That doesn't seem to wake her any further. "Denice should have magic. Yeah. Go talk to Denice."

- huh?

She taps the mattress again, a little more urgently this time, and that seems to finally bring Janet properly awake; she sits up and looks confusedly at the moth girl sitting on her floor.

It's Denice, she sends again. I got magic. I came to say goodbye.

It still takes her a few seconds to respond. "-Denice?"

Yeah. Do you want a hug before I go?

"...yeah."

She slips to the floor for the hug.

"This is really real, wow."

Yeah. I'll come back for you, if I can.

"You're a good kid, Denice. Take care of yourself, all right?"

Of course. Thank you for taking care of me.

She gives her one more squeeze, and goes.

It's chilly outside, and dark. Her magic perks up slightly when she emerges into the night.

What good magic.

She'll have to experiment with having her stars and silvery bits glow, later when stealth isn't so important; she expects that'll look really cool. For now, she phases out again - no point risking tripping over something in the dark - and follows the institution's driveway out to the road; maybe she'll be able to see lights or something from there, and figure out where to go.

There are streetlights along the avenue, if not dense or all in good repair.

Less helpful than she was hoping, but that's not really surprising; she's been pretty wildly optimistic recently, and she can't expect that to pay off every time. She'll follow the road downhill; it's as good a reason as any to pick a direction. And - can she be translucent, or even invisible, to go with her phasing? If not, she'll walk in the woods where she'll have a bit of cover.

She does not have translucence or invisibility yet.

Woods it is, then. Convenient that she can just walk through the trees and underbrush. Walk walk walk, keeping an eye on the road so she won't miss it if it turns away from her path.

Nobody is out in the woods at this hour; she is undisturbed for a couple of hours, which isn't long enough to get anywhere more interesting than residential cross streets with a handful of dark houses on each.

Especially since she can't walk all that far without needing to rest. The first time she needs to, she heads deeper into the woods first; while she's out there she can play with her look a little more. Maybe having things glow will be enough to get another spell.

Glowing doesn't seem to be on the menu, not like she has in mind.

Well, it was worth checking.

Tromp tromp tromp. It's a little surprising how much she likes being in the woods at night.

A siren approaches from the distance.

She dives into a bush.

The police car zooms past without slowing down.

She's going to just lie here and shake for a while, actually.

Then she will also get to watch police car number two go by. It doesn't spot her either.

She should get moving. It's not safe but it's not less safe than staying here. It takes her a minute to gather enough willpower to stand, but she does it, and sets off again.

There's more of a real town, coming in stages: gas station there, apartment building there, denser houses, grocery store.