Nod. "Okay. I can handle that, I - have a procedure." Having a procedure worked out in advance is very very soothing. She doesn't have to trust her (broken, messy, confused, spiraling) brain as it is now, she can just - lean on what has been worked out before. Do that, let the patient tell you what they want, do what they tell you. If things go wrong it's not her fault. (Like she will ever believe that, she won't, it's her powers it's her fault always always always.)

Deep breath. "Ready."

There's a three person team that's about to go in. They're wondering if it's "fear" specifically that she works on or if she can help with things like anxiety and dread and disgust and the like. People's nightmares can get really fucked up.

"It can just be fear, but I can also catch anxiety and dread and disgust as well. What was tested at White Star," and it's fine to just talk about it, now, White Star is pretty officially going under and it's fine to explain stuff, "ended up as something similar to a benign dissociation, catching only negative emotions. It's - not quite dreamlike, but it does have downsides in that fear responses are often necessary for appropriate risk analysis. But there's a chart," because Hana has been overthinking this so so much, "that you can use to specify what level of blocking for each negative emotion on a scale of zero to five." There is also a write in option, because of course there is. Anyway, commscreen: uh, can she send these people the little charts to fill out? That should be straightforward in the system, yeah? Can she fuck this up, probably not, it's fine, right? Right.

Oh. Charts. That's... really useful actually! They are going to fill out these charts!

Nod.

See! Procedures are so great. She can just let people tell her what they want without having to talk to them. And if it goes terribly it's exactly what they signed up for, which is terrible but somewhat better than her deciding from on high how to Fix people! And then inevitably getting it wrong! (Because she is terrible.)

Yeah alright they have charts filled out now, what's next?

Now with their permission (and stated consent) she will follow each person's chart for emotion squishing, and they can run through a quick review of things they would find upsetting/disgusting/terrifying etc to see if this level of muted reaction is acceptable to work under.

There are a couple of tweaks they ask when they actually experience the effect live but overall they are pretty happy about the result.

Half an hour duration, yes?

Hana is of course happy to tweak and notes the changes on the charts for use for these specific espers later. Because that is the procedure.

Roughly thirty minutes before it starts to fade, yes. After the thirty minute mark, it will begin to fade based on how much they observe their own mindstate - if they observe that it's weird and strange for them to not feel those emotions, and try to simulate them, it'll get thrown off faster. Similarly, if they try not to throw it off directly, it'll last longer.

And of course, once they're out, she will be happy to remove it for them. But it'll fade completely even without her personal involvement.

Dissociating and ignoring your emotions is a vital skill all espers working with Nightmare need to have so they've got it.

And into the portal they go.

Okay. Cool. She hopes it helps them a lot and that she gets to see them again.

Her backlash hasn't improved, exactly (quite the opposite!) but following a set of procedures and having people actively consenting and seemingly happy with her work is nonetheless very soothing to the mind esper. Now she can just fret about normal things like: oh no she should have told her intermediary about the charts sooner!!! It didn't occur to her!! She is terrible and foolish and bad and wasted precious time with her flailing and -

This is still pretty manageable, for her, honestly. Though, yes, now the charts can actually be... directly distributed to people... instead of hidden in the commscreen behind like six tabs on her abilities that people can technically find if they read through everything but still not, like, directly in front of them.

Ms. Xavier has another team that'll be going in soon (there are more and more espers arriving as everyone gets the notifications and get their teams ready), if Hana could work with them?

Yes, of course. She is glad to be of service.

Neither of them is notified personally that Nightmare became active; Hye-jin's powers aren't useful in a dungeon with no monsters whose core no one's ever found, and while Tae-gun would in theory be a great rescue esper it is Quasar policy not to send in espers who have had traumatic experiences Nightmare could make use of.

(Plus, you know, that one other reason.)

So they have their soup of regular A-ranks, today, and then they can go back to Tae-gun's place.

Hye-jin's pretty used to celebratory sex immediately after clearing dungeons, but after their, uh, impromptu orgy last night, Tae-gun might be a bit sexed out. (She's not, but neither is she particularly needy. Could go either way, depending on his mood.)

She will be snuggling up with him regardless, though. If he wants to turn it to immediate sex, he will definitely let her know. It's not like he's subtle.

He isn't, which does make this strange, doesn't it.

"I'm not jumping your bones," he observes with a curious hum. "I wonder why not? It's not like it's ever been a problem. And, I mean, you're still hot, and if you're down to fuck then so am I. I mean, I'm pretty much always down to fuck, I think? You, that is. Not most other people. But right now I'm not jumping your bones. I wonder why."

Giggle.

"I am up for fucking if you'd like to," she says affectionately, caressing his cheek, "but we did just have an, uh, orgy last night, so. That might be why."

"Huh? No, that's silly. If anything that'd make me want it more. Maybe I could invite my hyungs? We could do that more often. Although I think Juheon-hyung will be a much rarer thing, they did say they're still mostly exclusive most of the time. Juheon-hyung and Hyun-jae-noona, I mean. Si-yeon-hyung would totally do it, though. I bet I could call him. Unless he's in a dungeon. Or doing something else. Anyway point is having an orgy last night makes me hornier not less horny, because now I know everything I'm missing. Hey, were you compatible with noona? Having sex with two people I'm compatible with, like, really compatible with, at the same time, that was wild. We should see if we can do that more. I'm not compatible with noona, at all, but I am with Si-yeon-hyung, and you. I'm a lot more compatible with you than with hyung. But having sex with both of you at the same time would be fantastic. You're compatible with Chun-hee, right? So if both of them came here and the four of us had sex, that'd be even better, for all of us. I bet they'd like that."

"I'm compatible with Chun-hee-sunbae, but not Hyun-jae-sunbae, correct," she confirms, amused. "It does seem like it'd be great. Both being guided from two people at once and the proposed foursome idea."

"Though uh - maybe not literally right now or anything, I. Do still feel like I personally owe you a proper apology before we go involving other people for a foursome."

"Huh? Apology? Because we didn't have sex? That's fine. I had sex with my hyungs. It was great. And it looked like you were having fun, too? There's no need to apologise."

"Pffff, no. That's fine, I'm glad you had fun."

"What I'm sorry for is... I kind of outed your situation with Jaeha without.... thinking it through... or respecting your right to decide how you'd like to present yourself, or - shit, I'm messing this up. Hold on, let me start over." Deep breath. "I'm sorry. I took away your ability to decide if and how you wanted to talk about something very personal and sensitive, without talking it through with you at all or your permission or - anything. I acted without really thinking it through, and hurt you in the process, and, um. I'll try not to do that again." Wince.

Oh.

"Oh yeah there was that."