Poem: "The Most Room in Your Heart"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem is spillover from the December 5, 2017 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from technoshaman, alexseanchai, and janetmiles. It also fills the "guardian angel" square of my 12-3-17 card for the genprompt_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by technoshaman. It belongs to the Damask thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.


"The Most Room in Your Heart"


There are two locks on the door
of the bedroom that once belonged
to Maisie and now belongs to
both Mallory and Dairinne.

One is a simple sliding latch,
high up toward eye level, and
the other one is the key lock in
the metal plate under the knob.

Mallory likes locks.

They are simple and
easy to understand.
They make boundaries
both clear and secure.

After all the time that
she spent sleeping on
the futon on the landing,
Mallory revels in having
a door that she can lock.

The problem is that
locks and babies
don't really mix.

Heron has impressed
on her that it's not safe
to hand over the baby,
lock her door, and then
fall asleep where nobody
could reach her in a crisis.

Nor is it particularly safe
for Mallory and Dairinne
to fall asleep together in
a locked room, just in case
something should go wrong.

And locking Dairinne in is
apparently right out, even though
it'd keep people from waking her up.

That leaves Mallory with a room
that can't (shouldn't) be locked,
and of course, in a house full of
college students, it means that
people barge in at awkward times.

After the time that Paige walks in
on them both completely starkers
because Dairinne had barfed on
Mallory and it was easier just
to shower off together and
Mallory hadn't gotten clothes
back on them yet, she's had it.

"I can't stand this," Mallory says
to Heron, waving her hands. "I don't
want to live in a house where I
can't lock my frigging door!"

"It's not the door, Mallory,
it's the baby," Heron says.

"I know, I know," she says,
"but if this happens again,
I swear to fuck I will start
boobytrapping my door.
There will be buckets."

"Mmm, let's see if we can
find a better solution than
that one," Heron says.

"Knock yourself out,"
Mallory mutters.

She wants to slam
the door in his face, but
that would definitely
wake up the baby.

How is this her life?

She used to be Farce,
a scary supervillain,
the terror of Urbanburg.

Now she's afraid
to slam her own door.

"You seem pretty upset,"
Heron says. "Do you want
to talk about it while I search?"

"It's just, there's so much more
that I have to do now," Mallory says.
"I don't mean just the practical stuff
like feeding and diapering. It's that
everyone wants me to talk about
the baby and give me advice
and it's all so exhausting."

"Emotional labor often is,"
Heron says. "Some of it
is necessary to maintain
relationships ... but you
should think about which
ones you truly care about."

"Not many," Mallory grumbles.
"You. Our housemates. I guess
your family doesn't totally suck."

"Thank you for that," he says,
and one corner of his mouth
curls into a faint smile.

"I just hope that you can
come up with something
to fix the door issue before
I snap," Mallory says.

"How about this?"
Heron asks, showing
her a product page on
his tablet computer.

It's one of those silly signs
like they have in hotels to
hang on your doorknob.

One side is pink and white
with a sleeping baby and it says,
Please do not disturb. The other
is blank whiteboard with a pen
clipped along one side of it.

"Really?" Mallory says,
raising her eyebrows.
"You think that'll work?"

"It will if I explain the situation
to our housemates," Heron says.
"It's better than a bucket of water
over the head, and they know it.
They'll treat 'Do not disturb' like
a lock except in an emergency."

Mallory snorts. "You're like
my own personal guardian angel,
or would be if I believed
in that sort of stuff."

"Well, you learned
to believe in me,"
Heron says. "That's
good enough for me."

"I need to have something
to hold onto, or I will go nuts,"
Mallory says. "I have baby things
spilling everywhere. How can someone
so tiny take up so much of my space?"

"I know new babies always require
some adjustment, but I'm still sorry
that you're having such a bad time
with this," Heron says, wrapping
his warm arms around her.

"It's not bad, it's just weird,"
Mallory says. "I feel like she's
taken over my whole life. It
drives me totally crazy, and
yet I love her so much, too.

Heron hugs her tight and says,
"Sometimes, the smallest things
take up the most room in your heart."

