"Are the giant glass buildings and your glowing square part of that?"

"Exploitation of exotic materials found in dungeons has affected technology but I don't specifically know it to have anything to do with skyscrapers or cell phones. A hundred years is a long time for research and development."

"Well. That's good to hear,  at least."

"I'm so glad you approve. You can probably sell your lantern and anything you're wearing that survives the laundry to a museum for startup funds. ...which you are likely to need because I'm pretty sure there aren't time travel espers who could send you home even if there's a dungeon doing it."

"Ah."

Lucien will have emotions about this later.

"Do you... know where I might stay in the meantime?"

"I don't think Ren's put anyone in our guest room since the last time I checked, but first I am going to need to lay out a bunch of plastic bags so you can make it to the shower without wrecking the carpet... Thisaway."

"Thank you, I'll be happy to pay you for your troubles once I can afford to,"

And then Lucien can follow!  He stares in wonder at the plastic bags when they are procured. 

"Don't worry about it, I make esper money and the tip about the time travel dungeon getting where it needs to go is really the important thing here." Plastic bags are put and he is shown to the shower. "I don't know exactly what the state of indoor plumbing was a hundred years ago, how much of this needs explaining?"

"I uh, think I understand how all of this works."

"Cool. I'll go get you something to change into. What is the safe defusing procedure for this kind of lantern?"

"Uh, you can pour out the oil by opening this and tilting it over - I'm pretty sure the flame is already out."

"If the flame's definitely already out and there's not a pilot light or anything I don't need to pour off the oil. Be right back with a change of clothes."

He goes and comes back with boxers and sweatpants and another T-shirt and a pair of socks, and puts them on the toilet tank. "There you go. Holler if you need anything. I'm Haru, by the way, don't remember if I already introduced myself."

Lucien showers and dresses - eventually deciding that the boxers go.....under the pants?? 

"Your clothes are going to take some getting used to," he says after he's emerged, tugging at the shirt sleeves distractedly.

"I bet! Looks like you figured it out. So far no other reports have come in of temporally displaced persons, but of course that could mean anything, maybe most of them land in five years."

Haru's sitting on a couch that faces away from the door to the bathroom. Over his shoulder a cat face peeps suddenly.

"Possibly someone could find something about my disappearance in the public record?"

"I'm looking but I don't have much historical research background and had to guess how to spell your name."

"And maybe you just aren't that historically important."

"If the New York Times archives are still around I'd expect them to -"

"Oh, uh, yeah, my cat talks. That's new, it's not that cats have always talked."

"Ah."

"That's good I suppose."

"They still mostly don't. I'm very special." Flap.

"Around when espers started appearing, so did hostile pocket dimensions called dungeons, which spawn monsters. If a dungeon dies and there's one of its monsters outside of it, the monster powers down a lot, sometimes still exists after that, and is not necessarily still hostile. That's where Cricket here came from."

You know what, this isn't nearly as weird as being attacked by a monster a century into the future where people wear silk clothes that expose their elbows and tap on glowing rectangles to learn things. 

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Cricket."