I Wanna Make These So Bad

Teeth painting, commissioned by my little brother.

Acrylic on Canvas board.

The reference photo I used was from Pinterest

It's that time of year again where Mari Lwyd starts to be talked about and shared around and an INCREDIBLY misleading post gets shared a lot. As someone who grew up with Mari Lwyd I wanted to clear some things up.

Also hello, if you are unaware who Mari Lwyd is. This is about the Welsh tradition of the horse skull who visits houses during the Christmas to New Years period in Wales asking for alcohol.

First off and probably the most important one:

Mari Lwyd is not a cryptid!

I can not emphasise this enough. She. Is. Not. A. Cryptid. There is no story or mystery about a ghost or zombie horse roaming the Welsh valleys. She's not even supposed to be a ghost or a zombie. It's just a horse skull on a stick with a guy under a sheet. She's a hobbyhorse and a folk character used to tell Welsh stories and keep songs alive. When people spread the misinformation that she's a cryptid, it's the equivalent of saying Kermit the Frog is a cryptid.

She is actually only one character in a wider cast of characters who go door to door or, in more modern times, pub to pub. The cast of characters can change town to town and village to village but there are some common ones I see time and time again. The Leader, the Merryman, The Jester and The Lady are just some I see regularly. Punch and Judy used to be more popular a few years ago but I haven't seen them in a while as their tradition has mostly fallen out of popularity. In most cases, almost the whole cast will be played by men. Even the characters are considered and referred to as female. Though this again depends and varies by which group is partaking in the Mari Lwyd tradition.

This point also goes onto my second point,

Mari Lwyd does not rap.

I think this comes from a very common misunderstanding of what rap is vs spoken word. Rap is a very specific style of music originating from the African American communities of the USA and has it's own structure and motifs unique to it. It's a lot more complex than people give it credit for as a style of music and just flippantly assign anything similar to it as being rap. If someone is talking fast or reciting poetry, it is not rap. Or anything that is an exchange of words between two people is not a rap battle. Mari Lwyd does not do rap, actually something that gets left out of these posts is the fact Mari Lwyd does not even speak. It's actually the Leader, who does all the speaking and song based banter between the house/pub owner for entry. Mari Lwyd just clicks her mouth, bites people and bobs her head around.

I think Mari Lwyd is a really beautiful and unique part of Welsh culture. She's not actually as wildly celebrated as a lot of the posts make her out to be. Actually, I think most Welsh people themselves learn about Mari Lwyd through the internet as well. Her popularity is increasing thanks to the drive of local groups wanting to keep the traditions alive and a renewed desire to document Welsh traditions before they're gone. Which is why it's such a shame that she's turned into something she's not to earn horror points on the internet. I think this is why it bothers me so much to see the misunderstandings of the culture and the folk tradition. Mari Lwyd's origin is very hot debated as well as how long it's been going on for. But I think it's thanks to a lot of traditions like this that the Welsh language and our stories weren't lost forever. Welsh culture is recovering as is the language. But it's still in a very fragile place. I think it's why it's important to document and correct information when it's spread.

Anyway, if you want to see the tradition in action, here's a lovely video from the Cwmafan RFC going to one of the pubs for charity. It includes the song exchange with the pub owner for entry and the whole pub singing and joining in once Mari Lwyd and the rest are inside.

As well with another video from St Fagan's showcasing the more traditional and door to door form with the larger cast.

Oh my boy I hate how much I love him he was meant to be my least favourite but he’s clawed himself tooth and nail into my heart

Bruce, knowing Tim went out as RR when he was meant to be benched: do you have something to tell me, chum?

Tim, half asleep and drooling in his tea: sometimes Cassie and Kon make me curl into a ball and then use me as a baseball to play catch with while Bart stands in the middle and tries to catch me first.

Bruce: ….

Bruce: what.

Tim: they call me ‘piggy in the middle’

Bruce: …

Tim: somehow Bart never catches me but I think it’s only because he’s laughing so much.

Bruce, completely forgetting about Tim patrolling: I… I don’t know what to do with this information.

A dowry of blood by S. T. Gibson I couldn’t rant about this book enough def be mindful of the cw at the beginning but omg this book changed me enlightened me made me feel seen it’s just perfect

What's a book written by a woman that changed your life or that you consider a classic? Any genre, any language.

@foerchen you are a god damn genius 🫡🤝

Dami and Tim bonding AU

Damian: *walking into the Manor library and slamming the door open*

Damian: Todd, I require your assistance.

Jason: *drops his book, leading to the spine to be cracked*

Jason: *does about a thousand breathing exercises because he absolutely doesn’t want to lash out at his lil brother*

Jason: What is it?

Damian: *stares at him with a serious expression*

Damian: How do I bond with Drake? I wish to… acquire his allegiance.

Jason: *smirks*

Jason: Treat him like a scared street cat.

Damian: I shall. Thank you for your service.

Damian: *turns around and walks out of the library*

Jason: *baffled that Damian thought he was being serious*

-~*~-

Damian: *slowly enters the sitting room Tim is lounging in*

Tim: *looks up confused before going back to his phone*

Damian: *proud for not chasing Tim away and carefully pushes a bottle of Zesti towards Tim while still keeping his distance*

Tim: *looks up again and at the bottle*

Tim: Thank you?

Damian: *nods proudly and takes a few more steps forward until he can gently sit down on the couch*

Tim: *watches him and turns back to his phone*

Damian: *slowly extends his hands towards Tim’s nose so he could sniff it*

Tim: *looks at the hand in front of him and opens his mouth to speak*

Damian: Shhh.

Tim: *wants to say something*

Damian: *sees his opportunity and softly runs his fingers through Tim’s hair*

Tim: *freezes as his brain short circuits*

Damian: Good Drake. Shhh. It’s okay.

Damian: *continues to pet and scratch Tim’s head until he is half asleep with his head in Damian’s lap*

Jason: *walks in and freezes at the sight*

Jason: What the-

Damian: For once your advice was useful, Todd. Now be quiet. We do not wish to disturb Drake.

My brain produced a thought: Damian and Lian parent-trapping Jason and Roy. Lian notices how much happier her dad is with Jason around and comes to the logical conclusion of "well, if they married he would always be around, ergo my dad would always be happy".

Damian is tired of Jason constantly worrying over him after Talia specifically asked him to keep an eye on him and just wants freedom (and his brother to be happy, but shh, he doesn't need to know that). Lian and Damian meet in some sort of youngest justice summer camp get together with a bunch of other tween heroes where Roy and Jason help out and realize they have a common cause.

They spend the entire summer just setting up elaborate schemes to make them fall in love, but they're hilariously bad at it. It ends up working though, so they are convinced they're geniuses. In actuality, Jon who's been helping with their plot just got tired of running around trying to set up his friend's brother with someone else and just told them about it.

I'm sorry, I'm supposed to believe that this charming, sweet boy is going to betray the entire camp, break Annabeth's heart, try to kill Percy, and wage a war against the Gods?

No, he's never done a single thing wrong in his entire life

It runs in the family. Dick taught him some things before he died🤭

i have but ONE qualm with joyfire and it's how the FUCK did jason pull not one but TWO beautiful stunning drop dead gorgeous redheaded bitches because there's actually no way.

Fans now: Jason Todd is my fav Robin! I won't hear a word against him!

Fans in 1988: I want Jason Todd dead. Destroyed. Sleeping with the fishes, capiche? I want to see his corpse on the next cover. Oh, it's decided by popular vote? *Smacks the phone* Wanna bet your measly soul we're going to win by majority?

Fans in 1988 after Jason Todd was brutally murdered by the Joker: