"Yeah I don't know her real name." Which feels awkward now that he says it aloud.

"I mean, I guess if I'm... a her... then maybe it was May. Mabel, actually, but my mother has no good excuse for that and nobody calls me it."

Nod nod.

(It feels a bit inappropriate to learn Lorica's name but it's Mays name to share he supposes.)

"Did you - email her parents or whatever, while I was asleep?"

"Oh, no I was waiting to confirm with you about her dad's voice matching yours."

"Do you have a sample for me to listen to?"

He can find and play a clip from the interview Transit did a few years ago.

"Yeah, that's Ch- that's my dad's voice."

"Yeah uh, I'd rather not learn his name. Do you know what I should say in an email?"

"Not really, this is pretty weird. How well do you know him?"

"Not very? He was nice enough but not the sort of person who socialized with the junior team members. Also I uh. Left the team and sort of joined up with another team that is um. A supervillain team. Last week."

"...oh, well, uh, thank you for telling me, that probably has to feature in the email so I don't make it accidentally sound like you're writing WE HAVE YOUR DAUGHTER in magazine cutout letters."

"Yes. Um. Sorry they are not very a supervillain team and I was sort of distracted by all the you and Lorica things and neglected to inform you about the other complicated things in my life that might be relevant. ...I do think the team I joined is good for the world even if the members are not very law abiding. Lorica worked with one of them a couple of times."

"What makes them a supervillain team if they're good for the world?"

"Uh, right now the city is a disaster zone due to the Leviathan attack so they are functionally running large portions of it which is not in fact legal but I think is way better than not having them help. Several of their members commit non-violent crimes - vandalism, theft, bribery - but those same members have risked their lives to help people. They also do some... normal organized crime things, though way less violently than the competitors they displaced and they seem genuinely intent on improving things further. I don't have to participate in that bit."

"If the alternative for them was being heroes and obeying the law I'd want that but I don't really think that's an option that's on the table and I'd much rather them helping against the serious threats than in jail.

"There's not, like... the Red Cross or anything stepping in after a disaster?"

"Some? But there's a lot of theft and crime around the aid, which the Undersiders - the villain team I joined - prevent. I visited their leader's territory before I agreed to join and it was doing noticeably better than anywhere else."

"I guess as reasons to join a supervillain team go that's a pretty good one, if the place has descended into warlordism anyway."

"The heroes are still around and I'd much prefer they did a better job instead of this current mess happening. I might have stayed with them anyways but they made it really hard to do that by discriminating against my parents a bunch."

Also there had been an undercurrent of blaming him for all the deaths Leviathan caused with his trenches. Which Lucien thinks was sort of valid but his parents and Tattletale had argued was terrible for him to be around.

"You didn't have a secret identity that sufficed to separate your hero self from your parents?"

"The government superhero team required junior members involve their guardians until they are eighteen - and also the disclosure of the identities of almost all their members."

"Oh. I guess maybe that is a thing my word is avoiding by having awakenings occur no earlier than age seventeen and usually not that early."

"Yeah the youngest cape on the Wards is close to twelve."

"...doing what? You don't field kids that young, do you?"

"The Wards don't have a lower age limit?"