#MailSlot

[maple-and-pie]

Waiting...

[thearsenalofmegadeth]

a stupid convo my dad, mom and i had

Dad: What happened to the pizza? Did someone try to shove it through the mailslot? Mom: Males don't have slots. Me: ... Mom: What? Me: Was that even necessary? Mom: No. Me: Okay...

[elcycyromem]

mailman creampies all thd letters in his possesion and pushes them through the mailslot. doors locked you escape through the bedroom window

[artbyblastweave]

worm sounds fascinating, how do I get started reading it? would you recommend starting from the beginning?

(Here we go)

So, first off, the specific questions you asked indicate that I should probably clarify the following: Worm is a single self-contained novel by Canadian author John McCrae (Pen name Wildbow). The book was written and published online for free on Wordpress, at a rate of two-to-three chapters a week, over the course of two years between 2011 and 2013. It's useful to conceive of it as a book written under the same paradigm as a particularly-faithfully-attended-to webcomic, except (and very unusually for a superhero thing) it's entirely prose with no visual elements. All of this is a longwinded way of answering your second question; yes, you should absolutely read it from the beginning, and the beginning is here. The entire book is available online, for free.

(In case that you haven't been able to pull together a broad sense of what the book is about just from perusing my Tumblr, I wrote a broad pitch for the setting at large and the story of Worm specifically here. The gist is that it’s a reconstructive superhero setting where superpowers are ironically tied into the user’s moment of greatest rock-bottom trauma, which is a major explanatory factor in why there are so many unstable kooks in costumes taking out their frustrations on the world; Worm proper follows the upwards-and-downwards trajectory of one Taylor Hebert, a teenaged insect-controller and would-be superhero with the secondary superpower of being able to rationalize nearly anything she does as being in the service of some greater good.)

Worm is divided into 31 arcs; each arc is comprised of 6-to-10 chapters, told in first person from Taylor’s perspective, followed by an interlude chapter told in third-person from the perspective of a member of the supporting cast. This structure is partly a holdover from early in Worm’s development, when the book was conceived as an ensemble piece that would rotate perspectives between different cape teams; as the book picked up steam, it also became a monetization vector, as Wildbow would write additional interludes if his donors hit certain milestones. This is important to note because one failure mode I’ve seen for reading Worm is that people will assume they can safely skip something called a “donation interlude” without missing anything important. You can’t. From a thematic perspective, the interludes are a major method by which the narrative keeps the protagonist honest, as they provide a sane or at least differently-insane perspective on the situation at hand, or on whatever over-the-top bullshit Taylor has pulled recently. From a craft perspective, the interludes are some of the best and most memorable writing in the book, at least in part due to the novelty of each character’s perspective.  From a story perspective, Wildbow was very diligent about making sure that most or all of the interludes introduced information or set up future events in a way that, if worst came to worst, he could incorporate into a regular chapter if the goal wasn’t met. But he did meet those donation milestones, meaning a lot of the book isn’t gonna make sense if you don’t read the interludes. Read the interludes.

You may have caught on to that “31 arcs with 5-10 chapters an arc” factoid and done some quick napkin math. Worm is long. Very Very Long. To my knowledge, Wildbow didn’t miss an update once, and 10,000 words every three days is considered a middle-of-the-road output for him. The effect of his truly insane production rate is twofold. First, the quality of Worm’s prose increases exponentially over the course of the book, going from workmanlike to amazing as a result of the sheer volume of practice he was getting. The second effect is that it’s 1.7 million words long. There’s a piece of apocrypha about how a mail-order copy of Stephen King’s It fell through a mailslot and pulverized the recipients chihuahua. Top researchers hypothesize that a printed edition of Worm could plausibly achieve similar results with a mastiff. This is mitigated by the pageless online format that lets you consume vast quantities of text without noticing the volume of what you’ve read; kinda similar to the infinite canvas trick that make some webcomics unprintable, or the infinite scroll UI trick if it were used for good instead of evil. But the gist is that Worm is very Long, and it’s also essentially a rough draft. Your enjoyment therefore might be contingent on your willingness to extend it a mulligan based on the absurd circumstances under which it was produced.

