5090/Minding Your Business

Minding Your Business
Date of Scene:	16 February 2017
Location:	Earth-199999
Synopsis:	Information and conditions regarding a potential mind dive are exchanged.
Cast of Characters:	20, 301, 1094

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Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    There's no question about it, the young earthbender who had been identified as the reason for Heart Render being set loose in the Collective Unconcious had not been happy about it at all. Even less at the suggestion of having people go into her head to clear out whatever had created the monstrosity. For one, she had experienced somebody going into her head, albeit briefly, once before, and she had not been pleased then and fought tooth and nail to kick the intruder out. While Toph isn't a quiet girl by far she doesn't always like to talk about personal things, and she seldom likes to talk about her feelings. Few people get to see her softer side, and instead get to deal with the selfproclaimed greatest earthbender of all time. A loudmouthed teenager with enough power and skill to make things rough for many of her opponents.

    Today however she's possibly going to put herself into a situation where she has little control nor experience. It should be easy for her adoptive father to notice her discomfort, but still, it's she who asked him to be here for this little meeting at one of Malibu's downtown cafes. As always the weather is nice, and Toph's busy sipping at her iced tea as she waits, and picking at her metallic bracelets inbetween sips, just to have something to do.

    "... either way he should be bringing that psycho-portal thingie and some written info, and if I decide on doing this then I'll talk with the Paladins to get it sorted out legally," she asides to Tony. If. That's the keyword here. Because she's still not sure if she wants to do this, nor are the people around her.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
At best, the attitude of Toph's adoptive father toward this whole thing might be called ambivalent. Tony somehow managed to finagle an /Irish/ coffee from the cafe management, and sits brooding over it while he waits for this "mind agent" to show up.

"I just don't see why it's YOUR head in play here," he complains, more to keep his mouth busy than anything. Tony Stark does not like sitting quietly. "Nightmares happen. Everyone has them. Even horrible recurring ones. Shouldn't we be more worried about whatever phenomenon caused yours to come to life in the first place?

Flamel Parsons (1094) has posed:
    Agent Parsons somehow manages to embody every bit of essence of a grainy, suspiciously circumstantial photograph of a SHIELD agent from the 1960s in the background of a major world event, seen on a strange old geocities-era-design website. What an oddly specific impression for the man. He's wearing his suit, his sunglasses, and his oddly positive look as always when he slips into the Malibu cafe. Somehow he's managed to mix up a combination of the look of someone making a secret dead drop and someone bringing a gift. The heavy metal-lined suitcase he has with him no doubt contains the materials he's here to deliver between the factions.

    "Mr. Stark. Miss Beifong." He says, identifying the latter rather quickly by her familiar psychic trace and the former rather quickly by his being an incredibly famous billionaire with extremely distinct features. The tone shifts from secret agent right into a friendly, upbeat feeling. "A pleasure to meet you both, again in one case, and thank goodness for the better circumstances. How are you two?" He sets his suitcase on the table, and begins fiddling with its elaborate locking mechanisms and defusing its thorough failsafe traps. All this for something a bit more low-value than it implies; one assumes it's just part of his whole archetype, going through this hassle. "So, I have a psycho-portal and the associated documentation for you, Mr. Stark, and the brochures and other documentation for... Also for you, but for Toph also." He's swapped to her first name, less out of familiarity and more because he gets the feeling that it's best to call her that just by how she functions socially.

    "Do you want me to take it from the top and summarize everything, or would you like to focus on any particular questions?" His posture when he sits is like someone going to a movie they're looking forward to, a friendly and attentive look entirely out of place in his visual archetype.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Bending one of her bracelets a bit doesn't stop Toph from hearing what Tony has to say, and she sighs. "That's kinda what I'm wondering about too... but I don't think Ainsley would lie about this, you know?" No, she wouldn't have a reason to. "He said that it was forced out by happy feelings or something, and he knew /when/ I stopped having it too, that's a bit too precise..." And kinda creepy, ugh.

    Despite Flamel's upbeat and cheery demeanor, the blind teenager doesn't seem thrilled when he enters, keeping both feet on the floor even if she's slouching in her chair as if she's in for a boring business meeting. "I could be better," Toph replies perhaps a bit too honestly. Then again, that's her, not the type to sugarcoat anything. She's quiet when Tony's handed the psycho-portal, the item that she had only briefly heard about herself. But she had told Tony about it beforehand, that it was the device that would be used so they could go into her head if they decided to pursue that route. And that Parsons had promised to bring one so Tony could examine it and possibly modify it.

