Living Next to the Fourth Wall

Living Next to the Fourth Wall: A sequel to “Moving In Next Door to The Fourth Wall.”


So, I was enjoying myself living in the strange apartment building.  I decided that the place wasn’t all that bad.  The guy who I heard yelling in the hallway the day I moved in is Harvey Finevoice.  He’s a lounge singer, and is a really nice guy.  The guy who had locked the door on Harvey was 90’s Kid.  He was also the one who blasts Nirvana at weird hours of the night.  He’s pretty cool, but he’s perpetually stuck in the 90’s.  The Linksano guy was once an evil mad scientist, but he’s a friend of Linkara’s now.  The two guys that I saw as I was walking out of the building were Spoony and Dr. Insano.  Spoony is a pretty cool guy, and he’s awesome at Tekken.  Dr. Insano’s like Linksano, but slightly more unhinged.

All in all, it was a good choice deciding to live here.  I became friends with Linkara, he’s the nicest person in the entire building.  From the moment I met him, he was the coolest person ever.  I was walking in the apartment building, and I ran into him again as he was leaving.

“Hey, what’s going on Linkara?” I asked.

“Nothing much.  Hey, can I ask you for a favor?” Linkara asked.

“Sure, what is it?” I replied perplexed.

“I’m going to a convention this weekend, and I’m taking Harvey with me, and I need someone to keep an eye out on the apartment.” He said.

“What about Linksano or 90’s Kid?” I asked.

“Well…” He said. “That’s what I am worried about.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Linksano is going to be performing maintenance on Comicron-1 all weekend.  And I don’t really trust 90’s Kid alone.  Last time I left him alone I came back to find him on a sugar high.  He was asleep for a week after that.” Linkara said.

“Oh sure.  I guess I could check in every so often.” I said.

“Great! I’ll give you a key to the apartment before I leave.” Linkara said excitedly. “I really appreciate this.”

“No problem.” I said.

The rest of the day was uneventful and I returned to my apartment to relax.  As if on cue, as soon as I sat down on my bed I heard “Smells like Teen Spirit” start to play. I had learned to fall asleep to it.  It became sort of a daily ritual. I woke up the next day, and as I was making breakfast there was a knock at the door. I went to answer it. I opened the door and Linkara was standing there with a suitcase, and Harvey was behind him checking his watch.

“Hey Linkara!” I said.

“I’m about to leave, here’s the key.” Linkara said handing me the key.

“Got it, so check in if I hear anything weird?” I asked.

“Yep, I have to head out now. Good Luck.” Linkara said.

“Have fun!” I said and closed the door.

I sat around for about a half hour, then I heard a crash from next door.  I got up, walked out and went into Linkara’s apartment.

“90’s Kid? You okay?” I yelled into the apartment.

“Yeah dude! I just dropped something.” 90’s Kid said. The something turned out to be a box of Sega Genesis games. He sure had a lot of them.

I looked around the room, at a bookshelf. I saw a bunch of stuff in there, comics, toys, a group of three books stood out. I pulled one out. The title said “Angel Armor: Just a Boy” and the author was “Lewis Lovhaug”.

“Who’s Lewis Lovhaug?” I asked 90’s Kid.

“Uh, well. It’s a pen name.” he said.

“A pen name for who?” I asked,

“Linkara, but don’t let him know you saw those. He’s sort of embarrassed of them. It’s sort of why he changed his name.” 90’s Kid said.

“Are they bad?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“Well, you know the movies they have on Mystery Science Theater 3000? How they’re really bad?” he started.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“That’s how the books are, except they’re decent reads. I’ve read them a few times; I really like the main character Louis. He’s radical!” 90’s Kid said.

“They look interesting enough, I’ll read them and then return them. I want to read these.” I said.

“Sure, who knows, maybe you’ll like them.” 90’s Kid said.

“Anyway, want to play some Genesis?” I said looking at the box of games.

“Totally dude!” 90’s Kid said and picked up the box. “I’ll dig out my second controller!”

I followed him into the next room and sat down next to him. I picked up a controller and he popped in a game. It was “Wolverine: Adamantium Rage”.

“This game is bodaciously awesome!” 90’s Kid said. “Linkara hates it though.”

“Okay, I’ll try it.” I said.

…

Needless to say, that game was hard. I got angry at it and slammed the controller down.

“Damn it!” I said.

“Calm down dude, let’s play something a bit more relaxing, like Sonic 2.” 90’s Kid said popping the cartridge in.

We played to a while and it was a fun experience. We had been playing a pile of games together for a long time, when we heard a chime from the other room.

“Hold on dude.” 90’s Kid said walking out. He returned a few seconds later. “Sorry dude, I gotta go up to the ship.”

“No problem, it was fun hanging out. We should do it more often.” I said and walked out the door and back into my apartment.

The rest of the weekend was uneventful, I read the Angel Armor books and returned them to 90’s Kid the next day and Linkara returned a few days later. I ran into him while he was coming back into the building.

“Hey Linkara! How was your weekend?” I asked him.

“It was fun, did a live show, met a few people.” Linkara said.

“How about your weekend, Harvey?” I asked.

“It was okay, I did a show, saw the Q&A at Linkara’s panel. People just keep asking about the gun, don’t you explain it at every show?” Harvey said.

“Yeah, but I like it when they ask me questions like that.” Linkara said.

“Anyway, I gotta run, see you later Linkara and Harvey!” I said as I walked out of the lobby.

“See you later!” Linkara said.

I walked down the block and thought to myself as I had a few months ago. I really do like it living here.