explore | Grilled Cheese

Explore Log in Sign up

Terms of Use Privacy Policy Community Standards Help Get the app

Grilled Cheese is a product of Village Compute

Version devBuilt at: 2026-10-19 00:12:36 EDT

Photos Videos All People

Wake the Neighbours

In the night-time, when I’m alone, I sometimes feel like screaming.

Just lying there, warm and cozy in my bed.

No monsters or violence coming for me, spare for in my dreams.

Yet.

I want to wake my neighbours.

I want to wake the world.

I want to tell them all that we’re crazy.

This world of ours.

Then run around town in all my naked glory, banging pots and pans, on a never-ending quest of ridiculousness where we all break down laughing so hard that the system just falls beneath us.

And all that’s left is the giant joke that we’ve been telling ourselves all our lives.

You don't have to stop loving someone in order to leave them, but love isn't always a reason to stay.

IF YOU'VE EVER LOOKED AT A FICTIONAL CHARACTER AND THOUGHT, “I UNDERSTAND WHY YOU DID THAT... BUT WHAT THE F%$K?” THIS IS FOR YOU.
Then:
Psychologically messy fiction has taught me a lot about people.
And some of it is deeply uncomfortable.
People can love you and still hurt you.
Knowing something is bad for you doesn't mean you'll stop doing it.
Most people don't think they're the villain.
The thing that once protected you can eventually hurt you.
And people can change without becoming completely different people.
That's why I love complicated characters.
They make us look at ourselves a little differently.

Video, no description

I can turn one sentence you said three days ago into a full psychological investigation.
I thought everyone did this.
Replay the conversation.
Analyze the tone.
Reconsider your response.
Invent three possible meanings.
And then somehow convince myself I missed something.
Apparently, that's called overthinking.

WHAT FICTION GETS RIGHT ABOUT SELF-DESTRUCTION

Self-destruction rarely feels like self-destruction.
It feels like relief.
It feels like freedom.
It feels like finally doing something you want.
Until you realize you're making choices that solve today's pain by creating tomorrow's.
That's what good fiction gets right.
People don't always destroy themselves because they want to suffer.
Sometimes they're just trying desperately to feel better.

And sometimes the thing that saves you in the moment is the thing that eventually destroys you.

What's a fictional character you think understood this?

I THOUGHT IT WAS NORMAL
TO TELL TRAUMA STORIES
LIKE THEY WERE FUNNY ONES.
I could tell you something absolutely horrible that happened to me and make you laugh while I was telling it.
For years, I thought that was normal.
Then I realized I wasn't laughing because it was funny.
I was laughing because I didn't know how else to tell the story.

I just told my mom I was gangraped during the war.
Well, more I yelled it at her and then hung up the phone on her.
Maybe not the best way to express that, but she was severely pissing me off.
She kept saying, maybe it’s not from the war, maybe you’re just depressed because you’re not with J anymore.
As if all the trauma I have experienced were nothing.
As if I didn’t live through a war and have constant nightmares because of it now.
As if this was all over some fucking boy.
Maybe that's fucking why.