2021-05-17 - So About That Glow Thing...You Can Do It Too!

Isi's upstairs in the non-fiction section blowing dust off of old books as she searches through them. She's in the folktales and myths section looking through them with the puzzled intensity of someone who isn't quite sure what she is looking for, but that she is looking for SOMETHING. It practically begs to be interrupted.

Isi isn't the only one looking for folktales. August comes up the stairs, worn and tired looking, like he hasn't slept (or did so poorly). He's been banned from work, both on orders of his wife and himself (can't kill plants if you're not around them!), so here he is, trying to find some sort of answer to his problem. Can something just--take a skill away from you? Is that a thing? Well, the library would know.

He's in dark gray commuter pants, a dark purple tee, and a black hoodie; somber clothes for a somber mood. When he tops the stairs he pauses, eyeing Isi. He doesn't miss the Glimmer, though he also isn't sure he recognizes her. Hesitation, thy name is a guy with enough Glimmer to light a city. But, he needs answers, so he soldiers onward.

Isi didn't expect to have someone else popping in, but at the sound of footfalls she looks up and gives the man a once-over, then goes back to her book.

But wait.

No, eyes back up and she's looking at him even more closely with her brows pulled together in a slight frown. "You're one of the people that glow." Just a statement of FACT.

August blinks, owlishly slow, at this statement. He's not used to people leading with that. "Ah." He glances aside like he's trying to make sure no one's listening. In reality he couldn't care less; it's that he needs a second to get his bearings. "Yeah. I am." No use denying it. They are both standing here in the myth and folklore section of the library; a damning enough thing to do when you Glimmer. "...so are you." His eyebrows go up. "New in town? New-ish?"

Look, blunt is better. The alliteration makes it so.

Isi closes her book on her thumb to keep her place and leans back against the shelf lightly. "Yeah. I'm... starting to be converted, but I'm not totally sure sure. But a weird old woman pointed it out and now I can't not see it. I catch myself wondering if there is some luminescence in the water or something though."

Severall things clearly get August's interest. Enough to draw him forward; he settles against a bookshelf. He nods unerringly to the North. "That's up around the Salish Sea. And not until July. Gotta kayak out at," he tips his head, trying to remember, "midnight, or so, to really see it. Around here the only bioluminescence is the fireflies. Weird, for us to have them here, but," his eyes rove around the library, his mouth twists in a small smile, "this whole town's weird, come to it."

He licks his lips. "An old woman. Telling fortunes in the park? That one?"

"But at least that kind of shit is natural weird." Isi sticks in wryly at the mention of luminescence in the water. Also her ears perk up at the word Kayaking. "Is there a group for that? I go out myself quite often, but let's be honest, in this town I'm not sure going out alone into the middle of the water is smart."

For the second, she nods. "Ravn called her Baba Yaga."

August makes an amused sound, half-shrugs, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. "I don't do it much myself, but I'm sure there is--out of Hoquaim, if nothing else. The kids at the University have clubs for all of that. Check down by the Boardwalk; that's where they'll have it."

He clears his throat. "Ah, well that's probably true. Though I've had weird shit happen right on the beach, so not sure it matters much." His eyes narrow. "Ravn. Abildgaard, you mean?" As if there could be more than one person named 'Ravn' in a town this size. He doesn't struggle with the name, even pronounces it correctly.

This time it's Isi's turn to shrug, "Probably? I can't say I actually bothered to remember the last name." Who even DOES THAT?

She reaches up and sccratches at the back of her head. "Are the college kids here the brainless 'let's drink, fuck my brain, whoho!' kind?" The amount of disdain in her tone for that kind of attitude could almost a house if it was liquid. "But I'll check on the Boardwalk. Worse, it's a no go."

A moment of thought - "Did I get your name?"

August coughs a laugh. "It's a mouthful for anyone but him, I expect he'd understand." Or, at least be used to it. "Oh, hell every college has those. But there's also some more focused on academics." It occurs to him there's a more relevant angle to her question. "It's not a big sports campus--that one's over in Spokane. Hoquaim's more rural. Agriculture, liberal arts, forestry."

He dips his head. "You did not. August. Roen." Said almost identically to Ravn's name--though, not quite. "I run the," he waves a hand westward, "garden shop." Something about how he says that makes it an afterthought, a dismissal. His eyebrows go up, checking to see if she's willing to return the favor.

"That's reassuring," about the information he provides about the the colleges. The phrasing of her name has her asking for clarification, the slight tilt of her head hinting that she's honestly asking from a place of uncertainty, rather than being snarkly pedantic. "August, or Roen? Or is it first-last name type thing? "

His pause is a clear request so she returns, "Isi, I work in city hall. Auditing, taxes, all that. Gardening, huh? I always thought it would be cool to have some kind of garden, but I'm lucky if I afford a place with a window."

