"...thanks."

Aaaaaaaa.

"Not recognizing myself in the mirror is pretty weird but at least I'm, like, a young woman, as opposed to six or a dude or an old lady or something." Sigh.

Okay, maybe he can pretend he never just said that.

"Yeah. I'd have suggested Panacea help you but that's wouldn't actually be possible anymore."

"I think there are a lot of more urgent cases or I might have asked, but, uh, what happened, is she okay?"

"She uh, had a breakdown and demanded to be Birdcaged.- insisted she'd release plagues if she wasn't."

"...shit. I always really admired her but I guess there was not anybody in the background looking after her health."

"Yeah"

"Reminds me that I should probably check in on Taylor tomorrow - Tattletale doesn't seem cut out for helping with this, as close as the two are."

"Taylor seemed fine to me on game night but we've just seen how much my occasional casual observation is worth. Was she... at the Behemoth fight? Wouldn't bugs just crisp up anywhere in range? I guess they could be scouts for search and rescue..."

"Oh you uh. Haven't been online I take it?"

"...usually my bot sends me digests, is it all unconfirmed rumors or something, it skips those."

"Yeah that'd filter it out."

"Uh, my best impression about what happened is that Skitter found a cape hidden near where Tattletale thought Behemoth was targeting, and the cape was preparing a... sort of super weapon to attack Behemoth with. She didn't find a way to stop him but did manage to convince him to hold off on firing long enough for her to warn other capes. Eidolon was able to put up a forcefield to direct the blast away from the most populated parts of the city, but the blast still killed... easily more people than Behemoth killed before that point."

"Uh, I also think someone did try to kill the cape with the weapon and Skitter... let them fail or something? I'm guessing she didn't think the super weapon was safe to disrupt."

"Wow. Is the superweapon cape dead now?"

"I think he was caught in the blast?"

"Rookie superweapon mistake."

"I'm uh. Not sure if someone using an energy weapon against Behemoth is thinking all that much about their own survival."

"I think Taylor blames herself for all the people who died."

"Well, that's kind of dumb unless Behemoth is actually a bug."

This startles a laugh out of Lucien.

"I uh, think it's cause she feels like she could have coordinated everyone better? She also has a bit a hero complex."

"Interesting trait in a supervillain."

"She didn't actually set out to be one. She was invited by Tattletale and thought that the heroic thing to do would be to infiltrate them."

"...well, uh, step one accomplished?"

"She changed her mind at some point - I think she thinks that she can do more good as a villain than as a hero."

"Why?"

"I'm not actually sure what she was thinking at the time, but now... the Undersiders have made sure that medical supplies got distributed after the S9 attacks, have kept crime down in most of their territories, and have kept gangs from moving in and taking advantage of how bad the city's been. She's a big part of why all of that happened."