I'm Gonna Live Forever

-the first baseman had no reason to chase Baéz, if he just stepped on the bag he was automatically out

-theres two outs, so if hes out, the inning is over. even if the runner on second base gets home, the run doesnt count. its not until hes safe at first that the run scores

-theres no specific rule in baseball about running backwards from first, just that you “cannot retreat to home base” meaning so long as if you dont touch the plate, its fine

-Baéz ran backwards to kill enough to get the run to score, and then stole and extra base on the base on the bad throw

-HE TOOK THE TIME TO UMPIRE HIS OWN PLAY AND CALL SAFE

Javier Báez (the batter, a Chicago Cub, wearing blue) has just hit the ball. His job is now to run around the bases - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, back to where he started (“home”), at which point he will have scored a point. In practice, he will probably stop partway, wait for the next batter to get a hit, and try to make it home from there.

The Pittsburgh Pirates (in white) are fielding. Their job is to stop the Cubs from scoring by getting them out, by various combinations of catching the ball and tagging people or bases with it.

The scoreboard (top left) shows that one Cub has already made it to second base, so he will resume running now that Javy has a hit. It also shows that two Cubs are out. If a third Cub gets out, their turn to bat will be over, it will be the Pirates’ turn to bat, and the Cubs can’t score anymore (for now, but that’s not relevant).

The Pirate at first base (the first baseman) has the ball. All he needs to do is step on first base while holding it before Javy gets there, and Javy is out. This is probably the number one most common thing a first baseman has to do.

He does not do it.

For some reason he starts chasing Javy, presumably trying to tag him with the ball directly. This is a perfectly legitimate way of getting him out, but also completely unnecessary.

This has never happened to Javy before. Unsure what else to do, he just kind of… jogs backwards away from him.

Meanwhile, the Cub who was at second base (Contreras) has made it all the way back to home. Because the Pirates’ first baseman has helpfully walked the ball back home, he can easily toss it to the Pirate at home (the catcher) who will tag Contreras out.

The catcher doesn’t tag him in time.

The umpire signals that Contreras is safe (not out).

Javy also signals that Contreras is safe, just for fun. He’s never been nearby when a teammate makes it home before, and he’s enjoying himself.

Notice that the score has not changed, even though Contreras made it home. That’s because Javy is still technically running to first base. If he gets out before he reaches it, the Cubs’ turn to bat is over, and nothing else that’s happened since he hit the ball matters.

Javy remembers this, and heads back to first base. The catcher throws the ball to another Pirates fielder, who is frantically running to do the first baseman’s job.

He doesn’t catch it.

Javy is safe at first. Contreras scores (although the scoreboard won’t change for a second).

Javy notices how far away that ball landed, and decides he can make it to second base before anyone picks it up and tags him out.

An offscreen Pirate throws the ball to second base, where another Pirate is ready and waiting to catch it, tag Javy out, and end the Cubs’ turn to bat.

He doesn’t catch it.

Javy is safe at second. The video doesn’t show it, but he will go on to score as well.

This should have been a very easy out for the Pirates, but through two dropped catches and one truly bizarre decision from the first baseman, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and turned it into two points for the Cubs.

now, instead of maintaining a comprehensive, nuanced, and human-maintained encyclopedia by which to check your document, they have switched to an AI that just compares what you’ve written to what other people write in, say, Google Docs, and use the most commonly used iteration.

ever have it change something like “all intents and purposes” to “all intensive purposes” or “should’ve” to “should of”? that’s why!

- abortion

- accessibility

- Accessible

- activism

- activists

- advocacy

- advocate

- advocates

- affirmative action

- affirmative action programs

- affirming care

- affordable home

- affordable housing

- agricultural water

- agrivoltaics

- air pollution

- all-inclusive

- allyship

- alternative energy

- anti-racism

- antiracist

- asexual

- assigned at birth

- assigned female at birth

- assigned male at birth

- at risk

- autism

- aviation fuel

The website linked through qr-code appears to no longer be online.

For example: my post on the removal of the words "bisexual" and "transgender" from the stonewall national monument page

^ March 7, 2025 article by nyt about 'flagged' and removed words. Includes less words than previous reblog, but time has passed since then.

Somewhere after Jan 15, 2025, the entire reproductiverights.gov website went offline.

