The Lunatic is In My Head | Video | Open

[ushahin]

[It's right around three in the morning, but does Ushahin care? No. The video opens up with a tapping sound that seems to happen every couple of seconds. He's tapping the phone, unable to tell if the video is playing. He's been able to figure out text and even audio, but thus far, the video function has eluded him. Give him time.

When he's satisfied that it is indeed working, it begins to focus in. The light in the room is dim, providing barely enough illumination to see by. Considering how sensitive his left eye is to light, this isn't just for a mood enhancer. He's lying in a bathtub empty of water, fully clothed, a pillow and blankets evident.]

It's quiet again. [His voice is soft and exactly the sort one would expect to hear in the middle of the night in a dimly lit room.] Back to the usual dreams. And such strange ones you all have. So many questions and all the space of the slumbering mind in which to think them.

[He pauses and his eyes drift off to the side as if his mind has gone elsewhere. Finally, he blinks and seems to come back to where he is.] It's all just a spider's web. Snap one thread and it all can disappear.

Comments

[ushahin]

[He finally does smile. A lazy skeleton. Now he has seen just about everything.]

It makes sense, as much as magic ever does. You're a monster then? Strange. Most of the ones I encountered back home are normal Men, but rotten on the inside.

[He'd been called a monster himself a fair few times by the enemy and most of Urulat considered him to be something of the boogeyman waiting to invade their dreams. It wasn't a reputation undeserved either. Ushahin could be quite monstrous, but only when he was pushed to anger.]

[skelebro]

I'm learning that a lotta people have a real different idea of what a monster is, yeah. Back where I come from, it's just a species, separate from humans.

[He's also learning that it can be construed as something of an insult. Which, harsh?]

[ushahin]

Do you have many different races where you are from? There are seven in Urulat, if one includes the gods.

[Which Ushahin blasphemously did. Gods could bleed and die just like any of the other races the Shapers had created. Their only difference was in their power.]

[skelebro]

Not really. We got monsters and humans but there's, you know, general variation within both.

[ushahin]

More variety than talking skeletons? [He leans forward, bad eye glittering in an interested manner.] Do tell.

[skelebro]

[Well, heck, if it means none of his friends get attacked if they ever show up here...]

For starters, there's your standard ghosts and dogs and the like. Then you've got Undyne - she's captain of the Royal Guard - and she's a fish. The king of the Underground's a goat, and the Royal Scientist is a lizard.

[He winks. Confused yet?]

[ushahin]

[Oh yes, confused definitely sums up his feelings in a word.]

Sounds more like a zoo than a group of monsters.

[skelebro]

Well, there's better names for them but that's what humans tend to call 'em.

[ushahin]

Humans rarely use the proper terms for anything. That would be expecting too much of them.

[skelebro]

I take it you're not, then?

[Well, now. That's new.

But then, this wouldn't be the first time he's met something that only looked human.]

[ushahin]

Only half. And not the better half at that.

[Look at that, Ushahin actually attempted to be humorous. Will wonders never cease?]

[skelebro]

Huh. How's that work?

[He's curious. He wasn't aware humans could...mingle like that.]

[ushahin]

Truth be told, I don't think they thought it could happen before me. Ellylon and Men don't really associate with one another if they can help it, so no one thought about the possible ramifications of a union.

[Considering how Ushahin had turned out, there was a very good reason there had only been one half-Ellyl, half-human hybrid in well over a thousand years.]

[skelebro]

[Ellylon. Interesting. Doesn't ring any bells, but it sounds like another species. Still, the man looks fairly human.]

Guess that makes you pretty special, huh?

[ushahin]

Yes. Yes, I suppose it does.

[Ignore his preening. He's just pleased to be called something positive instead of an abomination towards all the races and gods.]

[skelebro]

[Bingo.

Now he's got some insight into how he ticks. Good stuff.]

Special can be good.

[ushahin]

Special also means people want to see you dead because they're afraid of you.

[Personal experience? Oh yes.]

[skelebro]

[Definitely sounds like it.]

You're not wrong. As far as appearances go, you mostly look human. Which is nice.

[ushahin]

True. It does make it easier to go among one's enemies without fear of being stabbed.

[skelebro]

[Stabbed, nothing. It's slashing you gotta watch out for.]

You got a lotta enemies here already?

[ushahin]

Not yet. I expect that won't last long.

[Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.]

[skelebro]

Well, if it means anything, people've been fairly easygoing to my face.

[Never mind the "literal skeleton" thing. People adjust.]

[ushahin]

Do you technically have a face?

[Ah, the questions that come up when one is talking with a skeleton.]

[skelebro]

'Course I do. I'm talking to you, aren't I?

[It might not be a human face, but it's a good enough face, he thinks. He has nothing against it personally.]

[ushahin]

I understand. I think.

[This skeleton is strange. But no stranger than anyone else Ushahin has met here.]