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I can do the highland fling
Wendy esper meets Nick esper
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There's a potential partner, like many others. Her agent handles the details. Not a meetup event, they're apparently meeting one on one. She's only so willing to go on wild goose chases for possible partners, but his sounds quite promising. Hypersensitive skin. It's practically the polar opposite of hers... Sort of. If you squint, hers is something like 'need more sensation on my skin'.

Apparently there was some sort of trouble setting it up. But eventually she gets a firm time and place to go visit, and begs off dungeons for a couple days and juggles time with Teddy and Haru to get close to zero so it's not intolerable for the travel time and goes and visits.

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It's a random Maple Group silo borrowed for exactly this. He's behind a privacy screen. One may infer from his backlash and the privacy screen that he's probably naked or close to it.

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...She'd hate to be snuck up on in this situation. "Hello there. Nicholas, right?"

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"I am, but call me Nick. And you're Wendy?"

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"Mmhm. So... How do you want to do this?"

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"Let's check first thing, get that over with. If it doesn't work, we can just go our separate ways. If it does... Well. We can talk. Can you reach through the little hole in the privacy screen? And then I'll touch you, briefly."

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"Alright, whatever works for you yeah? For all that I kind of hate mine, yours sounds almost worse."

She puts her hand through.

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"Backlash is like that."

He reaches cautiously-

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She feels guiding. And then it stops. But there was no actual contact.

"-Ah!"

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Nick takes an audibly deep breath.

"Dammit!"

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"Isn't this a good thing? We're- Compatible enough you didn't have to actually touch me! Even if you can't bring yourself to do it-"

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"I could stand six inches from you and get anywhere, yes, it's- Give me a second, please. I just- Ugh."

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...She kinda knows the feeling. She pulls her hand back.

"All the time you need."

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"Can you tell me - about yourself, I guess, while I center myself? What kind of esper are you, what work do you do, what would being available to each other look like-"

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"I've been travelling a lot looking for partners because, seriously, magic? That I can do? I want to maximize it! My power is kinetic pushing, and also esoteric defense stuff, I love it, it's such fun. I can fly, I can do landscaping, I can be a fuckin' railgun. At first I wanted to mostly do construction and only rarely fight in dungeons, but I've been steadily leaning more towards combat as I get better at using my power- It's a super high skill ceiling, and even if I'm kind of taking risks and it might bite me in the butt some day it's just... Such a thrill, to stroll through a dungeon and save people and smash the monsters."

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"Mmh. I am an unrepentant and shameless coward. I have no intentions whatsoever of stepping foot into any dungeons. It would take... A fair bit indeed, to convince me otherwise. 'Tis a shame, then, that my powers seem to be a potent defense. I can ignore things that try to move me- Wind, being shoved, rain, gravity. I can walk on walls, and extend my absurd toughness to things I'm holding. Have not tried it with people I'm touching."

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"Well, I'm pretty sure conscription's illegal, so you've got that going for you. And I get it, I think."

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"Do you now? Please enlighten me to the contents of my own worries."

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"Dungeons are scary as fuck. They're risky even if you take every reasonable precaution. And that you deny it like that means you're aware of and thinkin' about how, uh, most people expect espers to do the dungeon and save the day, and who even are you if you don't? And that, that fucking sucks, social pressure to do that stuff? To risk your life just because you're more capable of helping? It's- The superman thing, right, some people yell at superman for not working 24/7/365, but superman doesn't have an obligation to save people. It's good that he does, morally correct and all, but... There's gotta be a limit, right, you get edgy thought experiments like - I don't remember the name, nevermind. It makes me wish I'd gone for a secret identity. I'm not liking being low-key famous much, honestly, and I'm still new at this as these things go."

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"...I suppose you do get it. Mostly."

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"Anyway. Rant over. So. Yeah. I'm, um... In Toronto for now? Because my two previous partners operate out of there. I could- I want to make this work, that's a lot of guiding, which is a lot of smashed dungeons and it- It really feels very good, you know?"

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"I'm working up the nerve to actually touch you and see if 'guiding' beats 'backlash'."

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"Cool. Cool cool cool." There's a note of excitement in her voice. "Can I help? Somehow?"

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"Patience, young padawan."

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She snickers. "I don't think you're much older than me."

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"...No, likely not. Alright. Hand again, please? I'm going to actually touch you and see how it feels on my backlash."

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A hand is pushed through the little curtained gap.

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And he, very carefully, touches her. First with just a fingertip. Then, clasping her whole hand.

The guiding feels so good. At the same time, it feels like way too much touch. Too hot, too cold, too pleasurable, all at once.

He grunts in concentration. "That is... A lot for me. It's very intense. I think- I think guiding does beat my backlash in terms of - being a positive experience, but it's very intense and distracting."

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"Oh it's, uh, it's intense and distracting for me too."

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"...Do you want to, uh..."

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"Yes? Both in the 'please elaborate' and 'most likely answer to your question' senses."

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"Heh. Right. I would like to kiss you. And then quite probably more than kiss you."

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"Heee. Um. Yes. So would I. Even not knowing you very well yet the compatibility is just- Mwah!"

Can she worm her arm up to touch more of his forearm? She can, and Nick doesn't pull away.

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"Uhh... If we're going to do more than kissing let's keep it to the metaphorical kissing-in-places level today while I figure out birth control."

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"Oh, ten thousand percent agreed. I don't want kids. And you don't have to do anything you don't want to."

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"I do want to! Guiding makes me really turned on, it's incredibly common to be horny about it and I am in that group, and my last two partners are both less compatible and - one, gay, and two, super shy."

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"...I'm naked behind this privacy screen. I feel like I should - admit that- It feels like I'm doing something wrong. I try to be cool, you know, the smooth talking cool guy, but I don't actually know what I'm doing. Does anyone? -Sorry."

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"It's because of your backlash, right? I think that's... Reasonable. People are naked sometimes. And uh, I'm nervous too. Would you actually mind if I, say, t-took all my clothes off and came around the privacy screen and we snuggled, naked?"

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"...No. I don't think I would."

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"Yeah. So. We can just do that. When I work up the will to let go of your arm."

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"Hah... Okay, right. Gives me a minute to tamp down the anxiety too. You're an active dungeon-diver, you said?"

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"Mm-hm. Be the hero, save the day. I also do construction stuff but not that often. I want to be a satellite launcher some day."

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"Satellites, nice! You can push without recoil, right? Cheat the rocket equation?"

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"Exactly, yeah!" She tugs on his arm a bit in excitement. "Space travel is so cool- I'm a writer, technically, it's not very popular but I'm doing a hard sci-fi thing about the different clans on a generation ship..."

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"What a clever prospective partner I have found. I used to be a truck driver, not so much now? I'm going to have a number of hobbies to poke around with if I can get a little of that esper money. Still pretty darn afraid of dungeons, though. Not apologizing for it either."

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"What kinda hobbies you gonna buy into?"

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"Oh, lots of candidates. Maybe model trains, or woodworking, or 3D printing, pottery or glassblowing... I like working with my hands, just, truckers move around a lot and there's not that much pay in it."

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"Most of my creative energy goes into my writing, like for example..."

 

(They continue on discussing hobbies for a few minutes.)