franciscoramon | riverview ∆ ic inbox ∆ @ciscodelamancha

You know your goggles? The lucid dreaming ones. Wondered if you'd let me borrow the specs.

yeah, of course, come by whenever and you can pick them up.

[ He should leave it be and not ask, but Tony is his friend, and Cisco's bad at minding his business when he's worried about his friends. ]

having nightmares?

It's not for me. I'm working on something for [...a friend? Not quite] someone I know and I think it might help. I won't take apart your prototype but I might make some adjustments.

[ On the one hand, Cisco's happy to hear that Tony's not having a rough time right now. On the other hand, now he's curious in an entirely different way. ]

absolutely
if you need another pair of eyes lmk
these ones were designed for a pretty specific purpose
but i remember the principles for the more basic variety

Basic might be good. Without getting into too much detail, I'm trying to find a way to give someone better control over their own mind. I figure your glasses combined with a thing I've been working on could do it.

[ So from the sound of it, something that requires discretion, or else Tony wouldn't have mentioned not wanting to go into detail. Still, Cisco needs to know a tiny bit more, before he can even begin to offer advice. ]

i swear i'm not trying for details here but:
are we talking powers control or psychological control?
the model i've got sort of does both
and how you alter it is going to depend which way you need to take it

Psychological. Sort of.

[Yeah, he already knows he's going to have to offer more than that.]

Long and short of it is, this is someone who's been mentally fucked with. I'm trying to help him clear it all out.

Edited 2018-01-04 19:33 (UTC)

gotcha

do you know how it happened?
you don't have to tell me but treatment's gonna matter based on
if it was powers-based, or magic-based, or tech-based, or the good old fashioned way...

i can't help much if it was magic, but i've run into some metas with mind powers
gorilla grodd could mind control folks into doing whatever he wanted, and rainbow raider could make people feel certain emotions
mostly murderous rage bc villains are boring like that...

Just tech and conditioning.

And have I mentioned that your life is interesting. And that's coming from me.

good
i mean not GOOD
obviously not even close to good but
easier to deal with imho

good luck with all that
and if you end up needing more help
you know i'm always a text away

why thank you
wasn't exactly the fun kind of interesting when the flash got whammied and started kicking the shit out of innocent people
that was less interesting and more narrowly-averted disaster

I get you. And thanks.

Yeah, we've had some experience with the magic-ish variety. That one actually ended up being easier to deal with.

for real?
idk man i don't fuck w/ magic
the rules don't make any sense to me
taako tried to use his magic to see if he could help with my visions
spoiler: it did not go well

Well, magic rock thing. It's complicated.

But I'm with you on it not making any sense. Everyone just rolls their eyes at me when I say it but seriously.

see yeah magic rock thing sounds like a freaking nightmare to deal with

no sense at all!!!!
like i've dealt with some weird science in my time
super duper weird science
and shit doesn't always make any sense at first but at least you know there IS an explanation
that if you work hard enough and think about it in the right way
you can figure it out

but with magic it's just straight nonsense half the time.

Blah blah, 'magic has it's own rules'. Yes. And they are nonsensical.

yeah anybody who says that is working with such a bullshit definition of 'rules' that it doesn't even count.

...okay one last thing
and again, don't tell me any more than you oughta but....
this person agreed to all this, right?
i mean they know what you want to do and they're cool with it?
i know it sucks to ask but i gotta
for my own peace of mind

He knows. We had a nice long chat about it while we were trapped under a building.

yikes! 😱 are you okay??

cool. sorry to ask.
i know you wouldn't do anything sketchy on purpose
i've just used these goggles
things can get like SUPER intense
and the first time i used them it was kind of a messed up situation
just wanted to make extra sure history wasn't repeating itself

Of course I'm okay, I'm a superhero.

[Not that he'd had his armor at the time, but details.]

No, I get it. And like I said, I'm probably going to be modifying them a bunch. What I have is...sort of a way to project memories externally. Binarily-augmented retro-framing. Sort of designed it to help deal with trauma, but this is a little more intense than I expected.

i have never met a superhero who is not perpetually not okay in one way or another.

[ You can't kid a kidder, Tony. But he won't pry, beyond calling bullshit. ]

okay i see where you're going with this
so something that essentially reads memories and translates them into holograms or whatever
and it's used to play through traumatic events while the person's conscious?
recreate the scene, but with more control?

[ He can see how that would pair well with the tech already in place in the goggles, but he can't help asking: ]

does that even really work for anyone anyway?
isn't it just be horrible all over again?
i mean what's it supposed to solve anyway?

The point is to be able to alter it when it plays. Give you a sense of closure.

[How much does it actually help? ...jury's still out. But Tony himself may not be the best baseline for that.]

Haven't you ever wished you'd done something differently?

gotcha
so that's where the lucid dreaming comes in.

[ Would that be therapeutic? Or just confusing? Hard to say. It might not work on trauma of the kind Cisco has experience with, but for someone who had had their mind messed with, whatever that means, perhaps it would provide closure, and clarity. Who is Cisco to say? ]

please tell me you're kidding with that question

[ So many things he doesn't even know where to begin. ]

Yes and no. The original design was meant to make the memories...editable, for lack of a better term. The lucid dreaming comes in to make them actually interactive.

It was mostly rhetorical, yeah. My point is, it's supposed to let you make that different choice and watch it play out. Little things, sure, but still.

okay, i get the appeal of that for sure.
lemme know if you need a consult at any point?
and you know, if it works out and everything?

[ He's not saying that if it's successful he's half-thinking he might give it a try, but, well... there had been worse ideas. ]

Will keep you updated.

Thanks.

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