#playground culture

[isaacsapphire]

Baby Beluga is from 1980.

the beatles are an infuriating band to me as a relentless contrarian. liking them is cliche, hating them is cliche, being indifferent towards them is cliche. it's impossible to have an novel or interesting take on the beatles in current year. like how am i supposed to win here?

[ukgk]

I have yet to play Needy Girl Overdose (NEEDY STREAMER OVERLOAD) so I don’t have much of interest to say about it but, I wanted to share this because it’s so cool to see a (comparatively) popular & modern game has been utilizing Ukagaka to make radio dramas! and even with English subtitles included. before the game came out I remember reading a Japanese publication saying they drew influence from Ukagaka (I believe Nini Radio by Triumphal Records specifically? also this makes it pretty obvious), as well as old-school denpa visual novels so I suppose it’s an expected tie-in but I’m still surprised they pulled it off because I haven’t seen Ukagaka used this way in a long time. the Angel Radio segments are programmed by Coyakoya (they aren't in the credits on youtube but I think it's safe to assume they probably were involved based on this process video?) and illustrated by Para Dot.

[lets-try-some-writing]

For the record, I blame TikTok for this idea.

So I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen or experienced one these godforsaken kiddie Jigsaw traps, but in the US we have these fucking metal slides 🛝 that are literally death contraptions on some of our public playgrounds. It’s basically a Canon Event for everyone, doesn’t matter if you’re a kid or an adult, to get their shit absolutely wrecked (and their asses and the back of their legs burned if it’s summer) on the way down these slides crafted by satan himself for character development that spit you out at Mach Jesus speed and quit literally skin you a new one during the process.

How would the TFP Autobots react to their humans going down a metal slide and just being shot out and tumbling out of the end like a can of coke in a vending machine?

Or better, what if the TFP Autobots (as holoforms) went down a metal slide? Possibly acting as a gigantic bowling balls and slamming into some poor unsuspecting human children like they were bowling pins? 🎳

Back on Cybertron, before the war, did Cybertron have their own equivalent of the notorious metal slides on their sparkling playgrounds?

I have indeed felt the wrath of the satanic metal slides. I've lived all over the globe and it seems like every country has their own lovely rendition of the terror that is the human grill disguised as playground equipment. Many a childhood memory has involved being chucked around on one like a bowling ball. I love this idea so thank you for coming up with it for me.

━━━━━━ ⊙ ❖ ⊙ ━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⊙ ❖ ⊙

The team were well aware that the humans had to keep their young entertained. Cybertron has its own rendition of the human 'playgrounds' to keep rambunctious sparklings from getting into trouble. Thus they were not at all surprised when the children one day asked to stop and check out a playground on the way back from school.

Optimus and Ratchet had been out taking a drive together in order to take a break away from it all, but quickly decided to come park with the rest of the team while the children played. Ratchet would die before admitting it, but watching the children play brought him a degree of comfort. There had been no sparklings amongst their kind for centuries, and so seeing the young of another race play so freely was a minor comfort. The team shared the same sentiment as they watched Rafael go up and down on the swings and chuckled at Jack doing his best to keep Miko from fooling around and possibly breaking something.

Of course the moment of quiet joy came to an end when Miko, in all her infinite wisdom, declared that going down the slide was in their best interest. By that point Ultra Magnus, Smokescreen, and Wheeljack had parked as well, each wanting to see what had the attention of the other members of the team. They too were quickly drawn into watching as a rather spectacular scene played out that brought forth old memories in all of them.

Jack had opted to go first down the metal slide at the playground, curtesy of Miko calling him names. He seemed to contemplate the universe at large as he patted down his trousers, pulled up his socks, tucked in his shirt, and laid his arms across his chest. He looked to the team almost pleadingly before he sat down and very nearly threw himself down the slide as an unfortunate hiss echoed from where the sweat from his play was turned to vapor. The team collectively watched in horror as Jack was thrown off the end of the metal abomination and sent careening into the wood chipping that made up the ground around the playground. Arcee very nearly transformed to check on him but remained still at the prompting of the rest of the team and in response to Jack groaning and getting up, albeit with a lovely red mark on his face from where his cheek unfortunately hit the edge of the slide on the way down.

The team were still reeling when Rafael was forcefully pushed down the abomination as well, not having been given any time to prepare for the trial ahead. The small child stood no chance as his tiny body was bat around like a ping pong ball and promptly shot off the end of the slide as well, joining Jack in his misery. Ratchet almost burst a wire as he watched the two boys compare burns and cuts from where the wood chipping got them. Optimus and Ultra Magnus both were trying to comprehend what the point of going down was. Wheeljack and Smokescreen were stuck trying to understand why children would go down a grill like surface. Meanwhile Bulkhead struggled alongside Arcee to not transform and check on their charges. In the end the team remained still, each keeping their disguises in place as Miko prepared to go. However due to her cruelty toward Rafael, Jack opened up his water bottle and dunked her with it just as she was going down.

