shoes_from_oxfam

Ann x 22 x They/Them x 🇬🇧

[and-fishing-equipment]

in 2026 DO NOT ask yourself whether your art is GOOD

instead ask:

is it SINCERE

was it CATHARTIC

was it FUN TO MAKE

is it MADE BY ME

and don't forget to stay silly

[thehummingbirdsmatter]

[socialmaya]

[ode-on-a-grecian-butt]

theyer old enough that they used to connect 

[finnglas]

They're older than Florida. The Floridian peninsula is the solidified runoff of the Appalachians that got caught on some coral. It's why we're like this, I think. You don't stand a chance of being normal when you were created by the shed skin of an elder god draping itself over a hollow skeleton. You're always going to be a little Off.

[galladegamer]

[headspace-hotel]

They used to be as tall as the Himalayas.

[purkinje-effect]

[burntcopper]

things english speakers know, but don’t know we know.

[windycityteacher-deactivated202]

WOAH WHAT?

[ice-light-red-deactivated201611]

That is profound. I noticed this by accident when asked about adjectives by a Japanese student. She translated something from Japanese like “Brown big cat” and I corrected her. When she asked me why, I bluescreened.

[moved--306389]

What the fuck, English isn’t even my first language and yet I picked up on that. How the fuck. What the fuck.

[exomoon]

Reasoning: It Just Sounds Right

[arkthepieking]

Oooh, don’t like that. Nope, I do not even like that a little bit.  That’s parting the veil and looking at some forbidden fucking knowledge there.

[canthinkofaurl-deactivated20221]

How did I even learn this language wtf

[titaniumelemental]

I had to read “brown big cat” like three times before my brain stopped interpreting it as “big brown cat”

[arjan-de-lumens]

I’m kinda reading “brown big cat” as “brown (big cat)”, that is, a “big cat” - like a tiger or lion or other felid of similar size - that happens to be brown. “Big brown cat”, on the other hand, sounds more like a brown cat that’s just a bit bigger than a regular housecat - like a bobcat or a maine coon cat or something like that.

[the-real-seebs]

yeah, a brown big cat is almost certainly a puma. a big brown cat is probably a maine coon.

[whetstonefires]

yeah, if you put the adjectives out of order you wind up implying a compound noun, which is presumably why we have this rule; we stripped out so much inflection over the centuries word order now dictates a huge amount of our grammar

[delphinidin4]

Just looked up why we do this and one of the first lines in this article is, “Adjectives are where the elves of language both cheat and illumine reality.” so I know it’s a good article.

Things this article has taught me:

This same order of adjectives more or less applies to languages around the world.  “It’s possible that these elements of universal grammar clarify our thought in some way,” says Barbara Partee, a professor emeritus of linguistics and philosophy at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Yet when the human race tacitly decided that shape words go before color words go before origin words, it left no record of its rationale.

One theory is that the more specific term always falls closer to the noun. But that doesn’t explain everything in adjective order.

Another theory is that as you get closer to the noun, you encounter adjectives that denote more innate properties. In general, nouns pick out the type of thing we’re talking about, and adjectives describe it,” Partee told me. She observes that the modifiers most likely to sit right next to nouns are the ones most inclined to serve as nouns in different contexts: Rubber duck. Stone wall.

Rules are made to be broken. Switching up the order of adjectives allows you to redistribute emphasis. (If you wish to buy the black small purse, not the gray one, for instance, you can communicate your priorities by placing color before size).  Scrambling the order of adjectives also helps authors achieve a sense of spontaneity, of improvising as they go. Wolfe discovers such a rhythm, a feeling-his-way quality, when he discusses his childhood recollection of “brown tired autumn earth” and a “flat moist plug of apple tobacco.”

Brain scans have discovered that your brain has to work harder to read adjectives in the “wrong” order.

TL;DR: No one knows why we do this adjective thing but it’s pretty hardwired in.

[cuzosu-blog]

@deadcatwithaflamethrower Linguistics tidbit.

[thecsjones]

Since it’s never credited, this is from Mark Forsyth’s The Elements of Eloquence, and just one reason why I think it’s required reading for anyone interested in prosecraft. Every page is this useful.

[catboylister]

[shoesfromoxfam]

[robs-your-robins]

I want Bruce to be more Gotham. He is a billionaire yes, he grew up outside of Gotham and went to private school but the man literally spends most of his waking hours in the city and yes, he picks up certain Gotham habits.

Bruce walking down the street after getting his morning coffee but the way back to Wayne Enterprises is blocked by police tape. Bruce just lifting it out of the way, stepping under, walking through the crime scene sipping his latte, and out the other side, slipping under the tape. A cop asks him what the hell he's doing and Bruce just spreads his hands, shrugs and goes, "Walking."