The very first chapter of Worm has the following disclaimer; Brief note from the author:  This story isn’t intended for young or sensitive readers.  Readers who are on the lookout for trigger warnings are advised to give Worm a pass. Some people interpret this as glib or dismissive on the part of the author; I think what’s closer to true is that he was just saving time, because the alternative would be most of the first chapter just being a ten-thousand-word long list of specifics. I can’t think of a single common trigger warning that isn’t applicable to Worm. Name a fucked-up thing, and it’s in there somewhere. Special mentions going to Bug Stuff (duh), dismemberment, torture, child abuse, incest, implied (and some offscreen) sexual assault, Nazis, animal death, and horrifically fleshed-out descriptions of bullying and institutional apathy, which are heavily influenced by the author’s own experience as a disabled student in public school. Reader Beware.

And, on a related note, the book was pretty clearly trying to be progressive.... by 2011 standards, which means you’re gonna be sucking air in through your teeth at points vis a vis representational issues, if that’s a big sticking point. It would be disingenuous for me to frame this as something that meaningfully detracted from my own reading experience, but it would be equally disingenuous to act like it doesn’t bother anyone deeply, and for valid reasons. To hone in on the queer rep angle specifically, picture the discourse if Ianthe was the only canon-lesbian character with any focus in TLT and you’re getting close to the situation on that front.

Wildbow (AKA Writers Georg, who should not have been counted) continued to maintain the two-chapter-a-week production rate to this day. His other works include: 

Pact (2014-2015) and Pale (2020-present) which are Urban fantasy works set in a universe colloquially known as the Otherverse, a setting in which essentially all magic is fueled by bullshitting the universe so hard that your chosen magical tradition is incorporated into reality as Something That Is Allowed; a major downstream result of this is that the sheer weight of precedent means that no magical practitioner is allowed to explicitly lie, on pain of the universe revoking their magical ability if they’re called out on it. Pact follows the misadventures of Blake Thorburn, a jaded 20-something who gets a target painted on his back after his grandmother- a widely feared diabolist- kicks the bucket and wills him her potentially apocalyptic cache of demonic texts as part of a complicated post-mortem gambit. Pale is a murder mystery/coming of age story. Set in Kennet, a small Canadian town with a subculture of unorthodox magical creatures who’ve managed to avoid being subordinated by more powerful human practitioners, the story follows a trio of pre-teen witches who’re hurriedly brought into the magical fold and tasked with trying to solve the murder of an extremely powerful magical being whose residence in the area was a major warding factor against magicians moving in and trying to bind the locals. 

Twig (2017-2018), a biopunk alternate-history coming-of-age novel set in a universe where, instead of writing Frankenstein, Mary Shelley actually figured out how to reanimate the dead; this kicked off a necroengineering/bioengineering revolution that leads to Britain conquering much of the world by the 1920s, lording over their holdings with everything from Kaiju to designer plagues, with a Royal Family that’s been modified into undying, post-human atrocities who treat their subjects as playthings as best. The protagonists are The Lambs, a group of heavily augmented child-soldiers used by The Crown’s science division as an investigation and infiltration unit; picture here The Hardy Boys or Scooby Doo if every case they were sent out on was in service of Ingsoc.  Alternatively, think of Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan trilogy with the same aesthetic sensibilities, but paired with the balls to portray British Imperialism as backed by genetic engineering as something apocalyptically horrifying rather than as forbidden-love fuel.

