"You're very cute and I hope we can work out the supervillainy thing, it seems awkward."

'Yeah um. The supervillain thing seems very stupid to me right now but that might just be the backlash talking I don't know."

"We'll see what you think when you're done backlashing then." Nuzzle.

Mmm... good nuzzle.

Lucien has some ideas for activities to do in the meantime.

Turns out it's still a pretty neat way to kill time even if she's not insane.

Lucky him.

Eventually it's Lucien's turn for the backlash to subside.

"Welcome back to the world of sanity. How're you holding up?"

"Hrm. I.... think that could have gone a lot worse."

"Oh, yeah, most people have to get through awakening without any guiding and sometimes without even being sure they're becoming espers."

"Yeah that definitely sounds like worse. The guiding and the knowing what was happening and also you being there were all very helpful."

"Same to you. Thank you."

"Yeah I-"

There is a knocking!

"Hey! Are you two decent!"

May pulls her shirt on and glances at Lucien.

He can do the same.

"We-"

And the door swings open!

"Welcome back! I brought cake. And also pasta from a restaurant that opened back up on that street you two organized."

"Ooh, real food, amazing -" Time to inhale pasta.

Oh wow this is warm and exactly hits the spot after a week of eating canned food.

Tattletale is aware!

"While you two eat I'll talk. A dungeon popped up in Tampa yesterday - Protectorate knew enough to send in a pair of heroes and start rescuing people, but they weren't the first ones on the scene. Turns out a villain by the name of Elegante beat them to it - someone special to her had been kidnapped and she figured while she was getting them out she might as well help with the rest. Except there was a warrant our for her arrest for grand theft auto, and the Protectorate decided they could deal with her and the dungeon at the same time. They were wrong."

She pauses a beat.

"Now, when there's another dungeon in Tampa, maybe a villain nearby doesn't show up and it waits until heroes get there. Eventually there'll be dungeons daily in Tampa and the local Protectorate will get stuck with handling most of them on their own. It'll take longer for help to arrive and it'll be less appropriate to the particular dungeon when it does show up, because they'll be drawing on less than half of the capes available."

"Skitter thinks this is a stupid way for things to end up. So instead she's proposing a different set-up - capes should be able to show up to dungeons and cooperate, same rules as Endbringer attacks. We'll provide support - medical, transport, whatever - for whoever wants to help, so long as they abide by the truce. And to make it easier for everyone to cooperate, there'll be a few independent capes specialized in dungeons who agreed to all this but aren't on the Protectorates naughty list, that way we get fewer dungeons where it's all Protectorate except for one villain or what have you."

"You two can be those capes, if you want. Lucien'll oversee the support ops too, and Lorica will advise as our world's leading expert on dungeons. Lucien can still have access to our tattoos removal service and you both can draw salaries. Endbringer attack comes up, you two will help with that too."

Offer finished, Tattletale cuts herself a slice of cake.

"That's... very elegant, though I'm kind of distracted by how you have dungeons now, that's bad - who should I be answering dungeon questions for - does the Protectorate have global reach, if people in India and China are letting dungeons escape left and right you'll get those second-iteration dungeons here, they don't care -"

"Uh, answering your questions like two at a time - the Protectorates been working off what Transit told them which covered the important bits - they've been sharing info with other countries but don't typically deploy to them. Except I'm pretty sure Eidolon deployed to help with one in China - India I'm not sure what they're up to. I'd be most worried about second iteration dungeons out of Africa to be honest."

"Dungeons like population density so on my planet Africa's not a hotbed compared to other continents, though you do get as many in Lagos as in Manila."

"Might get some issues in China I guess - they don't really have a large cape population relative to civilian."

"Most new dungeons you can handle with an unpowered team. Even espers are often just toting guns for a lot of their utility, that's probably what makes sense for my power."

"PRT will probably be tasked with a lot of those."