#honestly it’s so pretty idk what else to say

[fatfemmefreaquency]

fwiw this is also a traditional art form (called Da Shuhua) in some regions of china—although usually the performers don’t wear protective gear (there are fewer and fewer people who learn this art form/ blacksmithing skill because of how dangerous it is)

its a cheaper alternative to expensive fireworks and is a tradition passed down by some blacksmiths for celebration among the working class (who couldn’t afford expensive fireworks but could afford to collect waste metal and give it to blacksmiths before festivals)

one blacksmith holds molten iron in a vessel and the other uses an implement to scatter the iron across either water or cold bricks which creates the “iron flowers” or petal/ leaf shaped scatters of light & metal that the art is named for

so there’s not just science at play here—there’s technology, culture, and art

[bigskydreaming]

Imagine looking at a character whose entire premise is that in every stage of his life, he's made every version of himself into someone that inspires people to such a degree that EVERY SINGLE VERSION OF HIM has people wanting to literally follow in his footsteps in some way or another.....

And coming to the conclusion that like.....the most important things about him are the sum of all his trappings. His entirely homemade developed from scratch could not exist if not for what he already was and brought with him BEFORE crafting this newest version of himself trappings, with his greatest trait throughout all of it being his adaptability; his ability and willingness to roll with the punches and not try to simply weather any opposition or changes to his life but instead reshape himself as needed to better fit INTO whatever new shape his life and the world around him takes. All while managing to carry the most innate, fundamental and necessary aspects of himself from one version to the next. Thus every single version of himself is different but simultaneously every single version of himself is also undeniably the same person.

The strength of this character, to me, will always be that he can be so many versions of himself, he can become so many things, all without ever actually losing or discarding any of the aspects of himself he considers most essential, the things he's not willing to lose or give up just to keep going. Finding that road not taken by most, usually because most never even think to look for it as an option. But one that he's always able to find because the one trick he's mastered in his tumultuous life is threading that needle of not just digging in his heels in an unproductive way but rather being selective about when and where he makes a stand and decides "this is not a thing I'm willing to compromise about" but here are places and ways I can and will change and evolve and adapt in order to make it possible for me to hold onto these parts and keep them as they are.

And that's why its always so mind-boggling to me that so many writers can't seem to think of anything else to do with Dick Grayson other than invent some new reason for him to just....not be that person, or to like just take the character whose most basic fundamental trait he's NOT about to compromise on is willingly giving up his spot in the driver's seat of his own life.....and make him just a passenger in his own life and stories.

Dick Grayson at age nine....at age nineteen...at age twenty nine....the one core thread running through all versions of him is the only way he's standing back and letting you call the shots for him or putting him on the sidelines in some way is over his dead body.

HOW he goes about that, what that looks like, who he becomes and what aspects of himself he plays up at some times and what traits he lets fall by the wayside at other times when they offer less in service to his primary goal here....that changes constantly. He changes constantly.

But those changes are almost always (or at least they used to be/should be IN MY OPINION) made with the intention of keeping certain things about him or his life as consistent as possible.

That's the duality of Dick Grayson that I'm here for. The inherent contradiction of him that COULD allow for endless conflict and breaking new narrative ground in all sorts of ways if mined properly:

His eternal willingness to compromise....but only ever in pursuit of doubling down on the ways he's not willing to compromise.

Forever walking that tightrope in ways that only a kid born and raised in a circus could ever hope to.

[lord-squiggletits]

I was at a "making friends" kind of social event just this past week and ended up having two subsequent conversations with different people that gave me an interesting reflection on my own reasons for writing without me even intending to make the conversation about it.

First conversation: The person talked about the feeling of awe from being at a music concert and how incredible it is that so many complete strangers can be united by a singular love of music. I related to it with regards to my own writing and how many people have read my stuff. Ended up telling this guy about some of the AO3 comments I've gotten from people to the effect of helping motivate them to live/just reflect on life in general. Somehow went into a tangent about a suicidal friend of mine who died when we were in high school, and me saying that maybe the reason I write so much about the things I do is because of the influence his death had on me. And the other person ended up asking me, 'So do you think it's like every time you write, you're doing it in his memory in a way?'