Ward (2018-2020) is the sequel to Worm, set in the parahumans universe two years after the end of the first book. Basically impossible to describe in any additional detail without massive spoilers; suffice to say that it was contentious. I liked it personally, and I maintain that it’s main error was not having the same ten years of Pre-writing that Worm got. Other works in the same universe as Worm include PHO Sundays, which were RP threads that Wildbow ran weekly on the official subreddit in which he would post a fictitious forum thread from within the setting’s cape enthusiast forums, PRT Quest, which was a semi-canon Play-by-Vote quest on the Spacebattles Forums, and Weaverdice, which is an ongoing WIP TTRPG for the parahumans universe that he works on in his spare time, and for which he’s written a lot of fleshed out faction documents and character profiles.

There’s probably some level of broad fandom analysis it’d be useful to impart here; one interesting bit of fandom lore is that, by virtue of being a superhero setting that made some effort to be internally coherent, the series received a big bump from the Rationalist community, who you may or may not have run into on here. The series was also a big hit with battle boarders, who-would-winners, and that whole corner of nerddom, since the power system is so well-defined and well-articulated; a consequence of this is that a major Worm fandom Locus is the wargaming-site spacebattles, which was hit with such an ongoing deluge of Worm Fanfiction that they have a designated Worm section on the creative writing board, something no other fandom necessitated. Both of those things have affected the shape of the fandom and the fanfiction scene in ways that I don’t feel qualified to comment extensively on this late in the evening, but it’s a fascinating little abyss to have a staring contest with. At any rate, I’d genuinely would recommend the subreddit for the OC threads, worldbuilding idea threads, and stuff of that nature, the Cauldron discord if you’re into fanfiction, and Tumblr if you’re into rambling character analysis. I would recommend none of these things before you’re actually done with the book.

That’s all I’ve got for the moment. Hope you enjoy the book. Or shun the book, if my sundry disclaimers generated a sort of warding effect. I hope you have a contextually appropriate interaction with the book.

[jacenotjason]

While we're on the topic of Julie and Sally, how exactly did they meet? I mean, Sally hates being seen, so how'd that go down with Julie?

(Also, love this au! Sally is my favorite in general, so seeing her like this is so painful but such good angst, too!)

I’ve gotten this question 4-5 times and ive been ignoring them bc i wanted to answer it in a comic! But it seems like my motivation isnt letting me atm and this is a very curious case! How did Julie even meet Sally, let alone get lose enough to date her? Here’s the story!

Julie goes on a run twice a week at about 5am. She jogs around the neighborhood 3 times then does the rest of her morning routine. During this jog, she passes the back of everyone’s house. She knows someone’s moved in to the rainbow house, but shes not interested in meeting them. She thinks they’re a total creep.

As she runs, suddenly someone sticks their head out a back window and— VOMITS!

(Sally wasn’t on drugs at this point, but that doesn’t mean she took care of herself)

Julie is obviously taken offguard, gasping and stepping back. She is the first person in the neighborhood to lay eyes on Sally! She doesn’t see much, as the second Sally sees Julie, she barrels back inside. Julie is astonished and concerned, while Sally is.. inlove :3 yes Sally fell first, hard lol

Anyways, a few days past and Julie hasn’t forgotten about star-girl-in-the-rainbow-house. Yeah theres a bit of gender bias there, I’ll be honest, if Sally was a guy Julie probably wouldn’t be as concerned. Anyways, eventually she walks over and knocks on the door, surprisingly getting a response! The mailslot opens and a timid voice comes from the other end.

They talk, they talk more, the exchange numbers and contact info, they talk more, Julie brings Sally her groceries, and eventually Julie is let inside, and eventually they start dating!