I've said it before but Bruce being so unnerved by Clark's colourful ways around saying "fuck". Clark going "gosh darn it" or "golly" or "H-E-Double Hockey Sticks" and it just sends Bruce into a different stratosphere of irritation and he eventually blows up at him yelling "just say fuck" and Clark just goes pale.

Bruce hitting up local places to grab a bite to eat or a coffee. His favourite bagel place is by Ryker Heights, that one little vendor at Robinson Park sells the best ice cream and the kids love it, the best smoothie in town after a work out he gets in Burnley.

Walking down the street and there's a Joker gas attack and there's fucking viral footage of Bruce Wayne just whipping a gas mask out of his brief case, slipping it on, picking up his briefcase and striding down the street like nothing is going.

Getting stuck in traffic and leaning out his window to tell up at somebody on a fire escape what's going on up ahead. The woman on the fire escape above yells back that it's something got to do with Mr Freeze that the tunnel ahead us blocked up. "Fucking typical, isn't it?" To which Bruce just nods, gets back in his car and joins the chorus of horns honking.

[viaalterego]

[trishacollins]

Actually, my therapist has told me this is a healthy way of processing things. Because you can get the trauma out of your head And you can write the ending you wish it had. The trusted person rescue, the catharsis of getting to kill the one who hurt you.

It's good for your brain. It's healthier than bottling it up. Fiction is where we go for emotional release. That can be true with trauma too.

[erelierraceala]

so what you're saying is

character: NO

therapist: YES

[vmures]

Adding @dear-massacre's tags because they are so true:

#this is why it's important to remember that fictional characters are fake #they have no agency. they're made up #it hurts no one to make any character go through the horrors #it is healthy and cathartic

[yeahokayillreblogthat]

yeah okay ill reblog that

[seadeepspaceontheside]

Retired Dream to enjoy~

Just in general how Morpheus is given a month to truly enjoy life and Hob will prove its worth living.

@avelera and I had the similar brainwaves when it came to that line in Mr.Bluesky. Hob always grabs Morpheus by the face to kiss him for this line. So first time was jarring, then it became over and over again LOL alternate version here too

[valiantstarlights]

[scribefindegil]

so many things try to emulate the Beatrice/Benedick relationship and so few of them get it right bc they’re like ‘oh it’s about the banter’ and YES, obviously, but if you make it JUST about the banter you’re going to fail! it’s about the RESPECT!!! it’s about the scene after Hero’s shaming where Benedick drops the banter entirely and sits there with Beatrice as she rages and weeps and then chooses to side with HER instead of the boy’s club that he’s been hanging out with for the entire play, both because he loves her and because she’s RIGHT!

like, it’s not some impulsive thing to make her like him, and it’s not just talk; he asks her if she’s sure and then he agrees and then he remains cold and determined when he meets Claudio and Don Pedro and they try to get him to joke around with them like old times.  i think that’s one of the things that gets me the most; that there’s a scene that you half-expect to fall into that same sort of joking, where Claudio and Don Pedro are specifically like, “Huh, we inexplicably feel kind of sad after ruining this woman’s life and reputation, I bet Benedick will cheer us up!” and he just. utterly refuses to engage. and it’s so powerful and it’s such a tonal shift and such a strong indication of just how much he loves and values Beatrice and!! anything that gets the banter but doesn’t get that completely fails to understand their relationship! THB!!

[terulakimban]

“Kill Claudio.” 

If Beatrice is right to believe Hero about her innocence, then that is, socially, the appropriate action. Claudio called off a wedding. Bad enough, but he did it publicly. He did it at the altar. He completely and utterly destroyed Hero’s chance of marriage -and marriage isn’t just love, it’s financial security and social support, and that’s before getting into Hero being the last heir of her house. Even if Claudio recants, Hero’s damaged goods. 

And Hero has no male relative who can defend her honor. Her father and uncle are old -and even they believe the accusation at first, to the point that her father then tries to kill her in a church. She has no brothers, no cousins, no friends, no one to say “as a man, man to man, I will defend her good name and make you eat your words.” She can’t go to court and press charges for slander. There is nothing she can do, nothing Beatrice can do. 

And Benedick, who has been making jokes about how marriage is just misery while your harpy wife cheats on you for the entire play, when asked “do you really believe that is all women are for; was that banter or are we friends?” says “we’re friends. And I let this happen too and I will make it right” and then he fucking delivers.

