"Indeed. So for today I am thinking of starting with the basics of seeing what if anything you already know, testing your endurance, and teaching you how to fall. If you go into dungeons, you will fall a lot, and it is the foundational basis for all forms of self-defence."

Supposedly, becoming an esper improves your physical attributes. Well, he really hopes that that's true for him, because he did not do particularly well in gym class.

Everything they're saying makes sense. He knows that one of the first things they teach in judo is ukemi — breakfalls. Also in gymnastics.

"I assume you don't have a gi, so there is one your size on the bench over there," he says, gesturing with his head. "Please change into it," gesture towards the locker room, "and let us get started."

"I don't," he says, and he picks it up, exits into the locker room to change, and then comes back. He's copying the way the gi and its belt is wrapped and tied around his body from his memory of watching judo but it might not be correct.

"Let us begin with some warmups..."

Relative to other new espers, Lawrence's hand-eye coordination, flexibility, and balance are good. His agility, reaction time, and speed are above average. His flexibility and lower-body strength is average. His cardiovascular stamina, upper-body strength and core strength are poor.

From his perspective, he's doing really well! This is way better than he thought he would perform!

So now he will spend an hour learning how to fall.

Wow, it's actually a lot of effort to learn this. Not because the instructions are complex, but because he needs to override his instincts of 'aaaaaaa falling!!' in order to follow. Once he entrains himself to the correct mindset, though, he does fine.

But eventually they will go through the cool down motions and be done.

"So, I don't know what your schedule is like, but I would recommend at least two training sessions a week until you are confident in your ability to be chased down by monsters and escape."

He...actually is also kind of unsure what his schedule is like. He definitely wants to meet with the language tutor as much as possible — probably five times a week. And there is power testing and power training to consider.

"I want to be in a shape where I can contribute usefully and safely before the confluence — though I don't know if that schedule is too tight. I otherwise have few demands on my time. My priorities right now are this, language learning, power testing and training, and finding a partner. Probably, I will want to have weapons training too — my power is movement control and that isn't a straightforwardly offensive power." Oh, and there's also PR and etiquette training to consider...he absolutely needs to learn how to bow and use chopsticks. That is also a priority but not as much as these.

"I think that is possible to achieve, unless this turns out to be a surprisingly short confluence."

Also, now that the time for this meeting has ended, his notifications get unmuted and he has a notification!

"Thank you for your time," he says. His plan is to schedule training every other day, so four or three times a week. Is that a good schedule? He doesn't want to make the opposite mistake and overtrain.

He will take note of the notification only after he's left, and then summons his commscreen to view it. Commscreen! It's so cool!!

He has five potential partners to review! They are anonymised beyond their genders, ages, and a vague overview of their powers and backlashes.

Okay. Well, he's eager to Get A Partner, so can he just accept offers to test compatibility with all of them? Oh, wait. Right. Espers...have sex...during guiding. Or, rather, that is a common component of guiding. So this is sorta kinda like a hookup app where you swipe on people. He...doesn't know whether or not he wants to actually have sex with anyone right now. He is still a virgin. Well, he supposes he can negotiate and talk about that later. The nonnegotiable component is guiding compatibility.

Anyway, he will indicate his desire to test compatibility with all of them if the system accepts that.

It does, yeah, and it asks him to input his availability on a calendar so that it can match his with theirs.

He has very little to do aside from the aforementioned activities which he can schedule around meeting these people. So his schedule is super wide. He indicates this!

Cool!

And next he gets another notification, telling him that Quasar employs a Buddy System in which an existing Quasar employee is your official Buddy. Their job is to meet with you regularly to explain things, make sure you're getting what you need and understand your next steps, share company values with you, and also just generally be the point interface person to show you how things work. Lawrence's buddy is an esper called Ha Si-yeon, and the system is suggesting that they have a meet either later today or tomorrow morning.

Okay great! He has a minder now! He was honestly expecting one to be assigned to him from the beginning, but. Technically this is still the beginning because. This is his first day here.

He would be pleased to meet with Si-yeon later today. He will eat and put on his good clothes beforehand.

The meeting location is a café, and Si-yeon is already there. "Yo, Lawrence."

"Hello! I've been told that you are supposed to be my buddy, now."

"I am!" He slides one of the menus on the table over to Lawrence. "So, how're you doing, how've the past few days been, you settling in alright?"

Wow, everything in this cafe is expensive. Relative to his previous living standards, anyway. But he has money now. He doesn't want to drink caffeinated beverages past noon so he'll order...this chocolate drink thing.

"I think everything has been going well. I've started combat training and I'm arranging to get Korean language tutoring soon."

Si-yeon will be having something sweet and caffeinated. "You know, I was actually kinda surprised you decided to join us. Not that I don't think Quasar is the best, but, you know, we haven't actually got a ton of international espers."

"I'm surprised that you're surprised. Quasar has Min Woo-young and Lee Tae-gun." It doesn't speak well of Quasar to not have many international entrants given this. Maybe they actually have the 'this guild is basically these high rank espers and everyone accommodates them' syndrome. But he didn't get that vibe from them, initially, although...perhaps it's true and that's why they're sending a combat esper like Si-yeon on recruitment missions.

"Well, sure, but we kind of low-key try to dissuade people who only want to join because of our celebs. The point of a guild is, you know, to support you as an esper and if we don't feel like there's a vibe match and that you will find what you need with us then we're happy to point you somewhere that might work better."