, it was never something that was done with the intentions of gaining a market for financial benefit. It was a genuine pride to represent this flag, and kids like myself, who are born here in the United States but very well aware of the history of their last name, and how their stories began before they were even born, and with all this common thread which is the American dream. As scary as it was to make that decision, all signs at this point in my career point to just do it, Becky. Just go for it. You've got nothing to lose. And it's real, it's a dream of yours: What's stopping you?

In that moment, I realized that the only thing that was stopping me was myself. Because I can always learn more Spanish, and I can always surround myself with more Spanish-speaking people, and that's exactly what happened. I got in the studio, started working with some really awesome producers and songwriters and explained to them a little bit of my insecurities around these things, and they were like, "Girl, you got this." Because they were so encouraging, it created this safe space for me to be OK being what we call pocha — Spanglish-speaking, I guess.

I think people still struggle to understand that I love singing in Spanish but I think in English. It's hard for people — if you don't live that life, it could be confusing for some. But I learned that it's only brought more fans to the #beasters community, I guess you could say. A lot of my fans are the same as I am.

Working with people like Maluma, did you feel welcomed?

Oh, 100 percent. I would joke around with them all the time. My grandma always makes fun of me because she says that my Spanish accent is a mix, she's like, you sound so diverse with your Spanish.When you're singing songs with, like, Joss Favela, this regional Mexican music, you sound very dulce, very sweet. And then when you sing reggaeton, you sound like you're from the streets, girl! I'm like, don't forget I am — I'm from Inglewood!

So it's totally been influenced by traveling, and it's the best thing that's ever happened to me, traveling throughout Latin America and other parts of the world that speak Spanish. The truth is that I'm like a child of the world now. Because I'm open to learning, and I guess too, they say that when you have a musical ear you kind of pick up on people's tones of voice and their accents, and that's kind of what's happened to me. My accent's not really anything except a little bit of everywhere that I've been and everyone that I've met. I think that's so cool, and it kind of makes my sound very unique in a way, and kind of like a chameleon.

Of all the Spanish-speaking cultures you've visited, which have really stood out to you as especially impactful?

I mean, everywhere, to be honest. I'll never forget, for instance, my first time to doing a tour in Latin America; I was doing a tour with Fifth Harmony and we went to places like Chile to Argentina, and it was like my first time really performing in these territories. I was so overwhelmed with the love and how they received me. Ever since that tour, when I was given the opportunity to travel to places like that — it was very eye-opening and inspiring, and it made me feel like you know what? My biggest critic is going to be myself, and I just gotta do it. So if I go onstage and I mess up, talking to the crowd, saying a certain word, they're going to understand what I'm saying anyways. I feel like everyone speaks a little bit of everything these days. It was really cool to feel accepted, you know?

For sure. And you're a "dura in training," I saw.

[Laughs] It's kind of an inside joke because Yankee and Natti constantly use the terms like that song, es muy dura la canción, or ella es muy dura. And Natti's thing was like "la dura de las duras." The best chick of all the chicks. I think it's so cool, and when they totally embraced me in that little family that they have, it was one of those situations where I was like, oh my god, I just felt embraced by them as like a little sister. They took me in, kind of guiding me — when we were recording the "Sin Pijama" song and also when we were recording the "Dura" remix, they were super hands-on with me recording my parts, and super encouraging. Like, maybe you should sing this line like this, or with a little bit of this accent, and emphasize on this part. Just for them to take the time to do that — Natti, as another female in this industry, we really do have the same message and believe in the same thing of empowering each other and building each other up, and she was totally hands-on in that sense, like a big sister, and for Yankee to do the same, he's like the king of reggaeton. That's why when I saw dura in training, I feel like they have swag in their own right, they've accomplished so many things, and for them to take the time to guide me was really awesome.

That's so great. Can you tell us a little about where you're taking your music from here?

For me personally, as the years have gone by, and for feeling kind of like my creativity was suppressed for some time, and I was constantly being put in a box just to check it, and being told to only stay in that box, once I learned the power of my own voice and the power of the fans and having that stronger connection with them, and finding ways to really get your vision through to the people around you and creating a safe space with the people around you, I realized you know what? I'm going to jump out of this box that they're putting me in, and I'm just going to jump into whatever I'm feeling at that moment.

I've been working on more English music. I released a song not too long ago called "Zooted" with Farruko and French Montana, and it wasn't an official single or anything, it was kind of just to put it out there and let people know that this is kind of the vibe I'm going for. I think my last impression on the English market was pop music, and it was music that didn't really represent my message. I think too, when you're young, you don't really know what you're capable of or what you're allowed to do. Now the English music that I'm making is 100 percent a side of me that's so authentic and so genuine, and that's the side of me that's more urban, a little bit R&B influenced, a little bit of that Latin flavor. That's going to be coming very soon, which I'm really excited for.

