#the parking lot is calling you

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Errors, “Errors,” and Sci Fi

@strawberry-crocodile

tvtropes calls stuff like the wolf example "science matches on" which I think is a pretty fair shake

This.  This is what’s got me thinking so much about errors.  There’s a certain danger, here.  A certain way that this particular effect — delicious dramatic irony — tempts the mind when reading old stories, even true ones.

What do you know about R.M.S. Titanic? I ask my class every year, and the first hand rises.  “It was unsinkable,” the student inevitably says, and everyone is nodding, “or so they thought.”  I write the word UNSINKABLE on the board, underneath my crude drawing of a ship with four smokestacks.  It will be crossed out before the end of the hour, but not for the reason they expect.

“I find no evidence,” Walter Lord, preeminent biographer of the ship’s survivors, wrote, “that Titanic was ever advertised as unsinkable. This detail seems to have entered the collective mind so as to create a more perfect irony.”  Indeed, historians’ examinations of White Star Line documents show the shipbuilders themselves worried it would be so large as to risk collision; they stocked several more lifeboats than 1910s regulations required.

The War to End All Wars (deep breath, satisfied exhale), also known as World War ONE. Chuckle.  Shake of the head.  What if I told you that this phrase, used primarily in American newspapers after the fact, wasn’t meant to be literal? Nowadays we’d say The Mother of All Wars, or One Hell of a Fucking War, but we wouldn’t mean literal motherhood, literal intercourse.  What if I said the armistice and the Lost Generation and the Roaring 20s were all braced for another outbreak of European conflict, and yet we still failed to prevent it?

Did you know they were so confident in the safety of the S.S. Challenger that they put a civilian schoolteacher onboard? I do, because I’ve heard that one repeated many times.  Only, see, it’s got the cause and effect reversed.  Challenger launched on a day the shuttle’s engineers knew to be dangerously cold, because the first civilian in space was on board. And NASA knew its shuttle project would be cancelled entirely, if they couldn’t get that civilian’s much-delayed entry into space in the next two weeks.  So they launched on a cold day, and killed her instead.

These are all what cognitive science calls Hindsight Bias on the personal level, what sociology calls Presentism on the cultural level.  Social psychology’s a little of both, is primarily interested in why you’re sitting on your couch in a Colonize Mars shirt watching PBS and chuckling at the fools who believed in El Dorado.  It wants to know why the mind flees straight from “marijuana will kill you” to “marijuana will cure cancer” without so much as a pause on the middle ground of its real benefits and drawbacks, its real (mild) risks and rewards.

And they can paralyze the sci-fi writer, if you think too much about them. Jetsons is futurist one decade, retro the next.  “There are no bathrooms on the Enterprise,” the creators of Serenity say smugly, as if Gene Roddenberry should’ve simply known that decades later it’d be acceptable to show a man peeing in full view of the camera, nothing but the curve of the actor’s hand to protect his modesty.  “No sound in space,” the Fandom Menace says, “No explosions in space,” and “A space station can’t collapse in zero-G.”  Only then NASA burns a paper napkin outside of atmosphere, transmits music using only the ghost of nearby planets’ gravities, and logs onto Reddit long enough to point out the Death Star would implode in its own gravity field.  And now we’re the ones pointing, the ones laughing, at those earlier point-and-laughers.  Self-satisfied, smug in superiority.  As if we did the work to find out ourselves, instead of just happening to be born a little later than George Lucas.

#errors #continuity #sci fi #presentism #star wars #titanic #world war i #science marches on #history #started a new post because i got waaaaaay off topic here #if you think the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (1993) should've had feathers #you're a lot more ignorant about paleontology than the people you're trying to criticize #science was not handed down to us in its perfect complete form circa 1943 #stop for a second before you call out someone else's reptilian denonychus #someone else's oxygenated moon #and ask: am i better read #or am i just more recently born?

