It doesn't look like anything besides that she's deep in thought for half a minute.

"The doctor's name was Watson," she automatically tells him. Unless... Power, was the Doctor's name different on Earth Aleph?

No. (Also, ouch.) 

OK, fine, she was being responsible and checked but there's really no way this Elan came from another world. It was maybe reasonable of him to assume because his memories are scrambled (?) but there's really no way.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news for you though," she goes on. See how honest and transparent and friendly she's being! Do not punch the messenger!

"First, I couldn't find who you are or were or where you're from."

"Second, and the reason I couldn't, is that I think your face and voice changed when you got powers, just like your memories did." She'll hold back the even worse news for now. "Your memories might even have changed to prevent you from freaking out because you look and sound different... but that means I have nothing to go on, and neither will the police."

"I'm sorry."

Grue whistles. "That's really rough, man."

"Or it could be good! Getting powers is supposed to solve the problem you're having right then." (He says, sarcastically.) "Maybe you really wanted to start a new life, fresh face and everything."

Grrrr. But also, sharp nod.

There's lots of things the doctor can be named! Like James Wilson or Joan Watson or David Dawson. Elan sits on this factoid, because:

"Oh, that makes perfect sense! See, what happened—in my memory, anyway—was after I graduated from school to be a bard, I got a diary. I think it was supposed to be a regular diary, but it wrote back and said that it was sent by a spirit that wanted to share its power with me. I thought it was a framing device at first… y'know, like when the narrator says that something really happened even if it didn't? I realized it was for real eventually. But anyway, a lot of the powers were about how I look! Like… at all times I'm supposed to look exactly how I would if this was a self-insert fanfic about my life."

Pause.

"That's… not a direct quote. But anyway, I guess that could just be something that my powers put in my head so I would have the right expectations? I don't even know for sure what I look like right now, but I was blond and blue-eyed and Northern and had 18 Charisma… anyway, um, so I guess that either way I need to find someplace to stay and can't count on any family I have here being able to find me."

He puts his hand up.

"If one of you guys has a place that's okay for me to stay at, that would be really nice? But if it would be too hard… well, so far I haven't expected to have a specific power that I didn't. So I think if I needed to find a hotel I would be able to pay for it okay, even without help."

Oh good, his false memories are blatantly fake and unrealistic. Hopefully with time he'll be able to realize this. This is much better than remembering an entirely fake but realistic life in the real world.

"Here, you can use my compact to see what you look like. Blond and blue-eyed is right!" For now, anyway.

None of them is going to trust him in their private apartment (while they're sleeping) and none of them want to unmask to him anyway.

They could maaaaybe take him to the shared loft? But someone would still need to stay and watch him, and also if he ends up going to the Protectorate or something they won't want him to know where their secret base is.

Coil would definitely have a free flat for him to use but she doesn't want to give this poor new cape to Coil, she found him he's hers that's like the opposite of being friendly.

She glances at Grue. The team leader should be the one to tell people no.

Grue's been having similar thoughts.

"We don't want to unmask to you, sorry, that's not something to decide on the spot. But we can help you find a motel that's still open and pay for a few nights and order pizza or something. And we can keep in touch, maybe meet again tomorrow or the day after."

"I'm guessing you don't have a phone?" Her power would have said if he did, because it'd be a way to track down where he came from. "Take this, it's cheap but you can call and message. No internet, obviously, you can get online in a library or something." Cheap burner phones are very useful in her line of work.

Yay, presents! Well, Tattletale probably wants the mirror back after he examines himself. Nothing about his face seems particularly different, although he thinks maybe his coloration is just a little more harmonious. He hands it back.

"That's really nice of you guys! Do you wanna have a pizza party? Um, I guess some of you would have trouble eating without taking your masks off, and I don't wanna make you do that if you're uncomfortable. We could get soda?"

He's pretty sure he can get plates, cups, and straws from his Pocket Dimension. He might even be able to get food there, but that feels kinda… boring? And maybe like everyone would expect it to not be filling or nutritious if he ate it. He can maybe try that if he ever really intensely misses some specific food that his mom made.

"We shouldn't be seen together until you have a mask - I guess we can improvise something for now, but it'll be better if we give you the money but didn't let the motel receptionist see us."

"Man, are we gonna have a pizza party masked? That's stupid."

"You want to unmask to this man we just met?"

"No, I want all of you to unmask, and then if he tries anything you'll have to take care of it."

Ha. But actually it might not be a bad idea to tie this new cape to the Undersiders, she just doesn't know if it's a good idea yet.

"Grue, I can vet him once I've slept and recharged. If we still want to invite him tomorrow. Let's go with the motel for now, I need my beauty sleep. If anything happens he'll have my number." (She scribbles a number on a piece of paper and passes it to Elan.)

Into the pocket dimension the paper goes! Which makes it about infinity times less likely to get lost than it would be before.

