#sad to see the bird app account go

[cswweek2021]

Alrighty, with the changes coming to the bird app, I decided to move Chrisawa Weekend/Week events over to here!

I had an old side blog hanging around, so I am putting it to use!

Here are the rules for Chrisawa Weekend 2024:

The main changes would be that you would be tagging this account o tumblr not the bird app LOL

Additionally you can just send an ask to this blog or DM the MOD if you have any questions.

Now here are the prompts/themes for each day!

[kathybluecaller]

The submitted version of Smile Force that landed me and @flannagus , as well as two other friends, 5th place for a national competition!!

This initial cut was rather rushed and unfortunately doesn’t contain audio (the song we originally intended to use would have violated the copyright rules and none of use wanted to be disqualified so we ditched it and hoped for the best)

A simple summary of the plot: In a world where three spirits run around wrecking havoc a group of mascots come in to save the day! The villains target adults and through putting them in a bad mood upset the children. Smile Force, consisting of Qubchee (cheese porcupine drummer), Oliver S. Stonks (account bird sax player), Roland Buck (horse plumber guitarist), and Vickey Buck (horse plumber keytarist), make it their sole mission to combat the forces of evil using their musical based powers and bring back the much needed good mood.

Behind the scenes stuff: The prompt we were given was superheroes but figured going with typical powers/appearance would blend in with other submissions. So instead we took inspiration from Twrp and Japanese mascots cause why not. I had already competed to some degree before and humor seems to go a long way so any silly idea was a good idea. Japanese mascots are what inspired the character designs, it helped with standing out as they wouldn’t be human, the silliness came from the fact that often Japanese mascots have rather odd combinations/roles.

A major influence was Nyango Starr, who is an apple possessed by a dead cat who plays heavy metal drums. That seemed absurd enough for a character and had the added bonus of inspiring us to give the characters music based powers. (there’s also this one futon song Nyango Starr plays that inspired the initial idea of lullaby rock song. The thought of Dragon Force music centered for kids is what made us name the hero gang Smile Force: Guardians of Laughter. The look on my friends faces when I told them the other half of the team name is a Twrp reference🤣)

Twrp lore inspired the whole fighting off dastardly haters (sworn enemies of the fun who are bent on hatering them and ungroovifying the world at large). Since the heroes would be fighting for the happiness of the children of the world we initially thought of the villains to be adults kids normally wouldn’t like. A mean teacher, a dentist, your mom. We later came to realize three random people wouldn’t really have that much of an impact on a what is in universe a global scale. So the villains then evolved into The Specters who go by Yo-kai Watch logic, basically they consist of three emotions, Anger, Sadness, and Disappointment, and by slapping a mask onto an adult pass on that negative emotion.

Back to the heroes them being mascots is rather funny to me if this were to be expanded. In universe everyone thinks it’s just some guy in costume but no that is a literal cartoon horse with a magic keytar. Anyway Qubchee came to be because flannagus suggested a porcupine while I was eating an absurd amount of cheese. The character was given the drums just cause(?) not much to it. We had a list of instruments and animals we wanted to use and one of them was a triangle. It would have originally been given to a horse mascot and be beyond overpowered (the scene I had in my head was basically with a single strike destroy a universe levels of power). The reason behind any of this was because of that one dummer that plays the buckets in the bathtub with a horse head on (horse percussionist) we already had a percussionist so we let go of the idea. I did want a pair of sorts because of Chiitan and Shinjo-kun (it’s so funny to me seeing Chiitan on the blue bird app after all this) going with otters seemed to much of a direct inspiration so instead we went back to horses. An early suggestion from a teacher was giving them everyday jobs since you know, they’re mascots, so that’s how the horse twin plumbers came to be (later people would point out ‘like Mario and Luigi?’ and while no I did think it’d be funny if they stared at the camera while fixing a sink) for the instrument by now we had 1 standard instrument and 1 not as much (the saxophone). To keep it even we gave Roland Buck (the brother) a guitar and Vickey Buck (the sister) a keytar

(the twrp references are always there)

btw Roland got his name from the Roland Ax-Synth (what inspired the design of Vickey’s keytar +the Casio AZ-1) while Vickey got her name from what inspired Roland’s guitar (the Flying V). Lastly there’s Oliver S. Stonks who was created while I was storyboarding. We had thought of making one of the members have a saxophone and I really wanted to have a bird character. The same teacher who had suggested plumber also brought up an office worker. With that my 10pm brain thought it’d be funny to make Oliver a tired accountant (because of my aunt). I had given them the tired look but a friend drew they’re version of Oliver with the swirl glasses and so we went with their everyday appearance having the glasses and then taking them off when fighting.

Visual development: Once we had the story and characters we had to figure out how the heck this was going to look like. I struggled with this a lot pushing it back till the very end (and unfortunately doing the entire production phase two weeks before the deadline. note to self never do that again). Trying to tie it all together and prioritizing our main goal of this being a childlike wonder, I landed on making it appear as though a kid had made this. That at home feel was created by using cheap material (literally every physically drawn background is crayola to some degree) some were more simple and was a plan scrap book paper sheet. A lot of notebook paper was used as well. Shots with what was meant to be comic panels were cut out black card stock. My favorite background(s) was the colorful ones used for the transformation scene. It was a bunch of cut out transparent sticky notes

I bit of a node to the album cover(?) of the song we didn’t end up using (Get A Ban Ban, the Japanese opening to one of the Pokémon XY seasons)

The entire mixed media idea came by complete accident/exploration. It was winter break, I was still finishing up the storyboard, I had a single page outline, and unfortunately got the good ol’ art block. Watching Evangelion got me in the mood to animate traditionally and one Strive animation wip later I decided the initial first cut would be done on paper (had my light pad underneath and a text book with a nice pattern)

Early on I had planned the last shot to close like a book Spider-Verse style and after viewing this whole thing as something a kid did for fun I finished off the short exactly like that. The fade into a physical object that was stop motioned to give that whole ‘we’ve just left the imaginary world’ and the pages that flip through the end are a panel for panel retelling of the events in the short. To add to it ‘Guardians’ was totally misspelled to seem like a kid wrote it (and definitely not because I was speed writing at 2am ._.) Anyway it is now currently 2am and I shall continue may rambles at another time (I do however have a little bonus)

Random stuff: Qubchee is the only one without a proper transformation, instead of a different outfit they’re sudden expressiveness contrasts they’re usually blank face so much everyone is like ‘yeah that’s totally someone else’. It wasn’t till getting ready for the national event that we brought up the fact I had never really given any of them genders(?) The only one I had confirmed in my head was Vickey being a girl and that’s about it. Roland I see as a guy and honestly Oliver gives me non binary vibes. To quote my friend ‘well they are colorful’ (they are all queer your honor) Qubchee I genuinely don’t know that’s just a lil blorbo (pats them on the head) Their names came about through a conversation with my siblings while on a car ride back home. It was fun :] Vickey has infinite pocket space and uses her tools (typically the wrench) and moves it around with her music (inspired by the brooms/mops that move around in Fantasia) expanding on her naming coming from that of the Flying V I figured she’d also have that as a nickname as I see her doing this one trick from the Daicon IV film (but with a wrench instead of a sword)

We had planned as part of the booth during the national showcase to have a cereal box prop to give the whole Saturday morning cartoon vibe (Oliver eats all the cereal in the comic on the back) and we were going to make a whole physical copy of the short, burn it on a dvd with a menu and everything, but umm… the digital nightmare struck

I will most definitely continue this project to some degree (and touch up the short and release what I guess you could call the directors cut) if your still reading thank you :] (lemme know what you think about it cause I still got loads to say👀)

(also sorry for any spelling mistakes/straight up not making sense cause again its 2am)

[eilarae]

okay like. maybe it's the 2 hrs of sleep talking. and normally im not one to make big generalizing statements. but i just feel like!! those folks who go HOT TAKE!! i HATE alphys!!! are probably insufferable irl!!!! sorry!!!!! been seeing a lot of those on the bird app recently and it makes me sad!!!!!! like not vibing with her personality is one thing but genuinely resenting and detesting her?? likeee you just hate her because she's confidently herself??? what, you scared of being cringe??? because HEAVEN FORBID people enjoy things???? or did u just miss her entire arc somehow???? right because HEAVEN FORBID!!!!!!! a character in a horrible situation with really no right answer make a mistake????? and then take ownership and accountability for it later?????😱🤯🤯😰

heck you!!

