"I am happy to keep reading it you! It just won't be new to me and maybe you mind that."

"No, I think that's fine?"

"In that case I owe my dad waffles."

"Well you can't go make him waffles till at least I am done awakening. If you want to do it after that I will allow it but you will be at risk of doing insane things."

"He told me I'm not allowed to make him the bet waffles til it's over."

"That's very sensible of him."

"Yes my parents are very good at being sensible. Especially my dad."

"Did Lorica ever meet them or were you being too secret identity?"

"She met them briefly when some neighbors attempted to break into my house."

"Your neighbors?"

"Yes they mistook my coming and going at odd hours for my being in a gang, rather than my being a hero with a power that means I don't need to sleep. Also they were suspicious of my parents generally since my parents were in the vicinity of an attack by the Simurgh, who does terrible mind control things. Which my parents were checked for and don't have."

"And they decided for this reason to break into the house?"

"Yes. They weren't very good neighbors - we managed to move after Lorica figured out the microchip etching trick with my power and I could afford to rent a nicer place as a result."

"That's good then."

"Yeah... my parents also have tattoos marking them as people who were near a Simurgh attack and Tattletale offered to get them removed if I joined."

"Why did they have tattoos if they got checked for the thing?"

"There was a lot of panic about the Simurgh when the law got passed - that bit was repealed later, before the courts were set to probably overturn it anyways, but the tattoos were done by a tinker to make them difficult to remove."

"And there's a tinker Tattletale knows who can take them off?"

"Yeah."

"That's - convenient, I guess. Did she know about this because you told her or because of her power?"

"It's in Protectorate records which I think she has access to."

"...for supervillain reasons?"

"Yeah."

"That's so sketchy."

"Yeah, it's uh, not ideal?"