[ lo-fi beats to shake trees / catch fish to ] 🎣 💌

[zissou]

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lo-fi beats to shake trees / catch fish to
zissou

It's late, and the moon hangs high. You can't sleep, even though you have to wake up early tomorrow. Eventually, you roll out of bed, pull your boots on, and head out the door. Flakes fall gently around you, but your thick woolen scarf keeps you warm. The path you follow through the woods is one you know by heart.

To your relief, a faint golden glow twinkles through the snow in the distance. Through fogged-up windows, you can see the familiar flicker of a warm fire. You knock three times. The door swings open immediately, revealing a cozy, sparsely-furnished cabin — and, perhaps more notably, an orange lion wearing blue pajamas and a wide grin.

"You were expecting me?"

"I had a feeling."

As you defrost your hands by the fire, you notice three teacups sitting on the table. Sure enough, another set of three knocks echoes through the cabin. A towering pink gorilla sashays into the room with several tupperwares' worth of tea cakes, firewood, and board games tucked under her muscular arms.

You and Rocket spread the cakes around the table as Rory brings over three steaming cups of jasmine tea. You take a sip, inhaling the floral steam, and release a long sigh that you hadn't realized you had been holding in. The three of you tuck your legs under Rory's kotatsu and play board games while talking about your lives, the books you've been reading, how much it's supposed to snow tonight, and what your dreams were when you first came to the island. You lose track of the hours over tea and cookies. Only when Rocket starts yawning do you begin to think of your bed.

Rory wraps two slices of pumpkin pound cake in wax paper for you both to take home. Then, peeking out through your scarves, you step into the waiting blizzard. For some reason, it doesn't feel as cold as it did a few hours earlier. You walk home, shrug off your dripping coat, pull on the old sweater that mom knitted for you years ago, and fall asleep with a smile on your face. It was a good evening.

 

[zissou]

welcome!

Hello, dear listener, and welcome to [ lo-fi beats to shake trees / catch fish to ], the bell tree forum's local lo-fi radio station! My name is Zissou, and as your host, I'll be playing you only the funkiest beats from the rural village of Pawtucket. While some loyal listeners may remember Pawtucket as a bustling metropolis, things have changed; we're now running the station out of my tiny cabin on a newly-discovered island. (Apologies in advance for the power outages.) ️

Tune in to hear local news from Pawtucket, updates on my perpetual studying endeavors, bizarre new coffee recipes... ... and, as always, your daily dose of groovy, lo-fi jams.

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Spoiler: current villagers

current villagers:

rocket | rory
past villagers: none!

Spoiler: goings on about town

12.14.23. started a new journal for a new version of pawtucket!
12.13.23. reset my day one island for a fresh start. though i *did* name it pawtucket again, hehe.
03.04.23. lofi beats v1 tied for second place in the "best slice-of-life" category in TBT's community vote! woohoo!
02.13.23. lofi beats v1 was chosen as a staff pick in TBT's 2023 "new year, new horizons" journaling event! thanks mick!

Spoiler: credits

villager sprites from here!
first post inspired by chasingfoxes' iconic top comment on this lo-fi video!

​

 

[zissou]

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today's bop: i'll be home soon. sleepy lofi mix
december 12, 2023 | day 0

Well. Today was a big day.

After three years, eight months, and twenty-four days of living on Pawtucket, I reset my island.

I never thought that I would. My island was my home, y'know? A representation of everything that I had accomplished. A little digital testament to honor all of the life changes that had occurred, in real life and on the island, since it was founded during the depths of the pandemic.

But the thing was, Pawtucket wasn't my home.

Zzz... wha? Someone there?​

Despite the hundreds of hours I'd spent actively living in Pawtucket, there was little that I felt was "mine". When the game first released, I blasted through early-game content to get to the "good stuff", rather than taking my time. I read every spoiler I could get my hands on. I obsessed over making Pawtucket picture-perfect, scrapping my own intuition in favor of replicating fancy towns I found online.

Copying others' builds never felt quite right, either; I'd flatten my town and start again, only to end up with a hodgepodge of half-built areas. My desire to play dissipated rapidly every time I logged on and ran through the graveyard of scrapped builds.

I stopped doing pretty much anything else in favor of terraforming. I rarely talked to the animals, caught fish or bugs, or played through holidays. Almost all of my villagers lived on the beach. The interior of my home was barely decorated at all, despite the fact that I had a fully-expanded house with millions of bells to spare.

My bedroom contained no bed — only my pets, a roach-infested cake, two gyroids, and my closet.​

"I'll play the game for real once Pawtucket looks perfect," I'd tell myself... and just never ended up playing the game.

It finally came to a head when, one day, I wanted to find Paula, one of my starter villagers. I had no idea where she lived, so I consulted the map...

Paula's house happened to be on a random cliff with no inclines or stairs. Typical.​

... and then I thought about how, in Wild World, I knew every villager's house location by heart. Lobo lived in the "woods" in the northwest; Pinky and Coco were best friends who lived side-by-side on the west side of the river; Joey lived a hop and a skip below Nookington's.

Wild World was the most fun I'd ever had in Animal Crossing, and I missed... just living in my pixel village, catching bugs, writing letters, and decorating my house.

I missed playing Animal Crossing. And I knew what I had to do.

So much unread mail...​

First, I transferred some of my spare valuables (a few useful items, rare DIYs, hard-to-find crafting supplies, Nook Miles Tickets, and my small collection of villager photographs) to my partner's town for storage. (I did not transfer any bells.) I didn't plan on using most of them, but it made me feel a little safer.

Next, I set out in Pawtucket to take a few last commemorative photographs with my most beloved villagers.

Making fun of Paula and hyping up Marina one last time.​

I said goodbye to Paula, Roald, and Marina — my first three villagers, and the ones I cared about the most. I knew I'd miss them, but I had their photographs to remember them by. Then, without a bell to my name, I packed snacks and made tracks. I hopped on a flight over the crystal-blue ocean and waved to my friends until we could see each other no longer. It was time for a new adventure.

This was his outfit choice for our last ever picture together. I can't hate.​

I'll miss Pawtucket, but I'm excited for the adventures and opportunities to come. I plan on making my next island my true home, a place I'll build from the ground up, taking my time to do so. I won't rush. I won't covet the things I don't have (okay, whoops, getting a little Ten Commandments up in here). One thing's for sure: I'll know the path to every single villager's home by heart!

Stay true, and enjoy the beats! I'll see you on the flip side!