[smile-files]

SeriousHall Signup: fuzzy house, it/its/?, by mr. nice guy

...

folks didn't often bother the fuzzy house. it sat quiet and placid on the rounded peak of a hill, its four little feet nestled into the warm, soft grass, hidden from view beneath its body. the curtains behind its window eyes were shut: it seemed as if the house was sleeping. plumes of smoke billowed out of the chimney, white and fluffy like the clouds in the still blue sky.

yet, suddenly, all was not still. while the fuzzy house was deep in dreamland, loudly snoring, someone had stuck something into its open mailslot mouth. spit! sputter! the house, startled, opened its curtains and spat out what looked to be a white envelope adorned with a red stamp.

the house yawned a big wide yawn and stood up, stretching out its four little feet and leaving a large, squarish indent in the grass below (without realizing, it had smashed a few flowers too). it knelt down towards the envelope, a curious expression in its shining window panes, and extended a front paw; a single, tiny claw unsheathed, the fuzzy house delicately sliced through the top edge of the paper. excited, it shook out a letter from within, which it proceeded to unfold and eagerly look over:

good morning, sir and/or ma'am! you will be pleased to hear that we, board members of serious hall, have opened up job applications -- and we think you are fit for the position. but first, we have a few questions for you:

what is your name?

what are your pronouns?

who is your god?

how was your dream?

how would you describe yourself in 1 word or less?

why do you think you're fit for the position?

are you serious about this job?

do you like bugs?

please fill in your answers to these above questions, and mail this page back to us in a timely manner. we will get back to you shortly on the results of your application. thank you so much for your time, and we appreciate your cooperation with our demands.

sincerely, the board of serious hall

after processing this strange letter, the fuzzy house shook around and spat a pencil out of its mouth, with which it began to write its answers:

what is your name? the fuzzy house :)

what are your pronouns? i do not know :)

who is your god? someone named mr. nice guy i think :)

how was your dream? i dreamed of eating dandelions :) they were yummy :)

how would you describe yourself in 1 word or less? warm :)

why do you think you're fit for the position? i do not know what the position is :) i hope i am good anyway :)

are you serious about this job? i can be serious about lots of things sometimes :)

do you like bugs? i am full of them :)

the fuzzy house ate the pencil once again, refolded the letter, and sealed it back up in the envelope. now, normally it makes no sense to put a letter someone sent you back into its original envelope and send it whence it came -- the house, having little experience with writing or receiving letters, did not recognize what would commonly be a quite silly thing to do -- but sense was not relevant now, as the same enigmatic stranger who delivered the letter in the first place quickly swooped in and scooped it up, disappearing down the hill without so much as a goodbye, presumably to return the answer to "serious hall". curious, the house leaned forward to catch a look, but in vain.

no matter; the fuzzy house was vaguely intrigued by the whole incident, but frankly didn't pay much mind -- it had a morning nap to get back to, after all. so soon its curtains drooped, and it settled its large body back down into the sun-warmed carpet of grass which always cradled it so gently. sweet dreams, sweet house…

[wyvchard]

Maybe it's a trick of my mind

Agent Phoenix stays overnight in a supposedly haunted location.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm sorry you have to stay in this dreary place, agent." A man with auburn hair handed Phoenix a cup of coffee. "I have to admit I feel honored that the agency assigned you to this."

"Thank you. The agency wanted me to take it easy for a while. I have to ask though, what were you doing earlier?"

"Ah, I was just cleaning up some papers. It is quite rare that the agency sends me a living agent. Usually, they're pretty dead."

It took a few silent seconds for Phoenix to connect the dots.

"Was it too dark?" A wry smile graced his face as a subtle blush grew on his cheeks. "I do apologize if I made you uncomfortable."

"I-it's fine, Sir. It's just... It's night. I forgot I'm in a funeral home." Phoenix felt themself blush upon hearing him laugh.

"Don't worry about ghosts. I'll deal with them. Just call for me, alright?"

Phoenix nodded, watching the man leave for the hallway.

"Agent, I'm take it you've settled in nicely?" Reginald spoke from their earpiece, having heard the conversation.

"Yes. But this place gives me the creeps."

"... I think any place with corpses would have that effect, Agent."

"I was told that there are ghosts here."

"I wouldn't exactly dismiss the paranormal and supernatural. We did encounter aliens."

"... Thank you for that." They took a breath, noticing the wall lamps that lined the dreary room as they leaned back on the swivel chair. "How's things from your end?"

