Just Stuff

Alfred, walking past Damian's bedroom at night: *slows, squints through the open door*

Damian: *clearly dressed to go out, buttoning up his shirt*

Alfred: Master Damian?

Damian, calmly: yes, Pennyworth?

Alfred: are you... going out?

Damian: yes, why?

Alfred, narrowing his eyes: i was under the impression that Master Bruce grounded you for the weekend.

Damian, instantly: no, he benched me. he never grounded me, he simply banished me from patrol for a few days. he never specified that i couldn't go out as a civilian.

Alfred:

Alfred: i see. and where, might i ask, do you plan on spending this fine evening out on the town?

Damian: one of my classmates has an older sibling that has gotten us invited to a party on his school's campus. i assure you, i plan on remaining safe and staying away from recreational drugs and heavy drinking.

Alfred: right. and this party doesn't just so happen to be on Gotham University grounds, does it?

*a beat*

Damian: maybe.

Alfred, dryly: the very same party that your father and siblings are currently staking out due to rumours of suspicious rogue activity?

Damian, innocently: well i wouldn't know anything about that, being as i was benched from patrol. i'm simply a young teenager trying to have fun.

Alfred:

Alfred: *sigh* you understand that when your father notices you showing up to his case in nothing but a dress shirt, he will most likely be even more frustrated than if you'd simply snuck out as Robin?

Damian, shrugging: well, my siblings always tell me that i should be more rebellious and teen-like, so i suppose he'll just have to blame them.

Damian: *walks past Alfred, headed down towards the staircase*

Alfred: *silently watches him go*

Alfred:

Alfred, softly to himself: i don't think it's my responsibility to do anything about this. i simply work here.

Alfred:

*distant front door swinging open and shut*

Alfred: he said he would abstain from 'heavy' drinking, not drinking in general, didn't he?

Alfred:

the water table in Florida is very, very high, which means tree roots are unable to root as deeply into the ground

the soil in the area where I lived was very sandy, which meant when it was dry, it was very loose. not at all like the clay around here

we had had a draught for an unusually long time.

there was a really stiff breeze that day. like just high winds in the right direction.

so what happened was we had a huge live oak in the front yard and it had VERY shallow roots, which we didn't know until after the fact lol. and the soil was SUPER dry and thus the roots couldn't really grip into it. and then a stiff breeze hit it at just the right angle and it essentially just.... tipped gently over.

except it tipped over onto our house, and because it was a huge fucking oak it wasn't actually gentle from my perspective obviously. it broke through the roof in several locations, but for SOME REASON the worst damage was in my room. right above my bed. where I was sitting. because a witch kissed me I guess

so that's how the the roof fell on my head! i so immediately was flooded with adrenaline and instantly shot out of bed to find Ella, make sure my housemate was ok, call my other housemate who was out, try to figure out the homeowners insurance situation, arrange for a hotel room for us to stay in, contact contractors etc... that I really don't have any sense of what the physical impact of it was on me at the time. like at the time it felt as if it was just... styrofoam. but obviously it was actually The Roof. an ambulance came out and they offered to take me to the ER but I was like "well that sounds expensive and idk what they would even check me for. plus I have to sort out the insurance situation." So: typical 21st century american experience I suppose.

But to prove that it wasn't a fluke, they continued to have the best ideas for every aspect of it. How does he transform? A cool watch you can also sell as a toy. That watch's name? Omnitrix. Say it. It's so satisfying. How many aliens? Ten. Nice round number. The kid's name? Ben. The show's name? Ben Ten. His full name is Benjamin Tennyson, a normal, plausible name, but he also turns into 10 aliens.

Bigger brands dream about this synergy. Better writers would kill for this coherence. So holistic. So intuitive. The identity alone!!! The retro alien sound motif? Chilling. The green? Any other color would be wrong. The kirby krackle pattern? It seems so obvious in retrospect. The roadtrip format? Genius. Lesser writers would've done the spider-man high school thing. His arch nemesis being Cthulhu darth vader? Inspired, iconic, intimidating!

You should be able to add anyone you want on your health insurance plan.

You should be able to sponsor the visa of anyone you choose to move to your home country.

You should be able to name anyone you choose as the legal-from-birth legal coparent of any child you give birth to.

You should be able to apply for student aid on your own at any age.

However, Ilya starts this bit where whenever someone at practice or at an event calls for Hollander he acts like he thought they were calling for him, usually saying something like "you said Hollander! I am a Hollander!" And it's so stupid but Shane is charmed and amused every time, and he starts doing the same thing when people say Rozanov.

Grace describes it as best he can, but all he can really manage to get across to Rocky is that he was surrounded by small floating lights.

Later on, Grace is talking about the stars and how important they've been to human cultures for millennia. “What do the stars look like, question?” Rocky wants to know.

Oh, y'know, they're a bunch of small floating lights.

There's a disco ball on the Hail Mary. Grace says it's there because it “makes me happy”. “How does it make Grace happy, question?” Rocky wants to know.

Oh, it creates the illusion that he's surrounded by small floating lights.

Rocky begins to do some research.

Glitter: a substance invented by humans to make things look like they're covered in small lights.

Human jewellery: mostly involves gemstones or polished metals, designed to reflect small lights.

Christmas lights. Candles. Lanterns. Fireworks. Glowsticks. Glow in the dark paint. Rocky is beginning to notice a pattern here, statement.

It takes Grace a fucking while after getting to Erid to notice that a lot of the gifts he's receiving from grateful Eridians are either a) sparkly, b) incredibly shiny, or c) fitted with lights.

While the last one is obviously a concession for his human light sense, he's confused about the former two. Are Eridian materials usually this shiny? Is there some quality about sparkly or highly polished surfaces that makes them sound better? Or is there something about Eridian geology/metallurgy that makes their materials like this?

He asks Rocky about it.

“Simple. I tell people humans like lots of small lights. Humans are easy to make happy.”

Grace kind of wants to protest that humans are much more complicated than that.

But honestly… it fucking works. Like yeah the polished gemstones, shiny metals and glittery rocks are beautiful. Yes those Christmas lights you put up around the house did markedly improve my mental health, Rocky. Thank you, I hate it.

1. social

2. narrative

and if none is provided to us we will make our own out of dirt and sticks

It was not intended and is not considered, even by Kübler-Ross at the time, a model that was ever meant to apply to all grief processes... because it literally doesn't. It is just not at all well supported by evidence, even amongst the terminally ill. Indeed most models that have linear processes for grief don't really stand up, because people tend to fluctuate — life isn't a linear experience.

Pop cultural loves this model, but it's not a thing that is really used much in grief counselling or quality grief research — although it will pop up in papers from time to time, which always suggest to me that the authors don't know their shit.