#not a new post just backing up stuff from bird app!

[pancakeis]

Zhichu Interview for JJWXC (2021)

　　JJWXC’s signed author, Zhichu. Born by the Yangtze River, has a passionate love for all beautiful things. The writing journey began in the summer of 2018; creating and writing is a process of becoming more aware of the world. It has allowed me many rewarding experiences, as well as a continuous growth. 

　　

　　Q1：What is the origin of the pen name ‘Zhichu’?

　　A：The pen name actually originated from my profile page’s name The Child Born in Chu [1]. I’m a child of Wuhan; when I was young, my parents mostly read “Urban Chu Daily News” (such a distant memory haha). At that time, I couldn’t come up with anything good for a pen name,  then I happened to have a meal in the Chu River Han Street [2]. Suddenly an idea sprang up, and the rest was history.

[1]: the area nearby Chu River, a tributary of the Yangtze River

[2]: the new landmark of Wuhan. More info here and here

　　Q2：What made you decide to publish on Jinjiang?

　　A：To be honest, it began in the 2018 summer break. I was very free, lazing around at home and reading so many novels on JJ. One time experiencing the void [3], I suddenly had this urge to write something myself, so I told my mom, “Mom, I want to write novels.”

My mom said, “Then go and write, don’t say empty words.”

I’m more of the “actions speak louder than words” type, and with the push from my mom’s words, I went ahead and did it in the heat of the moment (my mom knows really well how to motivate me). When writing the first book, “BE-obsessing Survival System”, I suddenly realised that, creating your own characters and story is an amazing process. What I find even more inconceivable, is to have so many adorable readers giving comments and support. It was completely beyond my initial expectation.

[3]: the void left behind by a really good book

　　Q3：Do you have outlines or drafts when writing?

　　A：Don’t have such detailed outlines. I’ll draw mind maps, but usually the initial idea and the final product are two different entities altogether. Because my writing is more of an immersive style, towards the latter stage, the characters will develop their own consciousness to alter the plot developments. I do have saved drafts, except for the first title [4]. The newer works all have at least a 10k-word draft saved, however the daily updates were basically freshly written.

[4]: Referring to Zhichu’s first book BE System

　　

　　Q4：What has motivated you to serialise your novels?

　　A：Readers. I’m a procrastinator, so setting up a deadline for myself is very much needed. I’m also really afraid of disappointing others; when I think about readers waiting to read the updates every night at 9 o’clock, I’m fueled with determination to finish writing ahead of that time. Reading the comments grants me an immense happiness, a sense of achievement and pleasure that nothing else can bring about. I can still remember the username of the very first commenter. Really, very thankful.

　　

　　Q5：What are your usual hobbies?

　　A：Listening to songs, music inspires me a lot. Watching movies, reading books, scrolling through everyone’s comments, noting down nice eateries and gathering with friends at said eateries for a meal. Eating good food makes me very happy.

　　

　　Q6：Any genre that you really want to try your hand at?

　　A：Too many! I love sci-fi and supernatural very much. I’m a horror film enthusiast, but because I love it so much, I keep delaying, don’t dare to start writing it. However, in the future I’ll continue trying my hand at various styles, because I really don’t like to confine myself in a fixed scope of writing.

　　

　　Q7：What kind of style and characters can we expect from your next book?

　　A：Hopefully I can convey a really cool style of writing. Characters’ personas are: a shou whom you don’t know when he’ll be forced to transform himself from a pure and holy angel into a maniacal black lotus, and a big boss gong who is both languid and melancholic, showing a lack of interest towards everyone and everything except for the shou. Two people, evenly matched in power, yet strikingly different from each other. A new attempt, I hope everyone will like it.

　　

　　Q8：Anything to tell your readers?

　　A：What I want to say is the same as every time I end a book -- really, very, very thankful towards everyone for supporting my works. I’m someone with not too much self-confidence, and my health isn’t good either. Serialising a novel is both very lonely and taxing, but seeing your words and encouragement in the comments give me the strength to carry on. It’s also you who pull me out from the endless sunken loop of self-doubting, therefore I always want to express my gratitude towards all of you, no matter how many times. I’m only a flawed human being, not a persona that someone came up with, so I want to thank you too, for your tolerance towards me. 

Although started off as an impulse, I treat writing with lots of sincerity. Writing, and everything I’ve experienced ever since I began writing, have allowed me to grow into a new self. It’s thanks to your presence throughout this process that I could persevere. It’s hard to imagine that we’re friends who communicate solely through written words, because I have received so much warmth and kindness from all of you. Perhaps this is the value of writing and reading ba.

Love you all, sincerely wishing each of you safety and happiness.

---

Raw: JJWXC

Translation: keishi

First posted on Twitter @_keikaku

[gremlin-girly]

It's a Wonderful Life

A Bucky Barnes Christmas fic

Tags/warnings: ANGST, FLUFF, mentions of suicide/depression/abuse/ptsd, post end game, Steve went back, generally depressing stuff but it's a happy ending :)

Not beta'd. I do not give permission for my work to be translated, copied or reposted or put through an AI machine.

Summary: based upon the film of the same name. On Christmas Eve, Bucky takes a walk and meets a stranger who assures him life is worth living.

Word count : 2.9k (2977)

A/N: Merry Christmas everyone! ☺️ sorry to make it so sad - I may come back amd edit parts but I dont know yet! I apologise for any mistakes etc etc. And there's another note at the very end! - Love, Grem x

Dividers by: @/saradika-graphics

Bucky Barnes Collection | Navigation

Christmas Eve in New York was always cold and today was no exception. Bucky wasn't sure how far he'd walked, but he was at a bridge not far from the city, watching the lights wink in the distance.

Leaning on the stone ledge, breathing into his gloved hands to (at the very least) keep his flesh hand warm, he did what he had been doing since the moment he blipped back; think about his entire existence and the lead up to this point, here on the bridge, on Christmas Eve.

The water below whooshed by quickly although you couldn't see the inky mass below. It was loud, almost too loud to hear himself think. He sighed, dropping his hands to the metal railing stuck into the stones.

What was the point of it all?

Bucky wondered, staring into the black void below, if he'd ever truly be free of HYDRA. Sure, his brain was apparently brainwashing-free but, and not to insult Shuri, he was with HYDRA for almost a century.

Almost a century.

Almost a century of abuse. Seven decades worth of scars. Seven decades of murders deserved and not. Seven decades of being frozen and defrosted to the point his body sometimes makes him sick because he shouldn't be out of cryo so long. Seven decades of torture, mental and physical, on top of losing Nat, Tony and... Steve.

End of the line.

What a joke.

What was the point of dragging the Winter soldier kicking and screaming to fix him, to put your life and others' on the line for him; a man who tried to kill you and your friends multiple times, only to leave him once he was back to his old self?

Well, old self was a bit of an exaggeration.

Bucky's grip on the railing tightened, creaking under his strength as he clenched and unclenched his jaw. He hated, hated, hated to admit that he was angry at Steve. Resentful. If Bucky was in Steve's position he would have put a bullet in his brain.

He tells himself, night after night, that Steve had good intentions. Bringing him back, fixing him but... leaving him? Bucky knew very few people, and very few (rightfully) didn't trust him. The only connections he had to most people were Steve and with him gone, it was like people stopped having to pretend to tolerate Bucky and left him alone.

And Steve... after the blip, he'd changed. But coming back after five years, five blissful years where there was no fighting, no pain, just nothing... for Steve to vanish like that made Bucky think he had done something wrong.

Bucky didn't know when he had started crying. He wiped his eyes roughly with his hands and sniffed. He was also a man out of time. He didn't understand modern slang, modern music (which was awful), modern romance or any of that texting stuff or Facebook. Or whatever the bird app was. Or was it as letter now? God. Everything was confusing.

There was a sick comfort in knowing what he was good at with HYDRA.

What was the point of it all?

Even if he threw himself over the railing, by some sick cosmic joke he'd probably live; if not by losing another limb.

"Excuse me?" A voice calls. Bucky ignores it. "Bucky Barnes?"

Bucky blinks and looks over in the direction of the voice. It's not one he recognises and neither is the person.

Before him is an old woman, bundled in thick coats and scarves. She has thin, short white curly hair that's almost translucent and an angled face with chubby, rosy cheeks and eyes that glitter with a playful wit. She's somebody's grandma, with that half-stern eyebrow raise, matronly and motherly look rolled into one.

"Hi?" Bucky blinks at her trying to place her. He still doesn't recognise her.

She approaches a little closer and peeks over the bridge where Bucky had been staring and whistles, cutting through the rush of water in the darkness. "I hope you weren't thinking of jumping."

"No." Bucky lies, still confused.

"Ah, clever boy. It would do you no good. Plenty left to do."

"Do I know you?" Bucky asks, staring at her.

"Oh! No. You don't know me." The old lady says cryptically. "But I know you, James Buchanan Barnes. I know everyone."

Bucky stands up to his full height, towering above the old lady, who watches him unphased. He tilts his head at her, narrowing his eyes, trying to decipher who or possibly what she is and what she could possibly want with him.

"I'm guessing you know me from the news? Or from history books?"