August sighs at himself, shakes his head. "Ah, sorry, August is my first name. Roen's the..." He gestures. "Surname. Isi, good to meet you." No move to shake hands; he seems to tired to think of it. Or maybe he's not a hand shaker.

He arches an eyebrow. "Can do fine with just some indoor, potted stuff. Plenty of things you can grow up here with minimal daylight access. By your door, you know, whatever." He scans the titles of the books lining the shelves. "So. You said Ravn called her Baba Yaga. That why you're," he nods at the book she's holding.

Weird shit doesn't lend itself to shaking hands, so Isi doesn't seem to mind the lack of overture. "August then." She repeats it as if to cement it, but also with the resignation of one who is fairly sure she's going to forget that. As normal people do. "Maybe I'll stop by your shop some time." As he returns to the book she holds it up with a rueful smile and then sliders her finger out and sets it onto the shelf. "Basically. I know the name from, you know, vague folklore. I thought maybe I'd learn more. If some crazy is out there then they'll stick true to form, and if it's real...." Well, then, foreknowledge is just smart.

August nods, says, "Now's a good time to get your summer indoor stuff going." There's a moment where he seems disquieted about that, only to shake it off.

He makes a low sound of agreement. "Think I heard some people say they've run into her in, ah," he rubs the back of his neck, "interesting circumstances. So I don't know that she's just someone running around acting weird." He hesitates, seems to come to a decision. "Have you tried using it at all? The," he gestures between the two of them, "the shine?"

There are things to talk about there - like why a gardener would have a weird moment talking about plants, but honestly, Isi just zeroes in on the last one and blinks slowly because... just... ".... huh?"

So that's a solid no. "What do you mean?"

August's eyes narrow. "...right," he murmurs. There's a long pause where he's looking at Isi, but not really at her. He blinks after a second of that, seems to consider her anew. "This is one of those things I almost don't want to tell you. Because once you know, you'll get Their attention. On the other hand, you might anyways." The eternal dilemma. Is she safer not knowing?

He sighs, having come to his decision (the same one he always does). "The, ah, thing you're seeing--the glow, in me? In some other people? That's not just a kind of," he gestures to the side, "bioluminescence." He pauses, expression thoughtful. "Though it might be that too. Hm." He shakes his head. "Anyways, it's just one part of all the weird shit around here."

"Their? That's the... dop, doph, phob... I can't remember the word honestly. The dark thingies?" It's a really long word that Isi's trying to conjure up and totally failing. But 'Dark Men' just seems weird now that the weirdness has been pointed out to her.

She pushes herself upright and asks bluntly, "What did you just do? Is there marker on my face or a huge ass spider or~," she twists to look at the shelf above her just to be sure his not quite looking wasn't a precursor for something to jump out at her. Not seeing anything she turns around and squints at him. "You've lost me - " and almost as an afterthought she adds, "sorry?"

"Yeah--dolorphages, some people call Them. Pain-eaters." August glances doen at the floor, toying with his wedding ring. "But, not in the good way. Dolorifuge, that's somethig that mitigates pain. Takes it from you. These guys, They encourage it, so They can harvest it." He grunts. "Like farmers maintaining their crop. Leave you alive so you can make more."

He holds up a hand at the question. "I was just having a look at what kind of Art you have. That's something I can do. You've got a little of each kind." He seems about to launch into something, thinks better of whatever that was. Instead, "The shine, it gives us power. Abilities people without it don't have. Sometimes those abilities are big, sometimes they're small."

"Pain eaters." That's a little easier to wrap her mouth around, so Isi's just going to latch onto it and hang on tight with a small nod of her head as the mental inscription is made.

The last bit seems to trigger something so she asks hesitatntly. "I think.. I've seen that. Like, Ravn floating stuff, there was that one guy.... damn it I don't remember his name," that last bit seems like a personal tongue lashing rather than something at August, "or hers...." Okay, back to looking at August and speaking with him, "Anyway, they made something burn and she opened up..... I don't know what it was. They were talking about a veil and thinness. I might have gotten black out drunk after."

Which she did. Some things just need that kind of response.

The admission of getting black out drunk after being shown a few things about Glimmer gets a laugh out of August; a real one that pushes aside some of what's weighing on him, if also rueful. "Well that's a fair reaction, in all honesty. It's probably fucked up, to get this far and only now be faced with the reality of it. I wouldn't know, but..." He smiles, apologetic. "That was better for them to do, than let you find out the hard way."

He waves a hand at her. "The floating thing Ravn did, you can do that. It takes practice, to get comfortable with it. And...there's some pretty big down sides. But you can learn about it, without using it."

