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theoutcastrogue · 1 year

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A story about a wall

This wall is in my old neighbourhood, and it didn’t always look like this. When I was a kid, it was painted grey and was always covered with graffiti – not art, just words and phrases and maybe a symbol. The majority of these, I’d say about ~60%, were football-related.

[rival team fans] you are cunts

[neighbourhood] belongs to [our team]

[rival team fans] we fuck your mothers

suck our cocks [rival team fans] faggots

And so on. Another ~20% were anarchist.

free [political prisoner]

down with the state

anarchy forever

fuck the army

And so on. Another ~10% were otherwise political. The names of big and small political parties (and some MPs) showed up at election season, not scrawled with spray but painted professionally with rollers in huge letters. Sometimes a union urged people to join a strike or rally. Very very rarely a fascist graffiti would show up, but it would get defaced immediately. There were a lot more anarchists than fascists back then.

And the rest was about love and/or lust.

[name] I love you

I miss you so much

[name] when will you let me fuck you?

the ass is hell / and the cunt a well / and he who ass never tried / goes to Hades blind

And so on. Defaced graffiti was a big part of the wall. People spared no spray cans crossing out each other’s messages, and at times it all looked like the deranged scrawlings of an eldritch abomination, you couldn’t make out a single word.

And here’s a very important detail about that wall: it’s facing an elementary school.

My school, to be exact. Small children (i.e. we) would go out to the schoolyard at recess, look across the street, and see what I just described. Needless to say, a lot of adults were quite displeased with this situation. But what could they do? The mayor would send a cleaning crew once in a while, but 5 minutes after they left someone would inaugurate the freshly painted wall, and a day later it would be full again. Walls in cities be like that.

AND THEN, long after I was gone from the school, someone had a stroke of genius. They said, we’re not gonna paint the wall that awful monochrome grey again. Instead, we’ll cover it in street art. BUT, we won’t ask street artists to pitch their ideas. We will ask the children of the elementary school to come up with the designs, draw them themselves or pick them from wherever they want. We’ll hire a crew to paint what they chose. And we’ll make sure everyone knows that the children picked the street art. Which heartless bastard will spray over that?

AND IT FUCKING WORKED. The football hooligans, the anti-authoritarian rebels, the politicians’ stooges, the unionists, the lovers, the assholes: no one had the heart to spray over that. The street art went up, and stayed up. It didn’t get defaced, it didn’t get covered, it’s still there. (Not quite unblemished, there are still margins where football fans do their thing, but it’s a very small percentage of the total surface.)

yeah, that part looks like the old wall

So while the street art itself on that wall is not particularly jaw-dropping, its origin story is just crazy. I’m sure that the children weren’t given totally free rein to pick designs, and that teachers and/or the city council made the final choice. And it’s probably they who picked the theme – bicycles. All neat and proper and kid-friendly. Still, one little rascal managed to slip this past:

“Till theft give us parts”, i.e. bicycle parts, get it? (DON’T JUDGE THE PUN, IT WAS A LITTLE KID.) And it makes me so happy.

#probably tmi #trs #the city speaks #the writing on the wall #trp

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the-creeping-city · 1 month

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why does ur profile picture on posts have a white creature in the corner

that... is a very weird feature i didn't know tumblr had, and i'm kind of unhappy to hear they're doing that! it means you can see my main icon (this is a sideblog) on your dash.

can anyone else tell me if they're seeing this...? or if i can turn it off!

#the city speaks #not a moon

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citysunrise · 5 months

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had to go to the ER with an injury (yay, EDS!) and what I explained was an MCAS reaction, only for the ER to decide that that isn't how the immune system works and I was clearly infected with something and put me in super fancy high-contagion isolation

(like. super fancy. there were types of anti-transmission technology I've never seen before)

but. on the human side of it? some nurses with the "mask below the nose" thing going on, some with no mask at all, no handwashing, the worst glove protocol I've ever seen, and the doctor using one of the gloves he'd just used to examine me to wipe below his nose.

and just. screaming

#the city speaks #medical stuff #mcas

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emathevampire · 1 day

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i love cities and graffiti. it’s like tumblr in the wild. you will be exposed to niche lovecraftian discourse monsters the likes of which you cannot imagine the second you google a “fuck <insert thing here>” sticker

communities you have never heard of are calling each other names in languages you don’t understand by slapping up stickers and scribbling in sharpie all over your local walls

and for the low low price of a quick internet search and dive into a reddit thread, i too can experience for a brief moment what it is like to be an unsuspecting fool clicking on a link to one of my most unhinged tumblr posts

