“Most people don’t think about who they want to be except in the broadest strokes until they’re a bit older,” I said. A teenager, but let’s not drive home how young you really are. “Before that, it’s… big goals like wanting to be a superhero, or wanting to be an athlete.”

“I’ve had people bugging me about who I want to be and how I want to act since years ago, when I got my power,” Chicken Little said. He rolled his eyes in an overdramatic way, before coming to a stop, looking at the back of Tattletale’s seat.

“Bugging you. I’m glad my hard work is appreciated,” Tattletale said. She was wearing sunglasses that lined up pretty well with the eyeholes of her mask.

“It is! But it was a lot. And can I talk to Antares like this?”

“Sure, sure,” Tattletale said. She reached up and put earbuds in. “Let’s not pretend you didn’t want me to hear that.”

“You too, Snuff?” I asked.

Chicken Little waited until Tattletale settled, listening to whatever it was she listened to. Snuff had his headphones on, now, worn over his hood. It made me nervous that I wasn’t sure how easily our driver could see or hear what was going on, but… better.

“I’ve been working with Darlene and Candy,” Chicken Little admitted. “We take turns if she’s overwhelming us. But Candy went to Aunt Rachel’s and it’s the two of us, and I dunno. Is that manipulative? Because I don’t want to be the manipulative kind of person either.”

“Does it come from a good place?” I asked. “Or a hostile, bad place?”

“Good, I think? But like, if she comes up to me and stands next to me then I feel like… no, stand a little further away? And that’s not so good a place.”

“You’re wanting more space.”

“I feel greedy because I want a lot. I’m a master, right, you know how that works?”

“Yes,” I said, very seriously. “I know that.”

“And we get our powers mostly from being alone or cut off or losing people. And I lost everyone… and then I was taken in by Skitter way back in the day, and I barely remember those days, and I grew up with orphans, and we were total birds of a feather, you know? That’s what we joked, after I had my trigger.”

“Makes sense.”

“And they left, and I got powers. And after that, I was messed up, and Gold Morning messed me up more, with everyone moving in different directions, and Regent died before that, and he was fun, Skitter died during Gold Morning, even though she was kinda important to everyone, and Aunt Rachel is living way out in the middle of nowhere again, and… I was messed up.”

“All of us were, but I get what you mean. Hit where it hurts?”