    Summarising it all might be for the better, and Toph nods. "The only thing I know about it is what you've said briefly before," as well as the time when he went into her head briefly during that fight, "and well, it was kinda hard to understand it all then."

    ... just why is he acting so /giddy/ about this? This all seems just a bit too serious for her liking.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
"Are you selling me a timeshare?" Tony retorts acerbically in response to Parsons' cheery attitude. "I'm not interested in /brochures/. Tell me why you want to get inside my daughter's head and you don't need to look so cheerful about it. HOW," he stubs one finger against the tabletop, "did this thing obtain a physical form, and WHY," another stab, with two fingers this time, "is the solution 'psychic brain surgery' instead of 'finding out how the hell this happened in the first place and stopping it?'"

He also doesn't like problems he can't solve via brilliant, groundbreaking engineering. Or at least punching.

"You're creeping me out," he adds in a mutter as he sips his doctored coffee."

Flamel Parsons (1094) has posed:
    Agent Parsons pops the briefcase open and hands Tony Stark... A door. It's a very small door. It looks like the entrance to a spy fiction facility from the 1960s. But it is, no doubt, dense with electronics. "Then we'll take it from the top. We already know how it happened, actually! It's well-studied." He says, as if this was a normal thing to do. He still seems positive, but he tones it down, by request. Instead of producing a brochure, he pokes something inside his briefcase, and a small holoprojection initiates. It's a human brain. "Toph's nightmares did not take physical form, at least not a definition of physical you're familiar with. They entered a pseudo-jungian psychic space called the Collective Unconscious. You may be familiar with the concept of society-wide stress, the idea that as individuals grow more stressed, so do the groups around them."

    The view of the brain zooms out, linked with many others in a "landscape". "This phenomenon of passive psionic connection is what caused the Nightmare being forced out by happier thoughts to persist in that psychic network; that it had enough energy to stay alive in the first place is only because she has a strong mind." A flicker on the holographic brain marks the emergence of a shadowy, gasmasked figure, which begins prowling the network, diving in and out of brains. "It doesn't hurt or kill anyone physically. Instead, the Nightmare increases overall stress and psychological weakness. This is more dangerous, by our standards. A monster kills a hundred people and then is hunted and killed in turn. A psychohazard stresses out thousands of humans, who cascade their stress through their immediate associates and society at large, sparking massive sociological problems. We call this a psychohazard, a subset of our tracked UPEs. As a vague yet menacing government agency furthering secret agendas, we make it our business to root out and neutralize psychohazardous UPEs, to help ensure that human minds remain minimally overstressed and that society at large experiences minimal detriment."

    He zooms back in on the brain, which continues to flicker. "The potential for Toph relapsing into a Nightmare-spawning state exists. It's not a guarantee, and I'm not going to demand access to her brain. But, if given it, I can enable some beneficial psychic combat with the sources of the problem, and prevent the spawning of another Heart Render. If I'm not given it, well," He shrugs vaguely. "My vague yet menacing government agency and I will hunt and fight more Nightmares as they come. Her mind may or may not continue spawning them based on emotional relapse until she eventually works through the problem on her own in a few years. Or doesn't work through them, and escalates the psychohazard risk."

    And then he looks pleasantly ready for questions, folding his hands in front of him.

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Tony stares blankly at Parsons throughout this whole spiel. Then looks at the door. Then back at Parsons. He sips his coffee again. He... DOES realize that Stark spent the better part of his young adulthood, selling weapons to the already-best-armed people in the world, right? In addition to all of the boozing and womanizing, of course. Point is, he recognizes a sales pitch when he sees one. The thing he can't figure out is WHY. What does Parsons have to gain from this?

"So she's in no danger," is what he summarizes from all of that. "She just might have another nightmare at some point that might upset some other people in your psychic commune." He looks, finally, at Toph. "Can't we just hire a psychiatrist?"

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    It's rather easy to tell that Tony doesn't like this, and well... that's part of the reason why she wanted him here. It's easier when it's confusing stuff like this, and even if she trusts her own intuition and ability to tell when people are lying to her, it's good to have another set of ears and a critical mind to assess this. Besides, Tony /is/ her parent, it wouldn't be right to not involve him.

