There's one question on everyone's lips.

"Singularity, is it true that you've broken up with Earthwave?"

She restrains the urge to slap the expensive camera out of the man's hands. Yes, it would be so satisfying. Yes, it would make such a lovely sound when the lens hit the ground and shattered. It is not something she will be doing today or any day. She doesn't want that. Not really.

"Yes, the rumors are true. Earthwave's found a new up-and-comer by the name of Zephyr who they pair much more efficiently with. It was always a corporate relationship rather than a personal one, and I'm told I'll have a replacement guide within the week."

"Who's the replacement?"

"I don't know yet. Some new talent, likely. We'll see if they can keep up. I've never had a partner that properly matched my backlash, so I'm not optimistic about my chances of something better than Earthwave."

Hailey huffs and turns off the TV. Not like she expected much from Singularity, anyway. She sighs and flops back onto her couch, groaning.

Remember what the counselors said, yeah? Don't dismiss a chance before she's checked it out.

She digs her fingernails into her palm and breathes. In for four, hold for four, out for four, pause for four. Again. Keep breathing her way around that box.

After a couple minutes, she turns the TV back on and flips to a show on Netflix about spies, settling in to watch.

The press man smiles in the way they do when they get a remark they weren't expecting to hear. "Do you have any message for your prospective partners?"

Ah, shit. She's put her foot in it again. She pauses, considering her answer, and tries to rein in her backlash. Usually the artificial confidence carries her, but today she's gone and smashed something just because she could. It might not have been something physical, but — 

The image of the reporter's camera slowly crunching into a ball of steel in her hand comes to her mind. 

Liath pushes it away. "I can be a bit of a bitch sometimes," she says with a wry smile, "so, like, watch out for that."

She waves a hand. "Sorry, sir, but I'm backlashing and I need to get back to my silo. Vault will be here momentarily."

"Of course, ma'am." 

The guild teleporter pops in, and a moment later Liath's back in her silo.

Well. That could have gone better. 

Liath goes over into the kitchen and gets a two-liter plastic jug of milkshake out of the fridge. She pours into a sturdy steel thermos, and drinks. 

Going over to her pantry, she gets out a big plastic bag of trail mix, digs out a handful, and eats. The motions are rote, mechanical. She could just tear this bag in half, dump all the nuts and m&ms and raisins out onto the floor. Wouldn't that be a glorious mess. 

She doesn't do it. She's tempted, but it'd be such a pain to pick it all up again and throw it out. A waste of good trail mix. Instead she pulls a deck of tarot cards out of the drawer by the oven, unseals it, and starts meticulously shredding the whole deck by hand, one card at a time. 

It's peaceful. Meditative. She sweeps the torn pieces into their own little pile on the counter. Every single card is a little work of art to tear apart. 

It feels sharp. Like she's a predator and the tarot cards are her prey. Like she's disassembling something to see what its parts are, intent on understanding. It feels right. 

Eventually she shreds the whole deck, and remembers that she has a milkshake out. She drinks. She eats. She goes and flops onto her living room couch. 

Earthwave wasn't a perfect guide by any means, but she wishes she could hold his hand for a moment right now. It would ground her. As it is — 

She time-locks her phone for the next two hours, and starts picking at the stitching on one of the couch pillows. 

A call comes in on the chunky plastic landline.

That goes to only two people: Daniel and her boss. She really hopes it's Daniel.

She goes and picks up.

"Hey. I'm not going to admonish you: we should've accomodated that you were going to be feeling more backlash and scheduled the teleport more tightly. Usually you're better than that. Learning experience. 

You got matched with Ancile from Black Flag, by the way. I don't think you knew."

Well now she feels like even more of a heel. Talking down to America's first A-rank barrier esper just leaves a bad taste in her mouth. Support espers already get a bad enough deal in this business without her going and rubbing it in.

"... Tell her I'm sorry."

"That you were wrong or that you were a bitch?"

That's the damn stupid thing, too. It doesn't do anything but make her confident enough to say the damn fool things she already thinks. 

"That I was a bitch. I was dismissive and rude, and I know she's not going to believe that I don't believe it, but I think I can at least be honestly sorry that I said it out loud." 

"I can work with that. Stay safe there, okay? I know you have coping mechanisms these days but you've gotten a heavier backlash than usual. Rest. Eat, drink, recover the calories you burned. I don't want you turning into a stick figure. Don't break anything expensive, or we'll have to put the TV behind bulletproof glass again. Especially don't break yourself. We've got lockdown on for the next two hours and then we'll assess. Alright?"

