Monsters all over the metropolitan area?  Carol's not too far away from there, anyway.  Might as well do the one thing she does well: Kill monsters and destroy things.

In the event of Menagerie's death, intact monsters will be worth several million. Each. So if you think they might get it this time maybe don’t kill them.

Lampshade and Stash have been on Menagerie roundup duty, her scanning for people whose attention feels pointed at too-novel, too-cute critters, him grabbing the monsters and teleporting them into cages before anyone can be too startled and set the damn things off. 

When the earthquake hits, they need to re-evaluate their strategy.

Now they are doing Menagerie roundup AND search-and-rescue for people who very urgently need teleported out from under rubble and possibly directly to the hospital. And moving around much slower, since the roads are apparently not safe to be on, even where they're still intact.

Stash is trying to pace himself. This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.

Stavi takes the bullet train down. She's very useful in dungeon breaks; the DRT haven't formally requested her yet, but she's betting they will soon. 

In the middle of a confluence, an earthquake might not normally be the highest-priority place for her, unless it was a really bad one. But combined with two separate dungeon breaks, one of which is impacting emergency response, and damage to teleportation infrastructure...

Well. She'll notify her agent she's available, and also message some construction espers she knows in the area who do repairs. She's pretty unlikely to be called off for a worse dungeon break, too, with Hellscape and Arrakis both already accounted for (and dead!) But as always dungeons invent new ways to wreck havoc.

Pinion's agent rings her up. "Hey. I know it's still early days, and if you want to take more time for yourself just say the word. But things are looking pretty bad in San Diego right now - the US president just declared a state of emergency - and one of the dungeon breaks down there is one where you could be a big help. There're some espers who are expected to be down there who I think might have decent compatibility with you, so I think we can make it work, if you want to try. What do you think?"

She's... not sure. She's run dungeons and containment without Connor, of course, but he was still there, for after. Except for the one time.

Honestly, for all the years of experience she has in the field, she's hardly ever gotten guiding from someone else. She's practically a newbie at negotiating guiding relationships, and on top of that she's probably got a whole bunch of emotional land mines about it that she doesn't even know about yet. But she's done with all the paperwork she can do for now, and it won't really make sense to hold the funeral until after the confluence is over, and sitting around crying hasn't been doing her or anyone else any good.

She takes a deep breath, and lets it out.

"I'm willing to try it. I should probably take reduced hours, at first, at least until I find a consistent guiding arrangement I feel comfortable with. But I want to help. How do we get me down there?"

heyyyyyyy hg!

u hrd the news?

abt cali

what news?

...have now! Yikes...

ya......

neway plr&I r going down 2 help. 

wanna come? 

...hmmm.

I'll need to talk to my partners, but

probably?

k dope

o and u can bring ur gfs

if u want

we got room in the jet

takeoff in 4hrs tho

so hurry

(;

Kevin!!!

oh wow ok got it.

Will let you know! Paine field, yeah?

u kno it!

cu soon mb

Hourglass will definitely ask Foreshadow if she wants to come along and help - the two of them have been almost inseparable with their deployments since the confluence started (pretty cute). 

And speaking of Foreshadow, Kevin should maybe text Silver Bulwark? The kid is fun to hang with, compatible with Kevin, and he'd be good at last-ditch defense for the shit that's going down...

Wow, yikes. Silver Bulwark will check in with Foreshadow and his bff but he'll probably come, yeah.

Although -- he's been practicing reacting quickly but they shouldn't rely on him being fast enough, especially to a speeding car.

(He sends a confirmation within a hour and a half.)

This is what he's been waiting for! He accepts going to San Diego. And that he is going to take the pay decrease in order to maintain the rights to the captured monsters.

Sadly, Lachlan is useless in this situation, so he doesn't come along. He's currently dealing with a poison swamp dungeon anyway.

Are you fucking kidding her?  With this shit on top of everything else?

She's not getting involved.  She's not getting involved none of this is her fucking problem just because -

- okay, okay, fine, Jesus Christ - 

Damian can track dungeon monsters quite well, because they tend to have smells distinct from regular animals, humans, or the environment.

He (and Simon) requests a teleport to San Diego so he can mark the locations of the creatures without needing to rely on sighting reports.

Aumento has been called for a dungeon that's simultaneously incredibly radioactive and has its victims stuck in quicksand pits.  The choice is "get a victim into a full lead-lined suit while the victim is inside a sandpit" or "get Aumento to pull the victims out and buff them so they don't die of everything cancer three weeks later".

Needless to say, Aumento is very busy and unavailable for San Diego.