Epione sighs and relaxes.

...she's visiting Toronto to help guide Epione because they're compatible (in an esper sense) and want to see if they're compatible (in an logistics and personality sense) so Epione can do more healing.

That's fine. It's not like she has anything better to be doing, at the moment.

...and the snuggling is nice, too.

👍

Should we book Kani on the same teleport we're taking tomorrow?

That would be good, yes. 

He confers digitally with Pete - he'll go home and pack Kani an away bag before his morning shift. Pete will stay here overnight, and he can bring her things back and swap in the morning.

Great. That's sorted then.

Kevin will hang around another couple hours while Epione's coming down but then he is going to go sleep in a hotel.

Kani listens to the whale podcast and browses the internet aimlessly, reading hurt/comfort fanfic and catching up on the web serial updates she missed (there's a lot of them?? weird.)

She's a bit confused about the whole situation, but the guiding feels nice, and she's glad she can help Epione with her backlash.

And in this way they can pass the night.

Kevin comes back in the morning to usher them into a taxi to the teleport location.

She hugs both her fathers goodbye, promises to stay in touch and not to use her powers without their permission, and heroically endures being told that she's so brave and that they're so proud of her. (Papa cries a bit.)

Then she's in the taxi, sitting next to Epione. She... doesn't know how to talk to her, or her partner, but she's vaguely hoping they will start a conversation eventually? 

"I hope this won't be keeping you from too much school," says Epione.

She shrugs. "I... have a lot of experience missing school. I think it'll be okay." 

She thinks about the conversational advice Mags had excitedly shared from her new online friend, the last time they'd really caught up, and then brightens when she comes up with something.

"Did you keep studying after you awakened?" 

"I dropped out of college," Epione says, shaking her head.

"I finished," Kevin offers. "I pick up a little freelance when there's time for it."

She nods. "If I can find a decent way to make money with my power, I don't think I'll stay in school. It... hasn't been very good, this year, and there isn't anything I was interested in majoring in." 

"You'll get a professional partner rate for this week, at least. You don't need to use your power to make money as an esper. Mine's lousy."

She can earn money just by guiding???

"Oh," her brain offers up lamely, and then adds an "I had no idea" just in case anyone in the car still harbored any doubts re: her lameness. 

"We don't get as much press as the flashy ones, but like half of espers don't have dungeoneering powers or anything amazing for civilian stuff like Epi."

"I'm not a real healer," Epione clarifies. "I just make space for modern medicine to do what it does. In your typical intensive care unit you'll have people on something to kill their pain which drops their blood pressure and something else to keep their blood pressure up which makes them nauseous and something to control the nausea that makes them sleepy and then you've got nurses keeping them alert by deliberately applying pain stimuli and it all complicates whatever they need actually fixed, so I step in and break that loop, but I don't solve any underlying problems."

Kani has spent enough time with visiting one of her best friends in the hospital to be familiar with symptom management and the complications it poses during treatment! 

"How long have you been working with this hospital?" she asks, because that feels safer than mentioning... anything to do with Thrana.

"I've been at Toronto General for ten years now."

Her eyes widen a bit. She knew Epione was older than her, but she'd been thinking, like, 24, 25?

"Huh!" Great one, Kani! 

"I'm told I look younger than I am but it turns out if you're an esper and sometimes remember to moisturize you can look like this when you're 32."

She gives a small nervous laugh at the joke.

...Wait, right, espers are supposed to get hotter, and she hasn't looked actually looked at herself in a mirror yet! 

She puts her phone camera in selfie mode and 'ooo's softly at her eye color.

"Think your hair will change?" Epione has a plausibly-natural auburn but Kevin's hair is forest green.

"Oooh, maybe - I used to dye it." It's bleached a dirty blonde about a third of the way down, but any dye has long since faded out. 

(If either Epione or Kevin look closely, they'll see that her roots are a pale blue - it's been weeks since she finished awakening, after all.)