Nitro is going to be pacing energetically around the outer edge of the lobby.  She does not have the skill of looking Approachable to Strangers.  Also full disclosure she made up the name Nitro on the spot.

"...so backlash is like, an emergency, right?" Lucky says to Xavier.

"Well, it's not like something's on fire, usually.  Backlashes are pretty, uh.  Weird.  Some people have a pretty managable backlash, some people have a crippling one.  The worst one I know about is that one esper who basically gets brittle bone disease.

... but at any rate, if you don't take care of it, it becomes an emergency.  It's like, uh, the flu isn't an emergency?  But it can be an emergency, if you have a bad one."

Nodnod.  "...so I guess we better find you somebody?"

She glances between Lucky and Xavier.

"If he's with me can he get food from the stash you guys have?  Do we have to pay or anything?"

"Nope, you're good.  I'm vouching for you as an esper for now, at some point you'll want to high-five someone and once you have one, get your agent to get you an esper ID.  I'm happy to solve the problem today, but my brother would say I'm 'not a scalable solution'."  His voice takes on a slightly different cadence for the quote.

"Gotcha."  To Lucky: "Kiddo, why don't you go get yourself a snack."

"So you can talk about guiding," he makes air quotes, "away from sensitive ears?"

"Yeah, yeah, you're very smart, shut up."

Snort.  He skips away to find out if they have the good brand of potato chips.

Once he's out of earshot:

"I'm not fuckin' anybody."

Aw, shit.  "Ma'am, that's entirely none of my business.  ... but probably a good idea.  I uh, feel a little responsible for you, but I'm not your - " wait fuck don't mention her parents " - doctor or anything."  Good save.  "I do feel like I'm a little responsible for - " not for her, I'm not her dad.  He pauses a second, thinking about it.

"I'm not responsible for you but I want to make sure you don't do something you'll regret later?  If you'd regret fucking someone, don't do that.  If you do, use protection.  I'm really, really not an esper, it's about twenty years too late for that.  But guiding is supposed to feel real good, and I hear it's easy to get caught up in it."

...she still doesn't really get why this guy keeps acting afraid of her but okay.  "Good to know," she says tightly.  It feeling good to touch somebody actually sounds really creepy and it's hard to imagine getting caught up in it.  "So are there - other people lookin' for somebody to guide with, here?"  Or am I the only esper dumb enough to get into this jam.

"Yeah, probably.  I uh, don't have numbers or anything but I don't think most espers are compatible with each other, and some are stronger than others?  So smart espers are always shaking hands or high-fiving or whatever.  It's pretty normal."

Nodnod.

...She doesn't really know how to ask to esper high five somebody but she also doesn't really know how to ask for instructions on that sort of thing from Some Guy old enough to be her dad.  The whole thing seems a bit weird to be honest.  But she guesses she's better just get over herself.

"...what are the things I'm missing that are like, too big and dumb and obvious for either of us to think about talking about."

He cocks his head to the side, squinting slightly.  "Don't ask about backlash.  Some of them are embarrassing, or private, or scary.  Uh, you're probably going to be rich soon, if you can stand to do any dungeons, ever.  There are short-term esper bridge loans available if you need one, but, y'know, not my wheelhouse."  That place didn't look poor, but it sure didn't look rich, either.  "You wanna do powers testing sooner rather than later, if you haven't yet.  If there's anything else I'm missing, I'm too dumb to think of it."  He grins at her, a little self-deprecating humor.

You and me both, buddy.  Taking out loans sounds like a bad idea to her!  And she is still kind of constitutionally incapable of imagining herself making, what, six figures?  But okay.

Shit.  She guesses she's doing this now.

"...thanks for all your help, man."

"Hey, don't worry about it.  Half my job is supporting espers, you know."  Still, he's glad to get a sign that she's actively happy to have him around and not about to run off.  He pauses, clearly thinking about how to phrase something.  "... actually, one more.  Just because someone's compatible with you doesn't mean you have to jump into a partnership with them right away.  It's okay to start slow, being someone's partner isn't...exactly...dating, but it's hard to say where dating starts and partnership ends.  I don't think I need you warn you about not letting someone push you around, though."

Snort.

... man, if you were lookin' for something to make her feel good about trying to be a dungeon esper, "career mandated not-technically-dating-but-lets-be-real relationship" does not seem like it had the desired effect.  Boy is she not going to get into that with Strange Man Old Enough To Be Her Dad Who Might Be Intimidated By Delinquents Or Something though.

"Yeah," she says, "I gotcha.  Thanks again."

Blissfully unaware of the narration, Xavier replies, "All good.  You want me to stick around a little longer, or do you need a little space?"

Hmm, does it sound worse to be wandering around this esper party trying to act like she belongs here without somebody official willing to vouch for her, or to have Strange Man Old Enough To Be Her Dad around for Touching Strangers That Feels Good But We Swear It's Not Sex.  "I think I'm good.  If you got like shit to do."

