Lawrence is wearing a long sleeved starched white dress shirt with small mother-of-pearl buttons and single button barrel cuffs, with high waisted dark gray trousers (no belt, but it does have side tabs). They've been pressed very neatly, and he (if you know what to look out for) is obviously wearing garters underneath by how the fabric remains unwrinkled even as he moves. The dress shirt collar is fully buttoned even though he's not wearing a tie. He has shiny black wholecut leather shoes. He has no accessories.

He's 178cm tall, slim, and has jet black hair in a side-swept style, and jet black irises.

In a major violation of cool-guy protocol, ‘Misha’ has arrived early, but that’s fine because ‘Misha’ is a nerd with zero social life and that’s totally a character that Alexandr Vasilyevich Nemstov remembers how to play from back when he was fourteen and espers were mostly action heroes or porn rather than—him. He’s sitting at a table, writing his new name over and over. Ma-ri-nin Mi-Sya. Maybe it will feel like his own if he keeps writing it.

At least he fit the part. Malina is a raspberry, like his hair, which had seemed like a cuter choice back when he made it. He is still waiting for his checks to clear to his new bank account under his false name, so all he has to wear is what he’d stuffed into a suitcase nearly three weeks ago. “Rumpled” isn’t really a style in Korea, but he already stands out like a bloody thumb—tall, wiry, pale, with golden eyes and bright hair on the squared-off face of a military-recruitment poster. He’d thought it looked so cool when he was younger. Now it just reminds him of home.

He bolts upright at the sound of someone walking close. “Privyet—uh. Yo.” Zero-for-two on greetings in Korean now. Great start! “Lavrence-nim?” Hey! Particles! Better!

That is certainly a look. His face shape and expression really contrast with his bright hair and eyes. He has no idea what his name is. Oops. Well, this is why you learn greetings.

Lawrence speaks in Korean. <Yes. My name is Lolenseu Lakson. I am pleased to meet you,> giving his Korean transcribed name rather than its original pronunciation, because He Is Speaking Korean Now. And then he bows. 

Oh, fuck, we're really doing this, okay. Deep breath and bow. "<I am Malinin Misha. Sorry for my, uh—>" he gestures at his clothes. "<My suitcase got lost.>" He makes a little airplane with his hand for in transit. "<Please do not think I mean disrespect.>"

Honestly, he should try being a slob more. It made rehearsing the greeting much easier, knowing what he'd have to talk about.

That's so sad!!

<I do not mind. Welcome to Quasar Guild, Malinin Misha-shi.>

<Excellent. My plan for this lesson is to have you two practice through conversation. I am going to remain mostly quiet, but you can ask me questions at any time. I will also be giving corrections if you use unnatural wording or incorrect grammar.>

She repeats this for Misha's sake in English, because she has less of a handle on his skill level. Her plan is to gauge it based on how well he's able to handle himself, here.

<Yes, seonsaeng-nim.> He makes a face of playful dissatisfaction at his fellow student, on the order of "teachers, am I right?" <How long have you been in Korea?>

<I have been in Korea for around three weeks. I was born in the Philippines, but moved here to join Quasar.>

He has to stare blankly for a little while to get Philippines to register. "<Oh, Is Korea very cold?>" He has to fight the urge to tack on a "for you" or the like. That's how you get your metaphorical knuckles rapped for rudeness.

<Yes. Even though it is only autumn, it is cold for me. In the Philippines, if the temperature is below 25 degrees Celsius, it is cold. May I know where Malinin Misha-shi grew up in?>

What's a city in Ukraine? Uhh. "<Ukraine. Here is warm. In the Philippines, I — >" finger-across-neck and a playful smile. The instructor did not seem inclined to jump in and rescue him, but like hell if he was going to ask. He was cosplaying a nerd, not a wimp.

Huh? Oh, he's saying that he would die. Alright. He doesn't really want to talk about. His childhood. So he should change the topic.

<My power is...>, oh, he really should have asked this before. <Seonsaengnim, how do you say 'sentient' in Korean?>

Yeonwoo will not rescue Misha because Lawrence seems to have understood, and because he didn't ask her anything and his sentence wasn't obviously flawed.

"There's nuance there, since Korean doesn't make the same sentient versus sapient distinction as English. But for your power...I don't know the full details of your power but jigaki inneun is probably what you want. Beings with perception," she says in English.