* * *

Notes:

"Sometimes, the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."
-- Winnie The Pooh, A.A. Milne

The master bedroom is the one with the ensuite.  It originally belonged to Maisie, who gave way to Damask, who passed it along to Mallory and Dairinne since a new baby has much need of a bathroom.

Door etiquette can get complicated, especially in a house shared with several housemates and a baby.

Door booby traps have their own trope, named for the bucket version. These instructions detail several methods. Watch videos for a tub of flour and funnel of water.

See Mallory's door sign. The front side is pink on top and bottom, white in the middle with a baby's face, and blue text says, "Please do not disturb." The back side is all blank whiteboard with a dry-erase pen clipped on one side to write messages.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

I've seen [on video] a SWAT team respect that sign [or very similar]... Granted, it was on the door next to where they were raiding... but imagine a dozen highly armed officers whispering at some drug dealer to get on the ground etc...and *shushhing* the bad guys when they kicked off. Simultaneously amusing as anything and scary.

I had to wonder just how many of them were family men though.

[technoshaman]

Peer pressure is extremely high in such an outfit...

Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That is awesome. I could totally see that happening in T-America if they weren't able to clear the area first and couldn't cancel the raid.

BASH: (whispering) "Put your hands in the air."

Supervillain: "Why are we whispering?"

BASH: "There's a 'Baby Sleeping' sign next door."

Supervillain: (raising hands) "Let's take this somewhere else."

Re: Wow!

[siliconshaman]

Henchman: (nodding vigorously) "Oh hell yeah boss. That's Mrs Wilkinson, I know her.. no disrespect boss but she scares me way more than anyone else here! She knows sarcasm!"

Re: Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

Supervillain: "I am not up for 'you wake 'em, you take 'em' so let's get out of here before somebody sneezes."

[technoshaman]

Yeah. Pooh is right. <3 Yay household with good skills, where that will work!

that door tag... I'd trust velcro more than a clip... less pointy bits, holds better. But hey. Use what you got.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Yeah. Pooh is right. <3 Yay household with good skills, where that will work! <<

They're good people. It just takes practice to adapt to changes in a household. They all get along well enough that people have been pretty casual about doors, and only locked them when they really wanted privacy. Especially that one, which used to be Maisie's, and as the landlord's daughter she tried to stay accessible most of the time. But that's the room with the ensuite, so they sensibly shuffled around to give that one to the new mom and baby, who need a bathroom most often.

>> that door tag... I'd trust velcro more than a clip... less pointy bits, holds better. But hey. Use what you got. <<

Depends on the construction. A shoddy version of both will fail, a decent version of both tends to work.

Re: Thoughts

[technoshaman]

True. I've had crappy velcro. :(

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Crappy velcro suuuuucks. >_< And there are clips that won't hold, or gouge your fingers.

Some people attach their pens with string. Currently the whiteboard on our fridge has a pen with a magnet that just sticks on the door beside it.

[chanter1944]

I love Heron dearly, but he is waaaaay too calm in this situation. I'd have blown my cork if he'd asked me if I wanted to talk about my feelings in that counselor-y way right after I'd gotten done snarling about not being able to keep people out of my damn room. Duh, Heron, <3 though you are. And why is he the one doing the explaining of the sign on the door, instead of at least tag teaming it with Mallory? It's her door. Letting the only dude in the house explain... ehh. Even though he's the one familiar with the sign, he's not the one living behind the door and getting barged in on. This feels like half Mallory's call, at least. At best, it's a case of someone with knowledge of an item preempting the person who'll be using it, which is iffy but understandable. At worst, it makes me wonder if someone might listen to Heron over Mallory, which I doubt, but still, eew.

Re: emotional labor: A lot of what Mallory's getting thoroughly (rightfully, IMO) sick of doesn't sound as much like emotional labor as it does putting up with people's well-meant unhelpful advice, platitudes, and bullshit. I'm surprised Heron didn't make the distinction more plainly. There quickly comes a point when that's plain old work not worth doing. Being a parent =/= losing your own identity separate from kid, or being modeling clay for every well-meaning soccer parent wanting to use themselves as a template.