"There's always something to do."  He repeats it like a catchphrase.  "I don't wanna just throw you to the poodles here, if you're sure you're good I'll let you be."

Man, what would it be like to be sure you were gonna be okay.  "Yeah, don't worry about it."

He nods.  "Alright.  Good shit earlier, by the way."  He's...going to offer her a fistbump on the way out, actually?  "Catch you later."

...yeah, okay.  Fistbump.  "See you around."

Would the new esper perhaps care to check into the hotel, that she might obtain a room for herself and her support staff?  There's an ESPER CHECK IN HERE sign and a bored-looking young man at a desk who might want to know.

That sounds like it would require her to stop walking.

She strolls past the checkin desk and says "Hey I'm an esper and my backlash is I can't stop walking can I send my brother to check in - "

(From her tone and expression, she is keenly aware of what a stupid thing this is to have to say, and she hates it.)

The bored young man quickly becomes a Walking Young Man.  He'll slap a bell and jog 'till he's at her side.  "Your brother can if you prefer, or I can walk with you?"  He's not quite so professional as to treat this as completely normal but he's willing to humor her, at least.

" - sure, okay," she says.  "I'm goin' by Nitro."

"Nitro...Nitro..."  He'd normally do this on his computer, but he's got Racehorse on his phone.  "Looks like...uh.  Nitro's on record as being..."  An Asian-looking man?  "... probably not you?"  He pulls up the mugshot, looking really apologetic.

"...yeah that's not me," she says.  "Is there already a Nitro.  Can I just be another esper with the same name."

"Yeah, Racehorse rules, they don't wanna sign the wrong gal up for the wrong dungeon on accident.  Are you new?"

"Yeah.  Can I just be Nitro Two for today until I think of something better."

"... sure."  He'll have to figure something out with his boss, but fuck it, they pay him to make things easy, not hard.  "How many rooms do you need, and what do you need for backlash accommodation?"

"I'm hopin' to find somebody to guide with while I'm here.  I guess I gotta walk around a lot until I do?  Uh, can I get two rooms?"  Do they even let a twelve year old sleep in his own room in a hotel.  Well, don't sell yourself out if you don't need to.

"Two rooms, got it.  There's a ballroom over that way that we've got set up as a dining area, and if you could shake hands with Kevin at some point so we can verify your status as an esper, that'd be much appreciated."  He's going to have to put sooooo much 'N/A' on this form, isn't he.  This would be easier if Nitro Two over here just had an esper ID card, but nooooo.

"I mean..."

She lifts a couple inches up off the ground.

WELP.  "Yeah okay, that's fair.  Good enough.  Uh, come by the front desk, I'll have your keycards in a few minutes, okay?"

"Sure thing."  She cuts her power and lands, stumbling a little but not slowing down.  "If my brother comes lookin' for me can you tell him I'm in the ballroom?"

"What's his name?"  So I don't set myself up for a lawsuit.

"Lucky.  ...he's twelve," she adds, sounding like she anticipates her defeat in re: getting away with not revealing this to him.  "Yea high, brown hair, little bit sarcastic.  He'll know me as Nitro or Parry or the girl who can't stop walking."

"Nitro, Parry, Girl Who Can't Stop Walking.  Got it.  I'll give him his own keycard if you're okay with that?"

"...he's who the second room's for."

"Right, I just need to confirm that - sorry, I mean whether or not it's okay to give the keycard to his room to him without you present.  Since he's a minor and all."

"...yyyyyeah that's fine."

He shoots her a wry it's the rules I gotta not lose my job, sorry type of look.  "Alright, you're all set.  I'll see you when I see you, then, Nitro Two."  He strides back to his desk, whereupon he immediately messages his boss to figure out how the hell you're supposed to check in an esper who doesn't have a goddamn anything in the system yet.

Thumbs up.  Off to the dining ballroom.

Okay is there anyone here who looks like they're milling around trying to find somebody to do guiding with, can she copy what they're doing without breaking her gait.

There's a fair few people.  They're eating, drinking, some are chatting.  Two of them are playing some kind of handheld console next to each other in a corner.  The nearest one is a green-haired guy who's leaning on a structural pillar, scrolling on his phone.

...nnnot green haired guy.  She does not want to guide with a guy, that sounds weird and bad.  None of these people look especially interruptible but maybe she can waylay someone on their way to the buffet table.  She will probably wind up saying something stupid like "uhhh I don't know how to do this but I gotta find someone to guide off some backlash for me, can we check."

There's a flash of confusion and annoyance at being interrupted, then sympathy.  "Hey, all good.  Partner not around?"  Handshake?

Handshake.  - eurgh, is that what it always feels like?  She flinches, obviously startled.  " - sorry.  Guess we don't - work."

