"If I've seen them all, eight."

"Okay, call it forty minutes a vic...that's another three hours, minimum.  And then we want to find the core.  Do you need a break at all?"

"I’ll nap when you take breaks. I might want you to order me sashimi. I will pay for it, phones are just not designed for cats."

"Yessir, can do.  I should be able to do another two or three runs, then I might want to take a nap."

"Okay." He picks the next direction. "Might be able to get two on this route if neither needs to be carried."

"That's a lot easier on me, if you can arrange it."  He's being considerate, I think!  More evidence he might like me.  Or at least not hate me.

They’ve got an older lady who doesn’t speak English, only Javanese, but she’s really happy to see Tim!

Tim will attempt Spanish and French and extremely halting American Sign Language, but he can get by with pantomime if necessary.  And if she doesn't speak English, it means that Cricket won't get offended, probably.

None of those is Javanese! Pantomime suffices to get her following. She's pretty spry for how grey her hair is and doesn't seem threatening enough to Cricket that he won't shove her separately from Tim so she needn't be carried.

The other vic on the same mountain (a bit kata and around the other side) is a guy in his thirties. He heard Tim speaking Spanish and greets them in that rather than English without clarifying whether English would also work for him.

Tim's happy to speak Spanish!  He grew up only ever speaking Spanish at home, it's nice to feel a little nostalgic for a moment.  He might find Tim's accent a touch odd, but they're mutually intelligible enough.

And this guy can also walk and climb so they can go out in a batch to the portal! And also Cricket doesn't speak Spanish and cannot be offended when the guy asks how expensive he was!

Tim advises him, in Spanish, that the kitty is a person and makes more money in a month than Tim and his partners make in a year.  And to go relax, he’s earned it after all the time spent trudging through the liminal mountains.

(Is he exaggerating for effect?  Possibly.  Will he admit it?  Probably not)

When Tim goes to take a break, Cricket announces that he wants eight ounces of sake and two ounces of bluefin from a specific place in Brooklyn delivered and that Tim can send Tess an invoice for it, and then curls up on his lawnchair to catch some Z's.

Summer's waiting in the tent. She has a blue cheese burger and onion rings and jalapeno poppers now.

Tim doesn't outsource everything to Bill.  He's perfectly competent to order a specific thing from a specific place according to specific instructions.  "Hey, Summer.  How's it all going?"

"The Hawks lost. Otherwise fine. You holding up okay?"

"Li'l tired, but I'm doing okay.  I've never seen so many knives in my life, though."  After the ritual Partial Undressing, he'd like to curl around Summer from behind.  "The 4D, uh, slides are really something, too.  Never seen anything like it in my life."

Pet pet. "I heard at a mixer once it makes some people queasy."

Oh, no.  Cozy pets.  His only weakness.  "Yeah, I can see it.  This dungeon wasn't too bad, but it's pretty weird.  My power thinks Cricket's about three inches away from me, but my eyes know that's not the case."

"Wild! Is that... a 4D thing somehow...?"

"I guess?  I don't really know, I thought it was a Cricket thing at first, but then another victim had the same thing happen.  Maybe it's just this dungeon, or if we're really lucky it'll be all 4D dungeons."

"How did a vic have the same thing happen?"

"Like, they all feel close to me?  I don't really know how to explain it - I could tell they were near even if they weren't."  He stifles a yawn in Summer's shoulderblade.  "Scuse me."

"You can nap." Pet pet.

"Mmm...m'kay.  Just for a little bit."  He dozes off after a few minutes with an arm over Summer's midsection.  He does wriggle around in his sleep a bit.  Hopefully Summer doesn't mind having her partner draped all over her.