I <3 <3 <3 you, Ysabet. I just... really badly want Mallory's roommates to have listened to the 'stay the @#&! out of our room unless it's an emergency' rule the first time Mallory said it. I'm surprised they didn't have more of a handle on that one. Screwups happen, but eesh. And for Heron to not do the counselor thing as a default--ugh. Sorry, that just squicked me in this situation. Normally he doesn't have that effect on me at all. This was just a towering case of duh, pal. Duuuuuuh, and of course Mallory can't scream 'what do you think?' because baby.

So not a parent here. Giving up that much autonomy, that much agency... This just drove it home.

[manglefox]

I'm going to agree with this.

Honestly, I think Maze& would have probably gotten it the first time, all things considered, since they know just how important privacy is, I'd think?

Also, agreeing on the fact we'd have blown our top on Heron right about then if he'd come off with that counselor stuff at me right after I had a kvetch like that. :P

[chanter1944]

Ditto on being surprised Maze& (I like this means of denoting a multiple system with a main fronter, is it common?) didn't catch on pretty quickly to privacy importance. I can see Mira really remembering this and stopping, say, Ham or Maze from barging through Mallory's closed door. Honestly, I'm a little surprised that more of the household didn't catch on, given the emphasis Terramagne places on personal boundaries. I get that these are a bunch of college girls, but as I understand it, they're taught about respect in official ways we aren't...

[manglefox]

Agreed! Exactly that.

Also, the & sign works for systems without main fronters, too. You can also say Rhymers& for instance, or if referring to a system in writing, you can also use You& though in speaking, y'all is actually easier. :P

-Mangle

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Ditto on being surprised Maze& (I like this means of denoting a multiple system with a main fronter, is it common?) didn't catch on pretty quickly to privacy importance. I can see Mira really remembering this and stopping, say, Ham or Maze from barging through Mallory's closed door. <<

I would bet that Ham is the one most consistently barging. He's blunt to the point of rude, as it seems most of the social skills went to other headmates in the split.

So, imagine that we have Ham heading for Mallory's door. If he plans in advance, that's maybe a few minutes to intervene; but if it's spur of the moment, perhaps only seconds. Now someone else has to notice that he's about to barge, decide to stop him, and either argue verbally or try to pry him out of Front. Ham doesn't pry loose easily and isn't easy to argue with either. Also, if they're used to a locked door as a no-go signal, they're probably testing the doorknob -- which if not locked, will open. That's actually a split second between turning the knob and opening the door for someone to intervene. And now they're having an argument over something outside the system, when they already had enough inside. Awkward.

>> Honestly, I'm a little surprised that more of the household didn't catch on, given the emphasis Terramagne places on personal boundaries. I get that these are a bunch of college girls, but as I understand it, they're taught about respect in official ways we aren't... <<

1) They already had a system in place, and they were fairly casual. That is, they were working with a set of shared boundaries, rather than like Heron's house with all the rooms routinely locked. It was working at least tolerably well, aside from things like Damask having split up social skills and Danielle being nosy. But then the baby came and that changed things, which did not get renegotiated in detail because Mallory is busy and tired. You're never going to cover all the details with a new baby; something always falls through the cracks and causes a problem. If you're lucky it's just a small misunderstanding like this, which can be fixed.

2) They may not have had a whole lot of time to recognize the problem and try solving it. Mallory's a supervillain. Her blowing her stack about this may have involved a handful of incidents over just a few days. If each person reacted to her snapping at them by backing off to think about, then it's not getting solved immediately.

[antisocialite_forum]

>> I like this means of denoting a multiple system with a main fronter, is it common? <<

Seen it for systems. But ask first. Non-plural people who body share, in my experience, don't like it *because* it's associated with systems and groups a lot of different people together who might not be related - since they're usually singlets but get mistaken for plurals/multiples because of the local!body-sharing, and mislabelings suck. They will get pissed when you use -&.

Max had to correct someone about it a few days ago.

