Work Text:
You may have heard that "It's easy to fool fools." And who said that? Another fool, ha ha! Because it's not as easy as all that. It is an art, and I, the great Zakuro, am the supreme artist of leading the mind astray!
Let us say that you have encountered some poor peon who has information, information that you wish to know, information that your superior must know. You catch his gaze with your eyes - so! - and if you have the power of mind (and I have it, of course), his poor excuse for a brain is now yours.
But do you know what that brain is likely to contain? Of course you don't - you haven't the wit, the skill, the strength of intellect required to see into the thoughts of another! But I, the great Zakuro, have all that (and more!), and I will tell you that the typical mind is a mazy morass of minutiae - he doesn't like this, he's in love with that, he forgot his mother's birthday last month, there's a sore spot on his left big toe, the weather is vile today, he wishes he hadn't had fried onions for lunch - I tell you, it is not a pleasant place!
And even the most peabrained peasant pissant will have layer upon layer of this sludge covering up whatever it is you wish to learn. So you must make him reveal it himself! Scattered among this mental effluvia will be tools you can use against the lackwit - occasions on which he nearly lost his life, things that cause him discomfort, thoughts that terrify.
Perhaps your tempting target is terrified of spiders. Spiders - nasty, eh? So you try to make him see spiders. But even the most misguided moron is likely to disbelieve a huge spider that appears from nowhere! He decides that he can't believe his eyes - and all is lost. But I, Zakuro, do not waste my time attempting to insert elements of terror into my victim's waking world. Instead, he finds himself in my world. And in my world - well, anything can happen, and usually does!
I tell you, this is an art! The most supreme, esoteric, and difficult art! How do you imagine I spend my days? Well - don't even try to imagine it, because you can't! I spend hour upon hour walking through this world of mine, refining it, making sure that every shadow, every ray of light, ever rock and stone and skull and cloud, is more real than your reality. I remember pieces of my own dreams, and dreams of others that I see in their minds, and if they are worthy - why, then they become part of this very special place. My lovely, deadly world - a place that you will never leave now in life, you poor, unfortunate soul.
Aha! You only just noticed? I have you! Of course! And how? Ah, it was so simple! When I started to explain this to you, you looked into my eyes - didn't you?