<My power is controlling the movements of sentient beings.>

"<Cool! Show me?>"

Aww, sweet, esper-off, now this is a game he knows the rules to.

<There are no targets in the room aside from ourselves. Also, I have poor backlash...> he wants to say 'efficiency' or 'capacity' but he doesn't know the words... <I can only use my power a few times before I need to be guided. I have no permanent partner right now. Sorry.>

Also he doesn't want to use his power on Misha because it might reveal information to him about the full shape of his power. But what he said is true, regardless.

<I can also sense the presence of conscious minds in a volume around me. It is a weak sensor power with limited range. I cannot demonstrate it usefully in this room, sadly.>

This time, Misha has to give up and get some clues from the instructor. But once he does? Challenge accepted. "<Can you point at the minds? Can you count the minds?>"

<I know the direction and number of the minds. I can distinguish between minds and I know if it is the same one I have seen before. The sense cannot pass through thick barriers but can pass through thin barriers, like cloth. I cannot sense a mind that is sleeping deeply or> and he has to ask Yeonwoo about the words <comatose or strongly sedated. However, I can sense a mind that is dreaming.>

"< I hope to see it> uhh, in action?" This is way more tiring than dungeon-clearing. How do people do this? "<Soon>."

The instructor suggests that someday would be politer and he has to fight not to roll his eyes.

<I hope to use it in a dungeon soon! I have been doing dungeoneering training but have not helped significantly in any dungeons as I have no partner, still. May I know what Malinin Misha-shi's power is?>

"<Ah? Yes, certainly, Rorenseu-shi. I can manifest other people's desires with my power.>" Like how I'm at this very moment borrowing your desire to speak perfect Korean to make you think I am speaking it at roughly your level. Reality was that he only knew how to ask a few questions about names and bathrooms and—oh, right. "<I just remembered. What is your age? I'm twenty-four.>"

Manifesting other people's desires??? That is such a vague and broad power! <I do not know what you mean by manifesting other people's desires.> Did he misinterpret the Korean? <Is it like Ha Si-yeon-shi's power?>

<I am 18 years old.>

Oh you're, like, brand new. Itty bitty baby esper. I am sunbae! "<A person wants a thing badly, and I can feel it. Then I can cause something similar.>" He is mincing his sentences as best as he can to keep them from taking too much juice. Honestly, this had seemed like a better idea before he realized how tough it would be to be constantly generating the illusion. Much easier to make an object once and let it sit.

<That's a very broad and useful power! I am envious.

Is the person who came in with you your partner?> Lawrence is hoping no, or at least that either is open to other partners, because he wants to have a partner, finally. And also hoping that in the event that they are, they are compatible.

"<I am still looking for a partner.>" No further details needed, hopefully, because he doesn't have any.

Of course, that 'other person' is kind of a pushover and might help him out if, say, he just showed up with a bunch of backlash mysteriously acquired during Korean practice. But of course he isn't deliberately fishing to get pity-guiding from a maybe-ex-partner! It just might work out that way. You know, in an emergency. Of the unexpected kind.

"<Is Rorenseu-shi looking as well?>"

This is great!

<Yes, I am. Does Malinin Misha-shi want to test for compatibility?>

…Yeah, yeah, you know what? I do. Wouldn’t it be funny if he found an even better partner than his stupid ex? “<If you don’t mind.>” He even made it super polite! So good at this.

He sticks his hand out for a handshake.

Lawrence will remove his right glove and shake!

Hm. Better than average. Not good enough to partner partner, he thinks? Better than Leah...worse than Lachlan. Lachlan was really remarkably compatible but he's in Singapore and conscripted and it's way better to have a partner in the same organization. Still, it's decent.

<I have decent compatibility with you, from my side.>

“Yeah, same.” That one comes out in Russian and he has to try again. “I mean, <yes, I feel the same.>” Still, it’s… something. “<We could work with it, maybe.>”

<We could!> Smile. He has a prospective partner for the short term, at least.