- Johnny

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Honestly, I think Maze& would have probably gotten it the first time, all things considered, since they know just how important privacy is, I'd think? <<

Maze, Clarity, and Mira would. Keane, probably. Clement would, unless it sounded like someone was in distress. Ham wouldn't -- and it only takes one.

Walden probably is not part of this problem.

Danielle, however, is downright nosy and her social skills are only somewhat better than Mallory's, just a different shape of troublesome.

Paige is a different issue yet again. She's still thinking of this as a girlhouse. Some sororities are very closed door, and others leave all the doors open most of the time and girls pile onto each other's beds. She's doing the same thing she's been doing, without realizing that a recent change makes it not work so well now.

Mallory's "get the fuck out" level of explanation is not enough to fix that. A sign probably is, though it may take a few days to get the hang of a new signal. Danielle and Paige could both understand a locked door; they can figure out a sign, once they know what's up and why. Paige probably still feels bad about walking in on Mallory, but is a college girl, not a leader, and not sure of how to fix it.

>> Also, agreeing on the fact we'd have blown our top on Heron right about then if he'd come off with that counselor stuff at me right after I had a kvetch like that. :P <<

Well, let's look at his options:

* Ignore it. It's not his door, after all. But that would let the problem escalate, and escalation with a supervillain quickly gets into bad territory.

* Address it without consulting Mallory. I've seen people do this, especially a dominant person in a household. It actually can work if you guess the right solution, it can be very discreet -- but it's also high-handed and doesn't teach anyone else how to solve problems.

* Ask someone else to solve it. Since nobody in the house knows how to fix this, probably ineffective, and going outside the house is generally considered gauche.

* Call a house meeting. Probably would fix the problem, but embarrassing and people might think it's overkill. Also might be panicky for Mallory, who still doesn't feel secure in the household.

* Stand there and make vaguely encouraging noises while Mallory vents. Minimal chance of offense, but also not likely to solve the problem.

* Ask Mallory what she plans to do. This almost always makes her snap, because Mallory doesn't decide things very often, and routinely blanks when trying to think of a plan. Heron has probably figured out by now that Mallory is neither good at planning nor tolerant of being asked about it. "Well if I knew what the fuck to do, I would've done it already, duh!"

* Choose from a wide range of problem-solving and conflict-resolution options. That's everything from the EFA, kid friendship, counseling, Activity Scouts, whatever. If the first one doesn't work, there are plenty more to try. Different things will work for different people.

Heron tries the last, because he's found that Mallory may be snarky about advice but she is at least somewhat open to it because it gets things moving. He may or may not pick something that works on any given occasion. They're together now, but they've only known each other for a handful of months, and that's not enough time to know each other well. Heron is still figuring out what works with Mallory, what doesn't, what makes matters worse. Mallory is trying to learn what she can get comfortable with and what will stay uncomfortable, because she didn't like where she was at before and didn't want to stay that way.

And just to make life extra interesting, Heron is also getting to know Shiv, who has a different but somewhat overlapping set of triggers. Say "it's up to you" to Shiv and get a bitter, "Yeah, right." Say it to Mallory, and she's used to variations of "do whatever you want" -- but the result of her random choices is often awkward and occasionally dangerous. Ask her to make a decision, or why she made one, and more often than not she'll either bite your head off or fall into self-bullying.

Can you think of other things that Heron could have done? And how well would those work with Mallory's particular personality?

Re: Thoughts

[manglefox]

Hmmm. That's a very good point. I think Heron did the right thing, but was more saying that *We* would've probably blown our stack. And then apologized like crazy. :P

[mama_kestrel]

I got the impression Heron was offering to explain it to the housemates because she was too upset to communicate calmly. But yeah, that "You seem pretty upset. Do you want to talk about it?" would have me ready to spit nails too, just because it comes across as patronizing even if he doesn't mean it that way. Best I'd be able to manage would be "stop channeling your da." More likely would be a sarcastic "Ya THINK?" And I'm not nearly as damaged, frazzled or sleep-deprived as Mallory. I do remember those days, though.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I got the impression Heron was offering to explain it to the housemates because she was too upset to communicate calmly.<<

Mainly that, with a side of Mallory isn't good at explaining even when calm and rested.

