Summer has an agent too! Frankly her agent isn't seeing the compat here but if the guy will pay for Summer's time it's worth it, her current setup is as sleep shift guiding for a pretty marginal dungeon esper and Summer doesn't like sleep shift, it means she can't meaningfully have her own place to live, so sure, meeting, cover an Ablinger teleport most of the way and a car the rest and meals and Summer will show.

Summer is exaggeratedly willowy, five foot nine and all bones, with dark skin flecked with a cute Milky Way of reverse freckles across her cheeks (older pictures of her have much less flattering vitiligo splotches). Her hair looks like cotton candy down to being pink on the left and blue on the right; she's got it done in a pineapple puff split right down the middle, and she's got one matching blue eye (on the left, opposite the hair) and one pink. She hops out of the car at the MRCRF nibbling on a Hostess snack of some description.

She's greeted by a serious-looking young man wearing a dark suit(no tie) and a rather severe haircut.  He's a little bit darker skinned than average, and significantly darker-skinned than the average Vermonter.  Tall and he clearly lifts, but he's still got a little bit of a babyface situation.  Maybe it's just his hopeful expression that gives that impression. 

He's scanning the crowds, clearly looking for someone and - well, that color hair surely couldn't be anyone else?  Double-check the photo even though he's basically certain and yep, it's her.    He'll make the approach.  "Good morning, ma'am.  Summer Freeman, right?"

"Morning! You must be Tim!" Hand!

Hand as well - a firm handshake, you only get one shot at a first impression.  And...that's pretty good, actually!

"Oh, nice!" she beams. "Honestly my agent wasn't sure but I guess yours was right!" Omf omf the cupcake is gone now.

"Well, it only costs time, right?  Do you want to take a tour?  We're closed up a little early for the day."  Tim gestures vaguely behind him at the MRCRF entrance.  "Um - totally up to you, though, no - pressure or anything."  Tim, are you ever going to get the script right.  You practiced this.  This is your third professional partner, this should be easy by now.

"Sure. How come you work out of here instead of a hospital?"

"Well, my power isn't - exactly designed for healing.  It does it, and faster than natural, but it's not really a healing power."  Tim will courteously open the door for Summer, ushering her into what is very visibly a Former Movie Theater.  If she ever wants fresh popcorn, the machine is still there and everything.

"The main thing it's designed for is making someone stronger and sturdier.  The healing factor is better the more recent the injury is, but most people with injuries that are well-suited to regeneration have had them for a long, long time.  And of course, since people tend to be stronger, they're prone to.  Er.  Accidents.  So now we have special elastic clothing, and the theater itself was made out of concrete for sound dampening purposes, so if someone accidentally kicks something, it's no big loss.  Hospitals are full of very expensive equipment they don't want smashed."

If there is a batch of popcorn available right now she will super take some. "Huh. I guess you wouldn't want to be in skinny chinos and suddenly do the splits but I find it hard to imagine how you'd bust a T-shirt by being strong. And they could just not have the equipment right in that same room."

There's enough for a few scoops!  They just wrapped up an action movie earlier.  Naturally, the climax was driving an IED-laden pickup up to a dungeon boss monster and diving out the side before it could explode and kill them. 

"For the T-shirts, mostly it's silly stuff like getting it caught on the edge of a doorknob and - you just keep walking without realizing it.  It takes some getting used to.  These days, it'd probably be fine but I don't want to have to worry about it."  Tim demonstrates his shirt's stretchiness factor as he talks.  It's pretty significant!

"And the other thing is that everyone needs to be pretty close to me, and most hospitals don't have a big enough space that isn't a cafeteria or a nurse's station or whatever.  And you know what they say about hospitals being where you pick up a disease, you know?"  And I never want to see a hospital again in my life

"If it works it works." Do they have fake butter. She wants fake butter. Drizzle drizzle. "Did your guy tell you my deal or should I give you the 'yeah I got a stupid power no big deal' story?"

"No'm, I'd rather hear it from the horse's mouth.  You lost the second lottery, it sounds like?"