It's like building pillars for me. I kind of want to set all these pillars in place to create a new platform for my sound, because I don't think people have seen this side of me yet. I'm not talking about smash number one hits right out the door, but more so pace-setting songs for my fans to kind of live with and digest, and kind of get familiar with me singing music of this style, if that makes any sense.

It does. I like that you're thinking in terms of the fans adjusting to changes, but sticking to the changes you want to make.

I'm totally looking for longevity. I'm not trying to find — I've done the one-hit wonder thing before, and don't get me wrong, songs like "Shower" really did teach me a lot of things: Good things and maybe not the most positive things, but it did teach me that a song can be bigger than the artist, and it can take on a life of its own. I was very fortunate that that song was mine, but that song wasn't written with me in mind, let alone was it a style of music that I wanted to continue singing. I think my fans could see that. I think people who loved the song loved the song but didn't know who I was. And so now, moving forward, take away the numbers of views and social media — I just want to make good music that means something to me. And that kind of captures these moments in my life, and like I said, that may be more rap music, that may be more R&B music, that may be more ballads, that may be more, I don't know, reggae-type songs. The truth is I can't say I am one genre because I am inspired by everything, and that's kind of created this overall sound.

What do you think the through-line is, then? What ties it all together as a representation of you?

I've been super transparent since day one about my upbringing and who I am and how I was raised. Being born here in Los Angeles, which is one of the most mixed-culture places you could possibly live in when it comes to fashion, when it comes to music, when it comes to food, the people. Growing up in what I guess people would call the hood, but I call it home, in Inglewood, growing up going to school with kids who only spoke Spanish and the other 50 percent were African-American kids who listened to hip-hop music and my parents would play Tupac and Biggie and TLC, and I'm a '90s baby, so I grew up on '90s music, and my parents had me super young, and I would listen to Brandy and Christina Aguilera. I was never limited when it came to that catalog of music. You can even say, because of the quote Chicano background in L.A., even the lowrider oldies, to my parents playing James Brown and Etta James, the inspiration literally goes on forever. When I think of things in the studio, it's all drawn from those moments in my life.

Like, I just recorded my first country song with Kane Brown, and I don't think anybody was expecting that! But little did they know, I grew up listening to country music: Brad Paisley, Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Rascal Flatts, the Dixie Chicks. That is stuff that I also grew up on, so it's not something that's like, fake, you know? All these things are authentic layers to my artistry, and my inspirations.

I'm really looking forward to hearing what's next.

I'm genuinely super excited to dive back into the English side but with a new sense of self, where I can finally be who I am, because I know who I am now. And obviously continue doing what I'm doing as far as the Latin market goes, because it's a genuine passion of mine to keep pushing those boundaries. Since I started in the Latin space, the walls that we've managed to tear down for women in music and urban music and the people that I've had the opportunity to collaborate with, has been so educational and inspiring. I'm just super excited for this year.

I hope it's clear to everyone, when they hear a single like "LBD," that it doesn't mean you're abandoning the Latin market.

Not at all. More present than ever! And that's the thing, what I really want people to understand is that they can't make an artist choose one or the other, when both are very much so part of the artist. Both sides of the music that I create, the Spanish side and the English side, are so true to who I am, and they mirror each other but they're not the same, and I like that. I don't want to just record an English version of a Spanish song because I have to. Sometimes the translations come out super cheesy and don't make any sense, and to me, that's when people are doing it to get a bang for their buck, and make more money. Nah, I just want to make good music. As far as being present in both markets, obviously I'm much more established right now in the Latin market than in the English, and I'm super excited to get down and dirty and kind of build something from the ground up. It's going to be a very humbling experience but it's exciting because it's something that's really true to who I am. I think one's going to feed off the other eventually, but they're kind of in different places — I'm on one level in the Latin industry right now and kind of starting from the ground up in English. But it doesn't scare me, it feels right.

[twenty-nothing]

OneHundredSeventyFive

Books

Which book series was the first you read?

- Junie B. Jones

What was the last book you read? - Joyland by Stephen King

Would you rather write a book or direct a movie? - Direct a movie

Dreams

Do you usually remember your dreams?

- The good ones yeah, very few linger past 48 hours though

Are most of your dreams good, scary or just plain weird?

- Good

What dream that you’ve had has stuck in your head the most? Describe: - Went through something terrifying with a group of people and ended up getting engaged to one of them because the event bonded us.

Emotions

What emotion do you find yourself trying to hide from others?

- My depression/loneliness 

How emotional/sentimental would you say you are? - Very much so

Do your emotions control you or do you control your emotions? - They control me for sure

Fun

What do you do for fun?