>> But yeah, that "You seem pretty upset. Do you want to talk about it?" would have me ready to spit nails too, just because it comes across as patronizing even if he doesn't mean it that way. <<

This is T-America. That kind of phrase is so widely taught in EFA classes, it's as reflexive for people as seeing someone fall down the stairs and saying, "That looked like a hard fall. Did you hurt yourself?" Doesn't mean it's not annoying, sometimes, but it's common and often works because people need to vent.

>> Best I'd be able to manage would be "stop channeling your da." More likely would be a sarcastic "Ya THINK?" <<

*laugh* Oh, I bet she says both of those things sooner or later! Feel free to prompt for them. :D

>> And I'm not nearly as damaged, frazzled or sleep-deprived as Mallory. I do remember those days, though. <<

Yeah, sleep-deprived supervillain, won't this be fun?

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I love Heron dearly, but he is waaaaay too calm in this situation. <<

Heron is so calm that it takes an extreme amount of pressure to make a blip on his scale. That's just how he is. I don't know about you, but I would really rather not ever see Heron lose his shit. Because that man could lay some serious hurt on anyone who somehow managed to raise his wrath.

>> I'd have blown my cork if he'd asked me if I wanted to talk about my feelings in that counselor-y way right after I'd gotten done snarling about not being able to keep people out of my damn room. Duh, Heron, <3 though you are. <<

Mallory did. She just did it quietly because the level of (justified) tantrum she wanted to throw would have made the baby cry. And she's not happy about having to stifle her emotions like this, and that problem isn't going away in the next, what, five years or so?

>> And why is he the one doing the explaining of the sign on the door, instead of at least tag teaming it with Mallory? <<

Because Heron has the social skills to make it work without hurting anyone. Mallory doesn't. She can barely manage to fake normal on a good day when nothing's going wrong. The others are college girls: decent people, want to get along, but this is a huge change in the household and they just don't know how to handle it. They've been mostly romping in and out of each other's rooms except on the uncommon occasions that a door is locked for really private time. If you can't lock the door anymore, you've lost that signal -- and Mallory's too exhausted to think of a new one, and nobody else realized it was this big of a problem. Meanwhile, Heron has loads of experience managing public-vs-private space in a house with many people of conflicting needs.

>> It's her door. Letting the only dude in the house explain... ehh. Even though he's the one familiar with the sign, he's not the one living behind the door and getting barged in on. This feels like half Mallory's call, at least. <<

It's her call whether the idea is worth trying. She's willing to try it. She might even give people a few days to learn the new system, if prompted (or bribed). But if they don't treat that sign as a lock -- buckets. I wouldn't bet on her even using water as more than a first warning. Supervillains will prime it with motor oil or paint, and not even think about the possibility of spackling their own stuff until after the fact.

>> At best, it's a case of someone with knowledge of an item preempting the person who'll be using it, which is iffy but understandable. At worst, it makes me wonder if someone might listen to Heron over Mallory, which I doubt, but still, eew. <<

Well, Heron is better at communicating than Mallory is, he's older and more experienced in general, and she's still gun-shy about her housemates because she doesn't feel like a real member yet. So people do listen to him more. One reason Mallory turned to supervillainy is people wouldn't listen to her -- but another is she didn't have anyone to help her cope with things she couldn't handle on her own. That means, for now, her letting Heron help is a big step forward.

In the long run, though, Mallory needs to pick up some of the skills she's missing, much like Damask need to flesh out what Maisie had that they lost in the split. Mallory relying on Heron permanently would shortchange her personal growth. I don't think she likes the idea of being dependent on anyone else, so when they get past the first couple of months, it'd be good for her to think of branching out a bit.

Say, look for a class in civics, psychology, or EFA for spring semester.
Mallory: "Why do I need this shit?"
Heron: "So you won't be stuck relying on me to explain things to your friends forever. If you don't like being dependent, then you need the skills to be independent. Your choice, of course."
Mallory: *grumble* "But it's boring and stupid."
Ham: "I know, but I need to take one too, because I'm tired of having no idea what Clement is thinking or how to take over if someone knocks him flat. Remember the kittens? I remember the kittens." *shudder*
Mallory: "Well, maybe if we take it together, it won't totally suck."

