We're trying so hard to get it all right

[shadowcourage]

Who: Shadow Link, Clef, selected individuals
Where: Training Gym Carriage
When: Merriment 21
What: Emotional Drama
Warnings: Very emotional arguments that involve family.

Shadow knew himself. He had to know himself. If he wanted to be more than a shadow, he had to be aware of his own shortcomings and compensate for them so he could stay on the track that was important to him.

He had known for years Clef didn't understand that. Its why he had kept him at a distance on purpose. He couldn't risk someone being close who didn't understand that.

But he supposed the danger of trying to be a person is person things happened, like emotions sneaking up on you. It was unfortunate. It just meant he had to be more aware of his own feelings. He had to keep the hurt away from his heart.

But Link and Clef have never been able to talk and....

He couldn't stand Link being hurt more.

So he had to try something.

Which is why when he finds Clef during his exploration, he decides its time to try.

"Come with me," he said flatly, in a tone that isn't likely to listen to argument.

Comments

[guru_clef]

A shudder ran through his physical body - the first physical response since he collapsed, and the flicker.. flared. Like it was reaching, desperately for... something. It wasn't like light or like shadows, like thin almost translucent form. Amorphous. But reaching. Flailing as if it were blind but knew something it needed were close. There was almost a desperation to the feel of Clef, a desperation visible in the form of his will.

[shadowcourage]

There it was. A reaction.

And Shadow pushed because he doesn't have the emotions, but Link does, and he knows what Link's emotions are.

And Clef should to.

He just needed him to remember it again.

You promised a boy who lost everyone important to him you would be there for him.

You owe him! To give up means you WILL hurt him!

People chose you!

You told them to choose you!

Now you have to honor that instead of hurting him like the world already has!

He chose you! YOU OWE HIM!

Now WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUP-

Part 1

[guru_clef]

Clef's physical body shook violently as his will rushed back to fill it. His eyes snapped open blankly as his form flickered. Shadow would see Clef's body change, clothing shifting to change with him. It took seconds, if that, before the form in the bed, shaking terribly no longer looked like a child. Older. Significantly taller.

Those eyes widened with something very akin to shock. Then his lips moved over a single word, a name, silently. "Link."

His form shuttered again and shrank back to Clef's usual state as his mind spun.

Link. Link needed him. As long as Link still wanted him, he had to be there for Link. Had to be. It didn't matter if no one else needed him, so long as Link did. He had to be here for Link. Had to be there for his son.

Sons.

Zelda might not remember him but Link did. Shadow did.

Was Shadow real or an imposter?

His eyes closed as he realized... it didn't matter.

Were any of them themselves any more?How many times had forces entered his mind since he Woke, changing him? How many false memories became real? What of those books that suggested that those of them who Woke were fundamentally just copies in a functional sense? Otherwise going back to Sleep wouldn't rob them of all they learned. That they caused the Flaws going back Awake because they were no longer the them that belonged to their worlds...

So if this was a fake Shadow....

Then the only answer was to treat him like he wasn't a fake. Because if he was really there to do otherwise would hurt him terribly. And if he was a fake...

Fakes could become real.

He wouldn't ever take over being Shadow if he was a fake, but he could still be loved, still be family. To imitate Shadow he had to be like him to a degree. Had to be good.

If this was a fake and Shadow, the real Shadow, did show up, he could and would love them both. Trust them both.

Because there was no way to be so like Shadow without being so like Shadow. Either to start or in becoming, in being.

Link needed him.

Shadow... Shadow needed him.

His head started to clear as his will filled him again.

He still didn't know who he was these days. He'd been questioning that since his first Storm. So why should Shadow or Link or any of them be any different? Was this Shadow real? the question was impossible to answer. As impossible to answer as was the now real or just another Storm or mind attack?

That he could question made it more likely this was real... but there was no certainty. There hadn't been certainty for years now.

So he had to focus on the now, on the things he knew to be true now.

He loved Link. He loved Shadow. He loved Zelda. Shadow and Link remembered him. Zelda did not. They were on the train. He was Clef. Guru of Ceiphro. Ascended of Naut. Passenger on the train. Was it real?

No way to know.

But it was now. And he wasn't trying to kill anyone. So if it was false it was a less dangerous false than some had been.

He had to act as if the now was real until he could prove it was or wasn't.

