"Oh, no.  It was pretty straightforward for me.  William Moore set everything up for me.  Thankfully I don't need specialized equipment, I just need to have a small group of people near me and the understanding that they're going to be accident-prone.  We use an old movie theater right now."

"A movie theater! Not a very traditional sort of silo, but I guess if the super-strength is as tough to get used to as you say it stands to reason. Are they at all at risk of self-injuring, or are only inanimate objects in danger?"

"Honestly, if someone managed to hurt themselves while under the effects of my power, I would be impressed.  I guess...you could if you tried hard enough?"  Why would you do that, though.  "But really, it's just objects at risk, and I can revoke the..er, the empowerment if necessary.  I've found a week of training is enough to calibrate, now that I can explain how it works.  It took me a little longer to make it work for myself."

"A week of having the power active total, or a week of practicing occasionally?"

"Ooh, good question.  Let me check something."  Tim whips out his phone and glances through it for around ten seconds.  "About sixty hours of having the power active, it looks like."  Wait, are you supposed to do that in an interview?  Shit.

If he's not, she doesn't say anything about it. "That's quite a learning curve. What kinds of things did you do to get used to it?"

"Practice, practice, practice.  We hired a physical therapist who specializes in fine motor control as one of the coaches, along with a stroke rehab specialist.  Picking up individual grains of rice without smooshing them, throwing and catching apples, practice getting dressed, flipping coins, chopsticks.  At some point I got so frustrated with trying to turn a screw using a screwdriver without stripping it that I used my fingernail instead of the screwdriver, and that was easier for some reason."  Tim makes little screwdriving gestures, first as though he were using an invisible screwdriver, then using his thumb.  "Everything I wear is held together with magnets these days.  Elastic everything in my clothing.  Everything I buy is either high-quality and durable or super cheap and replaceable, there's almost no in-between."

"So you don't turn your power off, or it's just too likely that you'll want it suddenly without warning?"

"It's not really the risks so much as the stakes.  I take my responsibilities seriously, and part of my responsibility is making sure that I won't accidentally kick a doorframe out of the wall when I stub my toe.  The same goes for anyone who uses my power.  I'm very careful that everyone in my training silo knows what they can break on accident.  Of course, during a dungeon we'll have to worry less about being careful."

Yesssss, I got the whole speech off from memory!  I'm doing great!

"So your power can activate accidentally?"

"Not accidentally exactly, but reflexively.  It's a balancing act between being able to activate it if I'm attacked in a dungeon without warning versus not activating in a civilian context.  I need to have the reflexes, but I can't be too jumpy, either."

"Huh! It sounds like it's lucky that you were able to find a partner pretty quickly, how's that working out so far?"

You can't control your blush reaction but you don't have to acknowledge it.  If you don't acknowledge, you'll be perfectly normal.  "Um."  DON'T UM.  "It's a very good match, we're quite compatible and we have a similar opinion on guiding.  I'm glad that she's willing to put in -" word choice, Tim " - the time to make sure that I can do as much healing as possible, within the limits of training and scheduling."

"Are you up for telling us who she is and what she does?"

"Her codename is Sinkhole, but I should let her speak for herself apart from that."  Or remember what I'm allowed to say, I have it written down somewhere...

"Sinkhole. What an evocative choice. How'd you meet?"

Tim smiles a little wanly.  "She might have saved my life.  I didn't understand what was happening to me after awakening, and reflexively used my power.  I backlashed myself unconscious and could have died.  She brought me back out of it it by sitting on my legs until I recovered."

"Sounds like a close call! I'm glad you're okay. Was your awakening really disruptive to your life?"

"You know, in some ways it really wasn't.  I got my EMT certification after I turned eighteen and had been volunteering on the ambulance squad even before that.  Maman had me studying martial arts because it was easier for her than a babysitter since I was about..I think I was eight?  And I just really liked it.  And I love hiking and just exploring the woods, I always have since we came to America.  So in some ways, I was really well-prepared for awakening.  I guess I just got lucky."  Huh.  I never thought about it, but it's really kind of a big coincidence.  Well, it had to happen to someone, right?

"That's so convenient, do you think that training will come up a lot in your future career?"

"At least some of it will.  You probably can't put a dungeon monster in a joint lock, but a lot about EMS is keeping people calm, and medical training never hurt anybody."

"That's so true. Now, do you think you - and your partner - are up for you doing a little demo for our viewers?"

"If you can promise to only move your wrists, you can do the demonstration!"  Tim will offer his interlocutor an eight-inch copper rod.  "As long as you're really very careful not to stretch and pop a seam.  I think everybody should be able to do this sort of thing, and the only thing holding me back is, well, my backlash."

"Gosh!" says Plum, taking the rod. "I can try to hold very still above the wrists."