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[jaybirbie]

Watched a great talk today about web/technology accessibility, and the speaker pointed out that yes, accessibility is important for people with permanent disabilities, and we should definitely care about that. But also accessibility helps EVERYBODY, because everybody will, at some point in their lives, find themselves in situations that accessible technology can help with. Here are permanent, temporary, and situational disabilities that accessible technology can help with:

Remember that whether something is disabling or not depends on the situation, the environment, the technology, etc. We’re ALL disabled at some point. It is important to support permanently disabled people, but it is also important to remember that accessibility helps us all!

[jaybirbie]

[jaybirbie]

When I was a kid, maybe 14 or so (which is, you know, 20+ years ago), I belonged to a Yahoo! mailing list for an anime called Gundam Wing. It was mostly populated by other teens, of varying ages, as it was started by a teen and her friends. Eventually it migrated, when Yahoo! groups started as forums, and even branched off into non-GW related stuff in a second forum.

One of the things I remember the most clearly is the oldest person in the group. Her name was Steelsong. She was a 40-something Dom with a sub whose name we knew even though we knew nothing else. She ran her own fanfic archive because the web was still handmade HTML and navigated in webrings and I’m pretty sure Google didn’t exist or was only barely, barely launched and not well known. She was kind and patient and we loved her. She treated everyone on the group with the respect given any adult, even though most of the rest of the world was still treating us like we were children. Not teenagers even, but children. She never once condescended to any of us, never made our youth a barrier to her respect, never treated us like we were incapable of being full people or like we were less than her because we were young.

I remember that she hosted our fanfiction, as absolutely terrible as it was (and I still have some of it, I am WELL aware of how cringingly terrible it is, just absolute nonsense garbage), right there alongside of other fic that was soul-achingly beautiful. Not a separate section for her friends or for kids, just right there like we were good enough to feature alongside other authors. I never once received crit from her that I didn’t ask for, only support. Only love. I am still writing today partly because Steel was so kind about our fic, fanfic and original.

I remember that when I started doing clay sculpture, she commissioned a tiny pair of dragons from me, to support me doing artwork. She sent a check my mom cashed for me, and my mom helped me mail it when it was finished. It broke in transit, and Steel assured me that she mended it and that it was still beautiful. It was a small gold dragon curled up with a small silver dragon.

I remember that her patience knew no bounds. I remember that she was there for us, regardless of reason. When we wanted to know silly things like what to do with a single AA battery, she answered. When we had serious questions about sex, she answered.  When we had questions about writing, she taught us. When one of our group members, a young gay teen in Australia, ended up in the hospital and then stopped making posts, and we all knew what had happened, she let us talk to her about it because we couldn’t go to our own parents, even though we had just lost a friend.

She was not a replacement to my parents, but she was an extra parent, in some ways. A friend, certainly, but someone that had been through more life than we had and was willing to pass on knowledge if we asked for it. Someone older that we trusted with things that were too uncomfortable to go to our parents or teachers or whatever about, because we already knew she wasn’t going to judge us or something, and that we would get an honest answer.

I don’t know why I’m remembering this so hard tonight, and I’m not sure if there’s a point to sharing this, except that I know she’s gone now. She was ill the last time we spoke, and her site went down a long time ago, and I miss her. She was a huge influence on my life, then and now. She was hope, for me, that life as an adult didn’t have to be boring, it wouldn’t have to mean giving up the things I loved and Becoming Only Responsible With No Fun. Her presence meant I had hope I could still write and play with friends even when I wasn’t ‘a kid’ anymore. And she’s gone, and I miss her, and I wanted to share her from the perspective of youth, and the perspective over twenty years later has provided me.

And I think of her, when people go off about older folks being in fandom with younger folks. I’m an older folks now, or at least middle aged folks because there are certainly folks older than me still, but I wasn’t always. I’ve been here since i was a younger folks, and I know how much Steel’s presence and support meant to me, how much she helped not just me but everyone on that group. And I think of the people saying older folks don’t belong in fandom, and that they shouldn’t interact with younger folks at all, and I just think… I can’t agree. I needed that kind of solid presence in my life back then and even at the age I am now, I need the folks older than me to stay. I want them here.

So I guess, like, if you’re here and you’re 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 or whatever, I want you here in fandom with me, still. Your presence here is a comfort. It is hope. It is a reminder that life will continue to be fun, even as I get older, myself. And if you’re younger and you have this sort of elder in your groups, I hope that they are like Steel. I hope they are kind and patient and supportive, and that knowing them gives you hope for your own future. I hope in twenty years you look back and remember them fondly.

