Mental Wonderland (Part 1)

**Mental Wonderland (Part 1)** is the thirty-third episode of Tales of Dikuda. It is also the ninth episode of the third season. Additionally it is the first part of a four part series based on the old, original concept of Mental Wonderland.

## Summary

Following a complete mental breakdown, Gwady has to face the consequences of her past actions, which lead to her undertaking a long journey through her own mind, trying to complete 180 deeds in order to achieve peace and quiet inside her head.

## Episode in Detail

A mentally broken Gwadeweido is lifelessly laying in the tub in her home, watched by Yavei, who decides, after Falehi joins her, that something is needed to be done, to help the rat.

Meanwhile, Uuzoo is on her way to work, thinking about the past weeks and months. She comes to the conclusion that somehow things changed and are yet still somewhat the same. Among her thoughts are Gwady and Ryahno, whom she feels act similar in a way, though it makes her wonder why, as the two seemed to be on opposite sides of the law in the past. The snake decides that she wants to talk to Gwady and confront her, though when she reaches the South Gate, Pabu Ran informs her that Gwady won't be showing up for a while.

The information makes her heart sink, as she was just willing to interact with the rat, instead of being scared of her, only to find that she isn't there. One of the guards makes a comment on how maybe someone shot her, which upsets the snake.

When Gwady finally comes to, she finds herself surrounded by a strangely calming white emptiness. After a moment she is approached by Yavei and Falehi, who explain to her that the three of them are currently in Gwady's mind. This surprises the rat, as she is used to constantly hearing many different voices and it's now completely empty. It is explained to her, that the two have taken care of it for the time being and separated her soul and her subconscious to remove any potential distractions.

Gwady has difficulty grasping the concept, so Yavei explains to her, that usually the mind is constantly influenced by outside stimuli, like needs, emotions or pain, which causes people to get caught up in a repetitive cycle of habits, which the subconscious reflects. In Gwady's case the subconscious had overpowered her to a point that she was broken not just physically but also spiritually. Therefore they decided to help her.

When Gwady is still not completely able to grasp the concept, she is interrupted by Falehi and a doorway that rises from the white ground. Looking at it, the rat realises there is a dark feeling coming from the door. At Falehi's gesture she still approaches it and looks through a sealing glass on to what is on the other side of the door, where she finds what is usually filling her mind: a nightmarish monster with innumerable voices.

After a moment Gwady realises that the white room is actually right in the middle of the chaos and she comes to the conclusion, that this monster is her. Not wanting to remain in this state, she then asks what she can do, to which Falehi responds with 180 deeds that she has to perform, in order to gain peace of mind. Gwady agrees, and blackness falls over them. Though she is slightly startled by the change, she sticks to Yavei, who appears behind her.

The two make their way through the black surroundings until they reach a man sitting on a bench. Yavei instructs her to help him, so she approaches him. As it turns out the man is waiting for a feather given to him by god as a reward, completely unaware that there is a feather lying in his lap. Even as she picks it up and shows it to him, he continues to be unaware of its existence. After a conversation about God and deities and how they rarely give what someone wants, but rather what someone needs, the man recognises the feather and moves on.

Gwady realises that the deed feels rather personal to her, so she asks if it was her fault. Yavei agrees by stating that the rat had a hand in all the experiences she is going to face here. The two then continue onwards to the next deed, a man with a large spider attached to his neck. When Gwady engages in conversation with him about the spider, he seems to be either unaware of its existence and how it takes his life energy out of him, or in denial.

As it turns out the man is trying to make belief that there is no spider, because he is terrified of them. With a bit of a rough approach Gwady makes him snap out of it and realise that there is indeed a spider on his back. He moves on after dealing with the spider. When Yavei approaches her afterwards, she states that Gwady's "Mental Wonderland", her view of the world, is interesting.

The two then continue onwards to another deed, a man sitting in the light of a street lamp. He is beyond terrified of a ball of fluff just outside of the light provided by the lamp post and is unable to even so much as turn his back on it. Trying to make him inspect the fluff, gets the man to come up with all kinds of excuses and fears as to why he shouldn't. With another, rather rough, approach she gets him to not only look at it, but also touch it. He realises how he got into this situation in the first place and moves on.

Together with Yavei, Gwady then walks on to the next deed, with the rat wondering how she could have caused some of these events, as they appeared to be random and unrelated to her. Yavei comments that the rat's mind is slowly becoming clearer, which makes Gwady happy to her.

## Characters

The following characters appear in this episode (in order):

* Sheenyai Yavei
* Gwadeweido
* Dahvius Falehi / The Ink Butterfly
* Yin Uuzoo
* *Kuraz Ryahno (mentioned)*
* Pabu Ran
* The Twisted

## Trivia

* The flowers at the beginning were originally bought by Gwady for Bueh to decorate the house before her breakdown on the last episode.

* The broken frame was an extra empty frame that she kept under her bed, if she one day got her hands on a piece of art (legally) she wanted to hang that’s the perfect size for the frame.

* “We are in your mind.” This is kind of a call-back to a joke that Zennore drew as a comic a while back.

* This scene was an experiment to make Yavei and Falehi look more like the agents of fate and a higher power.

* The 180 deeds Gwady has to go through, can be seen as a word play on the whole "doing a 180, and changing completely" but it can also be seen as the amount of energy and effort that is needed to change someone's fate. And in the process, it will mold and teach new tools, methods, and thinking processes to bring you to a higher advantage in life, allowing you to know what to do to truly get what you desire.