"I grew up just thinking that my mother and father were just old fashioned traditionalists for believing in the old myths and stories." Isi says with a small sigh, then adds in the relevant information to make the sentence make sense, "I'm Native, the Yakama tribe specifically."

She's got an eye upraised for the bit about 'you can do that' and doubt is THICK. "What do you mean? First by, 'you can do that' and the downside... and the 'about it' without 'using it'. Actually," there's a beat, "Just go back to the whole sentence and start over. I think you lost me as "Ravn did"."

August mmmmms, straightens off the bookshelf. "You said Ravn floated something, right?" He points at her. "You've got that ability too. You can also," he taps his temple, "pick up on how other people are feeling. Actually feeling, not, you know," a wry twitch of his lips, not really a smile per se, "the polite face some of us like to wear. And you can tell when someone or something's damaged or broken, even if you can't see it." His eyebrows bob. "Sound familiar? Ever been told you have an 'active imagination' or 'really good luck' at guessing things?"

He half turns away from her, looks above them a few levels up. There are books up there, and a ladder for getting to them, though it's several feet away. "That's usually how it starts--you think you just have a knack. Or you think you imagined it all from drugs, beer, whatever. When really," he flicks a finger, popping a book out of a shelf a good eight feet up, "you're just using your Glimmer without knowing it." He catches the book almost as an after-thought, turns it over to look at the cover. Something about it makes him roll his eyes. (The Garden of Eden in secular Myth and Folklore reads the title.)

Isi's face is a straight frown as he explains what the so things mean. It is a cognitive leap to try to accept what August is saying. She chews on the inside of her lip steadily.

"I...." but what she is going to say doesn't happen and she just stops. Stares.

Hello floating book.

What the fuck?

Hopefully August gives her the time to put her thoughts together. It isn't an insubstantial amount of time.

"So everyone who glows can do this?"

August waits, book in hand, giving Isi all the time she needs. He expects the usual accusations: that he (or someone) set it up, that he got lucky, that there are strings. The last one might play into why he flips the book open, scans the table of contents.

Finally, she says something. He snaps the book shut, considers her statement. "Everyone I've met can. I guess maybe it would be possible to sense all of this but not be able to interact with it." His eyes narrow, expression going distracted as he attempts to imagine that. A second later he shrugs. "I've never met anyone like that, though. If they shine--even a little--they can do something with it." He flings the book up in a careless gesture, sending it back to the spot it popped out of.

Tiny tiny tiny whimper there. Brain gymnastics happening. She can't help it - she DOES reach up and feel for strings. It's due diligence, but it's with the air of one accepting that she won't find anything there.

Weakly, "So... how... do I mean, how do I do it?"

August frowns. This question's a little harder for him to answer. "Ah, well...to be honest, I've been using it for so long, I don't know I remember how I started." He tilts his head, thinking back. Way, way back. "A lot of people, it's sudden. They're in a moment of desparation and their instincts take over, do what's necessary--and if you have Glimmer, that's something your mind can grab onto. For me it was just, one day, I realized, what I was doing wasn't normal." He dismisses that with a lift of one shoulder. Isi's isn't a kid picking this up; she won't benefit from reminiscing on the innocence of childhood as a way to learn how to use her power.

So, "I guess you could try something meditative." He pauses. "Are you into doing that sort of thing? Meditating?"

"Well... there's.... Atawp_xwini?" Isi says, the almost lyrical tones of the foreign words settling themselves up as some kind of connection to meditation. "It's less a system and more like... a virtue to live by? Honestly, I haven't even thought about it since they did a push to incorporate it into our education. I think I remember some of the structures though?"

August scratches his beard. "That might work, then. The idea I'm going with is, you might want to just, find a second to sit down in a place you're comfortable, no distractions, with something small. Like," he pats the bookcase behind him, "a book, or even better, a piece of clothing. That way if you drop it, it won't break." A brief lift of his eyebrows to emphasize that's on the table: breaking shit because you make a mistake. "Then you just, focus on wanting to move the shirt, or whatever, without touching it. Re-defining reality, kind of. 'I don't want to lift this towel with my hand, I want to just lift it." He carefully does not say 'with my mind', yet it lingers there, unsaid.

After some thought, he adds, "You can do other small things too, like, open a window. Or unlock a door. But," he holds up a hand, "since those are things you might not want to break, I recommend working with clothes first."

".... should I be worried that the word 'break' was just said repeatedly?"

Serious question August.

August winces. Smooth, Roen, real smooth. "It's, ah, a risk, using this stuff. Especially since you've got some of the shaping. That one can get pretty destructive." He rubs his hands together, like he's dusting them off. "If you're going to use it--Glimmer, the Art, whatever you want to call it--you have to learn control. That's the only way you don't break shit." Or people. Or yourself! But he leaves those things out just now.