[ryuuseirune]

As someone who likes DoL a lot (240 hours logged since last year)... I've never felt like there's a shortage of fanmade content for it. Many of my favorite artists on twitter are DoL fans and regularly draw art for it. Typo (typpo8), Tnso/rabbitguy, and Baiwa/Frog (byebyefr0g) have posted some cool DoL stuff if you're looking for recommendations. There's so many DoL fans online if you know where to look! It has a massive Chinese-speaking fanbase, so if you understand how to navigate Chinese fandom tags you can probably find even more. I feel like I see Sydney stuff at least every other day on the bird app lol.

I've also played a bit of CoC, but I've never seen it in the wild. So... I looked it up to see if there really is a shortage of fanworks, and found that there's actually quite a lot. On rule34, there's like 1.8k results for CoC 1 + 2 and only 1.6k for Funger 1+2. On Sad Panda/exhentai, there's a 432-page ongoing CoC comic that was last updated 3 days ago (September 30, 2024) and 73 other user-uploaded media. In comparison, funger only has 19 entries on exhentai as of the time I'm searching. (DoL has none, in case you're wondering).

I think it all depends on what sites you're on and the people you engage with. What kind of people like the media you're searching for? Are you considering all avenues? As someone who has scoured the deepest parts of the internet to discover pornography that suits my (incredibly specific) tastes, sometimes you'll find hidden vistas around every corner. Discords, surprisingly active forums, image boards (aka booru), Reddit communities, mastodon instances (aethy, baraag)... the list goes on and on.

If you're having trouble finding fandom spaces, I think all of the sites I mentioned above are decent options. It's really easy for fanworks to get lost on larger sites, so I'd stick to the smaller sites if possible. And, if you still can't find anyone after exhausting all your English options, maybe learn a couple languages for fun. (I'd say just kidding, but I'm really not.) Go join a super topic on Weibo. Support Japanese artists on Fantia and Pixiv. There's 2ch.hk if you speak Russian, though you might need to dig a bit before you find fandom stuff lol.

Also, I was talking with a fandom friend about image boards and she actually didn't know they existed, which made me realize that there's probably a lot of newer tumblr users who are unfamiliar with imageboards as a concept. They're basically sites exclusively made for uploading visual media (images/videos/gifs) and sorting them via functional tagging systems, usually with an entirely separate forum section for discussion.

There's a lot of imageboards out there with a lot of different uses/fanbases. I mentioned Rule 34 earlier, which has a lot of stuff for Western cartoons and Overwatch but it's also probably the most well-known image board nowadays just because of its iconic name. Danbooru and Gelbooru are the most popular ones for anime-adjacent stuff. There's also joibooru, which allows captions to pictures. Don't use Sankaku Complex (does that site still exist?); its tag search system is horrid and it doesn't provide image sources (not cool!). If you're a furry, e621 is good because it lets you sort between types of furries (canid, bovine, avian etc). Ehentai technically isn't an image board since you can also share files other than images, but it's been around since 1999 and has one of the largest databases of manga/doujin like... ever. And it has sooooo many images. If you're not using it as a fan of 2000s-2010s manga/anime/games, you're missing out. Its sister site exhentai hosts more extreme/controversial content, and you need an ehentai account to access it - otherwise you get a picture of a Sad Panda. Hence why users colloquially call it Sad Panda. You can also find scans of certain official media on there, so I'd consider getting an account if you want to scrounge up a high-quality PDF of that Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver guidebook you got from the Scholastic book fair when you were a child... just saying.

Anyway, all this to say... never give up hope in finding the porn you want. It's out there somewhere. And if it isn't... I guess that means you've just gotta make it yourself! Or pay someone else to. Or both. (If I revealed how much money I've spent on commissions over the past three years, I think I'd feel a moderate amount of embarrassment at my poor financial management.) I hope you find what you need, anon. I've struggled similarly but just know your people are out there somewhere.

do you ever think about how even though sex and sexuality is a HUGE part of fandom culture and often the main appeal for many people, it's considered weird to be a fandom-level Fan of something that is objectively meant to be porn? like, i somewhat get it with 3-episode shows that clearly just exist to be fetish material and have no real depth, but when it comes to genuine works of art like Corruption of Champions, or Degrees of Ludity, your usual fan spaces have so little room to work. i find it odd, seeing as horror doesn't seem to have the same issue? there's a LOT in Fear And Hunger that you just straight-up cannot depict on tumblr, but that doesn't stop people from drawing tons of fanart and openly loving the characters. but for so many amazing porn games, it's total radio silence.

--

There are fanvids of CockyBoys on AO3. There are some regulars at ye olde slash cons who are always ready with the live action porn recs. Tagame is pretty popular.

You phrased this like it was a general question, but you're talking about something very specific: porn games.

I think the fanworks makers who like CoC hang out on image boards full of dude users and f/monster noncon content. At least, that's where I remember seeing it mentioned.

[ardathksheyna]

Ramping Down Bird App Activity

tl'dr: I'm ramping down my Twitter activity starting today. I'll be actively posting here more often. I did decide to bite the bullet and create a Threads account but I have no idea if I'll be active there or not.

The reasons why I'm ramping down Twitter activity is one: lack of user engagement. Two: privacy policy changes.

Aside from the weird privacy policy changes, I've noticed that what little engagement I had has dropped off to non-existent. I'm not the only one to notice that drop in engagement, either.

Everyone knows that blue checks are being favored for views over non-subscribers, and I keep seeing posts from people (almost all blue-checks) that I don't follow.

I do feel sad about doing this but the fact is, Twitter isn't as fun as it used to be. It started to suck after 2016 and with the current "owner" being as unhinged as he is, it's not going to get better.

As far as social media presence goes, I'll be more active here—despite the porn-bots roaches (calling them roaches because you step on one and you know that there's thousands more out there).

Here's to the future!

Enjoy the tuxedo kitten gif ;-)

Also, other places where I can found:

[metamorphirith]

The Cycle of Singleness

Breakup

This is when you have had the talks of parting ways. What happens from here on out depends on the health of the relationship and how healthy you are. Was the relationship toxic? Are you toxic to yourself? Don't be afraid to admit, sometimes it is a mix-n-match even. We're already here anyway, this is the product of our poor choices in the past (we know that now) and we are living through it.

I think this is the scariest part, having made choices you didn't know better to make but you find out long enough that it wasn't for the best and it was an utter complete waste not just of your time but of your entire being.

We are, after all, a mosaic of the people we love, people we hate, people we experience. It might not be the prettiest part of your art but it's there and I am sorry to be the bearer of rough news, but you have to learn to live with it and eventually do…live with it.

Crying and Kicking

First of all, NO! Don't message him/her. Don't doubt your choice (we already talked about how there are some choices you make that weren't so good and look where we are now) Don't romanticize the memories. Don't romanticize him/her!!!…!!! Don't look back (lest you end up like Lot's wife--salty and stuck)

Don't download those dating apps you think is going to be the cure for your loneliness, feeling the ick of having to choose photos to be likeable but also not having enough energy to get premium or verify. Only to match with "eh" guys and lose your faith in men, proceed to delete your account to cleanse your spirit only to do it again and feel icky again.

YES, I WENT BAT CRAZY SPECIFIC THERE! Again, please don't. Maawa ka naman sa sarili mo.

I hate myself!

This is when you question yourself worth if you are loveable. You start to pick yourself apart and it's sad. That man and the world really roughened you up and it's not your fault (eh, partly your fault for choosing what you chose but what's done is done. We are basically doing PR control at this point except it's not public relations we are fixing but personal relations)

Do not crucify yourself for the lack of other people. Find that lack and give it to yourself. You are worth the late nights, the early mornings and everything in between. Please, a man is not the end and aim of your existence. It's a guy. If that is not an ick at this point, then I don't know what will ick you.

TO HELL WITH MEN! (specific for women)

You hate patriarchy and everything it represents now. Sometimes you look at your mom and you ask yourself if she is truly happy and why. You might hate all men except for your dad and brothers Maybe, they are a good dad and they are good brothers but are they good husbands and good sons? Who bears the broken heart of this relationship set in stone? It's the Madre.

Be with your mom, or with your female friends and celebrate girlhood and womanhood all at once. If you can't find it in you to celebrate yourself--yet surround yourself with people who celebrate you.

I am taking care of myself now

This is the mellow part of the song. This is the bridge between the second verse and the last chorus. This hurts, ironically. The reality of not having to rely on another person to care for you is sinking in and you have to do the grunt work of loving yourself now. You have to start somewhere and this is you starting with you and in you. You are not used to this because you used to outsource the love you deserve to other people and it didn't work out. It never works out. You start to drink more water, listen to the music you like with a hint of lightness. You stare at the sunset with acceptance that the day is over and the night is arriving. The dark cold evening embraces you and you embrace it back. It is okay. You are taking care of yourself now. You trust yourself. <3

This isn't so bad after all

The dust is settling, and you see things differently--objectively. Everything good is in its "-er" era.

