It's definitely going to be more efficient than what he's been doing.

"...I have also... recently..." He breathes deeply, again. "You know of Lee Tae-gun? He's my... other... best friend. And we are very minorly compatible. He's been helping me with my backlash, and with... processing. Emotional, I mean. And we have been—having sex, recently. For backlash purposes." And a little bit because it feels nice, and a lot because of the human connection.

...he's not sure how to move on from that sentence. He'll wait for her reaction, he supposes.

"... Okay?"

Yeah that's definitely confusion under that cold demeanor. She does not see why this is her business, why is he telling her???

"...it just seems relevant, I suppose? If I'm doing more for my backlash than just cuddling you. And—so you know, about my other relationships and attachments, I guess. If we're going to be partners, we're going to be, at least for a while, part of each other's lives."

"Oh. I am currently single and focusing on my career. I don't particularly have opinions on how you conduct your personal relationships. ... Um, except to be safe?" Awkward shrug.

That makes him laugh, and the laugh makes him start giggling to himself.

?????? okay?

"Sorry, sorry," he says, getting the laughter under control. "It's just... I don't know. You reminded me of someone." 'Single and focusing on my career', yeah, that definitely rings a bell.

"... A... good someone?" From context??? She guesses?????

"Lee Tae-gun-hyung, specifically. So, yeah."

"Oh."

She. Thinks she's supposed to smile here. Um. Smile?

Oh they are literally the same person that's hilarious.

This did, actually, improve his mood, crazy as that sounds? He knows how to deal with hyung, and he might know how to deal with Fugimura Hana-shi. "I'm twenty-five, I also first manifested about six years ago, and I've been with Quasar since. I've had three partners, one for about three months, one for a year, and then Tae-hwan. My power is teleportation, and I'm a rescue esper. Quasar also has power batteries that have a very strong affinity with my power, and power controllers that have a very strong affinity with my power; they sell it to other guilds all over the world, too, so you might've used it.

"My backlash is loss of motor ability." He gestures again at the wheelchair. "Starting with my feet and going up. The backlash accumulation rate is abysmal.

"When it's not actively a confluence, I spend two to three days a week feeding the batteries rather than dungeoning, barring emergencies; during this confluence I of course am working as a rescue esper full time.

"I am happy to cuddle you, Fugimura Hana-shi."

She listens attentively, and nods along.

"Then... we can probably make this partnership work? ... I would reciprocate with an explanation of my backlash, but I'd feel more comfortable doing that after the signing of an NDA. I was aware of your backlash but will not explain the specifics to anyone regardless."

"Yeah, that's alright by me." He is really curious about what kind of backlash a psychic esper could have that matches his but it's probably powers' metaphors being bullshit again. "I'll sign it."

Nod.

Then, after it is signed:

"My backlash is magnification of negative emotional agitation and especially anxiety. Self-doubt, overanalyzation, sometimes guilt and fear. If it gets too bad I give physiological symptoms as well; loss of fine motor skills, uncontrollable trembling, increased heart rate and blood pressure. In somes cases I can have panic attacks."

Yeah it's metaphors going crazy. Something something motion something.

...but also.

He offers her a hand. "We'll figure it out. What do you want to do for siloing?"

She looks at his hand for a few moments, then takes it.

"Um. I - have a number of clients in Japan I am obligated to continue assisting both contractually and as my main source of income, but it's ultimately not very backlash intensive? Post rescue operations is when I would need isolation. If - I sourced my patients through Quasar, in Korea, then siloing here would probably be best for us both."

"—I'm afraid I'm not sure I understand what you mean by 'clients'."

"Oh. My typical power use is in reducing or removing unwanted emotional reactions, either in real time or in someone's memories. This is most efficiently leveraged on rescues from dungeons; whatever the dungeon did to them, whatever fear or terror or violation it incited, I can unmake it. It's - best if this is done sooner rather than later, before the emotional habit is entrenched and life-affecting. I typically do this sort of work gratis, and source most of those clients through White Star, or associated guilds that regularly do rescues.

"Then there are people who have long term entrenched problems, addiction, unwanted guilt, anger, or other lingering negative emotions from more complicated sources. And those involve a lot of understanding and work with associated therapists and the client to figure out where best my power can be leveraged for their emotional health and wellbeing. A lot of that work isn't on the esper side, it's on the therapy side. So it's not very backlash heavy, comparatively."

"...huh.

"That's really cool."

Nod. Little smile.

"Thank you."

"Do you have access to our intranet yet, by the way?" he asks, opening up his commscreen. "I'll show you to the internal app you can use to request specific siloing things if you want, so we can figure out what we'll have. I have specs for the kinds of accessibility aids I need already loaded up."

"No, not yet. The main things are a weighted blanket, my medication, and origami paper, which are very straightforward."

"I'll put in a preliminary request for those, then," he says, then does so. "Once you have access you can review it and we can submit the request."

Nod.

"Okay. Thank you."

"Let's exchange numbers, then? And, uh, I don't know what your schedule is looking like today, but..." He still can't walk and his guess is that she's under some amount of backlash, too.