Again he anchored what he knew of the now in his head. Link was here. Link needed him. He loved and trusted Link. With most things, anyway. He didn't trust the boy to take his homework seriously. But to have his back...? Yes.

A flicker of memory, Link and Shadow leaving.

The anchor of his will wavered for a moment and he forced it still. No. NO. It was more complicated than that. Focus on who his boys were.

Link was the core of good, wanted to help and protect everyone. Shadow... Shadow couldn't see his own goodness, so Clef and Link had to see it for him. He could do that. He could be Shadow's anchor.

Link needed them for love, for a reminder that he was a person not just a tool of fate, not just a hero. But a boy, a friend, a son.

And Shadow needed them for something else. He needed people to believe in him. To help him see his own goodness, to help him believe in himself.

They needed him.

A faint impression of being told that people don't need people... but it was faint, like from a dream. And why would he have ever dreamed such a thing? Of course people needed people.

Of course?

Since when was that of course?

Memories of time spent in his tower, studying, broken by students coming to him or occasionally Presea breaking in and pointing out that no one had seen him in decades. He hadn't needed people then...

But then other memories answered those first, like they were fighting back... Sitting in the garden of their crystal castle with Zelda pouring over a tome and discussion potential ramifications of reincarnation on a sense of self.

A training session with Link that just wound up being more amusing than useful and yet... a dear memory and he felt...

A memory of watching Link and Shadow one time when the boys had been talking together in Naut. Nothing special or dramatic in that memory but the feeling was like the others...

He didn't have a word for the feeling, which was odd, because he was usually so good with words. But the closest he could come was... quiet. There was a quiet when they were around him. Not a silence, but a comforting quiet.

Absence. But... Absence was a negative word and odd when their presence was what triggered it. It was as if some of the constant worry and mania to study as much as he could to figure things out, to fix things... to solve things... that frantic panic always in the back of his head since that day before the princess...

He pulled away from that, back to his mental point, refusing to remember that look on her face, those tears that...

No! Focus, Clef. Pin it down. It is important to understand.

Why was it important to understand?

Link's stricken face. Shadow holding himself like he was expecting a blow... it was important because they needed him to figure it out. So he had to focus. He was the one who was supposed to have all the answers. So he needed to figure them out. So what was it, this absence by presence?

It was... all that manic... all that...

THIS. It was THIS.

This was quieter when they were with him and happy.

When whatever Storm or whatever it had been when they had been a happy family this... this was gone, this was absent. He worried and fretted and tried to fix things of course but not...

Not this.

But... was that selfish? To want to be with them when they were happy because it made him less functional? Made him stop working to figure out solutions to all their problems? Shouldn't being with them make him more desperate to find ways to help them, not more at ease...

Another memory. Far older. He was sitting with Presea on the floor of her basement, books surrounded them. He was helping her learn Pharle's craft. They were learning together. She was... she was getting it better than he was understanding it faster. Her work was cleaner. Better. He had been so desperate to learn, to understand... but the harder he tried the worse he was. But then she touched his hand, stilling it. "Clef, if you hammer the metal too much you don't make the shape better you just ruin the metal," she had said. Well, sh might not have been quite that kind, he knew his memories of Presea were often colored differently from reality, even back then.

Why?

Come back to that later. Hold onto the memory...

"Look, you're the one who pointed out pharling starts with the fundamentals of blacksmithing, even if everything we do is through magic and materials. Well, you're doing the magical equivalent of overhammering, so stop it."

"So I should just... give up on it?" he asked, disgusted with the misshapen lump had been turning into a gauntlet before melting down on him.

"Of course not. Nothing is so far broken we can't fix it," she said with a grin and a wink. "Just not now."

"Why not now?"

"Because now..." she pulled him to his feet as she got up, "Now we need to deal with Mokona..."

But it hadn't been about Mokona. She explained it later. It was about the break. Stepping back for a bit then returning to the task fresh.

A break.

But that wasn't right. Using them as a break, right? Wasn't it selfish to want to be around them just because he felt better when they were near and happy? Because after spending time with them he felt so much more capable?

But... it wasn't one way, was it? He helped them too. Didn't he? They liked being with him, they got something out of it too, didn't they?

He.. he thought Link did. And Zelda. But Shadow...?

What had he ever been able to do for Shadow?