"I know you as James Buchanan Barnes, born March tenth, nineteen-seventeen. I know you as the Winter Soldier. I know you as White Wolf and now I know you as just Bucky."

Bucky reels. Civilians didn't know about his time in Wakanda and he was certain that not many people just knew him as Bucky outside of SHIELD.

"How...?"

"Nevermind how." She snips, adjusting her handbag on her forearm. "What brings you to the bridge tonight, Bucky?"

It sounds like a loaded question. It is a loaded question. The old lady seems to be goading him into admitting something he didn't want to admit.

"I...Just out for a walk." He falters, looking down at his feet.

"Perfect. Walk with me?" The old lady offers her arm out to him, and for some reason Bucky is compelled to take it. Walking arm in arm, they slowly make their way back into the thrum of the city centre.

There are people everywhere.

Pretty standard for New York on Christmas Eve. There are kids, carolers, couples and Christmas-everything along the streets. There's music playing Here Comes Santa Claus somewhere, lights flashing and a giant tree decorated to the nines every few blocks.

"Look at them," The old lady murmurs looking out into the crowd with a warm smile. "Aren't they just the sweetest?"

Bucky follows her gaze. There's plenty of laughing kids, couples walking hand in hand and making gooey eyes at one another but Bucky knows there's more beneath the surface; abusers, pick pockets and murderers walk amongst them. He would know.

"Yeah." Bucky says gruffly. "I guess."

The old lady's gaze pierces him with a stern look. "You don't believe me."

"There are just as many bad people as there are good." Bucky huffs. "No matter what, it hardly makes a difference."

"Now, now," The old lady tuts with a small, patient smile. "That's just not true. Look at where we are."

Bucky frowns down at her. He doesn't know why he feels compelled to stay and argue with some random old lady on Christmas Eve, but he does.

"We're in New York, lady." Bucky grumbles. The old lady jerks her head upwards towards the street name etched into the side of a tall concrete building. Time had worn most of the wording away but Bucky could still just about make it out.

"Worthing Street?"

"Worthing Street." The old lady confirms. And glances up at Bucky. "This is where you first met Steven Grant Rogers all those years ago."

"How in the hell-"

"Language." The old lady huffs and then smiles. "I told you. I know you."

Bucky frowns.

"A little bit of good always makes a big difference. It's all about perspective." She chuckles happily. "This is where James Buchanan Barnes met his best friend; protecting him from bullies. Do you know he could've died that day?"

She gives Bucky a sideways glance as memories spill from Bucky's brain. Steve hacking up a lung and trying to stand, his face and knuckles bloody, struggling to catch his breath.

"I remember." Bucky says quietly.

The lady continues. "Had you not stepped in and saved him, your lives would have been very different. Without you, there would be no Steve Rogers, no Captain America as we know him."

"But there'd be no Wonter Soldier either." Bucky counters and is surprised when the old woman cackles at him.

"There would always be a Winter Soldier. Always a Captain America. Whether or not they were you or Steven is another school of fish entirely."

Bucky ponders her words but thinks that maybe discussing alternate realities would melt his brain. Clint had tried when he'd explained the time travel stuff in the search for infinity stones but it gave Bucky a headache. He was from the 40s for God's sake.

"Your small act of kindness, your selflessness, made Steve aspire to be who he was." The old lady says after a moment. "As difficult as it was, Steve felt that he owed it to you to give you back your life. He deemed you worthy of saving above all else."

Bucky's chest tightened. He could feel the sting of tears again and forced them back.

"Probably because I saved his ass more than once," Bucky tries to chuckle, but the lump in his throat is too thick.

"Because you were his brother." The old woman says simply. She looks back out into the crowd once more before tugging on Bucky’s stiff arm. "Come on. We're not done."

"If you know everyone," Bucky begins, walking alongside the old woman. "Why did Steve leave?"

"Love." The old woman sighs. "He had sacrificed so much and so many. He knew you'd be okay."

"Did he?"

The old woman grins wickedly at Bucky. "Of course. You now have Sam."

Bucky scoffs.

"And Sarah. AJ. Cass. Yelena. Alexei. Shuri. Okoye. T'challa. The list goes on." The old woman reaches into her handbag, scouring it for a moment before producing a mint humbug and offering to Bucky who awkwardly accepts it. She finds one for herself and they continue on down the street.

"And there's those you haven't met yet." She says after her humbug has melted enough for her to speak.

Bucky frowns again. "Oh yeah? Like, I don't know, a partner or something?"

The Old Woman's eyes twinkle. "Or something."

Bucky harumphs, wrapping his arms around himself. He didn't let himself think about that; a future. How could someone love him? After everything he'd done? He was beyond damaged goods.

But the way the Old Woman speaks, as if she knows, makes a small part of him jump for joy. If even he was worthy of love and affection...

"Must you always do that?"

Bucky gives the Old Woman a sideways glance. "Do what?"

"Scrunching up your face like that." She mimicks Bucky's expression, brows furrowing deeply adding extra wrinkles to her skin and pouting her lips comically. "You look like a sad little basset hound."

Bucky throws up his hands. "Its my face!"

"Well, make it smile more." The Old Woman argues back.

"I'm one hundred and six, lady, you can't tell me what to do!" Bucky's lips twitch upwards when he catches her small smirk. "Where are you taking me now, anyway?"

"We're going to see a friend of mine."

Horizon Resedential Care was one of the more impressive care homes in New York. Set within a small block with a park for residents to mull about in, the care home boasted glowing reviews from family members who adored seeing their loved ones sociable, active and well cared for.

The small, wrought iron gate was shut; locked tight to ensure no residents went walk about in the ice and snow. Only the intercom button glowed red, begging to be pressed, to allow family visits.

"No." Bucky said, standing outside the gate. His feet couldn't move. He felt sick. He wanted to run. "I'm not going in there."

The Old Woman looked at him sadly, heartache etched all over her face. "She'd love to see you, you know."

"I - would she? Surely she thinks..." Bucky swallows thickly.

Surely she thinks I'm dead?

"You don't give the woman enough credit." The Old Woman chuckles with a shake of her head. "They watch documentaries in there all the time. The latest one was that Netflix special on the Winter Soldier."

"Oh my God." Bucky murmurs.

"Language." The Old Woman puffs. "Rebecca is more upset that you haven't come to visit her."

Bucky's heart clenches uncomfortably. "She is?"

"Of course. And you clearly know she's in there." The Old Woman gives him another annoying, knowing look. "You’ve known she was alive and haven't visited. Why?"

"Why?" Bucky growls, irritation and a sense of overwhelm crashing over his nerves like a tsunami. "My baby sister is old. I am a killer. How could I show my face to her after everything?"

The Old Woman only shrugs, turning away and beginning to walk down the street again. "You'd be surprised at how much love can forgive, Bucky. But remember, you have her back. You ought to make the most of the time you have together. Perhaps you should not let her think that you have forgotten her."

Bucky's flesh hand is fisted to hard he can feel his bones ache. He grinds his teeth as he fights down his temper. Who was this woman? And how did she know so much about him?

Jogging to catch up to her, Bucky hangs his head falling into step beside her.

"Im sorry for snapping." He grumbles. "Its just-"

"No need to apologise." She holds up a hand and still wears that kind, grandmotherly smile. "However, I do have one more person I'd like you to meet. She should be up this next street."

She?

The alleyway the Old Woman stopped in was... well, exactly how you would imagine an alleyway at the busiest time of year to look like. Trash cans scattered, rotting food mixed with debris and cardboard neatly lining each side of the alley.

"She's supposed to be here." The Old Woman comments, looking down at a thin gold watch around her wrist.

Bucky watches as a rat dives into a trash can and grimaces. "Who?"

"Ah!" The lady throws up her hands and waves at someone past Bucky. "There she is!"

Bucky turns but there's nobody there. He's about to argue with the old lady when a soft meow draw his attention to the ground. At his feet, sitting daintily with wide blue eyes, is the scruffiest white kitten he'd ever seen.

"Alpine."The Old Woman beams. "I was worried you wouldn't make it."

Bucky looks at the rosy cheeked old lady; cherub-like with her dimpled smile and then down at the kitten, who chirps at him. There's something about the Old Woman that's strangely familiar, but he can't quite place it.

"Bucky, Alpine. Alpine, Bucky." She nods and the kitten, Alpine, looks back to Bucky. Bucky stares back. This is entirely surreal.

"What the hell is-"

"She's your companion." She says matter of factly. "I had to pull a few strings to get her a little sooner but-"

"I don't know the first goddamn thing about looking after a cat!"

"Language!" The Old Woman snaps before adding spritely, "You'll learn."

Alpine toddles over to Bucky, circling around his legs and purring loudly. Bucky blinks. Once. Twice. This wasn't a dream. All of this, the wandering was real and not some sort of fucked up nightmare like he was used to having.

A smile tugs at the corners of his mouth when Alpine's giant jeweled eyes meet his and she meows quietly; looking up at him with adoration that said I trust you.

"She needs you as much as you need her." The Old Woman says softly. "Take good care of eachother, you two."

