Editing Falling Oak Avenue (section)

===Post Office or Big House===
The Post Office is the standard fourth length, where a post office with mail streaming out falls slower than other debris and blocks the Finder's way until cleared. Either a red envelope can be found in the stream of mail, which opens the door at any time, or the door can be manually opened at specific times listed on the post office's window. The times refer to how long the Finder has been on the Path, not what time it is in any Earth time zone. The door or window can also be broken, which will allow passage but makes all the falling Lost hostile for the duration of the run and actively chase the Finder.<ref>'''Fourth Length - Post Office'''<br><br>Not necessarily a 'length' or checkpoint, exactly, the post office obstructs one's fall, falling at a slower rate than the Finder, until bypassed. One must either find or grab the red envelope in the storm of mail that flows ceaselessly from the falling Post Office, which prompts the door to open, or get to the door and open it at a precise time, relative to when they entered the path. The times are marked on the window by the door (for example, 7:30 means one must have been on the Avenue for seven minutes and thirty seconds). The door can be broken open or the post office broken into, for quicker passage through, but this provokes one of the six Lost Others on the Avenue to chase the Finder until they finish the Path. That Other will remain hostile.<br><br>Can take anywhere from a minute (red letter or breaking in, plus time to get there) to four minutes (waiting for the office to open again). The envelope can be kept. Every red letter one owns will have money in it at regular intervals. This money can be anywhere from a value of half a penny to roughly one hundred dollars, in a seemingly random currency. It is always the same amount and currency type for a red envelope, and always appears on Thursdays at one of the times the post office was set to open. Even a 'bad' red envelope can be a desirable object for Lost for future encounters. - [https://old.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/hp8xmw/_/fy8jyl6 Wildbow comment on Reddit]</ref>

The alternative fourth length is the Big House, reached by grabbing a bird on the third length. The bird's head movements will control motion instead of the Finder's, and the bird will take the Finder to a big house. Inside the big house, the shelves can be pulled out of a drawer to exit Falling Oak Avenue early and enter the Common's Thread.<ref>“Water tower, bell, birds, post office-”<br><br>“Water tower, bell, birds, big house,” Avery said, reading the page.<br><br>“Big house?” Jude asked.<br>[...]<br>“Yeah.  Um, ring the bell, catch a bird immediately after.”<br><br>“Okay,” Jude said.<br><br>“Is that wrong?  Is there- Jude, you gotta tell me if I’m telling you something you didn’t know.”<br><br>“We ring the bell and get reoriented and hurled through a danger zone.”<br><br>“Okay.”<br><br>“And that takes us to the post office.”<br><br>“Apparently catching the bird takes you to the house.  I don’t have notes for the post office.”<br><br>“Okay.  Starting to see why your way is rated only a three out of ten or a three out of seven.”<br><br>“I grab a chest of drawers or wardrobe and bring it with me.  Pull out the drawers, go through, and I’m out.”<br><br>“Out.  Right.”<br><br>“Being very very careful not to touch the floor.”<br>[...]<br>Normally, recognizing the bystanders or birds meant moving on to the Post Office, according to Jude.  But it was a dangerous transition- there would be a warning, and then instant death by collision, if the person warned wasn’t careful.  Turning one’s head would mean the direction of the ‘fall’ would change abruptly, and this was often very dangerous.<br><br>But it was the bird that turned its head.<br><br>The bird dictated the change.<br><br>And they started to fall toward the big house.  The crow looking around meant the direction of the fall kept changing.<br><br>Navigating them readily past the intervening obstacles.<br><br>The house was in shambles, partially destroyed, but the sheer number of fragments made it dangerous.  If any of those were floor-<br><br>Avery moved carefully, using a number of spell cards she’d have considered wasteful before, to blow away and get rid of dreck.<br><br>She spotted a chest of drawers, went to it, and hauled the drawers out.  It created an aperture, dark inside.<br><br>Turning upside down, relative to the aperture, Avery glanced at Jude, then climbed through. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/03/06/gone-and-done-it-17-10/ Excerpt] from [[Gone and Done It 17.10]]</ref>