...he doesn't want to forget his son. And he doesn't want to—not feel sad that his son is dead—

She will not be touching any memory or feeling of his son, of that he has her solemn word. What she wants to reduce is the pain Nightmare has inflicted upon him.

But...

...

...okay. He doesn't know what that means but. Okay.

She will, with his permission, demonstrate it in a small portion of the time he spent in Nightmare - the later part, just before he was rescued - and then he can decide if he would like it for the entire experience.

With said permission granted, she stretches out and reaches for his mind. Her psychic powers are perhaps better termed as empathy, and she searches through his memory for the latest of the time spent in Nightmare, and it's not hard to find. The sickening horror of seeing his worst moment again and again and again, inescapable and suffocating and all encompassing, there like a bad taste or a bad smell and just as easily found. She carefully picks out the small portion of that awful cocktail that was this man's ten minutes before help arrived. Then, as if between her proverbial fingers, she grasps the part of it that hurts and she smothers it.

The memories do not go away, exactly, but there is no flare of emotional pain to go with them. No fear, no horror, no guilt. It is a thing that he saw, that happened to him, and all of the ways what was shown to him was like his son are - detached. It could be anyone's child, hanging from those branches, and though it's awful to see anyone like that, it's clearly.... not him. The emotional weight of witnessing the event, of knowing that is his son, is just gone.

"Would you like me to do that for all of your time in the dungeon?" she asks softly.

"Yes. Please," he begs. His eyes were already puffy from hours of crying and he's crying again but from relief, this time, from the sudden lifting of the weight and the realisation of all the extra weight that's still there.

She nods, and then reaches out and takes it away.

It's just a place. He loves his son, and he's sad that he's gone, and it still hurts, how he died, but - that has nothing to do with that dungeon, does it? It was just a place. Not a nice place, of course, but - it has all of the emotional weight of going to the DMV, with more macabre and spooky aesthetics. But it could be a Halloween decorations, for all that it matters.

"I do not recommend this as a replacement for therapy, though I do recommend avoiding thinking about, or recounting to others, the specifics of your time in the dungeon for the next month or two," she says, after she's done. This is probably what he was going to do anyway, but, well, it's kind of important to say. "You are still fully capable of forming opinions of what happened if you look too closely, especially now, when it's comparatively fresh. It's better to give yourself time to forget the details you might find painful, on reflection, painful." Quasar got her a little set of business cards; she can pass him one. "I am available for follow up appointments if you feel it is necessary, but - I wish you well, sir, and I hope you never have to see me again."

    He doesn't thank her profusely because he's just emptied out most of the emotions he felt over the past several hours but he thanks her a bit anyway and tries to not... feel. Too much.

"One of the rescue espers that came with him said she was interested in your services, if you offer those to them, too," says Ms. Xavier.

“I do,” says Hana, nodding. “In relation to the current crisis with Nightmare, I am available to any who need my help.” As backlash allows. “As backlash allows,” she adds, because this is not a blank check.

So she'll go fetch the esper that's interested in Hana's services.

She's a mousy girl with short spiky black hair and brown eyes, not at all anime-coloured, who looks—pretty antsy. "Hey."

"Hello."

And then it's down the disclaimer list! Would she like to have her experience of Nightmare lessened, what is her ideal state of recollection of her experience inside the dungeon, does she consent to Hana using her esper powers -

"Hang on, hang on, that's—a lot—"

"It is, yes," says Hana, who obligingly stops.

"What does it feel like?"

She pauses as she tries to explain it. Hm. This isn't in her usual disclaimers...

"What I try to aim for depends on what the patient - you - want, but usually it's a more distant memory, one that you don't think is particularly important? It doesn't hurt to think about, and doesn't come to the forefront of your mind very much, like... thinking about your breakfast probably wouldn't. You can remember the details just fine, but given long enough, it'll fade like any other unimportant memory. But if you'd like to keep more complicated emotions from the time, then it's harder to pick out the pieces you want to keep."

"And it's just—from today? Not the other times I went in? Or..."

"I would start with a fraction of today, so you could compare it to what else you remember. Then if you liked my work, finish up the rest of today. If you wanted me to also work on other times you've gone into Nightmare," she has a card! Here is the card! "then that gets complicated and would take a lot of time and attention to get right, and require a lot of your assistance. I usually recommend that in conjunction with a licensed therapist who you can talk through your personal goals with, because, um, I'm not certified in that sphere yet."

"And it's—the thing is—" She stops talking. Then she continues: "I don't know if there's a therapist that can handle the shit we go through."

"I think..." She fidgets. "... Multiple people working together can handle heavier burdens than someone alone? And it's easier to deal with terrible things when they're at one level of remove or more." She has no idea if that makes any sense at all, she does not have her psychology degree and certification yet!!!!!!!! What if she is breaking this poor woman's mind with her clumsy hands!!!! "So I think sharing it with someone you trust will - help keep it from crushing you under the weight alone."

"It's not just about sharing, it's—" She cuts herself off again. "Sorry. I don't, we don't really have time to get into it. I just want—show me? What you said you were going to."

"Okay."

She takes her hand, then reaches out for the last ten minutes of this woman's experience in Nightmare, and carefully picks out the bad experiences from, everything else, and then: squish.

...okay. She can probably deal with that. She was shielded, it wasn't Nightmare itself, but—wading through other people's nightmares is also nightmarish. Knowing what other people have gone through, watching it happen and having to rescue them, watching Nightmare continue to taunt them, and it taunts them so much, and it shows them where other victims could be, and every step she takes she might be abandoning someone to a horrible fate, and—

Hana nods.

Then does Filipa want that for all of her experience in Nightmare today?

Yeah. Yeah, she does.

And... she also heard that Fugimura Hana can also do a courage serum for future runs? She's going in again later, and...

Then Filipa can have all bad feelings of Nightmare (today) squished.

"It won't exactly be a courage serum, more like a... dissociation or resistance to unwanted feelings for a span of time? And I'll need to apply it right before you head in."