He squats down and offers his flesh hand to Alpine, who sniffs it gingerly before bumping her tiny head against it. Bucky had never been one to say whether he was a dog or cat person, he never had either growing up, and then with the war and HYDRA.... But looking at this kitten before him, his heart was already a puddle at his feet.

Bundling Alpine into his leather jacket, Bucky turned to find the space the Old Woman had occupied was empty. Bucky whipped his head up and down the alleyway and peeked out onto the street. She'd disappeared.

Shaking his head slightly, he looked down at Alpine snuggled against him.

"This has got to be the weirdest Christmas Eve ever." He mutters, stepping into the street and heading back to his apartment.

Bucky's apartment was a lot noisier than when he'd left it over three hours ago. And far more brightly coloured with tinsel and fairy lights.

AJ and Cass are playing some video game on his sofa, Sarah is making something that smells delicious and Sam was in the middle of finishing up the decorations.

"I know you said you didn't want anyone around," Sam starts nervously, already holding his hands in surrender as Bucky opens the door. "But no one should be alone on Christmas. Sarah and I-"

Sam stops and looks at Bucky's jacket as Alpine pokes her head out. "Is that a cat?"

"Uh, yeah." Bucky looks down at Alpine who meows loudly. "This is Alpine."

"Right. Sorry." Sam shakes his head before continuing. "Sarah and I brought some food and snacks and the boys are gonna watch Christmas movies. I'd love it if you'd join us, Buck."

"I... yeah." Bucky nods and swallows thickly, smiling over at Sam. "Thanks, pal. Although... you're in my house."

"Yeah, yeah," Sam waves a hand dismissively but his grin is wide. "Come on. You hungry? We've got plenty of snacks. No cat friendly ones though."

Alpine puffs in annoyance making Bucky chuckle as he joins Sam and Sarah in his small kitchenette. Warmth blossoms in his tight chest as the ice begins to thaw. He tries not to let it show, when tears prickle his eyes again in the warm, flashing lights.

The Old Woman was right; there was plenty left to do.

~ END ~

A/N: Nadolig Llawen! Or happy holidays wherever you are. I hope you're having a good time!

I've been writing and editing this all damn day in between work and cooking.

Originally I played with a few ideas but ultimately decided that I wanted to keep it as non-complex as possible (but if you are curious, yes Old Woman was an angel - specifically I chose Gamaliel Angel of protection and strength, Angel of Cherubs, "recompense of God" - thanks Wiki for that one). I'm not Christian, but a big supernatural fan (hence why I loved this fic idea). I thought if anyone was to be thrown into an old school movie (Like It's a Wonderful Life) it would be Bucky.

And don't worry, he visited Rebecca the next day.

I hope you enjoyed if you've read this far! And once again, happy holidays

- Love, Grem x

[orionpolanosnox]

Yes!

My boss wants to FINALLY evict the troublemaker in our stable!

She was WAY too gracious with her for WAY too long! She came to us just last autumn.

Everyone knew about her baggage before she moved in and there was a lot of talk about it. She changed stables 7 times in 6 or 7 year which was a huge red flag for everyone. I still kept an open mind because sometimes people are just a little weird and want to find their place plus being the new person can be difficult if the others want you gone. Some stables are bad places because of the people there.

NOT the case here!

She is such a disrespectful, egocentric and wasteful person. It's INSANE! I have never met anyone with such a disregard for other people. Me, Me, Me and then My horse. That's all she cares about!

What would you do if someone with a 3 year old that wasn't worked in a week asked you to wait until she's on the horse before you canter? RIGHT! You are considerate! Well, she didn't care. And there are plenty such cases. We have an app where our people share/announce when they'll be in the indoor arena. People actively change their time and reschedule their fucking days to NOT be in the arena at the same time as her! She fucking writes people individually and tells them to not use the arena because she wants to use it. (WTF?!) She writes that she'll do flatwork but then does something entirely else and hinders everyone else. One evening she put cavaletti in the arena and just left them there and didn't even turn the lights off when she was finished. We (grooms and bosses) are usually gone by 7:30pm. A late bird discovered the state of the arena at 9:15pm and rightfully complaint about it in the group chat.

She KEEPS forgetting to put away her shit or just leaves her halter at the pasture leaving us with nothing in the morning. We still have her crop and she never fucking asked for it back?? I think she knows she fucked up at that point because there was a message every few days to PLEASE collect the equipment left in the arena. My boss was SO done with it that she gave us permission to outright throw everything in the bin we find in the morning. After I found literal garbage (a paper cup) plus a whip, reins and a lunge I was done. I took a picture and posted in the group chat that the owner can find their things next to the bin. (The lunge was never picked up. My colleague took it in the end.) But after that no stuff was left in the arena so the threat worked. Now she "only" throws her shit in front of her stall....

She is a bad rider too. She doesn't mistreat her horse or anything, she is just not good at it AT ALL. I don't even know why she brought her horse. They are such a bad match but she also doesn't work on herself to make anything better either. Not being a good rider isn't shame worthy and I wouldn't make or want a person to feel bad for it but this woman thinks she is the VERY best! Cream of the crop who knows EVERYTHING! She "teaches" a preteen girl who rides her pasture mates pony and I wish she wouldn't. She is such a fearful rider and you know these people that make shit up in the moment just to explain something that just happened? That's her. She is just constantly talking out of her ass.

She is wasteful because she keeps throwing away perfectly fine hay because she is just too lazy to separate it from the horse bedding. Her gelding has a whole bale on his winter pasture and she actually asked us to feed him hay once he is brought back to his stall in the afternoon. He never eats a lot of his breakfast served starting at 6am. He is of the kind that eats until he gets his muesli and then just waits to get outside. He is in his stall by 3pm and gets dinner at 6pm. We don't feed hay/haylage at noon and she knows that! But she wanted us to anyways because her horse has special needs. Spoiler: He doesn't! She just don't know anything and does him such a disservice with her constant pampering.

She put up a hay rack in her stall and we are supposed to ONLY put her horses hay in there but she kept stuffing it to the brim AND threw a bunch loosely in the stall until my boss tore her a new one. If she doesn't put it in the rack neither are we!

And because she thinks that she is SUCH an expert in fucking everything she offers her "services" to "advise" people about their horses diets online. Her credentials? She owned a horse for the past ten years so she knows what she's talking about. Obviously! The punchline here is that a colleague joked and essentially made fun of her TO HER FACE that she should offer her "wisdom" for money because she wouldn't stop commenting on the things people including this colleague fed their horses...

She always likes to annoy the others with her "worries" about their horses.

She seriously told a girl that we don't feed her horse in the evening anymore. Like??? WTF??

The owner of said horse started to pile up hay in her stall in the afternoon because of it. That said she isn't the brightest either... I'm surely no Einstein but that is what she does.... She picks on the weakest or most uninformed. She is sickly sweet and in a good mood at ALL times and has the confidence and presence to confidently spout her nonsense AND seem trustworthy to these very few. 95% hate her btw.

She started to write me directly at some point this autumn if she wanted something but since I told her off that NO, we won't feed your already VERY fed horse in the afternoon, she stopped and I am SO happy about it!

Finally I do wish her the best but she is SO resistant to ANY form of criticism that I don't think she'll change. Like at all. She only stayed so long with us because my bosses can be pushovers sometimes.

We are nice. We were nice! My bosses were TOO nice even! The staff gave her a fair chance but she didn't even try. She takes and takes and takes but doesn't want to offer anything ever. Neither to us and even less to her stable mates.

You will always have some difficult people in a place where 50+ people meet but jesus FUCKING christ I have never met a person less inclined to not piss off everyone and not to be as nosy and obnoxious as possible.

Worst part is that I don't even think she is able to register any of this. She KNOWS when she has fucked up yet again and it shows in her apologetic, defensive behaviour but she just doesn't do anything to better herself.

Joana, I wish you the best but good riddance!

[cutestanomaly]

Hey, this is a little more of a naughtier piece, so if it's not something you're interested in please avoid reading more of the post. Sort of tagged content may exclude a few things, cause I'm bad at tagging stuff. This was originally written on the (previously a??) bird app, so I've changed a little bit of the wording and edited a few bits! First time putting something like this here so be nice.

[ AMAB + tempNull, Thigh grinding, non-penetrative, only a little awkward ]

Laid upon the desk, the Doll could feel their hands running along its shins. Its thighs. Underneath its skirt. Its breathing was harsh, forcibly paced as wide blue eyes looked up to its handsy partner for the night.

They smiled back down to it, whispering something that the heartbeat within its ears left unrecognized. Its eyes blinked rapidly as its mouth tried to form words, but it broke into a nervous laugh. "I-I'm sorry? One mmhh... One more time?"

Their fingers had gripped onto the hem of its ripped tights, left easily pulled down without their additional fishnet getting in the way. Its fingers gingerly rolled its dress towards its stomach as they spoke again; "Are you okay with this? I know it was kind of a sudden ask..." They were still a touch quiet, but concern clearly was upon their tongue.

"No! Yeah! I mean - Yes! I'm still okay!" The Doll again broke into a laugh, its fingers tightening upon the rolls of its dress. "I'm - I'm just... kind of excited? Sorry, I'm uhm..." Its words trailed off, a long gasp following a familiar sensation. That of its panties being removed. It was far more noticeable with someone else doing it for it. They slowly worked them alongside its thighs, removing both articles of clothing at once. The sounds of both their breathing filled the room, up until it felt their hands working back up their closed thighs.