Birds and chirpier, morning air is crispier, that sweet treat is sweeter. The sunset is sunset-ing (okay that is in its "-ing" era but you get my point) You are slowly piecing it back together. You are newer, better, wiser and older. That is beautiful. Sis is becoming majestic! In every savored moment is a piece in the puzzle fitting in and a part of yourself finding its place in your soul and in your space.

I am at peace.

This is it. You made it. Cherish it. Protect it. Enjoy it.

[jazzykiss]

ay yo...

Welp.... The bird app just shit the bed so here I am... back at my old lurking grounds. What sucks the most is I can't even go on the people I follow profiles to see their alternate accounts. Many were foreign and wouldn't have a Tumblr or insta...so they might just be lost in the wind for right now. The situation is equally sad as it is somewhat freeing...

Either way, it's good to see some old profiles over here that I haven't seen in years... Hopefully I will be a bit more talkative this time around. No promises...

[baekhvuns]

Bestie I didn't even watch that Arsenal x Man City game, but London is still red, Arsenal is 1st 🤗 you shouldn't have laughed at me too much. Kane in Bayern? Lmao I mean you're right, he's not gonna get anything with Tottenham kqjsjajsjsjwjdhhwhwjw. Did Jongho go and see their game btw?

Aston Villa who hehehe. There are so many London clubs though it's crazy! That's why I have two fave clubs, one that gives me joy (though not recently) pretty often and another which is 📈📉📈📉 😭 best believe I was in shambles when Arsenal and Madrid played together. Maybe it's good Arsenal is out ot CL. Yeah Liverpool sadly...💀 I like Man Utd too, never cared for City and never will jsjajshsjissbaahhshsje

Omfg you're right Hwa at the pop up was giving model, brand ambassador 😭

That selfie sign?! Kpop stans can't be normal. Also how do some people have the time to watermark and post their stuff during the concert?! Have some fun??? Unless it's the serial concert goers, they don't care anymore, just need some clout on the bird app

LSM created SM and he might destroy it now with all the lawsuits, I mean... fair tbh, except he needs to be in jail 🔫 not to mention Kakao is at the scene of the crime as well, guess they're a better option than Hybe tho. The fucking video they released??? This is war for real

I'm so sorry Baek idk why artists are allergic to Vancouver? When I saw Tamino's Canada dates I was like "omg what a coincidence, what if he comes to Baek City" but alas :/

Pon de Replay what an icon. I don't think I genuinely know any ASAP song, but it's because I don't know most mainstream songs, boomer <3 so, sorry to that man. I don't think Riri's tickets were that expensive, also her last tour was 2000 years ago 😭 speaking of Bey, she's like the opposite of Rihanna. Don't really vibe with her music, but she can put on an amazing and well-produced show

I honestly get seeing idols around, because I literally saw some ex-Wanna One members in a cafe two days ago ❤ but chasing them or purposely going to places you can spot them 🔪 (giving Oil London stalking Jimin vibes)

I eat tteokbokki pretty regularly, so it wasn't that much of a difference, they were semi-spicy, but good. Korean food is spicier than Japanese, but I still need more heat sometimes 🔥

A lot of people dislike season 4 of You, but it's funny cause it's all London and posh Brits, absolutely insufferable lmao. The tone is different, but as a whodunnit fan I ate it up! I'm looking forward to part 2, because it looks a bit more interesting.

Wish we looked that cute

Ah that's not the mushroom head I dislike, he's cute, but I was thinking of this still adorable, because it's Hwa...

M🍙pe what is this behaviour oeiwhisjswjjw tbh I hate this type of magicians, but come on. Unless it was all scripted he needs to smile a little

I was about to send you that white shirt Hwa video, amazing how I generally don't care for shirts or suits, but when it's Seonghwa......

I'm devastated Baeksy! No more "Ddeong-ppear" no more wholesome, unhinged, sweet and random stories and selfies 🤧🤧🤧🤧 I sincerely believe some idols are sad Universe is gone as well. Nooooo leave Bubble alone at least. Devastation, head in hands etc...

Fencing makes you rich??? Idk about that I trained in a shitty community centre. Ok trained is a big word, I did it for a few months only, because it was the closest thing I could get to sword fighting 😭

Oh god, see I'd be happy to see the Cursed Child movie, but anything connected to R*wl*ng is trash to me now </3 ruined everything for me, that stupid bitch

Hello he's so silly and let me lint roll you sir

Brb, breaking into that store

What would you do if you were stuck in a lift with this guy?

I found this account... accidentally and Hwa is all over it 😭 not really into armpits, but Hwapits... maybe, the agenda is really strong - DV 💖

hello! ITS ON SIGHT ANON ON SIGHT 🔫

Bestie I didn't even watch that Arsenal x Man City game, but London is still red, Arsenal is 1st 🤗 you shouldn't have laughed at me too much. Kane in Bayern? Lmao I mean you're right, he's not gonna get anything with Tottenham kqjsjajsjsjwjdhhwhwjw. Did Jongho go and see their game btw?

u waited till u SQW THE CHANGE AND THEN CAME BACK HERE TO SAY THIS 🔫🔫 tbh i be cursing man city bc they didn’t let alvarez play <3 MADE A LITTLE CHART FOR ARSENALS SHIT STREAKING I AM DETERMINED THAT PEP WILL PLAY HIS WAY INTO THOSE 2 POINTS no but srs this is actually shit 😭😭 not even as a rival but what is this 😭😭😭

koreans and their spurs relationship will never disappoint 😭😭 at least they won!

Aston Villa who hehehe. There are so many London clubs though it's crazy! That's why I have two fave clubs, one that gives me joy (though not recently) pretty often and another which is 📈📉📈📉 😭 best believe I was in shambles when Arsenal and Madrid played together. Maybe it's good Arsenal is out ot CL. Yeah Liverpool sadly...💀 I like Man Utd too, never cared for City and never will jsjajshsjissbaahhshsje

no bc they won against spurs im not HEARING ANYTHING 🤚🏻 the only good player they got is emi martinez <3 NOO THERE ARE SO MANY AND FOR WHAT WHY DO U GOT A LEEDS? FULHAM? WHO ASKED 🔫 no bc it’s the same for me, tho barca doesn’t disappoint THEYRE doing quite good atm, psg…at least they won 😭😭 see ARSENAL PLAYS SHIT, it would’ve been embarrassing,, saw the liverpool v madrid game today, why do madrid perform better in champions league than in la liga 😭😭

Omfg you're right Hwa at the pop up was giving model, brand ambassador 😭 /// That selfie sign?! Kpop stans can't be normal. Also how do some people have the time to watermark and post their stuff during the concert?! Have some fun??? Unless it's the serial concert goers, they don't care anymore, just need some clout on the bird app

WASNT HE! EXACTLY! 😭😭 the closest we’ll get to it for now,, the self promo i respect it bUT how about we all go for having fun! and music! rather than wanting a yn moment! NOOO UR RIGHT HOW DO THE FANSITES DO THAT SO FAST like do ur even enjoy the concert atp bc half the time ur on the camera and then u edit it on ur laptop 😭😭

LSM created SM and he might destroy it now with all the lawsuits, I mean... fair tbh, except he needs to be in jail 🔫 not to mention Kakao is at the scene of the crime as well, guess they're a better option than Hybe tho. The fucking video they released??? This is war for real

bestie…i have absolutely no words this is,, can we even enjoy music now with this looming issue of this company possibly disbanding everyone sm artists at least go to south america, vancouver, europe sometimes and south east asia now with them taking over we’re only getting usa and a toronto tour from now on AND AT LEAST SM’S TICKETS WERE A LITTLE CHEAP BUT THIS 😭😭😭 GONNA BE A NIGHTMARE 😭😭😭 but they’re already doing very well??? 😭😭 need u to visit hybe and have some words with them 🤨 taking credit for their success ofc

I'm so sorry Baek idk why artists are allergic to Vancouver? When I saw Tamino's Canada dates I was like "omg what a coincidence, what if he comes to Baek City" but alas :/

it’s never my turn to be happy never

Pon de Replay what an icon. I don't think I genuinely know any ASAP song, but it's because I don't know most mainstream songs, boomer <3 so, sorry to that man. I don't think Riri's tickets were that expensive, also her last tour was 2000 years ago 😭 speaking of Bey, she's like the opposite of Rihanna. Don't really vibe with her music, but she can put on an amazing and well-produced show

I KNEW SHE CHANGED WHEN SHE DIDNT INCLUDE PON DE REPLAY IN HER TRACKLIST, SHE DID KISS IT BETTER BUT NOT THAT SONG??? not the same girlie i tell u,, every ask im reminded ur a boomer <3 with inflation i just know they’d reach 1K $$ i like beyonce’s music that’s like title track worthy,, crazy in love is def top tier,, she really does! that dubai (?) one was crazy!

