So here's a basement dweller Vulcan.

Who ought to be alive, whose daughter has saved countless billions of people in his absence -

Well, the billions were very much counted, but who's counting.

He blinks. He sits up, and stoically takes in the Andalite and the fellow with wings and the - young half-human woman who looks strikingly like his ex-wife?

"Father," says T'Mir, holding out her hand.

He mirrors the gesture, fingertips to fingertips. "T'Mir."

"I'll explain everything," she assures him, and she looks up at Cam and Matirin. "Thank you."

<Our pleasure.> 

Wag wag. "You're welcome." Glance at Matirin - "You done with me for now?"

<I think so. Thank you very much. I will get you the list for the Atlantic.>

"See you then." Pop.

And he returns home. He stops by Bella before going to rejoin his family. <Do you need anything for the conversation tomorrow?>

"A peal nickname. Do you have anything in mind -?"

<Not especially. Have a favorite morph, or a name for Malawi that's more suited to nicknaming than 'Malawi' is...>

"It used to be called Nyasaland but I don't especially want to name myself after Malawi, especially not its colonial stage. And 'Owl' isn't a very good name. I have some butterflies? I don't use them much but butterflies are natively morph-y, it's thematic, and Butterfly makes a better name than Owl."

<That works. I am glad I do not have to pick one; I like my name. Well, Matirin. My third-name is apparently politically controversial with my alts too.>

"I don't think I've heard this story."

<My grandmother suffered from complications when she bore her son which left her disabled. Andalites - do not look kindly on that. The custom is to live on your own somewhere far away so you need not be shamed by interaction with others. My father snuck out to see his mother, all the time. My grandfather remarried. My grandmother killed herself. My father was distraught, and ran away and lived alone for most of his childhood, and my name Nelinfir is by ancient titling custom a name you would give the first grandchild if you only had one child - so it is a way of calling my father's half-siblings illegitimate.>

"...ah. I did piece together the disability thing. I remember deciding not to pointedly wonder aloud if everybody in the conversation was just politely ignoring the fact that out of morph I couldn't walk briskly."

<Which is a bad thing that ought to be corrected, and if one can bear a child without such disadvantages one unambiguously should, but ill-treatment of the deficient once they already exist does not improve anything.>

"I agree with you as far as that goes, maybe modulo the thing where apparently Bells all come with this problem and Bells are great and there may be other tradeoffs in that vicinity. A lot of humans take a more radical stance. I've had some juggling to do to keep tourist Andalites from offending people too much."

<Bells seem to remain great when the problem is corrected. But I can imagine it would cause some problems, yes.>

"What I mean is that we do seem to have to have it in the first place, so if you could detect it in utero..."

<I see your point. I - do not want you to imagine that the Andalite position is that the world is poorer for having you in it.>

"Well, not anymore anyway. Got a spell for it. I'm not going to miss having to treat stairs as potentially lethal."

<Stairs are fairly lethal. I have no idea how anyone does balance on only two legs.>