"Well, I wouldn't want to interrupt your confluence 101 project, but if you're enjoying yourself, I'm very touchable."

"The project is important-!" He leans into Toby, still holding Bryce's hand.

"-ooh, that's so weird..." tinfoil and good guiding at the same time?

...what if he climbs over Toby to sit between them? That way his arm will not be in the way of poking around on their phones and planning and such. 

"You are enjoying yourself," Bryce says slyly.  "I've never been that kind of masochist, myself, but I was a little jealous when Toby guided you so well and I zapped you."

"I mean I'm kinda masochistic but I don't even know if that's what this is."

He wiggles back against Toby's chest as he plays with Bryce's fingers, fascinated. Are the wiggles aroused wiggles? Even he can't tell. 

Bryce will sit back and allow himself to be enjoyed, and likewise let himself enjoy seeing how Jamie shifts, a little.

Shifting? Him? Nooooo, never!

Well, maybe a little.

"Um," fidget fidget. "So, the confluence. What d'you think they need to know? I can only really give second hand advice, I awakened right after the last one." 

"What have you guys got so far?"

"We've got a lot of, you know, informational stuff, what it is and how it works, but I think you'd be good for talking about what it's like," he says.  "Since you're such a good storyteller."

"Ooh, do you have any good stories from the last one? A good example for the newbies, I bet it would sink in better for most that way." 

"Hmm.  I... guess I'm still not really sure what you guys are looking for?"

"...what would you tell yourself, like, a month or so before our first confluence?"

He tilts his head back and thinks.

"It's hard, cuz," he says, slowly, "I know what I'd tell myself, but... well, for one, I don't know how well it generalizes, but for another - I didn't not know it, that wasn't the problem."

Jamie sets his chin in his free hand, the other still holding Bryce's, despite- or, really, because of the sensation. 

"Well, it's like..."

"To me it feels like the obvious thing.  Just that, like - anyone who gets into this job because with great power comes great responsibility, the confluence is gonna... there's emergencies everywhere, constantly.  Everyone's overstretched.  You - "

He breathes.

"You know for a fact there's dungeons getting away with people in them.  That's where most returning dungeons come from, even more than from places like Indonesia.  And - you are gonna work more, during a confluence, it's inevitable, but it's a lot easier to feel like you ought to be working yourself to death.  And like, people tell you put on your own oxygen mask, people tell you it's a marathon not a sprint, but when it's happening, it just - it feels like an excuse.  It feels vile, to look away from it."

"Oh." He ducks his head, frowning. "That. Yeah." 

"I've never really felt guilty for putting my people above strangers, but putting myself above victims? I could see that turning into... A lot." 

Even if it isn't very logical. 

...oh he wants to give Jamie some kind of comforting squeeze or kiss or something but he'd zap him...

"Yeah.  It's - "

" - but that's the thing," he says.  "There's nothing I can say about it that hasn't already been said."

Nod. 

"It's kinda something you learn by getting through it, I guess." 

Jamie is hugging his hand to his chest now, and doesn't appear to mind the mild stingy-ness. Of course, that could just be because he's doing it at his own pace, though. 

"I could also see someone getting on a high horse about it or something, if you told a story about having to leave some victims behind." 

"I didn't get a lot of that, fortunately," he says.  "People get like that on social media sometimes, but I'd successfully sworn off social media before my first confluence.  But - there were definitely times it would have hit me really badly, if someone had lashed out that way."

Jamie squeezes his hand, "I bet." 

"We should probably mention it again, though. Maybe with the whole, 'you probably won't really get how this affects you until it happens,' part." 

"I think you should," Toby says.  "If you're up for it.  It's not gonna be the same as firsthand experience but I bet it's gonna help."

Little smile.

"At least it'll let them brace for it. They'll know it might happen, if they haven't thought about it already. So maybe some of them will be a little more ready. 

"Y'know, this is kinda what I really mean by the whole, we gotta get better at preparing newbies, right? Even if we don't have guilds, we should have, like, programs? Mentorship and guest speakers, like an organization that reaches out to them instead of expecting them to look for resources themselves?"  

"...yeah.  That's a good idea," he says.  "My - I've kind of made monster capture my main project, right now, but esper onboarding is a good and important cause.  I got really lucky that I bumped into Toby as fast as I did."

"We both did," Toby says.  "We clicked really well, we learned the ropes together."