ElectroVagrant

On a hot day along a road, if you look closely you'll see a shimmer over the surface. It's an effect of the warmed air and light passing through, a fun little sight to see, especially if you catch it really distorting the look of things.

For many people it's a fun sight, anyway. For me, it's only served as a reminder of what the light hides in plain sight.

Most folks will have heard of mirages, and some will have some vague understanding of hallucinations, a trick of perception, and a trick of the mind respectively...But what I saw was neither. At first, I thought it had to be one or the other, or maybe a mix, as that's what others that knew a little more about both suggested, and only after exhausting what they knew did they propose it being some strange combination.

After all, both phenomena ultimately involve the mind, albeit in subtly different ways.

Yet I couldn't accept that, the circumstances were too variable for a mirage to make sense, and while hallucinations weren't entirely out of the question, the sightings never happened in any situations of stress or other conditions associated with hallucinatory episodes. It could be a cool winter day and a dim light when I might spot it, it could be an average, overcast day and in a certain shine I'd catch it.

The source could be natural or artificial, it didn't matter all that much so far as I could tell, albeit more pronounced when in a warmer environment.

Each time I caught a glimpse, I could feel that I was looking into something no one was meant to see, nor anything with eyes, not even those better than our own. This was supposed to be a space beyond sight hidden within sight.

Eventually, I began going out in the day and using lights as little as possible. If this space wasn't meant to be seen, and I didn't want to blind myself, it was the only option available. For the times I had to be in the light, I'd wear sunglasses, even indoors, as silly and as inconvenient as it tended to make things. I simply explained it away as necessary for my, admittedly somewhat true, sensitivity to light.

Despite all of this, though, I kept seeing the strange space...And worse, I began to feel that something within had caught notice of me. Could anything from there even reach out? If I'm seeing it...Then...Maybe, since the light is bouncing back out...

But I consoled myself with the thought that perhaps it's like the water, and most of what's within couldn't survive outside it. It wasn't foolproof, but it helped.

It helped...Only so far, as I started to notice...Even in the dark, the slightest lights, those I'd keep on just to avoid tripping over things or stubbing my toes...Grew brighter. The brief forays into daylight, my sunglasses seemed to be less and less helpful, almost to the point that I may as well have been wearing glasses without any lenses.

All the while, my sightings grew more frequent, lasting longer each time, and whatever was within...Seemed to not only be peering out, but approaching. My only real refuge left was to close my eyes tight, and when I slept, hope any dreams I might have were nothing but darkness.

However...Finally, it reached me, even as I closed my eyes, even as I hoped sleep would help me flee, the thing from that space beyond reached me, and...

Some customs are more than they first appear, and so it is with kicking off one's shoes before entering another's home. These days many explain it to others less familiar with the practice as basic hygiene, not carrying in dirt or whatever else one may have stepped in while outside, in and around one's house. For many, that's truly all it is, and they think nothing more of it.

Yet there was once more to it than simply trying to keep from carrying dirt in, as it was also about preserving the boundaries between worlds. The creation of shelter was not only an act of survival after a time, but an act of sanctification, of endowing a part of the world with the full concentration of one's spirit. This was a space not only of peace from the outside elements, but a place to establish peace within.

Thus it was that many began to remove their shoes before entering buildings, some more circumspect cleansing their feet as well before setting a single foot within. If any serious incidents occurred, one would often look to those that thoughtlessly entered without removing their shoes, as they had desecrated the space in the process.

There was one such incident, almost lost to history thanks to its severity, that few know of, and of those that do, many regard it as another piece of interesting folklore and little else. However...

...The story goes that a group of fools, seemingly determined to be cast out from every village they encountered, would come along to each one as humble, curious travelers wanting to learn the ways of the village and settle down. Each village, wary but willing to welcome travelers so long as they agreed to abide by their ways, allowed them to stay for a time.

Each village, without fail, had its trust and hospitality violated by these fools. They stuck by their word for a short time, just long enough to learn each village's ways enough to violate as many of them as they could in such a manner as to only be exiled, and not executed.

Finally, they came upon one village that they couldn't figure out. No matter what they learned of their ways, none of them seemed to be held to so strongly that they would upset the people enough to run them out. Eventually, the fools began to believe their own story of settling down there, until they found it. The one rule that surely would get them exiled, that would get the village to reveal itself to them.

A simple rule every villager followed closely and taught carefully to their children, to leave their shoes at the threshold before entering a home, an inn, a temple, seemingly any building.

