"That does sound like it'd be neat. I can't really read anything that wasn't intended as communication to me when I'm backlashed even a smidgen, so I have to ration my reading and prefer literature by dead people, but I'd believe there's gold out there."

"...Huh, that does seem pretty limiting... I could read aloud to you when you're backlashed, if you wanted?"

"That can work really well but only if you can hold up your end of tangent conversations about the book."

Could she? Hmmm...

"I think it would probably depend a lot on the tangent - if we are talking facts about the world, it's going to be fine, but if it leads to - " she waves a hand vaguely

"...anything about you subjectively?"

is that even the right way to put it? "...it's hard from the inside to map the boundary, but - yeah, something like that. When I'm less backlashed I can be less weird about it, I think?" And when she's more backlashed he can always just Cara you met this man YESTERDAY

"Well, maybe we can try that after a flight. Do you read French?"

"I'm okay at it but not great? I'm better at conversations."

"I ask because I do - a sweet spot for me is language practice conversations but that gets me more facility with the language in general I can use to read - and some of the literature I wanna get around to is French."

"Well, if I get more backlashed, you could tell me to work on my French reading and I'd get better at it!" She sticks out her tongue at him.

Then she frowns. "Well. I think I would, anyways! Something to test..."

"I'm definitely going to want to hear from zeroed-out you how you want to be - handled, when you're backlashed."

He's so careful! It's really sweet... "That makes sense, yeah. I'm pretty confident I'll want to be steered towards getting myself guided, getting other espers guided, other safety stuff?" She shrugs.

"Presumably! But in terms of things that isn't safety stuff like working on your French reading."

"I mean right now I'm tempted to like, draft up a setup for using it for doing chores I don't want to do? but probably that's a bad idea." 

"You'd... still have to do them?"

"It would be, like, a situational executive function superpower? But it seems, uh. Fraught." 

"I mean, if it happens to work out like that for you in a way you approve of I guess there's nothing wrong with it, but t- I'd tread carefully if I were you."

She giggles. "You're treading very carefully, yes." squeeeze "I appreciate it now and will plausibly appreciate it even more in a week." 

"Oh good. Awakening sucks and hopefully yours will suck way less than usual."

She nuzzles him. "You're doing a really good job of making it tolerable instead of terrifying." 

"It's an incredible stroke of luck that I happened to bump into you at Tim's."

"Yeah. On a lot of levels." leeean. "Thank you for rescuing me!" 

She can't tell if he's noticed that she's trying to flirt a bit and is just being his careful self about it or if she's not getting through, but she's enjoying herself either way.

"You're welcome. We've all been there."

"-well, except for anyone else who got scooped up like this, right? I can't be the first purgatory week esper! I wonder if we have an online community..."  wonder how many of the others sleep with their rescuers

"It doesn't happen very often! There was somebody in Singapore who wanted a new partner so badly she specifically scoured hospitals till she got one, but usually it's hard to get suspected awakenings checked, and most pairs are not compatible."