there was a part of me that was afraid of how pretty she was, a part that was angry that someone could provoke such a reaction from me, and a small, mostly unexamined part that was instantly distrustful of someone that could hijack my brain in the way she did

the streets weren't labeled. Instead, each block had a name on it, and the streets were merely the unimportant void between the blocks. That was the Japanese addressing system

keloid

curlicue

it was a sword so generic that it somehow seemed like it was hiding something

I had never seen a building that large which still looked ramshackle, and I was immediately suspicious that it was all just aesthetic, a facade meant to look quirky but which hid an interior of straight, clean lines.

that was the thing about paranoia, most of the time you were preparing for things that never ended up occurring

I'm fairly sure that the idiom came from the mynah," said Solace, "They do, in fact, have skin on their teeth, and are renowned for their ability to escape calamities

A real-world guy named Charles Ogden had created something called 'Basic English', which had a basic list of eight hundred and fifty words that he thought would be enough to speak 'in a normal way'

Smith-invariant instant-runoff voting

all debates were ultimately debates about definition

Strips of azure fabric were woven into his black hair, stuck in place by bronze rings, which gave an effect something like a turban

initialism

ignoring physical need would only make things worse

it's thinking about the thinking, and thinking about thinking about thinking. I want to just bury myself in something so I don't have to feel anything, and I feel guilty for wanting that, and I feel embarrassed for feeling guilty, and I have no idea whether that's what other people would feel

I wasn't allowed to wander off and wallow while the world turned to dust around me. There's work to be done

Anhedonia

rilirin

Penndraig perversion

the better part of valor

Waiting until you're sure that diplomacy has been exhausted allows the enemy too much leverage and superior positioning

Well I'll be godsfucked

The truth was more complicated, of course, but the truth didn't have as much leverage

Do the objectively correct thing and worry about how you're going to live with it later

square-cube law

One of your faults is that you believe in great people doing great things

the One True God, may his dice fall fair

I just ... it's been a bit since I've felt any actual desire. I was worried I was broken.

I used to be more fun, ... I used to have this exuberance, and it just got filed away over time with the weight of responsibility and the endless grind of having things to do.

Gini coefficient

Are you trying to find some way to tell the truth without causing offense?

It's easy, when you hate yourself, to just fuck things up because you think that's what you deserve, or because you don't care about what happens to you

the sort of thought that I could recognize as infantile, but which still sat there in my brain

"Is this your true objection?"

You know as much as I do that life is filled with special circumstances, ... We tell ourselves that it will be just this one time, and then it becomes a pattern.

a waterless sea

There was a certain level of stylistic cohesion that I'd come to associate with money

What I really like is that there are happy memories to outgrow. I want to leave a trail of happy memories behind me.

transgressive worldbuilding

dwell on our mistakes only in order to understand them, rather than for the purposes of self-flagellation

the ways in which we need you are not the ways in which you wish to be needed

I was thinking that this would be similar, with a thick chugging sound that would make it hard to talk. Instead, it gave off a sound like a crack of thunder and short, finger-long arcs of lightning arced out from the wheels as the whole thing rose up from the ground. It sat there with a shimmering translucent blue aura around the wheels, a few inches off the floor.

dwell on our mistakes only in order to understand them, rather than for the purposes of self-flagellation

I cried as I fell, for I could see that there would always be more worlds to conquer.

Each new cycle must either shed light on some new thing or give different illumination to something in the past, and eventually even the new things start to look like the old things.

I know it isn't real. I know that. But to revel in the glory of our own creation anyhow, to make it matter, that's the whole point.

I am a finger of the Authority," said the man. "No one allows me to do anything, I just either do or not according to my principles.

if you can see yourself in someone, it's hard to hate them too much.

I'm not sure that children are the kind of future that she wants. I'm not sure that's what happiness means for her

I am a finger of the Authority,” said the man. “No one allows me to do anything, I just either do or not according to my principles.

She liked Trish, a lot. There was something both immature and intelligent about her, a potent combination.

if you can see yourself in someone, it’s hard to hate them too much.

the post-heaven world

I’m not sure that children are the kind of future that she wants. I’m not sure that’s what happiness means for her

I value the connection, even if it is a small source of pain

thematic pareidolia

We are always deciding who we are ... the question is never entirely going to go away, not if you keep experiencing new things. Unless you’re stuck in a rut, you’re always changing, and the question is always there. You’re always answering it.

“The student of failures learns faster than the student who has only heard his master’s words.”

There was no desire, but there was some desire for desire.