"My power is real dumb." She pocketed the cupcake wrapper; she pulls it out and crushes it in her hand, then lets go. It remains crumpled without stretching out into the offered space at all. "I can do that. It's not good for anything but a party trick. But it's okay because, you know how espers have good metabolisms but it's not like it's actually magical, just like you're the luckiest? My backlash is that my metabolism is throwing out everything I put into it at top speed. I spent my hell week in a nice unmemorable coma with a glucose drip and now I can eat constantly and look like this and my sisters are all so jealous, we're a big family. Like, heavy, not like there are a lot of them, I only have two sisters."

"... Wow.  You know, I spent my entire Hell Week completely asleep, too.  I have no idea how Bill figured out we might be a match.  Um.  Would you - er."  Handoffer?  Smooth as that genuine artificial butter she's drowning her popcorn in.

She releases the wrapper, puts it back in her pocket, and handholds. "Yeah I think some people just have a sixth sense about it or something."

"That'd be a really, really useful power to have.  Er.  My backlash is I get - sleepy.  Exhausted.  Like I said, I slept for my entire Hell Week.  Er.  D'you - want a trashcan?  Or maybe to order some food, I can tell you've got a little backlash right now."  Tim himself is only mostly clear on backlash.

"Yeah if there is a trashcan I am not attached to my cupcake wrapper. I would love some food, I love food."

"Sounds good, one Dungeoneer Special coming right up."  Tim is going to just punch in the last thing he picked up for Carol, surely something in there will be good and this poor woman looks like she has to fight to stay at a healthy weight.  "Here, behind the counter - " Tim gestures at a trashcan, then decides to just leeeaaan over and pick it up for Summer.  "Er.  Do you need to use a restroom or anything?"  What would that power even do to her intestines?  I'm...just never going to ask.

(Summer doesn't have to fight to stay at a healthy weight. It turns out you can just be at an unhealthy weight and say "it's my backlash", as long as the weight is low, and nobody will stop you!) Cupcake wrapper is trashed. Popcorn is disappearing. "That would probably be smart, kind of a long car ride."

"Er.  Nearest one is over here, it looks like it's going to one with stalls, but that's actually a leftover of the original theater.  You have an entire room to yourself in there.  It's very well soundproofed, too, I was tired of hearing.  Er."  WHY IS THIS THE THING YOU CHOOSE TO BREAK THE ICE WITH TIMOTHY WHO EVEN LETS YOU MAKE WORDS.  LANGUAGE WAS A MISTAKE.  "You know."  Vague hand gestures in the hopes that he can just stop talking.

"Oh nooo, the construction must be ancient," she giggles, and in she goes.

Once the door is closed, he walks back to the popcorn machine and has a few pieces for himself.  No butter, real or otherwise, but there are jalapeno ranch flakes which are excellent.  "Okay.  Doing good so far.  Compatible, personality's good.  Just gotta not scare her off and we should be fine."  Deep breath.  Let it out.  Deep breath.  Let it out.  Deeeeep breath, and sloooowwwllllyyyyy let it out.

Okay.  I'm ready.

Out she comes. Popcorn bag goes in the trash, hand goes in hand.

Hand does indeed go in hand.  Hand may even be reflexively squeezed.  “So, we have an airlock setup.  You can only open the first door if the second one is shut and vice-versa.”  Demonstrate!  “It doesn’t matter for us today, but normally I don’t let in anyone who’s wearing street clothes or who’s carrying anything they can’t afford to replace.  I’ll show you why in a few minutes.”

The theater area has been levelled and can be reached by a set of stairs or a lift.  Or by jumping down, if you’re badly calibrated on risktaking.

"Do I have to show up in uniform or will the hair do the trick?"

"No need for a specific uniform.  I would, er, really suggest you wear something we provide, or get your measurements to Bill if you want something specific to wear during the, er, guiding.  We've really thoroughly forbidden photography, but we've really had too many flashing incidents because someone wanted a stretch or caught a belt loop on something."

"Why would you be using your power on me? I'm not injured."

"It's a safety thing, in case a patient does something, er, unfortunate.  There's almost never a real problem, but I want to keep my track record."

"They might like elbow me in the ribs and break something?"

"Usually what happens is someone breaks a game controller or a phone and pieces of it shrapnel everywhere, or they're playing with a fidget toy and it snaps.  When you were a kid, did you ever do the thing where you hold a pencil under tension in your hands, then let it go and it catapults across the room?  Like that, but moreso."  Tim makes the "fling-a-pencil-with-your-hands-as-the-catapult" gesture.