    It's a bit weird to think about, and it all sounds a bit Avatar-y to her. Stuff being connected, minds being linked somehow... Personally she's not heard much about how people can get stressed besides actually being in a stressful situation or around stressful people, but whatever. Well, she's determined, that's nothing new... so that might be why the Nightmare was strong too and able to survive out of her mind. Or however these things work. "UPE...?" Toph asks and arches an eyebrow, not familiar with that term.

    Aaand now it sounds like he's saying that she's going to create more nightmares, even if she's not intending to do so. And to hear the name of that nightmare again... it makes the blind teenager tense up a little bit, looking uncomfortable. Because she can imagine rather well /why/ it's called that.

    It's surreal to imagine that the Nightmare has been harming other people too in some way, there's no denying that Parsons is telling the truth.

    "If... if I let you into my brain, then would it be like the time when we fought?" she asks. "And how is psychic combat done? What are the risks? Besides you snooping around in my head, that is."

Flamel Parsons (1094) has posed:
    "Not in any physical danger, nope! I don't actually know what's going on in her head. For all I know the Nightmares could be symptomatic of a massive impending psychological cascade that will drive her insane. Or they could just be some part of her mind rubbing up badly against another. Sometimes both!" Then he nods. "Yes, you can. That's what I'm here for. Think of me like a combat psychologist. Instead of spending a few weeks trying to talk you through thinking out your problems or advising medication, I take a few hours to beat the astral personifications of her problems into not hurting her."

    "UPE, unregistered paranormal entity. When a UPE starts getting hazardous to humans, my secret agency's hidden agendas direct us to hunt it and prevent it from harming people. That's called a psychohazard." Then he grins a little bit. This is his favorite bit. "Psychic combat is done the same way you do normal combat. Let's say I bring Tony Stark here in with me, he just... Finds the problem and shoots at it. Or punches it. I guess it depends on what armor he decides to wear when he astrally projects, or his mood, or tactical thinking. The point is, it's about as straightforward as it gets. The reason we do this at all is because it makes solving problems like this so much easier. You come in, shoot lasers at the personification of whatever psychological impulse is hurting Toph, and things are solved. Well, it obviously gets more complicated than that, but that's the principle of the thing. Collateral damage risk is pretty minimal, since only passing thoughts and stray ideas are ever really vulnerable to collateral damage. Everything that's important to the human mind working takes... A hell of an effort to hurt or change, really. It's very resilient."

    He nods a few times though. "In some ways the same as when we fought. In some ways, different. You might not get full awareness of it for a deeper projection. Though if Mr. Stark feels like manufacturing a Brain Tumbler, you could join us in fighting it too, if that'll help you feel more confident about this."

Tony Stark (301) has posed:
Manufacturing a what? Tony feels like he's being bombarded with terms and concepts here to Gish Gallop him into acquiescence. His eyes narrow. "This sounds a little too good to be true to me. If beating your inner demons into submission is possible, why aren't more people trained to do it? I mean I sure as hell could have used that kind of therapy a few times."

He drains his coffee cup. "This sounds like a lot of bullshit to me, Toph. But it's your mind, and... well, you've dealt more with this spirit world crap than I have. Maybe you should ask Aang about it," he suggests uncertainly, and it sounds like it takes a lot out of him to admit said uncertainty. "This guy creeps the hell out of me, no offense," he glances at Parsons, and the way he says 'no offense' makes it pretty clear that offense was meant. "But you're old enough to make your own decisions. Whatever you decide, I'll back you. I'm sure as hell not letting someone raid your brain without me there to keep an eye on them."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    ... a massive imprending psychological cascade...?! Toph's eyes widen where she sits, and she tightens her grip on her iced tea. "I'm /not/ going crazy!" she protests with an almost insulted huff. A psychiatrist... talking about these things aren't easy. And medication? Like hell she wants to take /that/ kind of medication! Perhaps it's not so strange that she's even considering this entire thing, as Toph prefers dealing with problems head on by combat.

    Her only worry is about what people might see in her mind, and Parsons seemed to understand that back when she was first informed of the Nightmare coming from her, considering his talk about privacy.