"S'okay.  Good luck!"

Maybe this Amazonian brunette she's about to pass by would be better?

...she's trying not to notice how attractive anyone here is because the whole idea of guiding is already weird and vaguely uncomfortable enough without that extra layer on top of it but wow hmm uh huh yep okay yeah.  " 'Scuse me miss but I need some guiding and I don't have a partner around, can we check - ?"

Without speaking, she offers a hand.  Her other hand signs - how's Parry's Dungeon Sign Language?

Uhhhhhhh nonexistent.  She - okay handshaking seems stupid if it feels like that most of the time, can she just sort of brush her hand against hers - ?

Sure.  Unfortunately, Silent Tall And Also Big Girl's message will be a mystery for the ages.  She sighs a little when Parry's incomprehension becomes evident.

... it feels meh.  Not like 'nothing', like there's a sense that Parry previously did not have that is signaling 'meh' at her.  Also, it feels like the woman has a lot of something, in addition to her physical stature.  It's a bit Oobleck - metaphorically not like rain, metaphorically not like snow.  Presence?  Something.

Huh.  Okay.  Well it least it doesn't feel horrible and gross every single time she can't guide with someone.  "Thanks."  She'll hesitate for a second in case Tall And Also Big speaks up, but she can't actually stop walking, and in a minute she's walking away.

She actually taps her throat twice, then firmly shakes her head 'no', and looks at Parry apologetically.  But she doesn't slow Parry down any.

She nods acknowledgement.

She keeps trying.  She eventually picks up the phrase "compat check," and starts using it adequately correctly, but she does not really become any more comfortable or less stiff about approaching strangers in this context.  ...Once or twice she just stops trying for a little while and circles the room for a minute, because honestly it is better to just have to walk in a big circle for a minute than to try another god damn time to get somebody to guide her.  But she knows she's gotta take care of this.  She dives back in.  She hates it.

Around noon an esper bustles into the room, waves at everyone, scoops up a plateful of bite sized goodies, and starts canvasing the room.

Oh is someone else looking for guiding too.  "Hey I can't stop walking but can I get a compat check - "

"Yeah, of course."

Fistbump. Or hand brush, whichever seems to the vibe here.

 - she flinches away and awkwardly breaks eye contact, after a moment of letting their skin touch.

"Huh, was it bad for you? It was good for me. Not great but better than nothing."

"No, it - felt nice."

Oh wow she was so caught up in how much she hated trying to get to this part that she forgot all about how much she was going to hate this part.

 "Are you new? I'm Kuroko, nice to meet you."

She will make a hand readily available but not push the issue.

She looks at the hand, and how readily available it is.  She needs guiding, she should just not say no to a good thing.

"I'm - so you can tell I'm gay, right - "

From the everything about her.

"Yeah I sort of guessed. I'm not, but like it doesn't have to be weird."

She maybe shouldn't have said the second sentence, but backlash.

...she will not make eye contact just yet but she will take Kuroko's hand.

Oh that feels nice.  It's weird for just touching somebody's hand with her hand to feel that nice.  Why are all the cute ones straight and/or not backlash compatible with her hey shut up?

"I'm Nitro," she says.  "...I guess there's already a Nitro so I gotta come up with a different name but that's what I'm goin' by now."

Handholding

"So many good names are taken. That's part of why I ended up with one in Japanese. Also because I had an anime phase."

"What's it mean?"

"Old fashioned Japanese stagehands. They used to wear black, so that people knew they weren't part of the story and to ignore them. The story goes that one time somebody wanted to have a ninja assassinate a character so they had the ninja character disguised as a stagehand until the twist. Then a lot of people copied it, and that's why stereotypical ninja wear black. It's because my power lets me be unnoticeable. It's not technically invisibility, it doesn't work on cameras, it just stops anything I don't want to notice me from registering me."

"How does that work, do they just, like...?"  She can't even really form enough of a guess to finish that sentence actually!

"It just sort of...edits me out of their perception. If I'm carrying them or dragging something big they're notice the movement but not be able to notice me causing it. People can figure out it's me if they knew I was around but animals and monsters seem to mostly forget I was there pretty quickly.  I don't usually use it on people, only monsters, but I've done a little testing with volunteers."

"That sounds really weird," she says.  She still can't really imagine what that would be like.  She almost wants to try it except for how she really doesn't.  "Are a lotta powers weird and hard to explain like that?  All I can do is fly around."

"I dunno, some are. But flying is cool. And useful. I actually have a secondary air walking power but I only use it for emergencies, cause it's sort of expensive. It's saved my ass a few times when something suddenly shifted or collapsed and I fell though."

"Oh, I thought everybody just got one power."

"Sometimes you get a couple of related powers, though it can be hard to see the relation. But I think of it was forcing gravity to not notice me. Like those old Loony Tunes cartoons where they walk off a cliff and don't fall until they notice they should be. Except sort of the inverse?"