"No, I was a rubber band shooting kind of kid."

"A real fan of the classics."  Little grin!

She laughs. "Okay, so I'll have to get some standard-issue stretchy shorts and whatnot, at least till I'm used to it?"

"Pretty much.  Everything I wear is elastic these days, just in case.  Aside from that, you just have to, er.  Guide me.  For four ten hours, depending on how willing you are to lay there.  It's not exactly difficult, just kind of boring."

"Do I have to be awake? I'm not a squirmy sleeper, I've been doing overnights with my current partner and she says I'm not."

"No'm, you can nap to your heart's content.  If you do, I'd bring a sleep mask and maybe a set of replaceable earmuffs.  We do video games and have a movie every few days."  Really easy, except for how hard it is to just.  Stay on top of someone.

"And the video game controllers are like paper plates, if somebody geeshes one? Do we all coordinate on a game and use the big screen or does everybody have their own?"

"I've got a local guy with a 3-D printer who just replaces the old covers, usually the electronics are fine.  Except for the one guy who almost got kicked out, he threw his against the wall and broke it.  We have eight screens, they're built into the wall.  The big screen is mostly just used for movie night, it's too much for one person.  Well, we did have a tournament night once, but that doesn't really count."

"Cool. I'm not a huge video game person but as things for during work hours go I'll take it over sleeping, I don't like the overnights because I can't live anywhere really if I sleep at work."

"Yeah, that makes sense, you get off work at 5 o'clock and you're up all night with noplace to go and to do."

"Way it currently works is I start work at nine p.m. and I'm there till six in the morning. Sure, I have to sleep sometime anyway, but it eats my evenings and I never see my apartment and all I get out of it besides the check is early bird specials. But you work normal business hours, I could catch a nap here and then go to a party till three in the morning once I know who throws good parties around here."

Blink blink.  Well.  "Er, right.  Well, we do keep business hours unless something comes up.  It hasn't, yet, but you never know, somebody might urgently need assistance.  It's still strictly optional for you, but it might happen sometime."

"Oh it's not such a big deal if it's a one-off, everybody knows things come up."

"Right, sometimes it might actually be an emergency that my power works on."  In a flying pig dungeon, maybe.

"Yeah. Can I see the main healing place?"

"Yes'm."  Timothy will guide his guide down the stairs, into the center of the room.  It's pretty cozy, especially if you like cozy twilight!  There are pillows everywhere on the ground, some of them big enough to cuddle on.  "It doesn't really look like much, but it's not like an esper needs much equipment.  If you have furniture preferences, we can probably set something up for you."

"Are you ma'aming me, I'm older than you but I'm not old..." She does like pillows, and pokes a few of them experimentally.

"Errr, no?  I mean, yes.  I mean.  Maman raised me to do that to, er, everyone.  Almost everyone."

There's a good variety!  One of them is 'lawn consistency', another is 'squiiiishh', but most of them are pretty average levels of squish.  Generally closer to 'matrress' than 'bean bag', but there's a good spectrum going on.

"I'm used to, you do that if somebody's old enough to be your mom, maybe. I'm only 27."

"Ah.  I'm, er, 18.  Sorry.  I think it was a way to help me, er, fit in, be unthreatening.  Small towns, you know?  We just moved in when I was a little kid."

"I'm from Atlanta but I have heard of small towns," she nods. Poke poke poke all the pillows. "Is this a good time to test out ways to sit, see what works for guiding?"

"Yes' - " aacckk recover "- it is.  Er.  Usually I wear shorts, but I can roll these up if you like?"  Tim glances at his phone.  "Dinner should be here in about ten or fifteen, though."

"If I'm going to sit on you that long, probably with any backlash of my own to suck up yours, I will definitely also need a position where I can eat. Does your power make that complicated at all, am I going to bite through my tongue or squeeze a sandwich to goo?"

Okay, you are deliberately going to not ma'am her.  "Not for hurting yourself!  Durability's included with the package, unless you're trying to hurt yourself, you probably won't.  Honestly, almost all of the safety protocols are so that nobody comes in, puts a finger through their phone, and can't get a ride home without hassle."  Or flashes me.  Again.  It was kind of exciting the first time, in a guilty way, but after the fourth I was kind of over it.  "I...suppose your sandwich might be at some risk?  I've never had it happen to me, but I guess I might just be a neat eater."  Tim takes out his phone and asks his agent to set up a quick survey for Comestic Accidents amongst people who've undergone Tim Recuperative Therapy.

