Do other writers ever get this like, hyper-specific dialogue exchange drop into their brains and you know exactly where these character are standing and what they’re doing and how they’re saying these words but that’s all you get. You don’t have much other context and this specific moment that exists only at this time in your headspace??

Yearly reminder that the tradition of putting an orange on the seder plate is about queer Jews, not about women on the bimah or about "equality for all peoples" in general. (Source)

no honey you can't support Hamas and be a fundamentally good person that just doesn't add up

the first step to any successful fanfiction is two pages of bullet points about random details that barely matter interspersed with flippant oversimplifications of actual plot points

Bothering the beast

Fact is oghren loved branka in the way y’all can only put in fanfic & wattpad kidnapped by one direction stories. Oghren loved his paragon so much that he drove his entire house into the dust just for a CHANCE to fight for her. 2 entire years he spent banging on the doors of the assembly/palace demanding she not be abandoned. Of course it drove him to drinking and raging and drinking some more, he was taught that paragons are living GODS (pretty much) and was contending with the cruel, shattering reality that it’s been reduced to just face and politics. And there’s a lot to unpack about political corruption there but there is also a note to be made about how far into the abyss the darkspawn have pushed his proud people into over generations upon generations. He isn’t just mourning branka he is mourning honor and culture and religion. His OWN but also his PEOPLE’S. You’re not allowed to talk to him about it though uhh fart joke - here, hold that

Ok so today I was on the bus with another trans guy and we were talking about how hard it is to get testosterone. The waiting lists, the price, all the doctors you have to go to, that kind of stuff. Except, we were calling it ’T’, like you do when you’re both closeted and in public.

Then suddenly the elderly lady sitting behind us was like ‘young men, either I’m going crazy or you both have never heard of supermarkets, they have shelves full of tea there! Do you need directions to one?’

To which my buddy starts to explain, because why not. ‘Well you see, we’re both trans, and… ’

The lady didn’t wait for him to finish his sentence. ‘Oh no, I don’t mind that at all! Now do you want to know how to get to a place that sells tea? I’m actually heading there right now!’

We let her take us to the supermarket. We let her show us, excitedly, where the tea was. We both bought loads.

I swear he was much more skilful at this yesterday but this is far more entertaining

To quote the poem by @robotsfromouterspace

Leg so short

Short short leg

Leg so short he roll like eg

writing fics be like

Honestly funniest thing Dragon Age could do is confirm that the only people who were ever correct about Andraste were that one mountain cult. Like yes actually she WAS reincarnated as a dragon and she DID live on this mountain and now her chosen are all dead thanks the the wardens and the chantry.

Also when it comes to those "happiest countries in the world" studies, it's good to remember that different cultures have different definitions of what counts as "happiness". To some people, being "happy" as a general thing is interpreted as feeling happy most of the time, being thrilled and excited about things at the same rate and frequency as small children are. That's not usually realistic, so naturally a person who considers that as their definition of happiness is going to answer "no" when asked whether they're happy.

And to some, being happy with something is a neutral state, of having no complaints of the thing in question. Your car isn't flashy but it's functional so you say you're happy with your car. Your job isn't glamorous but you'd rather drive to work than into a tree, so you say you're happy with your job. Your life isn't fancy but there aren't any particularly distressing threats terrorising you every day, so you say you're happy with your life.

You can imagine the dissonance that happens when someone with that kind of a definition says "I just want to be happy", meaning that they would simply prefer a life that wouldn't involve as much emotional anguish and suicidal idelation as it currently does, and someone with the former type of definition of "happiness" tells them that it's simply unrealistic to expect to always be happy.

Grief

ref photo by @jawsstone

It's utterly magnetic when a character's rage is quiet and precise. When they don't scream and throw things but they just b r e a t h e and very very calmly aim their fury like an arrow shooting inexorably towards the target of their wrath. It captures my attention, I lean in close, I wait for the hit. It never disappoints.