His head hurt. But he kept pushing. Kept trying. What had he ever been able to do for Shadow but hurt him?

Hadn't he been trying for ages now to figure out something he had to offer the boy? He hadn't even been able to make him armor.

What could he ever give to Shadow that would matter?

Was... was loving him enough?

No. He knew the answer. It wasn't. But what could he do for Shadow? How could he make him see how much he loved him...?

No... that was the wrong. That was still about him, Clef. Not about Shadow. He needed to figure out what to do to help Shadow. But what could he ever do? What could he ever give to Shadow that Shadow would want?

Shadow... didn't want him. Didn't want him around.

He... he knew that. It hurt, but he knew that, had known that for a while. All he'd ever been able to do was keep his distance, letting Shadow choose when to come to him.

And he never had.

And Clef... Clef needed to come to terms with that. Because it wasn't Shadow's problem. It was his. He shouldn't keep trying, shouldn't hurt Shadow by letting Shadow see how he felt. This wasn't right, this wasn't good for Shadow.

But...

Wait. That....

If Shadow needed him and Link to see his good for him, to help him see for himself, then how could he also...

No.

No. He knew this. He needed to stop this argument. He needed to leave Shadow to Link. Because he wanted help from Link, loved Link, would accept help from Link. Was trying to help Shadow making Shadow resist being help? Was he hurting Shadow?

He.. he knew he was. That was why he kept trying to stay away. But... why was it so hard. Usually when he knew the right thing to do he could just do it. So why was it always so hard to do? Why did he always find himself thinking of things he wanted to say to Shadow? Things he wanted to show him? Why did he spend so long trying to figure out gifts for him when he knew that Shadow wouldn't want a gift from him...? Why did he still feel so guilty that he still hadn't come up with something anyway?

Memories of Shadow as actually his son, in the Storm or whatever. Being there with him when Shadow was sick, knowing both his sons loved him.

The boys leaving when they were saying things that he understood now but hadn't then...

Another memory, like a counterpoint. When his mind had been taken by Endos. They had been attacking the gate. Link was there, and Zelda. And him. And he had been sure, so sure they were doing the right thing. And then Shadow showed up. And there had been a moment... A moment where he had been sure that everything was finally... right.

And then Shadow took Zelda and... and he knew that there had to be something more going on that he didn't see. He hadn't suspected for a second the reality of it, but he had known KNOWN that Shadow would never hurt Zelda. No matter what. That he had been missing something. Even brainwashed he had been sure that Shadow would never hurt Zelda but... afraid that Link might hurt Shadow.

Why?

Why had that been his fear? Now, the know that may or may not be real... He couldn't see Link hurting Shadow. He couldn't see either of them hurting each other or Zelda. For anything. So why had he thought that way then?

He... needed to think about that. Later.

Of course he had been thinking about it since they had been broken free of that spell and still didn't have an answer.

But there was something that needed an answer now... something he had to... what? What? Why couldn't he remember... Shadow. He needed to...

All at once the much more recent memory hit him. Shadow coming to him in the library to talk to him and then...

And then....

Shadow saying he was selfish, not being able to focus on Shadow no matter how hard he tried. Pain. Pain and...

Something in him shied away, focused on the other side.

Shadow had come to him.

Shadow had wanted to speak to him and he...

He had wasted the opportunity.


A tear rolled down his face.

Shadow was right. He was selfish. Shadow should have had his full and complete attention. So why hadn't he...?

No. Wrong question. He needed to find Shadow, appologize and... and...

And then leave him alone? But if he came to him, did that mean...?

What did that mean?

Tears rolling he opened his eyes slowly, realizing that... he had no clue where he was or what had happened.....

[shadowcourage]

Well, the shape change sure was A THING that Shadow noticed.

But then more is happening, far too many thoughts mixed in with everything and there was-

There was definitely stuff that clawed at his anger because Clef didn't get it, he didn't need Clef to believe in him, he didn't need to be BELIEVED in like that. Trust and support, that was important, but it only mattered with understanding. Anything less was dangerous and unearned.

He didn't want people to see the good in him, without seeing what it came from. Because that was where the power of his Zelda's words came from. From her seeing what he was, knowing what he was, and choosing to believe there was something worth encouraging.

The fact was, he didn't need Clef to do anything for him. He didn't need to be protected. He didn't need gifts. He didn't need a father.