Liath nods sharply. "Alright."

Hailey Willburg, known publicly as Ancile (pronounced "An-seel-ay"), had just gotten back to her silo from shielding another esper in a dungeon when she saw Singularity's interview. She was already feeling distant, needy, mistrustful, and desperate for stimulation — not a good time for another let-down, in her opinion. She signed with Black Flag because of their reputation as among the best at partner-matching, especially for support espers, not that it's panned out so far. The best they've found for her are people up for some lukewarm spankings or maybe pinching her nipples, and none of that is enough to really bring her back to the world.

She writhes on the silo's couch, resisting the urge to claw bloody furrows through her skin, and presses a violet wand into her nipple instead.

At this point, she thinks Singularity is likely just another of those, and probably a bitch besides. She is not looking forward to what happens next.

She gasps and pants and dials it up higher.

Doing it herself never counts as much as someone else doing it does, but this is still better than those pissant little spankings.

Fifteen minutes later, Daniel reaches out. "I'd like to formally apologize for the unplanned remarks made by Singularity," he says. "She doesn't endorse them on reflection. This is my fault too: I never should have allowed the media to get at her when she was under a heavier backlash load. She's siloed right now under a media blackout or she'd be telling you this in person. She and I both still want to go through with this contract; what can we do to apologize?"

Daniel doesn't get down and beg, this is America, but in his head he's on his hands and knees. 

Hailey's rep with Black Flag is is a fiercely protective woman named Valerie Mitchell. She already knows how this will have affected Hailey, and she knows how desperate Guiding Star has to be for this match, so she smells blood in the water.

"Hello, Mr. Marks. Ancile is going to need a few concessions to make this up to her, yes. To start with, I want a private silo for her — on your dime rather than ours — because she will absolutely need someplace to escape to as needed after Singularity stepped directly on her trust issues. Goth decor, but cozy, good soundproofing and a quality entertainment system. It needs to be kept stocked with a variety of pain-play toys and medical supplies, for solo backlash management. I'm sure I don't need to reiterate how that needs to be kept confidential, either. Beyond that, easy meals in the freezer and a comped account on a food delivery service, because knives and hot stoves are an unnecessary temptation when she's backlashing. Lots of spicy food. And to reiterate, no knives unless you want to pay for a healer. And full access to your teleport services goes without saying."

Daniel winces internally, but nods. "I think these are all reasonable accomodations." Liath's been getting thinner with each passing week, even with Earthwave to guide her — and this match could genuinely fix things if they can just keep under wraps why their backlashes complement. If Guiding Star's top talent kills herself through calorie starvation it'll be his head on a platter. "We'll do everything we can to pave Ancile's way to Guiding Star."

Valerie smiles like a shark. "Then I look forward to the potential of this partnership. Thank you, Mr. Marks. As far as introductions, Ancile will appreciate an environment that highlights some things they have in common, once her guard is down enough to accept such things. What sort of environments is Singularity most comfortable in?"

"Given the nature of her backlash, Singularity is most comfortable with environments with utilitarian, easily-replaceable goods. Where items are too expensive to replace trivially she prefers them to be made well & sturdily. Her silo is set up to do timed lockout of her heat-generating appliances during periods of serious backlash — though she doesn't experience the desire to self-injure, her backlash can express as pyromania if given the option. As she is presently chronically backlashed, and I believe Ancile to be too, it might be best to arrange a meeting in a pre-cleared guild room with chaperones so there is a reduced possibility of a runaway reaction, as it were."

He rubs the back of his neck, a little embarrassed to have to spell it out for his client.

"I don't expect her to have a preference whether that guild room is Black Flag's or Guiding Star's. Whichever is more convenient and comfortable for Ancile."

He taps his thumbs together in front of him, considering.

"I expect that once the nature of the compatibility is spelled out to the pair of them directly, it shouldn't take too much convincing for Singularity to be willing to try mutual guiding through simple touch. No guarantees as to whether there will be anything more than that, naturally, that will have to be something Singularity and Ancile negotiate for themselves."

He crosses his arms, and looks Ms. Mitchell in the eye.

"As a reminder, we still want a mutual NDA for Singularity and Ancile regarding the exact natures of their backlashes in the event this doesn't work out."

