"Hey, can I get a mocha and a chocolate snow donut?"

Smile (somewhat strained). "Coming right up."

"- are you all right?"

 Slight twitch. "I'm fine.' Card reader.

He taps his phone.

She's anxious to get this interaction over with because this guy's inquisitive (and also distractingly attractive). She reaches to take the reader back just a little faster than necessary and bumps knuckles.

She's actually losing it. That's the only explanation. She needs to not lose it for the next hour. At least. (It was so GOOD though. Kind of uncomfortably intimate but....)This guy definitely saw the face she made but she needs to not make it worse. 

'S-sorry. Do you need the receipt for that?

She's so so professional. She is going to win an award for how professional she's being right now. She can go stark raving mad or whatever later, where nobody can see.

"Uh - no thanks - if you're an esper why do you work at Tim Horton's."

"What..I...."

"Let alone with that much backlash - wait, how old are you -"

WHY the questions? WHY. (Her brain is failing to compute right now)

"...I'm nineteen." Don't make a big deal of it. 

"...are you awakening?"

Oh. That would explain- the last threeish hours. So, good news she just has to survive the week. Bad news, this really really sucks and she can't even complain to anyone about how it really really sucks because the rabid brain weasels are eating her alive. 

....Also she remembers what if felt like when this guy touched her. Apparently he's...compatible with her. In the the esperfiction this would result in (actually she needs to not think about that right now). Also, that would be weird in real life. She's pretty sure it would still be weird and bad to ask even if her brain was not  being eaten by the rabid weasels.  She just met the guy. Also he definitely has more important things to do with his week. Also, and most importantly, the rabid weasels.

She should finish doing her job. And answer the question. Instead of staring at this guy (so that everyone can see she's freaking out). 

"That would explain a lot. (she doesn't have to explain the details of what, right?) Thank you for letting me know. Your order is ready I think."

She's going to finish this shift. And then...well. She'll figure it out.

"...you should absolutely not continue to work at Tim Horton's while awakening. You could check into the hospital if you don't have family or anyone who can look after you? If you don't want to just come crash with me, we're pretty compatible and I could keep your backlash down, I promise I won't be weird about it, every esper has been there."

She doesn't want to deal with her family in this state. She doesn't want to deal with a lot of people at the hospital asking her personal questions. Even if it's for professional reasons which feels less bad to think about than otherwise. As for the last...

"I'm..." He won't believe her if she says she's fine. "competent to operate a microwave. And...I just...want...privacy. Also, you have...dungeons to kill or something, right? It's not your job to look after me."

(a few of her coworkers are staring by now. She's trying to pretend she can't see them.)

"I'm not surprised you want privacy, I've had my current partner for years and have never had a conversation with her, I can leave you mostly alone, but - people die during their awakenings even if they're competent to operate a microwave. I am allowed to take a week off dungeoneering."

...Fuck it she needs to not be having this conversation at the register of this crowded coffee shop. Half the customers are DEFINITELY staring by now. 

As calmly as she can manage "Sharon, tell the shift manager I'm off for the week. At least. You can tell him why too. (since she was definitely snooping the entire time and....don't think about that.)

(She's going to calmly remove her apron, grab her outerwear, and walk out like a normal person who is definitely not freaking out.

"...If you want to continue this conversation we should do it outside."

"Of course." He collects his coffee and donut and goes out with her.

This is...a little better. Fewer people. She's going to step away from the door and off to the side a bit. And mostly face the wall. Harder for people to see her expression and guess her feelings that way. She's not going to face completely away from Random Coffee Esper though, they're theoretically having a conversation. She is not going to be Weird (weirder than she's already being). 

She..can totally avoid people for a week. The basement suite she's renting has a separate door. But if she's not working, and not going to class and not hanging out with friends she's going to be very bored very fast. You can only play stupid phone games on your own for so many hours. Or well, she can only play stupid phone games on her own for so many hours. Being alone for a week doesn't sound like fun. It's just that right now she doesn't want anyone to know about or think about or engage with her feelings and almost any possible conversation topic seems like it's about her feelings. Or somebody else's feelings which is less bad but still bad. So being around people is incredibly stressful.

...She probably objectively should not in fact actually be alone. Even when she was busy working she kept finding herself worrying about 'what if people are recording me on their phones and posting the video on Youtube with a play-by-play of my emotional state for the Entire Internet to see?'  If she's on her own for a week with nothing but stupid phone games, her textbooks, and fiction books she's mostly already read at least twice...

Probably she should go with this guy actually. Even though it's weird.  Even if he promised not to be weird about it going home with a guy you just met for a week has a certain level of baseline weirdness. But sometimes life is just weird. Sometimes you start awakening when you were just trying to do your job and then run into a compatible esper out of nowhere.

She glances at the guy.

"So, you really won't be weird? Weirder than necessary? We...could probably talk about dungeons. Or well, you could tell me about them mostly. Since they are...apparently going to be relevant to my life for work reasons. And not personal reasons.  Unless you'd rather not talk about work outside of work?"

She has not lived under a rock and has taken several modern history courses.but she never expected dungeons to be directly relevant to her life particularly except in the sense that if you live in a big city chances are you and most of the people you know will be kidnapped by a dungeon at least once. And there's not much you need to know about that other than 'sit tight and wait for the rescuers and do not attempt to fight the monsters yourself." And according to her statistics major friends 'Fill out your damn surveys for the sake of your statistics major friends."

"I like talking about dungeons, I have a blog about them. - I'm Traceless but if you're coming home with me you can call me Haru. I live with my mom Ren and my talking monster cat Cricket, it's a short walk from here but I can pick you up and fly if you want to hug me afterwards and guide the backlash off. My backlash is that I get lonely, but I don't have to be talking to you if you don't like it, Cricket'll talk to me."

Well that is several things to have emotions about.

He has a talking monster cat. That's a big deal actually.

She..wants to stick to the codename, it feels like a little bit of emotional distance. Except she doesn't have an objective reason to ask that. Also she should introduce herself. It would be weird and rude not to. (She's going to want a codename ASAP...)

Hugging...Traceless would be...a lot. She does want it, but it's scary because she wants it (and he'll know that it feels good...)

