2019-07-15 - Chance Meeting Under a Bridge

Cole, who had been out attempting to clear his head from nights of no sleep and haunting visions, had come to pause by the pond to take a break when the rain started coming down and the lightning flashed over head. He broke out at a run for the bridge that arches over the pond. Glancing out from underneath, the thunder rumbles overhead.

Strangely enough, Cole does not find a troll under the bridge. No, he finds a tall young woman in a sunny yellow t-shirt that sports in bold letters that THIS GIRL IS ON FIRE with little flames licking off the letters; her jeans and boots are wet, but she hardly seems to mind. She might not even be noticed at first until she leans slightly in toward Cole to also peek out from under the bridge. "Huh." Then she beams at him. "Hi."

Cole wasn't expecting to find someone else under the bridge, and given the tension that's been running through him the past couple of days, his first reaction is to jump and let out a strangled sound that might have been a shriek if he were not attempting to stifle it so hard. He stares at her for a moment, but when she doesn't turn into some sort of skeletal creature from beyond, he takes a breath and lets it out slowly. "Oh.. hi.. sorry."

That surprised reaction causes Astrid to laugh, smothering it out against her palm. Then she smiles, head tilted to one side in an inquisitive way. "It's alright. Bolted for the bridge when it started to rain." She crosses her arms lightly at her chest while she looks out at the flooding storm. "You know, most storms don't just kind of show up like that. Must have been a weird change in the barometric pressure, or something." Beat. "I'm Astrid." She offers him her hand easily enough; there's dirt under her fingernails and some softened callouses.

Cole takes a deep breath or two, letting it out shakily. He looks a little bit worn around the edges, and damp, but mostly worn. He smiles, though, a friendly if wan smile, and then takes the offered hand, giving it a friendly shake before releasing it. "Cole," he says, by way of introduction. "Yeah. I thought today was going to be nice, but no, that would have been asking for too much." He rubs at his face a little bit. "Nice to meet you, Astrid. Out enjoying uh.. what was the nice weather?"

A bit of worry traces into her brows, cinching them together and causing her mouth to settle into a frown. "Hey, you okay, Cole? Not used to a storm or something?" It's a casual ask, but there's some there too-- concern, concern that has been coaxed to the surface with her conversations with Alexander and then Easton, and so she finds herself drawn in faster and more uneasily into the weird. "Yeah, um. Oh! No. I was doing some field work out here. I'm an ecology student over in Hoaquim, and I'm studying manmade ecosystems."

"Yeah, sorry, been a rough week," Cole says. One of his hands is bandaged up, though it doesn't seem too serious, the bandage light and seeming more just to keep contaminants out at this point than anything else. "You hear about that little girl that disappeared? I was one of the folks that found her in that fucked up house." He smiles a bit faintly then, but his interest seems to be piqued when she mentions fieldwork. "Oh, that's pretty cool. Is this area man-made?" He has no idea, being new to the area. "I don't think I would have noticed."

"Looks like," Astrid says with a helpful upbeat. She takes in the bandage with a half-tilt of her head, and then she's back to smiling at him-- though it's a quick-lived thing that melts away into something serious. She licks at her lip and nods. "Yeah, heard about that." Then her eyes widen. "Oh, dude, um. That's rough. Did you, like, know her or something?" His comment of the pond has her glancing toward it and she nods. "Yeah, the pond. All manmade. Manmade ecosystems are fascinating, because you want to--" She's about to launch into a full tirade of nerd, and she blushes as she stops herself, perhaps chided to not be quite such a nerd to someone you just met.

Cole glances down at the bandage and then laughs, actually looking a little bit embarassed as he lifts his mostly-healed paw. "Oh, this.. this was a cooking class accident." He chuckles. "I've been kind of off my game. Tried to catch a knife that was falling -- blade first. Pro tip: don't try that." He shakes his head though when Astrid asks if he knew the little girl. "No, I didn't know her. My roommate and I went out to the house to take a look around since we just kind of felt drawn there, and the cops weren't still searching it. When we went in there were bloody handprints inside and kids' laughter, and this.." he pauses and looks at her. "Yeah, I know.. I sound nuts. Sorry." He shakes his head, cutting off the story there. Instead he lets out a sigh and looks back out over the pond. He glances over at her when she suddenly stops. "Because you want to what?" he asks, prompting her to continue.

