mirrornet; text - backdated to the 25th

[sassguard]

I don't know what I saw yesterday, but I don't think I'm the only one who saw it.

I need information about a brainwashing facility that might have existed twenty, maybe thirty years ago. Or anything dealing with imPorts, if there's a record of that. I've been looking into it, but I haven't had a lot of luck turning anything up.

I want to know if that was real.

Comments

[sassguard]

I see. Have you continued working on that here?

As far as we can see, the government has decided to change its strategy for trying to appeal to imPorts. Something must have happened.

[gabriel_gray]

Not so much. I've been mastering my new abilities, and I have a teaching position at Xavier's to help others with theirs.

But you mentioned brainwashing and my background is in the brain, I figured I could help. Short term memory loss is much easier to cause synthetically, and it's what my government went with, but if you could brainwash people with powers?--even if it was only partially successful in one in a hundred cases they'd have considered it. Something would have gone wrong. You can't just mess around with a person's brain and expect things to go your way; it's too complex an organ for that.

Whatever happened last time would have served as a lesson, and here we are: a fresh shot at getting it right.

It happened living memory, though. That's something.

[sassguard]

Xavier's is that imPort school, isn't it? What do you teach?

Sounds like you really know what you're talking about when it comes to brains. I'm interested in what caused that vision in the first place. Do you know what might have caused something like that? A shared experience between people who weren't in the same room physically?

It feels too convenient to be coincidence.

[gabriel_gray]

I help people with their own powers. That's what mine let's me do. If you're a water bender, for example, I can help you reach a deeper understanding of your ability, and harness its full range. In simpler terms it's a class on abilities that encapsulates that, but that's the idea anyway.

Coincidence seems unlikely, given how specific the timeframe was. If it was an accident, you could have ended up in some random spot with nothing to see. No, I think it's fair to say that your visions were targeted.

As for how to reach multiple people at the same time, it could be that your brainwave patterns match up, or were altered somehow. A powerful telepath might have been involved, in which case you'd all have someone in common, or it could be tech based. The nanos in our arm transmit information, it's not too out there a suggestion that they might receive it too.

The thing is, if the government was involved in brainwashing imPorts before, then presumably someone in this world has the know how to do it again. The exact thing you're looking into could be responsible for what you saw, and how you saw it.

[sassguard]

So it's more indirect than direct. Are there any side effects?

Whatever method they were using to create that hallucination, it wasn't perfect, because it didn't target all imPorts. But you're right, there could be a connection. Where would you start looking?

[gabriel_gray]

It could be that it targeted only a select group by chance, or there could be something you have in common. Even if you sit together in a group and talk it out, what you have in common could be pure chance, something unseeable. I think your energy would be better spent on finding the people responsible--I suppose you could ask them, then.
As for side effects, messing around with the brain can cause residual trauma the way that even a strong nightmare might. If I had access to the right equipment, I could tell you if something unusual was going on in your head compared to those who didn't have your experience.

[sassguard]

I was thinking more the side effects of your powers. It can't be as simple as helping people, can it? There's got to be a limit to that.

Whoever's responsible -- it's happened too recently for them to do a good job covering it up. I'll keep looking. But since it sounds like you've got more experience with government conspiracies than I do ... where would you start looking?

[gabriel_gray]

Oh. Well no, I haven't come across any side effects yet. It's not as though I augment people's powers, it's more like I innately know that if - for example - someone were to let go of their anxiety regarding hurting other people, they might suddenly find their electricital manipulation is less fractured and more easily defined into a single bolt. It's almost a psychological assistance. You don't expect anything from a Maths teacher when they help you out with your trigonometry--that's all it is.

In terms of where I'd start, I'd look into former employees - if there are any still alive. If there aren't, that would give you an indication of what kind of cover up is being designed. If there is one. You could look for signs of brainwashing explicitly, perhaps in former heroes. If someone had been in there moving things around, it would be more than obvious.

[sassguard]

I'll see what I can do. It looks like they've covered things up pretty well, but nobody can get rid of everything. They've already slipped up a few times.

So you're basically something like an instruction manual for someone's powers. How does it work? Do you have to see the power being used?

[gabriel_gray]

Exactly. And if there's anything I can do to help--you could say I'm not the most pro-government person out there, I'd be willing to throw my hat in.

And yes, like an instruction manual. Generally I can tell when people have powers just by looking at them. The more time I spend with them the easier it gets, but seeing the power is sort of like being given the Cliff Notes; it still needs reading, but the information is more easily digested.

[sassguard]

You said you could figure out if someone's brain had been tampered with by brainwashing if you had the right equipment. Could you come up with something to prevent it from being tampered with in the first place?

[gabriel_gray]

Easily. I mean, I look at a brain it's like your granny and her porcelain pig collection. You move one of those things, and she knows. I'm the same way.
And if it's being done by machine, or transmitted by wave somehow? Definitely. If it's brain to brain - telepathy? - it might be a little more complicated. Even if you could find a way to block out one kind, it's likely not all the telepathy here functions the same way, because it originates in so many different worlds.

[sassguard]

Well, I'm no tech, but I'd be interested in something like that. I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one, either. What kind of resources would you need to pull that off?