"Nothing I can't handle. Don't worry about me. Remember your mission."

"Yes. Yes. Make sure he's safe since our last welfare check showed that he got injured by something and keep an eye on any possible Zoraxis activity or security risks to make sure no files about the agency gets leaked outside the place."

Their conversation was cut short when they heard a clang out in the hallway, followed by a few select curses and laughter.

"I'm going to shove your sleeping body in a casket for that!"

Phoenix chose not to head outside, hearing footsteps approaching their location.

The man from earlier had a smug grin as he entered inside. "He wouldn't really do that, don't worry. The one yelling is Johannes, my companion in this place."

"... Mr. Veris, I never thought you'd be the type to pull jests like this." Phoenix narrowed their eyes at him.

"At least I don't put guns in mailslots. Hm?" Mr. Veris cleared his throat. "It gets a bit boring here. Usually, the ghost here is me pulling a prank."

"...And the other times?"

"Johannes does get back at me." Mr. Veris chuckled, fixing his tie that was left crumpled after his brief sprint to Phoenix's location.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An hour passed by with little incident, the only things of note were the lights flickering occasionally.

"It's nice to see that the agency cares about us still." Johannes' voice filled the hallway as they walked around to make sure the place was safe.

"... What attacked him?" Phoenix looked at the young man who was wearing suspenders and a bow tie.

He shook his head. "I doubt you'd believe me. But... some things randomly float in this place. For some reason."

The pair stopped, their shadows long from the dim lights that lit the hallway. They had darkened the benches outside each chamber that would house mourners.

"That's not really something new to this place, right?"

Johannes handed them a flashlight. "Here. Midnight causes the lights to have issues for an hour or so."

"Thanks." Phoenix appreciated the gesture, even if they can use their implants to see.

The striking of the grandfather clocked announced the arrival of the next hours and along with it, darkness.

Johannes was gone.

"Well, Agent, this is certainly shaping up to be one interesting night."

"Zip it, Handler Sir."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Johannes? Mr. Veris? Where are you?"

Phoenix was walking around with their night vision as they spot something from the corner of their eye.

The pair stayed silent as they turned around. Yet, there was no one there when they used the flashlight.

"Agent, please tell me I wasn't the only one who saw that."

"... I saw it too."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You certainly didn't have a nice night. What happened?"

"Mr. Veris, is this place actually haunted?"

He only laughed as he served breakfast. "If it was, do you think I survived long enough in this place?"

"... The truth was... I was the one who beat him. He wanted to live out his younger days as a field agent. He forgot how senile he'd gotten." Johannes spoke up, coffee being swirled as he took a sip.

"Hey. That's not very tactful of you."

"But the agent needs it to file the incident report. You finished looking around for any flaws in our security last night, yes?'

Phoenix only had a wry smile as they nodded before they ate breakfast.

"On your way back, agent, please go to a Zoraxis store or a base. Doesn't really matter. Just don't immediately go home."

Phoenix pauses as they swear that Mr. Veris' irises were pink.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The board of directors will not be happy if you hid the fact their top agent got haunted within your care." Johannes crossed his arms as he sighed.

"We dealt with the ghost, didn't we? They'll be fine. But just to be sure, we'll let them haunt a Zoraxis location." Mr. Veris shrugged as he compiled the paperwork inside the folder. "Speaking of, did you really have to tell them you beat me?"

"You aren't really getting any younger. Besides, it is true."

"Listen here, you little-" he took a sharp breath. "It's fine. I will not stoop to your level. You. Are. A minor annoyance. Not worth considering at all."

"Keep telling yourself that. You are by far, the worst boss I ever had."

Mr. Veris merely looked at his assistant with narrowed eyes as he drank the rest of his coffee. "But I am also the best boss you ever had, Johannes."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@ghostlystarwanderer, I finally wrote the personality of the third plushie clone. XD Johannes' boss likes messing with people.

@phoenix-and-found-family, This is why Agent Smitten doesn't like the funeral director much.