If she's gong to be an esper, then the guiding is necessary. It's a professional job requirement, and also a medical requirement, like food or water. That's objective facts, right? (it's still pretty scary though, because the feeling was...a lot)

She should text the landlady. And ask her to collect clothes and stuff. But she doesn't know if the landlady will do it without asking questions. She should also text her parents at some point. But she'll have to tell the things and they will want to know about her feelings.

Hmmm... Deep breath

"Um. I can hug you. I'll have to be able to hug people...when.."

Another deep breath.

"Also, I should ask my landlady to bring some of my stuff. So I don't have to wear these clothes for a week. But she might ask questions. That I...don't..that I probably can't answer right now."

"If you want to not be able to notice that I'm there, guiding still works even if I'm imperceptible. - I don't actually know if I can hide the guiding itself but it doesn't have to otherwise feel like anything to hug me, and I think we're compatible enough that the guiding would be net-positive even if I were doing that. I can drive you to your place to get your stuff so you don't have to talk to her?"

"It's not about noticing you're there. Not really. It's....I apologize for being unhelpful when...you're going out of your way to be helpful. And driving me to the house would be very helpful."

Ugh this guy is going to so tired of her by the end of the week. Assuming he doesn't get sick of her sooner and boot her out.

"You're already way more communicative than my partner, I have to go through her brother for everything. The opposites thing means pretty much anyone compatible enough with me is going to be at least somewhat -" gesture. "House is thisaway."

"Okay." 

She'll follow his lead.

He opens the garage; there's a black truck in there. "Where'm I taking you?"

"It's..(she names the address)." (It's a little further from the Tim's in a perpendicular direction.)

He pokes that in to the GPS and gets underway.

Oh no. Awkward silence. She hates awkward silence. Also it gives her too much space to think right now.

"You have a monster cat. That talks. There's not a lot of talking reformed monsters out there, right? How did you end up with one. Or with one as a housemate rather. .If it's not too personal."

Hopefully that's a safe conversational gambit. (...aaaaaa)

"After his dungeon died he was staying at the Maple agency offices - he's really useful in 4D dungeons - but he has a very disagreeable personality and didn't like anyone there. When I was awakening I decided I should get a cat, as a loneliness target who would seldom have other plans, and Ren posted about it on an esper forum and someone said I should take Cricket - he wasn't named that yet, he wouldn't take any of their name suggestions - and they were probably joking, but I went in to meet him and he took a liking to me and came home with me."

"Picky about people? That's  very catlike." As is taking a liking to people for inscrutable reasons. But maybe the reasons are actually very scrutable and none of her business.

"If you want more detail there's a post about him on my blog. And lots of pictures, he likes posing."

"I might. At some point." The blog would be useful for generating conversation topics. Probably.

Also she decided she was going to introduce herself. And then didn't. Argh. "Uh. I'm Katherine Sullivan. By the way."

and now they're almost at the house so she can FLEE THE SCENE (temporarily). 

"Would that we'd met under better circumstances."

He will wait out in the car for her to pack, she seems mostly functional, but he's ready to swoop in if she takes a weirdly long time.

Right. She's going to get the bigger duffel bag. Then she's going to grab some clothes. Any clothes will do. She cleaned the wardrobe just before the start of the semester so everything should still fit. Let's not think about it too hard. (She's still going to think about it too hard). But she's not going to waste Traceless' time. He's a guy, he won't form personal opinions of her based on her shirts. (Is she sure?) As long as they're clean which they are. She's going to grab her baggy sleep shirt. Underwear, she's on a budget, she buys panties and socks in six packs of bland colours, Not that it fucking matters. Toothbrush. The cheap shampoo bottle. Towel. Her phone charger. Also, she's going to put her phone on Do Not Disturb while she thinks of it. (She should delete all her texts, block everyone on her contact list and then delete the contact list) She should not do that. She's pretty sure she'd regret doing that next week. Also she absolutely needs to figure out how to get in touch with her parents. At some point. Otherwise she'll just have even more questions to answer eventually. 

There she's done. That took longer than necessary but not an absurdly long time. It was way too stressful because of all the overthinking though. 

She leaves a note on the table with the date and "Away for the week", makes a circuit to make sure no lights were left on, relocks the door behind her and drags her loaded bag out to the car.

"I think that's everything. Also I left a note so the landlady at least knows I won't be around...."

"She comes into your place uninvited a lot?"

"Not a lot, but she lives upstairs so she'll probably notice I'm not there, and check. This is just so she knows not to call the cops."

"Gotcha. Anyone else who should know you're awakening?"

"My parents. Should know. But they'll ask a lot of questions." She's not going to cry. She's not. Even though this sucks and she hates it.And she can't talk about it.Even (especially) with her family.

"...do you want me to field those for you? I'll probably sound suspicious as hell but I can at least have people confirm that I am who I say I am with my agent."

"That would be helpful."

heavy sigh. "It doesn't even make sense to not tell them. It's not like they aren't...going to find out." (she could move to Papua new Guinea and throw her phone in a lake)

"Okay. Can I have their numbers?"

She gives them. "You should try my mother first. She works from home so she usually answers quickly."

"I'll text when we're at my house so I can respond right away if she does." And he starts up the truck again.

"That's reasonable."

This is Toronto esper Traceless, Your daughter Katherine is awakening; we're compatible and she shouldn't be by herself during hell week (it's unsafe) so I've invited her to my house. You can confirm my identity with my agent Paula Bescond via the contact info on my website traceless.com if you wish. Katherine's backlash leaves her capable of talking but reluctant about some aspect of it (I don't know the details) so I can ask her to talk to you if necessary but this may be very hard for her.

There is no immediate reply.

She fidgets "So, what now. Besides waiting."

"Uh, what do you eat, we have food around but if you're allergic to gluten or something no guarantees we've got a week of what you'd want for that -"

"Who's this?" yawns a winged cat emerging from the bathroom.

"Hey kitty, this is Katherine, she's awakening and will be around this week, be nice."

"Hrmmmmm." He trots right past Haru's ankle and takes up his position in his window-seat catbed with its laptop.

"I'm not allergic to any foods or anything like that." She usually doesn't eat meat other than fish but that's not a a health issue.And it wouldn't be the first time she's ended up bending that at somebody else's house.

Her eyes widen slightly as Cricket comes into the room. "Oh. He has wings. I don't think you said that." She watches Cricket go by.

He stretches them out real big and then folds them up again.

