Oh.

She flushes, "I guess that's what I get for assuming no one speaks French," she laughs, sheepish, "But, you too? I thought you were asleep?" 

"Maman sent me up to summer camp in Quebec every summer, I had little choice.  I was asleep, but I didn't quite understand my power at the time, and caused some property damage.  Thankfully, the only lasting harm was to my pride and a few pieces of furniture."

"I bit one of the EMTs," she admits, "They needed stitches. And I scratched up the custodian who found me. I was restrained at the hospital, I think no one there got worse than bruises." 

Besides her, but she doesn't really count. 

"I live in Québec City," she adds, "Wendy told me she lives in the suburbs here in Chicago. You?" 

"Montpelier, in Vermont.  Just a little ways south of you.  What a shame that our paths did not cross until now."  Then again, you hadn't exactly needed to look...

"I have a temporary partner at home, but he's moving away soon, and we're not very compatible, either. You and I are moreso, nevermind Wendy." 

-she sets the mostly-spherical bead on the table, reaching into her bag for another card.

"My agent," she says, setting it down between them, "I'll write my number for you on the back, later."

Tim starts to reach for Sara's card, out of habit, then processes her words.  "Would you like me to write it for you, given your current, ah, predicament?"  I really should practice more.  I'll set my phone to French later, can't escape it then. Reciprocate!  "My card as well, it has my email but I will certainly text you as soon as I can.  I wanted to put my phone number on it at first, but then Bill scolded me  for lacking an ounce of common sense."

"That would kind of defeat the purpose of an agent, yes," she ducks her head to hide her smile this time, a decent replacement for her hands. 

"And yes, thank you," she will slide him her pen, and recite a number starting with 1-418, since they're in America. 

Tim will faithfully transcribe the phone number, then immediately whip out his phone and text Sara.  'hi, this is Tim, from the meetup'.  Don't use a last name, what if the number is wrong or she gave you a dummy number just to be polite.  Bzzt bzzt.  Then Tim will abruptly realize that he could have just entered the number in his phone without writing it on the card Tim.  please. "Perhaps I still lack that ounce."

"Oh," she laughs, "But if you do, so do I," she points out as she pulls her buzzing phone from her purse. 

Yep, there's the text. She saves his number under 'Tim du Vermont', then shows him it in case something has mysteriously gone wrong. 

(Her phone case is covered in cartoon dogs. There's a dangling dog-shaped keychain attached to it, if one accepts dogs can be shaped like spheres.)

"Perhaps together, we'll amount to a teaspoon.  Tablespoon on a good day."  Oh, those are cute.  "I like the, er, the pictures."  How do you say 'sticker' in French.  I'm going to do it right now.  "My French is bit rusty, I'm afraid."  Tim will go into Menu -> Settings -> Language -> French.

"Autocollants," she tells him, "That's okay, even rusty is better than nothing. I'm not bad at English but it's kind of limiting." 

"Autocollants," Tim repeats.  "That's how I got my name, actually, they ran out of English names for me.  So I had to branch out to Spanish, and even then it took five more tries."

"I'm Menhir," which he can see on the card, "It was Evelyn's - my agent - suggestion. I couldn't think of anything that fit and wasn't silly. Or taken." 

"What is a menhir?  I do not think I know that word, in French at least."

"A standing stone. One of my minor powers is some durability. Or, endurance. If I can lift something I can hold it for as long as my backlash allows." 

"As does mine, although not perhaps in the same way.  Perhaps someday soon I will be able to show you."  Is that too forward.  No, that's what partnerships are for.

"I'd like that. Maybe we could meet, the two of us or all three of us? At least once before the Confluence, I hope, so we can work things out properly between ourselves and our agents. You have an agent, yes?" 

"Bill Moore, with - " confluence??? " - er.  Confluence?  There's one oncoming?  I have found myself preoccupied."  Tim freezes.  He's very proud of his lack of flinch reaction.  If you freeze instead of twitching, you can't accidentally break someone something.  It turns out that training yourself out of flinching can be done if you feel really guilty about breaking controllers and play a lot of jumpscare games.  Sinkhole was right about that, at least.  Or at least not wrong.

"Yes? The esper community has known for over a month, but I guess if you manifested recently you might not have seen the patterns..."

She frowns.

"It should start within the next few weeks, according to estimates." 

"I see.  In that case, I would most certainly be willing to meet and test our powers.  I believe our Sleeping Beauty to be more reluctant, I think she awakened a few days ago."  Did you really just say that, Tim.  She is an esper but she is also a potential BUSINESS PARTNER.

"Yes, and- I think she is younger. Not that it means she is less willing, just, perhaps, less experienced? It is reasonable to want time to decide. I am nineteen," she adds, "I awoke in April two years ago. I have done some dungeons, but my primary power is stonesense, my geokinesis is not very strong, and my durability is minor, so I did not do mainly dungeons for long." 

"I can see where that would make you less - applicable?  Certain dungeons you would excel on. Not every dungeon is a cavern, though."  She mentioned her age, reciprocate.  "I am eighteen."  You sound like a golem.  Technically fulfilled the mission.  Wait, you're supposed to do the compliment sandwich but you put the compliment in the middle.  You idiot.

"Mhm. The majority of my work is surveying for mining companies, but I am still on-call for dungeons where my power would be particularly useful. But, most of the time I am studying." 

Thoughtful hum.  Maybe a bit of leaning.  Guiding is nice.  "That makes sense.  I plan to be a dungeoneer, but - did I ever explain my power?  I don't think I did to you, all of the conversations are starting to blend together."  Wait, doesn't that imply she's forgettable?  AUGH.

(Wendy stirs slightly.)