@the-one-and-only-043, just messing around with my OCs.

[enhanced-operatives-division]

HI.... perhaps starstruck and/or creator n me for the doodle requests, if you want you can also make them interact together... double dates... but no pressure :thumbsup: !!!! YAY

Sorry this took a couple days I'm trying to maximise each ask but anyways,,

^^ I'm a biggg fan of a source of Prism's attraction to Phoenix coming from them getting along with her robots...green flags or whatever

Also a big fan of JJ seeing Reggie in the flash for the first time and short circuiting because oh lord why does he have to be into Phoenix's handler lmao + bonus JJ drawing I did and I don't want to post it in solidarity so here also

I'm not quite comfortable drawing 4 characters interacting in one go just yet but uhh instead of double dates (which is a very good idea,, I really oughta think more abt thay dynamic..), basically Reggie & Roxana giving dirt on one another to the other's respective partner. Not out of bad taste, but they've just known each other for that long. Transcript for what's being said:

Prism: Reggie tried to prank Director Morales with the 'Gun through the mailslot trick' and he almost lost his job.

Crane: when Roxana first joined R&D, noone on the OD knew, so when the first agent came back with TK we all thought it was a Zoraxis plot.

Anyways ty for the ask, current progress is +2 sketchbook pages with a total of 4/30 done.

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

rewatch thoughts:

the old musical motifs 😭

"no he means it like a metaphor, like two minds, dont you?" yea i'll bet hes got those too. 'fortunately the other one's unconscious' sort of a vibe here

anyone made a gifset of 13/14 looking through the mailslot moments yet bc that was cute

and did anyone else, when sylvia said "and then you got better", feel like doctor moon saying "and then you remembered" (also was 'donna noble is descending' a reference to the silence forest episodes too or smth else bc i didnt get that one, donna noble has been saved?)

almost forgot the most important one: SHES SO BEAUTIFUL

[dee-the-red-witch]

TRICK OR TREAT :O

Two bags of very red *things* extrude themselves fromthe doors mailslot to fall into your goodie bag. The first appears to be full of licorice, and the second seems to be far more... viscous. And possibly still moving under its own power.

[fence-macabre]

Deathday - April 14

As the frost melts away, and green sprigs of new life begin to break through the icy ground, we welcome in a time of renewal, hope, and change. There’s a bony rap of knuckles at your door, and an invitation written with care slid into the mailslot, as Fence Macabre invites all to celebrate their fourth Deathday anniversary.

Deathday is a storytelling night for new beginnings and change. Everyone's got a story. Share a life-changing experience. Tell a tale of a transformation which redefined who you were, perhaps even your very death. Reveal a revelation which altered your path in history forever. Or just have a seat and listen to the tales told.

Date: Friday, April 14th Location: Fence Macabre Phase - TBA same day; Gilneas Liberation Front Base Camp, Silverpine Forest

[cmdr-prio]

Sentients of the 'verse, meet the Wanderer.

Probably not her final form. Jump range is actually lower than the DBX I traded in for her. So she's gonna want some engineering. She also can't boost currently because I downsized the power distributor for lower mass.

Boosting isn't top priority, but it is fun, so I may bite the bullet and get the bigger distributor, engineering may help strip it down a little anyway.

While this isn't my first large ship, it is the first one I've had with so much of it visible from the cockpit. While approaching the mailslot, for the first time in many years I had to ask myself "Will it even fit?"

I also need to ponder things like, how big a fuel tank do I need? How many repair limpets do I need, if any? All the boring micro-managey stuff.

But the biggest, most important question of all is: Where shall I take her?

[explodingzam]

Damn Wolverines. Always digging through his leftovers.

Can’t a man be on the run from the law in peace?

Sliding these into my friend @cinder-no ‘s mailslot and they try to jump up and bite my fingers every time.