Miko screamed as she slowed down to a horrible speed on the abomination. There was not enough water to make her go faster, and so instead she got stuck, forcing her to roll the remainder of the way down to avoid burns. She tumbled off the edge like a bowling ball and careened right into the wood chips. The team were left in absolute shock as she got up, looked over her burns, and called it a day. Seeing the children's reaction toward it all had Smokescreen breaking cover somewhat to call out with a question.

Smokescreen: Why do you do that? Doesn't heat hurt you squishies?

Miko: Yeah, but this is a coming of age thing.

Smokescreen: How? This doesn't seem like a useful ritual.

Jack: Every kid goes through this Smokes. Out here where its hot, you must learn the wrath of the metal slide.

Smokescreen: But... it hurts right?

Rafael: Yeah, that's why I don't like going on them. But like Jack said, its just something you do as a kid. Its a rite of passage of sorts.

Miko: YUP! You didn't have a childhood if your legs weren't skinned by one of these bad boys!

Smokescreen: It can't be that bad. Its just a slide!

In large part due to morbid curiosity, Smokescreen took what the children said as a challenge and hurriedly formed his holoform. Before the team could stop him, he stood at the top of the slide, smiling as if he weren't about to face agony. Miko grinned, Jack groaned, and Rafael looked away as Smokescreen who with no idea how the survival strategies of metal slides worked, threw himself down it. The rookie screeched as he got stuck halfway down due to poor momentum and hurriedly scrambled to get off in time. He grabbed the edge of the slide, ignoring the burns in order to hurl himself into the bark below. He laid on the ground groaning as the children laughed and winced. The team were shocked for the most part. Smokescreen was a trained soldier, and while certainly not the most experienced, he was no weak link. Pain was not unusual for him to experience on the battlefield.

For him to scream and panic? What started as concern turned to similar morbid curiosity as one by one the team formed their holoforms to attempt the trial of humanity's children. Other children came to the playground and began to giggle and laugh as the team lined up and watched as each made an attempt to best the rite of passage for human spawn. Smokescreen only managed to drag himself to his feet after a toddler stepped on his fingers. At that point he joined the rest of the team, forming an odd line of strange adults all waiting for their turn to best the slide, or at least attempt it.

Wheeljack, in his similar infinite wisdom, opted to go next. Having seen the children's attempt and Smokescreen fudged one, he was ready. Ensuring his holoform had gloves, he prepared himself to go. However he he forgot about the benefit of having long sleeves as he threw off his jacket in a celebratory manner and plopped down on the slide, arms crossed over his chest like Jack did when he went. Unlike Smokescreen, he did not scream when the torture that was the blazing hot slide hit his bare arms, but he did make an undignified sound as he was careened off the end of the slide and sent tumbling out of the bounds of the playground and onto the cement. He proceeded to scramble to his feet to get off the cement only to promptly trip into the bark, face first. Miko laughed herself half to death, and seeing Wheeljack's attempt, Optimus, Ultra Magnys, and Ratchet raised their metaphorical white flags and sat back, none wanting to be involved.

Wheeljack and Smokescreen, both having been defeated quite brutally, sat beside the Prime and medic, both grumbling at their loss. Ultra Magnus sighed and returned to his vehicle mode as Bulkhead, quite sure of his ability, decided to be the one to go next and test his mettle on the human torture device that even children could overcome. He took great care ensuring his holoform was covered head to toe, and he even went so far as to add goggles to his outfit just to be safe. He was ready, and so he threw himself down the slide with even more aggression than Wheeljack. He did actually manage to survive the slide itself, but he ended up flying off the end of the metal abomination and skidding across the wood chips, right into a group of children. The children rightfully began crying and parents quickly hurried to chastise the wrecker. Sensing the situation was about to become worse, Bumblebee, not wanting Smokescreen to have one over on him, decided that sliding with Arcee was the most efficient.

