They're coming to take me away, ha-ha...

[Bjorn]

"Good night," Bjorn says, politely standing.  After Megan is on his way, he makes his way over towards Mikey.  If Mikey is still talking with Lazarus, then he'll wait off to the side for a bit; otherwise, he'll say hi and talk a bit.

[Brian]

Mikey brightens the second he sees you, and breaks off his discussion with the old man.  "Mister B!" he says happily.  "How are you doin' today?"

[Bjorn]

"I'm doing pretty well, Mikey.  Especially now that I know I'm in no risk of reading other people's minds."  Bjorn grins wryly.  "What about yourself?"

As he's talking to Mikey, he's surreptiously studying Lazarus, trying to get an impression of the sort of person he is.  I suppose the fact that he seems to be very patient with Mikey speaks well of him, though.

[Brian]

Now that you're closer, Lazarus looks pretty fit for an old man.  He looks like a healthy middle-aged man with completely white hair, really.

He has an easy smile, moves with very slow, cautious deliberation, and has eyes that look sleepy.  And yet....

Something about him tells you that he'd be easier to underestimate than would probably be wise.

"Old Man Lazarus is telling me a story about Jonah and the Big Fishie," Mikey says, nodding to the old man.  "He says that Jonah lived inside the Big Fishie for a long time."

[Bjorn]

"Oh?"  Bjorn looks over at Lazarus, and extends a hand.  "Don't think we've met.  My name's Bjorn.  Pleased to meet you."

[Brian]

The man takes your hand and offers you a firm shake -- he's stronger than you'd expect, probably almost as strong as you.  He then nods at Mikey, and makes a series of gestures, not like the hand-signs, but just the motions a story-teller would make while telling a story.

Mikey nods, and translates for you, "Old Man Lazarus says that you've got a thick skull, 'cause he can't get through to you too easy, but he says hi, and his name is Lazarus.  But I call him Old Man Lazarus."

[Bjorn]

Well.  I'm supposed to practice, and I guess this is what we got here.  Using what Megan has just taught him, Bjorn tries to expose the outer edges of his mind, on which he writes, Is this better?

[Brian]

Lazarus nods, and you hear, exactly as you imagine, a quiet mental voice on what you now consider the periphery of your mind. You're learning, he sends.  Always, this is positive.

Mikey's thoughts come across the connection, too, more boisterous and quickly paced than his own speech.  Is Mister B going to talk to big brother, Old Man Lazarus?

[Bjorn]

While he "hears" the voices of others, it's easier for Bjorn to manage Megan's trick if he thinks of the outside of his (apparent) defenses as a blackboard.  So he wipes the last sentence off, and then quickly scrawls, Big brother?  Who's that?

[Brian]

Perhaps its the alienness off the way that anothers' thoughts entering your mind that actually causes it to ... feel? ... like a voice instead of another mind.  You find, though, keeping what Megan said in mind that you can force the mental visualizations to come across however you wish to interpet them.

Now, the old man's thoughts are coming across as the crisp, neatly written formulae of a learned professor, while Mikey's thoughts are as if a child had taken his chalk to the sidewalk, and then attempted to transfer it to a slate.

Michael has an older brother, Lazarus replies crypically.  I think Megan suggested as to more of that.  He leaves it at that, everything else unsaid.

Big brother says that some day, we're going to go outside and play, but I can't remember until it's time to go, or the doctors will put me in the dark again.  I'm scared of the dark.  Mikey's thoughts are without the childish lisp of his speaking voice.

[Bjorn]

I see.  Well, I don't, really, but that's probably for the better, all things told.

On another note... I was going to get Megan to ask you this, but might as well ask you myself, now.  I want to figure out something of what I'm actually capable of.  Megan suggested you could set up a mind-link between the two of us, so that she can offer some help.  Would you mind?

[Brian]

Puzzles within puzzles ... certainly, I have no objection to this.  I find it fascinating ... and perhaps, of course, it will even further our eventual goal.

Lazarus nods at Mikey, who starts, and then says, "Jonah and the Big Fishie had all sorts of adventures, too."

Is it like a game? Mikey's mental scrawl asks.  Beneath it, more subdued, you get a crudely drawn image of a fist with a thumb up, surrounded with a corona like a sun, or a comic-book character's action.

[Bjorn]

It's a bit like a guessing game, actually.  Try to guess what I can do, try to guess how I can do it.

Thanks, Lazarus.  I don't know when we'll get a chance to try this.  Megan's feeling a bit tired, I gather.

Outside his head, Bjorn smiles faintly and listens to Lazarus' story.

[Brian]

An adaptation of Jonah and the whale.  You suspect, after listening for a while, that the subtle messages Lazarus weaves into the mental imagery (the whale's stomach is particularly 'playroom' like, for example), that it's meant to prepare Mikey for an eventuality that might involve combat versus the guards.

Or at least knowing a good place to be, should it break into combat.

And Lazarus seems to have thought the tactics through pretty well.  There's very few places in the playroom that provide cover from the balcony, and its four armed guards.  The ones that do would be in the fountain, or beneath the tables -- though that last is iffy.

[Bjorn]

Ah, yes, Bjorn thinks behind the chalkboard.  The 'bullet-proof' part of the problem.  But speaking of the fountain...

Wiping his mental slate clean, again, he asks Lazarus, Do you know anything about the drain in the fountain?