"Oh." Astrid actually laughs, holding her hand against her head in her own embarrassment. "Um, sorry. I assumed. But yeah, definite pro tip." Then she takes a breath, listening more closely despite the heavy fall of rain. Her frown settles back in. "Drawn there?" She tightens her lips together. "No. Um, I mean, it sounds nuts, but I was told yesterday that the woods are not the same woods, so I'm pretty much psyching myself into believing that spooky haunted houses might be legit." She tilts her head, rubbing her hands along her hips. "Oh, um. You want to make sure you craete something self-sustaining, or you end up doing a lot of maintenance. Like keeping a fish tank." She hesitates before she steps forward, gesturing at him. "Here, if you like, I can, um, I can fix your hand." Beat. "If you want."

Cole laughs a little bit, too, some of the tension easing from him when she does. He shakes his head when she apologizes, smiling a bit more warmly. "Yeah, like, we just felt like we needed to be there, to check it out, to try and help in some way. The house, or something in the house, said that she belonged to /them/ now, somehow, and I just couldn't give up and leave her there, even though we couldnt' see her. We could hear children's laughter. I knew she was there, somewhere. Someone who was with us said that she was.. part of the house. But when we went back, there she was.. hungry and wan.. but there, and she ran right up to me and this other guy, and I just grabbed her and got the hell out of there while this fucked up creepy deathly thing tried to come after us." He gives a bit of a shudder at the memory, then asks, "The woods are not the same woods? The same woods as.. what?" He looks out into those self-same woods a bit dubiously. That is, until she offers to fix his hand. His eyes widen a little bit and he asks, "You can do that?"

Astrid blinks in surprise at Cole's description of the house. "Um. Yeah, that sounds right out of a horror movie. Part of the house?" Then she looks bewildered and gasps. "Wait, you saved her? Is she okay?" There's a press to her words, a want to know more. But then he's distracting her with the question of her abilities, and she feels a small little smile edge into place. "Yeah." She holds out her hand to his. "Really, promise... it's a safe thing."

"It was pretty much right out of a horror movie," Cole confirms and then says, "Some of us are going to meet up next week to kind of.. talk about what we found out about it. Lyric, that's my roommate, and I are pretty convinced that there must be other children still in there somehow. I am pretty sure we heard laughter from more than one kid, and there was very definitely what looked like a ghost girl watching as we were driving away the first time." He offers out his hand and says, "No, I.. it's not that I don't trust you," random stranger that I just met in a thunderstorm under a bridge, "It's just that I can do that, too.. fix people.. just, not myself." He furrows his brow a little bit. "I'm not sure why."

Astrid hesitates, thinking seriously as she considers Cole with those brown-green eyes. Then, quietly, she offers, "Would-- would you mind terribly if you let me know what you find out? I mean, um... I have been trying to kinda figure out what makes Gray Harbor different. You know, different from where I grew up. Easton over at Two if by Sea said I should talk to other people about it." It's a really nervous ask, that is full of awkward shyness. Then she steps closer so she can take his hand. Hers is warm and her callouses aren't as rough as they might look. She casts him a quick smile before she closes both of her hands around his. There's a little strum, a hum, and then a bright warm radiates from her hands like dappled sunlight. When she opens her hands again, his hand is healed from its wounds, skin pink and soft. She offers him a quick, almost nervous smile.

When she mentions Easton, Cole says, "He was there, too, at the house. He shot at the skeletal thing that tried to attack us. Did he tell you about that?" He seems curious, since she didn't seem to know much about the House before he mentioned it. "And sure, I mean, I'll tell you whatever I find out. I'm not from here, either. I just moved out from the East Coast. Kind of like the House, I just kind of felt like I needed to be here, that this was some kind of a calling, and that this healing that I can do -- I needed to go somewhere that I could do some good with it, you know?" The still red line of the cut vanishes, the edges closing up, and the skin is healed as that warmth suffuses him, and he smiles curiously. He's done it to others, but this is the first time that he's had anyone do it to him, in return, and that seems to fascinate him. When he glances up, he smiles and says, "I've never met anyone else who can do that. Maybe there's a reason I happened to find you under the bridge in this storm." He smiles a little crookedly, always looking for meaning in these events.

When he smiles crookedly, hers takes on its own warmth. She gives him a quick nod, and then she cycles back to the conversation while releasing his hand. "Easton, yeah. Um. He didn't tell me that. I think he's kind of being guarded about it, which is so stupid. Why wouldn't you just tell people things?" It's an obvious irritation for Astrid. Then she takes in a breath, settling her shoulders. Her gaze ticks up to him briefly. "I grew up, up in East Seattle. There was a tear there, I guess... into the Veil. My Mom never really told me much about it, she just taught me how to do stuff. She says it's called the Glimmer." She frowns. "But she never mentioned anything about Dreams, or weird things, or how realities change. Maybe, maybe she just didn't know about it." Then she sucks in a breath, holding it before she lets it go slowly. "But yeah, I would... really like to know more." Then her smile redoubles again. "So, maybe it is good that we ran into each other."

