"Is your shoulder okay?"

"I've had worse."

"In the course of saving people from monsters or something else?"

"Mostly before that. I used to have a balance problem, I fell down all the time. Awakening solved it and fortunately 'not having a balance problem' doesn't cost backlash so I can still do it even if the superhero doesn't find me like they said they would."

"The superhero who transported you here last night can fix your backlash?"

"I wound up touching their hand a little when they flew me here. They felt like a compatible esper. Not amazingly compatible - or, like, it was weird, almost more like the way it feels when I'm standing a few feet away from my partner, except I didn't feel anything till I touched their hand, but at any rate I don't think the guiding rate would be amazing. But it would be anything."

"And that guiding eliminates your backlash?"

"Yeah."

"Was it only the compatibility you felt?"

"...there was something trying to affect my mind but shrugging it off was less expensive than the contact was guiding so it was still net fine, not being affected by psychic stuff is the cheapest power I have."

"Hrm, it sounds like what happens when two empowered touch then - albeit with the guiding and compatibility added on."

"I didn't know anything happened when empowered touched."

"It is... an amount impolite to discuss but I suppose needs must."

"When empowered touch they can get a sense, as if at a great distance, of their feeling for one another. Marriage impacts the bond, intensifying it, hence the taboo against discussing it without necessity."

"...it's not actually obvious to me why that would create a taboo about discussing it."

"It makes it related to the ... intimacies of marriage, which are generally taboo."

"Is it actually marriage which has these magical effects, or is it those intimacies traditionally reserved for marriage?"

Presumably he means accompanying one's spouse overnight during their haunting. 

"Some intimacies are necessary for the initiation of marriage between empowered."

"I'm... not sure I'm going to wind up with accurate models of the situation if you talk around it to this extent. Which is fine, because I don't have a demon! But to be clear the thing you're doing here is a different thing from successful communication."

"If it is not particularly relevant I'd prefer not to discuss the details, all things considered."

"Okay. So people don't talk about this and you're people. But I don't need to get married, I can get by on holding hands. My partner back home can't abide social contact when she's backlashed so the usual thing she does is hide under a blanket with only her feet sticking out, and that'll do."

"I can in fact talk about this if it's necessary for you to have an accurate model, it is just a non-trivial risk to be involved in such discussions, and while I detest this fact I can't entirely ignore it."

"Do you think you're being spied on or is there some other risk?"

"It is always possible for someone to walk in at an unfortunate moment...I suppose what is really happening is that I have rather strong instincts that apply regardless of particular circumstances."

"I'd hear someone coming. Espers have good ears."

"Empowered as well..."

"Was there a particular question you wanted to know the answer to regarding martial intimacies."