Mental Invasion

O-kay...
I'm not sure that I like the fact that my blog has become a controversial spot to hang out over the past few days. Don't get me wrong - I'm loving all your kind compliments about my writings - despite the fact that praise makes me uncomfortable, like everyone I enjoy it. But this blog is primarily to house my writings for me, not for entertainment or amusement of others. So I think I'm going to lean away from 'hot topics' like 512 for a little while and turn my brain back towards the old pursuits - fiction and such.
The following is a little piece I wrote a few weeks ago. I hope, if you are reading this, that you enjoy it - but remember, I didn't write it for you to enjoy, I wrote it for me. Just like everything else on this blog.

I can fight you.

I’m well aware of your ability – in fact, it is what makes the prospect so attractive. You have the potential to become my perfect enemy. In fact, it is your right to do so.

You’ve started this battle – this war – unintentionally, I know. I believe your motives in the beginning were pure. No, in fact, there were no motivations in the beginning. I don’t even think you deigned to notice me. The opening of hostilities was completely unnoticed by you.

That doesn’t change the fact that it was you who opened them, whether or not you knew. You invaded, not I. At first, I took it as innocent – trespass, certainly – but in due time I realised you were an occupying force.

Again, at first I assumed I had done something or was somehow to blame for this invasion. I refused to believe that you had any intention of being a threat, of visiting harm upon me. That’s certainly changed. But, in the beginning, I extended the olive branch of peace. You were a reasonable tenant for a while – you took up a lot of room, but you left me able to get on with other things around you. For a time, I was content with the arrangements.

Then, of course, the unpleasantness began when I decided to remove you. To this day, I’m not sure why I was driven to this. Perhaps the distraction you presented from my other tasks was too great. Perhaps your vocal complaints were silenced too rarely by a personal visit. Whatever the reasoning, I attempted to remove you from the territory you had claimed – my thoughts – by removing you from my life physically.

Unbeknownst to me though, you took very little time in fortifying your position. You lay low, and I thought you exorcised entirely from my domain. More fool me.

When circumstances allowed, you made your presence known with a great flame and a riotous noise. You swept across me like wildfire – caught unprepared, I was powerless to act. You consumed as much space as you had previously occupied, perhaps even slightly more. But gone was your peaceful cohabitation. You were an active militia, hunting down my thought trail at every opportunity and ruthlessly turning it to your own ends. You were unstoppable.

For a long time I was your slave. I’m not ashamed to admit the truth of that. You commanded my thought effortlessly, and my body was powerless to resist it. As I said, I’m well aware of your ability.

I broke free though, didn’t I? I don’t think either of us were expecting that. Your physical actions drove me to it, in the end. Another weak invader sought to take your place, but you drove him out swiftly – but I became aware of your methods for myself and in a wild state cut off all communication with you. Without fresh input, your occupying force in my mind faltered and died. I was free.

But I was also alone.

I reopened communication with you after a long break. I am prepared now, as fortified in my own mind as anyone can be, strong and confident and sure of my ability to, if not win this war, at least fight it.

We’re both fighting on familiar ground – I’ve lived in this mind for almost eighteen years now, but you cracked it open and bent it to your will utterly in a few short months. The territory is, as they say, no man’s land. There is no advantage here, but there will be no quarter either.

I can fight you, and I can feel that familiar fire again while I do it.

D.

Today's artwork is called Venser's Diffusion, by Hideaki Takamura.