- Watch TV, read books, go for walks, listen to music

Which is more fun: cycling, watching tv, roller coaster ride or cooking? - Cycling

What is the funnest game to play? - Cards Against Humanities 

Geometry

Nearest square thing to you?

- Side table

What was the last circular thing you ate? - A container of queso? lmao

Is there anything triangular in the room you’re in right now? - No

Height

Are you taller or shorter than average?

- Short I would say, 5′4′’

Is your Mum tall or short? How about your Dad? - My parents are on the shorter side. Mom 5′3′’ and Dad 5′8′’

Do you wish you were taller or shorter? - I’m good with my height

If…

If you became pregnant or your partner did, what would you do?

- I don’t think I’d be mentally ready but I finally got a good paying job, great health insurance and all so I think I would keep it

If you lost something your friend lent to you, what would you do? - Feel horrible and offer to replace it

If you had to talk about 1 subject for a minute live on TV, which one? - What makes a good restaurant

Jokes

Do you normally tell jokes or listen to the jokes?

- Tell them but I like a mix of both

What is your sense of humor like (dry, dark, sarcastic etc)? - Sarcastic

Kisses

Do you put x’s in your text messages?

- Nope

When did you last have a kiss? - It’s been a few years

Does your grandma give you big sloppy kisses when she sees you? - No, we just hug each other

Language

How many languages can you say ‘hello my name is…’ in?

- Two, English and French

What language do you think sounds the nicest? - French

What language do you want to learn more of? - French lol

Marriage

Do you ever want to get married?

- Yes

Church or Registry Office? - Registry Office

Dream wedding? - I’d like something simple and nice, with not too many people

Names

Your closest friends names?

- Lisa and Elaine

What names would you ever call your kids? - Lily or Angie for girl and Paul for boy

What name is the cutest for a little black and white doggie? - No idea lol

Order

Are you tidy?

- I like to say I am but I’m not really

Do you colour code things or put them in alphabetical order? - It depends what it is lol My DVDs are in alphabetical order and my nail polish is color coded

Do you have any form of OCD? - Nope

Promises

Do you make promises often?

- Not really. I make them when other people ask me to promise something, but it doesn’t happen often

What was the last promise you made? - I don’t remember, it has been a while

Do you plan to keep that promise? - ^^

Quizzes

What types of online quizzes/surveys do you like taking? - I love taking personality quizzes. As for surveys, I like the random and themed ones the most

Have you ever made a quiz? What was it about? - Nope

Have you ever taken an EQ or IQ test? If so, what did you get? - I haven’t

Secrets

Do you have a lot of secrets?

- I have a couple

“A secret isn’t a secret if you tell one person.” Is this true to you? - Yes if they will go around telling everyone

Thought Provoking

If you knew you had a high chance of dying, would you kill yourself before disease riddled you unable or hope for the best?

- If I had an illness that slowly and painfully killed me, then yes

Choose a box: 1 has a large amount of money, the other either a wish or fear of yours come true. Which do you pick? - The amount of money, I’m sure that will help me make a wish come true

An angel comes to you and offers to show you one thing from the future or the past; past or future and what is that thing gonna be? - The future, my life in 10 years

Unlucky

Would you say you are more unlucky or lucky?

- Unlucky

A leprechaun pops up and offers to plant some luck on you but it could go either way. Risk it or dismiss it? - Yeah what the fuck, I’m never very lucky anyway so might as well risk it

Violence

When did you last hit or punch someone?

- Junior high

When did you last get hit or punched? - Never been hit or punched

Are you more likely to be verbally aggressive or physically? - Verbal

Warnings

Do you listen when someone gives you a warning?

- Sometimes, I need to learn to listen more

What warning has someone gave you that you wish you’d have listened to? - To stay far far away from my last job

What warning has someone gave you you are glad you didn’t take? - Community college won’t get you anywhere, you better go to a 4 year school

XXX

Have you ever had sex?

- Yes

Have you ever accidentally saw someone having sex? - No

YouTube

Do you go onto YouTube?

- Yes

What is your favourite video of on YouTube? - I like lyric videos,food reviews, mukbangs, disney vlogs, asmr

What channels do you go on the most? - Steph Pappas, TheTimTracker

Zodiac

What’s your star sign?

Cancer

What are the traits of that sign? Do you have them? Emotional, sensitive, strong willed and all of them fit me

What zodiac sign do you think you suit the most?

- Mine 100%

Number 1

Name me 1 person who has changed your life for the better?