"I am usually also a neat eater, but awakening never gave me a problem with being stronger suddenly so it sounds like this might be heavier duty."

"I don't think you actually want to take the superstrength cert, but if you want to try it out I do have a corner dedicated to people who want to learn not to destroy everything around them.  Er.  Maybe after you change, though.  Or I could demo if, if you want?"

"Sure, let's see the demo - why don't I want the cert?"

"Er.  Most of the people who want it are planning on doing dungeons.  If you want it, I'm happy to help you get it, it's not like it's hard.  You, er.  Don't give off the vibe of a dungeoneer."  This is where I find out she's actually been smashing cores for the past nine years as a DRT op, isn't it.  Guide towards the Pseudo Physical Therapy corner?

"Oh, yeah, I'm not, I don't think cores try to spring back after somebody squashes them even a little - I thought you meant for like, how you have it on all the time for people who are in here in case of elbows."

"Well, there's levels and levels, right?  My power is shareable, but I control how much of it I share out.  And in general, the more it spreads out the less backlash-efficient it gets to share."  He picks up his standard example in the hand that isn't being held.  "This...is a pebble.  There's nothing special about it, I think it's granite?  Got 'em at the hardware store."  He holds it palm-up over a conveniently-placed wastebasket and closes his hand.  Then grinds it to dust in his fingers.  Summer can feel his backlash ticking up noticeably as he does.  "This is at the high end of what I can give out, and the one you need the cert for."

"Oh, but just a little for elbows, that makes sense. Okay, I get why I don't need the cert."

"Exactly.  And even at high levels, accidents are pretty rare!  Just - sometimes you stub your toe on a doorframe and it gets knocked out of the wall."  Tim goes through a few examples of superstrength at various levels, including a bench press which would suffice to lift a truck, his favorite Copper Rod trick, a mild steel variant which is notably harder to perform, slicing a grain of rice in half with fingernails(careful to backstop, lest Flying Grains of Rice find Vulnerable Eyeballs), and most popular of all: Et Cetera! 

Summer claps and then offers her hands to guide that off.

Handsqueeze!  Except he winds up with a wristhold on her left side, but that's fine.  Everyone in the room is an adult and this is not something that someone should be embarrassed about.  If she squiggles in the slightest he'll transition to a normal handhold though.

Unorthodox but it works and it's not like he's squishing her too hard. "So you do dungeons and this? Kind of a workaholic, huh?"

His partner sometimes likes to use her phone!  It's normal!!!  Just a COMPLETELY NORMAL habit to be in.  "Yeah, it's not like it's hard to be in here, right?  I watch a movie, play videogames, cuddle and relax.  And sometimes you have a DRT op or a dungeon esper who recently broke their leg or something, and you can see how happy they are.  Most times, it takes a week or two for an injury to really recover, but if it's recent enough you can be looking at a month in a cast and three of rehab in the morning, then going for a jog in the afternoon.  And there's just - something really special about being able to be that person, even if it's not glamorous.  And dungeons, well.  Fuck dungeons."  Shrug.  "They really, really have it coming."

"They sure do. One breached near the pool I used to take swim lessons in and wrecked the whole place and they never did rebuild it, it's an office building now."

Little bit of a wistful look.  "I'm sorry."  He looks like he's searching for words, but gets distracted by his phone.  "Er, one second, let me - " disentangle the right hand, glance at his phone.  "Oh, that's dinner.  You think you could have a bite to eat?"  Little grin?

"I super could!" she grins back.

Yessssss this is great!  "Well, let's go get some, then."

There is Variety!  His last order for his primary partner was big on handheld food.  In this case, it's three burgers(medium-well) with neatly-packed toppings sealed and set aside.  Some kind of Genuine Imitation Fried Chicken which is reportedly vegan, along with five different sauces.  And finally, there's an Enormous Yet Bougie Build-Your-Own-Salad kit.

"Feel free to pick whatever you want, I'll have whatever you don't.  I'm not a picky eater, and we've got plenty of variety."  The last sentence is said in the manner of an oft-repeated phrase.

