"Sure," he snorts, "Not sure what to call it officially, anyway. You've got the better dungeon power, either way. Mine leaves me useless in a fight after a few applications."

Yesssss, that's reciprocity, you elevate someone above you and if they return the favor they like you, perfect.

"It's fun when we team up though. I make things brittle, Zei makes it super light and then Ly smashes it and makes it go flying and shatter into a billion little pieces."

"Yeah, and then your brother has to carry both of us home," he snarks. 

Tim's relaxed now.  A little smile plays about his lips, and his abdominal muscles have finally relaxed from their tense and stressed state.  Lyra has been nothing but friendly, and grouchy-seeming Zei has shown that he's willing to be friends business partners.  They're bantering with each other and by extension him, he can work with this.

"Well, perhaps you'd like a little taste of what my power can do for you?  It does include extra strength, which would help your poor brother get you home, but it does a little bit of passive regeneration.  It won't regrow anything, I think, but my wrist is feeling a lot better since you guided me.  Er, because I used my power, not just the guiding.  You could probably feel the backlash ticking up."

"What level buff are you? I'm Buff 2, even though it should be classified as DEbuff. The system is stupid."

Do not do the 'um' thing.  "Three.  Wait, that doesn't count as Control?"

She looks at Zei! She doen't pay attention to nerd stuff.

"Nah, she isn't controlling anything. She "buffs" the brittleness of things." 

"Oh, I" DIFFERENT SOCIAL NOISE "- get it.  It is weird that they call it that, but I'm sure they took the time to hammer it out that way for a reason.  I guess."  Why would...No, don't worry about it.  You can look it up later.

"Figure having a buff and a debuff category seemed redundant to whoever designed it." 

He shrugs.

"You wanna trade info and get back out there? You're welcome to hang out, but you seem like you're actually looking for partners here, and you live too far away to make Lyra your primary." 

"If you bring me more cheese you can sit and hold my hand for a while too. Before or after the mingling."

"Oh.  Right.  Yessir." Nobody's going to come to an esper meetup injured and you shouldn't be empowering a pregnant woman anyway what if it YOU WERE QUIET TOO LONG.  "I got these made up, here - " He smoothly pulls out a business card from his breast pocket.  It includes Tim's email, and the contact information for the agency of William Moore, Paige A. Lotte, and Hugh J. Lowed.  "Bill's my agent.  Well, William on the card, but he likes Bill better."  Nothing sounds better to a person than the sound of their own name, so make sure you get it right. 

Wait, there's two of them.  Second business card!  Produced a hair less smoothly, like he hadn't practiced picking out a business card with one already in hand.  Can't assume they live together, there's no ring and they have secondary partners ANYWAY it's fine.  Put that on the list.  VERY careful finger and thumbtip grip to offer one to Zei, a more hinged and normal handoff for Lyra.

Don't um "Yes, please.  I'd be happy to um - " argh you are not thirteen "hold your hand after I've mingled a bit?  I might rack up a little backlash, if that's alright with you."  I can't think of why it wouldn't be alright but maybe she has to keep her guiding down because of pregnancy?  Wait, that doesn't make sense.  Does it?  I can look it up later, it's fine.

Zei takes the card just as carefully. 

"Might take you up on that power offer at some point, assuming it's not touch-based." 

"Nossir, it's ranged.  Just gets expensive the further out you go, after a certain point it gets too expensive."  It's a shame about the incompatibility, he's - business partner.  You do NOT need another Sinkhole.  "Since you have access to a teleporter, if you ever get hurt, you're welcome to call me for, er, help.  I'm only EMT certified" and I busted my ass for it "but I get to cheat a little bit."  Maman was right about those stupid diction lessons but I'm not going to admit it until I'm at least thirty.

He nods, "We've got a healer contact, but she's pretty far afield, would be nice to have something closer by. You let us know if you need backup or guiding, yeah? We'll set something up through our agents, but if something comes up before then."  

Yesssss he IS nice wait say something don't just "yessir" to everything.  Be respectful without a doormat.  "I will!  I appreciate it, since -" Sinkhole "- well, I don't have a partner right now.  A good one, I mean.  I have, you know, some people, enough guiding to be functional as long as I'm careful.  But it's hard to get a good feel for my powers if you don't have reliable guiding, and I have to teach the people I'm, er, buffing how not to break something accidentally."  Like that one time with the trigger, or the Mosquito Incident.

"It could be fun to see how you and Ly work together. He loves breaking things."

Okay, great!  She wants to meet again as well.  Mission accomplished!  Contact made, partner achieved!  “I’m sure we’ll have the opportunity, ma’am.  It’s a lot of fun the first time, but be sure everyone brings a change of clothes.  The strength takes some getting used to.”

Wait.  Oh no.

She laughs! "Ly is going to love you."

Zei lets out a short laugh before he can stop himself, only just restraining himself from gently kicking the guy. Not going to test if the incompatibility is senseable through clothes, thanks. 

"Ly is going to be impossible," he tells her as an aside, before turning his attention back to Tim. "Logistics might get a bit complicated with the two of us in the mix, though," he says, smirking wide enough to show a little teeth. 

You can't control your blush reaction, but you can control your reaction to your blush reaction.  "Um.  Right.  I-I look forward to it.  Um."  Whoever invented 'um' should be shot into the sun.  "In the meanwhile though, I should mingle.  Like you said.  See if anybody more local is available."  Wait.  "For partnership."

He nods, "We'll be around," he glances at Lyra, "Probably both in here, unless I'm out getting more cheese." 

"Salami."