- Matt, learned a lot through that bullshit

Name me 1 object that’s in your kitchen right now? - Fridge

Name one creature that freaks you out/scares you? - Spiders

Number 2

2nd person that you talked to today was…

- Only talked to one person today

What is 2 times your favorite number? - 34

You and two of your friends have got in trouble with the law. Who are the 2 friends you have got in trouble with and what did you do? - Lisa and Elaine and I dont know some stupid shit

Number 3

3 words that don’t describe you at all:

- Mean, simple, creative

Who is 3rd in your contacts list on your phone? - Aunt Ang

In 3 more days, what will the date be? - April 4th

[parentinging]

Katherine Ryan on Potty training and Sign language

Comedian Katherine Ryan talks about teaching her daughter sign language and potty training her at ten months in the fourth episode of her podcast Telling Everybody Everything, released April 29 2020.

Click here to listen on stitcher (0:22:42 - 0:30:53) , or keep reading for a transcript

Transcript:

“Do you know what? This might be a really good time to talk about potty training because people ask me again and again how I managed to potty train my daughter by ten months. I have people email - their children are two and three - and they say “Well, I haven’t potty trained my child yet. How did you do it by ten months?” Well guess what. Age two, age three - you’re too late. This is a wild concept for western people to fathom, but please trust me. When you put a nappy on a baby you are training them and absence of training is still training.

So the baby grows up. And sure when you’re really small you can’t feel when you need to go to the toilet. You can’t speak. You can’t verbally ask if you need to go to the toilet. So I understand. But please don’t think for a second that they’re not been trained. So they think that’s normal. “When I have to pee I go in my nappy. Fine” They live their lives. All of a sudden you decide as parents - and it’s not your fault, this is what western culture teaches us to do. “Oh, he’s 18 months. She’s two years old. Now I’m gonna potty train.” Now the child has already been trained one thing and you’ve chosen the time in their mental developing when they are so headstrong. And they’ll fight you on it. They’ll be like “Sorry, no. I’ve actually already learned how to go to the toilet and it’s in my nappy. And I’m gonna go hide behind the couch and take a shit now, because you’re trying to change my vibe. I am getting a sense of self. I know who I am. I know what I like. Good luck.”

So I’m afraid that if you want to do it my way, and you don’t have to, but if you want to, it’s way too late, like 18 months. The way I did it was: I did not have a regular job. I worked in an office, but I went on maternity leave when Violet was born. And I decided that because daycare cost more than what I was earning in the office, that I would never go back. I looked at Violet, I looked at my lifestyle and I was like “augh, I have to make this work on my own and the best way to do that is to work harder than I have been at stand up comedy, and try to be a stand up comedian, because then I can work at night; I can be with my daughter all day.

So I have the great privilege of being home with my daughter all day. And then when I went to festivals, when I went to stand up gigs, I brought my daughter all those places. So we were simpatico. We were together all the time. And around thr... when did I first give her solid food? I think you’re not supposed to do it until six months, but around four months I started giving Violet bananas and milk. And for the first time when they have solid food, you can tell by the look on their face or you get to know their schedule, if they need to go to the toilet. I already talked about shit way too much in this episode. Alright. And if you don’t have kids, you can be like a smug prick who delivers this new information to your nieces, your nephews, your sisters, your friends. Because do you know what? It is a public service. I am around children who are four and five years old, eating McDonalds and shitting in nappies and I don’t deserve to live that way. If you have a neurotypical child of that age of development, if you haven’t trained them to go on the toilet, I don’t wanna be in a public space with you. That’s not what society is to me. If you have a neurodynamic child and they have separate challenges, fine, I’m not talking about you. So, keep your pants on.

I could tell by the look on her face that she needed to go to the toilet, and I just thought to myself, because I had nothing better to do. I didn’t even have a phone back then. I just thought “I think it would be quite difficult going in a nappy. I wouldn’t like that” So I took her nappy off, and I just held her over the little potty that I had. After she went to the toilet, which might have been an accident, but it happened, I was like “Oh, cool. Good for you.” Praise, praise, praise. Left the nappy off a while. So she has like some reward of just comfort, no nappy. Get her used to that feeling. I was still bored. I decided to teach Violet sign language when she was about six months old. She started signing back when she was maybe eigth months old? Seven months old? There are people who say “Well if you teach them sign langage, they’ll never speak.” That is as crazy as if you said “Well if they crawl, they’ll never walk.” Of course they’ll walk. Crawling is a step to walking for a lot of babies just like signing is a step to speaking for a lot of babies because it teaches them power over their own communication. It teaches them that they can ask for what they want and have a dialogue and have autonomy over their own lifestyle. According to me, anyway. That’s what I thought.