Thus just as Optimus and Ratchet got up to try and deescalate the situation at the foot of the slide, Bumblebee with his spectacular planning ability, plopped Arcee down in front of him and sent them both sliding down the metal abomination. They screeched as they sped up, losing control about halfway down and spinning a bit. Optimus for his part hurriedly gathered up the human children and pushed the parents away in time for the duo to go flying off the end. But Bulkhead who was receiving a lecture from Ratchet, happened to see the flying set of mecha in their holoforms, and barely moved aside in time for Ratchet to get the brunt of the crash. All three were left groaning as they were skidded across the wood chips, with Ratchet cursing up a storm in Cybertronian and Bee hurriedly rushing back to his vehicle mode so as to hopefully speed off before the wrath of the resident medic could reach him.

At the end of it all the children were laughing so hard they could hardly breathe and Optimus could only sigh in the manner of a truly tired parent as the led his team back to base. Upon arrival, the children only had one thing to say aside from their mockery.

Miko: Did you bots not have slides on Cybertron?

The team fell silent as they absorbed the question. The younger members of the team looked to the elder who gained a haunted but wistful expression on their faces. Swiftly speaking in Cybertronian, Ratchet moved forward to reply.

Ratchet: We did have 'slides' in a sense. There were ramps where young sparklings would test their ability to transform and either launch into the air if they were fliers, or fly and flip if they were grounders.

Rafael: Then why do you sound so afraid of them?

Ratchet, two seconds away from cursing: Because child, much like your human rite of passage nonesense, every single sparkling with access to such a ramp tested their skill against it-

Bulkhead: And every last one of them ate slag at least a dozen times before getting it right.

Even Ultra Magnus and Optimus seemed haunted as Ratchet played a video file, one showing a young unnamed sparkling standing at the top of a ramp. The sparkling smiled, seemingly confident while others watched on and observed. Within a moment the sparkling had transformed as much as they were able considering their youth and skidded down the ramp. Only instead of performing gracefully, the young Cybertronian flew through the air, flipping and careening until they returned to root mode just in time to hit the rubbery looking ground with a thunk.

Seeing the image has the elder members of the team nodding as if it were normal while the sparkling in the video wailed in a strange mix of static and binary until their Caretaker came to soothe them. It was not the same, but Cybertronians had their own sparklinghood rite of passage.

[gotosleepsydney]

don't forget to run up and down the stairs ten times

remember everyone you gotta do the pre snow day rituals to ensure school and work is cancelled tomorrow.

[hazellvsq]

headcanon that hazel had the most parasocial beef imaginable with shirley temple. 8 year old hazel was writing hate mail to the local paper with her crayons calling the also 8 year old shirley a sellout and an industry plant. in 2010 hazel's watching nick at nite on the fifth cohort rec room tv and sees the 2 minute long shirley temple box set commercial and loses her fucking mind.

[apostacism]

maybe i should make an aeducan... it's the only way i can ever see myself restoring the anvil of the void

[hunxi-after-hours]

ok Asunder was so good that I feel like the universe had to cosmically balance that out by handing me a book for one of my work book clubs that caused me so much psychic damage that I downed a bottle of soju in self-defense to finish it

[objectum-culture-is]

Objectum culture is feeling sad when you cannot bring ALL the rocks inside your home

.

[blueiscoool]

1,400-Year-Old Treasure Stash Found Under Playground in China

Underneath the playground of a school in China, archaeologists uncovered ruins of a 1,400-year-old settlement that included dozens of storage pits and thousands of artifacts.

Archaeologists excavated the playground of an elementary school in the eastern coastal city of Ningbo ahead of planned construction, the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in an Oct. 10 news release.

The excavations uncovered 65 pits, eight wells and several other structures all over 1,400 years old, the release said. Archaeologists identified the ruins as part of a settlement.

In one storage pit, archaeologists found 796 copper coins in tied-up stacks. A photo shows the stash of muddy coins with square holes in the center. In one of the wells, they unearthed 1,682 more coins.

Based on the number of coins and their style of burial, archaeologists concluded the treasures were buried as an emergency measure by residents who feared a disaster was coming, the release said. The age and location of the coins match — and might be linked to — a period of rebellion and famine in the sixth century A.D.

Archaeologists also found preserved plants in one of the pits. The plant remains included bamboo, gourds, peach pits and a large number of acorns. A photo shows what remains of these nuts.

The other pits and wells contained pottery fragments, tiles, altars, washbasins and other artifacts, archaeologists said. Two lamps, part of a bronze chandelier, were also uncovered, a photo shows.

The artifacts mainly date from the Han dynasty, a period from 206 B.C. to 220 A.D., and the Six Dynasties, a period from 220 A.D. to 589 A.D, according to the release and Encyclopedia Britannica.

Ningbo is in Zhejiang province and about 135 miles south of Shanghai.

By ASPEN PFLUGHOEFT.