[jaybirbie]

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[jaybirbie]

“...This is a child.”

“This…” Commissioner Gonzalez heaved a deep sigh, fingers slipping under the bridge of her glasses, “Is your new partner, Detective Grayson.”

“With all due respect, ma’am, this is an entire 6-year-old child.”

“I’m eight, so shut the fuck up.”

“Somehow, kid, that doesn’t make me feel any better.”

[jaybirbie]

Let damian be more cringe

[jaybirbie]

average merlin episode

[jaybirbie]

DP x DC prompt

Damian isn't the son of the bat.

He is the son of the Demon, however , a Pit Demon, to be specific. One Ra's had imprisoned deep below Nanda Parbat.

The wails of this eldritch horror could be heard most nights.

It sounds haunt all those who hear it, not many are aware the Demon is crying for the babe stolen from from it years ago.

Or Damian is actually Elritch Danny's son, who Ra's decided to try and raise as a weapon.

[jaybirbie]

Okay, but what if it becomes well known that the batcave is "haunted". The JL and others know a presence follows the Bats .

They're polite to The Cave regardless.

I'm sure Robin calling the enity Mama and Batman Father doesn't stir any rumors, nope, non at all. They didn't know "married to the night" wasn't an exaggeration!.

DP x DC prompt

Damian isn't the son of the bat.

He is the son of the Demon, however , a Pit Demon, to be specific. One Ra's had imprisoned deep below Nanda Parbat.

The wails of this eldritch horror could be heard most nights.

It sounds haunt all those who hear it, not many are aware the Demon is crying for the babe stolen from from it years ago.

Or Damian is actually Elritch Danny's son, who Ra's decided to try and raise as a weapon.

[jaybirbie]

Knowledge is empowering

[jaybirbie]

DP x DC prompt

Damian isn't the son of the bat.

He is the son of the Demon, however , a Pit Demon, to be specific. One Ra's had imprisoned deep below Nanda Parbat.

The wails of this eldritch horror could be heard most nights.

It sounds haunt all those who hear it, not many are aware the Demon is crying for the babe stolen from from it years ago.

Or Damian is actually Elritch Danny's son, who Ra's decided to try and raise as a weapon.

[jaybirbie]

reblog if you:

ARE GAY

ARE POWERFUL

LOVE YOUR PARTNER

SUPPORT OUR TRANS BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND OUR AMAZING NONBINARY SIBLINGS

no one will ever know which one

[jaybirbie]

DP x DC prompt

Damian isn't the son of the bat.

He is the son of the Demon, however , a Pit Demon, to be specific. One Ra's had imprisoned deep below Nanda Parbat.

The wails of this eldritch horror could be heard most nights.

It sounds haunt all those who hear it, not many are aware the Demon is crying for the babe stolen from from it years ago.

Or Damian is actually Elritch Danny's son, who Ra's decided to try and raise as a weapon.

[jaybirbie]

Prompt #46

When Danny went into the portal, nothing came out, no ghost, no traumatized but still partially alive kid walked out. His fried corpse left slowly rotting in the unseen inside of the portal, somewhat preserved by the high levels of ectoplasm circulating through.

Months later, Maddie deactivated the portal to inspect the inside for any flaws that might cause the machine to malfunction.

She let out a blood-curdling scream when she found the ashen dead body of her previously missing son. His eye sockets were hollowed out pits of blackness, his skin was grey and crusty, his veins were black, she could see the shape of his skeleton under his skin. It was horrifying, but it was undeniably him.

She jumped back and out of the portal frame, collapsing into sobs as she realized where her son had been all this time and what had happened to him.

Danny awoke face up in the darkness of the portal, the only sounds he could hear were the wiring of various machines and a woman crying. He weakly lifted his hand to feel his face, it was dry and missing some bits. He tried to stand but immediately collapsed onto his hand and knees, so he started crawling towards the exit.

When he saw his mother heaving sobs a couple yards away from him, he tried to get her attention, his attempt at saying ‘mom’ come out more as a groan or moan, curtesy of his decayed vocal cords and stiff half-rotted lips.

You always see fics where his parents find his body in the back of the portal and connect the dots to realize Phantom’s Danny, but have you ever seen a fic where there is no ghost, only the body, but that body is still Danny?

[jaybirbie]

A comic (?) about my love of weird little bats for this halloween

[jaybirbie]

Stephanie: Are you mad?

Damian: No.

Stephanie: So sharpening knives at 2AM is just a hobby?

[jaybirbie]

found my new passion: putting merthur into random meme pics