[starry-bi-sky]

Part SEVEN of "Clone Danny"

Red Robin, Danny recognizes, steps away from him as he sits up. "My name is Phantom," he signs, blinking the exhaustion out of his eyes. (From Red Robin's perspective, it looks like he has no eyes. There lacks his signature green glow.) "I'm not a gang member, just an out-of-town vigilante."

Red Robin frowns at him, an uncertain grip on the bō in his other hand. "Phantom?" He repeats, no lacking amount of suspicion in his voice. "How can I believe that?"

Right. Yeah, okay, that's fair. Danny shrugs at him, and slumps against the wall. "Google search?" He gestures, he's been out in the daytime before and he's seen the news articles about him.

Red's eyes narrow at him and Danny simply draws his knees up and faceplants into them, half-listening to Red's murmurs into his comm while also trying to get some extra-shut eye.

("Oracle, can you pull up anything on a vigilante named Phantom? The guy here is claiming to be one." Tim says.

"On it."

"Is this Phantom wearing a white mask?" Bruce asks, his voice gruff like an aftershock. "There's a vigilante who shares the same name, but he resides in Illinois."

"Is this guy from that Amity city you visited ages ago?" Says Tim, before shaking his head. "Don't answer that. Yes, he's wearing some freaky mask. I said it reminded me of Hood's helmet for a reason."

"I've got something," Oracle interrupts, "Bats' right. as usual. The Phantom of Amity Park, not much stuff of this guy but he's only been out for over a year. Apparently, his rogues' gallery consists of ghosts."

"Oh great.")

"Look tell the Batman that I'm sorry for trespassing on his turf," He signs irritably when Red Robin eventually starts talking to (re: interrogating) him again. "It's not like I want to be here."

"How did you get in Gotham anyways?" Red Robin questions, batman was on his way to help deal with the situation but Tim doubted he wouldn't get caught up on the way with dealing with petty crime. "Your turf is nearly a thousand miles away from here."

"Two words." Danny deadpans, "Teleport ghost." (Red Robin winces sympathetically.) "I'm keeping this bastard in the thermos for a month for this alone."

(Danny was ignoring the slow-choking anxiety growing in his lungs over how he was gonna get home. He never takes his phone when he goes out, the risk of breaking it was too high. He had no way of contacting anyone to get him home.)

(He swallows the growing lump in his throat, and buries the feeling in the back of his mind.)

"Thermos?"

Danny unclips his Fenton Phantom Thermos off from his belt loop and shows it to Red Robin. "My ghost-catching device," He says with one hand, tilting it carefully for Red to inspect. "I wish I could say I made it, but its a FentonWorks invention."

(He wasn't sure if it was a smart idea to say who it belonged to, but saying it wasn't his probably loosened up any tracks on him, right?)

"Do you work with these Fentons, then?" Red asks, and something dark and shadowy flickers from the corner of Danny's eye. He glances over, and sees nothing, and his hackles raise.

(Either that was Batman, or a ghost, or Danny's mind playing tricks on him. He couldn't feel his ghost sense building in his throat, so he decided it was either the latter of the former.)

Danny snorts, quiet and gruff. "No." He clips his thermos to his belt again, stifling a smile on his face. "The Fentons hate me actually, I prevent them from catching ghosts themselves. Their son gives me their tech."

He had a cover story, so he might as well stick with it, right?

Batman shows up at that moment, appearing atop the little roof where the door is, and giving Danny a heart attack when he speaks in his low, rumbly voice like thunder rolling in, "Why would they hate you for that?"

Danny shoots up to his feet with a startled yell in his throat, clutching his chest as he whirls around and looks up. He nearly runs into Red Robin, and signs a few choice swears at the Bat.

"wow you're scarier in person, asshole."

"you didn't answer my question."

"Of course I didn't, you scared me." and Danny takes a trembling step back when the Batman jumps down and lands on the roof in front of him. He's faced ghosts before, but somehow the living is always scarier.

"But, um, the reason is a bit.. complicated, I guess." He says, fingers beginning to shake as his adrenaline wears off. God is he tired. He wants to go home. "The Fentons are the local ghost hunters and local crazies. I don't know if I can call them mad scientists because they're harmless to the living."