#its a beautiful thing and i love it #whats the rogue’s tag for this?#the city speaks #and it does. it really does and even if this hellsite goes down in flames #we will still have the walls #and i will make the trip into the cities across the world #and sharpie or sticker or can of paint or pocket knife in hand #i will find a way to write to you #rixa's rants

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fivevotesdown · 1 year

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i love y'all but u gotta quit putting men as kens for being men ken isn't ken because he's a man. barbie isn't barbie bc she's a woman. ken is ken because he's maximum babygirl and barbie is barbie bc she's maximum girlboss. Naruto is a ken but Sasuke is a barbie. princess bubblegum is a barbie marceline is a ken. house is barbie wilson is ken gatsby is a barbie nick is a ken howl pendragon and Sophie are both Barbies zuko and sokka are ken4ken. are you getting it

#barbie and ken #(/not serious)#i dont actually care im not tryna start shit i just think its funny #also i saw someone put down kingston d20 unsleeping city down as a ken and that is simply not the case. hes a barbie im sorry #five speaks

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visenyaism · 6 months

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if anyone was wondering how they’re reporting statue melting day in charlottesville itself. it’s a good one.

#love love love that city #the majority of the community wanted it gone! don’t let racist statue defenders convince you they speak for us!

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ghostbsuter · 5 months

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"I did not think I'd ever use it like this," the boy muttered next to batman.

It was comically, with the police and ambulance lighting up the entire area.

Danny, being himself, had gotten curious and accidentally busted a human trafficking ring, which ended up with batman and his kids (?) doing the fighting and the police being called.

"Son, solving crime doesn't mean you didn't trespass and break into someone's property, I will have to take you back to the station—"

"I have diplomatic immunity."

Officer Gordon stood still for a moment, progressing.

"You can't really, err— put me to prison." The boy took his phone out, stopped at a picture, and showed it to the officer and batman.

The vigilante confirmed his identity with a jerky nod, and Gordon is pinching his brows.

"Son– no offence your... majesty, why are you in Gotham of all places?"

The boy now identified as Daniel Phantom, prince of the other and currently the reigning monarch of another realm.

In gotham.

"Okay, so," Danny coughs, embarrassed. "I'm on university search and gotham had this really cool space science programm. I really wanted to see it."

—

(Once they checked his papers and got his statement, did they let him leave to his hotel + some of his squad going along for protection measure.

Gordon heaved a sigh, "We can be glad it wasn't the joker. That would have made headlines." and slumb in his seat.

Batman grunts, a sound the officer knows too well.

"You're gonna look out for the kid?"

Another grunt.

"Good, because Gotham help us all if that kid gets hurt.")

#dcxdp #dpxdc #dp x dc crossover #fic prompt #writing prompt #dc x dp prompt #ghost prince danny #let danny abuse his diplomatic immunity without meaning to #officer gordon got some of his men along dannys stay in gotham #his hair is rapidly grayinf as we speak #batman is just so annoyed that no one had the gall to warn him for a important person to visit his city #hes following after danny and making sure hes okay

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theoutcastrogue · 4 months

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The Port & the City

Buenos Aires, photo by lasgalletas (Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.0)

Introduction

City of witches and of asphalt, port with no exit to the sea! — La Portuaria, from the port of Buenos Aires

Some cities have a port, and some port cities have a port culture. That's how I call it, anyway. It's a very special thing. It's created by the furious economic activity that concentrates around the coming and going of ships, cargo, and people. A port needs to cater to all of that, the ships and the cargo, the shipowner and the dockworker, the captain and the deckhand, the tourist and the sailor and the fisherman. And that transforms the entire city.

Where a port city meets the sea, there's shipping companies, travel agencies, imports/exports, truck companies, posh hotels, shitty hotels, fancy bars, seedy bars, brothels, strip clubs, theatres, restaurants, casinos, bookshops, tool shops, souvenir shops, fishing supplies, and fresh fish. There's peddlers and businessmen, porters and accountants, all sorts of people, and they all mingle. They have to! The port's there!

Port cities have their own landmarks and geography, with docks, wharfs, piers, depots, gates, shipyards, and people can orient themselves by relation to the water.