If you sign without speaking, sure, they might be delayed in their speach, but you always speak and sign. Signs that babies really like are different animals, different foods, apple, cheese, cracker. Those are good ones. Hot, cold. Really important to teach them if they go to grab for something and you say “No, no that’s hot,” and you sign “hot”. Inside, outside, help, park, mummy, daddy, grandma, granpa, eat. They like... oh, milk is funny. We were in a grocery store and Violet was nine months old and she saw a woman with, like, huge fake boobs. It wasn’t me, it was a different woman. And she looked at me, rolled her eyes and did the sign for milk. How we laughed.

So Violet had banter from nine months, because I empowered her with sign language. And another one of those signs - Oh, careful. Careful, it’s just the letter C on your eyebrow, and you, like, jut it out. You put the letter C over your eye and you go “rrr” outwards. Careful. That was useful.

That is still useful today. When Violet is acres away from me in a park and she’s doing something with the pony, I don’t have to shout. We’re not a loud family. And I just sign careful on my eye and she signs me careful back. It’s just a way of bein like “yee”. So useful, careful. And another one is potty. Potty is kind of hard to sign because it’s your middle finger on your shoulder, so I would sign “change your nappy”, which is like bouncing your wrists kind of. So we  just - You can make up any sign in the house, it doesn’t have to be, like, British Sign Language. Any sign that’s meaningful to you, you can just sign it. Tired is another good one. Stops them from crying. They’ll just be like “Yo, I’m tired,” put them to bed.

So when I put her on the potty, I would mix that with the sign language. If she went to the potty, now I would sign “potty,” potty, good job, leave her nappy off. So she clicked really quickly that as soon as she could sign me back, she could start asking for the potty. And she did. Because she was never trained to go in her pants, we totally skipped that step. So by the time she was ten months it just naturally... I don’t know how. It just taught her more control over the toilet. She didn’t ever need a nappy at night. She would start asking to pee on the potty, she would start asking to go to the potty all the time. And if she didn’t ask, and I had the luxury of being home with her, after feeding her, after, like, a little while, I would just stick her on the potty and read her a book or something. It really does take a lot of hands on parenting. And I totally understand that most of us - I mean not right now, now is the perfect time to potty train your infant, or just start, but you can always instruct the nanny or your mom or whoever is looking after the baby when you’re at work to do that stuff. And a lot of them will think you’re crazy, and they won’t comply. Well guess what, fire them. Because you’ll be doing the nursery school workers a great service.

This does work. Please try it. Please do it, because not only does it give your child the benefit of autonomy, like no stranger was ever changing Violet’s nappy when she was little. I hated that idea. Like to send her somewhere and have the, like, indignity of her laying on her back, being like “ok, change my nappy.” Like she was just not... I could tell by her personality she wouldn’t be with that. She didn’t ever have to do that. It taught her a lot about the power of her own voice, that she could ask for things she wanted that she could be in control of something. And I never punished her if she had an accident. There were accidents, but it’s just like, “Here’s what we do: We go to the potty in the potty.” And most eastern countries do this from a way younger age than us. I think we’re really messed up with, like, “Oh, swaddle your baby and put them away in a cold room far away from you.” Do you see any other animal putting their babies in a different nest? You don’t.”

[panda-plumbobs]

sim my life tag

by @panda-plumbobs (wait, I made this tag? 😂)

rules: reimagine / recreate a few photos / memories that show something important about you or your life... in the sims! feel free to discuss what they show, and then tag some friends to join in the fun!

IT’S FINALLY HERE - the get-to-know-me-followers-gift-tag-thing I have been talking about for far too long! I’ve put way too much time into this but I’m really happy with the end result, and I hope this lets anyone new here get to know a little bit more about the simmer behind the plumbob that runs this crazy little blog 💕

As this is a followers gift (x2!!) I just wanted to say thank you to anyone and everyone who has ever followed or supported me - I love you all so much, as well as the simblr community! I’m going to be tagging all those who have been even more than that, whether they are friends, people I have chatted to, people who have inspired me, have been super active or just friendly in general, so if you are tagged at the end of this post, know that you are extra special to me and you are the best!! 😊

The first actual screenshot of this post shows five pictures that actually exist in my house - or as close as I could get them to look like the ones irl! You can consider the other screenies (5, 6 + 7) to be more based on memories and experiences, as well as just showcases of things about me! This is going to be a hefty and long post so I’ve put under the cut for you beautiful people. With all the admin stuff out of the way, let’s get right into it! ✨

1. ‘bright as a jewel, beautiful as a flower’ ~ Hi. You probably all know me as panda, p or the elusive A from the gallery (not A from PLL, I promise 😏), but of course, I’m not actually called panda, as that would be a kinda cool but unfortunate name. I have disclosed my name to a couple of people over message, but never publicly so...Hi. My name is Amber (it’s actually Amber Rose surname but Rose is a middle name, so I usually drop it when introducing myself, and thus explaining the quote so often used by mother to explain the name). Anyway, good to finally introduce myself to y’all! The picture above is obviously not when I was born, as I definitely didn’t come out looking that fabulous 17 years ago. No, this is an edit done by Grandma of my christening, 5 months after 05/09, my birthday. Of course, I don’t remember any of it, but it happened in my mum’s childhood-home-local-church, at the time almost an hour away from where we lived.

