"Whoa, whoa, I'm sorry, I don't know what I tripped on there but I didn't mean to, sorry -"

She manages a headshake (it's not his fault) but she's crying pretty hard, still. 

Yeahhhhh she sure is. "Is there - someone I could call who could help you -"

...violent headshake, but something about that gets her to stop sobbing, at least. 

"...okay." He adjusts the snuggle slightly and picks another number out of his contacts.

That's fine. Flywheel can get her breathing under control while he does that. 

Poor Flywheel. No, random person he called, he is not even going to slightly think about trying to capture A Fucking Sandworm. Yes, next random person, the zoo can remain open during the confluence, everything in it is certified orphaned. Yes, person who called him, whatever horrible thing Cricket just said is not best understood as reflecting on his underlying professionalism but for best results you might want to pair him with someone he's worked with before like Hyperion or that Kevin Shields guy, there is some onboarding cost for Cricket's personality.

During the last phone call, he can tell that Flywheel seems like she's listening curiously, in addition to whatever else she's feeling. 

"I'd offer to introduce you to Cricket but he's working Isoceles right now and might be there all day if they can find enough escorts for him, he's a monster not an esper so he doesn't get his own backlash."

Hesitantly: "He's the 4D cat, right? I remember -" 

- something that makes her sad, apparently.

"Yes, the 4D cat. With wings. You've... heard of him?"

"...did a term paper on ex-dungeon monsters, as an undergrad," she says, very slightly mournfully. 

"I'm Traceless if that rings a bell."

She nods. "Monster Park." 

...that's not a sentence. what's wrong with her. well,

"That's right. I mean, I don't formally run it, but yeah."

"It's a good project."

Wow, an opinion! Good job, Cara!

"Thank you! It was much more of a pain to place captures before it was established, I'd have to call a dozen places sometimes."

Huh. "Did some of those end up at the Park, after it was up and running?" 

"A few, yeah, usually not right away but the park made it known they'd have a home there and a few places were glad to have the space for a normal octopus or whatever."

A cute little line about abnormal octopi starts forming in her head. She smothers it, reflexively.

"Neat." 

Do you ever think about the moon she's not saying that

"Yeah, I didn't really appreciate the extent to which zoos and aquaria construe themselves as more than tourist attractions before I started asking them if they wanted an octopus with nine arms."

"Huh. What else are they doing? ...conservation stuff?" 

She's hasn't come up with a way to say please feel free to get back on the phone if you'd like to talk to somebody who isn't broken that isn't terrible yet but hopefully she'll get there soon

"Yes, and research that is about animals in particular according to normal biology, and outreach and education likewise."

which they can't do if the octopi don't even have eight arms, of course would be a perfectly reasonable thing to say here and isn't even that - but she just - she can't - 

She makes a small strangled noise, and doesn't say anything.