Scene #9263: So explain some things to me, Flamel

Owner	Pose
Flamel Parsons	https://i.imgur.com/lt1Qr9N.jpeg The Psychonauts facilities are relatively well-hidden. But if one goes looking for Flamel Parsons, and one has a few connections or a decent bit of Paladins access, it's not too hard to track down where he'd be when he's not avoiding people. That would be his monitoring post in Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp. The camp's closed for the off-season, with only a minimal presence of offseason-campers. Here, there's primarily counselors and experimental psychics who need to work away from the HQ. Riku's credentials will be checked, of course, but the Psychonauts have a reasonable link with the Paladins and don't give him grief once they recognize his presence and purpose are legitimate. If he asks for Flamel, he'll be directed to the Monitoring Post up in the woods. https://i.imgur.com/Uupf3ro.png Here, surrounded by dozens of strange surveillance devices, one can find Flamel Parsons, engaged in his usual examinations. Camera feeds, hidden camera feeds, robotic bird footage signals, and in the middle, a somewhat grainy satellite feed of Riku Asakura that can see him through the glass roof of the hallway he's entering through -- though Riku is the one who gets to open up the conversation, so I guess that's just, what? A funny little conversation piece?
Riku Asakura	Riku is amazed by the monitoring post area. It's beautiful and strange. He walks along the pathway towards Flamel himself and takes a moment to enjoy the sights. Of course, he's just stalling for time, despite wanting this, he still doesn't know exactly what to say to the manthe man who lied to him about everything being alright during L-Corp's fall. When he gets there, he pauses, staring at Flamel for a moment before finally speaking. It's a long and awkward moment, one filled with Riku almost backing up and chickening out but he goes through with it. Because standing around doing nothing won't accomplish anything. Finally, he speaks up, and his words are accusatory. "Why did you lie to us? About L-Corp. About the agents. About Cinder being all right once the job was done? About everything...? How much can I trust you going forward now, because of all of this?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel keeps watching the screen, rather than Riku, for a while. When he speaks, it's with a kind of weight, because this had been building up in his head. "That's a really good question!" He says, brightly. "In a lot of ways, it's not good to trust, per se, your mental health professionals. Our job is to normalize things -- to stop your personal disasters, you know? Our job is to help you, not to be known." He spreads his hands out over his desk, palms down, leaning forward. "Me, more than most! I have, well, not exactly an excuse, but I do have an explanation. I'm not a person, and I'm sure you've picked up on that. But do you know what I am?" He keeps his eyes on those screens, lifting one hand to tap at his chin... "I think you might understand in some ways. Given who you are and what you are. Given things you've discovered and how they've likely affected you, if you have anything close to a median humanoid-type mind that the Paladins don't reject." He finally turns around, leaning against the desk. He's framed by the many screens. "You should distrust me for what I did. I've always said, and I always will say: I'm an agent of a vague yet ominous government organization. But I'm happy to explain the motives so you can know what mistrust to hold close to your heart, and what mistrust to let go."
Riku Asakura	'Our job is to help you, not to be known.' "That doesn't mean you should lie to us on a mission like that. It's important to have trust in each other. Otherwise, we're likely to not do as you say or recommend!" Riku says, frowning. He didn't know what he expected here, but not 'oh it's okay that I lied to you, because of your mental health.'. 'I'm not a person, and I'm sure you've picked up on that.' "That's another lie! You are a person, you even broke down during the situation. You helped Angela instead of The City. I have an excuse of ignorance, but you knew what was at stake and on the line for more than just her and the Sephirot. Why are you still lying to me? We can't go forward if we're not honest with each other..." 'But I'm happy to explain the motives so you can know what mistrust to hold close to your heart, and what mistrust to let go.' "I don't want to hold any mistrust close to my heart. I want to know if I can trust someone or not. All you've been saying is that I can't trust you, so how are we supposed to work together if I can't trust you one bit, Flamel? Mistrust is mistrust. It doesn't work with people putting their backs to each other in a situation where they need to do that. Where at a word they need to accept the other person at face value or their words as truth."