<I have not had any...> he has to ask again for words, <medium-term partners. I had hoped to find one before the confluence but the esper I found who I was compatible with is from another country. You would be my first partner, if you were willing to temporarily partner with me.>

“<I could be convinced.>”

“<I am a high-grade combat esper so I tend to have a lot of backlash onboard.>” Always from very responsible uses of his power, of course. Definitely not from dumb impulsive stuff. “<I can tolerate it pretty well—no huge issue—but I’d want it gone as fast as we could so I can get back out in the field. Is that a concern for you?>”

Isn't that...unwise? I mean he supposes one can't help it if it's a confluence, but he's pretty sure you ought to regularly zero yourself on backlash. Otherwise it turns into chronic backlash.

It takes a few moments for him to translate the Korean into English in his head — he hasn't gotten to that stage yet where he can think in Korean — and then a few more to recognize what Misha is actually asking about.

<I haven't engaged in any sexual guiding before.> he says plainly. He's going to have to get used to talking about that matter-of-factly, if he's going to do any work as an esper.

Well, okay, when you put it like that it sounds—

“<Would it bother you? I mean, if I end up needed back-to-back, I wouldn’t have time to do anything less. I just need to know my options.>”

He didn't really expect his first time having sex to be with someone who's doing it just for guiding. Well, he didn't expect to be an esper at all, but. And accepting would mean that he has a partner too, and could himself be helping in dungeons. Both of them are psychic espers, so it seems like it would be a good match, tactically...

It takes a while for him to speak.

<I am open to trying it and I do want to try it. But I am new to it and I do not know if I would like it, or if...> he gets help to phrase this next part... <I cannot separate emotions from the physical component of guiding, in such a way that would upset me.>

This is probably one of those little cultural things, isn't it? Because where he's from, the proper etiquette would be to call this guy a pussy and punch him in shoulder for worrying about his feelings.

He elects not to do this and instead nods, because he is a responsible elder-esper who takes these things seriously and not a selfish jerk looking to use a local ingenu for sex. Or guiding, rather.

"<It is impertinent to ask, but do you mean that you are new to guiding, or—?>" This was getting tougher on his powers as they got further out into specifics. He was relying on his power for the words he didn't know already, and oddly enough "proper etiquette and useful phrases for discussing guiding and sex" wasn't in introductory DuoLingo.

"Ah, respectfully. This conversation seems important. Could we maybe have it in English? I can understand English pretty well, but I am not very good in Korean yet."

"Ah. Did you want to end the lesson early?"

"I think...yes. What do you think?" he asks Misha, not yet replying to his question.

"I am fine to continue the Korean stuff or talk about this, just not both at the same time. Maybe this is more important, though."

He would have thought that language learning is more important, but. There is a confluence on.

"Alright. In that case, I would like to end the lesson early."

<Thank you, seonsaengnim.> He bows.

Yeonwoo does likewise and leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

"I am very new to guiding in general because I am a new esper, and also I have not had sex before."

Ahhh, fuck. He had really been banking on the idea that being the most junior meant that everyone else was a fully degenerate bunch of buttlovers already. Of course he got the newest newbie. Okay, okay, no need to be judgmental of the innocence of youth. That had... really screwed him up when it was his turn, after all.

And he was willing to be a jerk to power, but—now he was sunbae. He had responsibilities.

"Okay, well, the first thing is definitely to figure out guiding first, and then graduate upward. We can—I can help you with that, if nobody else has already."

"Thank you. I think that would be good.

When I was doing power testing in the Philippines and in Korea, I did hand and arm holding and hugging."

Okay, that's a good start. "What does it feel like, when you get guiding?" He holds his hands out, palm up, across the table they are sitting at, to invite him to touch again. "I think it feels a little different for everyone."

That looks like an invitation but he's not sure! He's going to put his hands on the table but he's not going to touch Misha's.

"It's hard to describe. I think it's like...stepping into a bath that was the right temperature. It feels...right? Correct? Like when you put on clothes and everything fits really well and it's like you're wearing nothing at all. And when you're incompatible it's like, things keep pinching or pulling or rough or itchy. But more abstractly — it doesn't feel like any of those things specifically. It's like you took the platonic ideals of these things and added them to the base sensation." Okay he didn't intend to say that many words but he ended up doing so.

"For me it feel like... connection. Like when an old friend calls you on the phone after a few years of no contact. Or visiting your parents after you've moved away." He wiggles his fingers suggestively. "Come on, no need to be coy," says possibly the coyest man in Korea.

Well, Lawrence was fine with moving to Korea in no small part because it moved him away from his parents, but Misha does not need to know about his baggage.

He will place his hands delicately atop the other's. The feeling of guiding continues to be really fascinating and good!