She giggles at the Looney Tunes comparison.  Or, well, its difficult to imagine Parry Thompson giggling, per se.  Maybe she snickers at the Looney Tunes comparison.

"Should I be lookin' for my secret second power?"

"Maybe, yeah. It's good to know what you can do right?"

Little laugh.

"It felt like - I could kinda tell what I could do," she says.  "Not for sure, but I was pretty sure I was a flier, a fast one.  Is that normal?"

"Yeah. Most people have at least a little intuition about their powers. Sometimes it's pretty vague but there's usually something to go on."

Nodnod.

"Do you know how long this is supposed to take, by the way."

"It'll be quite a while with just handholding, especially since we aren't that compatible. Normally people at least snuggle in shorts and a t-shirt. Though if you can't stop walking that's going to be tricky. You might have to do piggybacks or something. Is it the movement or the walking? Is being carried doable?"

"Being carried would work but I might prefer to do the carrying.  And maybe walk up and down the halls away from lots of people.  I don't know how well a treadmill would work.  I wasn't really gonna - "

She cuts herself off.

"There's a gym. You could test it. Might be best to trade off who's being carried. Even espers will get tired after a while."

"We could try the gym.  Do you know where it is?"

"Yeah. In the basement. There's signs."

She can lead the way.

She can be led.  Once they're in the gym she'll - well, cast her eyes around to see if anyone else is in there with them, even though she's gotta do this either way.

It's at least pretty quiet at this time of day, most people are out doing things.

"I've got a tank top and shorts underneath this, for this purpose. Layers are useful."

"I got a - oh - "

Yeah she can't really stand still.  She's gonna get on the treadmill and start it up before she starts delayering.  "I got a tank top on under here.  ...This kinda works if I close my eyes."

She takes her outer layers off and puts them in one of the provided cubbies. Taking layers off in a gym is a totally normal thing to do even if you aren't an esper.

"Want me to put your shirt in the cubbies for you?"

"Oh, sure, thanks."

"No problem."

She can stash the shirt safely.

"Do you want to crouch down a bit so I can climb on?"

"Yeah, go ahead."  She does.  "Piggyback style, or...?"

"Yeah. That way I can wrap my arms and legs a bit, for better efficiency."
"

Nitro can let Kuroko climb on.

It's not really any harder than giving Lucky piggyback rides had been before her awakening.  She knew she was strong now, she knew she'd lifted that woman out of her car with no difficulty, but now, in a peaceful moment...

She just "huh"s quietly to herself about it.

"If you do dungeons you'll probably be doing a lot of carrying people, cause they want fliers for ones that are hard to navigate on foot."

"That makes sense.  What sort of stuff do you do in a dungeon?"

"Rescues mostly, because my backlash makes me want to interact with people, and I can cover other people with my stealth field. Not many other people but it's great for rescues. Sometimes scouting, if they don't have an actual sensor available."

Nodnod.

"...so how does doing a dungeon, like, work."

"In what sense? Usually it gets organized through your agent. It's their job to know the specifics about you and your powers, and what dungeons you'd be a good fit for, and what kind of workload you want. Most people do one or two dungeons a day when they're working, with one or two days off a week but you'll have to figure out what works for you. The DRT has access to an international database of espers, though of course they usually look at the local or semi local database unless there's a need for something very specific. But flying is pretty general so you can probably expect to be working relatively local most of the time. Maybe in Oregon or something if they really need several fliers. Or there's a big emergency someplace, like what's going on here. Though I volunteered, myself. But, anyway they contact your agent who confirms the details and makes sure it actually works with your particular needs and wants, and then they pass it on to you.to accept."

"What sort of stuff's in this database?  Would somebody have already put me in it?  - I pulled a woman and her baby out of one of those runaway cars and handed them over to the DRT, it's the first big esper thing I've done."

"Probably not. Usually you get an agent first and they help you out with that. You can do it yourself, but it's usually easier to have somebody who's used to the paperwork help you with it. The database will have your codename, and powers and contact information for your agent.  Anything else is optional. Technically codename is optional too, not everyone uses one. Lots of people keep their civvie names off the database entirely, and some people keep their backlash off it. Yours seems logistically difficult to hide, but you can keep it off the semi-public database if you want."

...that sounds not so bad to her, though she's kind of still expecting all of this esper shit to come with surprise fine print.  "What have you got in the database?  What's it called?"

"Racehorse. You'll only be able to see the most public facing version without an official account, but most of my profile is public, except my last name."

"...all right if I look you up later?"  She's curious.  Later because right now she's on a treadmill giving Kuroko a piggyback ride with her eyes shut.

"No problem. I wouldn't have that stuff on a public database if I minded people seeing it."

"Fair enough.  Do big emergencies like this one happen all the time or is this a Confluence thing."

