Sames, sames~

And up Timothy stands.  He is incredibly normal, and he is going to wander off to a makeout BREAKOUT room.  With two girls on his arms.  Literally on his arms.  As one does, when one is a normal human being.  At least I'm getting my blush under control, why did we even evolve such a stupid reflex?  It's worse than the startle reflex, at least jumping like THAT makes sense, sort of..  "Mind your heads, ladies, the doorframes are a bit low for your new height."

Sara will duck! Her hair gets all in Tim's face about this.

"Oh- désolée-" 

(A number of people turn to watch them pass on the way to the breakout rooms. A pair over by the unusued piano wolf-whistle in tandem, to the amusement of much of the surrounding crowd.)

Tim doesn't even blink.  Fun fact, enhanced durability protects the naked MK1 human eyeball from hair!  Tim has experienced this before, with his previous partner.  It's possible that she did it deliberately.  Who can say?  "I'm used to it, it's quite alright."  Wait.  Why are you even remotely bringing up a previous partner.  "Er.  Your hair.  I mean.  Not the, er, commentary."  

Wendy ducks too far over in the other direction and does a look at the cat-callers and- whoops, that was way too far a lean - her backlash ticks up noticeably to Tim as she suddenly jerks back upright-

Sara takes her hand to steady her - and also incidentally begins helping with some of that backlash - while pushing her hair out of everyones' faces. 

"Don't they have anything better to do," she grumbles, rolling her eyes. 

Tim has practiced carrying people before, it's one of the easiest things to do and it's not even dangerous if you can reinforce your partner.  Tim has a reflex: Drop the person slightly, so they're not on his arm anymore, then squish the person against his side, vice-style.  Wendy Kenson is now carefully squished.  Tim doesn't even think twice about it, he practiced carrying his partner while doing medical work* for a full twelve man-hours, because what else are you going to do?  His power is purely passive, there's no skill to using it.  "Easy there, ma'am, I've got you.  You won't fall, and if you do fall I'll protect you, you won't even break a nail."  Okay good that you can follow the script but you don't need to treat her like a scared civilian.

*if you can call 'stay within thirty feet of ten people 'work' anyway.  It's really not exciting to Tim.

! That squish maneuver is NICE in ways that are, only sort of related to the guiding,,,, She mutters something approving about it.

Sara is not usually very giggly but this continues to be a silly situation. Thus: giggles. 

"You look very cozy, Wendy." 

"Yeah... Uh, cuddlesome stuff is nice. And the squishing is good for my backlash." And a cute strong boy is HOLDING her.

"Happy to be of service.  Here we are, the Tim Train is arriving at its destination."  Tim kicks the door shut behind him and turns the lock with his knee.  "And time to disembark, ladies!"  Spurred on by a rare moment of self-confidence, he playfully pretends to dump both girls on the unusually large sofa.  "You said you wanted to be squished, right?"  Tim flops onto the sofa, dangling his legs across Wendy's lap.  "Feel free to grab an ankle.  My backlash isn't that bad, but even a little bit makes me wish I could have a coffee."

"Eep!" She catches herself with a laugh, and then cuddles up against Wendy's side. "We can both squish you," she says, wrapping an arm over her shoulders. 

"Yay! Just - um - let me get my phone and an arm free so I can browse for an agent..."

There.

"This is nice..."

"Oh!" 

Sara will dig out her lawyer's number, and pass that on. 

That done, they can spend the rest of the evening chatting, guiding, and whatever else they feel like getting up to, as far as Sara is concerned. Goal achieved! 

Tim has officially been sidelined for the duration of the meetup.  Pleasantly so.  While guiding and/or squishing his two(!!!) new potential business partners, he performs his maintenance routine: After Action Reports.

ACTION ITEMS

1: Tinfoil bites???  Unpleasant, reserve regen time.
2: Pregnancy actress, Lyra, look up shows, IMDB.  Brittles things, good match.  Ring?  Married?  Convo landmines, avoid.
3: Counterweight, Zay, Say?? spelling??  Backlash???  civvy esper, on contract.  Looks annoyed, all bark(so far??)
4: Partner: Jay, teleport?  Rhyming scheme, why, find out backlash, civvy esper, some combat
5: Partner/Brother/??? Ly - name scheme, why???  Pendragon, British?  Look up later, backlash?
6: Reconsider firm handshake vs. risk of 'tinfoiling', don't freak out next time
7: Wendy - make sure good agent, talk to Bill.  Give her an hour of his time to go over hiring process.  Do NOT pressure her or I will quit, Bill.  Brainstorm good codename.  Outsource that?
8: Sara - set up partnership, charter plane.  Cost:Benefit check for plane on standby?
9: Confluence coming.  Work on power training.  Get in healing as much as possible, won't be around long.
10: Discuss boundaries w/both.
11: Confluence coming, professional partners for non-dungeon downtime.  As many as I can.  If it's a confluence, money literally doesn't matter.  Speedo/sauna time.
12: Call Sinkhole A/N: This item was deleted after consideration.

NOTES FOR FUTURE

1: Lyra - Winnipeg contract, good match - teleporter, nice.  Jay friend/partner, OK compat.
2: BETTER SOCIAL NOISES.  should be ACTION but meh
3: Less 'um'.  lmao.  lol.  NGMI.
4: Practice card retrieval. when card in hand.  Not as necessary, new partner(I hope???)
5: Copper strand, reconsider for future.  Cool idea, not a hit yet.  UPDATE: Huge hit!  Possibly bring more, 1/person not viable.  Cool souvenir if not shared.
6: SITUATIONAL AWARENESS, DO NOT BULLSEYE ON PARTNER.  Acknowledge others!!  Don't cut!
7: Squish Wendy.
8: Practice takedowns, immobilizes.  Don't rely on pain compliance, backlashed espers won't feel pain.  Armlocks/shoulderlocks, no fingers/wrist.  Leg possibly?  Blood choke likely to traumatize, avoid.
9: Practice introductions.  New pro. partners, practice on them?  Ugh.  Might be out of pro. partners local.  Worth checking Quebec?  But if in Q, have Sara.