Consider-season One Jon And The Archival Assistants Doing The Sound Effects For Each Tape Diegetically

Me: I don't get it. I thought I was doing a lot better than I was a few years ago. I'm like 10 times more on top of things than I used to be. How does everything feel terrible now?

The Tiny Me in OSHA-approved Hi-Vis Gear Who lives in my brain and pulls all the levers: Boss, it's the fascism. You're completely gunked up with cortisol due to the fact that your entire daily life is now underscored with a haunting awareness of the rapid erosion of your rights, dignity, and any and all social safety nets, and you're also bearing witness to the most vulnerable people immediately being persecuted. This creates a natural stress response that basically means you're going to continue having memory and organizational problems, as well as emotional imbalances.

Me: BUT I HAVE A BULLET JOURNAL AND I MEDITATE NOW.

Tiny OSHA Me: BOSS, THE FASCISM.

Imagine being at your workplace, doing your things and tasks and minding your own business, and then somebody you've never talked to, and whose name you barely know, walks up to you seeming deeply irritated, and tells you "I know you're dying to know and I know you were never going to ask - and I just want you to know that I'm grateful of it, I respect you for that - but we both know that it's going to bug both of us forever if I don't tell you, but the answer is 'yes'. It is like you thought."

And then just turns around and walks off and never speaks to you again.

Fun quick way to make character pairs with a working dynamic: take a standard trope character type, then make another one that's the complete opposite in every defining way, and then make them buddies. Let's take the character trope of The Gentle Giant. Oh wow what a twist, this huge mean-looking burly guy is actually a docile sweetheart. Boring. But now consider: he's got a buddy who's real fucking tiny, aggressive and mean as shit.

Like this big looming guy is facing some tough guy who's blocking the way, looking for trouble, like "move aside and nobody gets hurt." And the other guy is scoffing like psch or what? You're gonna deck me? You might be big but I can tell you're no fighter.

And the big guy is like "no. You better move or I'm gonna sic my little buddy on you."

I like when the bus stops directly in front of you out of the line of waiting people and opens its doors. Chosen by the dragon

shoutout to anthropomorphic snakes in animated movies doing poses that would normally require arms by creatively using their coils as arms instead. gotta be one of my favorite genders

There was a young man from Peru

Whose limericks stopped at line two

Zombie setting where the undead are drawn towards unhygienic scents, so survivors constantly bathe to avoid being eaten.

Zombies are docile when adorned with flowers.

Settlements overgrown with herbs and flora.

Barely any banditry; everyone is focused on farming and gathering.

Different human factions and towns named after flowers like Lilies, Orchids, Roses, etc.

Instead of immediately killing an infected survivor, they’re given special funeral rites - the zombie is covered with flowers to keep them calm, and  allowed to walk out from the settlement to join the hordes.