#walking story

[ballyhubbock]

A Christmas Story – An Abandoned Car

A nice Christmas morning read, a short story with a few twists and turns, new fiction from Ireland. Merry Christmas!

Winter gales swept across the country and in response, the Government swept away all public transport and the need to travel to work or school. The roads of suburbia Dublin at dawn lay deserted, their un-walked footpaths covered in a layer of multi-colored leaves that were further dissolving with each passing day. Photo by Marta Dzedyshko on Pexels.com The latest blustery storm had arrived at…

[psychomorphary]

I went for a sunset/dusk walk with my dog. It was pretty light out still when we started, but the forest was already getting pretty dark. It was somewhat spooky, but calming and nice at the same time. The crickets were loud, and the birds squawked goodnight to each other.

Then, we got to the clearing and saw some bats flying around. For a good 5 mins or more, Thena sniffed around, and I watched the bats.

After that, we kept going onto the back swamp trail. More bats were racing around, zipping back and forth between the trees and over the water. It was more light here, as we weren't in the forest. The frogs were going off as well. This is where I took the picture on the top of this post. Not the best quality, but I still think it shows the beauty of the pace pretty well.

We looped back to the clearing but didn't see any more bats there. Then, we continued to glade and Blackbird Way. The crickets were still pretty loud. It was getting darker, so even though there weren't trees all around, there still wasn't much light. It was getting spookier by the minute. All of a sudden, I heard a bang. Another bang. I wasn't sure what it was. Maybe fireworks, but why? It's not a holiday.

Then came the bridge in the forest. By that point, the sun was down, and everywhere was pretty dark. I was thoroughly spooked by this point and was holding Thena's leash close. The forest where the bridge stands was completely black, except for a little bit of light right on the other side of the bridge. If you looked side to side or down, you didn't see anything. The banging continued, echoing in the woods. I was terrified and riding on an adrenaline rush. I rushed Thena over the bridge in terror.

Once we got to the other side, it got somewhat light again. We'd made it back to the lake, just on the opposite side from where we started. The banging continued still, but now we could see light flashing over the treeline. It was fireworks.

As Thena and I walked along the lake back to the car, I could start to see the fireworks over the lake. They were pretty, but the bangs still echoed off the trees next to me. I was still pretty spooked and high on adrenaline.

We got back to the car and could see the fireworks better. They were gorgeous. It was pretty dark by this point.

We got stopped at a red light on top of the hill on the way home. Thena and I both watched the fireworks over the trees until the light turned green.

But as we just got to the house, that's when I noticed all the traffic. Two cop cars, lit up, zipped past me. Behind them came a school bus. Then, another. And another. That's why there were fireworks. The Steelers are leaving.

The Steelers stopped my dog and I from pulling into our driveway. Because I wasn't sure how long I'd be held up there, I just continued to drive down the road. I'd turn around at Sheetz. Except I couldn't turn around that way because there was too much traffic there too.

Thena and I drove around for a while before getting home. But we still had a lot of fun.

[s0fter-sin]

people are acting like we’re saying creators shouldn’t be paid for their work; they absolutely should. and watcher already is. they have a patreon, they get sponsors, their videos regularly get millions of views which gives them ad revenue, they sell merch; they are getting paid. feeling indignant and disappointed that they’re asking us to pay for content we were already getting for free isn’t entitlement, it’s expected. ​they wanted to make bigger produced shows and now their budget can’t sustain it, that’s not on the viewer to make up for

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

An unbothered queen has entered, and subsequently left.

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[novelconcepts]

I Saw the TV Glow is such a uniquely, devastatingly queer story. Two queer kids trapped in suburbia. Both of them sensing something isn’t quite right with their lives. Both of them knowing that wrongness could kill them. One of them getting out, trying on new names, new places, new ways of being. Trying to claw her way to fully understanding herself, trying to grasp the true reality of her existence. Succeeding. Going back to help the other, to try so desperately to rescue an old friend, to show the path forward. Being called crazy. Because, to someone who hasn’t gotten out, even trying seems crazy. Feels crazy. Looks, on the surface, like dying.

And to have that other queer kid be so terrified of the internal revolution that is accepting himself that he inadvertently stays buried. Stays in a situation that will suffocate him. Choke the life out of him. Choke the joy out of him. Have him so terrified of possibly being crazy that he, instead, lives with a repression so extreme, it quite literally is killing him. And still, still, he apologizes for it. Apologizes over and over and over, to people who don’t see him. Who never have. Who never will. Because it’s better than being crazy. Because it’s safer than digging his way out. Killing the image everyone sees to rise again as something free and true and authentic. My god. My god, this movie. It shattered me.

[tangledinink]

Will Swannie miss his wings? He’s been like that for about a year now, he probably gotten use to the wings and the pain in his calves/legs…would Donnie get like….phantom pain or something because of the missing wings? Would he in some way try to get them back or have a reminder of them? Will Donnie even try or want to dance again?

donnie doesn't usually dance on pointe anymore-- it was a rare occasion pre-curse, and now post, the physical demand is typically too much for him to handle. but when your little brother knows levitation magic, anything is possible for a special occasion.

generally speaking, though?

there's no way he's ever gonna want to stop dancing.