"I don't know, he seems a little jumpy. I don't really talk too openly about this stuff unless I get the feeling the other person isn't going to freak out about it, since it does sound pretty insane unless you've experienced it," Cole says with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "A tear in the what?" he asks, suddenly not seeming to have any idea what she's talking about. Then he pauses, "The Glimmer? You mean, that thing that we can do? And the way that certain people seem to.. shine? I guess.. glimmer? Like a bad vampire movie?" He sucks in his breath and lets it out again, "I don't know anything about it. I found out I could do it after my accident.. and things just kind of went downhill until I just felt like I wasn't meant to be there anymore, that I had to come here to understand it." He rubs at his hand where the cut had been and then smiles, "Thank you.. for this, by the way."

"Easton seems jumpy?" That has Astrid rocking back on her heels slightly in surprise. Her brows lift high before they settle into a more serious, thoughtful furrow. "I mean, I guess he's jumpy about this kind of stuff." Then Cole surprises her by his question, and she remembers-- different upbringing. "Um, yeah. My Mom explained it all to me. I'm not sure where the word came from, or maybe that's her word for it, I don't know, but people who can do the things we do, we... yeah, we shine. We Glimmer." Then she laughs, and shakes her head, tucking wet hair back behind her ear. "No, I mean... yes, but we're definitely not in a bad vampire movie." Or book. When he shares, she smiles a bit gentler. "Mine was when I was a kid. We were out on a hike in the Olympic Rainforest, and I... don't know... felt something. It was a really cool experience." Not scary, which might say a lot about how Astrid views the Glimmer. His thanks has her brightening. "Why thanks?"

"I mean, a guy waving a gun around shooting at shadows tends to qualify as jumpy to me," Cole says with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "Maybe we have different definitions of jumpy. I mean, to be fair, there actually was something to shoot at the second time." He then listens as she explains what she knows about the word, and nods. "Okay, Glimmer. I can see that." He pauses as she explains her experience, a rueful smile touching his lips, "Yeah, my experience wasn't.. uh.. cool." He smiles and stops rubbing at his hand, "Because I can't fix it myself, and it's nice of you to do it?"

"Never know when that shadow might become corporeal." Not the most reassuring words to come tumbling out of her mouth, but there they are. Astrid then offers a winning, high-cheeked smile. "It's alright. He works at Two if By Sea with me, so I think I probably see him in a totally jump-free environment." Then she laughs softly at his compliment, and she reaches out to touch his arm gently. "You ever need a fix, you let me know. Least I can do around here." Then she is digging around in her pocket, juggling the other things in her hand. "Look, um, I stay with a group of friends over on Oak. But let me give you my number--" She's taking out her cellphone.

"Yeah, that's probably true. I've only been around him inside a spooky house that ate little kids," Cole says. Context is everything, isn't it? He smiles a little faintly at the touch to his arm and says, "Not sure if even what we can do can ever fix me, but I appreciate it." Though whens he starts juggling and digging, he offers out his hands, "Want me to hold onto something while you do that?" He grins a little, then, chuckling as he offers to take something from her so she doesn't drop it at least long enough for her to finish rooting around in her pockets. "Sure, I can give you mine, too. I'm currently staying with a friend in the trailer park. But it's a cell so it goes with me wherever I go."

Astrid ends up giving him her field notebook and pencil bag so she can actually get out her phone. Then she unlocks her phone, taps into a new contact, and offers to trade it for her supplies so Cole can tap in his number. "I'll text you so you have mine," she offers. Then her smile takes on a bit more of a thoughtful edge, and she nods slowly. "Yeah, I can check for you there, too." Then Astrid feels a little smile tug higher into place. "Glad we ran into each other."

Cole helps Astrid with the juggling of all the things. Once he has her phone, he puts in his contact information -- phone, email, address, and then he sends himself a text from her phone with "This is Astrid's number." He then hands the phone back to her and takes her things so she can put it away. Once all her belongings are shuffled back he grins in return and says, "Yeah, me too. I might check out that school, too, since I just moved to the area. I've been thinking about going back to school now that life's changed a lot, maybe pursue another degree."

"At any rate," Cole says, "It seems like the weather is letting up a bit. I'm going to see if I can get home before it pours again. It was really nice to meet you. If you want to learn more about the Murray House thing, I'll text you the info for the meeting. Keep in touch!" He then jogs out into the lightening rain, hoping to make it back before the storm picks up again.