You are throwing nickels at Lawrence's several million dollars, how dare you Lawrence and Miller will approach wordlessly, Miller holding the open empty cage in front of him.

"Hey, do you know what that thing even is?" says the one with the camera.

Yeah, they're not answering this question right now. The cages that Lawrence ordered are made of sheet metal with pencil-sized holes poked into them. Can Miller will scoop the monster up, water and all? They plan to just let the water drain out.

The monster does not really want to be colandered but it has very stubby limbs and can't swim away in time.

Scoop! Once Miller has closed the lid, he sets it on the side of the fountain so the water can drain.

Now that the monster is safely contained, Lawrence says, cheerfully, "It's a dungeon monster! We're seeing whether it's possible to keep them in a zoo, like the Ontario Monster Park."

"It's a monster? It's so..." He considers the available descriptors. "......round."

"A lot of monsters are dangerous, but a lot aren't, just like how the average dungeon isn't that dangerous. There really should be a more neutral term for them, but, well, 'monster' is what stuck. Have you seen any other weird animals like this near here?"

"Like that, no."

In that case, Lawrence will say goodbye, still having his Professional Smiling Esper Face on, and move on to the lizard. Is it still there?

It's moved on a bit and someone is throwing it Cheerios. It chases them with a comical gait and little yarking noises.

That's a very creative and smart idea. He should get some snacks to throw at the monsters to get their attention.

They'll try what they did earlier, and Miller will walk over to try and get between the lizard and the person. Does the lizard or the person become upset at this?

"Hey man, you're blocking my view."

They want to forestall all conversation until the monster has been successfully contained. What is the lizard doing? Miller will set the open cage on the floor in the case the lizard wants to helpfully and conveniently walk right into it.

The lizard doesn't want that. There aren't any Cheerios there. The guy with the Cheerios throws some a bit closer to his feet so that his view of it won't be blocked any more.

This is so annoying. He can't say that this is a Dangerous Dungeon Monster because that will alarm him and risk his life. He could use his power now — the lizard is very close. But that would incur backlash, and he wants to be as efficient as possible with it so he can capture as many monsters as possible.

Living in the Philippines means having to deal with very spotty cashless payment infrastructure, so you carry cash everywhere you go. He still does it, even in Korea. He converted some Korean won into US dollars before he teleported here. Lawrence takes out his wallet and holds out a bill. "I'll pay you fifty dollars for your Cheerios. And if you go somewhere else."

That is a massively sus thing to say. "I don't know what your problem is, man, I'm not bothering you."

People should respond better to economic incentives.

He'll look at the other two. Is this a cultural thing?? Help?????

Soto will venture, "We're doing research on dungeon monsters, which involves capturing them." Look at their super official DRT uniforms with the seal of the City of San Diego on them!

"You can put in your research paper that I am literally just sitting here giving the lizard treats and not in your way at all." Toss. The lizard scrambles for the bouncing snack.

Lawrence doesn't really see a way out of this aside from waiting for the lizard to eat all the Cheerios. Or forcefully removing the guy from the situation. So power use it will have to be.

Go into the cage.

The lizard scrabbles into the cage.

Close!

"Oh, it turns out the lizard wanted to go into the cage after all." Is Lawrence being petty and unprofessional? Absolutely not. He's just prohibited from explaining the Menagerie situation because it would cause panic.

"What'd you bait it with?"

"Psychic powers." And then Miller will put the cage on the wheelchair and leave.

They have three cages full and three cages empty on the wheelchair. Lawrence only had to use his power for two of them and he's still good on backlash. At this rate he thinks he can use his power maybe...five to ten more times before he'd want to stop and wait for Lachlan to get here for guiding. Though perhaps he'll find that there's an esper operating here who he's compatible with he could get some guiding from.

Are there any shops open? He wants to buy treats to entice monsters with.

Some stores are open, yeah, though a lot of them are out of things and have instituted per-customer limits on how many things they can buy or other temporary austerity measures since trucks can't get in as easily as usual to re-up their stock.

He'll get...Cheerios, obviously, if they have it, and some beef jerky, crackers, dried fruit and nuts, canned fish...

He'll pay with cash. They can all go on the wheelchair.