2. ‘splish, splash, splosh’ ~ By the time I turned two, we moved closer to my grandparent’s on my mum's side, who didn’t live too far off the coast. We lived more centrally in UK prior on the outskirts of a city, so moving there (or back, in my mum’s circumstances) to a rural and much smaller community was a big change. I personally can’t even remember my time in the city, as I was so young. I do remember our times on the beach after we moved. We’d go very often, and we’d play in the sea, make sandcastles, walk our old dog Sam... the pictures above were taken in one of the colder months during this time - and was taken and edited by my grandma once again.

3. ‘she smiles because she is my sister, she laughs because there is nothing i can do about it...’ ~ Not too long after the move, my one and only sibling, my sister came along. I think it’s fair to say that although I have always disliked her, found her incredibly annoying and referred to her as the spawn of satan multiple times, there is some love there. We do occasionally get on very well, but other times it’s like there is a war going on between us! However, things do always resolve themselves... but not for long 😂

4. ‘although i cannot see you, i feel your presence near. i will hold you close in memory, till I drop my very last tear.’ ~ In December 2013, my grandma passed away after battling cancer for many years. This was the first death in the family, and the first death of someone so close to me I had experienced. Although it sounds super big headed, as her first born grandchild I always her favourite, and even though she was very traditional, we were always very close. I’ve always been quite unemotional, so it didn’t really hit me she was gone until I was making shortbread biscuits in FT, and I broke down. Most people thought that it was because my biscuits went so badly... The photo here was taken on the same day that photo 3 was and before she got really ill, and I’m almost certain that the quote is from a poem I wrote in a card for her coffin.

5.  ‘divorce isn’t such a tragedy. a tragedy is staying in an unhappy marriage.’ ~ This photo is more of a what-if, as we went on many camping holidays when we were a family. In mid-2013, my mum and dad separated, and finally got officially divorced last year. The family was pretty much broken when my sister and I were born - my dad was always very restrictive with money, and we always only had the bare minimum we needed to survive, let alone live a good, happy life, even though we had plenty of money for that. My parents would constantly argue and fell out of love because this - so things had to change. I know that the splitting-up of parents affects most people in a big way, but this has never affected me that much. I feel as though I have never had a relationship with my dad, even though I lived with him for most of my life. Now, both of my parents have moved on and are happy in new relationships - I only see my dad a couple of times a month and have never met his new partner. But none of this has changed me, and to be honest, I think everyone in my family is a better person because of it.

6. ‘aspire and achieve’ ~ School has obviously been a massive part of my life. I followed the same line as most kids in England up to secondary school. I did a year at my local secondary before I moved over to another school, a bit further away with no one I knew attending but much smaller with higher ratings. Moving there was the best decision I ever made. I improved academically and socially, gaining loads of new friends and skills.Last year, I sat my GCSEs, and came out with 5 A*s, 3 As, and a B - I couldn’t have been happier. I’m now attending a large city college to do AS levels in English Language and Literature, Sociology, Geography and Film Studies this next summer, and even though I’ve only been going for 3 weeks - I’m loving every second of it!

7. ‘my face looks like the moon!’ ~ It’s been a long journey to finding myself, and I have changed so much as a person over my 17 years. I used to be really shy, never look at people when they spoke to me... but now I’m probably too confident, as I always let my opinion come first 😂 My personality type is INFP-J and star sign Virgo - both of which apply extremely strongly to me, and basically any description you can find of either is always highly relatable to me. I’ve always been unique and individual, not following the crowd, as well as a bit of a geek - a perfectionist, intelligent, organised and thriving on the Internet. However, I do have a girly side: one part of me that has stayed since I was young was my self-consciousness about my body, and I certainly have acne (which is subtly in the picture), not in such a bad way that I need to take medication, but it has bothered me for a very long time (show by the direct quote for this selection of screenies 😂).  I feel as though makeup is a fun and effective way of making myself look how I want, and although I’m not into as much as I was, I still love it! I also love to read, and have way too many books that I have bought and have got round to reading due to school texts, as well as clothes and fashion!

