Insanitium Geographica

A Walk In My Mind

So I've been waiting for a challenge like this to come into existence for awhile now - but guess what? It hasn't! So I'm gonna make one.

I had this idea awhile ago after reading Moon Rising. The descriptions of different dragons' minds intrigued me, and completely changed my perspective on the idea of mind reading - which I used to think was more along the lines of "I know what colour you're thinking of". The idea that different minds work differently wasn't exactly new to me, but Tui gave it a certain amount of life in her book.

So, without further ado, let me present to you my own little challenge:

If a NightWing read your mind, what would they see and feel?

Qibli's mind is rushing and frenetic. Kinkajou's mind is vibrant and spontaneous. Umber's mind is calm and placid, and Winter's is a maze in which he himself appears to be trapped.

I myself believe my own mind would be somewhat like a mixture of the lot; confusing at times and wild at others, and almost definitely a trap to myself. I find it very difficult to connect to the real world - and namely my own body, and its position and coordination - at times; this is largely due to my Asperger's. As a result, I believe any telepath would find my mind to be very disjointed, and quite discombobulated.

The thoughts would rush and swell at times, alternating between random words and emotions while at the same time focusing on a million different things. It works in segments: while one part is focusing on the music playing in the background, the other would be turning the possibilities of tomorrow's party over and over. Given any immediate activity (such as writing this), a large portion would be focused: while others would wander. The forefront part of my mind would be focused on my own image, and on maintaining focus or optimism or whatever else may be the current point of interest - while behind that would run a river, composed of solid fear and occasional wild flashes of excitement.

Upon initial entry - that is, the surface thoughts - the mindreader would find a very thin layer of what I'll call filtering. This part is flat and unchanged, and acts almost as a net encompassing the rest of my thoughts; reassuring me when I'm afraid, repeating a few phrases to calm me down, enforcing the smile on my face.

Beneath this would be the river; this part is the alert part. The conscious one. The one that reacts to everything, spiking up and tumbling round and changing colour depending on the surroundings. At times, excited - at others, fearful. Rarely ever standing still. This part is generally the most spontaneous one, and also the one with the most active thoughts and audible words. It's also got a lotta emotions in there. Chances are, the mind reader would end up caught in this.

And then somewhere at the floor of the river, you'll find a jampacked little square of blah. Any emotional attachment, insecurity, old grief and weird sentiment will go here, and occasionally resurface in a nice little knot that generally results in tears or anger. You'd find a fair bit of resentment in there too, as well as a heck ton of nostalgia. Possibly song lyrics as well.

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Wooooow I have wanted to do this for a while. I have no idea if anything I just wrote makes sense, but I doubt a lot of minds make sense either. Hey - chances are, if I ever did come across a NightWing mind reader, the most they'd hear would be random songs or "laugh if you can hear me".

If you'd like to do this challenge, go ahead! You don't have to credit me (although that would be nice), as long as you don't claim this idea as your original creation.

If you do do this challenge (hah, I said doodoo - I doubt anyone will actually do this), feel free to paste the link in here or PM me. I'd love to check it out!

And now let's paste the question in here again for those of you who just scroll through everything:

If a NightWing read your mind, what would they see and feel?