"Yeah we do, amazing, I guess you know all the good restaurants in the area." She is sus of the vegan fried chicken but will taste a nibble of it with the green sauce.

Actually pretty good!  The breading is basically standard, and the vegan fried chicken tastes...almost like chicken.  Maybe an oddly-spiced variant, it tastes like they might be cheating the imitation meat by slightly overspicing it.  Definitely edible, though!

"Yeah, my usual partner can be a picky eater sometimes."  She's picky, alright.  "So I just order three or four cuisines and if she rejects all of it, I just give up for the day."  Tim is happy to assemble and consume a Moderate Yet Bougie Salad.  Heavy on the dressing, a few croutons, some kale on the side.

Summer assembles a burger including more of the green sauce kidnapped from the company of the fake chicken. Nomf omf.

Tim swallows a forkful of his salad, then his fear.  "Er.  Would you like to.  Do some guiding?  While we eat?  Trial it out?"  Why do I just constantly uptalk, I haaaaaaate this.

"Yeah, where d'you want me to sit to start out?"

"Er.  One sec."  Set down his salad, then rolllllll up his pants.  Sit on one of the giant groundpillows, then extend his legs towards Summer.  "However you like?  From here?"

Summer's got on harem pants with the elastic at the ankles and they have no problem rolling halfway up her thighs. Sit!

She runs quite warm, almost feverish - maybe that's where her blood sugar goes - and does not have a lot of surface area, but she arranges herself to take best advantage and then resumes burger annihilation.

Tim is no stranger to burger annihilation, himself.  He finds himself quite impressed.  "Your backlash really must be no joke."  He does his best to match her pace of consumption.  After a few moments, he absentmindedly squirms closer towards her, seeking out guiding by instinct.

"I kind of love it? Bad power, lovable backlash. Being hungry is only bad if you don't have food and I do not live in the Third World at all." Lean. She's very light.

"Yeah, I guess it's not like calories are hard, especially if you're a professional snuggler."  Halfway through a squirm, he notices what he's doing and stills his movement.  "Er.  I forgot to ask, d'you want something to drink?  We've got green, blue, and yellow Esperade, coke, root beer, lemon-lime and orange soda.  And water.  And coffee."

"I loooove root beer."

"I'll be back in a second, then."  Reluctantly untangle the legs.  Tim comes back with a bottle of yellow Esperade, an unopened bottle of root beer and two disposable cups.  "Ice is in this one, you can put in however much you want."  Heh.  I might be whipped.  Figures the whippedness is transferable to other partners.  Is that even a word?

Tim pours his guest a drink and then sits back down.  His legs are near hers, but not quite touching.

She re-entangles and opens a bottle and scoops ice in. "Marvelous."

"The finest root beer you'll find within fifty feet!"  Tim sips at his Esperade and resumes Salad Demolition.  Mmm, guiding.  Optimization squirms occur.  "So, what do you like to do aside from party and cuddle strangers during business hours?"

"I like music and rock climbing!"

"Hey, I do a lot of climbing, too!  Indoor or outdoor?"

"I'm used to indoor but I do keep meaning to try bouldering outdoors."

"It's a ton of fun!  I've been doing it for years now, it's great!  Especially getting to see how the same cliff face changes with the seasons, you know?  And getting to the top is just - marvelous.  Here, I've got a few pictures..."  Tim will scroll through his phone and show Summer some of his favorite climbs, and the views from them.  There are quite a few.

"Oh, that one looks fun, do you route up thiiiis way -" Point.

"Yeah!  See, there's a little bit of ledge here, if you just scoot around, then reach up you can make your way to this foothold..."

Tim is perfectly thrilled by being able to talk shop with a new friend business partner.  While snuggling.

She has pictures from the rock climbing gym she's accustomed to in Atlanta, too!

It's ironically a little harder for him to visualize the intended paths on indoor gyms.  There's no reason you can't follow something other than the color-coded path, other than social constructs.  But he does see the appeal of being able to go to the same place you go every day and take a different route every week.

"Yeah, it's convenient. I will kinda miss Atlanta but if I wind up moving here I bet I can find all the important stuff."

“Yeah, Montpelier is a nice place.  Definitely not as big as Atlanta, though.” Show interest in other people. “What’s your favorite part of living in Atlanta?”