"Yeah, all the monsters in his dungeon were giant winged versions of small nonwinged animals. With add-ons. He was venomous. When the dungeon died that went away and he shrank."

The posing gets a very brief smile. "I see."

"Did you have breakfast, are you hungry?"

"I had coffee and a donut before my shift started. I'm a little hungry. I usually eat something after my shift to hold over until lunch."

"KD sound good?"

"That works."

"You don't seem - medically acute - in any way that is manifestly obvious to me, but I have in fact ever practiced cooking while in continuous physical contact if you would prefer that."

"....I think...we can wait until the food is done.". And they can sit next to each other and it doesn't have to be a whole thing. KD in a bowl is a one hand food more or less.

"Okay."

It doesn't take that long to make. He dishes it up.

Mm processed mac and cheese. The lazy college student's staple aside from instant ramen. 

At about that point Haru's phone beeps with a new text message.

This is Paige Sullivan. I'm still working right now but I wanted to let you know that I've got  your message. I'll probably want to talk to Kathy later this evening, if she's able. A mother worries about her daughter you understand.. In the meantime please tell her I love her and I miss her.

Haru shows Katherine the text.

She's been holding it together more or less but those words from somebody she cares about are breaking the dam. It's not just the backlash itself, it's her feelings about it, and the confused feelings about awakening in general> All of that would be difficult even in normal circumstances but with the backlash it's impossible. She's losing control and she can't let herself lose control (he can see, the cat can see..)

She's going to cry.

She's crying and she needs to stop crying because people can see. They know. There might be people outside the window who can see. They might be taking he picture with zoom lens. They might be uploading her picture onto Youtube and instagram.

She can't breathe. She's panicking and crying and she can't breathe.

She needs help. There's someone here who can help. She needs to ask for help. So she can stop crying. Hopefully. She doesn't know how else to stop.

The tiniest squeak ...help.

...will she take a hug.

...She'll take it, and breathe a little better. And bury her face against him.

"If you're comfortable with it this works better the more skin contact there is."

.It's...already a lot...It's...really good...but it's a lot....What are you suggesting. Specifically." Was using your words so hard? Very hard actually.

"I am envisioning taking off my shirt, you could just roll up your sleeves or - whatever works for you."

"Well that seems reasonable. Under the circumstances." To the extent that anything is reasonable at the moment.

She will...roll up her sleeves to the elbows.

He pulls his shirt off.

...She may have miscalculated slightly. She's going to bury her face in his shoulder for PURELY MEDICAL REASONS. While hugging. For PURELY MEDICAL REASONS.

Nice guidey hug. No being weird about it.

After a little while of this she mumbles into his shoulder "...sorry for losing it...I.should tell you. For medical reasons. I...the backlash. I..need...want...to.....avoid intimacy? Keep feelings..and...personal stuff...hidden. Not talk about it. Not show it if possible. Other people's strong feelings that are directed at me are also not great. Talking to my family is worse because...there's so much intimacy involved. The text message might have been...more recoverable...except it's...been a day. And it was the last straw.  So...I lost it. I...can maybe say hello to mom so she knows...that II haven't been...vanished into a basement or something. But...not much of a conversation."

After a long pause  "I think it's easier if things are...medical. Or professional. Sometimes you do things for medical or professional reasons that...are usually intimate. But they aren't in..that context. If I can tell myself that, then it's easier. I survived...most of this morning's shift by reminding myself to be professional, even with chatty regulars. Though I did sort of blow them off..

She's trembling a little. She sighs heavily.

"- that makes sense. Would it help to record her a voice message instead of talking to her live as much? I have no guarantee that she won't insist on something live but maybe less of it if she has a recording too."

"I think that would be better, yes...not yet though. There's still hours until she'll quit for the day." So they don't have to unhug right now.

"Okay. I can also get your backlash down farther if I rack up some of my own, if you're not scared of heights I can always use flying practice."

"I'm not. Mostly."

"I've never dropped anybody."

"I guess this comes up a lot, in dungeons?"

"Yeah, I sometimes play other roles but I'm often picking people up and carrying them out."

"Then, I'm sure I'm in safe hands."

"It's a bit cold out to do this without a shirt on but maybe if we wrap up in a blanket."

"Seems a little awkward, but the skin contact is uh...medicinal."

"Yeah, absolutely. - what's your blood type?" he asks, maneuvering them over to the couch to get a quilt out from under it.

"O negative, I think. Not really helpful for the current use case I suppose."

"Yeah, no, I'm A-poz. How about... you hold this quilt, I pick you up, you wrap us up in it, and then we go for a quick flight till one of us is too cold or I'm too backlashed and then we flee back in the house? Once I'm backlashed I need to be having a conversation but it can be about absolutely anything, if you want to brush up on French vocab or hear dungeon anecdotes or talk about Shakespeare or whatever."

"I'm...not the best conversationalist at the moment but if you tell me dungeon stories I can ask questions as long as you do most of the talking. And..I won't be bored." She would normally be able to generate opinions to Shakespeare but that (still) feels like a minefield full of exploding rabid weasels.

She reaches out one arm for the quilt (with a small grimace at the temporarily reduced skin contact.)

"Yeah, if you're asking questions and aren't bored that'll do me." He picks her up; one arm is quite deliberately placed at the shirt/waistband boundary and nudges the former up a bit. Once they're wrapped up, out the door he goes into the cold.

Snuggles. She squirms slightly when the shirt nudging is happening but as long as he doesn't go more than a few inches she'll settle down again.

"I've seen some photos from dungeons because I know a few people who are into photography and follow that sort of thing."

It's a very decorous waist-touch. He takes off, up over his house, whoosh. "I take lots of pictures in dungeons but can't scroll through them to show them off in the air! They're mostly on my blog but I redact the ones that have other people in them."

Oh wow, even more intense skin contact feelings..for medical reasons of course.

"I should look at your blog.For something to do while I'm...avoiding my social contacts for the week. I could also play phone games or something but the blog sounds...more productive. "

"It's mostly written for a layperson audience so it might be a decent way to get up to speed on dungeon related stuff if you didn't previously pay much attention to it." Soaring over to the next house and "catching" himself on the imaginary bubble six feet over its roof. She can tell when he's actively flying and when he's coasting by whether his backlash is going up or down, if she concentrates.

