[Indigo]

François was bored. Thwip hadn't arrived yet, so he was going over the list of Thwipisms and waiting. He'd also sent a letter to Indigo's friend Wolfie asking her to send a random pet over to talk to them. At the moment he was sitting on the front steps of the apartment building and being yelled at by other people who lived there for blocking the stairs.

He scribbled "trippendicular" on the list and smiled. He'd have to work that one into a conversation sometime.

Thwip was annoyed. He really shouldn't have been this late, but he'd needed to clean up the random paint splatters that had somehow turned up in his room at the Treehouse. He wasn't sure how they'd gotten there, but he suspected Romulus. Whatever. Anyway, François had better not be making that list--

"Hey!" he yelled, and ran through the small groups of people between him and the building, tackling François just before he put the list away. It fluttered into the street. They scrabbled for it for a few minutes before François wriggled out from under Thwip and pocketed it. "Ha."

"What are you sitting out here for?" Thwip asked.

"I'm waiting," François said. "I sent a letter to Wolfie. She's going to send some random pet down here. Indigo's been bugging me about it for a while. She says we don't meet enough people. So...I invited some stranger over, basically."

Thwip stared at him. "..."

{1-1} [Click pictures for human forms.]

[Wolfie_Barrow]

Toak scratched his head, blinking at all the people around him. Why he had agreed to come here, he still didn't know. He never spoke anyway. Why had Wolfie wanted him to go so badly? He would never understand her, even though he'd lived with her for such a long time...

He wasn't even quite sure who he was looking for. He walked up to the apartment building nearest him and, realizing that he'd had a small vision of seeing this place, stood outside to wait. He watched two men fighting over a pad of paper and then having a conversation. He thought they looked familiar, but then again, Toak was probably just remembering them from the same vision he'd had involving the apartment building. It didn't mean they were the people he was supposed to meet. It just ment that he'd finally had a normal vision for once, instead of a morbid one like usual.

What a relief.

[1]

[Indigo]

François carefully ignored Thwip's pointed stare and watched the crowd. He noticed a somewhat confused-looking teenager and guessed that this was who they were waiting for, so he got up and waved. Thwip grabbed his arm and pulled him down.

"What?" François gave him a strange look. "I'm not...It's not like I'm calling over a serial killer. I think that's who we're waiting for."

"You don't know that," Thwip replied.

"Since when are you paranoid?"

"You're a spaghmeedjet."

François got out the list again, wrote that down, and quickly shoved it in his pocket. Thwip sighed through his nose and got up. "Well, if you're going to call random strangers over in case they belong to Wolfie, I'm going in." François tossed him the keys, and he walked into the building.

{2-2}

[Wolfie_Barrow]

Toak noticed one of the men waving at him and stood, unsure of what to do. He took a few steps and swallowed, looking around. How could he be sure that this was who he was meeting? He took another unsure step forward.

"Are..." he tried to speak but his voice was faint. It was a little squeaky from lack of use. He coughed, clearing his throat. "Do you know who Indigo is?"

He mentally kicked himself. He could barely hear his own words, how could he expect the man to? He looke down at his feet, feeling his face heat up. Why must he be like this? Why did he have to have such horrible visions that left him so vulnerable and mute?

He hated waking up from seeing something bad enough to make anyone else throw up, covered in cold sweat, feeling like he was going to suffocate. He hated trying to find his balance, the world spinning around him, trying to grab onto something to keep him from falling over. He hated it, and he couldn't even find his voice to tell others what he saw.

He looked back up at the man and hoped he wasn't making too much of a fool of himself.

[2]

[Indigo]

François smiled. "Yeah, I know who Indigo is. I don't technically live with her, but my...uh, friend Thwip does on weekends." He walked up to the door, punched in 06 on the keypad, and waited for an answer.

"Hello?" Thwip's voice sounded odd and static-y over the intercom. "Look, we don't accept solicitors--"

"It's me," François interrupted. "Can you come down? I think it might help."

There was a pause. Then, "Did you--"

"No."

"Oh." Another pause, then a click. A few minutes later, Thwip came through the door. "Hello. I'm Thwip. I, uh...I...hi."

{3-3}

[Wolfie_Barrow]

Toak nodded at them, his way of greeting someone. He wasn't really sure what to do so he just stood there, staring at a spot on the door.

He wondered once again why Wolfie had chosen to send him. She knew he never spoke. She knew it was hard for him to socialize. She knew he hated meeting new people. Even though the two men were being kind to him, it was still awkward standing there not knowing what to do. He wasn't going to speak anymore, that's for sure. At the moment he was fine, but if he actually started talking, he might start sobbing about some of the things he's seen, some of the horrible, gruesome things he's had placed in his head.

He coughed as a wave of memories washed through his mind. He tried to push them out, to make them go away. He wasn't very good at doing things like that, so he focued harder on a small bug crawling on the door.

He hated having visions.

[3]

[Indigo]

Thwip and François stood there for a few moments, at a loss for anything to say. Then Thwip, in a disturbingly happy sort of voice, suggested, "Why don't we go inside instead of standing here staring at each other?"

He turned and pushed open the door to the building, not bothering to check if the boy was following. François glanced back and then went in after him. They walked in silence toward the elevator, where Thwip pressed the up button viciously. There was an awkward silence.

"Why?" Thwip asked, finally.

François shrugged. "Because Indigo keeps telling me I'm not open enough. Apparently I need to meet more people, which means that you're kind of stuck doing it too. Unless you want to move in there full-time."