"It's close to family but that's kind of a mixed bag, honestly, and being away from them will also be mixed, just the other way," she gestures symmetrically to supplement this assertion. "The music scene is good, if I go to places that have random local bands gigging there sometimes I get to be so hipster about them."

Thoughtful hum.  "Maman is great, but it is nice to be further away from her than shouting distance.  I'm not really sure about the music scene, I just moved here myself.  But we have more hipsters per capita in Montpelier than in any other city in New England."

"Fun. I love it when I wind up in some dive, testing whether the fries are really bottomless, and the band takes some getting used to but by their ninth song I'm really vibing, you know?"

"I've never tried, but you make it sound like a good time.  Lot of exploring, huh?  Big into experiences?"

"If somebody spends an hour trying to tell me something about the noise their washing machine makes except with a synth, I like giving them a fair shake in case there's stuff there."

It takes him a second to process that, but he bursts out in laughter once he does.  “Okay, what does a washing machine synth sound like?  I’ve gotta hear this one.”

"Oh yeah absolutely -" Phone: out. Weird noise band: on. There's a beat there! It is in fact reminiscent of a washing machine and the song is titled Spin Cycle!

Pffffft.  “I can’t figure out if I’m into it or confused by it, but it’s…weirdly catchy?”  After a minute, he absentmindedly starts tapping out a beat on the nearest surface.

"It might make more sense if you start from the beginning of the album, but then again the beginning of the album makes more sense if you've heard the rest of it, I'm not sure how they picked where to start it from."

“Well, I don’t have anything else planned.  Might as well listen to something new.”  Taptap-tap, tap.

There's three burgers so it's okay if she goes for a second one when Spin Cycle ends and the next song Plane Hangar Traffic comes on.

Tim will content himself with grazing upon sus vegan fried “chicken”.  She can have a third burger as far as he’s concerned!

She might! Is there dessert?

Well, not ordered dessert per se.  But there’s a minifreezer in the back with six flavors of Ben and Jerry’s.  Vermont pride!

Heck yeah. She is going to dig directly into a pint of officially endorsed sky-blue ice cream with pie crust and blueberries and marshmallow ribbon, Piebreaker.

The icecream is great, but the names are even better.  “I haven’t had a shot at that one yet, did they do her justice?”  Tim’s having a few bites of Esperesso’n’Cream.  Espresso chunks, chocolate ice cream, and marshmallow chunks.

"I love it when food is blue so it's getting help but yes."

“Good.  A woman stops ten hurricanes a year, the least we can do is get her a good flavor ice cream.”

"I hope she actually likes blueberry pie and it's not just for the pun. I guess it could have been a different kind of pie, probably everybody likes some kind of pie, but it looks like the sky, right? So that was probably on their minds."

“Well, if I ever meet her, I’ll ask.  Maybe it’s actually her favorite flavor and they came up with a pun to match it.”

"I hope it's her favorite and she's not just mad that they couldn't come up with a way to make a joke out of maple pecan."

“Well, what should we call her maple pecan flavor?  Maple…pecan’t make a pun about this?”

"That doesn't have anything to do with Skybreaker though."

“I’m not that good at wordplay!  I barely figured out a codename in time!”

"In time? In time for what?"

“Well.  I guess nothing, really?  Before I started.  You know, espering about.  It probably would have been fine, I guess.”

"I wanted to do something having to do with the pink and blue thing before I figured out what my power was and realized I was never going to need a codename."

“Er.” What do you even say to this. “Sorry.  Hydrangea would’ve been a good codename, though.  They change colors based on soil acidity.  And I think your hair looks super cool.”

"I was actually just gonna straight up do Cotton Candy but Hydrangea would have been neat too! It's about the dirt they're in? I thought it was just different kinds."

“Yeah, you can adjust their colors by changing the soil PH.  Maman would pour soil acidifier by some of them.  That’d turn them blue.  Took a year.”

"Neat!"

“Er.  Sorry, I’m rambling.”

"I've never had a garden... I think I wouldn't like having to dig in the dirt and wait a really long time for anything to happen but I'm glad some people like it. I do buy myself flowers sometimes."