New York City, photo by Kari Nousiainen (Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.0)

Crime

My gold watch and my pocketbook and lady friend were gone And there was I, Jack all alone, stark naked in the room — the port of New York City

Port cities attract furious criminal activity. Firstly and obviously, everything that's smuggled will be smuggled through here, from cocaine to counterfeit handbags to guns to oil. (I mean crude/refined oil, though with the prices we've seen lately, olive oil is equally plausible.) Port authorities, customs, shipowners and workers, all can have a hand in the pie, a little finger or both hands shoulder-deep, depending on how high up the ladder they are.

Second, ports are always full of newcomers, sailors and passengers, and all newcomers are potential marks. Con artists, scammers, and grifters of all sorts can ply their trade here. There's also a lot of shilling for more or less legitimate businesses (come buy this, sir! rent a room here, ma'am! oh but you must have a drink there, buddy!), and peddling less then legitimate goods (may I interest you in a fine watch? Rayban glasses, I have Rayban glasses! 100% genuine!). And then there's good old pickpocketing. Although in most cases, pickpockets are not allowed to operate within the port itself: it's bad for everyone else's business, and unlike cops, "everyone else" can actually enforce that.

And third, there's the entertainment sector: the trifecta of night life, sex work, and gambling, all going hand in hand with the sale and consumption of drugs and booze. Expect the port city to be much more entangled in all that than other cities, and the port itself to attract the bulk of it, or the worst of it. Things that are theoretically illegal might be tolerated here, things that are heavily regulated elsehwhere might follow their own rules here, and things that are otherwise unheard of can be found here. What are you into? Step right up but beware: the large print giveth and the small print taketh away.

The upshot of all this is that people in the port's vicinity (not the whole city, though) are more likely to be involved, or at least personally know someone who's involved, in profoundly shady and/or illegal business. And that certainly affects the culture. Breaking the law is more "eh" than "oh my!".

Clydebuilt Museum, photo by Paisley Scotland (Creative Commons CC BY 2.0)

Politics

All my life I've lived beside the waters that they call the Clyde I build the ships and watch them glide down the Broomielaw, sir Trudge to work in sleet and rain, labour for another's gain know yer place and don't complain, that's the rich man's law, sir — Alistair Hulett, from the shipyards of Glasgow

A port displays furious political activity. Unions are strong here, because labour is not only working, it's working hard, manually, in the same spaces (so they can talk about it!), and facing the same dangers to life and limb. Working on the docks, handling cargo containers, and ship-building and maintenance are very hazardous jobs (scrapping even more so, I'd say dramatically so), and under these conditions, it's easier to spot the enemy. Not automatic though. Port cities are traditionally, but not unconditionally, strongholds of the left.

Today, it's extremely important for the left to take the ports, because if it doesn't the fascists will. The workforce here has significant ethnic diversity, coming both from inland (immigrants and local minorities) and from the sea (sailors who go around the world sometimes end up working in random ports). So basically, this either goes "proletarians of the world unite" or "foreigners are stealing our jobs", no middle ground.

By the way, if all your knowledge about port unions comes from The Wire, or worse (for our older readers) from On the Waterfront, please be aware that these are slanted depictions, and you don't actually know anything. [They're not equally slanted, The Wire is nowhere near the other one's level of shameless propaganda, nor so completely divorced from reality. I mean yes, unions can be involved in shady business; so can literally everyone else in the port. But On the Waterfront, without the slightest exaggeration, is to American organised labour what Birth of a Nation is to Black Americans.]

Valparaíso, photo by [o] Rolando Vejar (Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0)

Culture

Amo el amor de los marineros que besan y se van. Dejan una promesa. No vuelven nunca más. — Pablo Neruda, from the port of Valparaíso

The port's culture seeps through the rest of the city. This is where sailor lore gets created and spread, and a port by definition loves travel and the ocean. Many non-sailors fall for it hook, line and sinker, and write poems and sing songs and their heart swells at the mere thought of sailing. But their fascination is often rose-tinted, whereas people who make a living from the sea typically have a love/hate relationship with it.

Maiden voyages are important occasions in shipbulding ports. A ship's last voyage, before it goes to scrap, is also memorable. If the ship regularly docks there, it will be the talk of the town, and if it's a passenger ship [this assumes a geography with regular passenger runs], a whole mess of people will be sharing stories and memories, waving it farewell, shouting, applauding, crying a little. It can get very emotional.