"Hey, it's okay if you haven't done this a lot. Or at all." They spoke to it in such a gentle tone, it helped the Doll relax all the more. It offered a quick nod in return, acting as permission for them to continue.

"It takes two to tango and all, right? So we'll walk each other through what feels good and what doesn't, okay?" They reassured it as their hand reached its hip, their fingers trailing along the crevasses of its ball joints. The Doll shuddered from the sensation, its lips parting just enough for the bottom lip to be bitten for a moment. Just long enough for the gap within its front teeth to be seen.

"Yeah! Yeah, yeahyeahyeah, I'll be good and uhm... and let you know how I'm—"

"Oh." The small exclamation from its partner made it pause.

"... Oh?" The Doll repeated. It was only then it realized that their thumb had been tucked between its thighs, causing a rush of heat to hit its face. Despite the assumed porcelain, the skin-like layer turned a new shade of pink.

"There's nothing there." Their free hand gently parted its knees, letting its active hand slip further between its legs. It let out a soft yelp, one of its own hands moving to cover its face. There really wasn't anything between its legs. Its thighs were smooth and soft to the touch, but their crotch was just the same. Smooth.

It took the Doll a moment to realize, a quiet "Ohhhhh fuuuuck, I'm stupid..." slipping from its lips before it broke into another laugh. "Uhmmm... This is awkward! I wasn't - I wasn't prepared for this! So I didn't uhm..." The Doll eased itself onto its elbows, the hand at her face pinching at her nose as a smile nervous formed. "I usually have uhm... attachments? Pieces? Swap-able uhm... genitalia to match how I..." Its voice turned quiet while its hand ran along its face and stroked at its cheek, stopping with its palm over its mouth.

It felt a new heat press against the back of its thighs, causing its eyes to turn back to them. They were smiling. A gentle pull brought her back to rest against the desk again, watching as her legs were raised and as an arm wrapped around them for support. It could feel their hand gripping its ankle.

Their free hand moved to hold the top of its thigh, offering it a gentle squeeze. "That doesn't mean we can't still have some fun!" They eased themselves to sit against its thighs, and after a soft adjustment, it able to just barely see the tip tucked between...

"Hoh geez...." The Doll spoke against its hand, its gaze fixated upon the sight between her thighs. They let their hand run higher along its body as their hips began to move, fingers carefully undoing the belt at its stomach to hike its dress higher. Exposing its stomach. The Doll let her unoccupied hand take the back of theirs as they worked at its clothes, wrapping around the back of it with a hard squeeze.

"This is... shit, it still feels good..." They had to laugh a little at the situation, but the compliment brought a giggling from the Doll. They could feel it begin to move too, its hips softly rolling against them in a soft grinding. As it held their hand and covered its mouth, that giggling didn't stop. It was soft. Quiet. It only encouraged their partner all the more. It could feel their impact, a soft gasp slipping as it heard that light plap. Then again, and again, and it listened to them begin to pant. The Doll watched with awe-struck eyes, leading the hand within its own to reach underneath its rolled dress. To push its bra up and out of the way of its breast.

It was soft there too. Weirdly naturally so. But they didn't question it. They let their fingers work at the mound as they humped against its bare crotch, the room again being filled by their breathing. "Y-You're doing... such a good job, love." The Doll whispered against its hand, which eventually fell to rest by its collar. To let them hear its own panting breaths. The slight creaks of the desk beneath it. The gentle bounce of its body with each thrust. The light fluttering of its eyes as it watched them fuck its thighs. Their fingers easing their way from one breast to the other, causing the softest of moans from the Doll. It became too much.

"I think... I think I'm going to..." They began, forcing the words through breaths. "Ah? Is there somewhere you'd... oh!" The Doll began to ask, but its words were cut short by a new heat hitting its stomach.

It watched in awe as they came, spreading themselves along its skin. The space between its thighs caught most of it, but that didn't stop that cum from pooling between them. Their hand dragged from its chest down to its waist as they caught their footing, the Doll letting its hand follow suit. Fingertips gently traced along the path of the fluid, giving them the time needed to catch their breath in her inspection.

"You really did do a good job, love! It uhm.... It felt good for me, too." The Doll spoke with a new confidence, keeping a warm smile along its lips.

"Aheh, I'm glad... but I'm not done just yet, I hope you know." Their partner eased the words out, their slow pace matching a slow realization from the Doll. "O-Of course! I didn't... I wouldn't, uhm—!" "Let me leave without absolutely covering you? I know, Doll.~"

It didn't know if it was the new forceful pull they made, or the bite upon the side of their thigh that made them squeal... But, it left them both laughing as their afterglow bloomed into another round.

[rennatelier]

long time no see! 🌻 (editted)

(edit: shop update has been moved from 7/7 to 7/11 instead! sorry for the confusion!!) hello everyham, it’s been a while since I’ve posted here I know!! I've had a very busy event season during the months of May and June, which I'll eventually write a wrap-up post about once I get a chance to, and I’ll definitely and be more active again and keep this place updated on at least a monthly basis on everything new with my art and online shop, but for now--

Mark Your Calendars!! cuz we’re having a shop drop this week on July 11th! it’ll be sometime in the evening for fellow US east coast friends, and we will have an early access for Snack Club members this time to shop a day earlier than the public, as well as some other special freebie perks!

Also thank you so much for 2.5k followers to this blog!! if you’re new here, hi it’s nice to meet you, I’m Renna, the artist behind Rennatelier and Hao & Friends! if you already know me from other places and have followed me from their (such as the blue bird app), it’s so nice to see you again!

ANYWAY! here’s just a small peek of the cool new stuff we’ll have for the shop drop next week!

oooh collectable Hao & Friends trading cards?! AND they come with stickers!! series 1 will be available as a full complete set of 10 cards, or come in blind packs of 4 random cards!

ahhh reusable AND foldable shopping bags! (or grocery totes, whatever you wanna call ‘em) it's made of durable ripstop nylon and even folds up into a convenient little square with the sewn-in pouch on the inside!

check back tomorrow to see what other things and restocks are coming to the shop next Tuesday!  🐹

[zuzusexytiems]

Idk when it was that I stopped typing with proper capitalization but maybe I ought to bring that back, lmao

Anyway. Hello, Tumblr 🥹 It's been a while (again). I have a lot of thoughts on Twitter's X revamp, but the gist is that I'm going through a little ~migration~ process atm and trying to ween myself off Twitter entirely (so I can be more active again here) 😭

It's not an easy decision to make, but unless things get better on Twitter, I feel like going back here and making this my main platform again is something that needs to be done.

So if you're a fan of my work here on Tumblr, I'd like to ask for a little favor.

One of the reasons I've been hesitant to go back to this site is because my engagements here (and elsewhere) just aren't the same compared to the bird app. If I post something on Twitter, I'd get 200 to 500 likes on average (and that's within the span of 5 days).

Here, I'd be lucky to get 30 in a month.

I know that engagements aren't the end-all and be-all of making fanwork, but realistically speaking, when you work on something for days and pour your heart into it, it can be pretty demotivating to see it flopping 😞

So the favor I'd like to ask you guys is this! Reblogging. That's it. :')

For new Tumblr users, this site doesn't have an algorithm, and the only way things spread around here is through reblogs.

Unlike Twitter, likes, unfortunately, don't do anything here 😞 And with only likes and no reblogs, a post on Tumblr dies out and remains in obscurity—unless people start reblogging it.

So yes! I hope it's not too much to ask, but reblogs will help a lot—even if it's old posts from years ago, I really don't mind (and in fact appreciate that you like my stuff enough to go through them 🥺 I see some of you guys in the notifs, thank you so much 🥹🙏🏽)

If you'd like to see some of my original stuff (and would like to reblog any of them 🥺) you can find them under the #jeanpikutiems tag, the #my-art tag, or the #my-writing tag. :)

Second (and only if you want, of course!) please feel free to interact with me here 🥹💜 Whether it's through asks or replying to my posts, or even just adding your reactions in tags.

A huge reason as to why I stayed on Twitter for so long and (preferred it over Tumblr) was because people talked to me frequently there. I made friends and connections, exchanged headcanons with people, and gushed about my love for Jeanpiku freely. So if I'm able to interact with you guys here, I would honestly love that! (especially since it's getting kind of lonely shipping a small ship like Jeanpiku 😭).

I can't always promise to respond on time, but I'll definitely see your stuff and will be happy to interact with all of you whenever my schedule loosens up. 🥺💜

Anyway, I think that's it! Again, these aren't really ~requirements~ and I hope it doesn't sound like I'm asking for too much 😭 But I'm ngl, it will mean a huge, huge deal to me, especially the reblogs. 🥺

If you read through all of this, thank you for your time, and I'll see you around! 🥹💜

[zendyval]

I have been wondering where all the negative tweets for Z were coming from, and I just read a Washington Post article that might have solved the case. Elon is giving money to people, with the most traction under their new revenue-sharing program. We all know negativity sells and generates traffic, and Z is Z, so bringing her up means engagement. Like Z has always gotten negative reactions, but I can honestly say this past couple of months is the first time I have seen back to back to back to back viral hate/ misogyny tweets about her. To me, this explains the increased negativity more than people feeling some type of ownership over her and not liking her kissing two men in a trailer. What the incels have been doing to Z, they have been trying to do to Margot Robbie, it has not been as bad, cause you know, white woman. I swear that man is doing everything but pulling the actual plug to destroy that bird app. It was always the wild wild west, but now with a revenue program.