The reblogged list is from pen.org/banned-words-list, updated May 28, 2025

While not all these words are fully banned, they are still 'to be used less' or used to flag material for 'further review'.

Anyway, the next night we watched a thing about some pig man who is supposed to live in Vermont. People said it had claws and a pig nose but walked upright like a man. Now, I happen to know that sideshows used to shave bears and present them as pig men. So every piece of evidence they gave of this monster sounds to me like a bear with mange.

So now the running joke in our house is that everything is bears. Aliens? Bears. Loch Ness monster? Bear. Every cryptozoological mystery is just a very crafty bear.

This is a list of Maribat Tumblr fic recs; it does not include fics that are cross-posted on ao3. My ao3 rec list is split into categories: this one is for beginners,  this includes all my favorites, and this for general Maribat fics I enjoyed/would read again.

Since I’ll be periodically adding to this list, go to my masterlist and click “Tumblr fic recs” to make sure you have the most recent version of this post!

@bluerosette23 has five “Maribat Masterlists”; the links cannot be clicked when accessed directly through their Tumblr account, so if you’d like to view those I recommend searching “maribat masterlist”. The posts each have a relatively high amount of notes and should appear near the top. Although the lists could be considered a bit outdated, I think they’re a great resource. I’ll provide them links here: 1 2 3 4 5

I’ll admit I haven’t read some of the fics I’ve linked below yet, but for the sake of all you lovely readers I included them anyways. I know there are a lot more out there, but these links are mostly for fics that might be harder to find/one-offs from smaller accounts. Accounts that regularly post Maribat content are typically easier to find, so I linked their masterlists at the bottom.

This isn’t even close to finished, but since I’ve already spent four hours compiling it I’ll save the rest for later.

Daminette

18 by @ghostlyvictorianwriter [x 1]

And They Were Roommates Masterlist by @justcourttee

College Fic Masterlist by @writingideasandrandomstuff

Captain the Retired Police Dog Masterlist by @thebookwormfairy

Daminette December Mini-Series by @mochinek0

In the Death of the Night Masterlist by @difx-writing-blog

I Won’t Try Again Masterlist by @justcourttee

Maribat Tropes by @fan-written [1 2…]

Mutuals by @anjuschiffer 

My Hand Was Forced by @iloveitwhen

The Great Ikea Game by @batsandbugs [1 2 3 4 5…]

There’s Always Two Sides by @mochinek0 [1 2 3]

There’s Blood on His Mouth by @the-fusionist [1 2 3 4 5 6]

Timari

Cataclysm by @lizzieraineplots

Day and Night by @unmaskedagain

Gotham Nine-Nine by @a-marlene-s and @ladylucina28 [x y z x 1 2 3]

Lady Noir by @a-marlene-s [1 2 3]

Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting Masterpost by @black-streak

World Domination by @iloveitwhen

So I know nothing about physics. But I do know it's not fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop because the force makes all your organs go crunch. Now, I've seen tons of superhero movies and comics that do the catching people wrong (the science behind this is common sense). That being said here is my list of superheroes who I think would be good or bad at catching people if the laws of physics did apply.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a huge superhero nerd, and I don't know much about superheroes, so this hypothesis is based on what I do know. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Superman: Bad at first. The first couple of times he would kill people and feel horrible about it. But he wouldn't understand what went wrong and has a Saving People Thing™ so it would take him a couple tries and some scathing articles to fix it.

Batman: Good if he wants to be. Now this one depends on which version of Batman we're talking about. In general, he would be good at catching people because he is also human and is smart enough to know how physics work. However, whether he would actually try to catch people would depend on the version and the situation.

Any of the Robins: Again, same as Batman, good if they want to be.

The Flash: Hands down the worst. It's not even just catching people. Flash may be immune to whiplash but normal humans aren't and he would kill anyone he moves fast. With his powerset there's not much he can do to work around this, but he's also smart so he might eventually figure out a way.

Green Arrow: Mostly good. Since he's human, I think he would be good at catching people in general because he would also be working within his own limits. But I feel like there would still be some accidents here and there until he gets into a good groove.

Spider-Man: Good at catching people...ish. Now this depends on the version, but for the most part, I would say he's good at catching people because he has to know a lot about physics to swing around on his webs like that. However, this excludes extenuating circumstances that aren't Spider-Man's fault.