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

FINALLY somebody addressing why I am sad about Rasputin’s characterization this season. Let grandpa get ANGRY let him get PISSED. Let him drop warsats on people again

The three pillars of the Warmind Rasputin in the Destiny narrative are mystery, tragedy, and power. Those are the story roles he fulfills and the themes and settings he provides. The Warmind DLC emphasized mystery and power. Season of the Worthy emphasized power and tragedy. Season of the Seraph so far has leaned hard on the tragedy with a side of mystery. That’s fine. It’s better than fine; I’m living for a Rasputin season that finally hammers home to the general player population how emotional his entire story is (and not just the parts with the Iron Lords) if only because I’m no longer the crazy person sitting in the corner yelling this computer is extremely sad actually here’s a 12-page lore essay based on deep analysis and textual inference. We’ve never encountered Rasputin in such a weak state before and that makes it the best time for a vulnerable narrative. So this season has gone for tragedy with backup mystery. That’s fine.

But let us not neglect his third role.

Why is it so important for Rasputin to demonstrate his power? Or, put another way, why is it so satisfying when he does? When Red shot down the Almighty, regardless of whether you liked the season or even the event leading up to it, when the Almighty shattered and that shockwave cracked across the Tower I bet you felt something. We’ve seen display after display of might from a range of characters, yet nothing - maybe this is a function of who I hang out with, but - nothing evokes as visceral a response from players as when the Warmind acts. Why?

First off I think a lot of people enjoy the narrative of the sleeping giant, the dormant volcano rumbling to life. Remember when the ents go to war in The Two Towers? It’s a real thrill to watch something vast stir itself to war on our behalf, and I am one thousand percent here for that exact trope. Second, Rasputin has a clear and easy-to-sympathize-with motive for some righteous revenge. Third, he has every right to and absolutely should get very, very angry and boy is it cathartic to watch someone vent that kind of fury against the status quo. Fourth, sometimes it’s just fun to watch big space explosions. But after giving it a lot of thought I think there’s another key aspect: because Rasputin is our home team.

Rasputin represents humanity, far more than Guardians do. In the Destiny universe Rasputin embodies the apex of human technology, engineering, creativity, power - human, not Guardian. So we all have a little bit of an affinity for the Warmind, not us as Guardians but us, the players, as human beings, because he is humanity’s representative at the table of Destiny powers. The weapons Rasputin wields are weapons we recognize as our own. The technology he builds evokes real concrete tech we use. He quotes books we’ve read, he plays music we listen to, he cites our history. He’s the home team, and we are all, whether we know it or not, way down deep we are all cheering for him just a little bit, because he represents the real world we live in pitting itself against the greatest threats fantasy and scifi can conjure up. Nobody gave him Light or picked him out as the special Chosen One. All his strength is our strength. When he exercises that power, we see our own civilization sticking up for itself against the unknown. He is, in all goddamn seriousness, Flag Admiral Stabby.

So I guess I’m wrong about what I said at the beginning. There are four aspects, not three, to Rasputin’s role in Destiny: mystery, tragedy, power, and humanity. He is the representative of what the human race can build and do. So let him wake up and demonstrate that maybe humans came late to the table but we sure didn’t waste any time. Let him wake up and remind everyone that humanity’s fate won’t just decided by the immortal god-children who terrorized them for centuries in concert with alien factions with superior technology and much longer histories. Humans can do incredible things when they put their minds to it and they don’t need a paracausal permission slip to try. Let Rasputin show the solar system the creativity, tenacity, and stubborn defiance we like to imagine as our species’ defining traits. Let him bring a gun to a wizard fight. And let him win.

[rabbitcruiser]

The children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard, was first published on October 14, 1926.

[sheltiechicago]

Quirky Vintage Japanese Playgrounds Photographed at Night

You might picture sleek, futuristic glass buildings when you think of Japan, but there’s a lot of quirk there as well. A great series of images from Fujio Panda showcases a huge assortment of strange and adorable playground equipment, all photographed at night.

[fishlung8877]

Special thanks to discord and tumblr for giving me a healthy outlet to explore my special interests so I don't end up publicallly embarrrasing myself again like that naruto love song guy or whatever

[loversandantiheroes]

Sometimes I literally space out and lose like half an hour of my life thinking about how much I hate fn@f. I really try not to let myself linger on anything that bugs me that hard because it's such a waste of energy, but it's just so goddamn inescapable as a part of internet culture that makes it really really hard to not just sit here and enter a fugue state where I can do nothing but think about how bromine didn't actually bother writing a cohesive story for his games and just threw out a mishmash of ideas, called it "lore" and let the internet do his work for him.

[arachnidiots-a]

the fact that i am fully awake rn…