There's also a silly sort of localism/professional pride going on, where even the port's accountants, who've never set foot below decks IF they've actually boarded a ship, feel like they're a different species of accountant, inexplicably tougher and saltier than their more, er, inland colleagues. No matter who you are and what you do, it's badge of honour to say you're from and/or work at the port, like you're automatically endowed with tenacity and street smarts. It doesn't make sense, but there you have it.

Rotterdam, photo by MaxAmy Photography (Creative Commons CC BY-ND 2.0)

Desire

In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who dies Full of beer, full of cries, in a drunken town fight In the port of Amsterdam there's a sailor who's born On a hot muggy morn by the dawn's early light — Jacques Brel (in David Bowie's adaptation), from the port of Amsterdam

A port is filthy, grubby, and hopelessly romantic. If it faces somewhat west, it's on fire every sunset. Silhouettes of gigantic cranes are framed by red clouds like alien tripods. The sun sinks into the ocean, and tell me, in the whole wide earth, is there a sweeter sight? Ships approach like sea beasts, and dock in their usual place like old friends.

A port carries the whiff of grease and petrol, the cool sea breeze, and the incessant sounds of waves and engines and – most of all – people. A port IS people, passing. And tell me, in the whole wide world, is there anything more exciting and heartwrenching than people passing? A port city can fill you with wanderlust and feel like a prison, or a warm welcome, or a devastating farewell.

And if you point a gun to my head and force me to describe a port in a single word, I'll have to say: desire.

Love me, leave me, hold me tight, walk away, forget. Look at how I broke inside, and how the sea has swelled! It's pouring out a riot of colours, scents, and lights, and in the city's gutter it's building paradise. — Ξύλινα Σπαθιά, from the port of Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki, photo by Arend Kuester (Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.0)

La Portuaria - Un dia cualquiera (El bar de la calle Rodney) | the port of Buenos Aires

Ξύλινα Σπαθιά - Ρόδες | the port of Thessaloniki

Tom Waits - Step right up

Finbar Furey - New York City girls | the port of New York

The Dubliners - Go to sea no more | the port of Liverpool

Alistair Hulett - The Old Divide and Rule | the shipyards of Glasgow

The Dreadnoughts - Roll Northumbria | the shipyards of Tyne

The Longest Johns - Fire & flame | the port of Halifax

Maria del Mar Bonet - Merhaba | the ports of the Mediterranean

Cesária Évora - Mar de canal | the port of Mindelo

Susana Baca - Los marineros | the port of Valparaíso

Παντελής Θαλασσινός - Άσπρο καΐκι στη Νέα Πέραμο | the little port of Nea Peramos

Jacques Brel - Amsterdam | the port of Amsterdam

Social Waste - Kasbah | the port of Algiers

Πάνος Κατσιμίχας - Ο πιλότος Νάγκελ | the port of Colombo, so far from Lofoten

Ξύλινα Σπαθιά - Φωτιά στο λιμάνι | the port of Thessaloniki

#the city speaks #theory #trs #the ramblin' rover #pirate #booze #booze et al #no tears for the creatures of the night #smuggler #pickpocket #mixtape #prison ballads #ONE of these days I'll learn to be concise I swear #also I ain't translating Naruda to english #the Rogue's school of translation gives exactly zero fucks #but there's a limit #look it up it's called ''Farewell''#also I didn't include a planned section on immigration #because I got too fucking upset to write words

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jellisdraws · 1 year

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DESC(END)

Keep coming back to Jack and my Cyber Fantasy WIP. Gonna keep rendering and playing with this one, test how far I can try pushing the background, maybe try going for a lineless render.

I’m having a blast with art recently and I’m so keen to try stuff and really push what I can do and learn everything I can (mostly by trial and error lmao) my official commission list keeps getting pushed back but I am accepting commissions right now so I guess hit me up if interested?

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the-creeping-city · 2 months

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apologies for the quiet on updates, i work 6 days a week irl & i've really been feeling it lately! i have the next page sketched, but it's a LOT of hand lettering... might have to think about switching to text tool!

also fsr it seems like the last icon update didn't take? so i tried again, lmk if it works this time!

new page coming soon-ish, but no promises. askbox is still open in the meantime!

#not a moon #the city speaks

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citysunrise · 6 months

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I love every ao3 fundraiser so much? seeing them hit their goals so quickly, and then seeing how far past their goals the totals are, is just a lovely ray of positivity

if you're reading this, please know that I hope you fly past your own life goals in the same way!

#ao3 #there is so much bad #and seeing something nice #that's both reliably good #and surprisingly so #at the same time #is really lovely #the city speaks

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