Subsequent conversation was with someone who was a psychologist for a day job, and I ended up telling them that I was kind of thinking of getting a degree in psychology/therapy one day because writing about mental health issues had gotten me so interested in the world of helping people heal themselves. But then I was also like, "Well, I don't know, it could be that I don't need to become a psychologist to help people with mental health. Maybe helping people by being a writer and telling stories is enough."

It was just a surprising, but topical realization for me to have talking to a bunch of strangers. For someone like me who's often preoccupied with doing and having knowledge and expertise, I often fall into the idea that you need to be directly involved in helping people to really be making a difference. I've literally had thoughts in my mind along the lines of "I'm so smart, hardworking, and dedicated when it comes to writing, but wouldn't it have been so much more of a net gain to the world if I'd decided to be this passionate about something like being a doctor or activist that actually helps people?" It's not like I truly regret being a writer (or ever will, because there's nothing else that I love so much), but in my bad moments I truly do sometimes think "Why does it make a difference if I entertain people or make them feel nicer for a while if it doesn't actually change anything in the world?" To quote one of my favorite Transformers fics of all time, "There was nothing that would have been more worthwhile, but that didn't rule out the possibility that the whole damn universe was wasting its time."

I guess the answer is that making someone feel better, even in a small way, is changing the world, even if it's just a few people, and even if it's just as simple as making someone's day better.

[leapinarmadillo]

Neverland looks so fun :(

[pilonciillo]

on another note

[raisinushigher]

stupid garbage brainstorming for possibilities w gandhi + abe in future seasons . normally id type the words out onto the drawing afterwards but this is just so cringe and self indulgent thst it doesn’t matter enough to do that

[orcelito]

Ykno the suckiest thing about being broken up with for someone else is that like. Well I'm doing generally fine, all things considered, but I Am kinda sad thinking about the things I've lost and all the casual affection that I can't have now.

But she's out there having all the affection she wants from her coworker, and it's just like. Damn this feels so skewed and SO unfair.

[silverandebony]

oh hey trauma surrounding watching other people eat while you, if you're very lucky, get something approximately equivalent, but more realistically either get something significantly worse or have to provide your own unappetizing food. what's up, i didn't miss you

[skeletalheartattack]

@ those tf2 server related tags: the lazypurple silly servers still exist. and if you want a silly-adjacent server that still has killing/pvp enabled then they also have a "TDM" server where objectives are disabled so you really just get to dick around

i figured his servers would still be around, although i don't think i ever had personally played on his servers before. i think i've seen some videos of them in the past though.

the two servers i use to hang around in through 2012-2016 were mostly just... hang-out servers? the term i refer to them as is "hub servers", similar to like... hub levels in platformers. one was a big city server where i met a good ammount of my friends on, the other was a server with maps the server owner created, which is also the server that hosted one of my maps. they had some sourcemods in common like the jetpack plugin.

im not sure if i could personally experience the vibes of those servers in the same way these days. granted anytime i play tf2 these days, it's usually to play casual, haven't touched any community servers in a long time.

[fagryanlucan]

the more I replay the game the more I firmly believe alex has cptsd and anxiety, steph has adhd, ryan has autism

[sugaroto]

Zjdbjzjd

If someone tells you their name is [name], then that's their fucking name. Stop trying to find out what "their actual name" is

So-

I'm having a birthday party this Saturday, (it's also a friend's nameday and we decided to celebrate it together) So we made a group chat with everyone to invite them.

We mostly have common friends so like, approximately 10 of the kids are our common friends, 5 are mine and 5 are hers

But it's cool cause we all go to the same school so yknow, not everyone is that close but we'll manage

Except one person, I invited someone that my classmates don't know, actually 2 of them know this person and have been friends for years (I met this person through them) and my best friend has also met this person one or twice

So we're gonna name this person Bob, so, Bob is not a greek name.

Today one of my friends was like who is this "usernameman guy?"

