...as imagined worlds go that sounds like a very nice one. He wonders if that makes living in this one worse. If it's worse that way than thinking this one is even worse than it is, like people who think the government wants to actually murder them personally or is planning to enslave everyone to vampires.

(Which-all, might not be the best thing for him to think about, but.)

"We have - washing machines? Vacuum cleaners. We have solar plants. This country's a [he says a word, which she may have found on the radio but probably won't have an analogue in any language she already knows] country, the government has Homes, we don't have - submissives with nowhere except a street."

And here's the grocery store. They can go in, and insert a coin to borrow a basket; he gets one.

"Robots that will collect and load and dry and fold and put away the laundry by themselves and order new detergent when you're low without you having to think about it? Vaccum cleaners that go around by themselves and also dust and can clean up kitchen spills. Fridges that throw out stale food and order replacements. Flying robots that deliver things you bought over the phone in half an hour without leaving the house. And- Solar plants take light, but-" Some word "-plants do what the sun does to make light and they make enough energy to power spaceships."

She's keeping her voice low through all of this, but is clearly very frustrated.

"I'm- I don't even think you believe me, and you might be right not to because I don't know enough to build all of it. It would take hundreds of people to know all of it. I just know the general idea and I couldn't make a robot. Medicine, I know a bit more. I don't have a Gift. It's technology."

"We don't have that." Head duck, a little. "I'm sorry." It's not - really useful to think, at all, but, would be less work for subs at home, he thinks anyway. (And 'you shouldn't let food go stale and throw it out, that's wasteful; it'd be punished', which is - not useful in even more ways, and of course he wouldn't say that.)

The store has groceries, and people shopping for them. The ratio is very tilted toward subs, but there are some doms. There's a dom security guard also.

What kind of bread and fruit would she like?

"One of the cheap loaves from the bakery, and a few apples."

She'll try to have inexpensive tastes, since she could literally eat garbage or sticks and leaves and be fine. She could even turn off her disgust reaction for the duration.

"I want to change myself again soon, I'm getting- Itchy. But it also changes my personality. It's still me but I'm biased to different things, it's hard to explain. And I- Does that seem like a terrible idea?"

They can get those things. Since they're here, he'll grab a packet of ocean-themed candy he knows one of the subs at the Home likes, and could use right now.

Does she - need anything else they could buy her?

He tries to - think what that could mean, for what could happen. "I don't think so?
Is there something specific you're worried about?"

"I might stop reading as a sub. When my mindset changes. I could disguise myself as someone else since I won't be in any records but- I don't really want you two to be afraid of me, and I think you might be if I started acting like a dom inadvertently, even though I'm not either thing exactly. Or make other people suspicious and angry if they see it happen."

"...You shouldn't do it where people could see. That could - go really badly, they'd probably call authorities." He isn't sure if he said that well but that he definitely couldn't not say. 

And he doesn't know much about this, not at all, but - "We would want you to be comfortable. As much as you can be." He's still worried, scared of what will happen when whoever she's usually with shows up in the end. But he isn't going to threaten her, doesn't want to manipulate her, not try to decide things for her and put them on her.

"...I've -" saying 'met' is a bad idea. "heard of people like that. I don't think it makes them scary.

They'd be punished if they were caught - well, the - " saying subs versus doms is probably not how to put it, here "people-think-they're-subs would, the people-thing-they're-doms might get a different thing but I think it's similar in ways that count. But that sucks for them, doesn't mean they shouldn't have friends."

"That's what I thought. Good to know that some people change. Less good to know they're not allowed to," she grumbles.

Not much to say to that.

Yeah. He looks down in a little nod.

If that's all they're buying they can go to check out. He'll show the card from the Home that says they're allowed to buy things here, pay.

GRUMBLE.

No dom they're walking with who might object to that, and they themselves won't, of course. The cashier (sub) looks over at them but doesn't say anything.

Do - they want to find somewhere to sit and eat?

"Sure. Fine. You have to have permission to buy things. Subs do not seem very free at all. What's your government like, is it even a democracy?"

Permission to buy things is one of those things that varies between places - the city they live in actually doesn't have that, but this little town is partially its own even though they can get here by bus, and sets some of its own laws and does. 

Subs have a lot of restrictions in - every place he knows. He thinks everywhere. The specifics vary, but. He doesn't think that does. ...He's sorry.

Does she mean if there's voting for the government? Yes, in their country doms vote for most of the regional and local governments, and part of the national one.

Meanwhile if she's alright with this they can cross back to the sea-side street and find a bench.

"God. I can shut up about this if you want. I mean- Maybe it even makes sense, depending on what being a sub is like, if it's- I don't think- I don't know. My internal experiences probably only barely resemble yours and I don't understand the society, I wouldn't know what I'm breaking or why. So plotting a revolution is very premature. Not to mention a bad idea in general. But I want to, because your- restrictions on subs looks like plain old slavery to me. It feels like there could be, improvements, you know?"

He and Kente both tense some and look around when she says 'plotting a revolution'.

"...Plotting a revolution is illegal. Really illegal." There - might be some kind of leniency for a sub known to - have delusions - even if it got to something that would be called 'plotting' for someone else, but he - doesn't want to depend on that. It might not be enough.

He gets himself back together so he can answer the rest. "You don't have to stop talking about - problems. It - could cause trouble, around a dom, or some other people, but we don't mind. We're not going to report you." Not entirely safe, to say that, but not really worse than what they're already doing, and of course it's true.

"Slavery is different," he says automatically. "But that - that doesn't mean there aren't problems. Or that things couldn't be better.

I - think there are - any things that make sense, but -" he's not sure how to finish that. 

"Also a lot of things that mostly 'make sense' if you're a dom who's a shit." Not necessarily super safe to say that either, but, he's been whipped for disrespect before, what else is new, and he's not about to say 'everything's fine actually' to someone probably from somewhere terrible who's noticed that it's not.

"Yeah, it would make sense if you were the one benefitting. That's how our monkey brains work. Slavery was legal in most of the world for thousands and thousands of years. Sometimes governments mandated killing entire populations of people, and followed through. 'Illegal' means 'dangerous' but not necessarily 'wrong'."

(He's not sure what this has to do with monkeys but that doesn't seem important.)

He looks around again automatically. "...It's - really dangerous." He can't leave this unclear, or uncertain.

"We -" he swallows. "Knew some people who were executed for treason.

They execute subs for it too."