I honestly get seeing idols around, because I literally saw some ex-Wanna One members in a cafe two days ago ❤ but chasing them or purposely going to places you can spot them 🔪 (giving Oil London stalking Jimin vibes) /// I eat tteokbokki pretty regularly, so it wasn't that much of a difference, they were semi-spicy, but good. Korean food is spicier than Japanese, but I still need more heat sometimes 🔥

now.. 😭😭😭 this is pretty uncomfy 😭😭 oooo no way!!! who were they? was it mr ong bc im about to ask u to yell @ him for an album,, AHHHH hope u ate loads AND DRANK WATER SO UR BLOOD IS NOT JUST TTEOKBOKKI 🔫🔫

A lot of people dislike season 4 of You, but it's funny cause it's all London and posh Brits, absolutely insufferable lmao. The tone is different, but as a whodunnit fan I ate it up! I'm looking forward to part 2, because it looks a bit more interesting.

AHHHH the jokes must be more for the uk-ers than for the americans, no wonder they dislike it 😭😭 UR RIGHT THAT TROPE IS ALWAYS GOOD, idk if u have watched it but love wedding repeat is a must!! the classic british romcom with an EXTRA amount of comedy and chaos very exquisitely filmed in italy and circling around a wedding! the way i laughed during the movie but then again i laugh at anything but this was really good! 100% rec the low ratings do NOT DO IT JUSTICE AT ALL!

me 2 minutes into this movie actually

Wish we looked that cute /// Ah that's not the mushroom head I dislike, he's cute, but I was thinking of this still adorable, because it's Hwa...

seonghwa needs to be sponsernd by pantene bc that hair volume is insane,, HEY THATS NOT THAT BAD ANON 🔫🔫

M🍙pe what is this behaviour oeiwhisjswjjw tbh I hate this type of magicians, but come on. Unless it was all scripted he needs to smile a little /// I was about to send you that white shirt Hwa video, amazing how I generally don't care for shirts or suits, but when it's Seonghwa......

no yeah they can be a little annoying but every psg player at the party was all funsies with him but he’s a haha, strange lil guy,, has to be the only one hA HA. RHWKHDKW BUT WHEJ ITS SEONGHWA,, I MUST SAY I AM A SUCKER FOR SUITS ON MEN AND SEONGHWA IS ON TOP OF THE LIST FBWKDHWK what the fuck

I'm devastated Baeksy! No more "Ddeong-ppear" no more wholesome, unhinged, sweet and random stories and selfies 🤧🤧🤧🤧 I sincerely believe some idols are sad Universe is gone as well. Nooooo leave Bubble alone at least. Devastation, head in hands etc...

Fencing makes you rich??? Idk about that I trained in a shitty community centre. Ok trained is a big word, I did it for a few months only, because it was the closest thing I could get to sword fighting 😭

THE WAY THEYRE ALL SO DRAMATIC AND CONSTANTLY LEAVING MESSAGES 😭😭😭no more internet breaking selfies from them all,, no yeah i bet they’re pretty mad about it too bc now they gotta move to bubble and HYBE WANTS TO MERGE IT 🔫🔫🔫 ur are rich. coNVINCED ACTUALLY! WITH THE AMOUNT OF JOBS U HAD BESTIE UR ROLLING IN THE POUNDS or € whichever one u use <3

Oh god, see I'd be happy to see the Cursed Child movie, but anything connected to R*wl*ng is trash to me now </3 ruined everything for me, that stupid bitch /// Hello he's so silly and let me lint roll you sir

no bc i don’t even care what she says im just here for the movies and the cast 😭🤚🏻want to feel nostalgic and hear the hogwarts ost’s in the theatres bc i kNOW ITS GOING TO BREAK US ALL,,, u know some times seonghwa acts like he’s straight out of the 90’s grease and is named soda pop

Brb, breaking into that store /// What would you do if you were stuck in a lift with this guy? /// I found this account... accidentally and Hwa is all over it 😭 not really into armpits, but Hwapits... maybe, the agenda is really strong - DV 💖

ANOM TAKE THE PINK ONE IM HUNTING FOR THE WHITE ONE,, see now, the first thing my mind went to after seeing that lift video is that one model hwa scene <3 will log out now! NOT INTO ARMPITS BUT WHAT THE FUCK DOES HE USE TO GEY THEM SO SMOOTH WHAT THE FUCK

ur sign to read model hwa

ANONFBJQHDKWHDKW that was me actually i took a flight to barcelona

not this guy acting like he’s in love with him AFTER ALMOST ENDING HIS LIFE FOR OVER A DECADE

i have to share this bc i spent the last hour laughing at this with tears streaming down my face

[tonibeltran]

Stay still. And still he stays, almost instinctively, allowing Terry to do what they have to as they fiddle with the binoculars in their hands. He supposes he can’t really judge their enthusiasm for the tool — wouldn’t, really, even if he could. God knows he’s spent an exorbitant amount of time admiring one singular guitar before. Can’t really choose what calls to you, he supposes.

Besides, the silence that follows Terry’s command suits him just fine — enough time to long for the warmth of his bed, the sight of a sleeping Roman beside him, the ghost of his lips against Antonio’s. He wonders, fleetingly, if he’d have ever found something as all-consuming as Roman Daniels in his life, barring their recent development. Wonders if maybe they’d taken one too many detours to end up here, and if that matters anything at all, so long as they’re here now. 

It is, perhaps, a cliché to take notice of how much greener Forest Lake looks this morning than usual, but Antonio’s pointedly ignoring the fact in favor of admiring the sudden burst of color.

Finally, Terry calls him back, and he dutifully makes his way toward them, taking the binoculars gently from their grasp. “Bins,” he echoes, as if trying the word out on his tongue. He loops them around his neck once more, humming thoughtfully as he begins to keep pace with Terry, who’s already spewing information about their venture. He doesn’t necessarily think he could define their tone as excited, but there’s a sort of childlike wonder creeping through their usual stoic cadence, and Antonio can’t help the twitch of his lips at the lilt. Seven thousand, Terry provides proudly, and he whistles impressively at the ridiculousness of the number. “Impressive,” he casts a sidelong glance at them, so they might see the sincerity in his expression. “Let’s keep it to your app, then. I think it might look a little sad, opening a new account and seeing it side-by-side with yours.”

No calling birds, got it. Not that Antonio was going to, mind you. He’s not so sure he’d be good at it — would, of course, reserve the honor for people who actually know their bird calls — and, simultaneously, believes Terry wouldn’t appreciate it. Despite Antonio’s general disinterest of the hobby, he’s never been one to purposely disrespect someone else’s time — or, well, not anymore, never mind what kind of shit he used to pull when he was young — so he plans to make the most out of his time out here. Watching birds. Not calling to them. Identifying them for…fun. Yes. That’s what they’re doing.

“We don’t have to talk,” he assures Terry. “Unless you want to.” He pauses for a beat, unsure if Terry would want to. He’s known them to be chatty while drunk, mind you, but at the moment, neither of them are inebriated, and he’s not sure how easily a conversation can flow between them without the aid of alcohol. He’s never had any complaints — but, if their conversations in the bar before are anything to go by, conversation doesn’t come as easily to Terry. He doesn’t mind carrying it, but he also doesn’t want to strong-arm them into having one, if they’d prefer the silence. 

Though it’s not all silence, not really. Not when the leaves shiver faintly in the breeze, brushing against one another like distant whispers. In the canopy above, branches creak every now and then, settled by the weight of tiny feet that dance lightly between leaves — squirrels, he imagines, or perhaps the odd jay flitting by. Should they be looking for the jays? Maybe he should have gotten the app, after all. 

Then there is the underbrush, which stirs with muted life, the scuffle of unseen creatures creating an almost rhythmic rustle. Somewhere further off, water trickles over rocks, steady and patient, like a metronome. Together, all of it seems to surround them in a quiet reassurance, a reminder that this place has a heartbeat of its own, one that syncs with the pause in their steps, anchoring them deeper into the forest’s gentle, timeless pulse.

Somewhere in between one step and the other, Antonio catches wind of a group walking parallel to them through the adjacent trail, all with binoculars, all muttering to each other in near-harmony. He nods over to the sight, then asks, “Get a lot of those?” He looks over at Terry inquisitively. “Groups, I mean.”