They have been all over Margot Robbie this week too though all the Z stuff is still also on insta so unless they are paying people over there too...

[nam-daeeun]

NIGHTREST :: TASK 001

on the record | nam dae-eun

The Basics

brand of phone & color:

samsung s23, silver.

case:

clear case with a (slightly sun-bleached) polaroid of him and his sister tucked inside. the corners are slightly bent since it's a bit too big.

locked or unlocked?:

always locked with a fingerprint lock. there's a backup pin instituted, but it's rarely used. (for the record, though, it's the address of his childhood home: 1422.)

lockscreen & wallpaper:

Usage

screen time:

probably uses it about 4-5 hours a day, depending on the day.

five most used apps:

spotify, messenger, chrome, news, twitter.

web tabs:

generally has no more than 7-10 tabs open at any given time. 5-6 of them are articles he swears he's going to go back and read. 1 of them is a forgotten search tab that he won't remember to close for another day or so. 2 of them are the nightrest news network, permanently open since the murders started. the other 1-2 tabs are interchangeable, and he generally cycles through these for most of his general internet browsing.

google:

last seen doing research, so it was “nightrest news.”

last text messages:

any one of a couple he sent to various friends throughout nightrest, checking up after the fires. prior to that, it was his messages to jieun.

voicemail:

an annoyed message from @jieunparks, calling to say she'd found out he was here in nightrest and that they needed to meet up. he left it there to remember to text her later...and then forgot to delete it. (he's been a bit distracted.) other than that, it's empty—he makes sure to go through it frequently in case any important calls come through.

Social Media

handle:

@namdae on all platforms. he's a basic man. (plus, it's professional.)

instagram:

[ feat. @kattcalled, @kyleyangs ]

snapchat:

he has an account, but doesn't post, just uses it to keep up with others.

tinder/bumble/hinge/grindr/etc:

doesn't have an account on any of these. never did. never will. he's wary of them.

spotify:

top three songs of 2022: heather by conan gray, runaway by aurora, and cold by corbyn, in no particular order. last played song: youth by kihyun. he was looking for something else, but ended up there somehow, and he wasn't mad about it.

tiktok:

doesn't use it, but will watch videos if others send them to him.

facebook:

he uses it, but only when forced to. barely touches his own account, just has it for family updates.

others:

has a youtube account, but never uploads. his email is primarily used for professional correspondence. uses twitter religiously. someone pull this man away from the bird app. please.

extra:

doesn't often save his contacts with funny names because it makes it hard to find the ones he needs—although he will use nicknames sometimes. uses primarily emoticons while texting rather than emojis because, honestly, he's just too lazy to switch the keyboard. keeps his apps all stuffed into four folders so that he can actually see his background—he hates those people who cover their screens with so much crap that you can't see the picture; why even bother setting one? always forgets to turn off unnecessary app notifications so he generally accumulates a lot of nonsense stuff throughout the day that he just swipes away. doesn't use a screen protector—he just doesn't drop it.

bonus: an additional edit that i spent a ton of time making before i realized there was no room for it. enjoy this article from the future.

[cousinshark]

A musky bird

A lot of people are thinking a certain blue-bird-based app is on the verge of imploding due to a dolt running it.

I don't see that happening, just that the service is getting worse and worse and worse.

But people still use Facebook and that got so bad they admitted to they were running social experiments on people like some dystopian scifi movie. And people still use tumblr even after the massive exodus from when it got bought out and the rules changed super hard. Deviant Art straight up told people they're going to be scraping artist's works to feed their AI image generator and even though they pulled it back a ton, it's still gross annnd people are still using that.

So- it's hard to kill a platform even when you do some real, real dumb things.

But whatever, I'm happy to have more options like tumblr and what not as I'm not exactly fond of what's going on there either.

I'm just not sure what I'm doing here. I started this new account as my previous one had tons, of my stuff on it from IDK how many years ago and even though I was still posting I got next to no traction- IDK why no one was seeing my work, I was guessing I was shadow banned or blacklisted for some weird reason?

I dunno, I'm just hoping things improve here as I really am not sure what else to do.

It's so hard to get art seen these days and it's really demoralizing.

[did42069]

It's my 10 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

Holy Shit! I kept this mostly as a blog for my thoughts. Found my kink and then poof you took away the fun... So Twitter happened. Mr.Musk bought the bird and I found myself remembering that I have this blog thing that I used to frequent. News and politics have always been my deal, doesn't mean I didn't follow the sex blogs but that started out as a social thing. Since coming back I recently found out that I somehow had a filter that filtered the adult content, also found out how to deactivate that quickly. Seems the adult stuff became mostly scammers, which is sad... Ten years ago the sex blogs were the edgy stuff! And the community self governed. Early on there was a blog post about pedos, that content was up for not even a day! Devs have always been trash but with a little guidance we made a safe place for people of all shades to explore without judgement, for the most part. Also the engagement with everywhere! Now over the years I felt this was like a dying friend... Then whenever I missed a wrestling match or something similarly cool this became a quick look through. I've been through a lot, from being hospitalized half the time to getting better to trying to rebuild my life to finding out that my immune system is shit now due to chemo to my family imploding and most of the people I've helped throughout the years prior not being there for me... This blog became my escape from life the last few years but even though I'm grateful for the platform I'm still pissed at how the change has diminished this place. When I said that we self governed here's an example: many years ago there was a sex blog from a teen-age girl and she wanted attention, the sex blogs were the attention, it started out looking bad and then I and many others talked to her. Within the 2-3 years she was on here she flourished as a human being! Yes it was kinky of all flavours but she was able to talk to women on here that talked her through her firsts. We found out that she was pregnant later from force, that last year before the change, there was this domme blog but the lady was a sex psychologist in the real world... It was amazing to watch as this girl who was damaged flourished again. Her blog became a baby and me blog but she said she'd quit this place once the change actually happened. This place is a good starter for teens but it's not cool enough to be teen approved. Hopefully with the implosion of the 🐦 there's more people coming back to re-engage. But there's other apps out now some... Are just as great as Twitter was but the lag! Anyhow this blog of mine will stay up. Hopefully this place... Is interesting again

[whysojiminimnida]

When X CALLS ME SHRIEKING ... The Sasaengs Are At It Again

So my phone went off at a quarter to ungodly because

These pictures are NOTHING LIKE what was perpetrated on Jeon Jungkook at JFK International Airport yesterday.

These pictures are okay. The press was told - WE were told - IN ADVANCE - that Jungkook would be flying out early. What day, very nearly what time, it was public knowledge and JeiKei is not upset. Video from his departure shows a bowing, happy, relaxed man.

See? He looks FINE. But by the time he landed - not in Los Angeles, as we and the press had been told - but in New York, WHICH YOU WILL PLEASE NOTE I DID NOT DISCUSS ON THIS BLOG UNTIL NOW - the sasaengs were out in force. I had not seen the photos or video at the time I started this post, although I have seen them now. Jungkook WAS NOT HAPPY IN THEM. My guy had his own security team but it apparently also took airport security to assist in getting him to his vehicle. And even then we don't know if he was followed. What I am told happened, as nearly as anyone knows, is that some folks decided to track Jungkook's flight out of Incheon and beat him to JFK. It's not hard to track flight information and given that he was rumored to have been working on a track with Charlie Puth, who is currently also in New York, it doesn't take a lot of brainpower. OR MORAL FIBER OR ETHICS. Worse, I am told, this knot of hemorrhoids was overheard TALKING ABOUT TAEKOOK. I don't know whether it was yelled at him or he overheard it personally but MAN WAS NOT HAPPY. It's not bad enough to try to follow Jungkook into his vehicle, but trying to look for evidence of a hidden Taehyung is a whole other level of inflammatory bullshit that these guys never asked for. I was asked point blank if I had discussed any information regarding Jungkook's travel plans and I was very glad to be able to say that nope, not this lowly blogger, because EVEN IF I HAD PRIVATE INFORMATION I WOULD NEVER SHARE IT. And this is why, kids. This is why. So I woke my ass up from my late afternoon nap and went to the bird app to see what I could glean from it, given X's MASSIVE SCREAMING FIT and what I found was that my personal timeline had zero information. I had to go digging a bit and there it was, a bodyguard holding Koo's M&Ms while security was getting pretty annoyed and telling supposed "ARMY" to GET BACK OFF HIM. Y'all. I saw his face and I wanted to cry. I maybe did. Jungkook was angry. He was not the same smiling, finger-heart-waving man I had seen in Incheon just hours before. He was pissed and even frightened. THIS IS NOT OKAY. ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU IT IS OKAY TO CHASE DOWN SOMEONE AND PHYSICALLY HARASS THEM IS UNSTABLE AT BEST AND CRIMINAL AT SECOND BEST. And based on what I heard last night, it's going to be awhile before solo travel is publicized at all. Because apparently it's not enough to obfuscate the destination, now they're going to have to fly private to a whole other airport and that's not even going to be enough to stop it. As one very prominent Twitter user has said, "it's public record and the taxpayers pay for air traffic control" LIKE THAT MAKES IT OKAY. IT'S NOT OKAY. This is NOT OKAY (and it's happened more than once - this example is from last September but the same account published JK's photos yesterday. The stalker ones.)