"But they're extremely anti-ghost. I've heard from their son multiple times the very unethical things they would do to ghosts if they got their hands on one."

Danny 'talks' a little more before calling it quits, even telling Batman that he can't tell him more without putting his identity at risk.

Plus, its getting harder and harder to hide his bone-deep exhaustion and his growing fear of being stranded in the most dangerous city in America with no way home.

"I would love to tell you more, believe me I'm dying to." Danny signs, shaky sarcasm dripping from his fingers. His hands are visibly trembling and he's withholding a slowly growing panic attack. "But I would like nothing more than to figure out a way to get home."

"Do you have no one to contact?"

"Sort of. But only one of them could probably come get me and get me back to Amity by sunrise. And I have no phone."

That one person being Ellie.

=====

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 4.5 (Dani interlude) Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 7.5 (Dan Interlude) Part 8

Taglist: @the-navistar-carol @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @gin2212 @youracearocroatneighbour @luckybyrdrobyn @deeplyconfusedbear @epilepticnerd @beautifulmomenttodrawblank @sara0055 @blusunkhild @letmesayfuxk (?) @latheevening226 @tkiesai @rosedasy @meira-3919

#dp x dc #dpxdc crossover #danny fenton is a clone #dpxdc #dp crossover #danny fenton is not the ghost king #dpxdc au #it was either ellie comes to get danny or he stays in gotham Somewhere #and he's Only Just met the bats so they're prolly not gonna offer anything #danny's fear of being alone in gotham is prolly downplayed here #but if it were me i would ALSO be slowly driving up to. a panic attack the longer i was in an unfamiliar city with no way home #if this were a proper fic that panic attack would be a lot more evident in the writing #alas #not me looking up Batfam personality cheat sheets because ive never read the comics #dont trust my characterization of the batfam im winging it on google search and summaries of their personalityand out of context comic page #fun fact amity park is described as a moderately large urban city similar to chicago or san francisco which means i cant call it a small to #listening to Dark Arkansas Daughter while writing this #'you with the dark curls you with the watercolor eeyes. you who bares all your teeth in every smiiile' is so au danny coded #bullet point to prevent me from dragging #i need to stop writing these at midnight #im a very honest person and it shows in my writing and it sucks

[canisalbus]

In both versions of them (canon and modern au), what would be Machete and Vasco's ideal date?

I think both of them prefer mostly quiet and chill experiences that don't involve a lot of loud and hectic crowds. They'd probably enjoy going to the movies, or theatre if they're feeling extra fancy. They like museums, galleries, antique markets and book fairs, and do a little bit of casual entry level hiking every now and then. Restaurants, bistros and cafes are a mixed bag, because on one hand eating out is such a classic low-stakes bonding activity, but Machete is a notoriously picky eater and doesn't like surprises when it comes to food.

#in original setting they have to be very careful about going out together #you're allowed to have friends and it's not that remarkable if they're seen together sometimes since they're coworkers and all #but it has to look stately and platonic #answered #anonymous #modern au #you won't see them in an escape room or theme park or doing a lot of urbexing #I guess you could call them boring adults with boring adult pastimes and they like it that way

[estiebestieban]

people who say Pierre would win the brawl between him and Lance are looking at it like it's a boxing match. it isn't. there are no rules in a parking lot brawl. Lance would disconnect from his own brain and go for the eyes with the full intent to claw them out. Pierre would throw a better punch, but he doesn't have what it takes to make the first punch the final one. instant KO or bust, and Pierre simply does not have that ability within him.

