"Or that works as well," he agreed, winking. "But you're right, if I don't mostly switch it off, I hear all sorts of things. Imagine 20 people talking to you at once without saying a word. It fills up your head, you can't concentrate on any one thing until the voices are gone. Could drive you mad if you didn't get a handle on it."
"They so often do, when they're like that," he murmured. "Don't you worry about that. Seems to me like maybe you needed to tell someone. And I won't tell a soul, cross my borrowed heart."
"That's me in a nutshell, yup," he agreed. "I also tinker with the marionettes when that needs doing. They need spirits to animate them, I go around looking for volunteers. And one could argue the opposite of that is true, you make people stand out with color."