On the plus side, she's very hot, no longer needs to take most of the meds she'd been taking, and even if her power ends up being useless, she has a variety of fun career paths open to her, including fucking other hot espers. Chin up!

She finishes her drink. It's a bit stronger than she'd been expecting, but really it's tasty. She grabs a second one to sip, and heads off to mingle.

Here's a woman who looks like she's in her thirties (or maybe her forties - hard to tell with espers), with short red-brown hair, striking green eyes, and a pierced lower lip. (...and nice tits. If Cara is looking.) 

She's smiling, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes.

Riiiiiiiight, yes, Espers are hot,

Ah, baby espers. Not used to how hot we all are yet, are you?

She raises an eyebrow. "At least check me for compatibility first, dear," and now her smile definitely reaches her eyes.

WHOOPS

She laughs gently. "Is this your first mixer? I can't say I was any better, at mine. Everyone is so hot. It's legitimately very distracting." 

Handshake?

Yeah she can get over her embarrassment and - oh wOW THAT FEELS GOOD???

Oh. oh wow. She doesn't let go of this girl's hand, and also doesn't bite her lip. "Ah. I'm Willowbark. And who might you be, dear?"

Yeah she's not letting go either, not until someone makes her. "I'm Cara - no fancy name yet, I just finished awakening. A pleasure to meet you, Willowbark."

She swallows, because it's suddenly a bit harder to focus when she's talking to an older hot woman who certainly hasn't been dismissive, but she needs to. Focus. And try and get a 1-on-1 conversation. "So, uh, would you be interested in chatting in a side room? Get to know each other a little better?" 

...not her smoothest work... 

(Oh, that's certainly proactive of her.) 

Willowbark takes Cara's right hand in both of hers and brings it up to her lips for a soft kiss. "Why, I'd be delighted. Lead the way?"

hhhhhhfhkdjfdsjkfh

 "Well, ma'am, if you'd just follow me," she replies. She turns away far too late to hide her flushed face, and heads towards one of the empty side rooms, her hand still in Willowbark's(!feels good!).

Willowbark lazily closes the door as they enter the room and kicks off her heels by the couch, relaxing. "Just finished awakening, you said? You don't look it." 

She plops onto the couch, and tugs gently on Cara's arm, encouraging the girl to follow her.

Yeah she can sure do that and mmmmm now they have lots of skin contact where there arms are touching, huh, imagine that...

"Yeah, I awakened really late. Just started grad school this year..." wait this is an insane thing to say to someone who has been an esper for like. at least ten years. Maybe longer. Probably longer? Say something else. "...so, what brings you up to Toronto?"

"What makes you think I'm not native to the area?", Willowbark asks in her distinctive Cleveland accent.

Cara giggles. "Well. The way you say 'not' is noticeably un-Canadian, among other things. From the accent, I'd guess... somewhere in the midwest? Ohio, maybe?"

...oh, wow, that's. Kinda hot? (...the attention it implies, this girl noticing things about the way she says words...)

She laughs and leans towards Cara, entwining their arms. "Gosh! Guilty as charged, yes; I'm from Cleveland. I was travelling for work already, and I saw there was going to be a mixer here, so I thought I'd stop by. So are you studying linguistics? Or..." 

Oh that feels niiiiiceeee. "International Relations! I wanted to do..." she looks at Willowbark and "...boring political stuff, I suppose. I didn't learn to spot accents in a class, I just talk to people a lot and have a good ear for it." 

Cara turns in to make eye contact, grinning with a slight blush. "And I'm nosy enough that when when I hear an accent I always try and find out where it's from, and" (she squeezes her shoulders inwards) "engaging enough that I can usually get away with it." 

Those sure are very nice looking esper tits. (...and also that's body language of a young woman not used to having any cleavage without putting some effort in...)

"You should make you're eating enough carbs," she says, looking over the girl thoughtfully. "It's useful to lots of extra energy for the body changes to work with, after hell week. ...and you're going to need some new bras, too." 

Cara's face turns red. (Adorable!) "I had to redo my entire wardrobe, really. I'd just gotten used to the idea that I'd be nothing special, beautywise, and, well." She grins. "One of the many perks of being an esper." 

Okay yeah that's enough to leave her speechless and make her squirm a bit.

(Willowbark is really hot, is the thing. Cara would not have previously described herself as that into older women, and some part of her brain is tracking that she seems older than Cara's initial guess (...espers age gracefully, right), but. Well. How much does that matter to her, exactly? Maybe not that much!)

"Do you think you'll keep studying?"

Oh okay! A question. Nice! Easy! (Just like Cara,)

"Probably not, honestly? I guess if my power is totally useless and I can't find anyone I like to do guide work for, I'd rather continue what I was doing than drive or work security, but..." she shrugs. "I know a lot of powers aren't especially employable on their own, and not everyone is suited for dungeon work, but I'd do it if I can, and expect I'd happy with the professional guide lifestyle, given what I know of it." She makes a valiant effort to reduce how much she's blushing.

(maybe she should not have had that second drink...)

Smirk. "Despite what popular culture will tell you, the majority of professional guides are, in fact, entirely chaste about it."

And then she looks at Cara thoughtfully. "You haven't poked at your power at all, since awakening? Very responsible of you."

She shrugs easily. "It's hard to have the kind of career I wanted to have, if you aren't good at identifying situations where it's a bad idea to fuck around even a bit. I'd read the horror stories about high-backlash powers; I was down to wait until I have someone to guide me." She leans into Willowbark.

"Well." She twists a bit, letting Cara more into her space, touching her more. (The guiding is delightful, even just via skin contact. She hasn't felt like this since -) "I certainly won't stop you."