Once an isolated and dying township, an influx of academics, adventurers and thrill seekers have made Scalvoris Town their home. From scholars' tea shops to a new satellite campus for Viden Academy, this is an exciting place to visit or make your home!
It was a gloomy morning; this was the kind of atmosphere that made most people stay inside and put off. Despite this, it was still quite hot outside. Nevertheless, Hikaru had worked on his discipline throughout the month and had woken early in order to begin his day with peaceful meditation. He would be found with neatly cut medium length hair that was brushed carefully to the right. He would be dressed in quite exquisite looking black boots but nothing else would particularly stand out from his appearance. He would be found sitting cross legged atop a table outside the Scalvoris Public Library. His eyes would be closed and his form completely still, except for his facial expressions.
The truth was, Hikaru wasn’t just sitting there and day dreaming. He was delving into the complex interwoven matrix that made up his tangle. The jeweler had experienced quite an adventurous season experimenting with his newly gifted spark and was still trying to sort through which threads stood for which emotions. As he sat there physically, mentally he was tugging at the threads wrapping around his body and sensing the emotion that he felt from the effort. Because of this, his face would turn happy to sad, sad to angry, angry to tearful, etc.
To a fellow Empath it would be quite clear what Hikaru was doing. Simply examining the tangle within the jeweler would make it clear that someone was toying with his pulsing tangle. Hikaru had yet to be called out for what he was and in truth he didn’t know just how many empaths there were. For better or worse, he had yet to learn the true danger of exposing himself in public…
I wasn't the most ardent scholar, but when its hot outside a roof is a roof. The Public Library, then, served me as well as any other building. Wandering the aisles of shelves, the piercing voice of the Head Librarian following me wherever I went, I preoccupied myself with the sea of titles. I fingered through a few of the more interesting tomes in the half-bell I spent escaping the heat before finally decided it was time to continue my trial. A slight respite, but now there were things that needed to be done.
Except, truth be told, there wasn't.
That thought held me up right outside the entrance to the library. Despite every effort of being productive with my time in this city, I had found myself without anything to do. Odd. Was this what life was like in Scalvoris Town? A stray leaf floating on a languid creek, day and night. The thoroughfare in front of me was active with movement, men and women traversing both ways on their own business, but it all felt meandering. Lax. No one was even watching over their shoulder, not once. There was even a man sitting on a bench, unmoving save for the emotions on his face. I agreed with him; I didn't know how to feel about this place either.
Sighing to myself, I moved to sit on the opposite end of the bench the brown-haired man already occupied. 'If you can't beat them, join them as the saying goes.' I leaned my head against the wall of the library behind me and watching the tide of people slowly shift in front of me. If my newfound companion let me be, I had every intention of showing him the same courtesy. He seemed nearly on the edge of tears already; that was definitely something I didn't want to deal with.
Oblivious to the world around him, Hikaru would sit and pull at a rather vibrant looking strand of his own tangle. His psyche would quite suddenly well up with fear sending shivers down his spine. His fear had been so great that he felt like the ground beneath him had rocked ever so slightly. Heart racing, the jeweler opened his eyes wide to see that he had not imagined the ground moving. Someone had merely taken a seat across from him. Before him sat a new face, someone that he had never seen before. The man was tall, much taller than himself. It was always a bit intimidating for Hikaru be in the presence of someone so large. ”I wonder why he picked here of all places to sit.”
Wiping the tears off his face and trying to get his bearings, Hikaru would offer a smile and say, “Hello, don’t mind me I was just reflecting on my thoughts.” He wasn’t great at lying but he wasn’t keen on coming off as some weirdo, “what brings you to the library today? I haven’t seen you around here and you certainly don’t strike me as a scholar. My name’s Hikaru by the way, aspiring jeweler at your service.” Hikaru would end with a grin which didn’t match his face which was still a bit confused as to which emotion to display.
If this fellow was indeed a newcomer, Hikaru wouldn’t be surprised. Scalvoris had been developing a reputation as a center of academic excellence which had brought in people of all walks of life.
It seems my arrival had caught the man off-guard. Odd, given that I had make no effort to remain quiet in my approach, but that I didn't think much of it. The man was openly crying on a public bench in the middle of town; his first impression did not do him any real favors in regards to mental stability. I could feel the man gauge me silently before he began to speak. Between my size and my outward appearance, I wouldn't be shocked if my unseen arrival was alarming to him. Just for fun, I straightened my posture as I stared the man, highlighting our substantial size difference. I had no reason to intimate the man, if he truly was of course, save for the small joy it brought me.
Thankfully, the man wiped away the unseemly tears away from his face before he began to address me. A strange fellow with a stranger speech pattern. He rattled off his thoughts and questions like an unfiltered stream, one right after another. It was the worst kind of conversation: one that required me to respond. Moreover, the man offered little of substance save for his name and profession. Hikaru the jeweler. Useful if I wished to buy a brooch, but of little value otherwise. I was already regretting my decision to interrupt the man's sob session, but sometimes you have to reap what you sow.