He had wanted to have a friend.

A friend without the connection. One he could believe in and trust to care.

And Clef had broken that.

And that was what had hurt, that had made him want to hurt-

And its why now, he's pushing his feelings to the side, burying them deep, Maintaining Control because his goodness is a choice. It is always a Choice and he is choosing to not react in the way he wants. In the way his soul screams to do because there is more he craves then base instincts.

Instead he pushed the thoughts to wake up, that people chose him, that Link chose him, because that is what he could do, that is the good he could choose. Even as he is baffled at all the ways Clef has imprisoned his own thoughts.

He never learned to not overhammer, has he?

"What. The heck is it about yer existence that ya can't take extreme confusion?" Shadow asked when he opened his eyes as he pulls back the dark magic, flicking a shadow over at the switch to turn on the light.

He was tired.

There was a reason why he didn't do a ton of mind control.

But he wanted to know what almost KILLED CLEF.

[guru_clef]

"Sh...Shadow?" he asked, eyes focusing on him as the lights came on. He pushed himself up as he realized he was in his bed in his cabin - a place he saw little of most of the time - with no memory of how he got there.

No memory but quite the nascent headache.

"I... do not understand the question. Confusion is a natural part of learning that drives us to try to understand more, that drives research and experimentation. Why wouldn't I be able to handle confusion?" he asked. He was utterly lost as to where that question came from.

But... shadow was talking to him, and he didn't want to lose that. Desperately didn't want to lose that.

[shadowcourage]

"I don't know, why don't YA tell me why yer soul almost left yer body!" Shadow snapped because that was a sign of there being SOMETHING in there and if Clef has health issues, that needs to be known. "Because that certainly wasn't any of my magic!"

[guru_clef]

"My... soul?" He really was confused. But no sign of the pain he had been in. "I am not sure what you mean," he said, giving it serious thought, trying to figure out what could have happened, wondering why he didn't recall it. "Was I... returning to Sleep?" It was all he could think of unless, "or was it some sort of attack? Is everyone else okay?" Concern now pushed away more theorizing. "Are you alright? What do you mean your magic? What happened?"

[shadowcourage]

"No! No, no, no," Shadow said, pointing a finger in Clef's face. "It wasn't an attack, it wasn't going to Sleep, it wasn't any of that. It was something about YA. Ya broke down and then ya were fading entirely and it wasn't any Bending stuff because I can't break Ascended stuff like that."

He gets in Clef's face. "So I want ya to think of YER world and yer world only. What could happen to a person to make their soul disappear."

[guru_clef]

He frowned in thought as he shifted to sit back against the wall, using it for support. "Something about... me?" He was relieved that no one else was in danger. If it was only his own life, he could afford to be more objective. And realistically, objectivity was probably what was needed. Reason and logic were more generally reliable than emotion. At least... for him. Whenever he tried to follow his emotions...

He just made a hash of it. At least that was the case now. Now that it mattered.

Right, Shadow asked him to think about this issue, he could puzzle out objectivity and how to be better with emotions later. Maybe he could order a book on the topic...

His world and his world only... something about Ceiphro...

He closed his eyes, considering. Almost seven and a half centuries there, most of that time spent in study. Teaching counted as studying, because he learned as much from his students as they learned from him. Perhaps more in some cases...

No, not the time to think about... He shoved those thoughts and the pain that came with them back away where they belonged.

The crisis was of course near the forefront of his thoughts when he thought of home. But that didn't seem applicable, and the pain threatened to distract him, so he pushed that aside. The legend of the Magic Knights? No, that... wait, could it?

Were the Knights physically in his world? He had presumed they were, but... had he physically been in Naut? Was he physically here? He felt as though he was and had been, but what if his body was back in Ceiphro and their bodies back on their world? That was a nasty little thought and one he had hardly considered in the past.

He considered it now. Could that sort of calling be what happened that Shadow was talking about? Could he have been summoned? No. That didn't track because then he would be there, wherever there would be. Unless it failed...? But could it start to succeed and then fail? Would whoever it was try again?

No, that question should be broached later if needed. He needed to focus on the other part. Could this have been a failed summoning? But the Magic Knights heard the princess. And he has heard Naut. He didn't recall hearing anyone this time.

So possible, but not likely.

