The Great Building

Prompt: A story that involves the architectural plans for a building

I am here because people appear as shapes to me. It is a strange phenomenon and honestly, I wasn’t impacted by it until now. It’s gotten to the point where I can hardly function because of it. Obviously, I know it’s strange or else I wouldn’t be sitting in here with you, and I hope you can make sense of something that I saw. I apologize beforehand If I talk too much, but I’d like to explain myself before we work on a treatment. Anyways, like I said, People appear as shapes.

Ever since I was young, I loved shapes, I would see the triangles and squares in mosaics, I would see the rectangular sunlight reflect off my bedroom wall, with those small bits of dust circles that sparked in the dark. I mean of course everything around us is made of shapes, but what I see is different than that. Even concepts have shape to me, I can read a book and see a flux of walls and a pentagonal- no an oval ceiling and I can see half-moon windows. Books are the easiest for me to explain I guess, but the more complicated or the more interesting, I guess the more shape a shape has. These buildings morph and change in my mind, caving in and rebuilding as a story continues on its path, wiped out at the lowest point and turned into a brilliant palace by the resolution. Now I get, I understand that people see the world differently, and that there’s nothing wrong with that, but there're issues that come with it.

When I walk into a coffee shop on my way to work, I work at a construction company, so I usually wake up early, I can walk into a room and instantly know who everyone is. The barista looks at me with this flat square head, with basic rounded shoulders, held up by simple trusses and legs that match their boredom. Their shape is bland and uninteresting and I can hardly stand people like that. This is how I see most people really. They might be regular shapes existing in a larger plane, but nothing more, nothing less.

 But I might see someone with a more complicated shape there sitting at a table typing away on a computer by themselves. A group of shapes turns into something greater and the more complex a person’s mind, the purer their heart and kind their soul, the bigger they are. People have the potential to become towering skyscrapers and cozy homes. I have seen a few people this way. Funny enough most people who are high up in business reflect a very tall but plain tower appearance, but being strong enough to will yourself into anything but a plain shape is in itself a feat. This person at the coffee shop was complicated. They were a small house, their body forming a complicated series of ledges and supports that held them up, built on hard work and devotion to craft. This person in particular was special I could tell. they even had small points of detail to them, shingles on a roof and even keyholes and doorknobs. I ended up sitting across from them to draw a sketch. I ended up getting a good enough building design from it, so I was fairly happy with the outcome. It’s not often I am able to find someone with an interesting structure of shapes.

 Then as I was getting up to leave this coffee shop, someone else walked in. They are the most complex person I have ever seen by far; the amount of detail and the sheer number of interlocking shapes and structure was insane. I dropped my pen as I watched them walk over to the barista, who looked cheap in comparison. All I could do was stare in awe at what I was witnessing. I’ll try to explain it to you, sorry for taking so long with this, I just want you to understand where I’m coming from since I know I have a unique condition and mentals. Their grand cobbled walls were speckled with bits of moss and flowers that had grown in, with hanging lanterns and fire lit walkways, each stone and each flicker of flame a million small shapes dancing and moving on their own accord. I have never seen anything like it.

Their head sat upon a beautiful minaret, a spinning tower with etched carvings so detailed I could hardly believe my eyes. So much care was put into this one part alone, it made anyone else I had ever seen look like shoddy craftsmanship. I could even see small stairs running to the top of the building through small slits in the walls, and could only imagine the rooms and stories that were help within it.

Their torso was held up by marble buttresses, with large multi-colored windows and niches filling the walls letting in external light. Their door was an old wood, worn and ancient, but strong and stable that piece of wood alone had seen the dawn of time I don’t doubt, and I could even feel a warm fire being stoked inside. There was no chimney now that I think of it which is quite odd, but the curves and twists of their shape could have easily concealed it, which makes me realize it was better than I had even realized at the time. There was too much to even process, and as laughter poured from the Spanish ceramic roof, I felt something I had never quite known before. I can't explain it, and that’s why I’ve come here to you.

             I don’t understand how someone could be so beautiful, how shapes could even look like that. I have seen boring shapes in people all my life, but this was a taj mahal. Now everything else seems bland, like some infant caveman hundreds of years in the past.

I guess my issue Is I don’t know what to do. How can I live my life after seeing such a person, I can’t get them out of my head, their shapes building up myself like nothing ever has. I missed my chance to draw a true masterpiece. I don’t think I can ever forgive myself. I doubt I would’ve been able to draw them even after a hundred years of conversation and talking with them, but regardless I feel like I should have a least tried you know? Sorry I went on a bit of a tangent their haha. I am just in this weird spot where I feel like I have had a great loss and I honestly don’t know how to move past it, or even if I should. I’ve been waking up earlier to try and catch them again but I haven’t seen them since. I’ve just had enough finally and decided to come to you to figure out what to do. You’re the only person I can trust to give me solid advice. What should I do?