#y'all really think Lance would fight fair???? and you call me delusional - #he has that crackhead energy 🤧 lethal at 2am on a tims parking lot #my credentials: a former professional crackhead brawler

[gloriousmonsters]

keep seeing that post that's like 'anti positions are fascist and conservative but isn't the problem ALSO.... that people are using FANDOM TERMS and reducing the issue to SHIPPING when there are important politics going on?' like

a) my guy you are online. on the online fandom and shipping website. why do you think people talk about things through a lens of 'related to online fandom and shipping' here'

b) actually people who call themselves proship or equivalents have been having the 'antis are using fascist and conservative ideology and that's worrying' conversation for. checks watch. years. but thank god someone with a Real Adult Job who thinks fandom is cringe has come along to tell us that you've truly saved us all

#'but weh fandom stuff doesn't MATTER' is not the motel parking lot also worthy of your protection? of your love #but seriously #you can say 'I am not involved in fandom and I don't use the terms because it's not about fandom for me' w/o being a shit #who sounds like they need one of those 'cyber bullying is REAL bullying!' psas #nobody is making you call yourself proship! but if you're essentially agreeing with the most common proship position #and have clearly just realized that the anti ideology is kind of scary #presenting your post like you're bothsideing it is just. Why #vic talks

[sleepinglionhearts]

It's all fun and games til you hit something you didn't expect in a construction zone and you pop both passenger side tires in what can only be described as the absolute worst occurence of fuckery you've encountered today

#personal #guess who's stuck in a parking lot for a while!!!! #and is also guilty bc this is their mom's car they're borrowing!!!!!!! #there's been so much road work on this part of the route tho #i know i hit a curb but i could swear that curb was like. 3 inches further to the right last time....... #not sure how i managed to fuck up the back tire too but you know what they say #don't half ass it full ass it #hm. wait. would full-assing be popping ALL the tires??? #who knows! #ah... thankfully no one has stopped to bother me about it #i did get very pitying looks from a couple walking their dogs #and the homeless guy who looked like he was gonna approach but then looked at the fucking wheels and like. turned away #well! time to wait for family to come and lend a hand and if that doesnt work we call the roadside assistance 🙃

[sollucets]

favorite characters x favorite color: jaeyoung

#jang jaeyoung #semantic error #park seoham #rowan gifs #fcfc #khaotunq #(if you want! you should be resting bt. i dont know who i ought to tag in smth like this) #look i wanted to pick yuna as my favorite se char So Bad and i do love her but i'm being honest with myself #the truth is that i love jaeyoung So much. the most even. #six feet of over-the-top dork #he's pathetic!! he's extra!!! he has great aesthetic sensibilities!!!!!! he has a thing about being called hyung! what's not to love #(i'll maybe still make something for yuna hehe. or perhaps both of them <3 their friendship) #this set didn't give me half as much trouble as heart's i feel a lot better. even the first one (recoloring red augh) wasn't so hard

[sexynetra]