So, this idea has been bouncing around in my brain for a bit. Ever since my mom was like, "You need to think before you send a text when you're mad," to my dad, and I was tired so I didn't think before I said, "No beta we die like men." And my poor parents were so confused.

Anyways, imagine a witch (for some reason) curses you to speak in the slang you've been exposed to the most.... but you mostly read fanfiction and no one else in your family does.

Witch: Ha! You can now only speak in the slang you've been exposed to the most!

OP's Sibling: Ok, boomer.

OP: I wish you all the hurt no comfort.... *realizes they're speaking fanfiction slang*... You A+ parent.

OP's Parent: Dude, I'm hella confused.

"This better be a one-shot."

"No beta we die like my will to live."

"Out of all the AU's this is the one I'm stuck in."

OP: I signed up for fluff, not crack!

OP's parents: *concerned parent noises*

"I hope you choke on lemon and die in the slow burn fires of Wattpad."

"When I'm through with you, they will have to tag your body Dead Dove: Do Not Eat."

"You less than 1k WIP."

"There will be no ambiguous/open ending, just major character death and all the implied/referenced torture."

"I will go cannon-typical violence on your ass."

I was probably 10 years old when I first conceived of what was, looking back, fanfiction. Me and my best friend would lie in bed together on sleepovers and I'd make up stories about what happened after the end of our favorite book, "The Westing Game." She'd ask me for more stories, and I'd tell her more, inventing them as I went along. "Then what?" she'd say.

I was 14 when I went to my first convention. I had discovered Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was 1987, and my youth pastor was a huge Trekkie. He took me to a one-day crappy Creation con, but it was amazing to me. I met Nichelle Nichols. My dad showed me the Trek movies. He and I watched TNG together.

When I went to college in 1991, my dad used to videotape TNG episodes onto VHS tapes and mail them to me, so I could keep watching (I didn't have TV in my dorm room).

By the time I was a senior, we had Trek watching parties in the dorm lounge, where the TV had cable. Star Trek: Voyager had started up, and I wrote a column about it for the college newspaper. I joined a mailing list about it, with people in it that I still know today.

I got my first computer that could go online in 1995. I was on newsgroups. I discovered Doctor Who. I went to Trek conventions where we still passed around fanzines containing fic and art and smutty K/S fan creations.

Then it was Harry Potter. Then there were websites. Then there was Geocities, where we could all make our own little spots. We organized them into webrings. We talked on newsgroups and mailing lists. There were fanfic archives. Then there was fanfiction.net.

Then...there was LiveJournal. And we could interact in entirely new ways. We could form communities, and debate things, and fight over canon, and get into ship wars. On LiveJournal, I met my best friend of 22 years. I was in her wedding. She's my sister of the heart (which is what she calls me).

Then there was Tumblr. And Twitter. And now there's Discord. But it's all the same.

I am the same.

I am still that little girl who made up fanfiction in her head to entertain her best friend. I am still the one who was amazed to find communities on the internet - which was so new, so raw, so uncommodified - where others like me could meet. I found there people to meet in real life.

I am still that twentysomething going to her first major convention, being told that someone loved my fic, being asked about my writing process.

I am still that thirtysomething watching something I wrote blow up. Seeing friends from other fandoms find me in new ones, finding them there, too. Forgetting which fandom I know someone from, because I've known them for twenty years.

I still know some of the people who created those early websites, those mailing lists, those archives. I still meet people in new fandoms who say "Oh, I read your fic in [fandom] fifteen years ago!" There's no feeling quite like having someone remember something you wrote for that long. Or meeting someone whose fic meant a lot to YOU, or who you talked with on rec.arts.drwho.creative in 1997.

Aging in fandom is a gift. Being middle-aged in fandom is a joy. Having people who still read what I write and ask "Then what?" is a blessing.

I have this idea that won't leave me alone, so I thought I'd share it so that others may be cursed with thinking about it too.

(This can be read as either sibling or dating Daminette)

Damien is all grown up and joined the Justice League as a permanent hero. Everyone knows he was Robin, so they think there won't be any surprises. Until there's a big mission and they need to infiltrate somewhere and plant cameras for evidence (or something). However, this place is a fortress (like the best anti-hero security money can buy) and the only way in is through the vents which are too small for humans to fit through.