It's a little hard to concentrate on that in particular but she does feel something different and interesting and make a few small faces about it,  "It mostly didn't seem very relevant to my life in particular, no. Well, I know people who have been kidnapped but I'm a big city girl so that's not- notable."

Small frown, "Kind of sad that people being kidnapped by hostile pocket dimensions is just normal. Though I'm sure it's preferable as an experience to the 70s when people thought it might be the end of the world."

"Well, it almost was - not the world, I guess, but civilization that involves people congregating in numbers, it was a big shock to the system and a few systems did not in fact tolerate it well, Indonesia's still all messed up, the Philippines took it really hard... I guess we don't have access to a parallel world where we get a baseline comparison of how many states fail if dungeons don't appear."

"I am - or maybe was - thinking of majoring in history.General overview courses tend not to cover the global south much, but many of those countries didn't have a lot of slack in the first place I think."

"I didn't go to college and only cursorily finished high school. But yeah, low slack and high density were a death knell, though Egypt pulled through pretty well, I've got a post on that."

"Ah, something in my area of interest in particular."

"So, what other things do you tend to do in dungeons besides carry people out?"

"Sometimes I'm acting a sensor, in dungeons with really reactive monsters where anybody else who steps in gets jumped right away. Sometimes I'm catching monsters, though most of the time when I'm doing that it's on my own recognizance and I have to place them in a zoo afterwards, since you can't know for sure if they'll survive their dungeons."

"Why the effort in particular? Most zoos don't want that many monsters, if any, so it can't be easy to place them. Is it just because of Cricket or something else?"

"Cricket and also I think orphan monsters are part of any story where we eventually figure out what's going on with dungeons."

"Does Cricket remember anything from before the dungeon died? I heard that they mostly don't, though I'm sure math people will go on about extrapolating from tiny sample sizes."

"He doesn't have much, but, yeah, the sample size is tiny - most monsters don't live, the ones that live mostly don't talk, the ones that talk mostly don't remember."

"But you're hoping that one will, eventually? Seems like a very long term project."

"It could be going faster! There's not a lot of systematic monster capture unless something's really cute or looks like it'll produce something useful."

"You have different criteria or do you just try for as many as you can get?"

"I still have to place them, so I try for things that'll find homes in a zoo that seems willing to take more. Like, Ripley's is usually pretty happy to take monsters, the insect zoo will take really showy stuff but anything that's going to look unassuming after its dungeon kicks it they're less happy about, I've developed some sense of how much capacity each place has for more monsters with all the calling around with a leafy miniature dolphin in a fishtank in a warehouse."

"A leafy miniature dolphin?" Gosh.

"It's really cute, Ripley's has it now."

"Do you have pictures or should I maybe be considering a trip out there? Was it much different before the dungeon died?"

"I have pictures of all the monsters I've caught and lots that I didn't! It shot spikes at people out its blowhole before and doesn't do that any more but I don't know if it can't or just no longer feels moved to do so."

"What was the dungeon like? Was it all water?"

"Practically no dungeon is all water, they've generally got air above the water, but some of them don't have land and you have to set up pontoons or something to set equipment and stage your team on. That one was sort of like a platformer video game? It had a water level and politely provided everyone in there victim and rescuer alike with a time-limited air bubble. It was in the room after the forest level and before the cloud level. I did not proceed into the lava level, I'm no good at extreme temperature, but I did the first three rooms."

"That is...weirdly specific. Or maybe not that specific, I wouldn't know. Was the core in the lava area?"

"No, boss monster in the fifth chamber had it. A lot of dungeons are weirdly specific. Very few dungeons have all the features that most dungeons have, but 'not weirdly specific' isn't even one of those."

"Do you have any favourite stories?

"You wanna narrow that down for me any?" He's starting to circle back toward his house now.

"Ever been in one with dinosaurs, or other variants of prehistoric animals?"

"Yeah! Not one of the famous ones but I was in a cave system with pterodactyl-y monsters one time. They had the victims inside their eggs with a bunch of decoys, the victims had to hatch on their own and nothing from the outside could scratch the shells except we could pass them tools - I have a non-public power that let me do that."

"Did they all get out?"

"One person died in that one. Which is unusual, dungeons can and will keep people alive in situations that ought to be unsurvivable - this one was mostly doing that, but grabbed somebody with a preexisting condition it couldn't or didn't compensate for." His house is in sight again now.

"Oh." Well it's a good thing they're almost back to the house because now there's too many feelings in this conversation for her to immediately come up with further response.

"We killed the dungeon, though, so it'll never get anyone again!" He comes in for a neat landing and opens the door. Blessed warmth.

Oh, she went quiet and now he's making a Face. She's should keep saying things so he stops making that face. "You want to show me leafy dolphin pictures now that we're on the ground?" There we go.

"Sure, my phone takes voice commands so I can trick myself into feeling like I'm talking to you if I tell it to pull up my photos," he says over the course of getting the situated on the couch and pulling out his phone. "And find pictures of Seaweed - the aquarium named it by poll."

Pictures!

"Aww that's a cute name.And the dolphin is very cute, I bet it's' a popular exhibit. I assume they have it on its own? I hope it's not distressed about that like a real dolphin would be...Have they been able to to train it to do tricks or anything?"

"It's all by itself, yeah. They can get it to jump out of its tank for treats."

"But nothing more complex? Have they tried and it didn't work or just not tried?"

"I don't actually know, I've placed a couple dozen monsters and can't keep up with them all."

"That makes sense, I'm sure you've got lots of other thing to keep up with."

"I keep pretty busy. I can only do like three or four dungeons a week with my present partner since our guiding rate is bad, but I do interviews and write blog posts and stuff."

"Is three or four dungeons a week not many?" She kind of wants to pull out her phone and read the blog post about Egypt but that's a bit difficult to do while also snuggling and he's backlashed now too.

"Some people do about that load by choice, especially if their powers are really specific - there's a hydrokineticist, Tidepool, who's basically only good in water dungeons, for example - but I'd be doing a few times that many if I could, I've got solid generic powers."

"I'm not sure how much of a time commitment that is. I.." she makes a face "when my brain is working normally again...I will want to keep at least some of my social life.I will of course quit my job if I'm doing any dungeons since - I don't hate it but it doesn't bring me joy. I find my college classes interesting."

sigh, "Of course maybe I'll end up with powers that aren't really useful anyway and it will be a moot point."