"Mostly a confluence thing. Sometimes big S-ranks will cause an emergency outside of a confluence but multiple large scale breaches like this aren't normal outside of a confluence."

"Mm-hmm," she says.  "And nobody knows how long a confluence is supposed to last, outside of a few months."

"Yeah. It's rough.

"Is that why you're in town, for the confluence?  You don't sound like you're from San Diego."

"I'm from Toronto. I came because Menagerie is here and the Ontario Monster Park wants the monsters for a petting zoo, if they kill it this time, and is offering a million dollars each."

 - she actually stops walking, for a second, and lets the treadmill slide them backwards, and then she has to half-jog half-stumble for a few steps to get back into position.

"How much fucking money???"

"Yeah, it's a lot of money. I'm not gonna keep it all because it would just be kinda silly."

"How much do you make??"

"I made a couple of hundred thousand doing dungeons this year and I'll probably get more next year, because I was increasing my workload a little even before the confluence."

She - well she already kind of can't fathom making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year but she can't fathom making any amount of money that would make her this cavalier about - 

" - how many of these things are you expecting to catch while you're here?"

"Dunno. I caught a bunch this morning but there's other people out there catching them. There's also no guarantee they'll find the core, this dungeon's been around for a while, and if they don't I'll just get paid for containing them."

Dunno!!!  I just caught a handful of millions of dollars!!!  I haven't counted exactly how many!!!  You know!!!  Whatever!!!

...ohhhhh there's the catch.  "Oh, is Menagerie one of the ones that's been around like a hundred times?"  So the million dollar reward is basically bullshit.  "How much do you really get for them.  If they don't get the core I mean, for containing them."

"Yeah, that's why it has a name. They don't get names until they've been around a while. The million dollars is because the Ontario Monster Park really wants their petting zoo. It'll probably be a few thousand altogether for containing.the critters."

"What's the Ontario Monster Park?"

"It's a zoo specifically for monsters that were captured alive and survived the dungeon's death. Because most regular zoos don't want monsters or only want a limited number 'm told the San Diego zoo won't take them at all. So a Toronto esper helped fund and organize the zoo. I've met the guy, he's pretty cool. He's part of the reason I got into live capture seriously instead of just grabbing small things on a whim because I can and they were interesting."

...that seems kind of frivolous and tasteless to her but as rich people pet projects go she guesses it's probably basically fine.  You know, if you're gonna be rich.  Fuck, is she gonna be rich now?  People keep telling her how much money espers make and it still doesn't really feel real.  She still kind of wants to fly off and round up a dozen or so of those murder furball things.  She could retire tomorrow.  Lucky could retire before he ever had to get a job!

...realistically there's no way they get the core this time.  Right?  But it still feels like an awful lot better of a bet than wading through a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit to do whatever nebulous esper things espers do in dungeons all day, for the rest of her life.

...she does remember how good it felt to pull that woman out of her car.  Georgia, her name was, and baby Joan.

"Whatcha thinking about?" She's able to keep her tone light. The guiding helps.

...hey Parry it would be really cool if we did not immediately picture this lady whispering that to us while we were naked in bed, maybe.  Why is she - well, Kuroko is pretty and is being nice and guiding feels weirdly good which has mostly stopped feeling creepy for now, and she can tell from the way Kuroko is moving that she really likes touching Parry WHICH IS BECAUSE GUIDING FEELS GOOD PARRY SHUT UP.

If Parry actually were naked in bed with her maybe she'd tell her what she's thinking about but hey! Parry! Stop that!

"...can you tell me more about Menagerie?" she says instead of any of the insane inappropriate shit going through her head.

"It likes to send out lots of monsters in the form of cute animals. They're actually quite willing to approach people and even seem friendly, but if you get startled or move too fast around them, especially if you're moving away from them they'll attack and they're actually deceptively dangerous when triggered. But they're completely harmless when the dungeon isn't around. The first time it showed up, or the first recorded time it showed up a lot of people kept the critters as pets, and it was totally fine, until the dungeon reappeared and the monsters that were nearby where it reappeared became volatile again. My power is great for this because I can make sure they can't be triggered by me or by the person they're interacting with, even if somebody gets startled. Technically anyone can cage them but it's much riskier for most other people."

"Oh wow, that's fucked," she says, of the Vadodara story.  "Are there still loose murder furballs out there?"

"They killed all the ones they found afterwards, but it's always possible some people decided not to tell anyone they had one."

"Bet some rich creep has a bunch of 'em in cages somewhere," she says.  "What's Menagerie like on the inside?  ...what are dungeons in general like on the inside, I never got snatched."

"They vary a lot. We don't have data on Menagerie specifically because it likes to hide the portal, though this time we're pretty sure it's underwater somewhere because a lot of the monsters have been found near the beach, so that narrows it down some. In general they can look like almost anything inside, most commonly they look like natural settings or buildings, but they can get way weirder. If they're an open setting they usually sort of fade into mist at the edges, but sometimes they loop, and sometimes they have like illusion terrain at the edges, sort of like a video game world where they hide the edge of the world with an invisible wall and terrain you can't actually get to."

