"The nearest one? Or does the other have an urgent issue?"

"The nearest one, neither seem distressed."

"Got it."

And off she  goes.

The next two victims are cooperative. One of them is a teenager who would love to talk about her outfit. The other is a middle aged guy who, when prompted for conversation, rambles on about his farm and how he's only in Toronto to visit family grumble grumble. There are a couple of monster-passes.

Teddy does another wide sweep with his power.

"-One new victim."

"That's actually a good thing," the calm DRT leader insists. "We can be more sure it won't get anyone else soon, after we rescue them, so we're clear to level the whole field. It's dry and windy in here, so it'll go up like a firework. We're bringing in accelerants and gasoline."

"-Oh, geez. Do dungeons have enough air to burn a whole cornfield?"

"Typically, yes. They refresh it somehow. Anyway, let's get this finished up."

"Right............................. The victim is Mrs. Hannah Sinclair. She's not injured or in urgent need. Oh, she's actually in one of the already mapped areas. That should be very quick." He pokes the map. "You see it, Meghan?"

"I see it."  Also that's amusing. And a free conversation topic.

Mrs. Sinclair agrees that it's a small world, huh!

...Theo wants to hold her hand for the final sweep.

The DRT team sets about setting the fire after everyone is out. They say that the two espers can go now; Theo might get called back in if they want a final double-check, if they can't find the core within a few hours, or something seems suspicious. But probably not. Unless they'd rather wait who knows how long for the fire to burn and the remains to be searched for a core, they can go.

He can of course hold her hand.

She doesn't really want to wait around, no. It's not that long a drive. She wishes them luck with the core.

They can keep holding hands as they head out.

On the way to the car and hired driver that's been waiting to bring them to the temp-silo (another borrowed BnB), handholding definitely continues. But also conversation. Because it is RUDE to NOT pay attention to Meghan. So he SHOULD ask instead of keeping the stupid questions inside. "There's... Paperwork they want us to fill out, right? After action reports and stuff? Um. I'll just ask my agent about that, actually."

"There's paperwork. Most people prefer to wait until they're zeroed before worrying about it. I can't concentrate on it properly with much backlash.It does not acknowledge me or care about me. I can read things if it's the sort of thing I can turn into a dramatic reading for an audience but paperwork is not that."

"...Was almost tempted to start waxing poetic about form one zero eight B, but it would be too cringe. Backlash denied." Handsqueeze. And then into the car and try to IGNORE the wince at the driver WAITING for them, he is being PAID.

...Seatbelts don't have to interfere too much with leaning or arm-touching, do they?

Definitely not.

She wants to make small talk with the driver but she's going to try not to badger the guy. He's driving and she's getting GUIDING.

The driver was chosen by Meghan's agent and has been selected for amenability to smalltalk!

It's only a few minutes to the temp-silo. It unlocks for them easy enough. "Maybe I will relax and we can guide in your place or mine later, but for now... A place like this is just way easier. Um, we're going to get takeout delivered, I asked my agent to arrange it when I was done, before I even went to the dungeon. My phone says it will be here in... Thirty six minutes. Um. I intended it to just be for me but now I'm really worried that was terribly rude..."

"I have snacks in my bag and I can cook for myself later. I wasn't expecting to have dinner here but maybe we should talk about it in advance, next time?"

"Yeah. I mostly did it because if I was highly backlashed I absolutely would not be able to order anything that wasn't already here? Or maybe even speak up that I'd like to stop guiding you for little while to eat or drink. And it can go in the fridge if necessary. I think I'm pretty low on backlash overall. Like... Two out of ten at most, if ten is Hell Week."

Here they are inside a temp silo. It's a pretty generic 2 bedroom house. Whatever shall they do now?

"It's good to start out slow, to figure out how much you can manage with while working, and how much you're willing to tolerate. I'm not very bad on backlash either, the DRT guys could probably have cleared this one themselves it just would have been a lot slower and riskier. So this is well within my tolerance levels."

Deep breath. "Okay then. I did ask for a... Dipping my toes in type dungeon. Um. Want to go cu- Rest on the couch?"

"I'd love to go rest on the couch."

To the couch they go

"They never put newbies on the really dangerous and complicated ones. Some dungeons move the victims around, or move the walls, and stuff like that, so it takes a lot more sensor work."

Removing hoodie and long pants is a familiar procedure by now, and is a bit less Scary, so he does so before they settle on the couch.

"I think I can do things like this more often? It might get really bad if, um, it ends up being a lot of backlash. And like. If we don't get everyone. That would be bad..."

Then they can both be on the couch, in shorts and short sleeves.Leeeeean

"Knowing when to take breaks is also part of the job. Most of the time there's not that much of a time crunch? Dungeons stick around for weeks and almost never kill the victims quickly so, you can afford a break.  And if they need constant sensing for some reason they should be hiring more than one person."

Guiding is nice! They can do the leg entwine and shoulder-arm thing again. He almost sort of wants more guiding than this.

She's very close and very understanding and kind and patient and guiding is nice

"We do what we can, because we must... Well, I am kind of like this even without backlash. Anxious, I mean. But things really do seem... Good? Another day like today would be fine and good. Or us not working on the same dungeons but meeting up for guiding later, too."

"Yeah it did seem to work out well. I'm glad you think so too. Yeah, once you've done a couple of dungeons we can do them separately. I don't know how much work you're imaging. You could pretty much get as much as you can stand, as a sensor. But you don't want to burn yourself out. I could do more dungeons with someone as compatible as you, but I still want to spend some time with all my screws in place."

She is very close to him. And smiling at him (she thinks he's very cute and sweet).

"......Um.  would - If I hadn't - I mean - maybe. Uh. Words are not happening correctly right now, apparently... I'm really glad I met you, Meghan. I had fun at the museum, and you're being so patient about introducing me to esper work, and stuff."

"I had fun at the museum too!. And it's been my pleasure. I think you're cute, and sweet."

pause

"Do you maybe want to make out a little? You can say no if I'm being too pushy."

"-Um. I do want to. But. I made a decision to... Not... Anything like that, the first time we did a dungeon. It was just going to be cuddling. And, um, um, sorry, but I would really like to stick to that? This time. At least."