And no, she won't think of the solution herself, because her parents are inept. She'll notice the problems caused by her lack of social skills, but not how to fix them. If she knew that, she wouldn't be a supervillain or have passed out drunk at a party.

>> Re: emotional labor: A lot of what Mallory's getting thoroughly (rightfully, IMO) sick of doesn't sound as much like emotional labor as it does putting up with people's well-meant unhelpful advice, platitudes, and bullshit. <<

Putting up with people instead of telling them to fuck off is emotional labor. It's one of the things that women and people of color list most often, and consistently describe as exhausting: all the stuff you do to keep other people happy, to avoid offending them, to participate in a conversation you don't even want to be in. It's expected. And it's work.

I doubt she'll keep doing it when the baby-fog wears off, because supervillain. When she wakes up in a few weeks, she'll probably just say, "I'd pretend to care, but nah, I really don't and also I need to get to class." It's easier for people to get away with this when she's half-asleep all the time.

>> I'm surprised Heron didn't make the distinction more plainly. <<

At the moment, he's just trying to solve the immediate problem of replacing the social function of a door lock with something more baby-safe. However, more discussion of this point is welcome and would be good for Mallory too.

>> There quickly comes a point when that's plain old work not worth doing. Being a parent =/= losing your own identity separate from kid, or being modeling clay for every well-meaning soccer parent wanting to use themselves as a template.<<

Absolutely. But there's a range between "doormat" and "fuck off."

>> I <3 <3 <3 you, Ysabet. I just... really badly want Mallory's roommates to have listened to the 'stay the @#&! out of our room unless it's an emergency' rule the first time Mallory said it. I'm surprised they didn't have more of a handle on that one. Screwups happen, but eesh. <<

They're college students. The baby is cute. They're used to unlocked doors in this house being more accessible. And Mallory not only has poor social skills but is half-asleep because new baby. I doubt she said more than, "What the FUCK? Get out of my room!" Which is clear in terms of the desired action in the moment, but not an explanation or a renegotiation of door etiquette.

Learning to identify a problem, break down it causes and components, and work out a solution -- test it, revise if necessary should it not work the first time -- those are all life skills. Mallory hasn't done great with that stuff so far, although she's getting better.

>> And for Heron to not do the counselor thing as a default--ugh. Sorry, that just squicked me in this situation. Normally he doesn't have that effect on me at all. This was just a towering case of duh, pal. Duuuuuuh, and of course Mallory can't scream 'what do you think?' because baby.<<

Sorry about that.

>> So not a parent here. Giving up that much autonomy, that much agency... This just drove it home. <<

Yeah, I get that.

Honestly, Mallory isn't all that suited to parenting either, but she is determined to do it. That's going to be a huge adjustment for her, it is a bumpy ride, and nobody is going to handle it with perfect grace.

Things like this are why almost every superhero show that introduces a baby will get rid of it within the same episodes, because a baby changes everything around it. Which is the part I find the most interesting. How does a supervillain handle being a mother? How does she make up for the fact that her parents were lousy at it? How does she handle the fact that her more-experienced backup people seem very weird to her? Clumsily.

But she hasn't quit yet, which puts her ahead of other parents who ditch their kid at a safe sanctuary and walk away.

If you want to dig into this stuff in more detail, feel free. You certainly raised some valid points.

Re: Thoughts

[chanter1944]

... Okay, I'm with mama_kestrel here. Heron really, really needs to stop channeling his father. I get that he's EFA trained and super competent and I do love him for it, but if anyone framed a civics/whatever other prosocial class that way to me, embarrassment over having somebody else explaining shit to her friends+needing to belatedly be taught shit that little kids customarily learn+the 'your choice, of course, but this is totally the right thing to do and you'll see once you stop being stubborn and do things my way' ending, I would blow my top. Holy crap, Heron. Do not do this. More widely, nobody do this. You will likely (not for sure, but likely) do inadvertent damage, no matter how frazzled the person is, no matter how pure your intentions, and no matter how badly they need to sort out whatever issues they have. Resentment and shame help no one, unless somebody likes that sort of thing.