"Knowing what I do about our clients, I expect they'll chafe at the chaperones, but it's likely a good idea regardless. At the very least the chaperones can restate why we think they're so likely to be compatible. Meeting in a room at our office in Seattle will likely make Ancile most comfortable," mostly due to the ease of storming out to drown her sorrows in the spiciest noodles in town if it falls through, "so that's my recommendation of a location."

She nods sharply. "And I completely agree on the mutual NDA. I would've been disappointed in you if you didn't insist on one.

"Are you going to be chaperoning personally, or sending another staffer?"

Daniel nods in return. "I'll be coming personally." Liath can be damn persuasive when she's backlashing, it's the confidence. Best to have himself on it. It'll schedule Vault a little more, but he has a good guide, he can handle it. 

"Good. Likewise." She nods, then decides to throw him a bone. "Would you like to give them the good news, once we have them in the same room?"

Hopefully that will build a small amount of trust from Hailey, which should help their ability to work together in the future. 

He nods. "Thank you. I would like to, yes. Are there any other matters you would like to discuss before we break up the meeting?"

"Just a note that Ancile would ideally prefer to avoid handshakes — or touch at all — from people she does not yet trust. She'll be willing to try a test handshake with Singularity, but after that it will be best to give her a chance to gradually get used to her before more physical contact. Time in each other's presence, gradually escalating contact duration, things like that. She's willing to push past her hurts here for the sake of clearing her and her partner's backlash, but it is easiest on her after trust has been established."

Daniel nods firmly. "Understood. I'll inform Singularity."

He stands. "Thank you for your time."

"Thank you as well."

Once the call ends, she sends a message to Hailey.

Guiding Star apologized heavily on behalf of Singularity, and gave up several concessions to keep us on board. I think you have strong potential with Singularity, if she turns out to be one of the few you can trust, and Guiding Star seems willing to go the extra mile to find out. Singularity's dismissive comment was backlash driven and unendorsed, and both she and Guiding Star still want to make this work.

Still willing to try?

Ancile is not available right now. She is coping with her stiff, aching, backlash-wracked body the only way she can: as much electricity as she can stand short of electrical burns.

Daniel calls Liath. "Mixed news, do you want to hear it?"

"Just give me the good part for right now, I don't want to crush another phone."

"Ancile's still on board and we still think the match is good. We're arranging a meeting between us and Ancile's people at their headquarters. You didn't destroy your chances."

Liath lets out a small breath. "Let me guess, you had to make concessions to keep the contract."

"Yeah. A fairly long list. But mostly their rep wanted to make sure Ancile's needs were taken care of, and that's the right set of priorities. We'll be scheduling you to meet Ancile whenever is convenient for Black Flag."

Her hand squeezes the phone hard, but without her power behind it she doesn't damage the chunky plastic. "Alright," she says. "That's fair. I'll try and prep an apology."

"I'll go over the wording with you once you have a draft together. Good luck."

"Thanks. I'll use it as best I can."

Daniel hangs up.

Yeah, Daniel's still kind of ticked. She's getting the professional face rather than the personal one. Guiding Star must be running damage control right now. 

She puts the phone carefully back on its reciever and goes and punches her couch. 

It doesn't help. 

She wants to rip the cushion apart, spill its plush guts all over the floor — 

Liath schools her breathing down. That kind of thinking is why she is not allowed scissors or non-plastic knives in her silo these days. 

She goes over to the whiteboard on her wall and starts writing an apology letter in felt-tipped marker. 

Dear Ancile... 

Eventually, Hailey has hurt enough that she feels like something resembling a real person again, rather than someone phoning in through a century-old landline to an achy statue.

Huh, she has a message from Valerie. She reads it.

Then she sighs, hard. Matches this (supposedly) good don't come around every day. Or every year.

Fine. I'll give it a try. We're going out for a spicy sub on the way there, though. I need to be in a less-shitty mood if this is going to have a shot.

Deal. My treat. The details will be in your calendar once we've got it scheduled.

Okay, now to work out the scheduling with Daniel.

The Black Flag offices are set into an esper-constructed small mountain on the outskirts of Seattle, just close enough to have easy transit access. Inside, they're a mix of industrial-chic and green spaces with a few hints of doompunk. Daniel and Liath's arrival point is in a small lounge area with comfortable chairs and moss-and-flower-covered walls, and a staffer is waiting there to lead them through a hallway that overlooks some imposing machinery to a cylindrical meeting room suspended from the exposed rock face of the ceiling.