"Time commitment is basically a function of your backlash efficiency, both how much you need to use your powers in the typical dungeon you run - I do a lot of shooting stuff with guns, my nonpublic power also works offensively but it's crazy expensive so I don't do that - and how quickly your backlash gives you problems that mean you need to bail out of a dungeon. You're plausibly looking at a really good roll on the second thing, you were awakening and working a shift at Tim Horton's, but only around half of espers get dungeoneering powers."

Wry smile "Well, I was having a very stressful time and would not want to repeat that experience!"

Frown "t might be worse if I have to deal with the victims a lot. I was fortunately spared any really rude and angry customers this time around but I can't imagine dungeon victims are usually in a calm frame of mind. Even just being -  distraught - is going to make it harder for me. I can lean on...professionalism but that's only going to go so far if things get really...emotionally charged."

"If you get combat powers you won't necessarily have to interact with victims at all, just geesh monsters to clear a path for whoever does. It'd be a good complement for me, even, I wind up talking to dungeon victims a lot. It'd be a worse deal if you wind up with, like, a healing power, but you could have somebody as a sort of go-between."

"Having somebody else run interference would help. If I have to interact with the victims. Combat would be simpler in that regard...though..." long pause "I don't tend to enjoy very..violence focused video games."

"Me either. I was a Civilization guy. I got used to it. But you don't have to even if that's where your powers point."

"I have ever played Civilization but I mostly play smaller scale management games. Like Rimworld. Which can get very violent at times - there's a running joke in the community about it being a 'warcrimes simulator'  but you can play it completely non-violently if you want. I do leave enemy raids on but mostly don't get into the more .uh...creative stuff you can do to fictional people in that game. I'm just there for the management aspects."

"Yeah. Well, dungeons are usually not as much like video games as the one Seaweed came from, but you're not getting drafted, you can do whatever seems to you to make sense when you know what your powers are. It's hard to guess - I'm not better than chance but I don't even have a general idea based on your backlash - but we'll know soon."

"It's probably going to feel like forever, on my end. It's already been such a long day. Of course I was also up early and didn't take my usual nap."

"Are you going to want to sleep alone?"

"Well I can nap on you on the couch if I wouldn't be in your way but I would not usually share a bed with a guy I just met."

"You seem probably safe to sleep alone, or at least give it a shot, but I'm at all worried that the nature of your backlash would prevent you from making it known to me if this turned out to be a terrible plan, like if you have horrible backlash nightmares."

"...Yeah that might be a problem. It would get really bad again if we stop snuggling right?" She read that in a fanfiction.

"Not instantly, but awakening pulls pretty hard, yeah."

"I don't usually have very intense dreams but I guess I don't know if I should expect that to hold true. I would feel awkward about this even without the backlash and it just makes it worse."

"I usually don't have vivid dreams but I got awful backlash nightmares when I was awakening. If it helps there is no way for you to be higher-maintenance than I was."

"Well, I did bring a baggy t-shirt to wear to sleep so it wouldn't be...maximally awkward."

"Sure. I'm not going to be weird about it."

"You've been very not weird about things so far. Thank you. Which reminds me I should maybe record that message for my mom?"

"Sure, say when." He pulls up the appropriate app.

"When." pause "Hi mom don't think I can talk to you directly right now but I did want to let you know that I'm doing - probably as okay as could be expected right now - and Traceless has been very accommodating and not creepy or anything, so uh, tell dad not tot to be...dramatic. I'll call you as soon as I can, I promise, but it might not be until this is over. Uh, apologize to Erica on my behalf for not answering her text and I'll call or text her also when I can. Take care."

And beep. "Okay to send this to her now?"

"Yeah, that way she'll definitely see if before she goes off work. And before Dad comes home."

Send. "Are there specific dramatics I should be on the lookout for?"

"He's a bit overprotective. Not so much now that I'm in college but...the first time I was on a date with a guy in high school he texted eight times in two hours."

"Wow. If he shows up with a shotgun don't hide behind me, it won't work."

"He wouldn't go that far, it's just that I'm the youngest child and the only girl."

"Yeah I kind of knew I shouldn't say that but I didn't think of anything else in time. Backlash."

"It sucks."

"Yeah. You never have to let it get up to awakening level again."

Snuggle

"Oh...I usually don't eat meat, except fish...I couldn't say so earlier because it's a..personal preference issue and not an...immediate health issue. .If you were already planning to have meat for dinner I'll eat it. I don't always stick to it at other people's houses."

sigh "And that is one reason why this sucks.Which..is kind of a petty complaint...but."

"...we were already planning on meat for dinner but we did not plan on having a third person for dinner, you can have ramen or something."

"Ramen works for tonight."

"Ren was a vegetarian for three months once, we still have the recipes."

"Well, I'm not too picky so I imagine you'll have things I like."

"Cuisine around here is a mix of low effort declassé stuff like instant ramen and KD, and takeout, and the occasional ghost of Julia Child possessing Ren and this working out either well or poorly."

Long pause while she visibly fights a giggle at the last phrase

"Well my college fund stipend is hardly generous enough for high-brow  cuisine, even if I was particularly inclined. The fanciest kitchen appliance I own is probably the rice cooker."

"We have a rice cooker but it usually lives in a cupboard, we don't go through that much rice - though we got a lot of Chinese delivery while Ren was mastering its use."

"It's easy to get in bulk and with a rice cooker it doesn't require attention while cooking, so I can do homework while it cooks."

"It does have that advantage. Anyway, the dinner plan tonight was pork chops and storebought mashed potatoes, you can have extra mashed potatoes and if you are feeling underproteined some cheese on them or a spoonful of peanut butter or something."

"Mashed potatoes with cheese and instant ramen is a reasonable dinner on short notice."

"Oh good. Ren might bring a dessert too, she likes to spontaneously buy cupcakes or whatever and doesn't like planning explicitly on doing this in advance so I don't know."

"Did you already let her know what's going on?"

"Sent her a text while you packed, yeah. I don't know if she's seen it yet, she doesn't check her messages at work much."

"I hope she won't be offended if I don't talk too much."

"No, she'll get it. She was around for my awakening and she knows basics like 'opposite backlashes are compatible'."

"Okay. I...don't like coming off as rude."

"You're not rude, you're having a medical crisis."