It's one thing to photograph the guys when they are in public and have no reasonable expectation of privacy. From a distance. Without bothering them. But this time distinct efforts were made on Jungkook's behalf because HE DIDN'T WANT SPOILERS. FOR US. And what did he get for it? Crowded, physically harassed and probably a rage-induced anxiety attack. Jungkook doesn't love being mobbed. He didn't want to travel with twelve security when he thought he only needed four. He just wanted to show up and do some stuff without being stalked. Kinda like he did at home just days ago when he was out in a crowd and didn't get mobbed. I'm sad and angry for Jungkook and his staff. I'm embarrassed for those of us who would never do things like this. And I'm PISSED OFF AT HOW WE LOOK AS A FANDOM RIGHT NOW. It's time to stop giving sasaeng behavior a pass. It's time to stop giving high traffic accounts a pass when they move like this. And it's time to stop giving the bullshit this fandom ignores a pass.

I don't care if you have 300K+ followers and speak fluent Korean if you're an asshole who tracks flights and publishes that information but you can't remember Jimin's birthday.

I don't care if your rent gets paid by people who buy Taekooker bullshit so you need to keep 'em active to cover the bills. I DON'T CARE. You act like this you are TRASH, and I am done with you, whether you consider yourself ARMY or not - because I don't.

[lingthusiasm]

Lingthusiasm Episode 64: Making speech visible with spectrograms

If you hear someone saying /sss/ and /fff/, it’s hard to hear those as anything other than, well, S and F. This is very convenient for understanding language, but it’s less convenient for analyzing it -- if you’re trying to figure out exactly what makes two s-like sounds different, it would be helpful if you could kinda sorta turn the language processing part of your brain off for a sec and just process them as sounds.

In this episode, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about linguistic visualizations that let us examine sounds in more detail. One kind of visual is a wave form (which is found in many podcast apps!) and consists of longer lines for louder parts and shorter lines for quieter parts. Another kind of visual is a spectrogram, which shows a massive range of possible pitches and shades in which pitches have stuff going on during them at each time, sort of like a giant musical staff with thousands of potential notes. Spectrograms are especially popular in linguistics (there are even spectrogram reading competitions at conferences sometimes), although they’re also used for things like recording bird calls and making weird music videos, and there’s much-beloved free program called Praat which has been used to make them for over 30 years. If you don’t want to download a program, there are also free websites which let you speak into a live running spectrogram and see what it looks like, and we’ve produced a sample for you!

Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice or read the transcript here.

Spectrogram demo video

We’ve created a dedicated video clip of the five minutes we spent using the real-time spectrogram maker, which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/ztctdMcK_1A

Thanks to Academo.org for the handy real-time spectrogram maker, and go check it out yourself if you want to see what you sound like making various sounds.

Announcements:

LingComm Grants are back in 2022! These are small grants to help kickstart new projects to communicate linguistics to broader audiences. There will be a $500 Project Grant, and ten Startup Grants of $100 each. Apply here by March 31, 2022 or forward this page to anyone you think might be interested, and if you’d like to help us offer more grants, you can support Lingthusiasm on Patreon or contribute directly. We started these grants because a small amount of seed money would have made a huge difference to us when we were starting out, and we want to help there be more interesting linguistics communication in the world. If you want to help keep our ongoing lingthusiastic activities going, from the LingComm Grants to regular episodes to fun things like liveshows and Q&As, join us on Patreon! As a reward, you will get over 50 bonus episodes to listen to and access to our Discord server to chat with other language nerds. In this month's bonus episode we interview each other! We chat about what we were up to in 2021, what's coming in 2022, what we've been reading, our most mind blowing moments of linguistics undergrad, and more. Listen here! Here are the links mentioned in this episode:

Lingthusiasm Episode: All the sounds in all the languages - the International Phonetic Alphabet

Lingthusiasm Episode: Vowel Gymnastics

Wikipedia entry for Spectrograms

Wikipedia entry for Praat

Praat in action via DaoWaves on YouTube

All Things Linguistics post on creating spectrograms in Praat: The briefest possible intro with hands-on activity

A Brief History of Spectrograms by Earbirding

Real time Spectrogram

Real time Spectrogram with sample files

Auditory Illusions: Hearing Lyrics Where There Are None via MonotoneTim on Youtube

Secret images viewable in a Spectrogram of Aphex Twin's music via Bastwood

Wikipedia entry for Aphex Twin's images and pseudonyms

Video of Aphex Twin's #2 (the long formula) on Window-licker 2001, showing the Spectrogram image

Full YouTube video of this episode, which includes the 5 minute spectrogram clip

You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening. To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.

You can help keep Lingthusiasm advertising-free by supporting our Patreon. Being a patron gives you access to bonus content, our Discord server, and other perks.

Lingthusiasm is on Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com

Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic.

Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, our production manager is Liz McCullough, and our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles

[0925priv]

enchanted to meet you.

pairing: idol!mark lee x youtuber! fem reader

genre: strangers to lovers, fluff

word count: 684 words

prompt: in which choi yuna, a youtuber who goes by the channel name: luna loves you, catches mark lee’s attention.

a/n: an alternate reality in which idols dating is normalized in south korea.

chapter one. chapter two. chapter three.

[2:01 am] “time check, it’s two in the morning.”, i angled the camera in front of me. i hummed softy as my fingers danced along the strings of my guitar.

i twirled the pencil in my left hand then erased a few words and made adjustments to the lyrics. there, all set.

“ehem.” i cleared my throat. i flipped the pages on the notebook in front of me. “the words just came to me out of nowhere.”

“uhh let’s see…” i bit my lip in concentration as i strummed my guitar setting a soft melody.

[3:28 am] i stretched my arms and yawned. who knew editing the three-minute video would take me this long? i usually work fast, but i got pulled into the rabbit hole that is twitter. stupid bird app.

luna loves you posted a new video:

“sooo its 3 am and i wrote a new song ..? (underwater tears demo)”

@lunalovesyou tweeted:

NEW VID UP!!!! check out my new song: underwater tears <3 lmk what u think hehe >< http://youtube/watch.jcu17

[4:37 pm] “yah donghyuck! did you steal my earphones again?” i shouted at the boy five feet from me.

“no, of course i didn’t!” i shot him a dirty look. “ok fine i borrowed it! it’s in the drawer back in our room.”

i sighed heavily in exasperation. my legs feel like jelly. i’m too tired to go back to the dorms and find my earphones.

“here.” jaemin handed me something. “i have another pair back in the dorm, you can have this.” he smiled at me.

i thanked him and sat at the far left corner of the practice room. i opened the youtube app and searched for her name. she tweeted about a new song—underwater tears.

i clicked on the video. the background was familiar. she was in her room. fairy lights adorned the canopy of her bed. a few plushies were on the ground. multiple albums sat on her shelf.

“…i’ve been exhausted my whole life

it’s a never ending cycle

of trying to swim upwards

but my feet are anchored to the ground

chains of steel held me down

lungs full of salt water

i tried to fight the waves and swim upshore

but they wouldn’t let me

no they wouldn’t

so if you can see me

come save me

please reach for my hand and pull me back up…”

the screen turned black signaling the end of the video. “wow.” i exclaimed in shock. i’ve always known she had a lovely voice. but this? i’m lost for words.

“what’s that?” i jumped in surprise. i looked to my left and saw the familiar silverish white mop of hair. “don’t you mean who’s that?” renjun said.

“ahh…luna noona.” jisung nodded in acknowledgment.

“tsk tsk.” haechan clicked his tongue in disapproval. “why don’t you just approach her?”

“hyung you know he’d rather eat a spoonful of ketchup than talk to a pretty girl.” chenle laughed.

“i’m going to!” i said in defense.

“when?” jaemin asked.

“i said i’m going to!” a chorus of laughter echoed in the room.

i first saw her while i was going through videos of people covering my song, child. her small smile on the thumbnail caught my attention. she was hunched over her guitar. her dark hair was roughly tied into a ponytail, a few stray strands covering her face. but even then, i could tell that she was absolutely beautiful.

the next thing i new, i was watching all her videos and stalking both her twitter and instagram. my finger hovered the screen, accidentally clicking the follow button. good thing i was using my private account, or else the press would have a field day.

i found myself waiting every saturday for her new upload on youtube. during my free time, i would watch her instagram live as she narrates her day. her eyes would shine brightly as she talks about the most random stuff, like how her pet dog bit her in the butt when she was younger, so she bit it back.

as andrew garfield said, she was like a shot of espresso—and i’ve just become highly addicted to caffeine.

next chapter.