8. ‘always classy, never trashy and a little bit sassy’ ~ These final screenies are of me at my prom this summer just gone! My whole look was inspired by Clary from the Mortal Instruments, as well as Grecian style as I knew I was going on holiday to Crete only a few weeks after! Although it pissed it down all night, it was a great event and a huge celebration for not only completing and doing well in my exams but also how far I have come as a person in the last 4 years especially - my achievements, my friends and my personality as a whole. I’ll miss my old school and friends, but I’ll never get anywhere if I don’t move on - university, seeing the world, falling in love - I want to experience it all. College is the first step, and who knows what will happen from there. But I’ll never forget where I’ve come from and the people and events that have made me the person I am today 💫

I tag all of the people that have made these past six months so memorable on here: @inevitablesims, @tiredtoothache, @vividlore, @calisimgirl, @littlemissnellie and @sunlitsims! I love you guys so much and I hope you have fun doing this little thing I’ve created 🤗 Also if you fancy doing this tag and I haven’t tagged you here:

😂😂😂 Honestly please do - I’d love to see your take on this! Just say I tagged you as I would love to see it! 💞 I used my simself and family in this tag, but if you don’t feel comfortable using your simself or any other people you know irl (family and friends), then you could just use placeholders, blur their faces out or just do memories or photos that don’t include certain people - this tag can be as personal as you want, and as long as your followers get to know a little more about you, it really doesn’t matter 😄 Also with it being the lead up to Simblrween, I don’t mind of anyone I’ve tagged here puts it off until after then!

DISCLAIMER: I inspired this off Draw My Life videos on YouTube - I know people have done Sim My Life videos before, but they have often just followed a simself through a new life in the game - not really remaining totally close to the actual events that have happened to them in the past. I don’t think anyone has done this as a tag before (or anything similar) on Simblr, but if someone has done it before, I am deeply sorry that I overlooked this and I owe full credit of the idea to the person who came up with the original tag!

I hope you guys liked this, as well as my new small but personal updates to my theme! I love you all so much!! 💞

[bhersh11188-blog]

What makes a mother?

What makes a mother? I have thought about this countless times over my 22 years of life. Is it a woman that teaches you how to braid your hair for the first day of school? Or how about she is the one that talks to you first about boys and periods? Maybe it’s just someone who sees you and loves you unconditionally (while still reminding you to clean your room and not to forget about your homework). At least, that’s what I imagine it like.

I have zero knowledge about what makes a mother. Mine decided she didn’t want the job and left in the middle of the night when I was almost 4 years old. I spent years going between anger, relief, emptiness, and finally landed on apathy. I understood as I got older that she had to leave and it was probably for the best. She is bi-polar and after my little sister was born, she battled intense postpartum depression. But after a while I just didn’t know any different. Now never get me wrong, I love my dad. He’s a great, strong man for raising me and my sisters alone after she left. But a relationship with your father isn’t the same as one with a mother. He taught me to climb trees, play softball, be curious about the world, make solid friendships and don’t take them for granted, and to always speak my mind (even if I don’t like talking to people). 

But over the last few years, my mother has tried to wiggle herself back into our lives. Lots of things have happened, good and bad, but at the end of the day there are plenty of rumors and negative thoughts going around about individuals I care deeply about. I need my voice to finally be heard. 

She left when I was 4 and moved to Texas. I have very few memories of her for the following 8 years. I remember spending weekends at my Aunts’ house, where she occasionally showed up. I was a kid and didn’t really know much of what was going on, and I still don’t. But I remember two times in particular. Once I guess she was taking a class at the local community college, and she taught me sign language, and then one year she came up during the summer and I watched my first olympics. I remember being memorized by the gymnasts and wanting to be that talented in something someday.

That’s it. For 8 years I remember 2 weekends with her. There may have been more, I’m sure there was, but I have no memory of them. Then around 12 she moved back. Got out of a bad relationship, and very quickly found herself with another guy. They got married and she was living only 20 minutes away from my house. A part of me was extremely excited. Mostly over the fact that I now had brothers. But also, tentatively, that I might get to see her more often and start to have a relationship with her. 

Fast forward another 4 years. I’m 16. Despite being 20 minutes away, I didn’t see her much more often than I had all those years she was out of state. When I did see her, it was mostly because my brother had driven out to get me and wanted to hang out with me. But there I am, sitting in my youth group, talking about forgiveness. These talks come up a lot, such as is the case at many churches, especially around angsty teens, but this night was different. I felt God pulling at my heart. I had to let go of my anger and bitterness for all the pain she had caused me over my life. I had to let go, not for her, but for myself. Part of the exercise that night was to write a note, so I did. And I sent it to her. After that I made an effort to get to know her better. I had my license and a car, so I would drive over. For a few years things were good. We would rent movies and get pizza and my younger brother, myself, my mom, and her husband would hang out.