"Well some people get rushed to the hospital screaming...and would probably prefer this..."

"Yeah. I rode it out at home but a lot of awakeners need the hospital if only to keep them unconscious."

"Well I would have..had a very bad time...with a....succession of people asking questions. Even for medical reasons."

"Yeah, I bet."

"If you hadn't found me I probably would have just hid in my suite which...well this is safer..."

"It's not completely unheard of to get through awakening alone, just, it's more dangerous than cave diving."

"Probably my parents or somebody would have called in a wellness check when I dropped off the radar...I usually at least text them every day..."

"Probably, yeah. But instead I found you."

"Which is much better than baseline."

"Yeah, it's really hard to get people to come poke suspected awakenings at hospitals so you might not have even known you were going to be an esper till the end."

"Well it's statistically really unlikely so I might not have considered the possibility at any point."

"If you're going to get a dramatic eye color change that might be pretty noticeable before the week's out but even when there's a change it's not always stark, I didn't notice mine for like a month."

Well now she's having complicated feelings again. "Oh, really?"

"Yeah, my eyes are kind of navy blue now but I don't look into the mirror all that much and they were black to begin with so it wasn't super obvious. My hair iridesces in the sun now too, that took longer to notice since it needed a while to grow out. - it's really consistent that if you get a color change you'll like it, you don't need to worry about that."

"Well that's good." looong pause (somewhat forced humour)  "Then my biggest worry is replacing all my photo ids I guess. Maybe I'll actually come out looking good in the photos. And get arrested because that's illegal."

"The government knows that people awaken sometimes, it's at all a hassle but if you get an agent they can deal with that kind of thing."

"Hmm..are you going to be good for me to nap for a while soon?"

"Let me get a book and then absolutely."

Oh they're going to have to unsnuggle for this aren't they. Can they still hold hands or something?

"...if you want I can carry you to where my books are and then back down."

"All right, thank you."

Scoop! Les Mis! And back downstairs.

And then they can encouch and she can attempt to maneuver into a good sleeping position.

Snuggle snuggle.

She will fall asleep within a short time, she really was pretty tired. She'll make some small distressed noises in her sleep  but won't wake up on her own for a little more than an hour and half.

Haru hovers just a little bit and checks his texts and emails and comments, when she makes sad noises.

He gets a text from Katherine's mother not too long after she falls asleep

Thank you for the video recording. I've texted Erica so you can let her know that's taken care of for now.. I still want to talk to you but she can just take the phone long enough to say hello if that's easier for her. I'll call around six.

Understood

She will wake with a bit of a start and blink confusedly for a few seconds

"Oh. Hi. What time is it?"

"Almost three thirty. Your mom's going to want to talk to me and hear, like, 'hi', from you, around dinnertime."

"I can probably say 'hi' into the phone if that's all."

"That's what she suggested."

"Okay. Is that all she said?"

"Do you want to read the text?"

"Does it have any...'mushy stuff' sounds middle-schoolish but..."

"I don't think so but I don't have a hypersensitive mush meter."

"I'll risk it, I'm not as bad off now...as before."

He turns the phone to her.

Slightly strained face "I'm glad she took care of that for me..it..was not urgent..but it was important enough to at least deserve an apology for the..lack of response."

Nod.

She can dig out her phone and...avoid the messaging app and social media.. "Can I find your blog by searching for your codename?"

"Sure. The blog itself is called Eventualities, that should make it pop up higher in the results."

"Thanks." Websearch, search for 'Egypt' on blog since she wanted to read that.

Why did Egypt come out so well in the onset of dungeons, when other poor and population-concentrated countries did so much worse? Well, they were really lucky.

That's not to say it was all luck. There were heroes. But Egypt got more than its share of those, and was extremely fortunate that their sense of propriety did not cripple their ability to take advantage of the discovery of guiding, and came out extremely well in the power lottery... and they poached. Egypt was by global standards poor, but had the advantage of sharing Arabic with several poorer places...

"I bet the tourism money was really helpful for Egypt in particular though I'm sure it dropped off a lot for a while."

"The pyramids are still there."

"Fortunately. Did you know they built a new archeological museum? Took them a long time to build but it opened in 2025. It's now the largest archeological museum in the world."

"I didn't know that! Did they get stuff repatriated for it?"

"Some stuff, but there's still some major artifacts that various museums don't want to return. Especially the Rosetta stone. The British Museum is really bad about refusing to give things back. It's not actually true that most of their artifacts were originally taken from other places but a lot of the more famous ones were."

"I think I'm abstractly in favor of some amount of cross-exhibition so that there's some Egyptian artifacts everywhere and some Greek ones everywhere and so on and so forth, but it's harder to justify for the big names."

"You can use replicas to replace most of the original artifacts that the countries of origins want back. Not the mummies of course but most things. Not as much of a status symbol as having the original but a good replica is just as educational."

"I guess I don't know much about the state of the art in artifact replicas."

"Well it's not something I've studied in detail of course but lots of museums display replicas and reproductions already. Also if you're using replicas you can be more permissive about letting visitors handle them since they aren't irreplaceable."

pause

"Sorry, I got a little nerdsniped, shall I let you go back to your book?"

"I'm not backlashed so I don't need to talk, but I don't mind it."

"Well I'm mostly out of things to say for the moment so."

she thumbs her way back the blog index, what all is here (that's not obviously just personal life updates or something)?

Major blog categories include dungeon photos, Cricket photos, esper stuff, dungeon stuff, monster stuff, interviews, book reviews, and linkposts.

Hmm, dungeon photos first? She's no expert in photography but she knows what annoys her photographer friends and friendly acquaintances so she can make a guess whether they would find the photos interesting or just annoying.

The earlier posts are pretty amateur but he's taken photography lessons in there and upgraded his phone camera and gotten practice.

Yeah she'll make a note to link them. Some of them are very dramatic.

"You take a lot of photos, I guess if you're being invisible it's much less risky to stop and take them."

"Yup. I can get the world's most candid shots of monsters."

"Do you do photography in other contexts or just in dungeons?"

"I take all the pictures of Cricket and he's not in a dungeon when I do that - he runs dungeons, but not the same ones as me - but I don't usually run around taking pictures of wildlife or sunsets or anything. I could walk right up to a bird same as a monster but it'd be unnecessary power use and my guiding rate with my partner is pretty bad."

