A parental unit. [She repeated, because what else was her to say? She had been too upset to really listen about being given a 'mommy or daddy' and whatever else that entailed. She had HOPED it meant Gamora or Loki.] I... think you're right. I had hoped they would...

[She bit her lip.]

What if the person who takes care of me doesn't like me? There are all sorts of stories about mean guardians. [Alice being from the Victorian era didn't even need stories like Oliver Twist or David Copperfield to know how badly young children were treated by adults. She need only see children in work mills or as chimney sweeps to know adults didn't have to ever be nice to children... and in fact, seemed to lord over the notion of being cruel to a child because they could.]