Video| In all my dreams, it's never quite as it seems

[ushahin]

[When the video opens up, Ushahin is lying once again inside his bathtub. It's about five o' clock in the morning, so at least he's only waking up the resident of Hadriel up at the crack of dawn instead of the middle of the night this time. He's considerate that way.]

Does anyone else hear it? The music? It's so lovely.

[There is, of course, no music. What he's hearing is the tune he's caught from passing through someone's mind while they sleep. It's had quite the effect on him.]

Music makes everything quiet inside.

[He starts humming to himself, tapping his fingers to keep rhythm. If that tune sounds somewhat familiar, well, it might have been your mind he was tapping into.]

Comments

[bekommen]

What, the band? Same reason bands usually break up, everyone got sick of everyone else's bullshit. "Creative differences" is the technical term.

[ushahin]

[Ushahin shifts around in the bathtub, settling in more securely. Hmmm, next time, he's taking an extra pillow with him.]

And your relationship with the girl? Creative differences there as well?

[bekommen]

[There's a bit of a pause while Nick breathes through the pain of that question. Her words take a harder edge when she speaks again.]

No. She decided she wanted to marry this guy she was hung up on and move back to England.

[ushahin]

[He laughs, though the sound is not meant to be mocking and isn't directed at Nick. It's just the sight of old patterns again that leaves him amused. What can he say? After more than a thousand years, there's not much to humanity that surprises him anymore.]

Did you love her? Or was it merely infatuation and lust?

[bekommen]

That's a stupid fucking question.

[One that cuts entirely too close, is what she means.]

[ushahin]

[He blinks slowly and sighs. She'll need a better way to avoid his questions than that.]

If you don't answer, I shall simply have to draw my own conclusions.

[bekommen]

Draw whatever you want, man. Love's a big cosmic joke. Everything's all just hormones and shit anyway.

[ushahin]

That is a cynical perspective to take. It is also the wrong one. Love is one of the most powerful forces on earth. It drives Men to do both great and terrible things. Do not discount the emotions you feel simply because you were betrayed.

[He's stretching a little with that last comment, not knowing for sure what happened to Nick. But he'd been around his cousin for more than a thousand years and knew his mind well. The damage caused from being done ill by one that a person had loved was far-reaching.]

[bekommen]

What, you're some kinda expert on love?

[Nick scoffs loudly. He's not wrong about her, though, and it hurts that she's so apparently transparent. Nick has worked hard to convince everyone who knows her - and herself - that the breakup with Kennedy wasn't a big deal, and this guy she's talked with exactly one other time has seen right through the front she's carefully constructed.]

It's great for stories and songs, but in real life, it's total bullshit.

[ushahin]

No. I am an expert on a lack of love in one's life. It is a fate I would not wish on anyone else.

[That's Ushain's great talent, getting inside people's heads and knowing exactly what he shouldn't about them. He looks sad. She's too young to be so very hard already.]

What you felt at the time was real, even if you try to convince yourself otherwise now.

[bekommen]

[She's been this hard since she was much younger. It's what happens when you grow up with an excess of pain and a lack of love and parental involvement - you learn to expect the worst of people and see the world as something that will only hurt you if you allow it.

Nick knows, deep down, that what she felt was real, and that's why it hurt so much when Kennedy left her, just like it hurt when her best friend Andy decided that they weren't really friends anymore.]

You never told me your name, y'know. If you're gonna be all weirdly fuckin' insightful, I think I should know what to call you. I'm Nick.

[ushahin]

[He's seen the patterns of such a life before. People had hurt and scared him for a long time and eventually madness had followed. His cousin had been betrayed by those he loved and anger sustained him for years afterward. Ushahin is seeking to look past all that anger to what lies beneath Nick's surface.]

Ushahin Dreamspinner is what I am called.

[Of course he'd have a name like that. Just look at him.]

I am known for seeing things that nobody else sees.

[bekommen]

[Underneath the angry, callous exterior is a sad, frightened little girl, the Nick who lost her father at eight years of age and never knew love from her mother, only disdain and antipathy and casual violence. She's spent the better part of nearly two decades building herself a facade of the most indestructible materials she can find, hardened her own heart, taught herself not to care, to hate everyone first so it wouldn't hurt her when they turned on her with the same.]

Yeah? I'm known for being a huge bitch and making perfect cappuccino foam. I guess we all got talents, huh.

[ushahin]

I don't think you're as bad as all that. I like you just fine.

[He smiles at her. She'll have to work a lot harder at being terrible if she wants to be off-putting to him. He's seen the worst that people can throw at him, and yet still, humanity manages to fascinate him at the best of times.]

[bekommen]

[Nick breaks into an abrupt peal of laughter. She's not the sort of person that people like, and that's mostly by her own design. The idea of anyone coming out saying this just seems silly to her.]

You barely even know me, man. You didn't even know my name until like, five seconds ago and I was completely shitfaced the first time you talked to me.

[ushahin]

You revealed quite a bit of your past and personality when you were drunk. And a bit more as we have been talking now. As for not knowing you...

[He shrugs expansively. Can it ever be said of a psychic that they truly don't know anyone they've gotten into the head of? Not that he's done that yet with Nick. Strange, that he's limited himself to just conversations with her thus far.]

That is my great talent, young one. Knowing things that others do not.

[bekommen]

OK, Master Yoda, if you say so.

[There's an edge of sarcasm in that, but it's not as harsh as she could be. She's trying to turn over a new leaf and at least make an attempt at being more agreeable since her drunken public meltdown.]

I didn't really mean to say a lot of what I said when I was drunk that time. I mean, I did at the time, but I kinda wish I hadn't, now.

[ushahin]

[The pop culture reference goes straight over his head. He does notice that she's not nearly as biting as she could be. He does appreciate that.]

Too late for regrets. All you can do is to move forward and do better. Also, I recommend having someone take away your device if you decide to drink again.

[bekommen]

Yeah, don't worry - I'm swearing off booze for a good long time after that. I'm prob'ly gettin' too old for that kinda dumb bullshit anyway.

[ushahin]

You are never too old to make mistakes, particularly of the foolish kind. I know that quite well.

[If age was supposed to help one reach a state of perfection, nobody had bothered to tell Ushahin.]

[bekommen]

I guess we all got that in common.

[ushahin]

Indeed we do.

[He stifles a yawn. They've been talking for quite some time and he hasn't even slept yet today. It should be getting light out any minute.]

Pardon. I think it is time for me to sleep.

[bekommen]

Yeah, that's not the worst idea. Talk to you later sometime, I guess.

[ushahin]

Good night, Nick. I will see you in your dreams.

And with that eerie sounding sign off, Ushahin turns off the device and snuggles down into his bathtub.]