Parry doesn't play a lot of video games but she gets the gist.  "How often does Menagerie appear?"

"Every few years."

She walks in silence for another moment.

"It's probably stupid for me to try to catch Menagerie monsters for my retirement fund but how would I do that, if I did.  How much of this million dollars would I actually see, who would I need to make nice with."

"You'd need to provide cages for them. Technically you could get cages from Petsmart, but I've been using heavier duty ones, to make sure they hold if something sets the monster off. Other then that the Ontario Monster park has the relevant information on their website. I guess you might be useful for catching the flying ones, though you might accidentally set them off if you go too fast. Also you want somebody more compatible than me if you're gonna keep using your power."

"More compatible?"  Touching Kuroko is already a hell of a thing!

"Guiding is a hell of a thing isn't it. It gets better than this."

Man she's not sure how she feels about it getting better than this!  But okay whatever.  "All right.  So if I'm gonna go furball hunting I gotta find a better partner, okay.  Where'd you get your heavy duty cages, through your agent or something?"

"Nah, I bought those myself, they're from a specialty manufacturer. They have a local warehouse, but I don't know how much stock they'll have left locally at this point."

"I bet I can't afford 'em before I actually have esper money."

"...you, uh, got any spares?"

"Yeah, they usually sell cages to zoos or wild animal rescues, so they aren't cheap. Worth the money though. I could spot you one. But you gotta be careful, okay. These critters can fuck people up."

"...yeah, okay.  What do I gotta know so I don't hurt anybody."

"You probably wanna find ones that are on their own, cause if you're gonna be flying around that will probably startle people. Maybe see if you can grab one that's by the shoreline. But you have to look after yourself too. It doesn't do anyone any good if you become a causality."

"...yeah."  She's not gonna leave Lucky alone.  "That's what sets 'em off, right, being started?  Is it just when you're scared or any sudden movements, cuz my flying is kind of all sudden movements."

"They seem to react to people moving away from them, or flinching. They don't react to people being excited in a happy way though. You'll probably want to be real careful..."

Hey Kuroko, Parry is trying real hard not to be attracted to you and acting all sweet and concerned is not making it easier.  "I will."

If she could read the narration she'd say she's just doing what anyone should. "Good. So, you pulled some people out of a car earlier?"

If Parry could read the narration she would say that's a pretty attractive thing to say!!

" - oh, yeah," she says.  "I saw it go by and I could tell it was one of the out of control ones and I kind of just..."

She trails off.

"It was stupid."

...maybe she's gonna wind up saying the same thing about going after Menagerie monsters.  But - but.

"A bit. But there's worse things to be stupid about."

God!  God!!!  How can you do this to her!!!

"You're nice," she says in a small voice.

"I'm really just trying to do the right thing, you know? Help people and stuff."

Unfair to Parries Thompson.  "And an esper can make two hundred grand a year thinkin' like that?"

"Espers are rare, and many of us have abilities that can't be replicated any other way, or would be logistically impractical to replicate, especially inside a dungeon where you're limited to what you can fit through the portal. When you have a skill basically nobody else has you can get paid a lot for it." 

"That makes sense, I guess."

Something doesn't exactly sit right about it.  She can't figure out what it is, and the guiding and the pretty girl with the sweet voice being nice to her are distracting.

"...such a fucking weird day," she sighs.

"I don't usually spend a whole morning rounding up breached monsters. Usually they don't spread out this much and I'm not the best person for the job of securing a portal. So it's a little outside my wheelhouse. Also I've never traveled this far from home for a dungeon before."

"I've never been outside San Diego," she says.  "...never even been in a hotel this nice before."

"It's a really nice hotel. I think they picked the best they had, that was still intact."

"Nicest you've ever been in, or nah?"

"Nicest I've been in. I usually end up in sort of midrange hotels. I'm looking for convenient location more than anything else. It'd be a little silly to stay in a fancy hotel and then have to go all the way across town to get to whatever dungeon they called me in for."

"But if you're covering the whole city they might as well set up headquarters in the fanciest place they can find?"

Giggle. "I guess so."

"Lucky us."

"They usually host esper mixers in hotels with rentable meeting spaces."

"That's where people are supposed to find partners, right?  What are they like?"

"Fun if you like meeting people, though you don't have to chat if you don't wanna, lots of people are just there to to check compatibility and move on. They have nice snacks."

She's very thankful she doesn't have to make small talk with everyone she checks for guiding compatibility.  "How long did it take you to find your partner - is that okay to ask?"

