FantasyGalaxy

there's this ridiculously soulmatey line in the phm book when grace is just kinda idly wondering aloud about why human and eridian technology are at such similar phases of development, and without thinking about it much rocky responds "has to be, or you and I would not meet." which he goes on to explain as (paraphrasing here) "if either planet were less advanced then we couldn't have built interstellar ships, but if either were more advanced then we could have dealt with the astrophage problem from home, so we'd have to be at around the same level to both be here, that's the only way it would make sense." what it sounds like though is "oh, that's easy: the two of us had to meet so the history of both of our entire species lined up in preparation to make it possible." what kind of tau-ceti-crossed red-petrova-line-of-fate nonsense is this.

the best fanfiction you've ever read was written by a woman in her 40s before she made dinner for her kids. it was written by a teenager after school when they should've been studying for a history test. and a barista came up with the idea while they cleaned the espresso machine and busser fact-checked it on their break and the post-doc edited between writing grant proposals and the nurse apologized for typos in the notes after a long shift and behind every drabble and one-shot and multi-chapter fic there is a person with a wonderful and interesting and chaotic life and it is such a privilege that we get to be a part of it because they decided to do this thing we all share, for fun.