"I dunno, man, whether or not you feel impressive, there's still people who got hurt and aren't hurt anymore, and that's still cool."

oh no why can't I just hide behind April again grow the fuck up, you are not five.  "Yeah.  You're right."  He pauses for a second.  "Thank you."  

"Seems like you and Uisa have some pretty good division of labour going on here. She handles the fancy stuff and you can do a bunch of relatively simple stuff all at once."

"Yeah, that's a good framing for it.  It's a shame we can't coordinate like this more often, she seems really cool.  Maybe when she has time I'll ask her about what she did to your ankle, it's like...half-healed, sort of?  But only some of it.  You think you're going to frame her autograph, when you get that wrap off?  She's like the Skybreaker of medical espers, right?"

"Yeah, she's pretty much that. She's only A rank in their system but that's because S rank is pretty much reserved for high power combat espers I think. Which is a little sad. I'll probably keep a photo of her signature."

"Huh.  Wonder what rank we'd get, if we got a rating.  Probably C or B here, my power's not that great on its own.  I need other people to be able to leverage it."

"Or if you want to look on the bright side you could say you're the only esper around who can bring his own super-army to a dungeon," Sean points out.

"I think grading brings prepwork into account?  If you can wake up in the morning, put on your pants and rock out, all things equal, your grade is higher than someone who has to do fiddly stuff.  But yeah, my power does scale pretty well, sort of.  My, uh, old partner figured I'd be a bodyguard for S-ranks who could counter a dungeon too dangerous for them to enter without my buff up."

"I'd probably just be C rank myself. You'd make a great bodyguard for somebody with good offense but no defense."

"I dunno, I think you'd be a B-rank.  My backlash is kind of bad, yours."  DO NOT FINISH THAT SENTENCE HOW YOU ORIGINALLY PLANNED.  "I mean, they all suck, right?  But you stay functional if you can talk to someone, right?  I just keel over if it gets too bad."

"Yeah, though if something interrupts my comms link or something I can fall apart really quickly....I have good endurance if things go according to plan but..."

"That makes sense.  Maybe that's part of why we got partnered on that cargo ship dungeon.  D'you team up a lot, or do you usually fly solo?"

"I usually fly solo unless it's one of those dungeons that messes with comms and then I usually have somebody along who can protect themselves so I can focus on protecting the victims. I teamed up with Traceless one time. We're wildly incompatible guiding wise but we worked well together because we're both compulsively chatty while backlashed. Have you heard of Traceless? He's the guy who funded the Ontario Monster Park."

"I've heard of the park, but I don't think I've heard of him personally?  My sharks are supposed to wind up there at some point, once the labs are done with 'em."

"You caught sharks? Last I heard they didn't really have a saltwater setup...I'm lucky the bioluminescent nudibranches turned out to tolerate fresh water. Apparently there's real bioluminescent nudibranches but these ones come in more colours and patterns."

"What's a nudibranch?"

"They're also called sea slugs. They're known for coming in all sorts of different colours. Some of them are actually really pretty. And these ones glow in different colours.. They make a really gorgeous exhibit. I grabbed...eight of them I think. They were mostly like, sort of set dressing for the dungeon I think. It was like a half submerged cave system.. It also had some much bigger ones that shot jets of steam out of the water at anyone walking or swimming too close but I didn't have a safe place to store those. They probably wouldn't have survived once the dungeon was dead anyway."

"Huh.  Those seem pretty cool.  All I've got are these dumb little sharks from a dungeon, it was trying to be a pool with sharks in it?  But I guess it didn't have enough dungeon juice to be full-sized.  So, people were able to hop out of the pool."  Tim pulls up a video of him 'fishing' out sharks by letting them bite him, then putting them in a monster containment bucket.  "I think they've given up on trying to get them to breed.  But the teeth regrow like regular shark teeth, so that's nice."

"I don't think I've heard of anyone getting monsters to breed. Dungeon plants sometimes, but not the monsters. I guess there could always be a first."

"Yeah, but imagine if they didn't even bother trying and it turns out they could?  Or, so they think, I guess.  I don't really bother thinking about it, really, it's not what I do best."

"Yeah, it doesn't hurt to try I suppose..."

"And the shark teeth regrow, so if they can keep the sharks healthy, maybe it'll turn out to be the next Ablinger marble."  His shrug is a little inhibited by the cuddlepuddle, but it's legible enough.  "I got the first one as a finder's fee.  Maybe it'll be worth millions, maybe it'll just be a necklace.  Who knows?"

"It's my policy," slow breath, "not to advertise anything," slow breath, "that I don't actually," slow breath, "like and use. But," slow breath, "not everyone does."

"I'm C rank. I got," slow breath, "formally ranked because," slow breath, "I spent some time," slow breath, "in Japan. I was," slow breath, "there when the 2030," slow breath, "confluence happened. Decided," slow breath, "to help out locally."

"Aumento and Kuroko," slow breath, "both of you would," slow breath, "probably be B-rank. It's not," slow breath, "just about the power. It's," slow breath, "also about your backlash. If," slow breath, "your backlash is really," slow breath, "bad for dungeons, or if," slow breath, "you can only use your power a little," slow breath, "that means a lower rank."

"Not that a low rank," slow breath, "is bad. You're helping," slow breath, "so many with your regen!" She smiles at Aumento's direction.

"You can also get," slow breath, "upgraded in rank. If," slow breath, "you learn how to," slow breath, "use your power really well." Slow breath. "C to B, or B to A." Slow breath. "But downgrades also possible."

"Yeah.  My, uh, mentor was pretty big on efficiency.  I'm pretty good about only using my powers when I really need to, although sometimes I overreact if someone gets hurt."  Little nod to Kuroko about that one.  "But I don't think I'll really be able to upgrade my ranking outside of dungeons, right?  I can micromanage my own power usage, but sitting around here, there's not much difference on who gets how much power.  Best I can do is kick someone out when they're done."

Here is some mildly sleepy-voiced input:

"Not sure you're taking into account how rare medics are. Let alone regen you can spread around?"