When I left for college everything was as good as it had ever been for me. My whole family was getting along for the first time ever. I even remember after about a month and half at college my mom just called to say ‘hi’ one day and I broke down crying and confessing I was having a really hard time making friends. She listened and talked me through it and I actually felt better. I thought ‘this is what having a mom is like’. But then a year and a half later, she left her husband and moved in with my older sister. My brothers have since practically fallen off the face of the planet. I guess we aren’t siblings anymore. That alone tore my heart to pieces. 

Halfway through my junior year at college, she decides to take a weekend trip to California and see an old friend. I’m at school, trying to focus hard on organic chemistry and genetics, and all the other pre-med crazy courses, so I don’t notice anything unusual. Until I get a call from my older sister. My mom had written her and my younger sister letters, telling them she is going to be staying in California and moving in with this old boyfriend of hers. She never wrote to me. I found out a week after everyone else knew, through someone else. Easy to say, my grades that year suffered.

A while after that I got back into counseling. It helped. I was able to work through all those old feelings of abandonment, anger, resentment, etc. all over again. This time though, I had someone along the way to help me. 

My (now husband) and I had been dating for 6 years and he had asked me to marry him. I was ecstatic. Right up until we had to start planning the wedding guest list. Being the the amazing, kind man he is, he convinced me to be the better person and send one to my mother. After a lot of conversing, praying, and arguing, I finally agreed. 

Fast forward one last time to 2 weeks before my wedding. She shows up acting all happy and excited I’m getting married. Until she gets me alone and asks to go for a walk. Here I am expecting some kind of apology for her leaving once again and not telling me and having years go by without us speaking. Instead, she turns to me and asks if this was what I really wanted. She then told me the story of her first marriage and how her dad had asked her that, but being stubborn she had gone through with her marriage, even though she didn’t want it. 

I guess in her own twisted way, she thought she was doing me a favor. That just maybe after almost 7 years with this great guy, I would decide to take the out just because she offered it. I was fuming, but politely smiled and said this was definitely what I wanted, and if I didn’t want to get married, I wouldn’t be. She seemed to accept my answer and we walked back to the rest of the family.

2 days before my wedding she gets in a fight with my older sister. My mother then tells her that she thinks all 3 of her daughters are in unhealthy relationships and are throwing their lives away. I instantly started sobbing when I heard that. How could she judge my relationship, when she didn’t even know me as a person? She refused to go to the rehearsal dinner the next night, and I was beyond relieved. I thought maybe she knew she was being crazy and that wasn’t welcome. It’s my wedding, the happiest time of my life, surely everyone could hold their drama until later. But she couldn’t.

it was my wedding day, nothing was going to bring me down. Or so I thought. The afternoon of my wedding came the photographer called us all together to get some pictures. She called for the bride’s family and as my dad, my sisters, my husband and myself go walking down, my mom decides to join. It was extremely uncomfortable. Not just emotionally, she was pinching my husband during the picture. But I figured it wasn’t the end of the world, so nobody said anything. But when my grandmother (my mom’s mom) asked to get a picture with herself, me and my husband, my dad, and my sisters, the drama exploded. My mom was beyond upset she wasn’t invited in the picture, but honestly, my grandma understood that they are divorced. And who takes a family picture with a divorced couple in it? She was going to have one with my dad and then one with my mom. But before the second picture could get taken, my mom stormed out of the reception and locked herself in her car in the parking lot. Luckily my younger sister is a master at controlling drama, and never let this get to me until after I came back from the honeymoon. At that point, my mom had not only been telling everyone that would listen that we were terrible daughters who ignored her for no reason, but she called CPS on my older sister. The allegations were completely unfounded and the police (of course) found nothing and dismissed the whole thing, but my mom continues to tell her side of the family my sister is an unfit mother, the police are still conducting an investigation, etc. It’s all lies. So then for the third time in my life, she vanished without telling us she was leaving, and went to Virginia. Last I heard she was living in her car, not working, and disowning her sister who called the police for a wellness check on her.

Now there are lots and lots of people in my life that have never heard this story. I don’t like to start drama or talk poorly about anybody, especially behind their backs, but my family that isn’t talking to me or my sisters because of what my mother has said is a shame. The truth needs to be told. So to answer my original question, this isn’t a mother. A mother helps, and doesn’t hurt. In which case, I’ve had a lot of real mothers over the years. Amazing women that, related or not, have taken me in. Women that have taught me how to cook, how to be in a healthy relationship, how to care about myself and others around me, how to never let anything stop me from reaching my goals, but most importantly, how to be a kind, considerate, compassionate, strong, successful, loving person. Those are the women I’m proud to call my moms. Those are the ones I reach out to every mothers day and say thank you.