"FUCK YEAH Princess Diaries!"

And even though money is pretty tight for her, she told me I could name my price if I would help her, because it was so far away.

I told her she was a dummy for thinking i would take her money but that i would accept the traditional helping-a-friend-move price: a meal (i know she would feel wrong about herself if she didn’t do something for me in return, that’s just how she is) Tradition suggests pizza and beer, we opted for enchiladas and a margarita.

we crashed on the floor of the empty place and left back north in the morning - when we got back to the city three more friends met us at her storage place (the place she was moving into wouldn’t be vacant for a couple months) and we started to move all her stuff up to a storage room on the THIRD FLOOR (because large city storage places be like that)

we had just taken the first box out of the truck when the (only) lady working there walked by and told us they closed in an hour and twenty minutes, and she couldn’t stay even a little late because she had to get to her other job.

One hour twenty minutes. To completely un-jenga a large uhaul and re-tetris it back into a similar sized room on the third floor.

We all just, shared a look, took off hoodies, and got the fuck down to business. 

It was actually.. I still cherish look we passed around. The tiny eyebrow quirks and chin nods. The eye glints. The bigger breath we each took as we prepared to kick it up several gears. That moment of wordless connection, when we all just silently agreed that we were damn well going to do the impossible and didn’t even waste the time it would take to say anything, just got to it.

And we did it too. Finished with exactly two full minutes to spare. And then we all went for dinner and drinks to celebrate. And my friend’s friends that came to help? Two of them were acquaintances/friends of mine already. Like I lived with one for a year a decade ago sort of thing. But this experience? Brought us all closer. Made myself a new friend too.

And the friend i helped move? She and I are closer than ever because of it.

When i left our storage success diner to go home, she asked me again if I was sure i wouldn’t take any money.

I said “I ever tell you when I was 22 I went down to Hollywood to try that scene out? Anyway ten months later, when I just couldn’t do it anymore, and needed to come back, I called one of my best friends and said i can’t do this anymore i need to come back. You know what he said? He said: I’ll be there tomorrow. Not how much will you pay me, not what do i get out of it, not will you be able to cover my gas, just: I’ll be there tomorrow. Okay? You’re my friend. If you need help, I’m going to be there”

and sometimes it’s someone else’s food preferences. sometimes it’s a weird-but-normal thing that human bodies do. sometimes it’s someone else’s kink.

people will sit on tiktok and make entire ranking videos of fics. they'll talk about how they want slow burns with immaculate characterization, intricate political plots, and emotional payoffs that span 600k words across five years of updates. they'll talk about wanting stories that completely take over their lives.

and then those same people won't touch an ongoing fic.

they won't leave comments. they won't bookmark. they won't tell their friends. they won't engage until the work is already finished and has been vetted by fifty other readers.

do people realize what they're asking for when they demand a 600k slow burn? that's half a decade of somebody's free time. that's thousands of hours spent writing after work, after school, after exams, after family emergencies, after losing motivation and finding it again.

those legendary fics everyone loves to recommend didn't appear fully formed out of nowhere. they survived because people supported them while they were being written.

everybody wants the next fandom-defining epic. nobody wants to be the person encouraging chapter 17 of 143.

and then people wonder why fewer longfics get finished.