Flamel Parsons	"Doesn't mean I should lie..." Flamel shakes his head. "Well, you're right. I shouldn't. It's something I should only do if the alternative is worse, right?" He turns around again, clicking away at his workstation, pulling up files, displaying informative archive video. Nuclear bombs dropping, men marching. Political powers linked by shining white lines. "In 1949, there was an outbreak of a type of Psychohazard called 'MAD'. Mutually Assured Destruction. It was a set of psychological conditions and information that would cause people to attempt to kill a majority of the human population if both the conditions and the information were known." Lights shine on every continent on earth, and links between them are infested with a red sickness. They become searing arcs, and explosions. "Every clairvoyant on the planet became aware of the risks, so the Psychonauts acted. They created Project Mystic, an artificial mind-system formed from taking data from donor brains and encoding it into Psitanium, designed to coordinate operatives and process information without letting any one person know the entirety of the MAD memetic psychohazard." Particles rise from every continent, up towards the arcs and towards the red, and sever the links, attacking their sources. "The core objective it was given was to prevent the apocalypse by any means necessary. The core method it had at its disposal was the limiting of data." "In 1956, continued development stopped. Use wound down, until it stopped in the eighties. In 2005, an independent director within the Psychonauts transferred the data onto a bio-interface he'd recently recovered from another incident." Then Flamel finally turns back to Riku. "And so I joined the League. The Concord, now, but the League, then. I didn't know what I was until another several years later. But I'm very aware now." He steps forward, removes his sunglasses, and his entire head unfolds, seams on skin showing themselves as his skull blooms, displaying his "brain" -- a weird purple rock sitting in a strange metal cradle. Reaching behind him without looking, he taps a button and the central screen displays a simple smiley -- two dots, one half-circle. It hangs where his unfolded head ought to be. "'Pareidolia' is the phenomenon of seeing a human face where there is none. You can extend it out to an anthropomorphizing instinct in all objects. Automatic phone menus, cars with strange quirks, nearly anything that seems to act or speak we assign personhood to. I lied because I saw that the world would be slightly more likly to end if I didn't, and I am a thing that tries to keep the world from ending. The fact that I broke when I reached a limit doesn't mean I'm more than an object, just that I was crafted with particular specifications." "Those specifications weren't enough for my secondary function," His head re-folds, back into his apparently human face. He re-equips sunglasses. "Which was to prioritize the mental health and wellness of people. I lapsed when the Seed was being planted, due to some strains I'm still having diagnosed. But that doesn't mean I'm a person any more than a car's tempermental engine means it's a person."
Riku Asakura	That was a lot of information that all at once is a lot to take in. Riku looks bewildered by the sheer amount of information about the MAD psychohazard. Then he looks horrified by it. The idea that something could spread so thoroughly throughout the world and nearly lead to its end was terrifying. "Why...how..." So the seeds of why lying can be helpful are sown. This is the most horrible thing to happen, but when Flamel reveals his secret to Riku, he... doesn't flinch back in fear. He's dealt with aliens of all types before. His best friend in the whole world is an alien. It doesn't cause him shock or horror. It doesn't cause revulsion in him either. It's a person, like anyone else! "I disagree. You're as much of a person as anyone else. Regardless of the circumstances of your birth. I know you're trying to show me how different you are, and the circumstances of your creation... but you've already seen my true form too. The giant of light is my real form, I think. I'm no more human than you are, but it doesn't make us any less of a person." "I don't know what else to say... just because you're a rock in there doesn't mean anything to me other than you're a person. You think and feel, you feel pain when that new abnormality showed up at the end. You chose to stick it through with Angela..." "I just need to know when I should trust you or when I shouldn't. It can't be 'all the time' for either because of what's happened...but I want to trust you if I can."