(Inspiration image from the White Mountain offices at the end of this page. Picture that with comfier chairs.)

Valerie sits near the table, facing the door, wearing a sharply tailored business suit that somehow looks casual, pink hair tied back in a ponytail. She stands to greet them with a smile.

Ancile is a slender, 5'3" young woman with supernaturally-messy black hair, faintly glowing green eyes, and a thoughtful frown. She's wearing a dark green denim jacket with easy pockets, a black crop-top with a stylized silver dagger-and-shield print, snug black jeans, and black combat boots.

Her aura feels like locked-up muscle begging to be painfully stretched to mobility again, or an uncomfortable shell of stone that longs for a hammer and chisel. It feels like a fresh canvas of skin stretched taut, awaiting a knife to carve bloody artwork into her surface, like overwhelming distance, desperate to be bridged as sharply as possible. The fierce need to be torn to shreds until she feels human again is so loud that Liath can almost taste it.

Not a whit of this shows on her face, however. She looks firm, thoughtful, and considering.

Above all else, she looks guarded, like she's not sure about letting herself hope. (That is, however, more hopeful than anyone's seen her look in quite a while.)

Liath Belaria, AKA Singularity, is a six-foot-one woman with the build of a model, tending a bit to the underfed side. Her hair is red and straight: her eyes are a deep ruby, an esper's color. She wears a professionally tailored blazer jacket and a white linen shirt, but in place of a tie she wears a four-pointed-star pin on her lapel, inset with an opal. She wears black-dyed jeans beneath the formal top, good for running in and that won't show stains, and a set of black utilitarian combat boots. 

As soon as she steps into the room, Hailey can feel her aura. It coils with backlash: it feels corrupt, almost murderous, like the aura wants to do violence of its own will and is only restrained by the focus of its wielder. Where the edge of that aura spills out of her body and contacts the remnants of Hailey's backlash, the desire to hurt and the desire to be hurt find mutual satisfaction in the air, and annihilate. It's not as potent as the touch of Hailey's previous guide, but it feels like there is finally something of the same caliber as her aura in the room.

Daniel shakes Valerie's hand, and gestures to Liath. 

"Thank you for hosting us," he says. "I'm Daniel Marks, Singularity's agent with Guiding Star; and this is Liath Belaria, aka Singularity. Liath, Ms. Mitchell here is my opposite number with Black Flag, and this is the woman she represents, Hailey Willburg, aka Ancile." He looks back and forth between the two of them. "I'll give you two a moment to adjust to each other's auras."

Liath's gaze goes from Hailey's face to her combat boots and jeans, then back to her face again. A slight smile creases her face. She can feel Hailey's aura in the air too, which is more than she was ever able to do for any previous guide. Suddenly she really wants this meeting to go well. 

"Ms. Willburg." She doesn't extend a hand to shake, remembering Daniel's coaching; instead she bows slightly. "My sincere apologies for the earlier incident. I would not have said that had I been thinking more clearly. I hope we can move past that and form a mutually agreeable relationship."

I can taste your aura, and it tastes delicious. Not to mention being on the right side of the practicality versus fashion line. Let's see who you are, Ancile. 

Hailey stands as Liath approaches her, taking in the sharp sting of relief as their auras touch. She moves with the forced fluidity of someone pushing past backlash-induced stiffness, carefully looking her potential guide up and down.

Sharply dressed, with enough break from business norms to wear something other than a tie. Extremely practical under the nod to formality. Very much my type, although I can see the physical cost of her backlash. Her aura feels like the sharp release of a knife breaking skin.

After Liath bows and speaks, Hailey responds with an exactly identical bow, moving smoothly despite her rigidly aching joints.

"Thank you for your apology. I understand the costs backlash can impose, especially on one's judgment. I hope we can grow to trust and lean on each other."

Bowed instead of a handshake, clearly informed of my trauma by our handlers, able to take direction despite clearly badly suffering under her backlash. Sign her remark maybe really was a backlash-induced one-off, and perhaps she's only a bitch in the fun ways rather than the frustrating ones.

Daniel nods. "Now, Ms. Mitchell has given me the clearance to bring this up with both of you, but just to reiterate, what's said in this room comes under the NDA rider of each of your contracts, not to mention the doctrine of mutually assured destruction. Each of you has a backlash that if leaked to the press could ruin your career; that is, in fact, what makes you such good pairings to each other.

