Like her parents' textbooks from college. There's one about meteorology, one about math, and one about psychology!

That last one is the most interesting! She takes it up to her room after a while, bouncing between the chapters.

There's a chapter about personality, a chapter about how consciousness works, a chapter about dungeons, a chapter about socialization…

"Did you know that there are no sensor espers that can map out Nightmare?"

"Did you know that if a Nightmare rescue team doesn't have a psychic who can remove mental influences, the victims can't leave?"

"Did you know that the nightmares in Nightmare are real? And even if a rescuer is shielded, the nightmares can still attack them before they shield the victim?"

"Did you know that Nightmare can kidnap the same person twice?"

Leah's fourth-grade teacher gives her parents a call. Is everything okay at home? Well, she's doing fine in class, but she's obsessed with dungeons and keeps telling her classmates things she learned about Nightmare.

Leah's parents take away the psychology textbook. Maybe the meteorology textbook would be fun to read, too?

It's fine.

At least Wikipedia exists! Plus, Leah's parents aren't that good at hiding things.

Leah turns 16. She watches cartoons on her iPod Touch and sings in the auditioned choir and takes AP classes and gets a regular bra and feels weird and bad about it.

Over spring break the auditioned choir goes down to Disneyland. Leah's in the gift shop for Space Mountain when she gets nabbed by an itty-bitty dungeon. It's cold in there and she didn't bring her jacket and it kills her iPod's battery so she can't even read saved comic pages and has no idea how long it's been, but apparently by the time she's rescued it's been less than 90 minutes. She goes back to the hotel instead of watching the World of Color light show.

She doesn't awaken.

Leah turns 17. She's a senior now, still in the auditioned choir. She takes more AP classes (she's glad she took calculus last year, statistics is a breeze) and reads a lot of rule 63 fanfiction and makes the spring play and sings with the choir at graduation.

She doesn't awaken.

Leah turns 18. She donates her hair and reads about sexuality and gender—she thinks she's ace, and… maybe genderfluid?—and goes to college and can't bring herself to leave her room for anything except meals and bathroom breaks and goes to two sessions of therapy and doesn't say anything on the last drive home.

It isn't all bad. Leah meets some cool people in a MSPARP group chat in October and abruptly realizes on Valentine's Day that they have a crush on one of their new friends. They send a handful of anonymous asks and in the morning the two of them have an actual conversation and decide to start dating.

Leah doesn't awaken.

Leah turns 19. They spend a lot of time on Tumblr; it's there that they learn about Dungeon Data Science International. They think about their dungeon-obsessed fourth grade self and decide to volunteer, even though phone banking is terrifying. They fill out a survey with what they can remember about that dungeon that got them them in junior year and wonder why they weren't handed a survey back then.

Shortly after the new year their parents tell them they need to get a job. They apply for DDSI and manage to land a job.

They don't awaken.

Leah turns 20. They know that the odds dropped from one in fifty thousand to one in half a million six months ago.

Sometimes they're okay with it. Sometimes they're desperately disappointed. Sometimes they kick themselves for being conceited enough to hope. Sometimes they reread every paper about transgender espers awakening to more suitable bodies, even if it's obviously not as drastic as webcomics where the lead wakes up one morning as a cute girl.

Even if they did awaken, their partner probably wouldn't. And they don't really want to have to do—guiding things—with someone else.

Leah turns 21.

They… think they're okay with it? And not even in a sour grapes way. They're probably going to keep quietly hoping at least a little for the next three or four years, but…

They're still helping. It might not be flashy and technicolor and larger than life but every day they clock in to work for an organization that's helping. An organization that's working to understand dungeons and monsters. It feels good to contribute to that.