"...yes, guild president-nim."

He hangs up and pinches the bridge of his nose.

Marza knocks her head gently against the wall.

"Let's grade my psychic powers. Prez-nim has instructed you that you are to be partnered with me effective immediately, even though I have never actually taken on a dungeon and will probably be more of a liability to you than an asset for a period measured in months. He is enforcing this using some combination of emotional blackmail – like mine but less angry – and reminders of your actual job description. He is very worried about you."

"He hasn't instructed me to partner with you. You get input, he can't just tell me to do it without your consent. And—it might not take months. And it wasn't blackmail." Per se.

Cat-with-a-hairball snarl. "If I refuse, how likely is it that you will ever voluntarily work with me without calling in this chip and making it obvious that I never actually refused at all?"

Slightly more forceful wallheadbonk.

"...I will refuse if you ask me to. But I'm not going to pretend – rrr. It'd be manipulation, showing you how nice I'm being so you don't think of me as a ball and chain. I told you I'm not going to let it go. I don't say things I don't mean. This is unfair to you, but. Fuck! Everything that I can say right now is also manipulative!"

"If you want to talk about manipulative—" He cuts himself off. He shouldn't badmouth the guild president in front of the new recruit.

How did that report even get to the guild president in the first place? Did Yoo-min flag it—no. Probably not Yoo-min. Tae-gun thinks? Maybe Yoo-min. But—the report was in the system, he accidentally awakened another esper in a dungeon, that has strong implications about compatibility, and he said that he could feel her from a distance, which also has strong implications about compatibility, and there's really no realistic way this wouldn't get to the guild president's desk and from then it was a given that he'd jump on the opportunity. He's been making increasingly loud and insistent noises about this for years, it must've felt like a golden opportunity falling right onto his lap. And that the president called him just now—probably not a coincidence, probably he was waiting until he got news that Marza signed her contract, which apparently happened just now, and he certainly didn't know that Tae-gun was in the same room as Marza so he didn't mean to come off as that pressuring, but—

...but the president called in his favour. The one favour, and—Tae-gun really cannot refuse it. Especially not for this.

"Your first partnership almost always falls through, pretty soon. You don't have any experience with how to work with other people, how to do dungeons together, how to do dungeons at all. You're still learning about your powers and yourself. Usually you'd be partnered with someone who's also new, so you'd both learn together, because more experienced espers can often neglect to teach somethings or take them for granted, not to mention that they will typically be partnering each other and not be freed up.

"And I don't know how it would work with us. I take some A-rank dungeons solo; you definitely could not come with me without dragging me down or endangering yourself. There absolutely are things I will take for granted, and I will not be the best for your skill progression. The eyes of the media will be on you, not only for being my partner but for being so new at that. This is probably not going to go away for a long time, when this inevitably does fall through and you have to carry a legacy of having failed to be my partner." He hates that he knows all of this, that he had to spend time thinking in these ways. It doesn't come naturally to him, and it feels infinitely slimy, to have to optimise for this kind of thing. But it would be really irresponsible of him not to mention it.

And he wants to scare her away. Sue him.

"You think I care about the eyes of the media? You think I give a shit about my fucking legacy?"

She's walking forwards. "You really think I'll let you forget to teach me the skills I need? You think having a shit teacher could MAKE me not learn what I need?!"

Closing. "You think that I care about a SINGLE FUCKING WORD you just said, when the alternative is to do what a thousand other B-rank taser drones could do?! To let you KILL YOURSELF?!"

The problem with being as far away from each other as humanly possible in that room is that he cannot take further steps back when he's pressed against the wall. Not to mention that that'd be mortifying, but.

"That is not the alternative," he says, coolly. "You should definitely not become my partner to save my life. If you want a partnership that will last—that is not how you get it."

"Then I'll become your partner because you said I can't, instead. And we'll work, because you said we won't."

She calls up the teleport system. She flashes out to the lobby entry-point.

It doesn't have to get her far. Just make a point.

...did she just. Teleport away.

????

On the bright side he doesn't need to hold his metaphorical breath anymore. On the less bright side he might need to figure out a way to take care of this erection that's been plaguing him since he ran into Marza earlier, and that was not in his plans for today.

He hates his backlash so, so, so much.

...frankly Marza could also stand to get off. Being that mad at someone who's that hot and also having that – hyperawareness of every part of herself – fuck.

You know what isn't horny? Filling out requisition forms. She can do that. Paperwork paperwork.

❤️‍🔥Azkalita: violence accomplished. i feel slightly like i have kicked a big sad puppy but like a really annoying puppy

❄️sn0wpup: arf ૮(˶ㅠ︿ㅠ)ა

yoo-min-max: okay, I have to ask, because there's no such thing as a coincidence...

taegun fan no. 1183: are you talking about tae-gun-sunbae?

yoo-min-max: beaten to the punch I guess!

❤️‍🔥Azkalita: i have a policy of not confirming or denying things
❤️‍🔥Azkalita: like in general
❤️‍🔥Azkalita: my zips are lippered*

*It may be necessary to imagine a sufficiently odious Korean spoonerism of this sort.

🚫do-not-jin: I am not permitted to give you a chat warning for that but please be aware that I want to

🦔gangnag: lololol

❤️‍🔥Azkalita: you will never take me alive

Her permanent lodgings and silo will take a few days to get ready, but since she requested temporary accommodations until they are, a reservation for a nearby hotel is emailed to her so that she can stay there until then.

As for her next steps, starting on Monday (three days from now) she is going to go through something they call "induction": basically, a few days of some training in slightly more realistic scenarios growing into going into some smaller dungeons with more experienced espers so that she can dip her toes into it. At the same time, they'll be sending her esper profiles (properly anonymised) for people who could maybe partner with her, based on informed guesses about backlash compatibility. She can of course refuse any of them, and she doesn't need to give a reason for refusing, but it's expected that she'll put in a good-faith effort.

...trying to anonymize Lee Tae-gun's profile sounds hilarious. Whoever's job that is needs a gift basket.

On Saturday (the day after signing) she texts him.

❤️‍🔥Azkalita: yo sunbae
❤️‍🔥Azkalita: wanna meet up and do some getting used to each other. like spar or something
❤️‍🔥Azkalita: or just like watch me do flips and shoot targets and probably make an ass of myself with the guiding boost
❤️‍🔥Azkalita: guaranteed like 90% less yelling at you about shit i don't know shit about

He does not respond immediately.

Hey, it's the weekend. Maybe he's hip-deep in quicksand swordfighting a giant snake right now, maybe he's unconscious from backlash in his silo, maybe he's just catching up on soaps. She's not judging.

She will, however, head over to a Quasar gym facility. She might not "need" to maintain her muscle tone anymore, but once you've unleashed the exercise routine beast you feed the damn thing.

It takes him a bit over an hour to finally text back.

LeeTae-gun: My schedule is still filled.
LeeTae-gun: They will probably not free it up until and unless we actually formalise a partnership.

Nice thing about haptic implants is you can use them on the treadmill.

❤️‍🔥Azkalita: you don't even have like, workout time you could bump for working out together instead?
❤️‍🔥Azkalita: i guess probably soloing dungeons is a pretty good workout come to think
❤️‍🔥Azkalita: even if it's gonna be super uneven
❤️‍🔥Azkalita: so much cardio! so little good strength training!
❤️‍🔥Azkalita: my ballet teacher weeps
❤️‍🔥Azkalita: the regular one not the anime cat
❤️‍🔥Azkalita: the anime cat is my ballet husband and i hate him

He has absolutely no idea what the words she is saying mean.

LeeTae-gun: I do have time scheduled for physical conditioning, yes.