[ramen-flavored]

Things I Want In A New Animal Crossing New Horizons Update That We Probably Won’t Get

1. New fish/bugs/fossils to find

There are so many different fish and bug and extinct species that exist. Imagine catching a Blob Fish or a Maple Moth! Could you imagine digging up an Irish Elk fossil or a Ground Sloth? Also there’s only so much to do in ACNH, the game gets boring after a while. We need new things to find

2. New clothes and a shopping cart at Able Sisters

I literally have no use for the Able Sisters anymore. Give me new clothes to wear. And give us a shopping cart so we can buy more than one shirt or pair of shoes or pants at a time.

3. New crops

Give me a reason to keep using Kapp’n. Give me cucumbers or green beans or watermelon! There are so many things you can grow! Herbs!! Also new fruit trees! Bananas! Pomegranates! Starfruits! Avocado!

4. New cooking recipes

Basically a follow up to #3, give us new things to cook with those new crops and fish! I love the cooking and I need more!!

5. Give Celeste her own area in the museum

Like in Animal Crossing City Folk I want her observatory back! Let us find/look at constellations!

6. New hairstyles

Let me change my hair up more! Hair is amazing, you can do anything with it! Let me split dye it, let me ombré it! Let me put it up in new gun ways!

7. Change things up for the holiday prizes

Once you do the Halloween or Thanksgiving activities, you never have to do them again. It’s the same prizes every year. Change it up! Make it fun to do the quests again!

8. Ordering specialized coffee for villagers

It was sooo fun to do this and it will also give me a reason to keep seeing Brewster.

9. Bring back Club LOL

Give me Dr. Shrunk 😡😡. Give me the funny guy again.

10. More terraforming options.

I know this is a stretch but let us make different cliff shapes, let us make things like tunnels, caves, hills, rocky cliffs, expanded beaches. More pathway types and for the love of god, remove the grass patches underneath buildings and between pathway types.

11. BULK CRAFTING!!!

I don’t wanna keep making things one by one! It’s so time consuming and annoying! Let me make like 30 fish bates at the same time!!!!!!!

12. Familiars or pets to follow you

Listen, I literally just had this idea while playing that it would be so cool to have a little pet follow you around. Could you imagine like a little bat or whatever following you? It be so cute!

13. Being able to go from one mystery island to the next without having to go home first.

It would save so much time to just go from one to the other without having to go through all the dialogue with the dodo birds.

14. The ability to change your islands name

I don’t wanna have to restart my whole island just to change the name. I’m just not feeling it’s name anymore, let me change it.

15. More Nooks Cranny upgrades

I want a bigger selection of items! I want more than just 5 things a day.

16. Weather app

I saw someone on Reddit talk about this and I couldn’t agree more. It would be cool to know when it’s gonna rain seeing as some bugs/fish only show up in the rain. It’d just be really cool to have.

17. I want more attitude from villagers

That stuff was funny. I want it back.

18. Post Office

I know you can send mail at the airport but i miss Pete, Phyllis, and Pelly. Plus it could give us a new building to put on the island.

19. GracieGrace

Bring back Grace the giraffe and her unreasonably expensive furniture!! Speaking of new furniture there was so much stuff in the previous games that haven’t been added to NH.

20. Easier way to get missing DIY’s

A new NPC that will help you get diys you are missing would be amazing. When they visit you can trade 10 duplicate diys cards and they could give you a diy you haven’t found yet!

————————————————————— I know this is a long list but all of these things would be sooo coool 😫😫😫

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: May 15th Part 2

And here’s the next part of the long answer set of the day!

When will OL: N&F take place? Beginnings and Always took place during summer breaks, will now and forever take place during a fall break or will the characters be going to school at the time of the events we play through? 

It takes place over all of the fall season, so school will be happening in OL2. Some events do take place in school, though many times events only start after school is already out for the day, haha.

Hey!! I have kind of a weird question?? I’m sorry if it’s been answered before and I just haven’t seen it but is OL 2 taking place during the same years as OL 1? I’m just curious, thank you for such amazing games!!! 

It’s a similar time frame, but not 100% exactly same.

Do you have any idea when the demo for now and forever will be available? 

Hopefully this fall! But that’s not a guarantee.

Okay the crime show in Step 2: Growing up. Long blonde hair, police station, crime series? Was it The Closer? Because I’m the same age as MC and Cove and my mom was constantly watching that when I was 13. 😂 

Haha, yeah! The Closer and, to a lesser degree, Medium were the kind of shows I was referencing there. My mom also used to watch those back in the day.

Hey um this might be an odd question but if the setting of OL: N&F is  fall/autumn, what country or city will it take because my mind tells me it is either Poland or Canada. Also I can't wait for the game I am hyped 

It’s set in the USA again. We’d like to be able to have cameos and that’s easiest to do if the OL games take place in the same country.

Is it possible for the PC of OL to have non-seriously dated other people in the in between years even if they’ve had a consistent crush on Cove? 

You can causally date Baxter in Step 3 if you get his DLC and then ultimately choose Cove in Step 4. If you mean off-screen people, it doesn’t really come up, but you can certainly headcanon that. The game never says Cove is the only partner you’ve ever had.

Is there going to be a Kickstarter for Now and Forever as well? For like voiced names and stuff again? Didn’t find B&A until after it was released and I’d really love the opportunity to hear my name in the game 🥺 

Yeah, we are gonna have a Kickstarter with getting a voiced name as a reward! Though, it will be more expensive than it was for OL1. I feel bad to raise the price but we realized too late the first time around that it was being super undersold for the amount of work it took, aha.

Do you know how much the remaining DLC for OL will cost? (Step 4, Derek, Baxter) 

Step 4: Free

Wedding DLC: $2.99USD

Derek DLC: $4.99USD

 Baxter DLC: $4.99USD

Has an artist for the new position been picked yet?! I'm super excited for the new game! 

We did fill that spot. Thank you so much for taking the time to apply!

hmmm what would it take to get each of the XOXO jerk squad to feel the need to hug you? 

They’d have to first like you a fair amount, otherwise the most you’d get is maybe a pat on the shoulder. If they were attached, they might hug you if you broke down crying or if you gave them super good news.

Unless it’s Shiloh, of course. If you want a hug you only have to ask!

May i ask how the Derek DLC will work? I believe that there aren’t any memories in step 4 and doesnt derek’s dlc take place during that step? So will the dlc add memories? Thank you! 

Derek’s DLC will add five Moments to Step 2 (a new page will appear on that screen if you get the DLC). Then in Step 4 you’ll have to choose between playing the default epilogue or going through the Derek romance story.

Is the pc version on itch,io different from the steam version? Like an offline one or something? 

Steam has achievements, but that’s about it. Both can be played offline, if you prefer.

I've been wondering this for awhile, what determines if cove winds up with a ponytail in step 3? I've done multiple runs with different MCs with varying hairstyles. Or does it have to do with a particular moment in step 2? 

I’m afraid I can’t say exact choices that determine things. But generally it’s preference based options in the Step before that decide those things.

Any Floret Bond updates? 

No, the artist had to leave the project and it’s been on-hold. I’m not sure if I want to try working just with what we have or replacing it all entirely. The design is a bit too specific for us to easily find someone who could mimic it. Hopefully we’ll work things out later, though.

In step 3 is Cove's plan always to stay in sunset bird? 

Yeah. He is never ready at 18-years-old to make a big life change.

I love your content! If it's alright to ask, you answered in a previous ask about how Jeremy was too particular with what he likes his types to be romanceable with just any MC and it's sort of got me wondering.. What /are/ his types and/or preferences and such? Sorry if it's a lot! 

Jeremy likes stubborn jerks and will not date someone who’s sweet or even generally a decent person, haha.

uh, excuse me if you said this somewhere before, but how will step 4 be actually? Will it he like an actual step and have moments and dlc and all? Or will it be more like a long epilogue of some sort?

Will the step 4, the wedding and extra routes dlcs be paid too? Im just confused, sorry if im asking too much

Step 4 is only an epilogue, so it’s just a long series of scenes one after the other rather than a collection of Moments you can choose from.

The Step 4 epilogue is free, the wedding DLC, Derek DLC, and Baxter DLC cost money.

i’m not sure how much of the wedding dlc you have planned already, or if this would be to spoilery, but what kind of wedding traditions will be included? i keep thinking about how flustered cove would get over a garter toss & was wondering if we’d see a scene like that haha. obviously no worries if it’s not included, i’ll enjoy literally anything cove related 

I don’t know for sure yet, haha. Right now we’re focused on the parts before the big day. We’ll see how many scene alterations we can include for the wedding itself later on.

Hello! Firstly, thank you for creating such an amazing game like OL, and I couldn’t be more excited for OL2! Out of curiosity, are you looking for any writers to come on for OL2 or are you all pretty much set in that department? Just thought I’d shoot my shot haha but I’m still excited regardless ^^! 

We will be hiring writers for OL2 later this year! Thank you for the interest.

Will we be blessed with a spin-off Yandere Cove, like XOXO Blood Droplets? 

Sadly, no. It’s a shame but there’s not enough time to keep making OL1 bonus/spin-off content.

