The tiny arthritic old cat sits on the couch.

The dogs are afraid of her because she does not react to them when they poke at her. They take this as an expression of aplomb. In fact, she's too stiff to move, and sometimes can't see them.

The big Saint Bernard used to sit on the couch, but she's afraid of the tiny cat, so she sits behind the couch now. Of the smaller dogs, one of them has been witnessed to stare at her in perplexity for a long time, trying to decide if he dares get up on the couch. Eventually he was to uncertainly lie down next to her, as if awaiting judgment.

She didn't care. She was asleep.

I remembered the "hospital window" story and got grossed out.

The one about the two old guys in a hospital room together, that they tell to little kids for some reason?

My skin always crawled whenever they busted that story out, because it's not "inspirational," it's psychological horror. You introduce kids to this character, ask them to empathize with him - and then reveal that he's a psychopath willing to watch a friend die to get his hospital bed.

While usually the surviving guy is just passively complicit in his friend's death - he lies there quietly and listens to his friend die with the call button within reach - I also heard a variant where it was straight-up premeditated murder, via crushed meds placed in the other guy's food.

This story is why I was terrified of nursing homes when I was little. I'd heard it so many times I was convinced they were full of 1) people bravely lying about how miserable and tedious their lives were, and 2) murderers.

Just. Why did they even tell us this? What the fuck is wrong with the people who like it? What are we supposed to be getting out of it? "Don't casually murder people for personal gain, because you might not get what you want." "Don't be kind; you'll be despised and betrayed for it by those you trusted." "Hospitals are monstrous hellholes of apathy, neglect, and rage." "Old age will render you either a helpless victim of an uncaring system, or an equally-pathetic and trapped creature composed of pure hatred and envy."

I dreamed about a sequel to Night Vale

which was just Battle Angel Alita.

Cecil and Kaos did not get along. Night Vale Community Radio and Radio KAOS have radically different broadcasting philosophies.

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The Secret of Tiphares is like looking into Lil Cal's eyes: Makes guys literally rip open their fucking skulls, seriously irritates ladies.

...I can't decide if it's funnier to think of the Nova family as Striders or Zahhaks, though. Nova just straight-up turning his kid into a centaur robot, WTG man, that is how you fucking parent.