"I just... I don't get it. Is it a wig?"

"You've touched my hair, babe. Does it feel like a wig?"

"I don't know what wigs feel like! Maybe they feel just like real hair!"

"It's not a wig."

"It doesn't make sense though! We've been living together for months and I've never, literally never, seen you do anything about your hair. You don't go to hair dressers, we use the same shampoo, unless you're hiding a secret shower somewhere..."

"I'm not. I don't like putting that much effort into my hair, it just looks like this."

"It's blue."

"Yup."

"Nobody has naturally blue hair."

"Can you prove that?"

"Yes! Also, I've seen your childhood pictures and your hair was brown!"

"...fine. I was expecting it to come up eventually, just, it's kind of awkward to bring up..."

"OK but just tell me already!"

"You know I've talked about all those uncomfortable conversations I had with my parents, about how they love me anyway even though I can't continue the family business, and that you don't need superpowers to be special, and they apologised for unfairly burdening me with those expectations and... you know, that whole thing. And then, after we went through all that and they saved me from a hostage situation that somehow resulted from that argument and the tearful reconciliation, I then figured out I kind of... did have powers? after all?"

"You... have hair powers?"

"Not quite? I'm, like, the world's slowest shapeshifter. I can change anything about my appearance, within the usual constraints for that and so on, but it takes me weeks for even minor stuff. Not exactly a combat power."

"I mean, you could-"

"Yes, yes, I could do all sorts of things with it, but I don't want to! I like my job, I don't wanna relitigate the whole effing legacy argument after we settled it to everyone's satisfaction already. I'm not gonna use my powers for that."

"So you use them to make your hair blue."

"I like blue! And hair dye maintenance is a hassle."

"Are you gonna tell them or just... wait for them to figure it out somehow?"

"I mean, sure, at some point. Probably. I think. ...they're not gonna figure it out on their own."

"...no, probably not. Who has?"

"I told my brother. And Kayla figured it out."

"Same way I did?"

"...she, uh, didn't get to the point of questioning the hair, but within a few days, she realised I never took off my 'contacts'"

"...oh. Right. Those are also..."

"Yup."

"I thought you were maybe albino."

"You said you'd seen my childhood pictures. Also, I'm pretty sure that even if I was, that shade of red isn't possible."

"It was an awkward question to ask!"

see the problem is if i call people with superpowers 'parahumans' in my story it's obvious i'm stealing from Wildbow but if I call them 'metahumans' it's obvious I'm stealing from everyone else.