He Really Playing Collect ‘em All With His Brothers Exs😂 Well Everyone’s Gotta Have A Hobby I

Omg this is such a good series so sad the authors worried about it being ooc bcs I already can’t separate it from canon in my mind it’s so well written!!!

If you're a fan of Bernard Dowd, you should definitely check out this series of fics!

I love that the author explains it as a coming of age story gone wrong.

https://archiveofourown.org/series/2642986

#tiny mighty and snarky PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS 1.02

It's that time of year again where Mari Lwyd starts to be talked about and shared around and an INCREDIBLY misleading post gets shared a lot. As someone who grew up with Mari Lwyd I wanted to clear some things up.

Also hello, if you are unaware who Mari Lwyd is. This is about the Welsh tradition of the horse skull who visits houses during the Christmas to New Years period in Wales asking for alcohol.

First off and probably the most important one:

Mari Lwyd is not a cryptid!

I can not emphasise this enough. She. Is. Not. A. Cryptid. There is no story or mystery about a ghost or zombie horse roaming the Welsh valleys. She's not even supposed to be a ghost or a zombie. It's just a horse skull on a stick with a guy under a sheet. She's a hobbyhorse and a folk character used to tell Welsh stories and keep songs alive. When people spread the misinformation that she's a cryptid, it's the equivalent of saying Kermit the Frog is a cryptid.

She is actually only one character in a wider cast of characters who go door to door or, in more modern times, pub to pub. The cast of characters can change town to town and village to village but there are some common ones I see time and time again. The Leader, the Merryman, The Jester and The Lady are just some I see regularly. Punch and Judy used to be more popular a few years ago but I haven't seen them in a while as their tradition has mostly fallen out of popularity. In most cases, almost the whole cast will be played by men. Even the characters are considered and referred to as female. Though this again depends and varies by which group is partaking in the Mari Lwyd tradition.

This point also goes onto my second point,

Mari Lwyd does not rap.

I think this comes from a very common misunderstanding of what rap is vs spoken word. Rap is a very specific style of music originating from the African American communities of the USA and has it's own structure and motifs unique to it. It's a lot more complex than people give it credit for as a style of music and just flippantly assign anything similar to it as being rap. If someone is talking fast or reciting poetry, it is not rap. Or anything that is an exchange of words between two people is not a rap battle. Mari Lwyd does not do rap, actually something that gets left out of these posts is the fact Mari Lwyd does not even speak. It's actually the Leader, who does all the speaking and song based banter between the house/pub owner for entry. Mari Lwyd just clicks her mouth, bites people and bobs her head around.

I think Mari Lwyd is a really beautiful and unique part of Welsh culture. She's not actually as wildly celebrated as a lot of the posts make her out to be. Actually, I think most Welsh people themselves learn about Mari Lwyd through the internet as well. Her popularity is increasing thanks to the drive of local groups wanting to keep the traditions alive and a renewed desire to document Welsh traditions before they're gone. Which is why it's such a shame that she's turned into something she's not to earn horror points on the internet. I think this is why it bothers me so much to see the misunderstandings of the culture and the folk tradition. Mari Lwyd's origin is very hot debated as well as how long it's been going on for. But I think it's thanks to a lot of traditions like this that the Welsh language and our stories weren't lost forever. Welsh culture is recovering as is the language. But it's still in a very fragile place. I think it's why it's important to document and correct information when it's spread.

Anyway, if you want to see the tradition in action, here's a lovely video from the Cwmafan RFC going to one of the pubs for charity. It includes the song exchange with the pub owner for entry and the whole pub singing and joining in once Mari Lwyd and the rest are inside.

As well with another video from St Fagan's showcasing the more traditional and door to door form with the larger cast.

Vegans of tumblr, listen up. Harvesting agave in the quantities required so you dont have to eat honey is killing mexican long-nosed bats. They feed off the nectar and pollinate the plants. They need the agave. You want to help the environment? Go back to honey. Your liver and thyroid will thank you, as well. Agave is 90% fructose, which can cause a host of issues. Bye.

I’m sorry but Percy being like “ohhh so theres gotta be three guys that go on a life-threatening war-preventing quest. great for them. let me know when you find them. or don’t. lmao” and then trying to dip Is so Percy of him I can’t

Confident: Not Arrogant

A post I loved was going around on how confident Dick is.