At once, Terry took the binoculars from his grip, fingers curling against its light frame. The first thing they notice is the weight. Smaller, more compact, decidedly more portable. Their 10x42’s younger brother, which hung around their neck, heavy above their navel as if already vying for the lost attention. They’d begun sliding the adjustment wheel, almost instinctually, even as they had yet to bring it to their eyes. They reacquainted themselves with the feeling of ridges under their fingertips, the lenses catching light and pulling the darkness back, like drawing or pulling curtains. 

“Don’t be daft,” were Terry’s next words, belatedly hearing Toni’s crass remark of fuckers dancing. Still, they began their own dance of sorts with Toni as their unwitting partner, although only one proceeded with movement.

“Toni, stay still,” they instructed, walking briskly towards the red trail marker, where the steeper forest path lay. A few yards more, and Terry had found an adequate vantage point, leaning against the bark of a—well, a deciduous tree, far too focused to look up and identify the species—and finally raised the binoculars to their eyes. 

The first spotting then: of one Antonio Beltran, whose figure was no longer cooped up in their favored bar, leaning forward in an attempt to dull the chatter of conversation around them and absent of any of their shared indulgences. He’s warm, and made warmer, still, by the light cast by the early wave of morning sun filtering through the leaves from above the forest canopy, by the rough-hewn logs and the silver chinking between the wood that had made up the facade of their log cabin. 

Terry slid the wheel further clockwise, drawing focus towards his face. For all his dramatics over text, a kind of strange desperation for company that made Antonio invite himself to an out-of-state outing that Terry had not even offered, his features were surprisingly light. It was not quite how they’d pictured any heartbroken version of him to be, but there was no trace of artifice in those features, no forced ease drawn out from alcohol. They could be wrong, though, and his mask had graduated from an occasional numbness to having embedded itself in his skin altogether—but they could not believe anyone could be so guarded when confronted by nature. 

“Okay. You could walk with me now,” they called out, and, once Antonio had reached them, handed the binoculars back over. “We call them ‘bins’, by the way. If you want to keep up.” Not that he seemed to particularly care for it, having already promised her his binoculars after their excursion, but Terry could be persuasive in their own right—their teaching career was not unfounded. 

“We could do all of that, but I was thinking it’d be more casual. I average 15, or 20, in this trail easy. Mostly woodland birds, of course.” Here: a desire to create a tangent to list the differences—shorebirds, waders, songbirds, swallows, among others. But they’d withheld it, narrowly, by biting the inside of their cheek. “There’s an app you could download, but if you aren’t interested in creating your own life list, we could just counter-check it with my own.” 

They walked towards the trail now, early fall leaves crunching underfoot. “I’ve got about seven thousand, now.” A hum of pride, here, unable to quite stop themselves. “Calling birds is fine, but it’s usually frowned upon, especially if you’re a bit aggressive. So, no chirping.” 

Terry’s gaze drifted to the surrounding trees as they walked; the watch had already begun. “I would’ve thought you’d prefer to sit in silence. Unless you’d like to talk, that’s also fine.”

[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.

[missmirakell]

Even more Ghost Things

Ghosts who tend to the gardens in the Last City, who've been there since they were first planted.

A gaggle of Ghosts who all spend their time together, and don't stop now that one has found their Guardian. ("Woah Guardian, why does the Traveler let you have 6 Ghosts?" "5 of them aren't mine but I can't get rid of them")

Ghosts trying to encourage their Guardians to form a fireteam together, or join one

Ghosts who write novels (trashy, good, some based of their adventures with their Guardians)

Ghosts who hum to themselves while hacking

Ghosts who are hilariously out of touch with like, everything

Ghosts who transmat back samples of plants or planetary materials for research in their down time.

Ghosts doing their best to mimick human gestures (waving a piece of their shell in hello, floating and lightly touching a human's cheeks like greeting kisses, bowing/bobbing up and down slightly in deference or thanks)

Ghosts spending so much time in a place in the City, that people get used to seeing the Little Light there, and are sad to see it eventually go.

Ghosts nestling into the clothes of their Guardian during down time. Hiding in a Hunter's hood, tucked near the chest of a Warlock's robes, resting on the pauldrons of a Titan.

Ghosts who make extensive lists of "Why That's A Bad Idea, Actually" and list them off to their Guardian while they're in the middle of said bad idea.

Ghosts who are quieter than their Guardian, painfully shy except to their partner.

Ghosts who NEVER shut up, and live for banter.

Ghosts who consistently deliver terrible one-liners, automatically making whatever their Guardian just did seem lame

Ghosts who really really want to pilot the jumpship they promise they won't crash it this time pretty please?

Ghosts who freeze their Guardian's glimmer accounts so they don't go into debt

Ghosts who dutifully transmat successively strange items in for a very unique game of poker

Ghosts who threaten to read their Guardian's internet search history aloud on the Tower if they don't stop farming bounties right fucking now

Ghosts who nestle together like birds in a nest

Ghosts who love animals, and want desperately to pet them

Ghosts who play with animals in the City, or work at an animal shelter.

Ghosts who make the saddest noise if they're hurt or stressed, their little shell drooping

Clumsy Ghosts who never watch where they're going, and bonk into things constantly

Easily distracted Ghosts who forget where they were in a hack, or don't transmat things to the right place

Neat freak Ghosts who are always chiding their Guardian for any mess they make -- including the mess of getting blown up

Ghosts keeping tallies and averages of how often their Guardian dies, and from what (they send the data to Ikora and Zavala so they aren't put on Strikes above their ability)

Ghosts that are always embarrassed by their Guardians

Ghosts taking/teaching classes on tactics -- best time to rez, where to hold for a teammate to help, keeping an eye out for your Guardian's flank, etc.

Ghosts dragging their Guardian along to trainings, and introducing them to their classmates

Ghosts using an app to help them find compatible pen pals or something more 👀

Ghosts getting really embarrassed when their Guardian teases them about said app

Ghosts sitting over their Guardian's shoulder while their Guardian tries a dating app

Mischievous Ghosts who push their Guardians off balance or down a drop

Nervous and finicky Ghosts who will appear to help push their Guardian back from falling off a cliff

Sweet little Ghosts who pick up things to surprise their Guardian with when they're having a bad day

Ghosts who will quietly rest against their Guardian when they're having a bad day

Ghosts who've been with their Guardian for a very long time, and have learned exactly how to cheer them up

Ghosts who've been with their Guardian for a very long time, who knows exactly how to cheer Ghost up too

Parts: 1, 2, FotL

[loveless-fairy]

It really doesn't sit right with me when people start questioning other people's behavior using the "he's almost 30 he should be able to take a joke" excuse.

Yes, it's true that Oliver probably never really understood how people on Twitter are. The interactions on the bird app are totally different from Tumblr, Tiktok, and whatever other apps you use. But it's also true that people on Twitter are really mean, and no, saying "it was just a joke" doesn't take out the cruelty of their words.

There's a ton of people right now saying Oliver is being dramatic and he should know how to take a joke, and that may be true to some extent, but deep down I think we all know people there usually cross the line between a joke and being really mean to him.

You may not agree with this, but I think we can all agree that not everybody has the same reactions to certain situations and the way they get affected is totally unpredictable. I do believe Oliver is not the kind of person who can deal with that many people making jokes about his work. And yes, if you can't handle it then take the healthy way out and take two steps back.

Am I sad that he's gone? Absolutely.

I think it's the best for him? totally.

Also, and going back to my first point. It really doesn't sit right with me when they insinuate that your age goes hand in hand with your mental health. Clearly, he gets upset by what people say, whether is because he feels like people are focusing more on a ship, that he has no control over than his work as an actor.

It kinda makes me sad to think that he was excited to share with us what's happening on Monday because since is heavy on the drama, probably it was quite an important episode to him, from an actor's point of view. It must not be easy to see how people reduce your work to a ship, which many people do on Twitter. You can be a buddy shipper and not reduce the show or their work to a ship.

I'm not gonna talk about how the hell he found that tweet because I rather not assume things. But whether it was because he just came across with it or he actively looked for it, the tweet and the responses had an effect on him. Like I said, we all are built differently.

I probably wouldn't be able to handle it. And according to his words, reminding us there's an actual human being behind the account, he couldn't either.

And yes, you can have 30, 40, or even 50 and still feel bad about what people say about you, your work, or your reactions.

With all this said, I really hope he doesn't stop sharing things with us on his insta, and I hope one day he comes back to Twitter, but probably it's best for him not to do it.

