"You actually don't know the half of it."

hey hyung

you two decent?

i need makeouts

Woo-young opens his messages and blinks. "Tae-hwan's out of the dungeon."

It's fucked up that she feels relief about this. Min Woo-young is in addition to being an economic powerhouse and a great kisser, genuinely an interesting person to talk to! And she! likes! talking to people! (...or liked, apparently. Maybe she doesn't, anymore! That's fine! Things change!) But it is what she feels, even though she's pretty sure she manages to hide it completely.

"Oh, nice. I" (...huh why is she so hungr - right) "should get something to eat, actually. I can go do that while you guide him?" (hey, idiot -) "want me to bring back something for the two of you? There's good Chinese food around here."

"Oh I'm down. He and I aren't picky, you can get us whatever. Incoming."

Now here's Tae-hwan, hopping from foot to foot and immediately picking Woo-young up into a bridal carry and starting to jog around in circles while carrying him. "Hi, Flywheel."

...they are really cute together (and it hurts, and - probably it's just that Tia is dead!  'just'. She's dead and you're saying 'just'. She's barely been dead a day and -)

"Hi! I'm going to go grab some Chinese food for the three of us, I sorta forgot breakfast. Be back in a bit!" 

"Oh yeah okay sounds good, I'll have whatever I'm not picky."

"Meat or not? Spicy?" (She can leave her bag here, she won't need it to go get some takeout...)

"We're Korean, spice us up."

"You heard 'im."

This gets a genuine-looking smile out of her! "Got it. I'll be back in a bit." 

And she dips out of the room, only mocking herself a little bit as she does. 

And in order to guide Tae-hwan, Woo-young teleports them both across the city, then back here, then to the private room, then out of their clothes and onto the bed.

"It's so hot when you do that," he says, and then it's time for some guiding.

She finds a Chinese place and puts in three orders (She'll get... one beef and one tofu thing, both spicy, for the two of them, and get the same kind of fake duck she got last night but in a very different dish.)

Then she texts Paula, because Traceless is either in a dungeon or guiding with June.

This is Flywheel, on my work phone. Turns out I'm compatible with Min Woo-young, so I'm going to test a power synergy with his partner Seo Tae-hwan and get guided back down afterwards. 

I should still be able to deploy with Traceless this evening, but if the synergy works it could be very valuable. 

great!

I'll touch base with quasar

need anything else from me?

Let Traceless know, I guess? And when he gets textable maybe have him reach out and touch base, though I will try and keep you informed also. 

At some point I should probably give you a rundown on my backlash because it is often operationally relevant but I think I'd want to meet at least via video call before that.

But in very broad strokes - it's psychological, and at very high levels I won't always prioritize avoid gaining more. I have a year of experience managing it with some help from my old agent, and I might try offloading some of that onto you even without explaining much, if that works for you.

(She's sitting down in the lobby of the Chinese place as she waits for takeout, so it doesn't matter that her hands are shaking badly enough that she might drop her phone. She hates doesn't love doing this but she wants to be useful and she is not very useful if she sits on the sidelines while Arrakis destroys Toronto and she also won't be very useful if takes up a bunch of people's time and effort and then gets herself killed, so she's not going to do that even if the process is miserable vaguely unpleasant.)

when is good for a call? fine if you don't know yet

have you ever gotten to the point where new backlash flips to chronic immediately or is that only a theoretical risk so far

definitely good to have you on overnights, traceless is very versatile and held back by guiding rate, also good he can keep you in the game

condolences though, let me know if you need anything!!

Don't know yet but I'll let you know and try and make it sooner rather than later.

Only once, during initial power testing. I know the limits a lot better, now.

I'll try to, yeah. 

Thanks for picking me up on short notice. And for looking after Traceless.

okay great well don't do that again 👍

it's what I do!! good luck out there!

Yeah she will get right on not doing that! Thanks, Paula! 

...the worst part is it's technically theoretically useful; it's something she can lean on if she goes totally insane, at least if she's slightly backlashed. (maybe she should pick up a bit of backlash, just to be safe wow what a stupid fucking idiot idea from a stupid fucking idiot brain! she's not doing that! valid to preserve the option of killing herself instantly that's not why she's not doing it)

She waits for the food pickup.

"So," Tae-hwan begins when they're done with the main event, "did you, uh..."

"Hmm?"

"...figure out what's up with her?"