Neal raises an eyebrow at that — an Olympian, eh? It almost makes him wonder what could have been. But in a truly pedantic move, he scrubs at his chin and goes in for the correction instead of wondering further.

"An alter ego isn't necessarily a secret identity — at least it wasn't used in that way until the modern scene. In fact, its origins relate to 'another self', psychologically speaking. Alter ego — 'other I' in the original Latin form — was referencing the part of a person they was generally separate from a waking, 'knowable' state. 'Capable, but unaware' is a good distillation of the idea behind it."

But he digresses.

"Mine weren't secret, but they were distinctive."