"Yeah, exactly, so if you're concerned and can't get a coherent response out of me by all means barge in and smack me, and if there was actually a problem I'll probably cling to you like an octopus instantly."

"Hmm..." (Teddy is currently occupied texting.)

Peas and pasta go in the strainer. Cream and parmesan in the sauce.

"-Okay, it looks like I ought to be able to set something up for this. Apparently it's come up before."

"Not surprising." Lemon juice. Salt and pepper. Toss to combine.

"While I'm being wistful what would really be revolutionary is not power batteries but backlash sinks."

"It'd be nice but the batteries sort of serve the role, in the sense that you can arrange to fill them concurrent with maximally efficient guiding instead of in whatever circumstance the power is called for."

"But not all powers can be batteried."

"Yeah, but if we had backlash sinks they could just as easily turn out to be backlash-specific."

"Hmmmmm. Ugh, well, whatever. The world is as it is and not as it could be."

"For now."

Ren arrives home and sniffs the air. "Smells great, Haru. And you must be Teddy! Pleasure to meet you, I'm Ren."

"Uh, hello, ma'am. I'm Teddy. As you know."

"Mm-hm, Haru's mentioned you. Haru, do I have time to -"

"Whatever you were casting about for there the answer is no, soup's on." He plunks the pot full of pasta on the table.

He will... Sit??

"-It does smell really good. I usually just eat like packaged stuff honestly."

"Oh, me too, but hospitality."

"So you have a sensor power for finding the dungeon victims, right, Teddy?"

"Yes. I think it's metaphorically- A communication power first? It's like telepathy. And finding people to telepath at is almost a side effect."

"Oh, how neat, do you find a lot of use for it in other situations?"

"I try not to? Occasionally I slip and, like, check if the store is crowded with a really brief glance before actually going out."

"That sounds really handy but I suppose if you don't have a well-established partnership it'd be a bit of a silly thing to do all time. Haru, don't look at me like that."

"It's the same thing as the times I marked myself unavailable for dungeons because Wendy was out of town. It's not wise to screw around with backlash sticking around long enough to go chronic."

"Sadly, backlash is actually really really bad. Happily, we can help each other about it."

"I hear you're even more compatible than with Wendy!"