The Justice League meeting turns into one big loud argument. Until Damien says, "I know a guy."

Obviously, he's very dodgy about his contact, but he says they can be trusted. Since, he's Robin, they let it slide.

The Justice League is all waiting at the contact spot when Marinette pulls up. They're confused, Damien is light-tipped, and she's in her multimouse ensemble looking all cute.

Marinette pulls off the mission then dips and Damien is stubborn even when Batman questions him. (Could be either good parent or bad parent Bruce Wayne).

Eventually, they let it drop. Until another big mission happens and they need a specific skill set and Damien says, "I know a guy." Cue Marinette with a different miraculous.

This keeps happening.

The Justice League assumes all the girls are different people and they're very confused like, "Robin, where do you keep finding these girls?"

i should NOT be an elder queer, i should be middle at most. i am a middle aged queer. most of the elder queers died.

when i was growing up i didn't go to pride parades, i went to pride marches. because that's 100% what they were in the 80s and 90s.

I was always kind of grateful that the marches slowly became parades. That the protests slowly gave way to parties. It was progress, it was healing.

I was grateful for that because I never healed.

I’m still remembering how straight society turned their collective backs on us and let us die. I will never forgive or forget that. Maybe that’s a shortcoming on my part but it’s true. I’ve tried and I can’t. That scar runs too deep.

And now we’re back to the same shit again. Straight society is turning their backs on my trans brothers and sisters. Ignoring their pain. Trying to legislate them out of existence.

Even our so-called allies are saying shit like “well if we want to appeal to a broader base we can’t keep going on about the transgender thing.” Fuck you Gavin Newsom. In particular.

Make no mistake: they want us dead. Not just closeted, not just silent. Gone. Non-existent. And I say us because they’re just starting with the trans people. They’ll come after the rest of us if they succeed.

I am old and so, so tired.

Lumberjacks, like most megafauna species generally require more space than the average hardware store, even a big box store could provide. The misconception is that Lumberjacks are a social species because of how they often work and live together.

This is a matter of necessity, not preference, and a survival technique for thriving under the LogBoss.

A “pack” of Lumberjacks, if not under the environmental pressure of a LogBoss will naturally disperse until they each have a wide territory.

Lumberjacks rarely fight for territory.

One on one, a Lumberjack could drive out a Dad or Lesbian, however the latter tend to travel in social packs.

Lumberjacks will passively retreat on the presence of large numbers of people. Kind of like Sasquatch.

Getting a “pack” of Lumberjacks assembled would be hard enough unless they were forced into a Hardware Store by a LogBoss. In that case, they would already be in a heightened and potentially agitated state far above their natural behavior. This artificial scenario can be likened to a circus animal running amok. If it had been in the wild, the incident would not have occurred.

Free-roaming Lumberjacks are the cryptids of the Hardware ecosystem. They are surprisingly quiet and unobtrusive.

Only experienced silverbacks or the boldest young Dads dare venture into a craft store for long without his mate or offspring to keep roving Craft Ladies at bay and guide him in this strange ecosystem. If a Dad enters with his mate and is separated from her, he will often scuttle for the seeming familiarity of Woodcrafts, Models, or Paints (the latter not to be confused with Fine Arts, unquestioned territory of art students), but he eyes Scrapbooking and Jewelry with trepidation and will usually venture into those exotic areas only in the company of females of his pack.

Lumberjacks are rarely spotted entering craft stores of their own volition, for while they do not fear it as Dads do, they know it is an environment unsuited for megafauna such as themselves.

Hardware store Lesbians generally adapt more easily to craft stores, although they may enlist another Lesbian of a subspecies more adapted to that environment to guide them until they find their niche. Lesbians have even been known to seek the aid of a Craft Lady, a native fauna that share similarities with Lesbians but are usually smaller and nimbler to suit their chosen habitat. Dads who witness this are often awed by the Lesbians’ temerity, for although larger, Dads are generally wary of the cunning and dexterous Craft Ladies and may mistake their enthusiastic pack greetings as predatory swarming.

Craft Ladies, secure in their ecological niche, have no fear of interlopers and take the presence of non-native beings in stride, although they may become territorial about scarcer resources.