"While it is publicly understood that Singularity experiences increased confidence, lowered inhibitions, and loss of bodyweight as a result of her backlash, it is actually centrally the desire to destroy. There is a significant sadistic component. 

"As a result, Singularity has over the years done significant property damage to her silo in fits of backlash. Since it's in an isolated location, just in case, we've been able to keep this quiet from the media. But in practice, none of her previous matches have been done well, because they were attempting to match her public profile rather than her private reality. 

"This is where Black Flag comes in. Working under a strict NDA, we disclosed Singularity's true backlash to the matching agency, and this meeting is the result.

"Ancile's backlash is the natural complement of Singularity's, being composed primarily of bodily rigidity, vulnerability to overstimulation, and the keen desire to be hurt. There is a strong masochistic component. 

"Due to the lack of appropriate matches, this has over the years resulted in several incidents of self-harm for Ancile, which have equally been kept quiet from the media. 

"It is the hope of myself and Ms. Mitchell that the two of you will be the solutions to each other's problems."

She gazes levelly at Daniel as he starts to explain, considering the situation—

—Then turns sharply to face Liath when he mentions sadism, in a motion that can't have been kind to her stiff joints. Her expression whips through a rapid gallery of emotions, almost too fast for even an esper to catch, from shock—

—to flushed—

—and a brief moment of unguarded hope—

—before being ruthlessly smothered under a neutral mask.

Surprise flickers across Liath's face when she hears that her backlash was disclosed — 

— followed a moment later by wearied acceptance —

— and then, at last, a genuine smile at the news of Ancile's backlash.

There is no reason to be scared, her backlash tells her. You are queen of this domain. 

"I would have preferred that you told me ahead of time you were disclosing that information," Liath says mildly to her handler. "But I acknowledge that you were acting in my interests, and for this quality of match I can see why you'd risk it." She can still feel Hailey's aura in the air, making it easier to breathe, easier to think clearly. She can't wait to feel what a simple handshake is like. 

"I think it would be best to start by doing some practice B-Ranks together on a consultation basis, if that's acceptable to Ancile, before moving on to finalize the match. Nonetheless, I can tell our aura compatibility is strong simply by being in the same room with her." Stronger than Earthwave's ever was. "A test handshake would tell me more about how strong, but I'm comfortable leaving the progression of that up to Ancile so long as it happens within a vaguely reasonable timeframe. In the longer term, if this works out, our siloing requirements seem largely complementary."

Hailey grits her teeth slightly and holds out her hand toward Liath to shake. "If we're right about this, it's worth forcing my trauma for a moment to find out how right."

"Alright."

Liath slowly brings her hand in, and clasps Hailey's hand, giving her plenty of time to anticipate the touch. 

It feels like electric bliss. Power pours back and forth across the skin-to-skin connection, balancing in a rush of pure satisfaction. 

It makes her feel vulnerable, like nothing ever has. It pierces her armor, drains it away, leaves her small and lost and adrift —

She gasps.

The contact pierces through the walls and stone, shattering some of the built-up rigidity around her joints, in gloriously burning relief.

Her knees start to buckle as tension she'd forgotten she was carrying loosens — and turns out to have been a bit load-bearing.

Liath pulls her hand away sharply on instinct, a deep flush leaping to her cheeks. For once she's lost for words, the confidence to speak eluding her. 

"I — uh — ah —"

Hailey catches herself before she can fall over, holding herself upright through will rather than backlash now. She clutches her hand to her chest, gazing in shock at Liath.

"Gweh?", she replies.

Daniel gives an assessing glance between Liath and Hailey. 

"That strong, huh," he says quietly.

Liath manages to jerk out a nod. It's easier than speaking.

She takes a slow breath, nodding, then manages to speak. "Yeah."

Then she captures Liath's gaze with her own, cheeks flushed.

"Your schedule idea is great. You're also going to talk with me sometime soon about non-dungeon activities, and then we're going to make time for one."

She looks back, takes a deep breath, and nods. Some of her confidence has gone, but she's been in the business for a while — she can handle this.

"For sure, if you're willing. I just didn't want to overstep. We'll have to negotiate the professional-personal boundaries in the long run, but I'm definitely interested."

She might actually be able to go to a standard restaurant with metal cutlery without worrying, with this woman by her side. 

"I prefer japanese food due to the lack of sharp implements at the table compared to western cuisine. We could arrange a sushi luncheon as a starting measure. Ideally we do that somewhere we won't be mobbed by the press."