"Numbers are… a phone thing, right?"

He retrieves the burner phone and sees it does indeed have numbered buttons that make satisfying beeping sounds.

"How do I know what my number is?"

It doesn't seem to be written on the outside of the phone, and the numbers the screen displays when he turns it on seem to be the time and date.

He has a pocket dimension??? And has never used a cellphone? Whatever, her power is officially broke, this is a problem for Tomorrow Tattletale.

"You can see your own number like this -" she shows him where it is in the phone menu. "Or you can write it down." She'll walk him through calling and sending text messages. Behold, how she answers her (other, much fancier) phone! Which she can also use to find and call a nearby motel that Grue can show him to without either going in in costume or unmasking to Elan.

Whoa, cool! Elan's a huge fan of this whole "voice calls" concept. Texting seems kind of like it takes a weirdly excessive amount of time, but Elan can see the practicality in being able to send notes to basically anyone whose phone number he knows.

On the way to the motel, he asks Grue, "This isn't the kind of place where there are like a hundred adven—uh, capes—hanging around to find quests or form parties, right? Since I'm trying to be normal right now?"

"Not at the motel. There are places you can meet capes if you know someone who'd invite you but definitely not a hundred, I don't think there's a hundred capes in the whole city."

"Huh! The buildings and roads look like how I expect a big city to look… are capes really rare? I think that, um… about one in fifty people has PC class levels, but a lot of those guys are like first level and if that dragon guy is a regular cape then those are definitely not first level. Anyway, it's probably a good thing that I'm not running into more capes than I need to, right?"

"I don't know how common capes are but Brockton Bay has - a few hundred thousand people I think? There's no way it's secretly one in fifty capes. There are some who never fight, some powers are just - healing or building stuff, and probably there are some who never even use their powers in public, keep it all secret, but there can't be that many."

"Lung is - or was - maybe the strongest single cape in the city. The Empire capes and the Protectorate both fought him many-on-one and couldn't take him down. We're four, plus the dogs, and we'd never fight him if we didn't have to."

Elan nods, absorbing the information. Then he smiles earnestly at Grue.

"Well, thanks a whole bunch for stepping in when you guys did! I don't know what I would have done if you didn't show up."

"It sounds like we were all lucky tonight! You and us and the bug cape. And the PRT, who probably got Lung."

~yaaaaaaay~

"Yeah, it sounds like it's a really good thing if he's going to jail or whatever. How many villain capes are there? And what kind of villainy do they usually get up to?"

Oh boy. Welcome to Brockton Bay, new cape, you'll be wishing to forget all this again soon.

"The Empire has - at least six, seven..." He pauses to count. "Fuck, maybe eight or nine capes? They're the biggest villain gang in the city, anyway. They're nazi racists who want to kill or drive away everyone who's not white enough for them. They'll beat up or murder anyone they don't like on their turf, and sometimes off of it. And I guess they take protection money and probably do other stuff? I don't know, I don't live close to them. ...and they organize dog fights, which Bitch really hates."

"Next is the ABB. They only have two capes but that's because one of them was Lung. So they only have one now, Oni Lee, and he won't be able to run it all himself. Maybe the Empire will take over a lot of ABB territory now. But the ABB is Asian - they don't drive out people who do what they say and pay them protection, but most people who live there are Asian too. So I don't know if the Empire will actually want to take their territory. Maybe they'll just kick them while they're down and rob them and kill some random people for fun, because they're Nazi fucks. But maybe they'll think this is their chance and decide to start a real war."

"Now the ABB aren't any nicer than the Empire, just less racist. They deal drugs and kill people for looking at them funny and don't have any code or laws, except what Lung says is law. There's rumours that when a family can't pay them, they'll take their children hostage, work them like slaves. Force girls into brothels, maybe send them out of the country. I haven't seen any of it for myself but it's easy enough to believe."

"Those are the two big organized villain groups. Then there's a bunch of small-timers." Like us, but he's not going to mention the Undersiders in the same breath as all that. "A couple called Über and Leet who dress up as characters from video games and - pretend to be them in public or something, which is usually horrible because they choose characters that assault and rob people. They don't kill, though, as far as I know. There's some villain capes who deal drugs, some mercenaries..."

Wow, those villain gangs sound pretty bad. Some of the exact terminology is unfamiliar, but Elan understands the general gist.

"So basically, even though Lung being in jail means the ABB will do less bad stuff, it'll probably get balanced out by the Empire being able to do more bad stuff? That really sucks!"

Not to mention all the other bad guys! It sounds like the gangs are where the Lawful Evil guys go and then the Neutral-and-Chaotic Evil guys all do their own thing? At least, that's what dressing up as video game characters¹ just to beat people up and steal their stuff sounds like to Elan.

"How… how many good guys are there? And what kind of powers do all these guys have?"