I’ve met, and heard about, voldisil before. There seems to be a consensus
that each one of them is born with two spirit abilities. One is whatever
specific special thing they can do. The other is simply knowing that that’s
what they are. If I’m a voldisil, then I only have the first thing, and not
the second. I’m not inherently conscious that there’s something different
about me, but there must be, right? I mean, no single person can run
into this many unusual people over the course of a lifetime. My home life
was normal. My parents were normal, my half-brother was normal, my neighbors
were normal. In high school, I started asserting my independence, which is
very normal. As a result, I began to regularly leave my bubble behind, and
met all sorts of—let’s call them quirky—characters. I think the first time I
noticed it was when I was in psychology class. I had this thing where I
would sit at the desk in the far corner of the room on the first day of
school. The more interested I became in the subject, the farther up I would
move, sometimes to great annoyance to the students who had already chosen
their spots, and wanted to stay there. So it was the second day, and I still
didn’t think I would want to move, when another kid sat next to me who I
guess skipped the first day of school. He seemed to think that we were
kindred spirits, even though we didn’t know each other. His big thing was
serial killers. He signed up for that course so he could learn all about
them. Fine, whatever; to each their own, but he wouldn’t stop pestering me
about it. He wanted us to share in the passion for the topic, and I wasn’t
into it. I found it difficult to move on the third day. People knew I did
that by then, and even though I went in early to get a different seat, they
kicked me out. But he was just the first. The first of many.
I could not go on a single blind date, or even a non blind date, without
that date deciding that I wanted to hear their weird ideas, like how the
stars weren’t real, and if animals don’t wear clothes, why do humans? One of
them didn’t like to eat bread, which I’m sure doesn’t sound too crazy, but
for me, it’s a non-starter. I met this one guy at a party who thought that
water was trying to talk to us through the bubbling and jetting in
fountains. A neighbor of mine when I got my own place kept sleepwalking into
my unit. I even had the super change the locks, but that guy always managed
to get in. Come to find out, he happened to be a thief, and while he wasn’t
trying to steal from me, muscle memory occasionally drove him to break in to
any door he saw. When I finally got a job, all of my coworkers were bizarre
in their own special ways. I began to wonder if they were hired as part of
some charity for flat-earthers and autistic people. I know, that sounds
really insensitive, but it made me question my sanity, because if I was
saying such things about them, what did others say about me? Were
they the normal ones, and I was the weirdo? What if none of those
people even existed, and I just made them all up in my padded cell? This
continued throughout the rest of my life. I met a lot of regulars, to be
sure, but the ratio of people I couldn’t understand or relate to seemed
higher than it should be. Well anyway, I don’t think I have any superpowers.
I don’t think I’m voldisil. I think it’s either dumb luck, or I’m
particularly judgmental, and it’s something I never got over. Or it’s like
my mom said, everyone’s a little strange, and part of what makes me unique
is my tendency to pick up on people’s special traits. Yeah, that makes me
sound kind of nice. I’m gonna go with that. I’m not a crazy person magnet.
I’m a niche detector.
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