"I haven't tried, uh, spicy guiding, but filtering for gender won't make a difference to that anyway. Don't think I care much about age either."

"Be aware that backlash is absolutely terrible for a pregnancy," says Phoebe, "yet does not substitute for conraception, worst of both worlds. So watch out with the spicy guiding unless you've got a plan. We'll send you to some mixers, see if we can find you anything with the right countervibe, I'll look around in various files. Anything you can think of which might conceivably have a magically right countervibe that would drive you up the wall with either its direct presentation or its accommodations? Sometimes the opposites-attract thing is a mess."

"Hmm... I don't have a problem with people being unnaturally chill, I'm pretty sure... it's kinda hard to think of what else might fit."

"That was the already-partnered to pop into my head, but it's unlikely that's all that'd do it for you. Other things I might be on the lookout for based on your description there are... agoraphobia. Anything that leaves somebody unexpressive, such as because they're mute or because they become very intensely focused on something else OCD-style. Physical backlashes involving retaining water in one way or another, or varieties of fatigue or sleepiness like Aumento in case that's a pattern."

"I was also pretty compatible with what's her name, the Korean healer lady," she offers. "With the pain backlash. Sucks to be her, I'm glad I could help."

"Interesting. If you hit a mixer before I find someone that data will be handy too. Okay to mention your thing to other agents? They all know what side their bread is buttered on, I've never had a leak that way."

"Yeah, seems probably fine."

Phoebe would like her signature on that but this form is very short and has only one field.

Yeah okay she can sign another form.

"Sorry about all the red tape. It is there to protect you and it also sucks, like vaccines."

"Hah! Yeah."

"Here's all the upcoming mixers in the Great Lakes deployment region plus the north half of Eastern Seaboard and a big Vancouver one, I'll send you a digital copy too. Your power classification qualifies you for twenty-four Ablinger network credits for this purpose courtesy of the Canadian government, they want you fieldable soonest, you can get bagels while you're in New York but the credits are for attending mixers and getting home again. I will email you the Ablinger network usage instructions. Both of you, actually read it and actually follow it. She has the secondary power 'more money than God' and spends it on liability insurance and lawyers and if you call a teleport that bypasses the safeties and wind up in the Gulf of Mexico then likely as not you are the one who will owe her a lot of money for the damage to her business's reputation for calling the wrong marble or whatever."

"Wow, that's harsh, I feel like ending up in the Gulf of Mexico is punishment enough."

"I know, right? Apparently it's worth it to her to establish that any problems are user error and not her deciding to drop people in the drink. So don't make user errors."

"But there are safeties, and she doesn't drop people in the drink if you use the system properly?" Sean clarifies. "If you have to be super smart about asking for the right teleports or she'll sue your parents for raising a kid who was dumb enough to land himself in the ocean and drown, I think we'd rather just get in an airplane."

"There are safeties but experienced users can shave off a couple minutes in an emergency if they skip checking in with the site attendant, don't scan the QR code, or hit the 'return trip' shortcut instead of manually entering their departure and destination points, any combination of those - you get somebody who goes from Mexico City to Dallas and then along the spoke to Austin, then tries to go straight home while backlashed and a bit out of it, and the marble that'd take them to Mexico City from Dallas does not do that if they're in Austin when they ask. Sometimes the shortcuts need to be there when seconds count. They don't for mixers, don't touch them, do it the long way."

"Yeah, okay, makes sense."

"You do get to keep the credits if you find a partner before you hit all these mixers. I expect you to be incompatible with Rhombus, for instance, but when you meet her for dungeon-buddying, check anyway, why not."

"Oh, yeah, definitely."

"I am going to email you various pamphlets about things like what is normal in a guiding partnership, what your rights and responsibilities are with dungeon response crews and victims, and work/life balance. Let me know if they suck, they revise on a rolling basis based on feedback. Most likely your main reaction to everything in all of them will be 'holy moly, people do that?' but since the answer is yes, best to warn first."

"Oh boy. Yeah, I'll read 'em."

"Are you a morning person?"

"I basically tolerate waking up in the morning?"

"Rhombus is the top combat esper in the city and often doesn't know in advance what dungeons she'll be doing the next day, because something can always emerge that needs her more than whatever old news is on the docket by default. But she prioritizes mentoring newbies highly, so, by default, she's got an eight a.m. slot tomorrow where she'll do a dungeon that appeared day before yesterday with you. They pulled the vics out by teleport because they were all in laundry machines, but the monsters remain a problem for a core search, so it's a pretty clean example of a combat-not-rescue deployment. It's always possible for the dungeon to grab new folks, so you might get surprise tutoring in that too, and it might run away, in which case we'll find you something else. Welcome to dungeoneering, it's always a bit hectic. I'll email you the report on it but I can also go over it with you here and now since you don't have practice reading those."

"If I gotta get up early to hit a dungeon with Rhombus, I'll get up early. Please do show me how to go over a report."