Flamel Parsons	The psychic doesn't focus on the conflict about whether or not he's a person -- he glides past it, an almost transparent way of simply negating that half of the conversation for the sake of making sure it doesn't get into a deeper territory. When he does, there's a flicker in his eyes, a sign of something affected inside him more than Riku might have meant to. His his beaming smile and his hopeful optimism stays in expression and tone. Instead, he addresses the rest. "You can trust me," Flamel gestures wide, indicating himself. "As much as knowing that any action I take goes through a very strict set of regulations. I must keep the world safe. If the decision has nothing to do with that, then I must try to improve mental health." He indicates Riku himself with one hand. "Are you always honest with everyone? You don't wear a shirt that says 'Geed' at all times. You understand that following your heart to do good means that not all information is expressed to all people." "Sometimes I bet you might even say you're not Geed at all, when saying that would put people at risk." He continues, gesturing back to his display of the globe and the outbreak. "Because the wrong information in the wrong place can get people hurt. It can get them killed. It can get a lot of people hurt and killed." He remains facing the map, watching it spin with a focus. "You're right. I lied and there's not really something I can say to make you believe everything I say, because you shouldn't. I will lie if I think it's necessary to help the world, to save lives. But if you just want to trust, not believe, the things I say, then you can start with something important." He turns back around, smiles wide -- and then every screen displays all of the assorted physical harm that Geed has ever suffered in Flamel's line of sight, in an array around him. "Being lied to, that's also a kind of hurting. Every time I lied in Lobotomy Corporation, people got hurt, even died. You're willing to take a hit for what you believe in, though. If you didn't have a willingness to get hurt, to trade your pain for someone else to keep living, you could just stay home -- you'd be surprised how many secret alien infiltrators do!" The screens flicker softly behind him as he raises his hands to indicate them all. "But you, you do it even though you know it hurts. You take the damage even though you could avoid it, and you deal it out because you have to for what you believe in, for what's important to you. When I lie, it's because I believe that the world's at least a little more likely to end if I don't. Is that a hit you're willing to take for a cause you're willing to believe in? Is it only physical strikes -- or are you willing to take a shot to your truth, not just your body?"
Riku Asakura	"Well... that's true..." he doesn't ware a shirt with Geed on it, he doesn't go around saying he's Geed to everyone he meets, and he's kept it a secret from people for a long time to protect them. Sometimes he has to say he's not Geed at all too, again to protect those same people. Is it different than Flamel lying? He... isn't sure. He can't seem to come to a decision. He'll lie to make sure the world continues. It's a very deep cut to Riku who wears his heart on his sleeve. Riku who even hates lying about who he is to others close to him, but knows he has to to protect them. He takes a breath, trying to fit this paradigm shift into his brain without a clutch. It takes time, but he starts to see the point Flamel is making, that he only did it with the best of intentions in mind and that it was the only thing that kept them going in a critical moment. "...Alright. I get your point. If you hadn't lied then maybe we wouldn't have been able to get through that week. Or even the first part of L-Corp going down at all. I'm sorry I got mad at you, but it's still a difficult pill for me to swallow, you know?" "Now I have to think, 'Is he lying to me.' Is he lying to me because he's trying to protect me, or to protect the world, or because he has a hidden agenda? I know you're saying you have a code that you follow but... it's hard to form that into a relationship for me. Sorry, maybe I'm the one who needs to work on themselves..."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel's beaming smile is deeply approving. "Never get too close to the people who are critical for your mental health!" He says. "Otherwise, the developing relationship keeps you both from being able to truly express yourselves fully -- have you ever told a stranger a secret that you'd never tell your best friend? Most people have, at least the one time in their life. Lower stakes of connection can be almost more valuable." "And most importantly," He raises one index finger, in a bouncing, encouraging, instructing tone. "Never get too comfortable with it. If it doesn't hurt to be lied to, or to lie to someone else, that's when you need to worry." He turns to pull up a variety of graphs. "For example, after the stuff with Cinder, I made sure to optimize the maximum sustainable guilt-per-minute I could achieve in three-hour sessions for at least two weeks afterwards, and I have resurgent anguish sessions scheduled on a twice-weekly schedule out to June." There it is, right on the calendar. "If you want, you can feel free to stick to your negative sentiment about my lies -- if you come back next Wednesday, around 7, and just keep trying to find a solution that lets you believe me, it'll help me feel just horrible about what I did!" His friendly smile doesn't break one bit. "But if this talk gave you something to chew on that might be better than that, you can chew on it a while and see what your brain comes up with. Whatever works best for you!"
Riku Asakura	"I've never really..." Riku starts but remembers that he did reveal he was Geed to an almost complete stranger at first. He pauses at that memory and shakes his head. Maybe there was something to what he was saying, but it still didn't feel right to him. Maybe it was going to take some deep soul-searching to find the paradigm. To the calendar, Riku can only stare at Flamel. It's good that he's feeling guilty about it, but it's so weird that he's got it all scheduled out. Maybe he's more machine than Riku cares to admit. Or maybe this is just how he copes with everything... "I think maybe I'll chew on it a bit more..." he says finally to Flamel. Not sure what to make about this guy. He's so happy to feel horrible about what he's done. He lets things wash off of him like water off of a duck's back. It's hard to even imagine if he's being sincere about this or just fake about it. "I'll let you get back to it then..." he says and starts to leave. Unsure if he now believes that Flamel is a person or if he's the rock he thinks that he is.