What he said. Except more politely.

Yeah sure tonight went well and she has some power left so why not use it here?

Believes what he said. Believes it's the truth. 

Didn't know about masked capes. Didn't know about capes. Didn't know about powers. Still doesn't know.

Power, that makes no sense.

Knows he has powers. Knows other people can have powers. Doesn't know about parahuman powers. Thinks his powers aren't parahuman. Thinks he has magical powers. Thinks he has nonmagical powers.

OK, her power isn't broken unless he's some sort of anti-Thinker trump, so he's just... a very weirdly deluded, probably-new cape? How new exactly?

Got new powers. Less than an hour ago. Less than an hour he remembers.

Tattletale does her best impression of walking nonchalantly over to Grue.

Grue he triggered just before the fight!!! she whispers urgently.

Oh no. 

Grue wants to help the poor guy (and they owe him), but fresh capes can be very - volatile.

"Uh - I don't mean to pry, but we can help you if you need something, to get you on your feet? If you need to like make a call, or money for food or a motel or something."

Why are we helping him?

"Why are we helping him?"

Telling Regent "this is serious, just trust me" will have the opposite effect.

Telling him why - might work? It probably won't make things worse, anyway.

Aww, these guys are nice! Well, Grue is nice, and Tattletale also seems nice, and if the other people are being less nice it's probably because they're worried.

"I think I should be okay with my own money. I got sent here by the same person who gave me my new powers, and one of the powers is that I have enough money to make me and my friends comfortable. And when I asked about that one it said that it wouldn't steal from anyone to get the money, because that would be the kinda thing that made me sad. It's really nice to offer that, though!"

He's really curious what Tattletale and Regent are saying about him but probably he should be patient and let them have their privacy.

He what.

Power, did he get his powers from the mythical cape organization that can make more capes?

Didn't get powers from a cape. 

He's just deluded then. Poor guy.

(That was a suspiciously easy answer from her power? She didn't really expect that to work!)

"I sympathize. Or, well, I don't, but you know what I mean. But indulging him won't do him any favors."

Regent might actually be right for once. Either way, Grue isn't going to dance around this, it sounds exhausting and the guy deserves to be told the truth.

"Tattletale says you triggered - got your powers - very recently. I think it messed with your memory. You weren't sent here from another world, that's not how it works."

"It's your business and I won't try to convince you if you don't want to hear it. But right after you get powers is the worst time to be getting into random fights - and Lung fights to kill."

"Forget about masks and cape names for, like, at least a week. Get your head on straight. Get your life in order, fix whatever problems you had. Figure out how the world works and what you can do. Don't do something you might regret."

"Do… a lot of people have their memory changed when they get their powers?"

Elan's pretty sure he didn't get his memory messed with, except for how he sure did choose a bunch of drawbacks that told them they would, or at least could, change his memories. So his memory did probably get messed with at least a little. His life still feels real to him: his mom, his time at Bard Camp, all of the other places and people and things he saw even before he got home to find a notebook on his bed.

Maybe he should have asked it to come along with him. He hadn't wanted to rely on asking it for advice, but it would be handy to show it to people.

But Grue says he doesn't wanna argue, so Elan should probably try to think of things that he can do if he's right or if he's wrong.

"Like, is there a place for people to go so they can get their head on straight? If I have a home and family here that I forgot about, I have no clue who or where they are. I guess I could try finding a police person and asking for help, but you just said it's dangerous to share my real name!"

Good, he's being calm and rational about it.

"It's definitely not usual for triggers to affect your memory but, well, anyone coming from another world is completely unheard of. There's contact with just one other world and I heard they can only send messages, not physical stuff."

"It's dangerous to share your name if you're a cape. You need to keep a secret identity so people don't link the cape persona to the regular one. You can ask the police for help without telling them you're a cape, if you're OK with telling them you have memory problems and so on."

"I assume you don't have, like, a wallet on you, or anything else with names or addresses or stuff? Or a key or something?"

"Tattletale. You can't figure out who he is?"

"Maybe, but I didn't want to out you like that! It's bad enough that we know your face and name. But if you'd be OK with it, sure, I could try."

"I'm okay with it! Is figuring stuff out your power? Like the smart detective with the doctor roommate?"

He's maybe a tiny bit worried that all the evidence he's from someplace else will be hidden somehow, or that it is true he's actually from here and thus in a really big pickle, but he also took They'll Know so hopefully that makes it more likely that they'll be able to see he's telling the truth.

She grins. "Yessss I am the cape Sherlock Holmes! Fear me, miscreants!"

"I don't fear you -"

"Shush, you." Or I'll tell them where you came from - no stop that's a horrible idea! 

"I refuse to be the stupid doctor sidekick."

Great, they're bantering and at ease and making a good impression on the stranger, that means she's on top of things.

Normally she charges for this kind of thing but knowing about a new cape in town is valuable to her (and to Coil). Not doing this was kind of the favor she owed him, but if he asks for it?

Come out and play, power. Does he have the metaphorical equivalent of mud from a particular Brockton Bay alley on his boots?

Not from Brockton Bay.

Which direction did he come from, then?

Not from the south. Not from the west. Not from the north. Not from the east. Not from direction. Not from -

She cuts it off. Her power does get things wrong sometimes. But it follows specific clues, so -

'How do I know he's not from any of those places?', she tries asking her power.

Voice, accent, mannerisms, word choice, clothes, skin, hair, fingernails, complex phenotype -

Huh, her power seems to think he looks wrong (or at least not local) in every possible way. He doesn't look weird to her - he's definitely pretty but not in a 'real people don't look like that' way. Her power is definitely picking up on something, but she hasn't met enough people like him or from the same place to pin it down.

Actually... why is he wearing a cloak? She wrote it off as part of a costume, the proverbial cape, but if he just triggered where did he get a cloak? And his trigger messed with his memories, so maybe -

Power, did his power change how he looks or behaves or his clothes?

Powers affected clothing. Affected looks. Still affects looks, ungoing, unconscious, uncontrolled. Affects cloak. Affects clothes. Affects height, eye color, mannerisms, face, features, attractiveness, voice, tone of voice -

She cuts it off at the first twinge of a headache.

...well, shit. How does she tell him that? 'Sorry, your power stole your memories and your face and any way your loved ones could identify you, and also everything about you is going to keep changing in unpredictable ways you can't stop or control, down to the clothes you wear?' That's a really fucked up Changer power!

...he's going to find out sooner or later.

(Unless his power keeps modifying his memories? Did he actually trigger a long time ago and keeps forgetting it and thinking he triggered just now? She can't afford to check right now, though, she already spent too much on this.)

What if he reacts very badly to being told (honestly very awful) news? A Mover and freeform Changer, with no visible weapon - no, no excuses, every cape is dangerous. He could move quickly enough to hurt them before Grue can spread his darkness. He could change into a dragon for all she knows. He could even have  third power.

Responsible Tattletale should tell him she couldn't figure it out where he's from, and then the rest over phone or email or something when they're not next to him where he might react badly.

"I think the doctor isn't stupid," he assures Regent. "I think he's supposed to be a regular guy? Maybe I should be the doctor sidekick, except I'm not a doctor and I never fought in wars and my name isn't anything like Winston and now I have powers…"

At this point he's mostly talking to himself. He trails off, glancing over at Tattletale to see if her using her power looks like anything.