Event Finished Making a Name For Yourself

Ah crap. That wasn't a question he had prepared for, but it was absolutely one he should have prepared for. It was such an obvious question. What else was there? What hadn't he covered?

Angelo actually paused for a moment, the expression on his face an obvious hold on I'm thinking, and then let out a small cough.

"Sorry, I'm actually not sure what to say. Off the record," which was fancy talk for help me out here, "Do you think it'd be better if I talked about my experiences with disaster preparedness, or if I talked about last elections? I feel like I might have talked about last election a lot."

Okay. Validity had been what he was thinking about, so he could work with that. A lot of people on the island seemed to think they were prepared, and showing that he was, in fact, literally prepared, and that he'd literally had classes in how to handle disasters and stuff was... well, hopefully it would help.

"I guess some backstory would be relevant then," Angelo said. "I used to talk about it a lot, but since things have settled down it's not really come up much. When I mentioned my home dimension in my speech, I didn't name it, but it's Halcyon City. I'm sure a lot of people remember the evacuation, where Manta Carlos helped evacuate the survivors before our version of the earth became unlivable. That world - well, the closest possible description would be a 'superhero universe'. We had heroes and villains, and while you had to prepare for natural disasters, you also had to prepare yourself for the possibility that a villain was going to hold up the bank while you were opening an account.

"I was actually part of a team of young superheroes--the Junior Sentinels. A lot of our training focused on what to do in the case of an emergency, and how to handle disasters. It was, for us, insanely helpful that citizens generally knew what to do. People still panicked, but they were around it enough and had enough disaster training to know how to handle things when the worst happened. It made our lives a thousand times easier, and I imagine it'd help Manta Carlos's first responders as well."

Alright, this was where he was going to get into risky territory. His campaign was spot free. Him, on the other hand? Not so much.

"Sure," Angelo said. "I don't mind."

Maybe he minded a little bit.

"Ask away."

Angelo could just see it. Well, my dad was a supervillain, so my options were pretty limited... This was definitely a question (or questions) where he was going to have to be a bit more prudent, and he paused for a moment, considering.

"I think the most important thing to realize is that in Halcyon, being a superhero was... well, a job. It wasn't like it would be here, where you'd just be a vigilante. There were laws about it, and a general understanding of how things worked. I actually wasn't someone with powers, which was unusual for a hero, but I saw heroics as a way to establish my own identity while helping people. At the time, I was really focused on... becoming my own person, I guess you could say? Which I think is something a lot of people struggle with, although most also don't go to such a ridiculous extreme as I did."

He found himself smiling at that despite himself.

"I started out solo, like most people do, and then found a group of friends who had my back. A lot of stuff happened and we ended up catching the eyes of the main team in our city, the New Sentinels, and we got brought on as their juniors. It opened up a lot of options for us. More professional gear was a big one, but training was definitely a huge boon. The suit I had made saved my life more than once, and I'll specifically credit it as being the thing that kept me alive and helped me get to Manta Carlos."

Hell, it had probably saved his life on Manta Carlos.

Oh, if only Sprinkles had known. Things were a lot more clear when you realized what Angelo had been rebelling against, but he had absolutely zero intention of bringing that particular bit to light. His father had changed. He had new priorities. And the last thing he needed was his name getting dragged through the mud.

So Angelo would keep the focus on him.

"I actually want to go into politics," Angelo said. "Superheroics aren't a thing here, and I recognize I'm not going to be able to help all that much as a scout or a cop. I want to be able to help lots of people, and for me, politics seems like an obvious fit. It work with my powers, it works with my temperament, and being on student council seems like an obvious step forward. I don't think the role is going to change me, but I think it'll be good practice for an actual career."

Training, in other words.