"Fine." Thwip stepped into the elevator as soon as the doors opened.

{4-4}

[Wolfie_Barrow]

Toak followed Thwip and François to the elevator, then stalked them into it. He wondered why he'd let Wolfie convince him to come here, when she knew so well he hated meeting people and never spoke. Well, almost never. He'd spent a very long time cocooned in a web of silence, and making him come here to meet the two men was torturous.

He shoved his hands into his sweater pockets and sighed, silently wishing that he was at home and that he didn't have to socialize with these people. He hated socializing in general, with anyone at anytime. The only one he was even remotely okay with talking to was Chouko. And he once spoke to Wolfie. But anyway.

What was he supposed to do? Learn sign-language in five minutes? Like that would ever happen. He shook his head and continued staring at the floor of the elevator.

[Indigo]

Uncomfortable silence. Then, "We're beer." Thwip stepped out of the elevator and unlocked the door to apartment 6. François grinned and pulled the list of Thwipisms out of his pocket.

"Wha--hey!" Thwip tackled François as the door to the latter's apartment swung open. François stuck out his tongue. "Look, it's for your own good. For instance--get off." He shoved Thwip off and proceeded to perform what is generally known as an "armshelf", at least to people who say such things. "What do you call this?"

"An, um, armshoulder?" Thwip blinked, then closed his eyes. "I mean--"

"See?" François got up and went into the apartment. Thwip followed him, grumbling under his breath.

{5-5}

[Wolfie_Barrow]

Toak blinked. Were these two always so strange? Sure, he was used to this, considering the fact that over half the percentage of people he lived with were weird, but he hadn't been expecting for the people he was to meet to be weird. It made the whole thing just a little bit easier to handle.

He stepped into the apartment and looked around, curious. He'd never really been in a house before, since he lived in a cave with Wolfe and everyone else. A rather large cave, too, and sometimes he got lost and actually had to use his voice to call out for someone to come help him. It was kind of annoying, but then again, he didn't  have to interact with strangers that much when he was out in the wilderness.

So, curious, he gazed around in wonder.

[Indigo]

Thwip looked around, taking in the familiar sight of the apartment. The walls had recently been repainted, but he hadn't seen them yet because François insisted on covering them in random items, like that purple trenchcoat suspened over a giant orange metal tuna. He tended to collect weird stuff. The bed, for example, was covered in a patchwork of multicolored cat-shaped fabric scraps, and the headboard was shaped like a dolphin sticking its tongue out. Thwip generally slept on a mattress covered by random shredded fabric that rested on a platform François had rigged to lower out of the ceiling, since it was a studio apartment.

"The walls are yellow and swirly, if you were wondering," François said from behind him. Thwip jumped about ten feet and then went over to sit on the bed. "So why keep them covered?"

"Because otherwise I'd have to put all my junk in storage."

"You know, it would be much neater if you did."

"The only way you get rid of that stuff is by burning it."

"That might not be such a bad idea--hey! I was kidding!" They rolled around on the floor and flailed for a couple of minutes, then remembered that they had a sort of guest. They got up and dusted themselves off with sheepish expressions.

{6-6}

[Wolfie_Barrow]

Toak blinked and felt a small smile cross his face. In the back of his head he thought, Chouko would like this... I should have brought her. But Wolfie had been firm in that he was to go alone, no matter what. He was still confused as to why.

He let his eyes fall on the two men before him and began thinking about the fact that he was supposed to actually socialize with these people. He swallowed hard and coughed again, clearing his throat. He made sure nothing would slip out as soon as he opened his mouth and said, in his quiet voice, "Tea?"

It was the only thing he could think of to say.

[Indigo]

Thwip opened and closed his mouth like a fish, then shrugged. "We don't really have any way of making tea--oh, except that." He tilted his head at the teapot on its small shelf on one wall, the bright orange one with a banana painted on it and a tomato-shaped candle stuffed in the spout. "Just take that out. François?"

François sighed and, with some difficulty, removed the candle from the spout. He dropped it on the shelf and carried the teapot into the very small kitchen in which everything was green and had mushrooms on it. After a few moments, there was a click and François returned. "So. Uh. What do we do until the water boils?"

Cue awkward silence.

{7-7}

[Wolfie_Barrow]

Toak shoved his hands into his pockets and fiddled with a bit of lint that was there. He glanced between the two men, wondering what he would do then. He didn't want to speak again- he'd spoken more in the past thirty minutes than he had in the past two years before meeting these people. He'd like to escape, to just rush out of there and into the comforting warmth that was his home, but that would be rude, and Wolfie probably wouldn't be happy about it.

He spotted a nearby chair and sat down in it, burying his face in his jacket. He had no idea what to do next.

[Indigo]

François looked as though he was about to say something, but he was cut off before he'd even begun by a loud squeal from the kitchen. It sounded rather like the noise you would get if you set a pig's tail on fire...for some reason. Thwip sat down on the bed and clapped his hands over his ears. "Make it stop!" he shouted over the horrible noise.

François ran into the kitchen. The squealing stopped. There was the sound of pouring liquid, and he returned, grinning sheepishly. "Sorry. I forgot it did that." He glanced over his shoulder. "So, it has to steep. Yes. Uh..." He walked over to the boy--who was he anyway? François needed a name to assign to him.

"Something wrong?" he asked quietly. "What's your name, anyway?"

Thwip sighed and leaned on the wall, slightly to the left of a statue of a mountain of cabbages. Rainbow cabbages. Hm.

{8-8}