Could a failed summon have split his soul? Would he know if it had? Would Shadow, since he had somehow sensed what was going on, even though Clef had been the target and was clueless?

Maybe. After all, shadow would know more about souls than he would since he had never even heard of them until...

"I am unsure. I never understood the concept of soul before I began speaking to Zelda and Link," he said. "I have never heard of anything like reincarnation or the like on Ceiphro," he said, eyes still closed as he thought. "But..."

Oh.

He paused and followed the vague memory that floated to the surface. Being called in to try to help someone who seemed ill but no illness could be found. Wounded by no signs of wounds.

It had been hundreds of years ago, and he struggled to remember.

Easier if he could see....

His hands lifted and between them a small golden orb formed and expanded until it was about the size of his head. The gold light shuddered then drifted off like smoke or steam, revealing a pastel orb of magic between his palms and in it, a scene. He was using his magic to bring it to life as he recalled so it was patchy at first, details filling in as he remembered them.

The girl looked to be in her teens. From what he had been told, that was accurate. She was of middling power. She was laying out on blankets on the ground of her home, hair spread in an artful fan around her head like the rays of the sun. Her dress was nice, good quality, well made, but not fresh and clean. Why that detail stuck with him he didn't know, but he added the smudges to her dress in the orb as best he could recall them. Her face was fuzzy. He had recalled her hair, but her face was still lost to memory. The dress he recalled because he had inspected it, to figure out if she had crafted it herself, to see if it had been ensorcelled.

He had books floating around him. He had been at it for hours, her parents standing back, watching. Or was one of them sitting? He couldn't recall and they were vague in the orb. They had answered his questions and other from that he had mostly tuned them out. There was someone else with him...

As he thought it, she appeared in the orb, right at his shoulder, between two of the books. She had been working as hard as he. Zagato at the door, guarding them, but Clef didn't bother adding him to the scene. He didn't matter to the memory and Clef's current emotions would just cloud his memory...

the image wavered as thinking about Zagato shook his focus, but he pushed thoughts of the priest forcefully aside and focused again on the memory. Something here. Not about souls, he didn't know what they were then but...

"It's like she's here but not here," the princess said softly near his ear, her words for him and him alone. Though if the priest had missed them he'd eat his staff. The parents wouldn't have heard, though they were theoretically closer. He knew that.

Clef nodded. "I see what you mean," he replied equally quiet, grave. Grave... the word in his own thoughts had made him shudder at the time. Or was he shuddering now and his mind was telling him it was part of the memory? What was real?

The orb shimmered again, his head pounded, the image fuzzed.

NO! Focus, Clef! Focus!

The orb solidified again as he pushed himself to remember that conversation.

"I could try a calling, but... how could she be here but not be here, Guru?" she asked softly.

"I am uncertain." He lifted a hand and held it over the girl's face, focusing. He had done so many times over the hour, searching. Unsure what for.

The princess' hand joined his once more, but then frowning slightly, seeming to follow some instinct - or perhaps she had an unvoiced thought - she moved her hand further along the body, deftly ducking the floating books as she did until her hand was over the girl's torso. "guru..." she whispered, hiding her alarm from those who could not hear the tension in her voice.

He moved, the books moving with him, though he was careful that none should strike the princess or the sleeping girl. His hand lay over the princess' hand and...

He remembered now. No way to capture it in the orb, but it was in his thoughts clearly now. There had been something, a faint flickering, not quite a light but it had been the best word he had at the time. It was more like... like a candle flame made of smoke... no... steam. No actual flame, but steam or smoke moving as a candle flame would.

He shifted his hand, aiming the palm at the princess. If the girl they were examining was a flickering wisp of smoke, the princess - looked at the same way - was steam so thick he could see the water in the air. A flood. He turned to the girl again, pale. The princess was as pale as he was, but neither was so pale as the still form before her.

"Tell me again what happened just before," the princess ordered, her voice sounding sharp with the effort it took to control her emotions so the parents would not pick up on what she ad Clef now could tell.

Clef vanished the sphere. He no longer needed to see it, he remembered. Remembered the princess having to be taken away after. Remembered how hard it had been to bring the girl back, remembered wondering if he had made the right choice.

He pushed the thoughts and doubts aside and lifted his face to look to Shadow. "She had lost her Will. We saw it a few other times once we knew what to look for. Sometimes the person could be called back, sometimes they could not..."