I know there's probably a lot of people saying that all this, Oliver's reactions, and even this long-ass post, is overdoing it, but I want to make myself very clear, these are the things that can really damage a person, no matter the age or notoriety level. You have to understand when things stop being a joke. Usually, it happens when the other person is not laughing.

I don't know Oliver. I have no idea what's going on in that head of his. All I know is that I care about him and that I saw someone quit a social media platform because of the comments he was getting, just like it has happened thousands of times with different people in different fandoms. People tend to be really cruel than say it was just a joke and blame the other party for being dramatic. See where I'm going with this?

Sure, now it happened with a famous person, but it happens every day for the stupidest reasons to very normal people.

Just be kind, okay. You never know what the person on the other side of the screen is going through.

This is more about mental health than a famous person having a tantrum.

I just hope Oliver is okay and good for him for taking a step back from a very toxic environment.

Sorry about the long-ass post but I had a really good therapy session today and I was inspired.

[5uptic]

Hi! I moved here cause I can’t get a lick of sense from the people on bird app. Idk how to feel about this shitshow that I just witnessed. I just remembered there were more reasons as to why that person was banned. That person initially harassed a member of 5up’s community in which the mod defended. So the group disliked the mod too and continued to shit on them privately and publicly.

Next, thirst tweets can be funny to some. But others find it really uncomfortable which is understandable. They have made suggestive remarks about the pink man and even steve before (that peeps overlooked) but it’s not like the cc themselves are bothered (?). So idk even anymore.

I’m don’t know if I’m making any sense. I’m sorry for the spam ;( This is just the first time I just felt genuinely anxious seeing all the things said about 5up so I word vomited here.

oh my god. i had an entire response done and tumblr just GLITCHED in my face WHY

hey anon, don’t worry about it!!! tbf, i feel pretty much the same. i think the situation as a whole is pretty frustrating to see, especially with how it blew out of proportion in every way possible. honestly, feel free to vent in my inbox whenever you want!

with that said, though,

(because this will be kinda long, i guess)

overnight, it became clear that the nsfw part of the issue is not really an issue, besides being the recurrent meme for this situation. i read from various people that 5up explicitly said that he didn’t have a problem with the nsfw tweets when discussing this with the mods, but that he took that decision based on the harassment, which. ok another can of worms. to me, the thing is... smart fandom behavior is to always push away the things that you don’t wanna see. so nsfw jokes/tweets might be not of your liking. what should you do? the correct answer is, unfollow/mute/block the people that make them, and in general every person that you wouldn’t wanna share the fandom with. that’s to me the only way you can genuinely enjoy fandom as intended lol. but there are cases in which we do not take the smartest option. and we somehow make this our problem, which is the most typical case of twitter entitlement, that reads like “you’ve posted something i don’t like. Prepare To Die.”

when i saw the tweet pictured above in the thread, i was like ooooooooooh so this is just. typical twitter drama. which already highlights the entire issue with this... this is just twitter drama. why is twitch involved? how did the person get banned in both of 5up’s channels? if it were for twitter drama, or this person tweeted something i don’t like!, i’m sure hundreds of people would be arbitrarily banned. so that’s why it’s handled differently on twitch. now, i don’t know jasfer, like i’ve never talked to the guy, but i’m familiar with him. as someone who’s been a fan of 5up for like a year now, i know he’s been here from the start and he’s also a beloved chat member and person in the twitter portion of the fandom. it feels like insult to injury because it wasn’t that jasfer had a bad reputation in 5up’s chat or a bad relationship with most people in it. it’s just... such shitty luck on their part tbh lol

imagine if it were anybody else, like, two randoms on twitter. the best outcome to that would probably be an eventual block on both sides so they just stop talking about it all the time, right? except that this didn’t happen here because one of them happened to be a mod for a chat that the other person frequented. i think by now you know i don’t agree with the decision at all, then.

thing is, i can understand everyone’s sides and empathize with everyone. i understand why 5up stood up by his mods, i understand why the mod was anxious/felt targeted and resorted to this option, i understand jasfer’s anger/sadness from the outcome of the situation. but i’d still side with jasfer, nonetheless, because he’s the only one with no power here. the most that he can do is bring attention to what happened, but he can’t unban himself, or return in other account and expect everything to go well, etc. and it’s like, urgh. like if i was on their place i would be genuinely devastated lol.

now, i could be talking completely out of my ass, right? because i don’t know what really happened. maybe jasfer genuinely did incredibly shitty things and corralled the mod team and 5up into taking that drastic decision. but that’s just another part of the whole twitter drama of it all, isn’t it? see, when i was more active in twitter (in another fandom), if you didn’t like someone/something you’d talk shit about them in your rant. that’s how it went, and everybody did the same. in that part, i can understand how things grew out of proportion, but again, does anyone know what really happened besides the mods and jasfer? not really. and it’s hard to take a real stance because the whole thing happened on private twitter accounts. which yet again highlights how bad of a decision banning jasfer from both 5up twitch channels was, because, how are we ever gonna know if it was deserved? jasfer didn’t do anything wrong in chat, which is what should matter. and if the so called harassment (that we have to take 5up’s word for it!) happened in private rant accounts... is. is it really harassment? or like, was it just a case of people being (understandably) reactionary and doing what everyone else usually does in twitter dot com?

and the fact that the mod liked this tweet afterwards... isn’t that just incredibly petty? celebrating a personal victory after banning someone that has no say in the matter? jasfer said they tried contacting 5up through discord, and only made the thread days later because they never got a response. so it’s clear that 5up (understandably!) took their mods’ side and was loyal to them, but it came at the cost of what could’ve been a smarter, better decision for everyone involved. but now, because jasfer was left with no tools other than bring attention to his side of the story, twitter blew it out of proportion and everyone is very kindly sending dead threats to everybody involved.

sigh. it’s just... a big mix of terrible luck and bad choices. i usually agree with 5up when it comes to twitter stuff, but making it seem like he’s going against everyone is ignoring the fact that some twitter drama should’ve never made it to his twitch channel(s) anyways, and that a better decision should’ve been taken. now it’s just the worst of both worlds and no one got anything good out of it. like, arguably, the mod got what they wanted, but also got multiple death threats too. i doubt there’s any chance of jasfer ever coming back to 5up’s chat, at least not in the way it was before. because of the twitter thread including sapnap and this being a bad decision in general, a bigger audience now regards 5up badly and this will probably be a passing mention in the eventual cancelling 5up thread when twitter gets boring enough. like, meh. it’s just a mess to watch and it’s just depressing from every angle.

[whitherliliesbloom]

weaving the present, illuminating the future

[ ffxivwrite2021 ] ★ [ masterlist ] ★ [ prompt #30 - abstracted ]

[ illya & friends ] ★ [ 2,849 words ]  ★ [ streamers au ]

modern / streamers / online celebrities au where the spud squad are all popular streamers who frequently collab together. centers around illya and kaye mainly, but briefly mentions a bunch of other friends and illyanaud.

abstracted- withdrawn in mind, inattentive to one's surroundings

the spud squad announce their indefinite hiatus right after releasing their one year anniversary single, and illya cannot help but to feel just a tad bit melancholic.

Illya hasn’t bothered checking her notifications, or looked at either her computer screen or mobile phone, really. The sounds of ping after ping on linkcord, text after text and the flood of new tweets mentioning the one tag she followed on twitter easily made her overwhelmed - and so she’d opted to switch her devices off entirely before burying herself under the covers for the evening, trying desperately to distract herself with a copy of a manhwa that she’d borrowed from Laurelis. 

But it was futile, her head is empty and heavy, yet swirling with a myriad of many emotions all at the same time. And after feebly reading and re-reading the same page over and over only to realize she hadn’t been paying attention to the contents of the book at all, she closed the manhwa shut with a heavy sigh before closing her eyes, praying to the heavens that exhaustion would lull her quickly to sleep.

Outsiders would merely assumed she was simply nervous from the release of their newest single, Ultramarine Hymn, a collaboration between the members of their massively popular streamer group made in celebration for their one year anniversary. They’d prepared for months, working together with a widely renowned music composer and even performing live on stage with a set of professional make up artists, producers and videographers to film their first ever music video.

For everyone barring Mint, it’d been their first time ever singing and dancing for a large audience online. While the experience had been undoubtedly fun, it was still their first real exposure doing anything of such professionalism and scale- and so her flat mate Kaye wasn’t surprised at all to find her shaking like a leaf as she sat next to him on the couch just several minutes prior to the premier of the video.