So as a group, they walked through mud, they walked through dung, they walked through the leftover blood and guts of livestock tossed away as it was prepared for meals, and they made their way to the village inn they'd been staying at. The villagers had, of course, seen all of this and warned the innkeeper, and so as they opened the doors to the inn...The innkeeper was nowhere to be seen.

The regular noise of the other tenants was also strangely missing, the whole inn had an unnerving stillness to it. Nevertheless, the fools were so caught up in their scheme they didn't notice anything other than the innkeeper's absence as they stepped through the doorway. Yelling out to the innkeeper, only then did they start to notice the silence, but still they proceeded further inside, meandering about, tracking their gruesome filth about the place as they looked about for anyone else.

Somewhat disappointed, but determined they would get a response once the innkeeper and tenants returned, they went back to their room and decided to wait. As they waited, however, all the filth they tracked in seemed to grow, and concentrated in their room, it grew even faster.

The fools, utterly confused, tried to escape, but the filth jammed up their door, first from the inside and next from the outside. It began with just the mud, then the mud began to feel warmer and the stench grew stronger, and as they were up to their waist in mud and dung, blood began to ooze up from both, then guts started to emerge...

...And in their panic, the fools failed to recognize, it was their own guts, their own blood, their own waste that had begun to fill the room as well. Their bodies rapidly wasting away alongside the whole inn.

Solemnly, many of the villagers watched as the desecrated inn collapsed upon itself in a grotesque heap, and swore to pass on this tale to remind others why they so diligently remove their shoes before stepping inside a building.

ruby~crystal~

"It's so simple, you just put your fingers like this and..." their fingers snapped sharply, as they always did, like they'd known how to do this forever.

"Okay, okay, so like this..." I tried to mimic their motion but it was like my fingers were a broken lighter, without even so much as a fizzle. "Fuuuck, what's with my fingers?" I groaned.

My friend shrugged, "Your hands soft?"

"I guess? Do they need to be rough?"

"Mm, maybe it helps..."

"What? You make a deal with a devil to do this?"

"Uh, no, this is beneath their pay grade."

"Okay, so what, go climb some trees to get my hands all rough and snappy?"

"Hey, I'm down to go climbing trees if you are, but honestly, why all the fuss over this anyway? We're not kids anymore. Nobody gives a shit if you can snap your fingers."

"Yeah but that's just it, how do you get to our age not being able to? What if I have kids and wanna teach'em? Send'em to you?"

"Oh hell no. Okay look, some people, they can just do it, like me, that's why I suck at teaching it, others..." their face grew serious as they considered how to proceed, "...do make a sort of deal. Not with the devil though, like I said, beneath them."

"So...What, to a lesser demon?"

"I don't know that you'd call them that, but...I guess? I've never had to deal with them."

"Ookay, let's say I believe you, any idea how to go about it?"

They extended their hand, "I think it goes something like this."

I extended mine, and they grasped it. "So do we shake, or...?" They tightened their grip on my hand. "Uh...?" It began to hurt. "Hey, cut it out, you don't want to show me, I get it!"

Their face was blank, as if in a trance. Their grip somehow grew even tighter, my knuckles began to pop, and I was wincing with each one, as it felt as if the bones were being smashed together.

I tried to pry my hand out of their grip to no avail, and as I struggled, suddenly my other hand's fingers just...Snapped. Like that. And my friend was out of their trance, letting go of my hand, which was sore as hell, but...Fine?

"Hey, did you just...Snap?" my friend asked, as if nothing had happened.

"Y...Yeah, I think so," I snapped the fingers of my other hand as though I always could, and my friend started to snap theirs when their face suddenly twisted in pain and we realized...The hand that had been gripping mine so hard before, had two broken fingers. The snaps weren't from my hands at all...They had been from my friend's.

For some reason, a lot of children love to spin until they get dizzy, some even go so far as till they vomit. I used to love it too. Find a sweet office chair, have a friend spin me round and round till the whole world really was revolving around me.

You grow out of that though, or at least, some do. I never really did, and never thought I would...

...Except now I can't get the world to stop spinning. I'm sober as one can be, but being a fan of spinning to begin with, I knew what to do when I was really disoriented.

Not now though. Y'see, a normal dizzy spell, things spin kinda horizontally, 'cause usually you're spun up that way. This? It feels like someone strapped me to a gyroscope and flipped it every which way.

One minute things are swaying left and right, the next up and down, the next diagonally, and...Ugh, the fewer moving objects nearby the better, I just saw a bird take off nearby, or...I think it took off? Maybe I stumbled?

It's not just the world spinning around me this way or that anymore, that I...I could maybe handle. It's that but it's also like I see something move and...It's like a part of me latches on, like I'm moving with it, and with everything else appearing to go every which way it...Egh.