[ swanatello ] [ prev ] [ fin! ]

and... that's it! that's the end!

... well, the end of the main storyline, anyway! the end of the story for swannie that i wanted to tell. the au will still be around! <3 swanatello has pretty much always been built on the asks i've received about it, and i still have more tucked away in my hoard that i intend to get to at some point or another as little bonus side stories, and my askbox is always open as well...! and on that note--

thank y'all so, so much for your support on this magickal girl journey. i NEVER expected to get the amount of love or attention that i did for my silly little donniesona that was based on a pun, but i had so much fun with this comic and am so grateful to y'all <3 like i said, this entire au was really powered by the amount of asks i received about him and his story, and it was really such a fantastic experience for me all around. not including any non-canon crossover content, this comic is approximately 965 pages long! definitely wasn't my plan when i doodled him for the first time as a goof, haha.

thanks, gang. <3 i hope you enjoyed the ride, too.

[7amaspayrollmanager]

Alright let's imagine a scene that is all too normal in palestine. A palestinian business owner finds his building covered in graffiti stars of Davids and Hebrew that says "gas the arabs" and "death to arabs"

Now imagine there's a reporter there and asks the palestinian business owner what happens and they say "the jews attacked my business"

Pause. Now your response might be "uncle no. Say israelis not jews" and then this is when he would look at you like youre stupid because the israelis doing this are jewish. They are not the Christians or the druze or the palestinian ones with Israeli citizenship. They are Jewish israelis who believe in their religious supremacy. When you graffiti stars of david all over a palestinian business, car, or the street you seek that conflation. it sends a message, this is jewish land and you're next.

The problem is that these videos circulate in zionist circles. "Watch this video of children in gaza calling for the death of jews" "watch how they say they want to fight and kill jews" those children are referring to Israeli soldiers that come in night and do their raids with the star of David attached to their uniform or the ones that bomb them. It's easy to watch those videos and assume that palestinians are indoctrinating their children on anti semitism or you can realize that those children's only interaction with jewish ppl is through violence and parents cannot protect their children from this. Doesn't matter context is lost

Abby Martin went to Jerusalem and interviewed israelis for 2 hours and she says every israeli was extremely confident to say that this land is for them and that they should push the Arabs out and when she interviewed palestinians they spoke of freedom from occupation and their dreams. That's reality. Not the soundbites.

And yet we have invasive youtubers and interviewers constantly in the street of ramallah or wherever in palestine asking palestinians "do you hate jews?" And in those videos you hear those palestinians say "no we have no problem with jews we have a problem with occupation and we have a problem with zionism." Bc this is how we are trained to respond to this trope. Palestinians are very aware what the world thinks of us and the reality is that many palestinians have internalized it and we grow up reading books on the Holocaust and train ourselves to recognize anti semitic dog whistles so zionists don't get the soundbites they want.

So we say "anti zionism is not anti semitism" and we say "israeli zionists" and we do not say "jewish supremacy" even thought it exists in palestine but "zionist supremacy" and in these carefully worded speech we water down what is happening to us in an effort to not deter people away from solidarity. But it means nothing. The world categorically blames palestinians for rising anti semitism they blame us for jewish insecurity globally.

[starry-bi-sky]

danyal al ghul memes because i don't think i've done those yet for this au.

(the jason one is in reference to the fanon headcanon/au that Jason and Damian potentially knew each other and interacted while jason was in the league. I've thought about it before in context of this au, but haven't thought about it enough to feel inspired or motivated to make a post exploring the idea)

(diablito means, as you can guess, 'little devil'. while i'm neutral to latino jason, i think the nickname is cute as fuck and was danny's main nickname from Jason. i don't wanna touch that timeline so im not gonna decide how old they were when Jason was there.)

Skulker: i am the ghost zone's greatest hunter! i capture and hunt creatures both rare and dangerous. Danyal: a poacher?? you're a poacher?? you poach animals??Skulker:...i sense i've made a mistake of some kind.

anyways that was the day that Skulker cemented himself as Danny's no.1 opp, and still remains there to this day even if he and Vlad are both viciously fighting for second. Out of everyone in the the AP rogues gallery, Skulker will be the first to be thrown under the bus in terms of 'o shit here comes phantom fucking RUN'.

[darkeneddawning]

Escaped clone au

You know all those fics where Danny and Damian are twins but everyone first assumes Danny must be a clone? How about an au where Danny is Damian's clone who escaped the League after he was assumed dead. Damian could even have been the one to have "killed" him, back when Danny was a newly created, fully brainwashed clone minion and trying to kill Damian himself.

Danny gets adopted by the Fentons and canon goes on as normal, until Dan. Witnessing what would happen to the world should he turn evil really drove home to Danny how dangerous he is.

Even if he was confident he could be trusted with his absurd amount of power (which he isn't), what if the League of Assassins found out about him? Does he still have programming triggers from his evil assassin clone conditioning?