He rubbed at his face. He presumed that Shadow had seen the same, but like they had back then, had not recognized it for what it was. "I don't know how often you've seen it, but it isn't a choice it is more like..." He tried to think of how best to explain it. "It is like... One of the storms I learned of an illness called pneumonia. Where, if I am recalling correctly, the lungs are so full of fluid that the air is pushed out, that the patient cannot breathe. If Will were air, it would be like that, as near as I can tell. I've seen maybe a half dozen cases in that many centuries. Is that what you think happened to me?" he asked.

And if it was, what in all the worlds had caused it???

[shadowcourage]

Shadow looked to the illusion as it appeared, watching to see as to any hint of what happened.

"...what had happened just before? To the sleeping girl."

Because Will....will can mean a lot of things. "'cause pneumonia is a physical thing, and also has a cause in a disease."

[guru_clef]

"A terrible emotional shock. Her sister and boyfriend had been trying to plan a surprise for her. They had gone into the Forest of Silence looking for the legendary metal Escudo. She hadn't known they had gone, let alone why. She found out when their remains were found and brought out of the woods. She collapsed over them, and... did not get up again."

[shadowcourage]

"....so she died by heartbreak. Is what it comes down to," Shadow said, giving Clef a hard look.

[guru_clef]

"Her will itself suffered a tremendous shock," he said softly.

[shadowcourage]

"....Clef. For future reference. Ya need to tell off worlders about how heart break can literally kill people from yer world. Or any kind of major shock. Also we need to get ya....what's the word...therapy?" Shadow said, rubbing at his temple.

[guru_clef]

He was... very very confused again. "But... that is hardly unique to Ceiphro, as well as being rare. I have read about it in books in Naut as well as in the Storm memories I have. Will is life. I.. I am sorry but I do not follow why you think that is someone I need to tell people, unless I am trying to treat them for that exactly thing. And even were I to, I am sure I am not the most qualified person to administer medical help. There are certainly others on the train with more experience..."

[shadowcourage]

"Nautilus also had stuff be about dreams and willpower and basically being a deity. Other places ain't like that. I'm as close as a 'alive via willpower' being in Hyrule and even I don't die from heartbreak. I know. My heart was broken," Shadow said, rubbing at his forehead. "This is yet problem, Clef. Ya never understand ANYTHING is different from yet worldview."

[guru_clef]

He was listening, right up until Shadow said his heart had been broken. He reached out to the boy without thinking for once, without wondering if he'd be rejected. "to you need to talk about it?" he asked softly.

And yes, that does mean he missed the end of what Shadow said. But now all his thoughts were on how to help Shadow and everything else was pushed aside for later.

[shadowcourage]

"Absolutely not," Shadow said flatly, brushing his hand away. "I've made my peace with Vio. YER the one who almost died because ya can't deal with actually difficult emotional problems."

He pokes his chest hard. "Yer inability to understand others is a literal fatal problem!"

[guru_clef]

"What do you mean I almost died...? Ad I am trying to understand you, but you always push back when I try!" Which was why he tried to keep his distance, because Shadow wanted it...

[shadowcourage]

"That has NOTHING to do with what I said!" Shadow said, throwing up his hands in frustration. "This! This is yer problem! This is why ya almost died! Ya have no adaptability, no ability to actually CHANGE yer mind due to someone else! That's why yer easy to mind control!"

[guru_clef]

"What... what do you mean! I am constantly changing how I think, that is what happens with research!"

[shadowcourage]

"That. Is not. What I said," Shadow ground out. "Ya can only change when ya make these weird loops in yer own brain to make it make sense. Never because yer ACTUALLY considering what others are telling ya. It was pathetically easy to put thoughts into yer brain because ya never actually think yer wrong!"

[guru_clef]

"What do you mean putting.... you mean the Storms?"

[shadowcourage]

"No! I mean I used mind control on ya to make a point! I worked for the King of Darkness, one of my primary jobs was to maintain the thrall on people to make more servants. I have been in a lot of heads," Shadow said. "And I was just in yers and it was stupidly easy to manipulate. Because ya don't question yerself. At all. And if things are bad in yer head, apparently, ya decide to just lay down and die."

[guru_clef]

"What do you mean you... used... mind control on me? To make what point...?" So. confused. So very very confused.