And I get that some phrases are as reflexive as the post-sneeze gesundheit in Terramagne, but in this instance, it still rode the line between helpful and plain obnoxious. I'd have likely let loose with something like "Ya damn well think, Counselor Troi?"

Re: emotional labor: Yep, that's a pile of bull disguised as work. I don't deny that it's work. But it's bull. Please, can Mallory rightly lose her sh*t at someone over this some time? she's earned it, and so have women/POC/WOC everywhere, and I know you'll do it justice. Bard with excellent claws over there. :) This could potentially fill Mallory's very real need to lose it once in a while. Emotional stifling because kid is necessary, but holy craaaaaap it sucks, and it's about time 'life isn't fair' was not the end of the discussion.

Re: supervillainy and party drunkenness: Uh, whoa. On the one hand, iffy social/life/whatever skills do explain those things. On the other, yikes victim blamey! *blinks*

I do <3 <3 <3 you, Ysabet, just so we're clear. I'm not trying to tear you down. I took issue with a specific... well... issue or two, but not with you.

[manglefox]

You know. I was just thinking about door etiquette about an hour ago. Apparently the system has door etiquette here for people's personal rooms.

For my crew though, we all share a single pizzeria, with some quiet rooms in the back that are not customer-facing areas as we have people here who don't want to deal with customers or can't for various reasons. Some of them just duck into those quiet rooms for short periods of time. Others have specific rooms that are ours, and all of us have places to be after hours, too mostly.

We all have places for ourselves, and though there're no doors per se, except on the non customer-facing rooms, restrooms, kitchen and the like, we still do follow etiquette. If someone looks like they want to be alone, we ask them and respect their answer.

However, system as a whole does have more standard door etiquette, complete with signs in some cases. It's important, even in a system who all share one body to have privacy and respect from all parties involved.

Hm. Maybe we should write down all our house rules some time. It'd be an interesting read if nothing else. If I wasn't trying to finish nine articles in a day right now I would.

[manglefox]

Ok. So, I personally had a couple things I wanted to bring up/wondered.

Firstly, this is a great story. I still think Mallory should seriously arm her door with buckets of water. :P Except, knowing her luck one would fall on her head!

Secondly, something I've always wondered. Do Maze&'s housemates know they're a system? I'm assuming they do, because of differences in posture/body language/etc, but I had to ask because I'm curious.

Thirdly, not trying to be a nitpick here, but shouldn't that be "The room that used to belong to Maze& since there isn't a Maisie anymore?

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Ok. So, I personally had a couple things I wanted to bring up/wondered. <<

Okay ...

>> Firstly, this is a great story.<<

Thank you!

>> I still think Mallory should seriously arm her door with buckets of water. :P <<

She will if her roommates don't respect the sign. I think they they will, but if someone forgets ...

>> Except, knowing her luck one would fall on her head! <<

Mallory has Luck Powers and a decent memory, so she could probably avoid that.

>> Secondly, something I've always wondered. Do Maze&'s housemates know they're a system? I'm assuming they do, because of differences in posture/body language/etc, but I had to ask because I'm curious.<<

So far, very few people know. Most folks just think that "Maisie" has mercurial moods. (This is true of many multiples.) One of the things I'd like to cover over the summer, prior to this point, is Damask talking with Dr. G more and eventually telling Maisie's parents what happened.

I don't think the housemates know yet. How many of them Damask tell will depend on a lot of factors.

>> Thirdly, not trying to be a nitpick here, but shouldn't that be "The room that used to belong to Maze& since there isn't a Maisie anymore? <<

It was Maisie's first, and later Damask's. I'll see if I can clarify that.

Re: Thoughts

[manglefox]

OH! Ok! I thought they knew. If they don't, then that makes a lot more sense of the way it was worded. Thank you for the clarifications, and oh gosh yeah, we've been accused of that. Mercurial as a hatter.