I just wanted to add that he’s confident but there’s also a humbleness to his confidence that is very uniquely Dick Grayson.  Dick is confident without the arrogance.  He’s confident with a purpose.  Even when he’s not confident he exudes it to lift other people up or at least is usually open to talk about how unconfident he is which in itself takes a certain amount of confidence.

He expresses a very ‘us’ mentality and uses that phrasing a lot when talking to people unless he’s blaming himself for something.

[Batman #688]

“We’re going to have to learn.”

When Dick is Batman we as the reader know how unconfident Dick is but he still wears the cowl and goes out there as well as mentors Damian with as much confidence and humbleness he needs to admit his own shortcomings and works through them with Damian. 

[Batman: Gates of Gotham]

When Tim feels down about screwing up Dick answers in a very Dick Grayson way, “Everyone’s made mistakes on this one.  But we’ve come this far and we’re in this together.”  He acknowledges Tim’s mistakes but he reminds him that everyone has made mistakes even himself, and that he’s not alone here.

You can even tell this trait in him just by his positioning and body language, he lets the kids sit in the Batchair, he talks things out with them, he leans casually even in the Batsuit.  A lot of time’s in comics it seems that the batfamily is on Bruce’s mission but with Dick he clearly shows ‘we’re’ on a mission ‘together’.

(x) 

That humble confidence is also what allows him to be able to see things from other peoples perspectives, and especially why he’s usually written as not condescending towards young heroes and speaks up for them against the Justice League even.

[Teen Titans v3 #6]

“Flash, you were one of us.”

[Teen Titans v3 #33]

“Stop looking at me like I’m one of those statues.  I’m a Titan like you.”

Dick has shown multiple times he can talk people down from fighting or doing bad things or talk people up when they need to step up to the plate and it’s because he’s confident enough to say it but humble enough to say it right.

It’s again because of how humble he is that Dick is not opposed to getting help when he needs it, 

 [Nightwing #141] 

Being picked up or carried,

[X]

Or saying thank you to anyone that helps him.  

 [Nightwing #141] 

[Nightwing #144]

He gets angry, he makes mistakes, yet Dick also doesn’t hold back on apologizing for things when he’s done something wrong.

[Convergence: The New Teen Titans]

[The New Teen Titans #31]

Multiple times he’s snapped at people and then snapped right back and said he’s sorry for it because he’s strong enough emotionally that he can apologize if he’s wronged them.  

Lastly we see that Dick can work with the big guns, heck he can lead the big guns, but he’s never arrogant when he stands beside them.  One of my favorite moments that shows this so clearly is when Dick and Superman are in the park together and the police officer that finds them only cares about getting a picture with Superman. 

[Nightwing #141]

Dick doesn’t even hesitate, he doesn’t think or say anything about it because he doesn’t need that validation from people, he knows how amazing he is and how amazing Superman is.  There’s no jealously there, actually he doesn’t stop smiling the whole time.  

[Robin: Year One #3]

“Style, grace… and a bit of flamboyance, but without the obtrusiveness and pitfalls of arrogance.”

It’s shown even in the way he fights.

Yes there are other characters that have some of these traits as well but for Dick there are SO MANY examples of Dick doing these things, it’s very much ingrained in his character.  That’s Dick Grayson.  He may have insecurities but for the most part he is confident but not arrogant, from what I’ve seen even though he’s one of the most loved characters he’s also one of the most humble characters in the DCU.  

I HATE AI STOP PUTTING AI IN EVERYTHING I HATE IT SO MUCH IT MAKES ME SO ANGRY I JUST WANT TO RIP APART A DATA CENTER AND FLING CABELS VIOLENTLY ACROSS THE ROOM I WANT TO MURDER CHATGPT I WANT TO DESTROY EVERY SINGLE GENERATIVE AI MODEL IN EXISTENCE I WANT PEOPLE TO STOP USING AI IN PLACE OF A SEARCH ENGINE OR IN PLACE OF CRITICAL THINKING

I NEED PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF TRAINING THESE AI, OF USING THEM!! I NEED PEOPLE TO SEE THE DANGERS IN TRUSTING THE INFORMATION BLINDLY!!! I NEED EVERY PERSON WHO KEEPS IMPLEMENTING AI INTO ANYTHING THEY TO TAKE A VERY VERY VERY LONG WALK OF THE WORLDS SHOREST PIER.

fuck Ai

I’m completely normal about this show