Haru collects Cricket and flies to June's.

A little less than half an hour later, she texts:

I get the “I can do something” feeling about animals, too, not just people.

The mouse was a feeder destined to be snake food and I'm sure Cricket would dispose of another if you need a test subject.

Assuming I don’t leave it radioactive or something.

Seems unlikely, but I did mostly mean in the case where the mouse remains alive and well.

Probably I’m catastrophizing because I’m nervous.

It's valid to put off powers testing for a while if you would rather, I did.

Absolutely not. I’m not having trouble resisting the temptation to do I don’t know what to everyone I see, but the curiosity about what it is I’m even tempted to do is gnawing at me.

OK. I'll be available once June's put right.

I appreciate it. If getting a feeder mouse is out of your way I can try to catch some ants.

Oh, I'm not sure where Ren got it, but if ants work by all means.

I think ants work. They feel like I could do something to them. I can’t rule out that I work differently on arthropods than mammals, though, depending on what I do. They work SO DIFFERENTLY.

The big thing of course is if it works on monsters. If it's something Cricket won't play ball with I've got a list of zoos that have monsters though I don't know how many will let you check with theirs either.

Oh, Cricket works. I felt him, anyway, when you two passed me on the way out. I just didn’t update much on that because I know he’s a person.

In that case the question is if it works on non-orphaned monsters, but you should know more about it before you step into even the tamest dungeon.

Yeah! But maybe I can be in the vicinity next time you drag some out in advance of a dungeon’s demise

like with my spiders they were never your spiders, Lucy

That can be the tentative plan! Any luck with ants yet?

Well I got some but then I realized I didn’t have anything to put them in so I shook them off and now I am inside getting a cardboard box I can punch tiny holes in.

I wouldn't go with tiny holes, ants are themselves tiny. Jar with a rubber band and a sock over the top, maybe.

I meant like needle size tiny but a jar might be easier to come by anyway.

Is it? I realized after I sent that that I'm not sure why I expect there to be mason jars around in a random college dorm.

*Mason* jar??? I’m getting a jam jar

That does seem more likely to be readily available. I never did wind up going to college, I don't know what the food situation is usually like beyond the cafeteria I assume they have

Most of us have additional snacks of some kind.

And there's a fridge? Or have they invented jam that is shelf stable even after you open it. Or is the latest college student trend eating an entire jar of jam while writing papers at 2am, I wouldn't know