And she was talking with my friend who's met the guy and my friend was like his name is Bob

But she was like "There's no way his name is bob" so that's why they called me and asked me what usernameman's name actually was and I'm like "it's bob"

"But how can it be bob? His parents named him that?"

"That's what he introduced himself to me as. I guess it may be a nickname but that's how people call him so"

"Well I'm gonna call him Mpampi then"(or something very greek starting with the letter of the guy's actual name)

"His name is Bob"

...

Like. Ok. I know- I can tell, Bob is not the name he was given by his parents, I know his very greek last name. I've overheard people calling him by a different Greek name.

Still. He introduced himself as Bob. Their Instagram bio has "Call me Bob, they/she/he" and fanart with the non binary flag as a photo profile

In greek you can't really refer to someone with they/them so they're always referred with he/him pronouns (tho I've noticed sometimes they use feminine words for themselves like καλή) honestly I've been meaning to ask if they would also like to be called η Bob instead of ο Bob etc

My friend dropped the subject assuming I just don't know "his actual name"

But later as we were waiting for the bus one of their friends (I mentioned above I met this person through 2 other people) was there so my friend was like "oh he must know! [Dude] do you know what is usernameman's name?"

And all 3 of us(me, dude and my best friend) replied together that it's Bob

"That can't be his name! Dude whats his name?"

Dude: "it's... Bob"

"Are you kidding me how can it be Bob?!"

At that point my best friend snapped like "What's gotten into you my[girl]? Can you just drop it? The human is named bob" (Μπομπ τον λένε τον άνθρωπο, sounds more friendly in greek)

At that time Dude's parents arrived so he left but I saw his face. He didn't want to have that conversation

I'm sure he knows "his actual name" since they've been friends for years

But if the person introduces themselves as fucking Bob then call them Bob, why you gotta ask everyone

[sepiasys]

I woke up after having a dream where suddenly I switched—like I was just, whatever was default. Maybe the body, maybe someone else, idfk. Then suddenly it switched to 🦊(me) there in their place. I woke up very shortly after if not immediately. We were ordering food btw.

So that's fun. I am definitely not. Mad. For no reason. Idk that's my default, my baseline. So yk. Just zero/low tolerance.

I love, however, that I see the little area S designated for shit he took away (where he kept putting the stupid fucking chair, and now is also where the computer and router and stuff he took from B is), and get painfully reminded of, well, our childhood =)

Like having OUR shit taken away but it's a place we can see. We find it. And all I want to do is just TAKE IT BACK. So badly. Even just one thing in that fucking pile. I want, so badly, to steal it back.

I know I can't.

And it INFURIATES me, frustrates me to no end, just how much I have to get reminded of our shitty fucking abusers. The shitty fucking life we had to live. And yes the memories themsekves are fucked, barely there half the time, but also. I can FEEL it. And that's the big thing. Because this FEELS the SAME.

[neverendingford]

.

[dootznbootz]

If you can't articulate a thought/comment/compliment, you have to know that reblog is honestly more than enough.

Sometimes I can't articulate my love but I still reblog. Because I want others to feel the joy I felt while seeing the creation. I want the creator to know I felt joy and that I want to preserve that joy on my blog.

A reblog gets me giggling and kicking my feet. A keysmash will make me scuttle around the house in glee.

There's a person behind that creation who worked hard on it. People want to know and hear that their hardwork has meaning and that it deserves to be seen/shared. Likes do not share.

i do wonder what it is that makes people exponentially more likely to reblog low effort shit posts that things people spent several days working on

[thegardengrows-infrozenrain]

shit i forgot to introduce myself

dunno if the others do that but i will lol

anyways uuuuhhh i'm oleander (when i'd woken up in here i didn't actually have a name, it's related to stuff from the last time i used the body (not good stuff :( ), miss molly actually named me) and i'm like... seventeen lmao

gender is masc, dunno completely abt my sexuality yet

[two-calicos-in-a-trenchcoat]

My dads finally going out of town

I get 4 days of unimpeded dog training