"A lot of espers decide to circle back to college later, but it has a very different relationship to your career than it would have. Do you want me to text you reminders of appointments that go on the calendar?"

"Maybe keep it to a morning summary, automatic or not? Plus updates if anything changes? Actually, let me just... I'm sure there's a way to give you access to Google Calendar in here somewhere and then it'll ping me automatically... Unless there's a better, epserified calendar app?"

"Morning summary and updates, sure thing - we use Partna, but it has some integration with Google Calendar available. I've emailed you a link to get you a pro account that's attached to mine, it'll lapse if you switch agents but you can export all the data or resume it with a new person if they use the same app."

"Yeah. The cloud is just somebody else's computer, anyway..." She can't help but mutter slightly. "Okay, I'll set that up soonish. I assume you're gonna criss-cross with Haru's agent, uhhh- Blanking the name, sorry- And I'm gonna text him and probably have a conversation about general scheduling tendencies."

"Paula."

"Paula. Okay. I think that's all then for right now? Thanks, Ms. Kathleen. This is all exciting stuff."

"Sure is! You have a good day, okay, Wendy?"

"I sure hope so."

She hangs out by the fishtank and, after some socially anxious editing and thinking that if he's backlashed at all he's probably grateful for ANY text, texts Haru.

Hey Haru. This is Wendy if you haven't got me as a contact yet. I just had a meeting with my now official agent, Kathleen also of Maple Group, and realized we probably have more to talk about. She wants to schedule my first dungeon (whenever I'm ready to go in one) WITH you for example. I remember you mentioned 'superheroics' so I guess you want to do dungeons? I might lean towards construction things. And we should talk about where and when to meet up and guide. So overall when is a good time for a phone call?

I do want to do dungeons. I think being invisible to monsters is probably a good generic power, once I can also shoot the monsters instead of just staring at them. It's my turn to make dinner but in 30m I should be done eating and can call

I think our agents are scheduling something for that. And that sounds like pretty good general offense & defense yeah. OK. I'm going to drive home, can it be ~1hr instead?

👍

She - texts Kathleen that she's leaving, then drives back to her Mom's place. Stops for fast food since that should make it pretty close to an hour total instead of like forty minutes.

Ring ring.

"Hey, Haru! How's it going?"

"Doing good over here. You decided your agent wasn't out to get you after all?"

"Yeah. It's- I guess I am kind of naturally suspicious? I don't really trust the system that much. Too full of moving parts that don't care enough."

"Well, I guess it's better if it's natural rather than a cynical product of long experience."

"Ehh... maybe eighty twenty. I guess you have a bit more optimism? ...But anyway, I want to practice with my powers more so we probably need to figure out... Stuff."

"Yeah. You wanted to do some of your testing at the range, but that's an awkward place for me to be backlashed because they make you wear ear protection even though espers don't really need it, so I can't rack up too much beforehand. Probably makes sense to hang out in the range parking lot or something afterwards and do a little me-testing so I can catch up with you enough to help, maybe do this several times during breaks in a longer training session so you're not too uncomfortable at any one time?"

"Yeah... I do want to see how well I tolerate low-moderate doses of backlash but I don't need to carry it for days. I will try and help you out as much as you're helping me of course. Uh, I also have some non-range practice to do. Going to work with lab balances and clay to try and build construction skills. I think I personally want to aim for a pretty high pace of power use? I mean. Superpowers. Which means a lot of time together if you have similar plans."

"I would certainly like to formulate such plans! How much should I expect to be talking to my phone or Cricket instead of you while I'm lying on top of you like a weighted blanket, ballpark?"

"...Haaaaaalfish? Maybe less? That's what I'm producing, but I don't have justifications for this estimate. Probably will take trying it to see for sure. I write fiction, and that'll be the easiest thing to chat for a long time about, for me."

"Sounds fun, I'm gonna guess hard sci-fi?"

"Yeah! Generation ship with political struggle over important ship systems."

"Well, if I don't interfere too much with your creative process I'm here for it."