Back to being slightly active since some really good writers and artists haven't moved to 💙☁️ and tbh I can't blame them for being exhausted what with the new TOS updates over there...
70s dm armand buying 100 boxes of the same cereal to extract the toy and compare how many he gets of each and daniel’s like dude where are we going to put all this and armand’s like well. i suppose you’ll eat it daniel
on the one hand, i somewhat regret spending so much of my life online in the last 20 years. on the other hand, i've seen every cat photo and video posted before 2023. thus, when one resurfaces today, i can freely enjoy it without wondering if it's actually AI
i don’t think louis helped lestat realise that incest is bad. lestat already knew he didn’t want to have sex with gabriella and was uncomfortable with their relationship. that’s why he tried to establish boundaries in 3x2 and rejected her in 3x3. but then gabi abandoned him again
There is a chair in every American house that is not for sitting.
It is for clothes.
Not dirty clothes. Not clean clothes. A third category that exists only in America and has no name in my language.
Worn once. Not soiled. Cannot go in the drawer. Will not go in the hamper.
They sit on the chair.
Inside I said: THEY HAVE ESTABLISHED A NEUTRAL TERRITORY BETWEEN CLEAN AND UNCLEAN AND THEY HAVE GARRISONED IT WITH A CHAIR.
I asked a woman what the chair was called.
She said, "The chair."
I asked if it had another name.
She said, "The clothes chair. The chair. Everybody has one."
Everybody has one. She said it with total certainty. She did not know that she was making a claim about three hundred million people.
She was correct.
I have now surveyed nineteen American homes.
Seventeen had the chair.
The two that did not had a substitute. One had a stationary exercise bicycle performing the same function. One had a treadmill.
Inside I said: WHEN THE CHAIR IS ABSENT, A MACHINE IS CONSCRIPTED. THE FUNCTION MUST EXIST. THE VESSEL IS NEGOTIABLE.
I asked the woman when she last sat in it.
She said, "In 2019."
I asked what would happen if she put the clothes away.
She said, "Then I'd have to decide."
There it is again. The same word. The drawer, the chair, the same nation, the same refusal.
Inside I said: THIS COUNTRY HAS BUILT ITS FURNITURE AROUND THE PLEASURE OF NOT DECIDING, AND IT HAS NEVER ONCE ADMITTED THIS OUT LOUD.
I do not have a chair.
I have a bench at the foot of my bed.
I bought it for shoes.
There has never been a shoe on it.
There are four shirts on it and I know exactly how clean each one is and I could tell you the order they were placed there and I will not be moving any of them.
What is yours. Chair, bike, or treadmill.
I needed to move a sofa.
I mentioned this to an American. He said, "You know anybody with a truck?"
I did not know anybody with a truck.
He looked at me with real concern. Not pity. Concern. The way you look at a man who has told you he does not have a name.
"You gotta know somebody with a truck."
I asked how one acquires such a person.
He said, "You just do."
This is the third time I have received that answer in this country. It is the answer to everything here. You just do. There is no process. There is only the eventual fact of having.
He said, "Ask Kevin."
I do not know a Kevin. He said Kevin like I should. He said it the way you say a shared uncle.
I met Kevin four days later. Kevin owns a truck. Kevin does not own a truck for himself. Nobody owns a truck for themselves. Kevin owns a truck for a fifteen mile radius.
Inside I said: THIS MAN HAS TAKEN A VOW. HE DID NOT ANNOUNCE IT. HE SIMPLY PURCHASED A BED AND ACCEPTED THE CONSEQUENCES.
Kevin arrived on Saturday. He brought the truck. He also brought a second man.
I had not asked for a second man.
The second man's name is Tony. Tony came because Kevin came. Tony did not know me. Tony did not ask what we were moving. Tony brought gloves.
They moved the sofa in eleven minutes.
I offered them money. Both of them laughed at the same time, which felt rehearsed and was not.
I asked what I owed them.
Kevin said, "Buy the pizza."
That is the price. That is the entire economy. The truck costs one pizza and the pizza is not negotiable and the pizza is also not expensive and everyone knows what size.
Inside I said: THE FEE IS FIXED ACROSS THE ENTIRE NATION AND WAS SET BY NO ONE.
We ate on the floor because the sofa was against the wall and none of us wanted to be the first to sit on it.
Tony told me his daughter plays soccer. I asked if she is good. He said, "She's aggressive."
I still think about that.
Three weeks later, Kevin texted me.
"You free Sunday? Helping Tony move a fridge."
He did not ask if I wanted to. He informed me of a fridge.
Inside I said: I HAVE BEEN CALLED UP. I DID NOT ENLIST. THE PAPERS WERE FILED ON MY BEHALF.
I went. I moved the fridge. I have no truck. I contributed only arms.
Afterward, a man I had never met asked me if I knew anybody with a truck.
I said, "Yeah, I got a guy."
I have a guy.
I am somebody's guy now, too. Tony has told two people about me.
He describes me as "the guy who's strong for his size."
I have never been prouder of a sentence in my life.