'Job', I signed to the man. It was the best I could manage, given my understanding of common sign. My parents had learned to asked pointed questions when I was growing up or give me a slip of paper to write on if they needed fuller thoughts. It was a efficient practice as a youth, but as an adult living alone I wished now that I had bothered to learn more of the language, specifically how to string a sentence together. Until I made that effort, I had to make my words count. Job was suitable because it answered two questions. "Why was I at the library?" and "What was my name?" Hikaru hadn't asked the latter question, but proper etiquette dictated that I respond with my own when he gave his. In both cases, the answer was a lie. The man did not need to know my reasons for doing things nor did he need to know my name.
For names were a powerful tool, one which I wanted a select few to ever know. So, for all intents and purposes, I was Job to Hikaru. That is if he even understood common sign, which wasn't a guarantee.
Hikaru sat and watched as the tall fellow accentuated their height difference. Had they been alone, the jeweler would have no doubt taken this as a show of dominance and would have found an excuse to leave; he was not a very brave individual. ”I shouldn’t worry, this is a public place,” he would think “He doesn’t look like he wants to start trouble. So why does this feel so awkward?” It wasn’t obvious at first, but Hikaru realized that the man hadn’t said a single word to him. Perhaps he simply did not understand common, but that couldn’t be correct because the man held up his hands to give the sign for “Job”.
Hikaru was no great shakes at sign and only knew commonly used words. He had picked it up from a deaf family member throughout the years but had never once had to use that knowledge outside of his home. Hikaru held up his hands uneasily and did his best to make out the words for “nice meet you” followed by “name” and “hobbies”. He wasn’t sure how well the two would be able to communicate, but he might as well give it his best shot.
” I guess I’ll assume the man doesn’t speak common but can understand it,” Hikaru would think as he thought about how to best go about getting to know each other. “I don’t think I saw him at the library when I came by to help categorize books, but I don’t see any reason why he would lie to me. After all, Scalvoris attracted all sorts of strange folk.”
Alas, my initial attempt to satisfy the inquires of the man were not enough. Hikaru showed recognition of the common sign language, which surprised me, but "Job" did not seem to cover his various bases he sought to establish with me. Alas, indeed. The jeweler surprised me further with his own basic application of the language back to me. The attempt was sloppy, untrained, but I could not expect any more of him than what I could do myself. I did not understand, however, why he felt the need to ask me practically the same questions in this second language, as if I had not proven ability already to hear him. It seemed, I thought not for the first time, that people thought deafness and muteness to be on the same side of the nel.
Sighing, I signed the same word back to the man. 'Job.' I had little desire to disclose more to him about my personal life than that. The jeweler had proven less than intriguing up to this point and I did not wish to indulge with him this butchered attempt at small talk. I had grown so used to be a wraith on the edge of the crowd, name and purpose unknown and unnecessary. To shatter my identity for a bit of menial conversation with a man I'd probably never see again was against my nature. Thus, I withheld, and cursed myself for thinking I could share a bench with a stranger and remain that with him when I chose to stand again.
A figure stepped up in my periphery, shading my eyes from the sun overhead for a brief moment. Then, the repugnant odor of stale alcohol and unwashed flesh.
"You're sitting in my bed," the drunk muttered, the words slurred despite his best efforts at clarity. The signs of homelessness was evident in his appearance. Unkempt hair and beard stood wildly in a half dozen directions, stiff and unyielding due to the grease that covered it. His clothes were tattered with several holes in the sleeves and torso of his shirt. Sunburn peeked out of them, which suggested to me that he was normally as pale as me, though the dirt stains on his face and hands muddled the complexion. His Tangle bled with a rust orange color. Annoyance.
The vagrant stared at me for a moment before settling his focus on Hikaru. I guess of the two of us, the smaller man seemed the most likely to be intimated by his inebriated stammer. I settled back, crossing my arms and staring deep at the side of the drunk's head. I wanted him to feel my attention in his periphery. Beyond that, I made no other action. Truth be told, I was curious as to how Hikaru would respond to the man's threats. "You gonna move or what, you bastards?" the drunk demanded, jabbing a grubby finger in the air at the jeweler.
He will probably start crying again, I concluded to myself.
Hikaru was a little confused when the person before him gave the same sign for “job”. He wondered if he was misunderstanding what he was seeing. ”Or maybe he just doesn’t want to reveal much to a total stranger, he would think to himself. I wonder if he’s from out of town? That’d explain a whole lot. Or maybe the guy’s name, hobby, and purpose for being here are all Job… Hikaru’s head was beginning to hurt from thinking about it. Thankfully the pair was interrupted by a newcomer. A homeless man, by the looks of it.
Hikaru wasn’t particularly frightened until the man started making a fuss. This was the same bench that Hikaru had sat upon for the past several weeks and it was the first time he’d ever seen this man. This couldn’t possibly be this man’s bench; he probably didn’t have claim to any property in all of Scalvoris let alone this bench. But Hikaru was not a brave man, certainly not in the face of someone stronger than himself. He would look into the man’s eyes and fall into a trance, similar to the one that Job had seen earlier.