"It's fine. It took me a month to find my first partner. I attended a couple of mixers and also arranged meetings with professional partners my agency had contacts with. Then I ran into my current partner at a mixer. It was his first so lucky for him. Lucky for both of us really, I was there at least half as an excuse to visit Chicago."

A month, oh Jesus.  "You couldn't do any esper work for that whole month?"

"I could have gotten a part time job as a security esper someplace, it doesn't pay as well as dungeons but it pays pretty well. But I didn't really need the money urgently. I was actually still finishing high school at the time."

"You didn't drop out?"

"It was only two months and my parents would have been bothered if I had. Not that they could actually have stopped me since I was already 18 by then, and I don't think they'd have really tried if I was determined to drop out, but I didn't want to do something that would make them unhappy when it would be easy to avoid that. I did switch to remote schooling."

She's silent for a moment.

Inquiring noise?

She laughs a little and shakes her head.  "Just tryin' to imagine having parents I didn't want to make unhappy," she says.  Her voice is light, almost convincingly so.

"They basically dropped everything to look after me during my hell week...and it wasn't easy on them. I'm...not easy to be around on that much backlash. That's not the only reason I didn't want to make them unhappy of course, but it was pretty salient at the time."

"My parents..."

She stops, shakes her head.  "Sorry.  You don't wanna hear about my shit."

"I mean, I don't mind. But you don't have to tell me."

" 's just say first thing me and my kid brother did when I got out of the hospital was start planning to run away."

"...Ah. I understand why you're wanting money urgently."

" - six or seven of these things and we'd - be - set for life, we could take a plane across the country and buy a house and never have to think about those people again, I wouldn't have to worry about any esper shit, Lucky would never have to worry about getting a job and paying bills, it would - be over, we'd be out, of the whole, all of it, we'd be out of it.  Retired at eighteen.  He'd be retired at twelve.  We could relax.  None of that shit, ever again, it's all I can think about, Kuroko."

Hey Parry why'd you say all that shit.  At least you restrained yourself from saying and you didn't even know how many you'd caught out loud I guess?

"Is that what you wanna do? - Sorry that was rude and personal. I guess I don't really know what it's like to worry about being able to take care of yourself. Even before I was an esper - my family isn't rich but we never worried about money, really and I never worried about whether my parents would step in to help me out if I really needed it."

"Sounds pretty rich to - "

" - sorry, that was out of line."

"Just middle class really. You aren't rich until you can afford a vacation home and a fancy yacht. And two cars."

"Everybody thinks you're not really rich until you're richer than them," she says.

She stifles a snicker, "Sorry. You're probably right."

"...what did you mean by is that what I wanna do?" she asks.  She doesn't sound upset, just wrong-footed by the question.

"I mean, what do you wanna do with the next eighty years. Cause as an esper you could have eighty years easily. Seems to me eighty years of retirement might get old eventually."

"After my childhood I feel like I could use eighty years off," she says, without heat.  "...d'you do this cuz you think you'd get bored otherwise?"

"Well, partially, but also it's rewarding, on the whole. I help people, I see interesting things...dungeons are unpleasant for the victims and sometimes for the rescuers but they also often have interesting things. Some of them are even interesting or beautiful enough that if they weren't tormenting people I'd feel bad about killing them. "

" ...'s hard to imagine liking something so much that I wouldn't wanna - stop needing to make money on it.  Does that make any sense.  Like, you could still do all that if you had the six or seven million, but you wouldn't have to worry about how much money you made on it or if you'd always be able to do it."

"It's not hard to reach that point working dungeons, even without million dollar monsters, as long as you're not careless with the money."

"You could just - quit tomorrow, if you wanted?"

"Well, not and do nothing forever, yet but I could take a year traveling.Or put myself through any university that'd have me. But you can get there in five years if you're good, or lucky with investments and have modest tastes. Certainly by twenty five or thirty years, which is about the point where even espers slow down enough to make it a good idea to retire from doing physically active things in dungeons."

"Big difference between twenty-five or thirty years and six or seven murder furballs," she says.  Rich people...

"Still a lot more security than most people get, right. And you never have to scramble for work.Or write a cover letter."

"That's pretty good," she concedes.  She's never had to write a cover letter but it sounds hellish.  She's silent, for another moment.

She fidgets  but can give her a moment.

" - aw shit, sorry, have I been bein' a total ass about your backlash whenever I shut up like that."

"It's a bit bothersome. It's about attention. I have to tell myself you're paying attention to me, eve It's much easier if you're talking to me, but - any guiding helps make it feel less urgent and more real.'

"Don't worry, you're hard to miss," she says.  ...that wasn't really flirting but it's about to be flirting if she's not careful.  She's straight, Parry.  "I don't always, uh, talk a lot.  Would it help if I let you talk about yourself and nodded along or is that not the right kinda thing?"

"it does help yeah, as long as you like, say something occasionally so I know you're actually listening."

"All right.  Can you tell me some dungeon stories?"