“I used to help out in it, but it was really for her benefit, you know?  I didn’t mind it, but I didn’t love it so much that I’d get one of my own.  Even if I didn’t live in the city.  What kind of flowers do you like?”

"My favorite are irises. And foxgloves are good too especially if you have all the different colors they come in together."

Foxgloves, irises.  Foxgloves, irises.  I can remember that.  Foxgloves like mittens for vixens…irises, like you’re looking at a fox with gloves on.  Got it.

”Both of those are good choices.  And they grow around here, too.”

"Oh neat, I figure everything grows everywhere if you've got a greenhouse but it's fun if they can be in people's yards."

“If I hadn’t known that you were a city girl already…” Tim pretends to shake his head sadly, but can’t quite hide a smile.

"Hey, there's yards in cities. Atlanta's got a ton of trees."

“Mmm-hmm.”  It’s clearly a teasing hum, and he’s definitely grinning.

"It's the treest city in the country."

“I had no idea.  I must’ve been let down by the Vermont public school system.”

"That's okay, the Georgia public school system didn't tell me a single thing about Montpelier. Maybe they have beef. Maybe they're ignoring each other on purpose."

Little giggle dignified manly chuckle.  “It’s jealousy, probably.  Atlanta is jealous of our cows.  And we’re jealous of Atlanta’s trees.”

"You know, I don't think I saw any cows on the drive in."

“Well, what if a Georgian came by and decided to try her hand at cattle rustling?  We’ve got to hide them.”

"Aha. I don't know if the autonomous car would've let me, though. I'd have to carry the whole cow by myself."

“Wrong time of year for weight-focused cattle rustling, anyway.  If your limit is weight you need to come back in Spring, when we have calves around.  And since you need an alibi…”

"Awww, baby cows..."

“We’ve got farms where you can pet them!”

"I should pet a baby cow," she says, nodding seriously. "Important milestone I haven't gotten to."

“I’m sure your family will understand being left for a baby cow.  They’re so cute, and they lick you.”

"Eep!" she giggles. "I didn't know that! They just lick people like dogs do?"

“Yeah, pretty much, but their tongues are kinda rough like a cat’s.  It’s pretty surprising the first time it happens!”

"Oh noooo," she giggles. "Why do cows have cat tongues? Do they lick themselves clean like cats?"

“I have never seen a cow deliberately clean itself in my life, I have no idea.  Probably it has something to do with getting a hold of grass?”

"With their tongues? Don't they have teeth?"

“Maybe it’ll make more sense once you’ve seen a baby cow in person!”

"Maybe! I hope it doesn't decide it wants cotton candy instead of grass!"

“I’ve never offered a cow cotton candy before.  We’re pushing on the boundaries of human knowledge, here.”

"It'd probably be bad for a cow."

“Hey, that cow’s been eating food all its life.  It’s the expert here!”

"Having eaten food all my life didn't save me when I went to an authentic authentic Chinese restaurant and there were surprise bones."

“Well, I’m glad you were able to defeat the surprise bones.  They had it coming to them.”

"They should've picked on an easier target probably."

“They didn’t know what hit ‘em.”

Nod nod.

Streeeetch.  Timecheck.  “Um.” Why um. “I’m not kicking you out or anything, but it’s getting a little late.  Do you want to head back?  It’s a long drive to Georgia.”  Little grin, he knows it’s actually just a Marbleport home.

She peeks at her phone. "Yeah, it's about that time, I'm still expected at my night shift, but I think this went well and I am good to change jobs to here if you are."

Untangle and kip up, followed by the offer of a guiding hand up.  “I agree.  I’m glad I got to meet you, and I’m sure the baby cows will agree.”

"It's been great to meet you too! Delighted to enable the healing you do." She tosses her empty Ben and Jerry's pint and heads out, ordering up a car.

Tim will of course walk her to the door and head out, himself.  After a jog, he finds himself in front of his Whiteboarding Setup.

What went well?

Food.  Lots.  More.
Guiding.
climbing, music talk.

What went badly?

Tell when joking, wordplay.  :(
Ma’am
VFC - too experimental for her?

What can I do better next time?

Foxgloves, irises for front room decor.  Multicolor if possible??
Moar food.
Be wittier.
Find out if Skybreaker actually likes her ice cream flavor.  How???  Ask Bill I guess, NFI.