She knows a hole-in-the-wall place that does great ramen, but she's not going to offer it up at the first meeting. Too much risk of a too-flashy appearance. She'll wait to see how Ancile's team handles it. 

"Alternately, we could arrange something at a guild silo or the surroundings of one. There's a nice deciduous-forest wilderness area outside my silo, if you're interested and willing to trust Guiding Star's teleportation network. If you have other suggestions I certainly wouldn't mind hearing them." 

Hailey chuckles wryly. "I get what you mean about knives. I have yet to stab myself with a chopstick," then shakes her head.

"I like sushi. And noodles. And spicy things. And quiet forests where no one fusses about my being a pretty esper or having famous dead esper parents. And as much as personal time and physical contact are the only kind of pain I don't get off on, that time spent is the only way to find out if I can wind up trusting you."

Liath nods firmly. "Sounds like you've got your priorities in order. My people will talk to your people for scheduling, I'm sure. We'll see how Vault's bookings work out. Probably it'll be simpler to do a guildhall meeting than a silo transfer, but depending on the details of the silo provided by Guiding Star to you it could be simplest to host there. We have a chef on staff whose repertoire includes spicy rolls, so I'm sure something can be worked out."

"Sounds worth trying, at least."

She nods. "Good meeting. Let's definitely talk more soon."

Liath nods back. "Good meeting. We'll keep in touch."

The formalities after that — retaining Ancile on a contracting basis for the trial period, and so on — come as a welcome relief. 

Vault returns once the paperwork is squared away, and Liath is restored to her silo. 

She breathes a sigh of relief, at first. 

But now that she understands that she has the chance to truly earth all her backlash... she can't sit still. The thoughts of fire and knives sit lighter on her, but they seem to have been replaced with pure nervous energy. She doesn't know how this will work out, and so much is in the balance, and she can't do anything about it for hours and hours — 

She builds card houses and knocks them down like she's probing at a loose tooth that's starting to wiggle. The sudden nerves are bad enough, but she'd gotten used to a certain kind of backlash load and now that it's shifting it doesn't sit in the same way anymore. Her thoughts keep drifting back to Ancile, to the things she could do to her with a knife and a few hours together. The electric potential of that single touch — 

She finds herself wandering towards bed. 

Which, of course, is when the phone rings.

For a moment pure hatred goes through Liath's mind — 

— before being ruthlessly smothered. It's not Daniel's fault she was about to, ah, occupy herself. 

She goes and picks up the phone.

"We worked out the scheduling. You'll be clearing your first B-Rank together in two hours, followed by a second one in the morning; then there'll be a sushi lunch in Asgard because Nirvana was already booked by Vault."

Liath rolls her eyes where Daniel can't see. The afterlife names her people give the private luncheon rooms never stop making her groan internally. 

"Asgard tomorrow at noon works for me, and I agree on the tight scheduling for the first B-rank. I could use a little more load to balance closer to where I'm accustomed."

"Thought so. Do you need anything between then and now?"

"A lack of interruptions, ideally, but of course you can never predict when an emergency will come up. Mostly I just need to do backlash management right now."

"Reasonable. I'll get out of your hair. Remember to get more calories into you, you could stand to gain some weight."

That's Daniel for you. Always with the tough love. 

"On it. See you in two hours for the briefing. And thank you."

"See you in two hours. Have fun with whatever you were doing." There's a small note of amusement in Daniel's voice. 

Then he hangs up.

Daniel, Daniel. She suppresses a chuckle. Of course she can't get anything past him. 

Well, then. Time for more milkshake and the personal time she was planning on.

Immediately after the introductory meeting.

Hailey collapses into a chair in a private office with Valerie. "I hate meetings."

"But you like her." Valerie's smile is far too knowing.

"I might like her. My backlash wants me to like her. Hell, my backlash wants me to throw myself in her lap and beg her to fuck me with a knife, but we both know how doing that kind of thing before paying the toll of my trauma goes."

She shakes her head. "I can't trust her yet."

"Yet, she says."

"You are far too smug." She shoots Valerie a glare, then flops her head back onto the chair. "Ugh, why do I like you?"

"Because I got you out from under that horrible corporation that was raising you, and I understand your trauma better than any bureaucrat has a right to?"

Hailey sighs. "Yes. That." She looks up at the ceiling. "Okay. You've got the scheduling handled?"

"Yes," Valerie nods. "You're free to escape."