"Sure. I collect those for this purpose. So this one time I was in this one with huuuuuge sand towers. Like, as big as actual castle towers. The victims were at the top of the towers. They brought me in because nobody wanted to fight the guards in the towers in case of damaging them and causing them to collapse. But you'd have been even better cause you wouldn't have had to climb all those stairs. I've actually got pictures of it on my phone. One of the vics wanted a picture at the base of the tower with me princess carrying her."

"Huh, do a lotta people come out of dungeons wanting souvenir pics?"

'Not most 'people, but it's not very surprising. Sometimes they want other souvenirs too, like a rock but you can't let them have them until its been checked over by the labs, in case the rocks are secretly explosive or something."

"...is lots of dungeon stuff secretly explosive?"

"Not lots, but this is one of those situations where the procedures are written in blood, as they say about safety regulations."

"Yeah, that makes sense.  ...'Nother dungeon story?"

"Sure. This one time I was in a dungeon with a guy who's power is...basically stun grenades. The idea was that he would stun the big groups of monsters and the DRT shot them, and then I just walked past the stragglers to get to the victims. That worked great, except one time this guy misjudged how big he was making his stun zone and caught a few DRT in the stun. Fortunately he did manage to catch all the monsters and there were enough DRT present to shoot them before they recovered, so no permanent harm done.Except that this guy will probably never live it down."

Snort.  "You never think about espers fuckin' up with their powers, do you.  Well, maybe you do all the time."

"My power is easy, but some have a learning curve. Sometimes a big one. One time I was in a dungeon with a guy who goes by Aumento, with sharable buffs, strength, durability and regen. It was a steamship, on a rough ocean. Though the ocean was mostly illusionary of course. We didn't check how far the water actually went, all the victims were on the ship fortunately. Anyway the whole thing kept lurching at unpredictable intervals, and at one point it caught me climbing over some debris, and I didn't quite manage to avoid slipping, and caught my arm on something sharp. So Aumento had to buff me suddenly to heal it, while I was dragging myself over the pile with my good arm. My shirt was not rated for that. Neither was my bra strap. Fortunately Aumento came prepared with duct tape so I could avoid flashing everyone until I got a fresh shirt. He was very nice about the whole thing. Apparently he has a dedicated DRT squad with special training to use his buffs without breaking stuff. And extra stretchy clothes."

Welp!  Parry's thinking about that story now!

"I've got lots of shirts. That's not the only time one got ripped. More often they get covered in things. Mud, blood, oil, unidentifiable colourful liquids. Sometimes you wash it three times and then give up and replace it."

Well that's less sexy.  Unless she pictures Kuroko in a wet t-shirt Parry get yourself together?

"Do you just wear regular clothes into a dungeon?" she asks.  "For some reason I always pictured espers wearing kevlar.  I guess if you can make the monsters ignore you."

"Lots do wear kelvar, but yeah I don't really feel like I need it. I just go for stuff that's easy to move in, unless there's a need for a hazmat suit or a dust suit or something like that. But, you should always have really good solid footwear. Don't half ass the footwear. Get something with ankle support. I upgraded mine after I broke my ankle one time."

"Good shoes, gotcha."

"Even though you can fly you'll wanna walk when you can, and you'll wanna have good shoes for it. Get them fitted properly, don't just guess."

"What, like custom fitted?"  Now that she's rich, she guesses?

"You probably don't need to go that far, unless your feet are very long and narrow or short and wide, but do ask for help measuring your feet properly, and jump up and and down a couple of times and jog around the store in the shoes to see how they feel when you're really moving around."

"Sure, yeah, that makes sense."  Nod.  "What else you got in dungeon stories?"

"Well, there was the time that..." And she can pass quite a while this way, as long as her conversation partner will let her.

She will let her for at least a little while.

...but eventually she will say, "so I know I'm not totally zeroed yet but I think we said I'd need a better partner for that anyway, and I should check on my kid brother Lucky."  And also I am starting to get a not insubstantial crush on you and you(!) are(!) straight(!!!).

"I could zero you eventually, but it'd take a while longer. Probably a good idea to go check on your brother. I should get back to work anyway. I'll be in town another day or two so maybe we'll run into each other again. Do you want my contact information?"

"Yeah, sure."  She doesn't know if she will actually try to stay in touch, because Crush On A Straight Girl, but it can't hurt.

She can disengage and pull a business card out of a pocket (it has her codename, agent's name and number, and public twitter account on it) and scribble her personal number on the back.

"There you go, it was nice meeting you, take care."

Oh, it's nice to be able to stand still.  ...still-ish.  ...for a couple seconds.

"Nice meetin' you, Kuroko, she says.  She - smiles.  "I will.  You take care too."

"I will, thanks."

She collects her clothes and tosses Parry her shirt.

She puts her shirt on, waves, and heads out.