"...I guess there's the whole dungeons thing?"

"The whole dungeons thing?"

"Where I can.  Get thoughts from them."

"I don't know off the top of my head who will be interested in funding research on that or receiving your reports but whoever it turns out they are, I can be an interface."

Wow, okay, he's been not really sure whether he vibes with this guy enough to be able to work with him while very scared of everything, but this cinches that Julien should at least try to reach out to some other people.  "Okay, cool."  Maybe he's just really professional or something.

"Should I get started on paperwork?"

"What sort of paperwork, exactly?"

"There's some things you'd sign empowering me to act as your agent in various capacities, like financially and accepting assignments for you. I can in practice just ask you about anything you'd rather see yourself before agreeing to it but a lot of espers want less contact with those details."

"...Seems like a lot to get into right at the end of the workday?  And I think I'd like to think on it a bit more.  Sleep on it, see if I can figure out what my other identity would think of it one way or another."

"Okay, call back or email, either is fine with me."

"Thanks so much, have a great evening."

"You too."

Click.

hey haru
how well do you feel like you clicked with paula when you were first hiring her?

I talked with the guy and he was like disconcertingly chill with the whole I can read dungeons thing

idk if I can find someone who thinks it's the most important thing but like there should maybe be a reaction at all do you think?  or will they all be trying to be professional

I picked Paula mostly because she answers the phone really fast and the chances that this saves my life someday are not zero

I could take or leave her on a personal level

I'm not actually sure it'd be good for you to have an - excitable? agent?

hm yeah

but there's excitable and then there's like.  acknowledging that it seems important at all

idk

Is this about sheer rapport or is there a part of agenting that you think is impacted by this?

I think just sheer rapport?  although like if there was someone who felt it was important they might catch an opportunity that someone who doesn't wouldn't
which.  I think this is important and so I want to catch anything that might make a big difference

which doesn't have to be my agent per se but

hm hold on actually

I think I'm going to be doing a lot of like optics management, and like the avoiding coming across like a militant vegan about this thing

and I don't want to have to be worrying about managing my agent in that respect.  I want someone who feels like they're on the same team as me

You want to avoid coming across as a militant vegan *to your agent*, or you want their backup in managing your publicity towards this end? those are different

the first one
if they felt aligned on this I wouldn't mind if they thought I should hire a separate publicist or something

Toughie. Espers are random people but agents self-selected into a dungeon-slaying-based industry.

blehhh
it seems real bad if I feel like I can't talk to my agent about what I actually want

do you think it's worth it to try out other people at maple

You certainly can but there's not all that many looking for new clients at any given time. No reason not to try another agency if you don't like the profiles of the remaining Maples.

how normal/valid is it to switch agents after a while?  no one's website text is going to be about this but I feel like I'm going to meet lots of relevant people and maybe someone will end up knowing someone good for this before I experience any horrible consequences

I think it is uncommon in the same way that divorce is uncommon i.e. some people replace their agents twelve times and throw off all the averages? your fifth candidate might want a higher percentage than your first just to make onboarding worthwhile, or something?

hopefully I'll just need at most two
and I'll see how I feel about this guy in the morning

tysm for the consult, this was really helpful to me