[75redbeans]

I'm only seven episodes in this is what I'm picking up

[eyelessfaces]

hell yeah

[the-rebellious-one]

[jackhawksmoor]

[Batfam member finds out Tim Drake figured out Bruce Wayne was Batman because Dick Grayson Robin did a quadruple somersault]

Batfam: lol Dick only did that because he is so extra

Me [vibrating]: trapeze artists tried unsuccessfully to nail the quadruple for 70 years because the flyer picks up enough velocity on the spins that they reach 80 miles an hour and hit with so much force it can dislocate the shoulders of the person trying to catch him and rip the skin off their hands in big flaps 

the flyer would hit so hard the people attempting it would box and slap their hands against wooden blocks to toughen their skin and hitting a quadruple in the air magnified the power behind tiny nine-year-old Dick’s strikes to the point where it could have probably stunned a metahuman and this was probably a large reason behind his ability to be a crimefighter at an earlier age than any other person in the DC universe and in this essay I will

[river9noble]

How dare you leave the emoji somersaults of doom in the tags

[ktkat99]

Catwoman targets the Drakes one night and breaks into their manor.

Going through the rooms, pocketing valuable jewelry, she finds a baby, awake and crying.

At first she hides, scared that his parents will respond.

But no one does.

So she picks him up and rocks him back to sleep, all the while still looting the house.

When she's done, she goes to lay him back down in his crib and leave, but decides that she can't and takes him with.

It was an impulse decision, but one she came to after noticing signs that he wasn't being well taken care of.

She takes him home and raises him as her own under the name Timothy Kyle.

As he grows, he becomes more and more determined to follow in Selina's footsteps and eventually begins sneaking out of the apartment to help her out during heists.

She tries to dissuade him, punish him, ground him, but eventually gives in and starts training him to do what she does.

Shortly after Tim begins going out as her sidekick, Batman and Catwoman start dating. Everything's going well until the night he sees Tim with his mask off and notices that he looks vaguely familiar.

And not at all like his mother.

He tries to ignore it, he's adopted his own kids, after all, but the investigator in him keeps telling him that there's something else going on.

Eventually he puts the pieces together that the people Tim looks like, his neighbors, lost their infant son to a kidnapper about fifteen years ago.

Which leads him to the issue of what to do next.

Turn in Selina and get Tim back to his real parents?

Or trust that she had a reason to do what she did?

[justiceleaque]

watching WB keep resetting dc movies' universe every three years because they don't have a backbone to go full in with one iteration used to irk me but i've come to realize it's the most literal comics experience you can get on the big screen

[neosatsuma]

via @july-19th-club

[darkknight-hero]

Sentient Gotham

- Bruce regularly chats w her. Like, full blown conversations. He can see a physical manifestation of her like she’s right in front of him, but completely invisible to everyone else

- Zatanna does not believe him. She’s Gotham born and bred and a powerful magician, but she cannot sense a living breathing Gotham the way Bruce claims he can

- Constantine does believe him, but it’s mostly to spite Zatanna

- Gotham calls herself Bruce’s mom and frequently whines about him not calling her that

> “I had a mother. And a father. They’re both dead.” > “WHEN WILL YOU STOP BLAMING ME FOR THAT?!” > “When I’m convinced it’s not true.”

- Bruce’s kids also don’t believe him about the whole ‘I talk to Gotham’ thing for a long time and think he’s either lost his mind, he’s schizophrenic, or that he’s fucking w them

- they do eventually see and speak to her themselves

- Jason first sees her right before his death, which was an incredibly difficult task for her. It’s a combination of reasons. 1) like Bruce, Jason is a Gotham City native and has deep ties to the city, 2) he has deep ties to Bruce, 3) she was also there to comfort Bruce because she knew he wouldn’t be fast enough. But Jason sees this gorgeous woman who cradles his cheek and murmurs soft words to him that he’ll only end up remembering many years later

> “Your father loves you. He tried. So please don’t hate him. It’s my fault, not his.”

- Bruce frequently wonders why it’s him who can see her and no one else, to which she always just says it’s because he’s her son

- Bruce’s connection to Gotham…changes him. He is human, at least…mostly. But there’s an otherworldliness to him that grows over the years which he’s stupidly oblivious to for a very long time

- Gotham has beef w Alfred purely because he’s British

> “I could’ve raised you better than that man!” > “I do not tolerate disrespect for Alfred.” > whining, “But babyyyyyy. He’s an outsider!”

- she adores Bruce’s kids and frequently whines about how they don’t believe she’s real. But at the same time, Bruce is her absolute beloved

- after Jason’s death, she’s the one who basically sends Tim Bruce’s way to stop his self destructive behavior. Tim had been taking pictures of Batman and Robin for a while, but Gotham had fogged over his mind just a little bit to prevent him from putting the pieces together about their identity. When she stops, it finally clicks for Tim and it’s what leads him to becoming Robin

- the kids all have their moment when they finally can see and speak to her. It happens at different times, but the important reason as to why they’re able to do so is due to their relationship to Bruce and the length of time they’ve been around him. It comes at the moment where they’ve reached optimal and absolute trust in Bruce

- Bruce does actually call her ‘mom’, but it happened once and she will never let him forget it

> Bruce getting worked up during a conversation w Gotham in front of Dick and Tim > “Dick….who is he talking to?” > “You don’t want to know.” > “My mom won’t stop badgering me- No. No. I didn’t say that. I didn’t call you that! You can’t prove anything!”

