“Well, obviously we’re compatible, but before encountering backlash-related confusion I obviously had no way of assessing that.”

"Okay. I'm... the same person who sent you a text saying that you were awakening, you looked at that text a minute ago."

“Right, that makes sense.”

She still has her phone open to that message. She looks at it again in case there’s some piece of context there that she missed and that he expects her to have.

The sender is labeled as “Traceless.”

Oh nooooooo.

She doesn’t entirely remember WHY it’s so much worse for Traceless to have accidentally seen her with her shirt off than some other esper, but it definitely is!!!

"...is that bad for some reason."

“I tied you to the sofa!!!” With her SHIRT. It’d be great if a meteor would hit her or something.

"I could've stopped you, I got out as soon as I wanted out, it wasn't a big deal. I awakened too and also did embarrassing things while backlashed. It's a normal esper thing."

“Yeah, but doing embarrassing things to you is much worse than doing them to a stranger!”

"...'stranger' isn't a confusing word?"

“…A stranger is…a thing-capable-of-perception, that I have not previously interacted with.”

"Huh. Can you tell me if there are strangers in the room right now?" Ren's over there, fixing dinner, and Cricket's on Haru's shoulder.

“No, I could tell you were capable of perception because you had to be an esper because the nice thing I was experiencing had to be guiding and all espers are things-capable-of-perception. If anything else in the room is an esper I could probably tell by touching it but I’m pretty sure there are things capable of perception that are not espers, and I have no way of identifying those.” She considers this. “The sofa isn’t an esper.”

"You're right, the sofa is not an esper. Uh, while you're capable of having a conversation - I can't keep this up literally constantly all week and I need to know your guiding preferences for when you can't remember that I exist, or whatever, in order to express them."

“Oh, uh—I think while I’m not being guided at all I would prefer to be somewhere nobody can perceive me. With phone and charger and preferably some physical puzzle things. I think backlash is usually more acutely unpleasant than this? I mean I’m mortified now but I wasn’t when I didn’t realize I was being perceived.”

"You seemed really chill about it, yeah. Would you rather not be guided in your sleep?"

“No, that’s fine. Actually it’s even better than being guided while awake because I can’t do anything embarrassing while asleep.”

"Okay. Uh, obviously you can choose to keep your shirt on but surface area is linear with guiding and I am quite confident that no new perceiving-things will perceive the situation or judge you for it if you don't, either now or when you're more confused."

“…I would be more fine taking my shirt off if I were wearing a sports bra instead of, uh, this, but probably I can get over myself. And put on shorts.”

"I can... acquire bras and shorts but they're not going to be in exactly your size... hm. At school, are there names posted on your dorm room's door? It'd be yours and one other name."

“Oh! Yes, my name is on the door. In purple construction paper. With glitter.”

"Is there anything else posted on the door, possibly also on construction paper?"

“Oh, uh, yeah, it’s ‘Rosy.’” Why does she have the name of a plant on her door? Probably not important. “In red construction paper with sequins.”

"Great. Can I borrow your phone? This will help with getting you clothes that fit."

“Okaaaay.”

Is there exactly one Rosy in her contacts?