With no visible action from Valerie, Hailey is teleported back to her silo, arriving quick enough to see the flickers of light fading around a freshly-arrived, piping hot plate of the spiciest noodles in town, sitting innocently on her coffee table.

Hailey can't help but laugh. "Damn it, Valerie."

She digs in with a smile.

Just as she's finishing off the meal, a message comes in from Valerie.

B-rank together in two hours?

Huh. Valerie's moving fast with this one. Good shit.

Yeah, I'm game.

Then she cleans up after her meal and gets out her violet wand.

Singularity arrives at the briefing wearing her usual combat outfit — a done-up leather jacket, fingerless gloves, a pair of safety sunglasses, and her usual jeans and combat boots. Though she doesn't wear a helmet, Ancile's seasoned eyes can tell that she's wearing low-profile body armor beneath her coat and jeans. 

"So," she says. "I've worked with barrier espers before, but most of them were lower-powered than you, Ancile, working in teams, and not good matches for my backlash. We're going to have to rederive some of this from first principles. I've gone through the background dossier on you in the last hour to get some familiarity with your M.O. and I think I can see some obvious adaptations, but we're going to need to drill the cover and motion maneuvers in live environments. Usually I burn extra power preventing spalling and shrapnel from TK maneuvers in dungeons, but we might be able to hit higher efficiencies together by relying on your barriers to screen it out. And I'm not going to be used to the degree of mobility you can give me — a pair can move faster than a team of four any day."

Ancile, wearing similar gloves, her reinforced utility jacket and jeans and boots from before, and a moderately personalized armored vest, nods and hums. "Keeping a few barriers going continuously is fairly cheap for me, yeah. Doesn't start getting expensive until either they get big or we need lots. Shouldn't be hard at all to keep one or two between us and any shrapnel-producing actions, especially with the passive sink of your compatibility. Probably I won't need my room-clearing shield-rings very often, with as much range and flexibility as you have. Those are fuckin' expensive."

"Sounds like we've got the basics then. Standard cover drill number six, with screen delta for shrapnel management scenarios?"

She nods. "What do we know about the dungeon itself?"

"We've got good sensing and no unknown areas. Some heavies in the core room — that's where we come in — but nothing we shouldn't be able to handle. Here's the map provided by the sensors, threats marked in red, proposed breaching path in black." 

Liath passes over the document.

Hailey makes a few minor tweaks to the path to better take advantage of partial cover from walls near clustered threats, then nods.

"Looks good."

Then she looks up at Liath. "Also, call a clock direction if you want me to put a solid shield there, if you see something you think I haven't. Noon is our current movement direction. I'll also have my holo screen running an attacker/projectile detection suite to silently notify me of additional shield needs, but it may miss things, so don't hesitate to call. Power is cheaper than blood, in a dungeon."

"Sounds good to me."

Liath goes over the document herself, checking Hailey's work and the work of her people, but then nods. 

"Alright, let's go."

She nods, a smile coming over her face, and stands, ready for teleportation.

And a moment later, they're in the dungeon. It's a twisted mess of black concrete, budding with red pustules and fungoid creatures that don't look too happy to see them. 

"Let's go." 

Liath reaches out with her power, and grabs. 

Hailey weaves a reasonably complex set of shields. It costs more of her attention, but it's very power-efficient for covering one or two people. Each of the four shields is a cut-out of the surface of a sphere, all partially overlapping with each other. The rear-and-up shield is the largest of the four, and a solid surface, while the other three are each about an eighth of a sphere, and have a mesh or grid surface. This retains visibility, blocks melee, and saves power usage, and in the event of projectiles she can just solidify that shield.

It's not a hard clear. The mushroom-like creatures spit spore clouds, but with her power she can grab the toxic part of the air, concentrate it, and let Hailey sweep it with a solid shield to get rid of it for good. The mushroom creatures themselves have internal "hearts" she can just crush directly with her power, and the crowd management is easy between her TK-enhanced mobility and Hailey's screens shielding the rear. Keeping proximity makes everything more efficient than she's used to, and she gets a few flashes of fear in combat, but it's nothing she hasn't experienced before. Even the core monster is a pushover for the pair of them working together.

Hailey's reasonably pleased with their performance. Liath is more efficient than most people she's worked with previously, and adapts quickly to calling shield directions. On top of that, it's so much easier to shield-wipe things when Liath holds them still for her.

Soon enough they're striding confidently out the portal as the dungeon crumbles behind them.

