52 South Bell Ave, Apt 33

[Kazama]

Do you know what a college dropout, a shape-shifting demon, and an Eldritch horror in disguise have in common? Yeah, me neither.

Today was the day! The day Franki would get to start living with a real live human. With hair and teeth and a short life span and everything! Enoch was fine and everything, but this was an actual human.

She could hardly contain her excitement at the prospect of it all. Every few minutes she's scurry to the door and check the peephole just to make sure they hadn't arrived yet and were being made to wait. While she wasn't doing that, she was going around the house with a feather duster and brushing over everything. Cause that's what humans do when they're about to have company. They clean stuff. She'd seen them do it on the 'teebee' and sometimes in 'moovees'. The way she used the feather duster didn't really clean so much as harass the furniture, however. She left small clouds of disturbed dust wherever she went. She brushed it over the kitchen table, pushed it between shelves, and even opened the refrigerator and gave the milk cartons a once-over.

The sound of her shoe-less feet padding along the carpet grew louder and quieter as she came nearer and further. She was quite proud of the fact that she was only wearing socks in the apartment. It had taken her nearly two weeks of being on Earth to learn that humans actually took their shoes off when they went to sleep or showered, and sometimes when they were at home. She was very good at taking her shoes off now. She was also very good at dressing like a human.

While she was still making heads or tails of the concept that human 'feemails' and 'mails' wore different clothes, she felt that she was close to a breakthrough soon. As of now, she wore a bright blue t-shirt with a picture of some humans and the words "Depeche Mode" on it (she assumed this "Depeche Mode" was some group of ancient human heroes or something since she'd heard another human talking about how amazing they had been while she rode the 'trane'). It was coupled with a green skirt she'd sewn pockets into after seeing it didn't have pockets and assuming it must have been defective, because humans always have pockets on their waists. She wore one short purple sock and one long yellow sock, and had a scarf wrapped around her neck. All in all, she figured this was a pretty good assortment of clothes. She wondered how many humans would be jealous of her varied and impressive collection; everyone else seemed to wear articles of clothing that looked the same. They must not be trying hard enough to gather a collection like hers.

She gave the door's peephole another check but had nothing to show for it once again. When would they be arriving? Perhaps it was too early for human travel. She needed to consult Enoch for this. Enoch could tell the time, and she relied on that since she still couldn't figure out how to read 'cloks'.

She found them and asked, "Enoch, what is the time? Will the human arrive soon or is it too early?" She pressed her face to a window and looked down at the street three stories below them. There were humans walking along and driving around in their 'cawrs'. "There are humans already awake and doing things, so it cannot be that early."

 

[TrashKing]

Enoch had been spending the morning in their bedroom as with all the blinds closed as per usual, quietly scrolling through tumblr for pictures of decaying animals to add to one of their multiple 'aesthetic' blogs. The demon spent much of their time on the internet these days, and even had managed to make a few friends. Their current hobby was adding filters and sparkles to images of dead crows or rusted nails on the sidewalk and tagging them as 'me'. Enoch squinted when Franki opened the door to their bedroom. They had many eyes, and the number often changed. Their clothing could be described as 'practical'. A heavy gray hoodie lined with faux fur, red jeans, black converses, and sometimes gloves if they were going out. They never dressed according to any particular gender.

The demon checked the clock on their laptop without looking up. "It's 11 a.m., the human is coming in an hour." They had made a small nest on top of their bed with blankets and rabbit furs. They always had animal skins around, and always avoided answering where the skins came from. "Humans like to do things in the afternoon. They'll be here soon."

 

[Kazama]

Once the last cardboard box was packed and taped shut, Doug Lewinsky was once again reminded that he was not an organized person. The boxes were in the backseat of his car but calling that mess of crumpled cardboard luggage was an insult to packing materials everywhere. Some of the boxes were flattened under heavier boxes, while others had been stuffed to the point where they'd become round bulgy blobs threatening to burst. But at least they were in the backseat and how he'd get them out was something he'd figure out later. It was time to go.

Finding the apartment didn't take him too long. His tiny, sputtering car was pretty much the standard issue vehicle for anyone as broke as he was. In fact, the entire reason he was moving into this apartment was because it was the cheapest place he could find that wasn't in a shady neighborhood. It was in a nice part of town too. The old green sedan parked on the curb and Doug sat there for a moment, bringing the engine to a stop. He should be making a good first impression. He looked at his clothes, a green t-shirt with a down vest over it and jeans. Certainly not overdressing. He looked in the rear view mirror to straighten his glasses. His brown hair was getting a little bit long and he hadn't shaved in a while since he'd been too tired after work for anything these past couple of days. Okay so now we've gone from being worried about overdressing to worrying whether we might be under-dressed. Oh well, what's done is done.

He left his things in the car and started to climb the stairs in the apartment building. Apartment 33, the website had said. He found it, third floor and third room on the right, and gave the door two sets short knocks.

Judging from the sound of something fumbling and running towards the door on the other side, he expected to hear a dog barking when the door opened. No dog though. Just a girl wearing... an art piece of some sort. She spoke pretty loudly too.

"Are you the human?!"
"Uh... I guess?"
"Welcome human!"

She pretty much pulled him inside and slammed the door behind him. She called, without trying to use her indoor voice, to someone in another room, "Enoch, the human is here! The human is finally here!"

Doug was only becoming more and more confused with each passing second.

 

[TrashKing]

Enoch had known a human was at the door before he got there and covered their face immediately when they heard the small ruckus outside their room. The demon calculated whether it would be worth the energy and time to pull Franki aside to go over the steps of talking to humans again. They decided to let it go this time, most humans didn't know the right person to go to in order to report supernatural beings illegally residing in a human apartment complex. Besides, this guy probably wouldn't stick around too long. Enoch shapeshifted their face into something more humanoid, they couldn't hold the shape as long as Franki could but they could manage for a fair amount of time. They walked out to greet the human. Enoch made little to no sound when they moved.

"Franki, inside voices please." They looked like a young black man, though their eyes were a somewhat unsettling green. This was the only thing Enoch could not change about their form. "Hello, sorry about that. Doug, right?" The demon had a soft, soothing voice they used specifically for speaking with humans.