So, Danny does the responsible thing: he goes to Batman to turn himself in.

Cue Danny showing up on Bruce's doorstep with ghost hunting equipment, intel on the afterlife, and an almost unbelievable backstory. Somehow he still managed to be more well-adjusted than Damian.

More thoughts under the read more

Here's how I'm thinking Danny leaving the League went down:

After surviving his wounds but failing his mission, Danny (then an unnamed potential Damian replacement) knew there was no point in returning to the League. As a failure, he was meant to be disposed of. He even thought of simply allowing himself to perish, since that was what the League would do.

But he couldn't help but feel as though that would be a waste of a resource. Surely he could be of more use to the League alive than dead?

That tiny bit of rebellious logic is what caused Danny to go into hiding, only living on based on the off chance he would find opportunities to further the League's goals. Obviously, that mentality didn't last long after being exposed to the real world and meeting one Jazz Fenton.

Being adopted by the Fentons was the best cover Danny could have asked for, since any odd behavior he couldn't hide while he was learning how to be "normal" was totally overshadowed by the sheer bizarre eccentricity of his new parents. He was still the neighborhood weird kid, but even that was a major upgrade from disposable tool, so Danny considered it a win.

Anyway, if anyone likes this idea, please feel free to have at it! Interpret it as you please :)

[b0tster]

Who is your favorite Zelda character?

who do u think lmao

[kedreeva]

We drove across the state today to set up a photo frame device for my aunt, and introduce her to Bug. While we were there, we took her and her bf to dinner across the street from her complex, and my mom texted to ask how we'd gotten my aunt over, since we're in my dad's fuckoff big truck and she's not able to climb into it. My dad texted back that he just tied a tow cable to her wheelchair and drove over, and my mom texted me to find out the truth but

My aunt laughed until she wheezed and told us to stop being so mean to her sister, but when we got back to her apartment:

She helped us get "proof" to send my mom because you gotta have a little fun teasing your siblings

[recycledraccoon]

Burrows End is SO SO good and Aabria is such a master of story telling. This season, despite being genuine DnD vs other systems Aabria has used, hasn't actually seen all that much full blown combat. Like, of course they've fought things throughout, but it's been so much more information hunting and puzzling together all the lore. But this obviously means those scenes we do have such full blown COMBAT with sets so much more important, which was obvious in the reactor....but the bear....so obviously it's been focused on in reference to Tula's reveal, or as a show of how fucked up biology wise this world they live in is and how dangerous it is in the forest.

But it's also Aabria laying such incredibly subtle groundwork. It's showing us "this is possible in this world. This happens. They can get inside of you, burrow into you, and you will be their walking warren. Parasite and host intertwined."

And then we move on...we focus on the secrets of the first stoats and learning of all these human things, and the chipmunks and bear are just fun tidbits to throwback to about how scary and fucked up things are, but no longer relevant.

Last week we heard those tapes, and I thought "that voice change there...the 'they're so sneaky'...was that a first stoat, who we only heard as squeaks, instead speaking through Dr. Wenabocker as he died?"

And I forgot about the bear too.

But the SECOND it was revealed that Wenabocker left, that his body was gone and that Phoebe left too? It all clicked.

The Bear wasn't just a fun, really cool fucked up battle set for an episode, it was incredibly important foreshadowing. The foundation, the trap, the big bad all at once hidden behind a cool, fucked up bear in the second goddamn episode of the season.

[melynnwater]

the first physical object to break the laws of thermodynamics was invented by accident. a regular lithium ion battery that would never need to be recharged.

it was made by a mindless robot in a mindless factory. inserted into a cheap and durable mp3 player on June 5th, 2004.

the unassuming device was shipped to a walmart and bought as an 8 year old girl's birthday present. she happily filled it with mp3s her dad helped her download.

she never noticed the battery's unending lifespan, because she diligently charged it every night. on October 12th, 2004, she unplugged her headphones without pausing her music: Hillary Duff's self titled album, on repeat.

on October 13th, 2004, the device fell out of her pocket while she was swinging on a swingset. It landed in the mulch her dad put under the swingset to stop her from getting hurt. He loves her so much.

she never found the mp3 player. she cried and sobbed, and her mom bought her another one the next payday, October 21st, 2004. the little girl's second mp3 player would fully drain its battery 6 times before she stopped using it, on January 7th, 2007.

Hillary is still singing silently into the dirt, not even an output for the same 17 songs repeating only to the worms. a tulip patch was unknowingly planted over it. the girl died on March 19th, 2073, her wife knew it was coming, but mourned all the same. Hillary had the same repeated lyrics to say.

the last time this woman thought about Hillary Duff was on December 25th, 2056, while reminiscing about music she listened to in her youth with her wife. Hillary Duff was still singing for her as she brought her music up, even if the woman didn't know.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I want you whipped into shape!

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[fuckbarca]

something something spy au something something

[multongsisig]

I enjoyed the UTTU 1.3 story very much