Years Six and Seven - Limelight's Gambit

In order to solidify its place as an individual, and not an extension of the original, who shall from now and onward be addressed as Atwente, a name which has a meaning that is inexpressible in this story, the second personality devised a name for himself, one suited to his personality. Limelight.. Limelight's strongest desire, which you may believe to be the destruction of Atwente, was actually more understandable. It was to survive, to be independant, and to have a life of his own. Unfortunately, he knew that this was impossible for him as he was a mere weakling in comparison to the radiance that was Atwente. What was he to do to become his own creature? From this point and onward, we shall address the strength of a personality as its cognitive resources. There are three different kinds of cognitive resources, and the relative number of one in comparison to the others will determine the strengths and traits of a personality. That is not to say, however, that two personalities with equal cognitive resources are identical, for there are other variables that determine the mindset and behaviors of the different personalities.

The kind of resources that were available to Atwente gave him creativity and logic, while only a small amount of logic was available to Limelight, and a great deal of instinctual desire. However, that desire was enough drive for Limelight to use his meager resources to search for a way to find a path to independence. And so he did, but it was a gambit, for Atwente had a great power over Limelight and by depriving him of his desires, he would wretch in misery, lacking the only things that made his life bearable. Things like sleep and food and excretion.

His plan was to torture Atwente constantly, not bluntly and monstrously, but subtly and gently. A small pricking with a thorn. But to a sensitive and unstable thing like Atwente, that kind of torture can be unbearable. It can make everything so much harder to bear when you have that constant pressure bearing down on you. It caused him to start cracking, to start looking for relief wherever he could find it. It made him aggressive, and this was what Limelight wanted for aggressive children are not often liked by their peers.

Without the support of his peers, Atwente had no outlet except for Limelight, a presence he had begun to forget about. He was unaware that Limelight was the one who had been torturing him, and so was more ready to confide in Limelight and look to him for gratification than a wiser one would be. Notice now, how I am not explaining things from Atwente's view anymore, well that will be the way things are for some time, as Atwente will soon lose his ability to understand things at all, and so I don't want you to get too used to hearing about him. Limelight is going to be like Quantum's version of Discord for some time, but we are getting too far ahead of ourselves. Now let me get back on track.

Limelight had Atwente confiding in him all the time, and so Limelight began feeding him ideas of how he could elssen the pain that was constantly on him. However, there was a lie he told Atwente to convince him. He said that Logic was the reason for his pain, that if he could only relinquish himself from logical thought, that he would be only free. Atwente refuted this dea at first, but Limelight was persistent, and so over time, Limelight filled Atwente with a distaste for logic, a desire for mania. A desire that still has some presence, even in The Manic Journals.