"When you say risk is it just to my physical posessions? Or is it more like, make sure that someone has the key to my apartment and knows to come check on me if I don't text them by a particular time?"

Isi's got an eyebrow arched upwards REAL HIGH right now. She wants all the dirt. It comes from being an academic.

August sighs, rubs at his temples. "Ah, in all honesty--yes." He moves to sit in one of the chairs. "So look, here's the thing. Using the power? It gets Their attention. Sort of like when crops are ready for a harvest, the farmer knows by looking at them. Well, us using the power, that alerts Them we're ready for harvesting." He grimaces. "So They'll flock around us, make us miserable, try to goad us into hurting other people with our power. That's like when you go out into an orchard, snag a few apples off a tree."

He runs a hand over his mouth, takes to studying the floor. "But, sometimes, They swing the scythe. That's when it gets ugly."

There's nodding, and 'pain eater' muttered as he explains and sits. She stays standing, shoulder pressed up against the shelf facing him. Until the end. Then she takes on a very unlibrary acceptable volume with a yelp of, "WOAH NOW. If I try this something is going to come cut me up?"

August blinks, surprised out of his maudlin thoughts into looking up at Isi. "It was just a metaphor." He hesitates. "Mostly. Sometimes it's that bad. Other times it's just weird and confusing."

He licks his lips, lets out a slow breath. "We've got a lot of names for when they do that. Dreams, getting Lost--it's like a construct they put you in, a world you disappear into. Sometimes with other people, sometimes just you. And what happens in there," he shakes his head. "Could be almost anything."

Isi feels a headache coming on. It's right there - between her eyes. Rubbing at it with her thumb is probably not going to do a whole lot of good, but damn it, she's going to rub anyway.

"So.... what is the consequences of just... not? Not using it, or trying to? Will it just pop out anyways in a damned if you do, damned if you don't kind of thing?"

August leans back in the chair, surveys Isi. "Well, being near people that use the power, you could get dragged in with them. So, not using it won't help you then." He pulls a face, at once apologetic and resigned. "For your own part, I guess the consequence is..."

He falls quiet, expression intense and distant. "The consequence is knowing you could have done something about a bad situation, and decided your own well being was more important." He gets up from the chair, unsettled. "No judgment on that either. But it is what it is. You see someone hit by a car, and you know you can heal them so they won't die before they get to the hospital, but you don't because They might come and take a bite out of you?" He meets her eyes a half-second. "If you can't live with making that kind of choice, day in and day out--staying here isn't a good idea."

Isi bites her lip at that pretty intense admonition. That half-second of glance has her looking away, cheeks coloring in embarrassment.

"Wapftat tdwaxt. It's... helping others. Being of service. Not standing aside when people in the community are hurting. I'm thought I left behind my culture when I left the reservation but everything here keeps making me think it was something important and I should have paid more attention."

August ducks his head, embarrassed in turn. He hadn't been trying to chastise her, but this is what happens when you try to be a functional adult on maybe two hours of sleep. "Tikkun olam," he says, nodding in agreement. Now he smiles at her, wry. "Not too late to start. Some people never do, or don't until it's way too late."

He gets up, looks along the bookshelf. "No one has a right to judge you for deciding not to. It puts people around you at risk--we can't ask that of each other. Not even to fix the world. We can hope people will decide to do it, though, stand by one another when we do." He pauses, pulls down a book, eyes it, puts it back. Over his shoulder, he adds, "I won't lie, it's a tough decision. You'll make it when you're ready to."

The proto-headache is slowly growing as Isi even THINKS about all of this, so when August gets up that's her cue to straighten and take a step like she might leave the library. But not yet, that's rude.

"Thanks...for telling me. I mean," but what she means doesn't get said and instead there's a lame, "Thanks."

August turns to face her, another book in hand. "You're welcome." He glances away. "We keep wanting to make some sort of...manual for this. Journal. Guidebook, whatever. But," now he looks at her again, "this place, and places like it, it doesn't like us recording it in concrete ways. So, we're stuck with," he gestures between them, "running into one another like this. And ah, if you do decide to stick around, come by the shop. We'll get you some plants that you'll have a hard time killing."

Isi makes an attempt at humor at his last, "I will, then prove you wrong by killing them in no time flat." A hand reaches up and brushes through her hair, showing that she's still very uneasy, but trying. There is a moment of lingering before she repeats, "Thanks," and then does an awkward exit around the shelves.

August coughs a laugh, though there's something bitter, even desperate in it. "You wouldn't be the first one," he says. An up-nod for her as she goes, then he returns to looking through the books for an answer to his problem.