[homunculus-argument]

A grand fantasy city-state that has developed a consistent, uniform system of "best by"-dates, not just for food safety reasons and to reduce food waste, but to also significantly reduce crime and conflict between residents. The matter at hand is goblins.

Goblin residents of the city are legal citizens with equal rights just the same as everyone else, but their natural lifestyle differs dramatically from the rest of the peoples living in the city. They are scavengers by nature, having no problems with eating carrion, overripe fruits and plants, and building everything they own from things that other races throw away as junk and trash. As the city produces plenty of waste that goblins would love to take and the city is glad to be rid of, any well-organised city is not just a paradise for goblins, but welcomes them with open arms. They save the city a fortune in waste disposal costs.

Problems mainly arise by differing ideas of what counts as "discarded". Goblins are unfairly labelled as thieves, when they are merely opportunistic and optimistic by nature, and will interpret any unclear situation to their own benefit, and will argue "how was I supposed to know that you still wanted it?" over things that looked lovely and were left unattended. And while yoinked items of clothing and other tools are easily returned or financially reimbursed (paying for what they already took is the only use that goblins have for money, which they do not steal), but foodstuff is gone faster than you can blink.

So, the city needed to determine laws for how to define and clearly label when consumable goods are no longer fit to most peoples' consumption, both to help people keep track on how old their groceries are, and also to mark them for goblins. So even though the food that's past the date on it can still be good to eat, it might also be gone by the next time you reach for it.

[viralfrog]

[dragongirlbunny]

[ravioliet]

"why can't they just be friends?" not in the homophobic sense, but in the "in your need to center romance in everything you are missing the whole point of the media in question" sense

[writersisland]

show, dont tell: little decoration quirks that can say a lot your character pt 2

only one of everything

a calender stuck on the wrong month, maybe even year

mini bar with cocktail shakers, fancy bottles and glasses, but only mixers and no booze

old pictures forgotten underneath stacks of work documents

scented candles, incense sticks, ...

books scattered all around

lots of small lamps; the big light has probably never been used

squeaky door hinges

letters written in a foreign language

no decor at all; a purely functional space

nails in the wall, as though pictures were once hung here, but removed

worn down floors barely covered with a rug

collections of pretty stones, stamps, coins, ...

freed up window sill to sit on and let the legs hang out

cracked coffee mug still in use because of emotional attachment

tons of pillows and blankets

storage closet that things fall out of when opening

empty journals

journals that wont even close from how much was put inside

dried bouqets/flowers

an old cat tree, even though there hasnt been a cat to use it in years

desk stained with dried paint

small reminders from travels: postcards, pictures, admission tickets, maps, travel documentation, …

part 1

[what-even-is-thiss]

I think you can humanize a villain in a way that makes you hate them more and that’s delicious, actually.

[chaotic-neutral-knitter]

do you ever feel yourself fail a charisma check in real time

[bark-barkley]

I WANT TO LOOK AT THINGS MADE BY HUMAN BEINGS

[softwetmoss]

And also occasionally by pufferfish

[sunnycogs]

I'm editing my series I last worked on about 3 years ago, and came to a section where I was hit with a "something REALLY bad happened while I was writing this" feeling. But I can't remember which really bad thing.

There's really no point to this post other than wishing my writing didn't contain personal landmines. I wrote a lot of it during a really hard time, so of course some of that feeling got tangled in the words. The particular section has the characters dealing with grief and hopelessness and you can tell I was Going Through It. So...good writing I guess? Yay?

[soulren]

“Ghosts are real” I can see how you could believe that

“Ghosts aren’t real” it’s very fair and rational that you believe that

“Ghosts aren’t real anymore” I’m about to hear a poem or very sad story

“Ghosts aren’t real yet” the fuck are you going to do

[m-e-isannoying]

It's not fair that creating stuff costs so much more energy than consuming stuff

[stillnaomi]

using violence to liberate people from sweatshops, unsafe mines, and grinding poverty isn't the same as using violence to impose those things on people. the idea that violence is morally repugnant regardless of context is a belief that every oppressor throughout history would love for the oppressed to hold

[homunculus-argument]

You dig a big enough hole that water can stay in, it becomes a pond. And once it's been a pond for long enough, fish somehow appear. Even though it's not connected to any other water - hell, consider all the lakes that aren't connected to any other water. How the fuck are there fish? Where do they come from?

One day, something in space is going to look at humans the same way. You go to a new galaxy and there's freaking humans in there, like they just spontaneously manifest on random planets that have the ability to sustain them. All you need is an atmosphere with enough oxygen, some form of water, and that's pretty much all you need before they seem to just pop out of the ground and start terraforming it.

The mystery of the lake fish has been solved, by the way. It's waterfowl. Much like the birds that eat seeds and spread them around, waterfowl consume roe from the water, and while the number of fertilised fish eggs that pass through the digestive system of a duck or wild goose alive and unharmed may be small, it's not zero. A goose will shit in the lake water, and through comes the roe. It happens just often enough that lakes and ponds become - and remain - populated with fish.

Humans don't pop up on unknown planets and and unreachable galaxies on purpose. They couldn't get in there any more than they could get out of there, they have no choice but to claim the most viable-looking planet they can reach and start terraforming it. But how did they even get there?

You see, every once in a while an unfortunate human spaceship gets swallowed by a cosmic duck

[mightymo63]

Some fish are also just able to straight up walk on land

[homunculus-argument]

"They just walked there" is now my favourite theory of "how are lakes populated with fish".

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

Not superstitious and not not superstitious but a third secret thing (read a lot of fairytales as a child and doesn't believe them but also would never be rude to a mountain while still on it just in case)

[lasrina]

I've said it before but this is both the Icelandic and the Irish approach:

Of course we're modern educated people who don't believe in fairies

But we're also not gonna fuck with 'em, we're not idiots

[sunnycogs]

People often act like my cooking is nearly a spiritual experience and I've often wondered what other people eat because most of my food feels fairly simple to me by now. I currently have a long term houseguest and folks.

You do not have to do this to yourself. Cooking blogs are free. Food Network is easily accessible. You don't have to live like this. For the sake of my poor nose, learn to cook I am begging you.

[sunnycogs]

If a migraine gets real bad you should be able to shrink small enough to demand uppsies

[homunculus-argument]

I had a dream which involved a zombie apocalypse where zombies didn't just attack whatever human was closest. They'd pick one specific person and never stop or change targets before they got that particular person, and only then chose another target at random. Nobody was really bothered by them since everyone knew that unless you are their specific target, it won't do anything to you.

So that's how it was spreading in a society that otherwise seemed to be functioning just fine. Everyone else would be having just a regular tuesday while there's just one person running for their life trying to avoid that thing slowly chasing them. Then two people running from a zombie while everyone else is fine. Then three or four. Nobody stopped living their completely normal life unless and until it hit them to become a zombie's next target.

[dumbassthroughtimelines]

…it took me way too long to realize this was a metaphor

[homunculus-argument]

No I just woke up.

[hyperoperationfractallisation]

Well sorry but it's a metaphor

[homunculus-argument]

You know things are bad when my dreams' habitual That's A Bit Too On The Nose Innit style of hamfisted symbolism turns from personal life to widespread political commentary.

Also if someone makes a short film etc out of this, I agree on the title being "First they came for Steve".

[sunnycogs]

It's 4 a.m. and there's a rave in my head

Every emotion is dancing to music so loud

We can barely make out the lyrics

Something about insomnia and early appointments

But bright colors are flashing and

The bass is pounding like a heartbeat

We all bounce to the rhythm and forget about tomorrow

Because tomorrow might not have the lights