Liath casually fixes her hair as she steps out into the cameras.

Hailey smiles her press smile as she walks up beside Liath. It's a bit rigid, but that's better than her honest opinions about the press. 

"Singularity! Ancile! How was your first clear together?"

"To be honest, Ancile rather impressed me. We make a good team." 

"Singularity's got a big enough gun to match my shields, and we seem to synergize well so far."

"Do you regret your earlier comment now, Singularity?"

She pauses, takes a moment to reign in her backlash. She should eat a little crow. 

"I do. I think I underestimated her. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Liath starts cutting through the crowd of reporters on the way towards their teleporter pickup.

Hailey nods sharply and follows behind her, grateful for Laith's parting of the press of bodies and the reduced risk of accidental contact.

The scrum parts for Liath; she walks like she'll run you over if you don't move. 

Vault's waiting at the sidelines, and extends a hand to Liath, then nods to Hailey. "Ready?"

Liath takes his hand. "Ready."

Hailey takes Liath's hand, forcing a breath out through discreetly gritted teeth, her smile going wooden at the contact.

The contact sings once more, promising so much and yet giving so little -

And abruptly, they're back in their respective silos. 

Hailey shudders, her breath shaky, from the moment of contact.

She tears through the things on her coffee table, looking for her wand—

Then turns it on and wraps her hand around it, burning the itching, crawling, twitchy feeling of contact with a new person out with blessed pain. She sighs in relief and collapses onto her couch, savoring the electricity flowing through her palm, before stripping her jacket and top off and attacking her breasts with the wand.

Liath exhales hard, in her own silo, and pulls out another tarot deck to shred. Her hands are shaking, a little, her usual confidence that she's doing the right thing more fluttery and unstable from the brief touch. 

"Damn, that was... It's a start." 

She settles in to her meditative destruction of card by card, taking a marker to some, simply tearing apart others.

Her breath is low and shaky, her eyelids fluttery. 

She can't wait to see Ancile again. 

Hailey's a little more hesitant about the prospect, she's been burned too many times to have a lot of hope yet, but this is still more hope than she's had in a long time. She's looking forward to their next dungeon a bit too.

Of course all of that's in the back of her mind, distracted as she is by a haze of pain as she manages her backlash.

The next morning, Ancile's ready and waiting for Singularity in the same meeting room as before.

Singularity greets her, her professional game face on but less solid than usual. 

"Hello again," she says. "I've been informed that a healer has been contracted under NDA for us." She nods to Daniel.

"They're a support esper by the name of Miracle," Daniel confirms. "B-rank, but should be able to handle anything that doesn't imperil you two's lives. Be cautious and things should be relatively safe. They were chosen on two qualities - not needing physical contact to heal, and proven ability to keep their mouth shut." 

Huh, that sounds handy—

Waaaaait...

"Is that for...?"

She blushes.

Daniel coughs. "Yes."

"Subject of course to what you're comfortable with," Liath adds. "Consider it a longer-term investment if need be."

Yep that's blush-worsening.

"Okay yep we need to kill things and then you," she points at Liath, "need to take me out to lunch. I need to stop thinking about those possibilities for now."

Ffffuuuuuuuuck that's a tempting thought. 

Nope. Think about planning.

"So what d'we have on this morning's target?"

Valerie taps a panel on her comm, and a map appears. "Today's dungeon is themed around carnivorous plants and strangling vines. The layout does not seem to shift, and we don't have any blind spots, but it's all stone corridors covered in plants. Identifying what's a threat and what's not may be tricky, so be on guard. Some signs of ambient pollen, pheromones, and toxins, so breathing masks are mandatory. Recommended path highlighted in black, known threats marked in red."

Respirators aren't exactly her kink, but they're part of the job, so Liath nods along and gets down to discussing the known mimics in the environment that were discovered by the sensors. Securing the respirators properly and configuring close-in shields so the respirators can't be easily stripped by vines or caught in a noose is one of Liath's higher priorities. She could just crush everything, but that's the kind of trick you don't pull every dungeon or you'll have a short career.

Hailey can hug pretty tight with her shields, but if they want something tighter than a spherical bubble it'll impede Liath's movement. It's easiest if she doesn't have to mentally track gestures, or anything more than threats and a set of static positions relative to her body. Can Liath stand on something held by her own TK? And support Hailey at the same time? (Of course if a sphere is fine then Liath can gesture all she wants.)