WIP WEDNESDAY

The people have been reacting well to cunty dame so have some more :)

~~~~~~

All this to say – Nicky leaving was putting a major crimp in Dame’s lifestyle. She plucked a glass of champagne off a tray, taking a long sip and surveying the room from her perch near the window. Tia and Kam were deep in conversation next to the food table, while Nicky — as the guest of honor — was in the middle of the room, surrounded by a gaggle of their coworkers.

Kam walked over a moment later, a small plate of hors d’œuvres in hand. “So, are you planning to go talk to your girlfriend?” She asked conversationally.

Dame rolled her eyes, plucking a canapé off of her best friend’s plate and popping it into her mouth. “Nicky’s not my girlfriend.”

“Try telling her that,” Kam retorted, giving Nicky a polite wave and a smile. Nicky smiled back at her before turning her gaze to Dame, smile softening.

“She knows,” Dame said. “I’ve told her. I’m not the girlfriend type. It’s just a bit of fun, nothing more.”

“Yeah well, the trail of brokenhearted girls you leave behind shows that well enough,” Kam shoved her playfully.

Dame pursed her lips to hide her smile. “You’re just jealous,” she teased, finishing off her champagne flute and stepping forward to greet Nicky who had made her way over.

Dame leaned over, placing a ghost of a kiss on each of her cheeks. “Nicky,” she murmured. “Lovely party. Shame it's goodbye.”

“It doesn’t have to be. You could come back to Paris with me.” Nicky looked up at her hopefully.

Dame plucked another flute of champagne off the tray of a passing server, letting out a noncommittal hum as she looked away, meeting eyes with the Spanish woman who worked in reception, flashing her a wink and a smile. “Better not, I’m quite enjoying London,” she said flippantly.

#can you tell I’m having fun :) #also I wrote this on my phone in the parking lot between choir and work so if there’s typos shut up #obviously unedited #but I’m enjoying it #also I really need to come up with a name for this story #like I can’t just keep calling it cunty dame au #cunty dame au #lol #my writing #wip Wednesday #work in progress Wednesday #kam Hugh #Nicky doll #La grande dame #I’m not gonna tag her but the unnamed Spanish woman is arantxa #for visualization purposes #anyways enjoy :) #pls lmk your thoughts I live and die by peoples reactions to my writing #also I need to figure out what everyone is wearing hm I should do that soon #also I’m trying so hard to show more stuff for people who can visualize stuff in their heads #pls tell me if it’s working #am I on the right track #I can’t picture stuff so I always forget to explain things in a way that helps people who can bc it feels so irrelevant to me lmao

[nat-20s]

Sorry I have a deep unshakeable and unabashed love of humanity 🙄 as of it's my fault the vast majority of humans are decent people trying to live good lives

#i think about our pack bonding i think about our creativity i think about our capacity to care i think about our ability to adapt #and im like AUGH!!! HUMANITY!!! #every simple fun interaction i have with another human #i am reminded of the good of our species #the guy who laughed bc i saud i cant stop saying 'they pay me in woims' bc thats the same thing him and his girlfriend say after work #the woman who i talked with in the grocery store about having a movie night and then calles out “have a great movie night!!” #when she saw me in the parking lot #the girl in the college dining room years ago who saw me boppin to some music and said YEAH NEVER STOP DANCING!!! #I LOVE YOU PEOPLE!!!! I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU!!!

[essektheylyss]

It is actually so funny to get back online to learn that someone's been block evading, discover on desktop that I have 7 asks that have since been erased from my inbox because the person's account was nuked for it, and find out it's because a mutual is not changing their mind about a ship that I have literally never mentioned publicly because it's that boring to me. Like, bruh, sorry, get better taste, idk what else to tell you

#like lmfao. sorry. your ship is boring and bad and you should feel bad. #anyway I am on vacation (again) and I am not paying attention to whatever bullshit is being peddled in my ask box. #I am not here. go take a fucking lap or something idk. not even gonna say touch grass just like. step outside. #breathe some fresh air. listen to some birds idk man there are better uses of your time. #download the merlin birdwatching app from cornell and go watch some birds. #yesterday I logged a grackle and a cactus wren just in the in n out parking lot! it was great. grackles have delightful calls. #the world is full of wonders that doesn't entail getting your tumblr account nuked because you're a fucking jackass with bad taste :)))

[huevobuevo]

liminal spaces make me Fucking insnae. why wouldn't I? A place in time is captured with every essence of human life stripped away from it. These photos are barren and empty, they're trapped between events, with the ghosts of what could have been haunting these empty spaces. And yet they are so utterly organic and alive.