While the premier of their first music video was indeed a good half of the reason why Illya felt so out of sorts and nervous for the rest of the night up until sunrise, the true reason for the melancholy she bore in her heart came from the announcement that was posted right after the release of the music video, and it’d kept her awake for a good portion of the late night until she mercifully fell asleep, clutching the lavender purple ribbon she’d worn in the music video tightly in her hands.

The spud squad was going to go on an indefinite hiatus shortly after the release of Ultramarine Hymn - a result of an eight months long business trip Kaye had been assigned on as a professional programmer. Streaming and being something of an internet celebrity was never the man’s main source of income, so it’d be unwise of him to turn down the golden opportunity to further his career in favor of staying behind to continue streaming. 

Naturally, Lily was going to move overseas with him as well - and while she has made it clear to her audience that she will continue streaming whenever she could afford the free time to, the radically different time zones between Eorzea and Doma meant it’d be difficult to participate in anymore spud squad activities - at least until she and Kaye would return.

Mint too, announced that she’d been preoccupied with practicing for auditions into several professional idol management companies... and while Illya herself isn’t as busy as the other three, juggling between helping with business at her mother’s florist, studying for an entrance exam into a medical school and streaming on top of that has become quite a hectic endeavor. 

Thus with much reluctance, the six of them came to a consensus and decided to announce their indefinite hiatus, a news that they’d hoped would sit well with their impressively large audience of fans if it came with the release of a music video to remember them by.

Illya knew that it was a necessary change of process - that new doors are being opened for each of them and it was only right for them to seize the opportunity to chase their dreams. Deep inside, Illya truly did feel overjoyed for her friends, loved them all with of her heart so much that the hiatus was but a small fraction of the cost to pay in exchange for their happiness.

But that didn’t mean there wasn’t a hint of melancholy and bitter sweetness within that earnest joy and cause for celebration. None of the six of them knew when they’d next be able to work on something like this again, or if they’d even find the time in the future to work together again at all. It was perhaps because of their shared understanding - that unspoken sadness between all of them that they’d agreed to prepare something special to celebrate one year of their collaboration - a song that spoke of hope and a brighter future. 

‘The more you give up, the more regrets await you.’

By the time the sun rose, accompanied by the shining of morning light through her pastel pink curtains and the melodic chirping of birds nesting upon the wisteria tree just outside her window, her phone has been assaulted with a mountain of unchecked notifications that she dreaded to sort through. 

The girl knew she couldn’t possibly keep her phone locked and switched off forever, and so she’d booted it up after washing up in the shared bathroom, before walking out of her bedroom, staring down at her screen with a light frown.

The smell of fried bacon wafts through the apartment. The sound of sizzling oil intermingles with Hazel’s cheery singing, and Illya takes the time to open the latch of her enclosure, allowing the little sparrow to flutter about the living room until it settled peacefully next to the potted sunflowers that sat upon the window sills of the kitchen, watching the raven haired man flipping eggs effortlessly with a flick of the frypan. 

“Good morning, Kaye. Thank you for making breakfast, again.” Greeting with an ever bright smile, Illya sits herself down at her designated seat at the dining table upon a bright floral cushion, watching as the man turns his head back for a moment before returning his attention to the stove. 

“It’s Sunday, so it’s my turn. You don’t gotta thank me.” He walks over to the dining table to dump the steaming hot sunny side ups and crispy bacon onto their plates, cups of orange juice already poured and waiting, which Illya takes into her hand to take a quick sip out of.

“You checked eorzeatube and twitter yet?” The young man asks as he sets the frypan down, gesturing towards the phone in her hands.

“N-no... Is it urgent?”

“Not really, no.” Kaye raises an eyebrow, sitting himself down and jabbing a fork into his bacon. “But aren’t you curious about how the music video did?”

“I-I am... A little, I suppose... but-” 

Her stammer gives her away her listlessness, and Kaye shoots the girl a furrowed scowl and a frown. 

“Is somethin’ botherin’ you?” The man asks, and Illya’s lips curl upwards into a wide, deceptively warm smile.

“Just nervous is all.. What if the fans didn’t like it?” it wasn’t a complete lie, though not the total truth, but Illya was always exceptionally talented at hiding her negative emotions, and Kaye seems to buy it enough to slump back against the back rest of his chair and toss the bacon into his awaiting mouth, chewing quietly and swallowing before speaking.

“You won’t know till you see for yourself.” 

It’s an unfortunate reality that he’s right, and Illya finally gives in and taps onto the icon for the twitter app, waiting for the timeline feed to load before her star spangled violet eyes widen in complete disbelief.

99+ notifications, an equally unbearable amount of private messages in her inbox as well as the first tweet literally being about the music video - Moth’ir’s retweet of their short promotional video from their official spud squad twitter account, which has garnered over 40 thousand likes and 10 thousand retweets.

#spudsquad and #ultramarinehymn are trending, and Illya gives in to her curiosity enough to tap on the tags and scroll through the tweets.

cosplaycon2022 hype!!! @/oracleoflight  • 18h  my good friend illya and her friends #spudsquad just released #ultramarine hymn and it’s so so so good!!! please give it a watch!! 

EEEEEEEEEE @/driftinintiawind  • 18h @/academician you didn’t tell me your gf was an idol bro???? GOOD SHIT #ultramarinehymn

 pink is JUSTICE @/rosepinkcutie  • 17h OHHHHH I’m goihng to cwyg #ultramarinehymn made me cryuy. iT’S SO GOOD...... #spudsquad i LOVE YOU

Alphinaud @/academician  • 17h Do give your support to #spudsquad ‘s new music video, #ultramarinehymn ! They’ve worked very hard on it!

soliriii @/windupsunshine  • 17h thank you #spudsquad for all the joy you’ve given me for the past year!! what a way to celebrate <3 #ultramarinehymn

hien’s booty @/floortank   • 16h  HEY #ultramarinehymn IS SO LIT THOUGH????? WTF

thancredwaters @/gunbrkrs  • 16h #spudsquad Good job my daughter hasn’t stopped playing this song on repeat for the past 2 hours. 

Nyx @/underthebloodmoon  • 15h Sharing a good friend’s music video here. #ultramarinehymn #spudsquad

Nidhstinien @/azuredragoon  • 15h [youtube link] #ultramarinehymn nice

vergotohelldad @/reveilleur  • 14h only 4 hours after release and #ultramarinehymn is already trending. twitter has some fucking good tastes in music thank the twelve.

Lamittens! @/lalamitt  • 14h Oh to be spud squad long time fan :pleading: I’m so fed... #ultramarinehymn #spudsquad

nhelly @/blackestmage  • 13h I turn around and #spudsquad decided to drop an absolute banger. loving #ultramarinehymn !!

Aymeric de Borel @/officialborel  • 13h A wonderful song that elicits a sense of optimism and hope. #ultramarinehymn

kafuuchi @/cloudsysmile  • 13h hey is it just me or is kaye getting hotter :blush: still a kayelily simp tho!! #ultramarinehymn

KoKomi Komi @/sangopriestess   • 12h @/starblossoms Congratulations on the new MV!! It’s very catchy! #ultramarinehymn

The scroll is endless, timeline filled with a mixture of both familiar and unfamiliar twitter handles, yet all collectively singing praises and awe for the music video and the song. It’s hard to not be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of positive reception their hard work and efforts have received, and Illya tears her eyes away from the screen to look up at Kaye with a twinkle in her wide violet eyes, and the man looks back at her expectedly. 

“I-It...It seems to be very well received.”

“’Seems to be’? The video’s got over five hundred thousand views on eorzeatube from the past 18 hours.”

Illya almost chokes on her eggs, eyes blown wide as she swallows her food abruptly and her voice raises into a high, bewildered squeak.

“F-f-five... hundred thousand???” 

By the twelve, that’s far more than even their highest recorded number of viewers on their biggest stream - and it’s been less than a day since the release of the music video. She cannot imagine just how ecstatic Mint must be at having such a successful idol-esque debut. 

“Does that ease your worries now?” Kaye asks, snapping the girl out of her train of thoughts once more, and he is met with a smile and an affirmative nod in response. 

“It does... thank you, Kaye.” 

Knowing that weeks of preparation, practice and hard work has paid off and finally bore fruit was the biggest relief Illya’s experienced in a while, and the simple knowledge that the sentiment of their song got through to a good number of the fans warmed her heart.

But in the midst of the joy, there was yet an underlying somberness lingering in the air between the pair that was not lost to either of them, as silence quickly fills the atmosphere and quickly turns the space around them cold. 

Scrolling through the top tweets didn’t exactly help either - because while it had quickly eased Illya’s worries of the music video being negatively received, in between praises for the song came the posts of fans who were dejected by the hiatus announcement.