    "So you're saying that... even if you go into my brain, there's little risk of you actually messing up the stuff that actually makes me /me/," Toph concludes. She had threatened Parsons on the radio if he were about to make her into somebody she isn't, after all. One thing is clear, this girl has a pretty well defined personality, and a clear image of herself.

    his all doesn't sound all too good to be true for Toph, no matter what Tony thinks. "Maybe... not everybody /can/ do it. Just like how not everybody can learn how to be benders," she points out with a murmur, closing her eyes.

    After Tony has shared his two cents, Toph nods and looks rather serious. "I... don't want to have that nightmare again, and even after talking with my therapist it was still there until... well, happy thoughts forced it out." Who knows if something bad will happen and cause the nightmares to return? "If we're going to do it, I have a few demands." Here she raises the index finger on her left hand. "One. We do it in a safe place for me. Two," she continues and raises her middle finger as well, "I get to decide who goes into my head to clear it up. Three, you don't no snooping around anywhere you don't need to." Then she sighs, her expression slightly worried for a bit. "Will... you guys see that thing again in there, or...?" How does it work?

    It doesn't seem like Tony is the only one who finds Parsons creepy either, as Toph sighs and nods. "He creeps me out too."

Flamel Parsons (1094) has posed:
    "Oh, there are more people trained to do it! It's just that a psychology that doesn't suffer under the stress of violence only rarely intersects with the psychic powers sufficient to perform an astral projection. The Psychonauts are a worldwide organization, though, for my world. Very large sort of thing." Agent Parsons says, nodding. "I'm just one of the few on the MOB -- the Multiversal Operations Bureau -- which has only really gotten in full swing recently. Do you still have those inner demons? I can help you with those too, if you want."

    He makes a friendly sort of dismissing gesture. "Don't worry. I'm a spook, being creeped out is the right reaction. But, I hear you're a smart and tough sort of guy, it'll be good to have you! Thanks for the help!" That's not what was being offered, Parsons. God damn it.

    "Oh, I couldn't do it by accident. I probably couldn't do it on purpose either, not without a dedicated team, or a lot of time, or very obvious signs to you. Minds are tough. If I start doing something you don't like, you're going to start fighting me all the way, you know." He makes a plaintive gesture. "Getting my face broken hurts even when I'm astrally projected. And enough of that could kill." Then he leans back and nods a few times. "All three terms sound fine to me. Anything too secret will be hard for me to find. Anything relevant will come to the surface on its own. Mr. Stark can alter the psycho-portal's thresholds for memory vault recovery himself, if he wants! I'm pretty sure he can figure it out. As for what they'll see, well, we probably won't see much. A few figments of your imagination mostly, but... Well, you don't have much visual memory to work with, you know? The thing itself... I'm not sure. It's a bit more likely we'll run into the conditions of its spawning, whatever psychological impulses are responsible for it. The Mother of Nightmares, so to speak."

    And then, a few nods. "Alright. I'll let you two prepare as long as you like, approve or deny any of the co-projectors, and then, we'll make this happen. I admire the courage to let this go through, Toph. Take some time to yourself and ready up. Psychonauts motto is 'prepare your mind', you know."

    He closes his briefcase and stands. "Was a pleasure meeting with you again, under the better circumstances." He offers a hand to shake, and a smile.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The prospect of actually running into what made this nightmare even begin, now that makes Toph look rather worried where she sits, tapping her fingers against her glass of iced tea. With her main worry about this trip into her mind being a ruse to alter her, to brainwash her or something similar, there's some less worries. But to imagine them actually /seeing/ the nightmare she's been having, that's something that she doesn't like the thought of. Especially not if Tony joins the people who actually enter her mind. A heavy sigh leaves Toph as she sinks down a bit in her seat, considering this.

    "Well, I dunno how brains normally are, but it's not like I can be blamed for not having had visual imput, right...?" she snorts. "You know what I mean. If you poke into my memories, then... well, I trust dad will punch you," she states and jerks a thumb over in Tony's direction.

    It's not like she has major secrets, any darkness besides her blindness that would ruin people's perception of her. But still...! "I'll let people know from my end and gather people I trust. We... might want firepower for this." As for Parsons calling her courageous, that earns a deadpan look on Toph's face. "I didn't become who I am by being a little wuss."

    When he rises she doesn't take the offered hand, but she does nod. "I'll let you know when I'm ready."