Gone Clubbin' -/|\- Rogue Nemesis (Opening) -/|\- Tips on Mind Defense

So I'm going to the Club tonight. We'll call it Club (Suspect) from here on out. I'm leaving the Rogue Nemesis story below. Wish me luck, gang. I get the feeling this one's going to be a little crazy, especially since I'm going to make my own entrance. I don't exactly have a choice if I want to sneak in Tear Gas and other surprises.


Tao found Constance. God help us all. Can't ask them to get involved. Not yet. They're not ready, and I don't want to call in... ...what they represent until there's no other option. 

-/|\-

Rogue Nemesis. I hate talking about Rogue Nemesis. Okay, for those who didn't read it before, The Rogue Mess started getting really bad in August of 2002. I apparently worked for them in my most recent past life? I don't actually remember anything of note from this past life, so I'm not the one to tell you what happened then. What I can tell you about is what happened after my life picked back up on this world.

Writing about the past eight years is weird. Was it real? Did it happen? Am I just an insane psychopath hiding out in whatever location he's found now, grasping at ephemeral dreams from the dark pits of hell? Or am I the real deal, stuck in something much bigger than he was ever meant to handle?

In any case, Let me introduce Rogue 3. I think of him as Rogue Nemesis. This is because he spent most of the time he was an active rogue making my life a living hell.

I think the plan the rogues put together went something like this:

Rogue General: ... He doesn't remember anything. We need him to remember. Right now.
Rogue Wizard: Somebody needs to get into his head, and kick-start his memories. Okay. Threaten the Presence. Nemesis, go to work.
Rogue Nemesis: Oho ho ho. This is going to be fun.

This was my introduction to Psychic Warfare. Let me explain how a typical Rogue Nemesis visit would go.

Me: *Doing whatever I was doing at that period, maybe occasionally maneuvering the troops, trying to maintain my position.*
Rogue Nemesis: *Intense Mindfuckery* I will KILL HER! Bake her bones in the bleached sun and you will fail to protect her! Oh. And here are some extremely potent illusions of spiders crawling up your body and devouring you.
Me: ARGH!

I don't like talking about it. Rogue Nemesis could dance inside your skull and pick out whatever he needed. He'd go deep inside and find out everything about you, down to the smallest detail. He'd pick and pick, using the feeling of intense fear permeating through your skull to keep you docile as he went to work. Imagine sitting there, feeling these bursts of mind-numbing fear, and watching those hands scour through your mind and find whatever they needed. Oh right, you guys all know a thing or two about that don't you? In any case, Rogue Nemesis had a mission: find my memories of my most recent past life, and force them to activate.

Either he never found them, or a week wasn't enough time. Enter the Samurai. Probably the strangest entity from my early days, and one of the first I encountered. I've mentioned his story before. As near as I can tell, I offended him in a past life in a way that could only be resolved in blood. It was to the point that he was basically stalking me during my early period. After watching me get outfought and mentally smacked around by Rogue Nemesis for about a week, he decided to step in.

Imagine if you will, me projecting to a point where The Presence was. Rogue Nemesis was beside her, and made it very clear: She was about to die if I didn't remember things right quick. They were banking on my relationship (whatever that was) with her forcing me to remember things, TV drama style. Now from experience I'll tell you that sometimes that trick works. Didn't work now though. She was about to die, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. Then the Samurai popped in, removed Rogue Nemesis via amputation of his arm and knocking him unconscious. The "soldiers" I had under my command then removed Rogue Nemesis from the board, supposedly to arrest him. What they actually did was toss him to the nearest medic, lie about who he was, and send him on his merry way.

I returned to the real world. It was an early morning, and I was standing around in a bathrobe, a T-shirt, and boxers. The Samurai was there. Compared to what I'd seen off of Rogue Nemesis, his power was incredible. It was like staring down a god.

 I said, "Thank you."

His voice pierced my mind, "When I last saw you, you were one of the greatest warriors I'd ever seen. What are you supposed to be now?"

I said, "What are you saying?"

He projected into my mind, "You're letting a little shit like him play your mind like a harpsichord? If you don't get yourself together, you'll be dead inside a week. You're very, very slow."

I said, "What, you think I can't keep up with you?"

I was such a moron. I blinked, and my bathrobe was on the ground five feet behind me. He pierced the veil, tossed my bathrobe off me, and was on the other side of the veil again before I had a chance to blink.

He projected into my mind, "Get it together little man. When I kill you, I want them to say you were as good as you were then."

And then he was gone. It was kind of humiliating.

-/|\-

Tips on Mind Defense:

In the spirit of Hakurei Ryuu's recent article, here are some tips on Mental Defense (especially against fear) that I figured out right after dealing with Rogue Nemesis. They work whether you're trained or not. If you're trained in proper mental defense, I suggest using other tips. But if you don't have the time or the energy to learn that stuff, this will hold you over until you do.

Rule 1: Get Angry. The first thing that any entity will do to affect your mind is to try and make you feel terrified and helpless. If you've got the training, I'd say learn how to control your emotions and get yourself good and centered. If you don't know how to do that, I suggest getting good and pissed off. Anger is not something you should let control you. But you know something? Some mean bastard is getting into your head. He's trying to take your freedom. Doesn't that piss you off? GET ANGRY. It's a natural resistance against fear and mental onslaught that works. You can ignore all kinds of pain or influence when you're angry or in pain, and anger is easier than breaking your own finger and jamming it whenever something tries to force their way into your head. Be wary of having your thoughts redirected into attacking someone other than your attacker however. That said, get PISSED. GRRRR! MANLY! Imagine shouting "I AM A MAN!!!" And then punching the shit out of something. And if that makes you laugh instead...

Rule 2: If You Aren't Angry, Get Amused. Nothing makes me happier than what Maduin does. The man is a genius. You can't be terrified if you're laughing your ass off. It's quick, it works, think of something that amuses you. Imagine the serpents attacking your mind being assaulted by Mongoose Paratroopers with MP5s and Katanas. Take his illusions, and warp them in your mind into something you can handle. Don't let your attacker get a foothold, as what he's doing is amusing and inconsequential. If you've got a good imagination, you can keep this up all day. It's not as effective as getting angry when you need to get something out of your head RIGHT THE HELL NOW though. The emotion of Anger just naturally has more force behind it. That said though, getting Amused is my primary strategy against the forces of evil.  I'm a comedy writer, I can think silly things all day if I have to.

Rule 3: Everything Hakurei Ryuu wrote about. Seriously. That young lady will go FAR in this business if she keeps her head about her.

Well. Off I go. Time to sneak into a Club.