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]

[Ushahin is silent for a moment. Then he throws his head back and laughs. The video tilts sideways and all that can be seen is a blanket covering his legs. When it finally faces Ushahin, there's clear traces of mirth on his face.]

It is about time someone here said it so plainly. I was beginning to think no one here has ever encountered a madman before.

[He's been insane for a long time and has learned to accept the title willingly.]

[inappropriatelaughter]

[ WELL he totally didn't expect that reaction, but okay. ]

I mean, to be fair, all the crazy people I've seen have been trying to kill me or somebody else, so. Listening to the walls is almost like, why point it out?

[ushahin]

I won't try to kill you. Not yet.

[That's a comforting thought.]

Talking walls are nothing special. It's when you start hearing people's voices when they aren't saying anything that you should start to worry.

[inappropriatelaughter]

[ It's way easier to take that as a totally nonserious joke than it maybe should be.


The other thing, though. Hmm. ]

Wait, do you really?

[ushahin]

Well, yes. But I don't worry. The voices I hear are when I scry the minds of others.

[He seems completely unruffled at revealing the knowledge that he can read minds, an act most might find disconcerting or an invasion of privacy at the very least.]

[inappropriatelaughter]

Does that mean you can read minds?

[ His expression is 100% undisguised skepticism. Dude just said the walls talk to him, there's no way. ]

[ushahin]

Yes. [He sees that expression and frowns. He's encountered less non-believers then than one might think.]

You don't believe me, do you?

[inappropriatelaughter]

Nnnnnope.

[ushahin]

Want me to prove it to you?

[His personal pride is stung. This must be rectified.]

[inappropriatelaughter]

Knock yourself out.

[ there's no way he's going to regret this!! ]

[ushahin]

[Well, that's all the permission Ushahin needs. His eyes lose their focus as he scans through the minds he can feel all over the city. There's over seventy of them, so he takes a minute to find the one he's looking for. Ah, there it is. He sifts through Gojyo's mind carefully, taking care not to leave any signs that he's been there. This is meant to be a demonstration, not leave him screaming in pain.

He wants a very clear, memorable thought, something that will prove that he is what he says he is. He goes past the current time and the faces of the three companions and goes into the past. Down, down, down until he runs into a memory that holds a great deal of significance. He takes it in, observing it. Yes, this will do just fine. He comes out of Gojyo's mind slowly, the way out always like a ladder that must be climbed. His eyes refocus and there's a satisfied little smirk hovering around his lips. It feels like it's been an hour, but only about two minutes have passed in reality.]

Those scars you have on your face, Gojyo. You got them when your stepmother attacked you.

[inappropriatelaughter]

[ For a second he looks like he's been slapped.

He covers it with a forced laugh, finally, and rakes his hair out of his face, but now it's all a front. It's probably obvious. ]

Shit, so does that mean the walls seriously talk?

[ushahin]

I did try to tell you, but nobody listens to me. Oh no, he's crazy, what does he know?

[Ushahin shakes his head. They never do learn. Still, he won't press the issue. The point has been made.]

[inappropriatelaughter]

It's not like you make it easy, the way you explain this stuff.

[ushahin]

It's not easy for me either. Reality for most people is what they see in front of their eyes. Reality for me is...subjective.

[inappropriatelaughter]

[ He's propped his phone up against something so he can be lazy and slouch. ]

See, you just did it again. What's that even mean, you can't tell if anything's real or not?

[ushahin]

I don't just see the thoughts of people. I see their dreams and those dreams are just a different sort of reality than this current one I sometimes see.

[His eyes get that unfocused, far away look again.]

Sometimes, I feel as if I am always dreaming, even when I am awake.

[inappropriatelaughter]

[ He makes a kind of not this dreams shit again face, which really has nothing to do with Ushahin, but it's automatic. ]

You gotta get an assistant, you know? Somebody to follow you around and be like, nah, that's not real.

[ushahin]

[Considering he's been surrounded up until now by people who rather encourage the insanity rather than rein it in, that's not a half bad suggestion.]

Are you offering to apply for the job?

[inappropriatelaughter]

Me? Hell no. Sounds like work. [ He grins, a teensy bit self-deprecating (only a teensy bit, though, because ha ha work). ]

I gotta watch a kid with way too much energy all day, anyway.

[ushahin]

Ah, yes. One of your companions.

[He'd seen their faces when he went into Goyjo's mind, felt the emotions attached to their presence there.]

[inappropriatelaughter]

Did you just do that thing again?

[ushahin]

No. I got that from going in the first time. Thoughts that lie on the surface of the mind are the easiest to access.

[inappropriatelaughter]

[ Oh, good. Super. ]

You say that like it's not even a big deal.

[ A pause. ]

Hey, can you do that to anybody? Even these gods?

[ushahin]

I have been doing this a long, long time. Longer than you've been alive.

[He has to think about that for a moment.]

I never attempted to penetrate the minds of the god I served back home, but that was a matter of respect rather than power. I can enter any creature's mind. Whether I leave again is another matter entirely. I have not yet attempted it on these gods.