petronia

What fanficcers call "muses" are - of course - mental constructs (let's set aside the case of people who have difficulty admitting that they're mental constructs ^^;), but they're mental constructs in the sense that a character played by a method actor is a mental construct to him/her. In fact I rather suspect "talking to one's muses" is an introverted version of method acting, as befits a creative format and culture populated by and geared toward introverted personalities. It accounts for that peculiar sense of non-responsibility - it's-not-me-it's-the-character - that we're all familiar with (which I think we are. Even if you're like me and refuse to use the word "muse" to refer to anything except a minor Greek deity XD). Not to mention the low-key impulse to adopt the character's clothing style, speech patterns, diet choices, et al.

What the hell was this about again...? Oh, yeah, an example of the music Oshitari's been inflicting on me the past couple of days:

Laura Pausini - In assenza di te (In Your Absence)

Admittedly this kind of thing is inherently better in Italian than in English, but...