Minds; the manipulation of and exploration within.

Don't you just love it, adore it even, when people don't believe you? You tell them something, something that you are capable of, something that you do, and they don't believe you but then freak out a couple months down the road when you demonstrate such an ability?

Take for example me. I adore getting into peoples minds, finding out what makes them tick. I don't do it deliberately, but give me a couple weeks and I'll know you fairly well, two months and I'll know you as well as you know yourself, I'll be quite comfortable within the halls of your mind, half a year and I'll know you better than you know yourself. I don't do this consiously you understand, I'm just observant, and see things others miss.

It's like, learning how to do something only from watching it half-heartedly. What it often enough, in enough variations, and before you know it, you'll be able to -do- it. It's like that for me, when i'm talking to someone, I'm slowly integrating myself into their mind, knowing how they think. But that knowledge isn't there until I actively think about it, if that makes sense.

Or when you're little, and pick up your first crayon. You didn't know you could draw a line, or colour in a patch of paper, draw a stick figure mum and dad, until you did it. Until you reached for the ability, grasped it in your chubby little hand, and force that god blasted crayon to do as you told it! And then, the next time you picked up a crayon, you -knew- that you could do it, knew that you could draw your picture to show off to your mum and dad, and because of that knowledge, you wield that crayon with greater finesse. It might not show in the second picture, nor the third. The fifth might have the same identification issues that did the first, but to your eyes, their worlds apart in ability.

It's the same with me. The first few people I knew, and started to really -know-, it was just scratching the surface. A stick figure of the real person, where as now I have the fleshed out, pencil shaded version, detailed enough to show the shine of their eyes, their expression and that strand of hair that just -wont- lay down and behave itself! The laugh lines at the corners of their eyes, the way their mouth quirks when they smile, their life pulse beating in their throat, the tension in their shoulders when they dislike something. The warm affection in the way their hands move, the deft manipulation of the fingers, the indents in the skin from the knuckles, the slightly ragged edges of their nails. Body posture, attitude, personality, I now have the ability to 'draw' that, to know it. But, it is only in pencil, and shading in where the light doesnt fall i can't quite do, not well...and there is still no colour.

Do you see what I mean? I am far from being the best drawer, and even a coloured shading is a far cry from an oil painting, or even a statue, three-dimensional and with details. But I can still do alot more than most people, most would get up to a good, recognisable stick figure drawing. But of course, when I warn people of this ability of mine, early on in our aquaintence, they do not believe me. Understandable I suppose, I mean, it's a pretty out there claim. But when I -prove- my claim, that I -do- end up knowing them better than they know themselves... They freak.

And how do I prove it, you ask? Quite simply. They give me a scenario, something they've already lived through, or the like, and I tell them how they would react. Simple yes? No. See, we all think differently, we all have our own ways of looking at things, understanding and reacting to a concept. And when I ...for lack of a better word, 'immerse' myself in their consiousness I have to change my thinking into -their- way of thinking. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but it's not easy to ....predict, I have to take on their personality, at least for a while, and that shift in my thinking, a few degrees of alteration, or a 90 degree curve, gives me the worst headache if I have to hold that way of thinking for longer than five minutes.

It's like....how to explain it, it's like pushing your body into a contorsion that isn't exactly comfortable, but not -un-comfortable either and holding it there...and holding it...and holding it as your muscles lock up and want to spazm, need to move but you can't, not just yet...so you hold still....and then, when you relax and all the blood flows how it's supposed to and the muscles relax, it hurts MORE than if you were still holding it.

So, you see...If you get to know me, I -will- know you better than you know yourself, but only if I think about it.