”Hmm orange. Not sure what that one means. But there looks to be quite a bit of blue buried underneath. Hikaru didn’t know all that much about differentiating colors, but he had played around enough to know the exact shade of sadness. He imaginatively held a hand out and strummed a thick blue strand and hoped for the best. ”Hopefully if I strum hard enough this guy will just cry and get out of here.”
Now the tangle was vibrating with orange as well as blue and now the man’s eyes started to water. He didn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon, however. “What’re you staring at?” he shouted as he grabbed hold of Hikaru’s shirt, “I’m not in the mood for this today!” The homeless man would shove the jeweler onto the ground. Hikaru’s plan hadn’t exactly worked out and now the man was even more emotional than before. The aggressor would turn to Mute, implying that he was next if he didn’t leave now.
Beside me, Hikaru got that same far-away look in his eyes. I sighed, bracing myself for the drunk to get physical with the jewelers, all the while watching his Tangle. I still wasn't at a point in my understanding of man's emotions to really pinpoint the specifics, the origins of our feelings. At times, I felt as if I was staring at a rainbow in motion; fast or slow, each turn revealed a different color than before. Sure, some were longer-lasting than others, but many came and went in bits and trills. Thus, I was not suspicious at all to watch the deep blue thread of bitterness reverberate in the man's psyche. It seemed a natural enough response given that neither I nor Hikaru seemed willing to yield to his demands. It was just instance in a long life where this man's lack was overwhelmed by another's possession.
Then, as expected, the drunk tossed the jeweler to the ground.
The rough man turned to face me after he had dislodged Hikaru, intent on giving me the same treatment. Alas, I was not looking to oblige him. While standing up to emphasize the eight or so inches of height I had on the man, I stared into his tangle and sewed a thread of Fear into it. My physical advantage coupled with a new emotion would hopefully be enough to intimidate the man into leaving. I wasn't exactly looking for a fight if I could help it.
Thankfully, it didn't come to that. The drunk, reeling from this newfound feelings, huffed loudly and stormed off to find another nook to nurse his hangover in. Truth be told, I was lucky; had the man been sober, I probably would not have been able to scare him off. Despite my best efforts, I was not the most intimidating of individuals, even when I tried to be. A brawl had been averted and the vagrant hadn't even dirtied my clothes with his grimy hands.
If only Hikaru could claim the same.
Looking down at the poor sod, I felt a tinge of sympathy. It passed, of course, as most feelings towards my fellow man did, but I knew I still ought to help the man. It wouldn't be proper otherwise. Thus, I held a hand out to him with the expectation that he would grab on and I could help him back to his feet.
Hikaru hadn’t even realized he was getting attacked to begin with. He was only knocked out of his trance when he landed flat on his back. He really needed to get better at using empathy without subjecting him to this kind of disability. The jeweler would feel pain shoot down his spine as his body realized what had happened. He scrambled backwards in fear, not knowing what else might be coming. Fortunately, his new acquaintance wasn’t a pushover.
Hikaru wasn’t sure if he had nerves of steel, was a competent fighter, or had something else up his sleeve, but the man walked off on his own accord. ”Wait, how did he do that without saying a single word? Don’t tell me the man was intimidated just by his size! Hikaru looked at the drunk’s tangle and it was almost an entirely different color now. ”Strange.”
With the crisis averted, Job held out a hand and Hikaru would take it. He saw no sympathy on the man’s face, but then again Hikaru had learned not to expect much from this guy. Hikaru started with, “How…,” then decided against it. Hikaru didn’t have the guts to ask and he already felt like a big enough loser for not being able to hold his own.
“Thanks for that,” he would start again, “who knows what else might have happened to me. I owe you one!” Hikaru would massage his lower back with his hands then say, “I should probably go rest. It was nice meeting you. I’m not too hard to find if you ever need anything.”
I could see the confusion in Hikaru's Tangle, a light orange thread wrapping around his psyche, but he made little effort into putting voice to it. It was probably for the better, I decided after a moment. The last thing he needed was people asking questions about how he did things like that without once saying a word. I would never answer them, of course, but the seeds of curiosity were dangerous enough as they were. Eventually, there would be the kind of person who could put all the little details together and out me for the mage that I was, which was something I hoped to avoid if at all possible.
Thankfully, Hikaru didn't seem like the kind of person who knew anything about Empathy whatsoever.
The jeweler accepted my helping hand like I assumed he would, using my body as a brace to aid his own vertical efforts. An inquiry died on his lips, replaced with a statement of gratitude and a declaration of debt. I nodded in response, doubting the seriousness of the latter but accepting of the sentiment none the less. It was preferred to questions any trial. Rubbing his back, Hikaru announced his intention of leaving a few trills later. It seems the man had gotten a bit more excitement than he had been hoping for when he sat down on his bench.
Waving goodbye to the man--because, again, it was expected of me--I took a seat on the bench again as the jeweler turned around the corner out of sight. Smiling to myself, I stretched my legs out in front of me as I slouched against the wall at my back. I fought hard for the right to rest here, so I figured it was only right that I enjoyed it a little bit longer.
At least until the shade was gone and the drunk couldn't get to enjoy it when he came back around.