"And you...haven't found a better option?"

"I have a secondary in Vancouver. The compatibility with him is worse. Me and June are compatible at range, but her backlash is - like yours but more impairing, I think? I don't know the details. I have never had a conversation with her. She hides under a blanket and sticks out her feet. Neither of us can fall asleep the entire time either."

"Well..hiding under a blanket...would be easier in some respects, but this is much more practical. Also, I should look into fancy glasses that make it harder to see your eyes without impairing vision too much. To make my expression harder to read."

"Sure. That'd be three for three on people compatible with me who go around in obscuring lenses. June does surgical masks too."

"I could do that too, or...a bandana or scarf." That way it would be more plausibly just a fashion statement.

"I'm not sure I have one, but Ren might."

"Then I can try it out and see how much it helps."

"Do you wanna go up and rummage in her closet now? She'll be chill about it."

"Well, if you're sure she won't mind..."

"I'm sure." Scoop. Up to Ren's room.

Ren has some pretty scarves!

She will pick a medium-ish blue one and tie it so it mostly covers her mouth. It does make her feel a little more secure.

"I think this will help some."

"Oh good." And back down the stairs.

Hmm...Phone, more blog posts (general dungeon stuff this time?)

Fill out your dungeon surveys. Bad Old Days Dungeons part 3: Volcanic Range. Being Nice To Customer Service People Dungeon Victim Style. Pop Culture Dungeons: Patterns, Suspicions, and Wild Speculations. Dr. Unierzynski Spent Hundreds Of Hours Compiling This Dungeon Appearance Map Widget And As Far As She Or I Can Tell It Is Completely Uninformative.

Well the pop culture dungeons one seems vaguely apropos at the moment.

It's got a slideshow of photos (most of them not by Traceless in particular) of dungeons themed (more or less loosely) around Dr. Seuss, Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Little Prince, Alice in Wonderland, Charlotte's Web, Watership Down, various Biblical scenarios, Pinocchio, Anne Frank's attic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the Wizard of Oz, Terminator, arguably-Jurassic-Park-though-it-might-just-be-pop-culture-dinosaurs-generically, Tetris, Mario Kart, Pokémon, Grand Theft Auto, Minecraft, Legos, DDR, Super Smash Bros, Oregon Trail, the Simpsons, three different individual Black Mirror episodes, Space Invaders, the concept of the yellow smiley face, Westworld, and a few dozen more. There's more listed that nobody took pictures of.

Dungeons actually do this a lot, but they have no particular inclination to do it in locations where people will recognize the properties they're plagiarizing; for example, the Very Hungry Caterpillar dungeon appeared in Dhaka and was identified only after the fact (it's dead) via the photos and the fact that it featured caterpillar monsters burrowing through victims' bodies. They're usually not perfect representations of the contents of whatever they're mimicking - there are Dr. Seuss dungeon monsters that people call loraxes and sneetches, but if you compare to the drawings in the books, they're not identical even accounting for the fact that the one's a three-dimensional monster and the other's a two-dimensional sketch. It's likely that a lot of dungeons are blurring the line, the way the "Jurassic Park" dungeon does - sure, Jurassic Park looked like that, but that's also just what everyone would expect a dinosaur zoo to be like, surely? It doesn't have conspicuous amber and mosquitoes, it doesn't have velociraptors out of proportion to the triceratopses - and thus going unnoticed. Furthermore, non-speculative-fiction properties would not have such obviously discernible features; dungeons don't normally have incidental music or human-looking monsters, so if a dungeon were aping the movie Titanic and not just the actual ship Titanic, there's no good way to notice.

Even if you factor these out entirely dungeons are clearly responding to the human psyche in some way - dungeons with monsters that look like pandas, dolphins, or dodos are more common than ones with monsters that look like less popular but equally common animals; most dungeons are "indoor" settings, often in artificial looking environments with plaster/worked metal/carved wood/bricks/etc., but the pop culture ones make it really, really obvious. There's a ton of links at the end to various people speculating about what this means; Traceless himself is frustrated and unsure but thinks these three essays seem especially lucid.

"Okay, I see what you meant about weirdly specific dungeons! That is so many. Oh, the Dr. Seuss dungeon is still around isn't it? I think I heard something about that one."

"Yeah, it's been around the block, nobody's found the core yet. It scares people pretty badly but seldom actually injures them, but it's - inventive - so you never know. If there were a proper monster zoo and we found the core I'd really like a whole habitat of the monsters from it, they're so aesthetically coherent and there's plants to match, but if wishes were horses..."

"I bet it would be a very popular exhibit. But you can't keep monsters long-term while the dungeon is still alive."

"You absolutely cannot, yeah."

"Well, maybe someday they'll find the core, in whatever wacky geometric and architectural bullshit the place is doing. And I hope you get your exhibit when they do. It really would be something."

"I have occasionally had the thought that I should found the monster zoo I wish to see in the world."

She's startled by that though it's (thankfully) less obvious with the scarf.

"That would also be something. It'd be a huge investment though, probably even in esper money? I bet it'd pay for itself eventually but that doesn't help you get the money in the first place."

"Yeah, I'd need outside funding, or to save up for kind of a while, especially at my present dungeon rate, though I do think it could pay for itself eventually most likely. Cricket goes to a vet but there's never actually anything wrong, I think monsters are probably mostly lower maintenance than animals of similar sizes."

She wonders if he...actually she probably should save thinking about that for later. Also she should really go to the bathroom actually. This is going to suck probably. "I should go to the bathroom." She secures her phone so it won't end up dropped.

Thumbs up.

She will..extract herself...yep that sucks actually. And go looking for the bathroom. Probably there is one somewhere near the living room.

Yup, right over there, not hard to find.

Then she will do her business, wash her hands and go back to the couch, plonk herself and lean in.

Snug.

Small sigh. That's muuuch better.

And eventually dinnertime rolls around. Ren blows in with groceries and waves at Katherine but doesn't try to engage her in conversation and instead warms up mashed potatoes (storebought) and puts a couple servings of meat in a frying pan.

Ren can have a wave back.

And while the pork chops are warming up Haru's phone beeps.

Work phone number? Work phone number. "Traceless."

"Hello this is Paige Sullivan speaking, can I just get Kathy to say hi first off, and then I have a few questions for you. Is now a good time?"