You feel a presence sometimes, lingering in the background, but it isn't a smiler or death moth or whatever backrooms entities those reddit threads create- the room itself is alive. It has become its own character, seething with loneliness. So many people stare at them with the same feelings one might have with a corpse, like tearing open the flesh of a corridor and gaping at its guts. The dark backyard of your childhood home is staring back at you, bleeding out on your phone screen.

It's uncanny to see such everyday places put on such display where we are forced to face manmade constructions that have become so much bigger then us. It is so easy to get lost inside them, to delve into the rabbit hole of images filled with waterparks and houses left to rot. It's no wonder we give them names such as dead malls, its like passing by the graveyard of architecture.

#i love you old houses <3 #i love you childhood rooms <3 #i love you indoor amusment parks <3 #i love you pipe rooms <3 #i love you empty offices <3 #i love you parking lots <3 #i love you dark rural highways <3 #i love you i love you i love you <333 #my inability to feel uncanniness has given me the opportunity to make love with liminal spaces #call that the rizzrooms #liminal spaces

[mihai-florescu]

People who talk about "dream cars" and what status they will project are so far removed from my life i struggle imagining we're even the same species

#under no circumstances should i be allowed to drive for everyone's safety #i wasnt bad at driving the One time i tried but i was under the threat of defunding and deportation from the usa if they found out #so i was careful and it only lasted a few minutes in a parking lot #but yeah no i cant stand to hear ppl talking about cars im sorry ESPECIALLY when theyre talking abt the status the car will convey #you are insane like actually brainwashed. as the prophet and angel i am i must cure you #maybe it's my holy calling to commit vehicular manslaughter one day

[hotelbitches]

fuck it. shipping call for the whole blog! specify who/how many you want obv. no prior interaction needed im down for some crack ships too

#ship also includes 'we will fight in a denny's parking lot' #* shipping call. #emmy if you reply everyone i will cry on call. don't test me

[itspileofgoodthings]

that Bobby Bones interview with Taylor where he claims that the cookies she gave him made him sick and she tells him to stop lying is my Roman Empire because I can’t stop thinking about how, while keeping it still lighthearted enough for interview etiquette, she unequivocally shuts down his gaslighting and despicable toad behavior.

#it’s that part of Taylor that’s just a steel wall #and it’s why women love her so much #because a LOT of women would have taken it. would have felt forced to. to apologize or concede or play into his little mind games #not all. But honestly. A lot and so watching her NOT do it is so healing. #she just absolutely refuses to budge. there is a part of her that looks bad behavior right in the eye and says fuck you #but calmly. and it’s the fact that she’s that but also the glitter and the love of winter/baking/etc. and the extreme girliness #like I just. it’s soooooooooooo healing/cathartic/EVERYTHING. #in her actual interview she also called him out for calling himself a nice guy and then denying he ever said that which was also iconic #also I hate him so much I want to fight him in a denny’s parking lot and then force him to do hours of community service #Bobby bones is what I mean when I say men need to be forced to till the land #like. This is a kind of man who will not learn until he has been broken and then re-moulded by honest physical toil #instead he has a podcast oh I am going to be sick

[miss-bvnny]

OriginalThree's short Disney Challenge

2/10 - Favorite Female Character

''Mama says she's awful nice.''

#disneyedit #disneynetwork #bigfrozensix #robin hood #neatoedits #call me a furry a little louder - they cant hear you in the parking lot

[emilyartstudio-s]

Are you in any other fandoms? Not asking you to draw all the fandoms you're in or anything! Just wanna know if you have any personality other than "heeheehoohoo southpark" ?

i don't have a personality

#asks #tumblr is my all south park content #to the point where i don't even like posting my ocs here;;; #on twitter i go ham though #im talking the las/t of us #HAD/ES you know Hade/s #I love anima/l cross/ing when the animals cross #Im obsessed with all zombie things #I love pokemo/n so much I love Gen 4 and 5 with all my heart #i play lots of walking d/ead and watch that too #chai/n sa/w man as well omg #just finished watching that 90/s sh/ow because i loved that 70/s sho/w so much #I watched shameless and continue to rewatch it liek soemthing is wrogn with me #NIGHT IN THE W/OODS SHAPED ME BTW #I am currently reading this one comic called the ni/ce hou/se on the lake by Alvaro Martinez #i can go on but now i'm starting to think that you mean actual groups? Actual friends? actual FANDOM instead of media?. #because if thats the case #i choose to not be part of anything i just like lurking lmao #My sketchbook has all fandom art but i'd rather not share that stuff too much um they're just sketches #anyway no only hehehaha south aprk in my brain #and even then i just like to draw and be bymy lonesome #it's such a surprise i even made this blog in the first place 😂 #thanks for #the #question.