Most of them had been supportive, of course... Their audience has ever been so welcoming, understanding and wonderful to them. But that perhaps made the disappointment they felt even worse on Illya’s melancholy, as she once again quickly slips back into the depths of her own internal mind. 

Because as well received as the music video they’d released is, it still ends with them going their separate ways, and it fills Illya with a sense of already festering loneliness that she refuses to admit verbally to.

She never did like goodbyes. 

‘The time that flows in the blink of an eye. The fear of continuing to be as we are.’

Neither Kaye nor Illya particularly enjoyed talking about their troubles, not even to each other, and so while Kaye could make an educated guess on why Illya seemed so despondent, he makes no comment on it. He was never the best at comforting others anyway.

He lets the silence fester between them even after Illya sets her phone down to focus on her plate full of breakfast, fishing his own device out of his pants pocket and begins to type away at it. 

It isn’t until after a whole ten minutes has passed that he’d finally look up from the screen, expression unreadable yet his voice sounding a modicum more relaxed than it had been a while ago as he calls out to Illya as she was drinking the last of her orange juice. 

“Hey, you’re free tonight, right?” The raven haired man asks, and Illya sets her glass down with a quirk of her eyebrow, if there was even a hint of sorrow in her, she didn’t allow him to hear it.

“Um... I am. Why?”

A smile from Kaye is a rarity, let alone one that carries such gentleness and ease... but the one he’s wearing now is so warm that it blows away the storm clouds that she hadn’t even noticed hanging over her head. 

“Then, are you cool to do an Among us stream tonight? With the other four, of course.”

Sparkling lavender eyes widen, and Illya is silent for a brief moment before stuttering out in response.

“A-aren’t you going over to Lily’s place to help her pack though?? And... the others.. aren’t they-”

“I’ll only be there for the afternoon. We’re only gonna be flying next week so there’s no rush. As for the others, I already asked. You can even invite Alphinaud if you want, the more the merrier.”

“But didn’t we just announce that we’re going on hiatus? I don’t want to trouble the others if they’re too busy either-”

Her pink lips slightly part, voice timid and soft. Hesitation and uncertainty briefly flashing through her twinkling eyes as she averts her gaze from the man and hides them under the shadows of her pure white bangs. But it does little to keep the light red burn of her cheeks and the bridge of her nose from Kaye, who only rolls his eyes at her in response.

“Gods, stop being so nice. I said I already asked and they’re down for it.... well, mostly. Ichi said he wanted to sleep but I’ll drag him outta his bed if I have to. We may be on hiatus, but it’s not like we’re gonna stop hanging out together, right?”

Though Kaye’s tone is rough and his words are painfully honest, his tongue as sharp as the gaze of his midnight blue eyes, Illya knew there was kindness laced beneath his huff, and the tension in her body slowly begins to fade, making way for a brighter, far more honest and radiant smile that washed away the chill of the air like a spring breeze.

He’s right, as he often is. 

Even if they may go their separate ways in the future, they will still always remain connected as friends, holding the memories they made together close in their hearts. 

Her phone’s buzzing with notifications again, and she takes a peek down at the lit up screen, her heart warming at the equally excited messages from her beloved friends. From Mint who is spamming :mikurave: emotes, to Lily who was telling Ichi that no, a schedule with his bed isn’t a valid excuse and Nanami who was offering to set up the stream for the night... Things are all as it should be, right here and now where they are together - where they are home. 

“If everyone’s fine with it then... I’ll join too. Don’t raid Ichi’s flat, though!” 

Illya lets out a giggle that rings out like windchimes in a cool summer breeze, and Kaye clicks his tongue with a shrug of his shoulder.

“He gave me his keys for this exact reason, he doesn’t mind. How do you think he always makes it in time for our streams? All I need to wake him up is a fork and porcelain plate and-”

“Kaye! That’s... that’s so mean-”

‘I'll hug you with equal parts expectation and anxiety. You and I, weaving the present, illuminating the future.’

[green-blue-heller]

You know what’s the most annoying and infuriating part about spn stan tw*tter? Is that misha is most likely going to come across ruthless and rude comments on that bird app about his deancas posts lately rather than see the funny, witty, and *actually* caring comments/community he has on here :( It makes me sad how awful stan twt is towards mish in general

Yeah. I hate how Twitter is toward him.

But trust me, nonnie. Misha Collins knows what goes on here.

He has an account plus the Gish account. And I’m sure he has one that he uses to troll us lol. The man knows too much. 😆

[korstudying]

Study sources🧠

Self-studying isn’t always easy. It can be very overwhelming and you have no idea where to start. To help you a bit, here are some sources that I use to study Korean.

Grammar📕

Talk To Me In Korean (Website/books)

I use TTMIK as my main study source. It’s great and structured! It explains things really well and detailed. It contains 9 levels, each with up to 31 lessons for free! You can take these lessons at your own speed. Besides the free lessons TTMIK also has a bookstore where you can actually buy the lessons in actual books, for those who prefer studying on paper rather than on a computer. Other than the lessons they have multiple other books you can purchase. You can also upgrade your account to a premium account which gives you access to even more lessons, quizzes, certificates and dialogue videos. But I promise you, even with a free account, TTMIK is definitely one of the best sources out there. 

Korean From Zero (Pdf)

When I first started learning Korean this was my first “textbook”. It’s a free downloadable textbook with exercises. Just like TTMIK, it helps a lot with grammar and explains things really well. The only thing is that it’s not as broad as TTMIK. Korean From Zero is a bit more compact. 

Duolingo (App/website)

Ah, yes, everyone who tries to study a language has heard about Duolingo. The scary green bird that follows you in your dreams and will not let you live if you miss a lesson... Duolingo is great for studying Korean as well, unfortunately in my opinion it does miss some explanations and it goes from 0 to 100 really quickly. So I suggest, use Duolingo as a “test” for yourself, the exercises are great and they make you think. For the fundamental grammar, I’d suggest to use TTMIK or KFZ. The sad thing about Duolingo is that it works with those damn hearts. If you make 5 mistakes, you need to wait until you get a new heart. Obviously this is their way to hope you upgrade to Duolingo Plus. Can’t really blame them, they need a way to get the moneys as well. Doesn’t take away that as you are learning a language, having to stop and wait isn’t really progressive... Especially since you’ll make a lot of mistakes in the beginning which can cause frustration. Nonetheless, still a great source to study!

Vocabulary📗

Drops (App)

Drops is an app where you can study Korean vocabulary for 5 minutes a day for free. If you upgrade your account, you can study endlessly. In the free version some topics are locked, but still there are plenty of free topics! It’s great to build your vocabulary.

Quizlet (App/website)

Quizlet is a great place to study vocabulary. You can join our Korean class and find all the vocabulary study sets I make based on the themes and WOTD’s on my tumblr and Drops. You can join the Quizlet class here. Beside my study sets, you can find plenty of other sets through the search button!

Other📘

Jolly (Youtube)

Believe it or not, but Youtube has some great videos for learning Korean. I’m not a huge fan of watching videos to study, but for some it definitely works. One of the Youtubers I do watch, is Jolly. It’s a shared channel run by both Josh and Ollie. Josh is British but can speak multiple languages, including Korean. In their Korean lessons, Josh attempts to teach Ollie Korean. Anytime I watch it, I die laughing. They are friends with 선현우 (Hyeonwoo Sun), the brain behind TTMIK. He too has been on their channel! Besides teaching Ollie Korean, they also show the Korean culture and take you on trips around Korea. I’m sure anyone who watches them will fall in love with their channel! 

영국남자 - Korean Englishman (Youtube)

This is one of the most famous Korean-English Youtubers with almost 4 million subscribers. Guess what? It’s Josh’s solo channel. Ollie is involved in this channel too, but behind the scenes. On this channel Josh introduces Korean food to (famous) people, which is great if you want to learn things about the Korean culture!

HelloTalk (App)

This is an app where you can chat with native Korean speakers. You can see a list of Koreans trying to learn your language and then you can start a conversation. From my own experience, you’re definitely the one who needs to start the conversation, but after that you can make some great friends! 

Kpop/Kdrama

Now this one is quite a difficult one. Some say it’s great to get a feeling for the speech and the understanding yet at the same time it’s not the natural speaking. No one in the real world is going to use some poetic words to widely describe how much they are in love with you. However, imo, it has helped me greatly with getting a grasp of the flow of the language. Whereas in the beginning everything sounded like it was just mushed together, it has helped me to hear the separate words. And well, vocabulary speaking, it helps a lot as well, even if you’ll most likely never use it in the real world haha. 

Feel free to add your own resources!!