"I've got more onboard than you right now. If you use your power a little bit, you'll feel the sensation ratchet up in intensity."

"Okay. I'll use my sensory power. I've been taught that guiding happens faster the closer the espers are in their levels of backlash."

He sweeps the entirety of the room with it.

"There are no sentient entities in this room aside from us. And I can feel it, indeed." It feels more right. 

He had been in like, second year of high school, maybe, in biology class when Sergei Pomerantsev had said that you could manually stimulate the release of oxytocin by pinching or play with your nipples, and of course a bunch of the guys had all put their hands under their shirts, grinning and sneering at each other and at the scandalized girls nearby. It hadn't really had a noticeable effect, of course, but this was what he'd imagined would happen when he reached under his shirt back then. Just kind of a flood of warm feelings and empathy.

"Neat power. Probably useful for finding victims in a dungeon, I imagine."

"Not really. The range is line of sight and it's blocked by barriers thicker than cloth. But it allows me to distinguish between and recognize minds, so it would be useful if I was in a dungeon that had illusory humans. Any mind I detect with it is a valid target for my movement control.

You said your power was conjuring the desires of other people. What does that mean?"

"It means what it says. You think a thing, I can make it happen." Okay, it's a little more detailed than that, but come on—this version is sexier. "I can't use my own thoughts to do it, but if you want something bad enough, I can cause it to appear."

Wow! "Is it matter conjuration? Or just illusion? That's such a versatile power!" It also implies he can do mindreading, which is. Yeah. It's kind of sad that he doesn't have any mindreading capacity but he's also a little happy because he knows he would be soooo tempted to use it all the time to navigate social situations and such and probably die of backlash.

If he had said any of that aloud, Misha would be forced to agree. Massively tempting. "It's just an illusion, sadly. Can't do anything to you except look really fucking convincing. That's usually enough, though. Even dungeon monsters will respect it, often."

It would be so interesting to see Misha use the power but...he is backlashed, and also Lawrence would rather not have Misha read his mind to find out what his desires are.

"I'd imagine so. My power has no visual component.

My plan was to try to find a partner before the confluence and then aim to do a dungeon once every other day. So that I have time to think about things I could have done better and prepare for the dungeon on the next day. I don't want to...rush quickly into trying to clear as many dungeons as possible, because I've had less than a month of training and experience total." He has heard about the saying that dungeon espers don't live past fifty...he knows that number is extremely confounded by the fact that espers only started appearing in the 80s and people had no idea what they were doing back then. So the death rate for espers at the time was super high. Still, that doesn't make dungeoneering not dangerous.

Ah, fool, he was already kicking about in there.

"Yeah, this confluence thing screwed up a lot of plans." A lot of plans. "I wouldn't be here without a partner either, if I had my way. But, hey, meeting new people is cool, at least."

Yeah, what is the story about that? Ukraine is...far...from Korea. Why move here? Was Quasar especially looking for an esper with his skillset and paid him lots of money to come here? Asking about backstories seems potentially fraught, though. The lack of partner seems suggestive.

"It is."

He sort of wants to try lying down on the couch together or cuddling or something like that...but...it's kind of awkward...

Thankfully, reading costs nothing. Well, almost nothing. Nothing compared to the amount of backlash involved in faking fluency in a foreign language!

"I know we were supposed to be here for Korean, but we can practice in a room, if you want to find one."

"Yes," he says, and summons a commscreen. Commscreens are cool! He looks for a silo they can get into using the Quasar HQ map.

"This way," he says, leading, still holding onto Misha's hand.

…Aww, he’s so enthusiastic. Now Misha has to be good. Luckily the guiding is helping keep the little impulsivity demons in his head at bay, especially since he had very carefully avoided using his powers for—well, it had only been…a day and a half, actually.

Having only yourself for company in your head makes for very long days, okay? A little free language assist earlier, as a treat, is totally reasonable given how good he has been and how badly he needs to impress potential partners.

He follows Lawrence. “How did you get the little map to show up? I can never make it give me the room labels.”

He can show him! There are settings for the map app. Also you can change the system language from Korean to English — he has them in Korean now but he used to have them in English.

They will reach the silo without issue, with Lawrence's successful navigation.