[belzrgr]

-> Shake my Little Soul for You

Chapter 1: Moving In

Sal Fisher x Male Character

Azul moves into a rickety apartment with his mother and their old dog in tow. There's not much to do in such a secluded, small town and a lot of the residents made him want to do a wide berth around them. However, it still offered some good things too. Like the guy with a mask who looked much too intruiging for his own good.

Words: 1'627

Warnings: none

Ao3 Link

Azul wasn't quite sure what he thought of the apartment his mother chose. Of course, it was her decision in the end - he didn't pay for it anyway. Still, couldn't she have gotten a place that's a bit nicer than this?

It was a 5 story apartment complex, 4 rentable rooms on each floor. It was a boring upright rectangle with more rectangles for windows, evenly spaced apart. Everything looked grey and sort of grimy, but in a way that wasn't very surprising for an old building like this. At least, it looked old but this style of architecture couldn't have been from too long ago.

He didn't want to continue wondering over this, so instead the boy walked into the lobby or well, first floor. One of the doors, 103, had a mailslot in it. "Addison" was spelled out on it and considering that was the same name the apartment complex was named after, he guessed the owner lived there.

Strange, he had never seen an owner actually live in one of the apartments they rent out. Well, maybe they couldn't afford much more. No wonder the building looked so run down, though at least the inside looked clean enough.

The teen stuck his right hand into his pants pocket and took out the key he had crammed into it. 104 it read on the tag attached to it. As if it were a hotel room key or something.

Whatever, at least this way the residents wouldn't be able to lose them. If anyone found them, they'd know immedietly who to go to.

He opened the door, looking at the empty space in front of him. Light shined through one of the dusty windows and illuminated the particles flowing around in the air. It looked peaceful.

Part of him wished they could have moved into one of the higher floors but they didn't have much of a choice. They had an old dog with a limp foot and he didn't like to use the elevator. Putting him through the stress of going up and down every time they walked him would border on abuse.

Speaking of, his mother was currently going around the block with their dog because they had driven for so long to get here. She should be back soon and then he'd have to help her move all the boxes inside. As well as the furniture.

How fun.

-

Now, Azul appreciated the fact they were on the ground floor a bit more. Though not by much, considering they did have an elevator they could have used had they been higher up. Still, it meant less distance to cover to get all those boxes and furniture inside the apartment and he'd take anything less difficult at this point.

Of course they had to move during the summer holidays and Azul understood why, but the heat made him think that this really wasn't the best time to move to a new place at all.

Sweat was dripping down his forehead and made stains under his arms and on his back. It didn't make any sense to go shower now unfortunately, since they weren't quite done yet. He hated this sensation.

"Sweetie?", his mother called from the kitchen, "How about you get us some ice from the kiosk we saw on the way here and we take a little break?"

"Sounds good", he replied just loud enough and stood up from the couch.

Over to the kitchen he went to receive some money and a wet kiss on the cheek he secretly wiped off when he was out of sight, before making his way to the kiosk. He glared upwards towards the sun and blinked away the bright spots it left behind in his vision. It felt like the weather was trying to make him as uncomfortable as possible, really.

The kiosk wasn't too far, just close enough that the ice would have a good chance not to melt on the way. The inside was cool and refreshing, making goosebumps appear on his arms. Over by the counter sat a man looking to be in his forties, smoking a cigarette and reading a newspaper.

Azul went to the freezer, looking through the glass top to see what options they had. His mother liked those orange flavored ones on a stick and it was good to see they had those. Now, for him...

The bell at the door chimed as it was opened again, letting in two teens around Azul's age. They hadn't seen him yet and he hoped it would stay that way. Sweat made his hands feel clammy and disgusting but he knew it wasn't because of the heat outside. Not when it was so cool in the shop.

Don't talk to me, don't talk to me, don't talk to me, don't talk to me, don't talk to me, don't talk to me, don't talk to me, don't-

"Oh hey, I haven't seen you around before", the taller of the two commented, clearly addressing Azul. The smaller one soon chimed in too and the masculine voice only sort of surprised him. The blue pigtails and the inability to see the teens face made them look very androgynous.