Sorry, it's...It's my stomach. It won't settle with all...All of this.

I can hardly even sleep. To lay...down? It feels like floating in whitewater, thrown back and forth, under and over, and the only, the only positive is that it's not real whitewater with rocks to slam against...Or maybe, maybe at this point that would be a relief.

Although...Would that even stop it? I can't even tell how long this has been going...The day slips backwards into night and the night flickers, shorter, longer, the sun at once rising and setting. Is...Where was I?

Spell a, y'see dizzy normal, vertically kinda spin things, that up this usually 'cause way. You're? Gyroscope strapped which every someone like to feels it me and flipped.

Things minute, swaying next left and...Ugh...

Sorry, it's...Part of me...Took off...

It's around the time of year where when you feel a tickle in your throat, there's a little sense of dread. Here comes the yearly cold yet again...

But this year, it didn't turn into sniffles and coughs as I'd unfortunately grown so accustomed to. A little cough, sure, but it was strange. It seemed to come back and not just as a slight sensation, it felt like something...More. Almost as if I'd swallowed a pill the wrong way but it didn't choke me up.

I'd quickly grab some water and it'd clear up, so I didn't resort to a doctor right away. Besides, I wasn't exhibiting any other symptoms, so...

However, one night I awoke up gasping for breath, and though I'd kept some water on the nightstand, it didn't occur to me to even try to drink it. I ran to the bathroom and tried to cough up whatever it was. I hacked and wheezed so hard it felt like my head could burst but all that came of it was some spit and mouth that grew dry as I desperately tried to breathe.

Finally it struck me to try to drink something so I hit the faucet and gathered water in my hands and tried to drink as much as I could and gradually I could breathe a little more. Eventually my breathing went back to normal and frightened but relieved I decided to give in and see a doctor.

The next day I felt the strange feeling in my throat even more as I waited for the doctor to arrive. Nervous to find out just what this was, I just stared at the little posters showing a cutaway of a human head and throat to give you an idea of what it was all like.

I started as the doctor knocked and entered, off in something of an anxious daze, and they went about the usual questions and tried to make me comfortable. They seemed a little confused at my description of what I was experiencing, but they took my word for it and began the examination.

"Go aah and open wide for me please," the doctor said, as they began to look inside my throat. A few seconds passed as they moved their instrument about to examine everything.

"Well, I'm seeing nothing, but..." the doctor began to explain, "...Wait, there may be something...Did you feel that same feeling just now?"

My blood froze, I had felt it again...So then, what was the doctor seeing? What was there? The doctor could explain it, surely. The doctor had to have an answer, but...They just kept looking. Their face was pale, but transfixed by curiosity at whatever it was they were seeing.

I wanted to scream, I wanted to grit my teeth and just swallow whatever this thing was and let my body tear it apart, but I found I could do neither. I couldn't breathe again, but this time, I felt it...Emerging.

No one wants to be the buzzkill, the burden, the bummer, right? You can't help but feel you've gotta carry that weight, whatever it is, despite so many telling you you don't need to, but...There's a difference to this weight.

This weight is also a wait, it's this unsettling sense that's real but...It still seems ridiculous. It's just keeping the power on and letting this progress bar complete, and then it's done and the anxiety's gone, okay?

Yet what happens if the power goes out, I don't have to watch this, I can do anything else, but...If I look away, if the power goes out, what if it's all lost? I have backups, it's no problem, but...When was the last time I checked them? I just checked them, they're still there, it's fine.

It's fine.

The bar moves at its glacial pace, yet it's nearly done.

I should just do anything else but watch this bar. There are redundancies to deal with any disruption. There's nothing to fret over. This whole ritual is absurd. My friends handle it without a worry in the world, they go about things letting this run in the background.

It drives me mad thinking how much more relaxed they must feel. And they don't even back up as often!

But...Are they really still the same afterward? Did the transfer really keep them intact?

It's us we're transferring to a new form each time we do this, how can they be so confident that they haven't lost themselves in the process without watching it? How?

I-

The bar's reached its end. The old form's before...me.

I'm...still me. They're...still them.

But...

Backup link to YouTube just in case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27lPAUdE1ys

Each top-level comment, short or long, concerning whatever within this community and Lemmy.World's rules, becomes a topic unto itself for folks to discuss in this thread.

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My concept of time is all over the place, but I'm pretty sure I watched Cube 1 and 3 (Zero) this month, as well as finally getting around to Us the other day.

Are you also a spooky movie type for Halloween, or do you bounce between movies and games and books/stories?