"We never had anything this cool in Vladi—Volodymyr. Where I was stationed. Before." He'd always made fun of the Arkhangelsk O thing but now it would be super useful for faking Ukrainian. Karma. Or something.

The silo is one of the generic ones, but that doesn't make it any less well appointed. Ha Si-yeon's was nicer, for sure, but, "They sure have great digs here, don't they?" There's a big old bed available but he elects to play it slow and flops on the couch, pulling his shirt off. "Come sit. You can keep your shirt on if you want. It's just easier without it."

He is being so good today. Not even one taunt about cowardice or the like!

Stationed? Hm, maybe they don't have good teleport capacity in Eastern Europe and that's why it's like that. Korea has Min Woo-young — Quasar has batteries for his power and they sell the teleport capacity to many buyers. And America has Vera Ablinger.

Lawrence thinks the silos are great but it's not like he's experienced any other guild's silos before, so.

Lawrence looks at Misha...it is a truism known to everyone that espers are hot. It's different to be met with this reality face-to-face. He has the urge to do his tic of pulling in his lips, but he suppresses it. His PR trainer, Kyong Shin-Il, is trying to get him to stop the habit.

He is going to carefully remove his shirt and put it up on a hanger in the closet so it doesn't get wrinkled. If one wanted to describe Lawrence's physique, one might reach for 'nubile ephebe'. Or, less pretentiously, 'twink'. He is thin — indeed, his hips are wider than his waist — and he is entirely hairless from the neck down. Skin totally smooth with nothing on it. Prominent collarbone and lightly defined muscles.

He will sit beside Misha as instructed, knees together with his hands on them.

Misha ended up getting "swimmer" as his body type, with broad pecs and a natural A-frame, though biased thinner. He wasn't usually the biggest guy around, though next to Lawrence he suddenly felt enormous.

Kinda like how he felt with Ha Si-yeon. Man, is with all these cute pretty boys? Maybe the West isn't so bad.

"Okay, so step one is relax, man. We're here to be cuddly, so like, go ahead and lean on me if you want. But either way, I'm not going to bite, you don't need to tiptoe around."

Okay, but. You can't make yourself consciously relax. He is not an experienced enough meditator for that.

Anyway, time to do what he came here for. He slowly lets himself fall to the side until he's leaning on Misha.

Guiding is like. Really pleasant.

"There you go! Was that so hard?" He wraps his arms around Lawrence and drags him closer. "Sheesh, dude, you need to loosen up. You'll pull a muscle just snuggling like this."

Lawrence will allow himself to be so wrapped! He places his hands on Misha's arms.

"It's very new. I haven't...haven't gotten used to it yet..."

He has been told that guiding efficiency increases the closer the espers are in backlash level. When he did power testing with Leah, she would use her power to give herself backlash to match his, and as she did so, he could feel that the guiding was stronger. But here, Lawrence has no backlash. Does the guiding get stronger? He'd be able to feel if Misha has backlash that he's guiding away, right now.

Misha most certainly does. More than he'd care to admit—but such is the tyranny of espers. "I was practicing earlier today, so I have some onboard. Not too much, though, so we can just sit like this, if you'd rather." He shifts a little underneath Lawrence. "You mind if I ask you what your backlash feels like?"

Lawrence could theoretically measure how much backlash Misha has by calculating the acceleration in guiding efficiency. He definitely doesn't have the experience to discern this, though! So he will only know that Misha has backlash, but not the amount.

"My backlash is difficulty moving. I start to have trouble walking, and when it gets really bad, I can't support myself standing."

Lawrence does not want to talk about his backlash! Or have Misha figure out his true backlash! He does want to touch Misha more...but this conflicts with his shyness and his aversion to touch in general. So he supposes they can just sit like this for now.

"Sounds like I'll be doing all the work, then," he chuckles. It's a reflexive comment, meant as a friendly joke, but the moment he says it he's suddenly worried this guy will be embarrassed. "I'm good with that," he adds after a moment.

Too late! Lawrence is embarrassed!

"I hope to learn to pick up my share of the work in due time," he says. "If we are going to partner we should talk about...our backlashes and backlash accommodations."

"If you can't move, you'll just have develop a really good dirty talk game! But you'll be far from the only pillow princess in the world, and as long as you're cute about it, it'll go over well, trust me." Is he making it better or worse? The obvious way to find out is really obvious when the two of them are touching! This is bad! "But yes, we should. Go ahead!"