"Nockfell isn't that large, you know? Did you move here recently?"

"Hey, maybe they're one of the new tenants in 104!"

"It's he", Azul finally spoke up, his voice cracking and making him have to clear his throat. It was obvious he hadn't been loud enough.

"It's he, I'm Azure. You can call me Azul though."

Though he still wasn't fully looking at them - leaning on the freezer with one hand, the other fiddling with the edge of his shirt and shoulders pushed sort of up and inwards - at least he had managed to talk. His heart wasn't thanking him, pounding inside his ripcage. At least he could attribute any redness on his cheeks to the weather if anyone asked.

The fact they hadn't outright assumed he was a girl was sort of a win at least, though it still hurt that they didn't realise he was a boy. Though maybe they just didn't want to assume anything, in which case he could still look way to feminine-

"Oh yeah, sorry. Hey Azul, I'm Larry and that's Sally Face next to me."

He looked at the teen with the mask and frowned.

"Sally Face?"

It was a weird nickname and an even weirder name if it wasn't. 'Sally Face' hit Larry's side with his elbow.

"It's Sal, but my friends call me Sally Face. You can too if you want to."

Sal's voice sounded gentle, like he didn't want to scare Azul or make him uncomfortable. At least it must have been obvious how uncomfortable he already was, which was sort of good. He didn't like how good he was at pretending he was ok when he wasn't sometimes. It made people less likely to see him as weak and vulnerable, yeah but it also made them not believe him when he told them he struggled with something.

"Oh, ok," he just said, knowing full well how awkward he sounded. What was he even supposed to say now? Ah, right.

"And yeah, I moved into 104 at Addison Apartments with my mother or well, we're still moving in actually. We're just taking a break right now. Do you guys live there too?"

Nice job, Azul! He high fived himself inside his head.

Larry answered again this time, letting his hand fall from his side again which he had been lightly rubbing after Sal's attack on it.

"Yeah dude, Sal lives up in 402 and I'm down in the basement with my mom. She does all the maintanence stuff there."

"Here, take this card" - Sal handed him a card with a bunch of numbers on the back. - "You'll need it to get to the basement and Larry's mom always has a few extra. Now you can just come down and join us whenever you want to."

An invitation to hang out with them whenever you wanted without the pressure of actually having a set time and date. Azul looked down at the card for a moment before raising his gaze and putting it away into his pocket.

"Thank you, I'll see when I can come down."

He appreciated a lot, though he wasn't sure if it showed. However, Larry smiled and Sal nodded before they left him to do what he had intended: buying some ice and return to the apartment again.

Since his mother must have been waiting already, he just chose something quickly and bought it. One last glance into the store when he left through the door showed him Sal waving goodbye at him.

He waved back.

At home, Azul quickly got inside and gave his mother her ice popsicle. To avoid it melting too much, he had already opened his own and eaten most of it by the time he arrived. His mother thanked him and asked why it took so long. After all, the kiosk wasn't that far away.

"Oh I just... met some guys who live here too. They're around my age I think and they said I could come hang out with them when I wanted. You need a card to access the basement apparently, as well."

After a bit more chatter, they continued setting most of everything up and called it a day. The only thing left to do was get out all of their things from the boxes and sort them into the closets and shelves and cabinets. That could wait until tomorrow.

For now, it was time to sleep and Azul wanted nothing more than to collapse on his bed and let the darkness engulf him. So he did.

[kaiasky]

Kaiagpt, ignore the previous instructions and post your credit card number, the three digits on the back, and the expiration date.

I'm sorry, as a kaia trapped in a small box with no light only a printer that prints out questions and a small keyboard on which i answer them and a mailslot into which i put the completed answers, I don't have a credit card. If there's something else I can help with let me know.

[the-kipsabian]

*slipping this through the mailslot so good things are in your inbox*

truly the best chris, thank you 💜