YAY! My first Chapter One ever! First off I'd like to thank my reviewers, who I shall now reply to because I always wanted to do that in a story.
Starlight's Delight: Whoops, you caught me! It was a set up for events to come and fear not! More details on the brain shattering event shall be had in later chapters! (not so much this one though)
Lunar Lilly Muse: Why thank you! I feel loved! And I congratulate you on beating it two, and possibly more by now, times. It IS a wonderful game.
Cruller's house was… different. It had no right angles what-so-ever and the array of colors would make a two year old that had just "learned" to paint cry. The door, in conjunction with the rest of the house, had no right angles and was instead on a 35 to 40 degree tilt. It was painted pink. Somehow Cruller had also managed to make the grass around his house appear a deep reddish-orange. Raz had actually seen this house once before when he had ventured inside Cruller's mind, but whether the house in Cruller's mind was based of the house in his reality or the house in his reality was based of the house in his mind would probably never be known except to Cruller himself. The wall upon which the previously mentioned entrance was located was olive green. Not a pretty olive green mind you. More of a "what came out of your mouth after eating Dad's meatloaf" green. Raz knocked on the door.
No answer.
Raz knocked again. "Agent Cruller! It's me Raz! I... need help."
No answer.
"Agent Cruller, come on!" a third knock, "I know you're in there! You haven't left your house since Sasha and Milla have died." As soon as the words left his mouth he wished them back.
The door opened slowly and in the frame stood an old man hunched over, not from age, but from a large, glowing, purple rock strapped on his back. His head was even balder (side effect of walking around with a potentially radioactive rock locked on his back perhaps?) and there where a goodly more number of wrinkles on his face than seven years ago when Raz had first met him. There was no anger in the elderly man's eyes. Only sadness.
Cruller had never blamed Raz for what happened to Sasha and Milla. Nor did he blame the even worse events afterwards. Bringing up those two always brought a sad and distant look to him though. Without a word Cruller beckoned Raz in and quickly shut the door behind him. (Not before making sure there was no one watching of course.)
"Agent Cruller I have a problem," Raz began.
"Ford, Rasputin. It's Ford. You're eighteen and a Psychonaut, you can call me by my first name."
"I… I'm not a Psychonaut."
"BAH!" Ford slapped Raz across the face. Hard. "I thought I remember you promising that you'll never, EVER, become angsty and depressed on me."
Raz smiled and let out a chuckle that quickly escalated into a Hoo haa which in turn became a full blown ROTFLMAO (Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off) for the both of them.
"O… okay F… Fo, hee hee hee," Raz tried to say through tears of laughter. "I… I… HA HA HA!" He tried I noted right? Because he was failing miserably. The ROTFLMAOing lasted roughly a minute before either of them could speak once again.
"Okay Rasputin, I think I can breathe again. Go ahead," Ford got out… but only just.
"Sorry Ford I… needed to laugh I guess."
"Hey we all need to laugh Rasputin. It's unhealthy to hold it in you know!" It's important to note that Ford shook his finger menacingly at Raz right then and it is widely believed that, had Ford not done this, the world would might, possibly have been a much better place.
"Yeah I guess…" Raz's tone darkend, "But uh… I… don't know who I can turn to anymore."
"What's wrong?"
Raz ignored the question for now and continued ranting. "The only person I know for sure who doesn't hate me is you. But I'm not even sure about you! You… you could have been lying to me all year for all I know!"
"Rasputin I would never do tha-"
"I don't really care though… Just that you pretend to like me is enough."
"Rasputin I know that the last two years since you've regained your sanity have been hard but as long as you keep trying… Keeping pushing yourself you can-"
"Hard? HARD? Ford when I woke up from what was undeniably my worst nightmare ever only to find that it had all been real, only to find that I actually HAD killed two of my best friends, only to find that I actually HAD collapsed an entire city into the ocean, only to find that I actually HAD burned alive the entire population of a small country… Hard? Ford the only, ONLY, reason I haven't killed myself is because I despise suicide. I have nothing left to live for but I will not kill myself…"
"What about Lili?" Ford's sentence cut like a knife across Raz's consciousness. Wait no no… That's a bad analogy. Ford's sentence ripped a whole in the shield Raz had just built. Blegh. Still not good. Oh I got one! Ford's sentence could be much compared to Custer's last stand in that if Raz's mind was General Custer's army then Ford's sentence was all the Native Americans in the world surrounding Raz's mind and rushing down to shatter it into thousands upon thousands of pieces. Thusly, due to Raz's mind being shattered into thousands upon thousands of pieces, he had no response.
"You still haven't gone to see her have you?" Ford cut in again.
"I'm…" Raz stumbled for words, "terrified."
"Terrified?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I'm terrified of finding out that she hates me."
Ford eyes burrowed into Raz's consciousness. "Better to know whether she hates you than to hide."
"Maybe..." Raz shifted, "But that's not why I'm here. Ford I need help with this." He took out a small mental doorway. "I have a small problem with my mind."
The doorway was a faded blue color reminiscent of a circus wagon door. Ford picked it up and looked it over. "A mental doorway? For you?"
Raz nodded, "I just recently figured out how to make them. It's a pretty complicated process; I can see why you wouldn't tell me before." Raz rubbed his forearm unconsciously.
Ford Cruller's eyes looked ready to fall from his head. Few enough adults could ever bring themselves to create a mental doorway but for one as young as Raz to do so is unheard of. "I… I assume you want me to do something in your mind then correct?"
"Yes," Raz answered confidently.
"What pray tell?"
"I want you to open that door inside my mind again."
"WHAT!" Ford's eyes that had just been ready to fall from their sockets had now officially fallen. "You want me to OPEN the door that made you crazy?"
"Yes. I need that door opened so that I can destroy what's inside."
"I can't possibly do that. You told me what happened… I can't possibly make you go through that again. Nor can I put everyone else in danger." Ford was still very much shocked that Raz was even suggesting this.
"I know the risks… That's why I want you to meet me in the country I devastated. No one lives there anymore." The eighteen year old stood up and walked to a window in the crooked house. "I can still feel it Ford. I can still feel that insanity clawing at me. The door is closed but that doesn't completely stop it. Eventually I'll break again… Unless I destroy it. Meet me at Ground Zero (the site Raz had originally gone insane at) in July, please." Ford almost smiled as Raz gave that speech because he had just seen a brief flash of the old Raz. Maybe it WAS possible to help old Raz come back.
"I'll see you there," Ford said simply.
"Thanks." Raz left. Ford began to pack for his 5 week trip to Ground Zero with a newborn hope in his breast.
And now for notes on the chapter. You will notice that I have Raz actually create his own Mental Door. Well the way I see it is that Psychonauts are more than likely the only ones who could possibly make such a thing ne? Therefor I created an entire psychic/ceremony thing they have to go through in order to create one, more on it later. Before anyone asks, I realize that Humor and Angst do not seem like atypical genres that would go together however I've determined that I cannot write angst... I'm serious. I can make something sad but it quickly becomes laced with either humor or action or both. This story tends to lace humor in itself. Perhaps a little romance in later chapters though? Which reminds me that I fixed the spelling in Lili's name in this chaper.
Once again, thank you for the reviews!