"Free" and "food" are two of her favorite words! She'll have some of that first. Occupy one hand for it, leaving the other free for, uh, awkward handshakes, she guesses?

...At least a few others look as uncomfy as her here.

It's not literally painful to shake hands with an incompatible esper. But it doesn't feel like touching a baseliner, either. A baseliner has no input into the novel sensory modality at all. An esper does, and if they're not compatible, the input is: NOPE. It's similar in character to biting into a food that you expected to taste completely different from how it actually tastes, except that expecting it and touching the same person a second time doesn't help; you can take a second bite of blue cheese after your first one disabused you of the notion that it was green tea, and appreciate it for the blue cheese that it is, but there is no appreciating the blue cheese of incompatible backlash.

And most people are not compatible. Stuffed mushroom, handshake, bad. Tiny pumpernickel slices with smoked salmon, handshake, bad. Crostini, handshake, bad.

It doesn't really compare to the Itching Doom Week. She's not really... Paying close attention to most people. It's pretty clearly awkward-handshakes-time not friendmaking-time for her, and she thinks at least about halfish are feeling the same way?

...She doesn't even recognize some of these foods. The mushrooms are good and she gravitates to cheese. Handshake, shrug, handshake, shrug, handshake, shrug... And on.

Handshake, bad, handshake, bad, handshake - good!

She yanks her hand in sheer surprise, then catches herself.

"-Ah. Hi." And looks at his nametag.

It says HARU.

"Hi! I was just thinking, we should do fistbumps instead, it'd make flinching less marked, and then - well, you did sort of flinch, is it asymmetrical -"

"Haru, huh? Asymmetrical? I mean, I felt it, a bit- Fistbumps would be better, less formal. It'd feel less like we're all standing around in suits at a job fair."

She tentatively reaches her hand forward again.

"I just got out of itchy hell like a few days ago, I barely even know what I can do, I don't know how this works really."

"Itchy! Huh. Mine's loneliness. Not obvious opposites but I guess I don't know what would be the obvious opposite of itchy. I haven't checked what I can do either, I don't want to rack up backlash I can't put down again. But I've always been kind of an esper nerd if you have questions?"

"It's not quite itchy but I still super hate it! Uh. Are agents... Basically legit? I am pretty leery generally of - big ticket corporate stuff, it sort of feels like it's scams all the way down, and like. You're a better person to ask than an agent."

"Well, I plan to hire one, I don't want to deal with all the - bureaucracy and stuff and I think if I find the right one I can have a more streamlined superheroics experience."

"So a 'yes' for 'agents are basically legit', okay. I would really suck at bureaucracy and stuff, it's just all so- Tangled up with itself, rules built on rules to fix other rules... I really want to try things now that I know I won't be itchy forever about it, but here and now in front of God and everybody probably isn't the right way."

"Well, do you think you call down lightning strikes? I think I don't and I'm up for some powers testing if you also don't, they have more rooms here for non-lightning-strike type stuff."

"They do? Handy! It feels defensive and - kinetic? I feel like I could fling stuff, maybe pretty hard. So I'll have to try and be really gentle. I stopped myself from tripping by reflex."

"Useful! I used to be dyspraxic, that seems to have cleared up but an anti-tripping power still sounds keen. Let's find a staff person - uh, setting expectations, here, we've got to hold it down to hugging-guiding levels of power use, I'm gay and would need some time to think about it before attempting platonic kissing."

Blink blink. "-Oh thank goodness. I was - very aggressively not thinking about that part. Uh, not that you're not- It's just- Feelings. Yes. Several of them. I have absolutely no calibration on what 'hugging guiding' level is though."

"We'll have to feel it out, I don't know either, just, we can't do anything really backlash-intensive and expect to get rid of it with seven minutes in heaven or whatever that one pair of blondes snuck off to do.

"I feel like it would be pretty presumptuous on either side to assume we could even if you weren't gay!!"

She realizes she raised her voice a bit halfway through and lowers it to a hiss by the end.

"Anyway, yes, I want to go see what we can do. Superpowers!"

"Superpowers!"

The staff can direct them to a room; it's got crash test dummies and shutters that can come down over the windows and separate battery-operated sconces instead of wired lighting. And a generously sized beat-up old couch, in the corner.

She folds her arms nervously. She's about to itch again. But hopefully it won't last long...

"So, superheroics, huh? It definitely seems like the thing to do... Hmm. I'm going to go ahead and try something on the dummy on the left? Gentle-like."

She holds a palm out and focuses...

"Nothing? I felt it, a bit, but..."

The dummy's head bobs a bit, and her arm is visibly pushed back slightly by some sort of counterforce.

"Woah!"

"Whoa, what was that?"

"I pushed on it from all the way over here! It's sort of- When I stopped myself from tripping I did sort of almost fall and then bounce back upright, I had the sense that I was pushing off the ground, and it looks like that's right? Or at least, one mode of power operation?"

"Neat! Okay, my turn -" He turns invisible.

"I can't see you!"

She looks for a shadow.

No shadow, but he returns! "Oh, neat! I could still see myself... I wonder if we can buttonhole someone to see if it's more expensive if there's more people looking or not."

"No shadow, to me, which suggests... I'm not sure if your power was also editing out your shadow for me, or if it was making light pass through you and then giving you a vision of yourself. I should get a- Oooooh I actually have a postcard computer and one of those random electronics kits in the car, you know, it was Goodwill and 'software and electronics projects' looks good on a college app and it has a photodiode in it we could see if you're letting actual physical light pass through you and if you can be selective as to what can and can't see you!"