"I am not taking Lucky into a dungeon," she says, sharply, shields up again.

Okay he doesn't blame her for saying it like that but... she didn't have to say it like that.

"Straightforward enough, then.  Puddlejumper versus Utah, you should be good to go."

"......what's Puddlejumper versus Utah."

He has a mildly harrowed look on his face when she asks.  "It was a case in which an esper who had guardianship over her younger cousin successfully sued for the right to have said cousin permitted inside DRT-provided lodgings.  There was a whole kerfluffle about it..."  He's going to dredge up memories flavored by the recollection of Red Bull and poor decisionmaking skills.

Oh, she hates this.  Like this is probably good news if she's following it correctly but she hates it!  She haaaaates it!

"Parry doesn't have guardianship of me," Lucky says matter-of-factly.

Will you just shut the fuck up and work with me here - 

"Well, I don't know where your parents are and I imagine that you don't, either.  Otherwise you'd be with them right now.  Right?"  HINT FUCKING HINT, KID.  There may be some eyebrow waggling involved.

He's really glad that Sanchez is in the cab and not out here, he'd like to only borderline-incriminate himself if that's possible.

...he and/or Parry slightly overestimated how out on a limb this guy is willing to go.  Okay.  "Got it."

He unstraps himself from the impromptu seatbelt and moves to sit next to Parry and straps himself in again.

Yeah, okay, fine, Parry fucks everything up again because she's too stupid to play the fucking game, sure.  Typical.  She looks at the floor.

"And if you don't have guardianship and want it, that's one of the things an agent would be able to look at.  I don't know anything about your situation, but if you don't have an agent, you really want to get one.  Every esper needs one."

She nods without making eye contact.

"That's good to know," he says mildly.

"Yup.  They're pretty good at handling legal messes."  Aaaaaand she seems a little overwhelmed.  He wants to tell her everything's gonna be okay but she actually looks a little overwhelmed?  He's just going to visibly relax.  Take a sip of water.

So if they get an agent who's Actually Cool that's the person they can just be straightforward with?  It seems like?  Okay.

He kicks his legs sadly.

"...know any good agents," she says, not optimistically.

"Well, there's a bunch of espers where we're headed, probably one of 'em does.  I uh, I'm not an esper, I just work with 'em.  But you want someone you can work with, someone who understands what you actually want.  You don't want to be playing weasel words with them.  You maybe want one who's a lawyer, for attorney-client privilege.  I'm not asking about your backlash, but you want someone who's gonna get whatever your backlash is and be able to work with you even when you're miserably backlashed.  And you don't want to have an agent who's the agent of someone you're partnered with, it's not technically illegal or anything.  But it's a baaaad idea."

"Why's that a bad idea?" he asks, levelly and not skeptically.

"Well, an agent is supposed to look out for the client above all, right?  If you and your partner have a legal problem, the agent is supposed to figure it out for you, not try to split the baby."

He thinks about this.

"So," he says, "an agent is supposed to be, like... cool.  And then if some" shit "thing goes down with you and your partner, they both need somebody who's gonna be cool for them, 'cuz you can't be cool for two people who aren't cool for each other?"

He looks up at Parry.

No it's cool she loves drowning in tar.

Ugh.

"...so an agent's kinda like your defense lawyer," she says.  "If you get into shit, except for the way that just existing is kinda getting into shit."

"Right, exactly.  Or maybe someone in my job screws up and the agent handles it, or a civvy does something stupid and gets hurt, the agent is the one who hires your actual defence lawyer.  They also handle how much you get paid and how you get paid, too.  You want to make sure you're getting good money for the shit you gotta put up with."

She nods.  "I guess that makes sense."

......but then she needs an agent to know how to safely navigate this esper hotel bullshit, but she can't get an agent until she navigates this esper hotel bullshit.

...that is maybe all the Understanding Bureaucratic Bullshit they are up for on this car ride?

He looks at the DRT guy.  "Yeah.  ...what's your name?"

Whoops.  "Uh, Xavier.  Xavier Thornton.  Good to meet you."

Relatedly, they can see the hotel coming up.  It's not a skyscraper, which maybe helped it stay standing.  It's a little four-story building with a green metal facade.  It's near a park, which has a spray-painted 'helipad'.  No choppers currently in residence, though.  Every so often someone teleports into a sectioned-off area, with assorted visual effects.  There's also at least three groups of armed guards patrolling.