"We're going to sit down to dinner in a few but there's time for a few questions, of course. Katherine, can you say hi?"

"Sure." She takes the phone long enough to say 'Hi mom." and then hands it back.

"..My poor baby girl.She seems so stressed out. On the video too. She's usually much more emotive."

"Awakening's really bad. They call it hell week for a reason."

 "So I have heard. You said you are compatible with her? Now i realise she is now a legal adult however..."

"I spent my own awakening in constant physical contact with my parents, which didn't guide me at all, just because I was too lonely to stand it if they left me. I see myself as occupying approximately that role here."

"Even in bed?"

"My parents, or Katherine? I think she might be safe to try sleeping alone but I don't think she'll be able to tell me if that changes, is the thing."

"....because of the backlash?"

"Right."

"Did she tell you that she's a pescetarian? She's usually pretty forthcoming about it but it sounds like she might be less forthcoming about things than usual, so..."

"It came up eventually, yeah, but thanks for checking."

"Excellent. I'll want to check in again tomorrow, around the same time? My husband may send you a message at some point as well."

"Sure, that's fine."

"Until then."

She ends the call.

She has her face buried in the couch back by now.

(muffled) ."..did she ask you about..."

"Do you really want a blow-by-blow of that conversation?"

"....how about no actually."

"I thought so."

She unburies her face after a moment. "So dinner?"

"Dinner!"

Potatoes and ramen for her.

She will have to remove the scarf.

"...Are you going to put your shirt on for dinner?"

"Do you want me to?"

"Um...well ,..Your mom..."

"She'll be fine."

"Well, all right then."

They can maneuver to the table then? And scoot the chairs close enough to have some skin contact?  Conveniently ramen and mashed potatoes are relatively easy to eat one-handed. 

If she's right-handed Haru will eat left-handed.

She is.

Omnom ramen and potatoes. Avoiding too much eye contact with Ren.

Ren doesn't make that difficult at all. She trades lighthearted barbs with Cricket, who is having salmon for dinner, and then checks the time and leaves the house again.

Then dinner can be consumed without incident.

And the espers can settle onto the couch for the evening until such time as it is bedtime.

She'll want to swing by the sink for a glass of water but then yes they can settle on the couch. And she can drink her water before pulling out her phone again because drinking a glass of water while snuggling and messing with your phone is a dumb way to ruin the phone.(she'll reapply the scarf after finishing the glass of water also)

She will trawl through the blog some more, why not, for hmmm stuff aimed at new espers? How to not fuck up in a dungeon?

There's a link roundup for that! And a post titled A Two Month Dungeon Prep Course In 6,000 Words (But You Don't Have An Eidetic Memory (Probably)).

What's in the link roundup? (6000 words in one post is a lot on a phone screen especially when it's getting late, maybe tomorrow)

...
Inside Dungeon SWAT Prep
Intro to Dungeoneer Hand Signs
How Briefings Go Down Around The World
Rookie Mistakes
J. Graham's Equipment Checklists
Urgency Levels Rubric
...

Hmm 'Rookie Mistakes'?

Not keeping track of your backlash levels! Inappropriate comms protocol, including under- and over-reporting. Being too much of a hero to bail and get backup. Lack of situational awareness. Making overbroad assumptions about monsters or dungeons based on general rules of thumb (maybe these don't die when you shoot them, or this one will not be experiencing the same weather all the time, or, or, or.) Triage errors. Trying for synergy with fellow espers' powers that you haven't tested and that relies on assumptions, not information, about how those powers work. Experimenting with your own powers unnecessarily in a live fire environment. Doing dungeons without a partner lined up.

Well the last one makes her blush a bit though it's not super visible with the scarf (hopefully). It's waaaaay too early to be thinking about that probably, but she does think this guy seems pretty cool and like he knows what he's doing. Which is what you want in a coworker in any job. Also he's hot That is irrelevant and not even a distinguishing characteristic among espers. Also, she should maybe find a partner that she is...going to be better at maintaining a purely professional relationship with. Considering the circumstances.

It does sound like he'd be open to a new partner .

"Bedtime?" Haru asks eventually, at about nine-thirty.

"Yeah." She's pretty tired even with the nap."Uh, I can't carry my bag one handed so..."

"I got it. You can ride piggyback up the stairs, how about?"

"That works for me if it works for you."

"I'm very strong and you will be too." Hup. Up they go to the guest room.

"That will be an interesting change.I was always mediocre at best at basically anything in gym class."

"I had special permission to sit out and do yoga because I would fall over and break something if I tried to run or anything."

"Wow. There was a girl in one of my gym classes who had to sit out most of it because she had horrible asthma and might end up in the hospital if she did anything very strenuous. One time the teacher was out for two weeks and the substitute tried to make her run anyway and like six of us walked out with her and complained to the principal. I don't know if the substitute was permanently fired or anything but we had a different substitute after that who was nice about it."

"Yeah, I occasionally had issues with substitutes but Ren's a teacher - albeit a kindergarten teacher - so I could get backup who speaks the same language."

"That's good, that you had your mom to back you up." She attempts to go digging in her bag for toiletries and her sleep shirt, which is a nontrivial task while simultaneously trying to maintain skin contact with somebody.

"You want the bathroom first or shall I?"

"You can go first. Mind if I plug in my phone charger in this room?"

"Be my guest. It's the guest room." And he slips out.

She will set up the phone on the charger while he's out.and then sit on the edge of the bed with her bathroom supplies being so so normal about this.

He comes back in pajama pants and still no shirt.

Well then she will take her stuff, brush her teeth, wash the makeup off her face (she didn't bother to bring any fresh makeup since she only bothers with that when she's working or going out for a social event) remove her bra, and change into her baggy t-shirt (it easily covers her hips and several inches of her thighs). There's more real estate on her arms available for skin contact now.She considers for a moment and also removes her socks. She stuffs her bra inside her shirt and comes back out with her armload of clothes looking noticeably more tense then when she went in though she did replace her scarf when she was done with her face so it's at least less obvious than it would otherwise be (fortunately)

Haru has gotten into bed and is lying there with his phone and the blanket half on him.

She...dithers for a moment than forces herself to sit on the bed next to him. MEDICALLY NECESSARY SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS. (aaaaa...)

Totally not being weird about it snuggle and blanket-putting. He puts his phone aside and shuts his eyes.