- Gotham comforts Bruce often when he feels like he’s not enough. His failures weigh heavy in his heart, but she’s always there to talk him through it

> “Why me? Why am I the one you picked? I’m not enough. I never will be.” > “You are and you always will be. Bruce, you do so much for this city. For me. For your family.” > “It’s not enough.” > “You are only mostly human, Bruce Wayne. You have done things no one else could ever hope to do. If any one else were in your position, they would not have nearly enough strength as you do.”

- several months later, after Bruce is just idly going over case files, he remembers the ‘mostly human’ part of what Gotham said to him. He’d glossed over it before in his depressive spiral, but now he’s like !?

> “Gotham….” > “Yes, my dear?” > “‘Mostly human’. Care to explain what that means?” > awkward laugh, “Uh…..” > “Gotham.” > “I didn’t do it on purpose! I had no control!” > “Gotham.”

- order of who sees Gotham:

Bruce (obviously)

Jason (first time)

Tim

Duke

Jason (second time)

Steph

Dick

Cass

Damian

- the last three take a while but mostly because they’re not Gotham natives. Dick’s a little bitter about it because he practically spent his entire life in Gotham

> “You’re a traitor.” > “WHAT DID I DO?” > disgust, “Blüdhaven.” > “Oh. Whoops.”

- While Gotham is Bruce’s #1 Supporter™️, she is at times critical of his behavior and decisions. Particularly about things that damage his relationship w loved ones and things that he chooses to do in order to hurt himself

- she finds ‘Brucie’ to be distasteful

> “I didn’t raise you to be a whore.” > “You didn’t raise me to begin with.” > “STOP DENYING ME PARENTAL RIGHTS!”

- Gotham is, obviously, restricted to only appear within Gotham City’s borders. She’s only able to break through that restriction a handful of times, w the first being when Jason dies. There are a few other instances and she’s popped up on the Watchtower and jumpscared Bruce by accident. The JL were very confused and incredibly amused

- She’s able to take on the form of anyone, but sticks to a unique appearance of a woman w long black hair and pale skin. Her eyes are white and she’s typically dressed in a suit

> young Bruce, in awe, “You kind of look like me if I were cooler.” > “You’re plenty cool, Bruce.” > adult Bruce, tired, “Why are you in a suit?” > “Because I look cool, Bruce. You said so yourself.” > “I was ten!”

- she once offered to take on the appearance of his mother and Bruce shot it down so fast. She never brought it up again

- when Clark found out about her, he believed Bruce immediately. He’s the only one Bruce ever told who believed him right off the bat

> “You…don’t think I’m insane?” > “I do.” > “Then why would you lie and say you believe me?” > “Because I do. You’re insane about a lot of things, Bruce. But you sounded too serious when you told me about this, so why would I ever think you’re lying?”

- Gotham begrudgingly likes Clark

> “You hate Alfred for being an outsider, but Clark is in your good graces?” > “He’s an alien. It’s different.” > “He’s also from Metropolis.” > “Shhhhhh, don’t remind me. I’m trying to be blissfully ignorant.”

[jade-e06]

okay so i know timkon as odypen has been going around and YES! totally agree! i will be drawing them but also

i’ve been thinking of more familial love when it comes to epic songs, like “would you fall in love with me again” fits jason and bruce (NOT IN A SHIP WAY PLEASE).

like bruce is looking at an older version of his son and is questioning if it’s him because of how different he looks. jason saying that he’s not the same person, not the same son bruce once knew, telling him all the shit he did as red hood just so he could come back to bruce, asking if bruce would still love him despite all the things he’s done.

and bruce is like of course i still love you, no matter how long it’s been you’re still my son and i’ve been waiting waitinggg (grieving) AHDGHAHDHAJ

also also i’ve recently been listening to “we’ll be fine” on repeat and like it fits tim and dick so well! “he had his demons too, and then we grew apart, then his light went dark” REFERRING TO JASON. dick recalling and regretting all the things he did or didn’t do to/for jason, wanting to atone for his actions by treating tim better so he “could sleep at night.”

tim saying he didn’t know jason personally, not knowing what he’s like, but telling dick that he’s being a great mentor/friend, helping tim train so he doesn’t die and become strong. dick patting tim on the head, saying “you’re a good kid” UGHHAHDGHA I CAN’T I WILL BE DRAWING THIS‼️‼️

feel free to share other batfam/dc x epic ideas!! this is taking over my brain