When Azure arrived at the company building it was obvious something was off, both with the little blue Imaginary Friend and the staff in the building itself. A dark cloud seemed to hang over everybody and unfortunately both parties were so engulfed in their own clouds that they did not notice those of the other party's.
For the last few days the company founder had been showing up earlier than usual and leaving later. He had been scheduling more meetings as well, though he hardly spoke a word throughout many of them. Nobody had really thought much of it at first, but as such behavior persisted and worsened those whose jobs frequently brought them in close proximity to the founder could not help but wonder what was causing the shift. Regrettably even Azure did not truly understand the cause. He knew that he did not like being at home despite the fact that he had all the material possessions he had ever desired and instead preferred to be at his office surrounded by his numerous employees. At the same time he only felt worse being surrounded by his numerous employees. It was like there was a hole inside of him, deep and dark and cold, that he could not seem to fill no matter what he did.
It felt similar to what he had been feeling the first night he spent at Foster's. He had been missing his best friend and longing to see him again. This new feeling was akin to that longing in certain ways, but completely alien in many others. Azure wished he knew what it was. If he knew he stood a greater chance at fighting it off or fixing it. Even if he could not it would still be nice to have a label on it.
Reaching his office, the blue blob pulled the door open and entered, not bothering to flip the light switch to illuminate the room. He slowly slinked over to his desk, carelessly flopping down on the office chair and looking over the papers scattered about the desktop. Most of it was errant paperwork he needed to organize and sign so his assistant could take it downstairs. Some of it was designs from the marketing team for a new ad that he would need to look over and choose from. The only things still in a neat stack were a few letters. His assistant had probably dropped off his mail earlier. The blue Friend reached over and picked up the letter stack, looking through the mail with disinterest.
"Scam, Scam, Coupon, Scam- Wait. What's this?" Azure paused, looking at the last envelope left in his hand, the others having found their way to the floor as he carelessly tossed what he deemed as junk mail aside. The letter he was still holding was different from the others. The envelope was of higher quality and was stamped with some kind of official seal he did not recognize. The blob haphazardly tore it open and withdrew the crisply folded paper from within, unfolding it to see what it had to tell him. It read:
"Azure, after receiving several complains in regards to you and your company a legal dispute had been opened, investigated and settled. It was brought to our attention that you are an Imaginary Friend. Being that you are not human you are not protected by this country's laws and have no human rights. As such you cannot legally own a business in this, or any, country. After much careful deliberation the judge that headed your case decided to give you an option to either become a human being or give up your company, rather than just seizing control of your company away from you. Make your choice within three days' time and report to your local court house with your decision. Should you decide to give up your company or should you fail to comply with these instructions legal action will be taken against you and your company will be taken."
All he seemed able to do was stare at the words in disbelief, mouth agape. The letter had been sent to him by the Supreme Court. He had never even been made aware of any complaints or disputes. Did "no human rights" mean he was not even entitled to know when he was being investigated?!
Azure glowered at the parchment and read it over again. This time once he had finished he crumpled up the page and threw it at the wall, shouting in rage as he did so. Then he got up, picked it up and threw it again just for good measure. He went to pick up the wad of parchment once more, raising his arm and pulling it back, getting ready to through the ball of paper at the wall yet again, but then he let his arm drop as his enraged expression slipped back into melancholy and apathy. Azure let the crumpled page drop to the floor and sighed.
All the fight had simply drained out of him as though somebody had pulled a stopper and let it all sink into that dark void inside his heart. Getting angry and throwing paper around was not doing him any good. It certainly would not change anything.
The thought of going over to the court house and kicking the judge in the shin momentarily flitted through his mind, but was quickly sucked into that void along with everything else. Instead he sighed and skulked out of his office towards the elevator. He had three days to make a decision, the gravity of which had not fully impacted him yet.
The blue "sheet ghost" did not stop or pause as he was walking by his assistant's desk. He simply instructed her to call for his car and informed her that he would be gone for a few days before taking the elevator to the ground floor. As it descended he watched the numbers count down. and down. And down. And further down still. It would just keep falling until it hit rock bottom. At this Azure sighed, thinking 'You and me both…'
