She gets out her phone. “Based out of California,” she reports after a moment.

"Eventually Racehorse is going to have to allow names to cycle, but if there's one still active I guess I don't begrudge them, it's a good name."

“Yeah. And I think if I did go with a sensory thing I’d want to lean more into the shrimp colors and bat hearing angle than the part where I can do dungeon sensing.”

"If you even can. I can ask Paula to find us a good candidate, whenever you're ready."

“Candidate name? Or, uh, another agent.”

"Candidate dungeon! Though I can also ask her to recommend an agent."

“Oh! I see. I think I want to get some critters for doing sensing with first. Maybe I can find someone who’s having a wasp problem, solve two birds with one stone.”

"I'm not sure how you'd find someone with a wasp problem... like, you could ask an exterminator for a referral but that's kind of poaching..."

“I hadn’t got farther than ‘internet,’ honestly.”

"Do you think you can find animals that aren't already obvious to you - like, there's got to be some fish in this tank, but they're all hiding, can you find them -"

“Oh! Yeah, that’s how I got the ants. I guess I could just steal an ant colony, they’re not hard to find, but I’d rather something that flies.”

"Valid." He checks his phone. "Cricket says he's game."

“Oh, cool!”

"In context, for letting you experience purring, but possibly also for letting you ride along with the experience of flight. I'd bet against the puppeteering thing being cool by him."

“That’s so reasonable! Uh, how much does he dislike me, I assume he at some point expressed an opinion while I was in the room but it fell down the backlash hole. Should I bring food as a thank-you gift? Or, like, something else, but food is easy and traditional.”

"He likes food. He does not dislike you a notable amount and you did also make him laugh which is better than most people manage."

“The shirt handcuffs were pretty funny.”

"The highlight of Cricket's month, I think."

“Okay. What kind of food does he like, I shouldn’t assume he has the same taste setup as a normal cat.”

"He mostly does but he'll try bits of human food now and then. Principally sashimi and organ meats though."

“Got it. I know a grocery store with decent sashimi in the prepared foods section.”

They tour the aquarium a little bit more, because they did already pay to get in—well, Haru already paid to get them in—and then pick up sashimi on the way to his house.

"Hey kitty, I'm home with Lucy!"

Cricket swoops over to land on Haru's shoulder. "Hello again," he says to Lucy.

“Hi! I brought you sashimi!”

"Well, I haven't had dinner yet so you may plate it and put it on the table for me."