How is Q pronounced?

I’m afraid Q’s full name hasn’t been publicly announced yet so I can’t answer here (Q and T are the first letters of the names for the new LIs in Our Life: Now & Forever).

Question; is the steam version getting a Mac update?  I purchased the dlc there thinking it had Mac support without realizing it and just wondered if I’d need to refund it to purchase on itch.io 😭 

I’m really sorry, you will need to get a refund from Steam. We do hope to have it there for Steam eventually, but have no idea of when it’ll happen. Apple requires special notarization to be an officially accepted app for their devices. We don’t have that. Steam requires having that, Itch will let you release it as an non-notarized third party app. That’s why Itch is the only place that has the Mac version right now.

would you mind posting outfit sheets for Cove in every step? it would make things a lot easier for us artists. it would save a lot of time spent looking for references 

I think we did do the earlier steps when they were finished way back in 2019 (this game took a long time to make, aha), but we can probably repost them sometime!

In our life n&f, will we be able to get into qprs/will there be more options in regards to having deep platonic relationships with the love interests? Because as an aroace individual, it would be great if there could also be emphasis on platonic love so that it's more aspec inclusive. 

It’s a little hard to say at this point. There may not be things like a wedding DLC for OL2 and so the relationship for platonic and romantic feelings might not go as far as it did in the first game. We’ll kind of have to see how much we can do based on timeframe/budget constraints that will only be set near the end of the year. But we will be keeping things like that in mind at least.

hi! i really really like your game and im absolutely in love with it! i cant wait to try your other games like xoxo droplet and future OL NF :))

during the step 3 erands moment i got curious, which fudge flavor is his favorite? it seems like he likes all of them, but which 4 do you think he would like best?

also i noticed that in some playthroughs cove would let me give him a piggy back ride, and in some he wouldn't, how come?

how does your choices affect cove's interests or looks? i replayed the game without changing any choices but i got cove to look different, is it just random?

thank you!

Cove’s favorite flavors are ones with nuts and that are fruity! But he appreciates them all. Whether or not you can give him a piggyback ride depends on if your MC is fit/large enough to hold a muscular 6-foot-tall beach boy, haha.

Cove’s appearance does depend on choices and it’s generally tied to choices that are preference based rather than emotion/action based, such as which key chain you pick in Step 1.

Is it possible for cove to reject MC's proposal at the end of step 3? 

Nope. He’ll always accept.

hi! i was wondering how heavily the side characters will be featured in the our life wedding dlc? obviously it'll be cove & mc focused, but i was thinking it'd be sweet if we could take lizzie dress / suit shopping or dance with cliff at the wedding or something. 

The side characters are there about as often as they are in normal events. So, it’s clearly focused on Cove but he’s not the only person you have any meaningful moments with.

When will responses be sent out to applicants? 

I’m afraid we don’t send responses out to all applications, only ones we’re interested in offering the position to. Not everyone likes rejection emails and the amount of applications is too high to contact them all to say we’re not hiring them. We post updates on the job page when a position has news. Right now we’ve filled every role that was open.

Is there also going to be the option to keep your relationships with the love interests platonic in Our Life: Now and Forever? That's something I really appreciate in Our Life: Beginnings and Always

Yeah! OL will never force you to end up in a romantic relationship with someone.

I was wondering, in the Step 3 Happiness moment, what are the different fishes Cove can compare MC to? I got "you'd be a paradise fish, because being with you is paradise," but my friend got "you'd be an angelfish." Are there more variations? 

He says paradise fish if you’re a couple, angelfish if he’s just crushing, and then a royal dottyback/queenfish/emperor tetra (based on your gender) if he likes the MC platonicly.

Hello! So, in one of the Step 3 DLCs, Cove's arm was gone. I think it was to show him putting his arm behind his back. But if that wasn't the case, did it get yeeted? 

Thanks for letting us know. That was an error we tried to fix a little while back. When did you make the save file you were playing? If it was older that might be why it happened. Or maybe the error wasn’t fully fixed after all.

Asking for your opinion, but do you think Cove would at all be into ABBA? Because all I could imagine during the car trip in step 3 was him and the MC belting to Mamma Mia. 

Haha, yeah, there’d definitely be some ABBA songs he was into.

So throughout the game, Cove can develop different interests depending on the player’s choices; does this mean that he can have different careers in Step 4? Or his is line of work in adulthood never mentioned at all? 

He can have different career paths in Step 4!

Hi!! I'm so so sorry if this has been asked before but I just acquired knowledge about the so famous nsfw dlc for OL and nearly chocked on my bubblegum 💀💀💀 So, my real inquiry is if that specific moment will have any kind of impact at some point of the fourth step OR if it will just be treated as a side-story-ish “what if” scenario.Also, is there any chance there'll be something similar for Step 4? Haha jk,,, unless 😳Questions apart let me thank you profoundly for making the best visual novel I've ever played 😭 Really really looking forward the epilogue and OL2 💕 Have a nice day 

It’s just a bonus side story that’s fully separate from the main game.

It would be nice to have one for Step 4 too, but I sadly don’t see us having time to actually do it. I don’t know, if people are still asking for more OL1 content several months from now it might be doable and worth doing.

I'd just like to ask, when is Baxter's birthday :0 -- I'm really curious esp with their zodiac signs so ;w; 

I don’t know, haha. Maybe I’ll come up with one someday.

Please help!! I bought the Step 3 DLC but I still have no idea how to get to where you can propose to Cove - any tips? 

&

How do I get the option to propose to Cove at the end of the game?

You can click HERE for a discussion on that.

I love that Miranda and Terry are getting together! I'm curious if you have canon sexualities for them? Also just wanted to say how much I love OL and how much joy it brings me everytime I play it <3 

Terry likes ladies and Miranda likes dudes!

ngl Step 4 Terry's design reads like y'all see trans guys as their assigned gender more than you see them as men to me (a trans guy)... like maybe if he isn't heavily dysphoric, I could see it, but everything you've said about him doesn't line up with that. Even then, immediate warning bells go off in my head looking at him. I wouldn't have touched the game if I saw him ahead of time.

I’m sorry you aren’t comfortable with the way the design looks. The situation with Terry is that he’s now open about who he is, but the body he was born with is still physically the same. He only came out recently as an adult and hasn’t gone through any treatments/procedures yet (his chest is flatter because he wears a binder). However, even though his body hasn’t transitioned at the point Step 4 happens, no one treats him as anything other than the guy he is. Having a trans character who’s identity is supported/respected from the start is what we’re going for in this case. But what we’re doing with Terry isn’t the only trans content we’ve ever had/ever will have in the future.

how would baxter react to bae pyoun and vice versa? and can you please detailly explain both love interests personalities from our life 2: now and forever? i was just curious, sorry for dumb question!! 

I imagine it’d be pretty opposite experiences, haha. Bae would initially think Baxter is pushy and thoughtless, but would quickly realize, oh, he’s instead a soft, considerate boy. Very cute. Baxter would first be struck with the impression that Bae is charming and gentlemanly, but then would realize that, no, he’s a sarcastic asshole. And I’m afraid we can’t reveal the personalities for the next game yet.

Sorry if you've already answered this, but I have a question about the patreon exclusive moment you're working on. I was wondering if it's mainly going to be CGs or if it's mostly character sprites + backgrounds with some CGs.

Either way, thank you for doing the Lord's work and not only making Cove, but making this bonus moment as well 😌😌😌

It’s mostly sprites/backgrounds with two CGs!

—– —– —– —–

Thank you again for the interesting questions everyone :D

We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[taechnological]

Hey Sae! How're you doing?

I have a request if you're free and if you're up fot it!

Could you please tell what's going on about the Proof trailer and the new album?

I missed Bangtan stuff since the last two days and I just came back thinking I'll relax with In the Seom stuff and my head's spinning in a not good way and I'm avoiding yet still trying to learn what'd going on like it's a difficult assignment I need to get through 😬 The bird app's pointless and even wading through reddit threads feels overwhelming. I don't want something I partake in for fun to get this overwhelming but here we are. Also, I'm just thinking what if I went away for two years and enjoyed everything like I did their older stuff instead of in realtime....

Like, as a somewhat new ARMY, I have no idea of the possible callbacks or 'return' to their hiphop roots so 😭....I dunno where I'm going with this, I was just thinking if you might help since I catch up with some BTS stuff from your hilarious posts. But ofcourse only if you're free and feel upto it. Thankyou in advance!

hello! i'm well, how're u? ♡

alright so first off all i want u to take a breath and relax~ being a fan should always be smth u do for fun, and nothing to stress over! i understand the fomo can be too much at times but it's okay to be out of loop sometimes! i always tell this to my friends here: love them at your own pace!

okay now second, i'm not sure exactly what u are asking for but here we go, bts is going to have a comeback aka new album coming out on june 10th. it's gonna be an anthology album (means it will have their older music in it and possibly unreleased content from then) and three 3 tracks. this album is called proof, which is a callback to their first four albums from 2 cool 4 skool to dark & wild, hence the name, a reference to we are bulletproof. i hope this cleared smth up, feel free to ask me again if not!