They're heading down to one of the small rocky beaches, usually unpeopled and almost always empty in this weather. He has his schoolbag with him - maybe the sight of the ocean will help him some with composition, today. (It won't. He should stop pretending it will.)

He's playing absently with an illusion - the main reason they're going where they are right now, and they can't see the ocean yet but he's had a few ideas on the bus.

He hears the singing as they get closer. ...Well that's pretty. And not the kind of singing he'd usually hear somewhere or other. That probably means the beach is not unpeopled (he's not sure why he just thought 'probably', what, does he think someone left a tape player?) but they've come this far and he wants to see the singer (and actually hmm the music seems sea-themed itself, that's giving him an idea... The illusion moves, some.)

They come into sight of the beach.

The singer is sitting on the rocks, with a distinctly feminine figure, dark hair in a simple braid that's somehow smooth and nice-looking despite being soaked, small scales like a fish's artfully arranged in gradients of blue up her arms and neck and the side of her face and- A large flat fish's tail with a single lower body as opposed to two legs. In terms of clothes, she has a slightly loose dress-like swimsuit, with multiple layers slightly offset from each other in shades of green, and ruffles. It's all asymmetrical, all curvy and complicated, with small colorful beads embedded in lines on a couple of the ruffles.

She keeps singing, staring at the sky a little bit puzzled.

Oh good, he'd be more worried about disturbing a dom (especially a fancily Gifted dom), even if this is a public place and random doms don't actually get to tell them they can't be here.

He waves but doesn't interrupt. He admires the clothing. Also pretty and sea-themed: he scales. Hmmm. He plays with the illusion again.

She doesn't notice the wave; She's looking up, at the sky, out over the sea.

...Her lower body is changing. It's subtle, but the fin is receding, there is a depression that makes the tail look more like two legs in a tightly-wrapped outfit.

...Really fancily Gifted, wow. He looks to see if there's anything in the direction she's looking.

She's staring at where the Milky Way would be on Earth at this approximate latitude, barring light pollution.

She stops singing with a small sigh, turns her head- Blinks at the two visitors, then smiles softly and stares at the neat-looking illusion.

To him that will look like a 'no, just looking at the sky'. 

He waves again when she turns, smiles back. "Hey. That's gorgeous. You singer-studying?" He notices her looking at the illusion and has it do an ocean-themed-illusion version of a wave.

He also smiles back a little. "Hello."

"Hello."

And then in an unfamiliar language, "I'm afraid I don't understand you, and that is really quite surprising."

Well, he doesn't know that language. Or recognize it. Which isn't weird, there's a lot of languages. Is she a tourist or otherwise then? He wonders where her dom is, in that case. Or maybe recently moved, that's possible.

He shrugs and shakes his head. "Don't know that one, sorry.

"You guys visiting?" 

A shrug in return. "You? Visiting?"

Then she frowns, and suddenly looks at her fin. She hums two bars, sounding a bit strained, and then - with a slight fleshy tearing sound, she has two legs with sheets of scales attached and malformed feet, instead of a fin, and she's breathing a bit hard. She stretches the newly separated limbs a bit, then gingerly folds them up to sit cross-legged.

It's probably rude to stare, even though that is really cool. 

Weird thing to shrug about but maybe it's complicated or something. "No, we live around here." He also sits down - not on the beach, it's a bit chilly for that, but there's a driftwood log he spots nearby.

He looks worried for a second, but she doesn't so that's probably just how her Gift works. He sits down too.

She is supremely unbothered by the cold and annoying sharp rocks, herself.

"Mmmh. Don't know... Here? Don't know you-" she attempts a gesture to indicate the illusion. "It's cool! Eh- That's gorgeous!"

Oh, language. He looks around to see if her dom's nearby somewhere - probably she's not out here alone if she'd have to worry about not understanding or being able to talk to police or something. ...Though he'd totally do that (if Alessa didn't stop him), so. He doesn't see anyone, but there's a lot of places out of sight here.  

"Thank you! I'm trying something ocean-inspired. For dance accompaniment." ...That was way too complicated words, great job not thinking, himself. "I'm trying something like the ocean," he points over. "For dance." He mimes dancing a bit. He's not actually sure how much of the language she does have, and possibly that also made no sense to her.

She seems to get the idea, singing a bar and moving her arms and nodding happily.

...She's not too sure what to say next. Not knowing the local language is hard! And her spirit guide can't talk to anything right now, only hear strange voices humming through the air. Voices in this new language.

She tells her spirit guide to listen to them all and frowns thoughtfully at something invisible in the middle distance.

Sheee's probably really really lost. This isn't as freakout-inducing at it maybe should be, since she's still a mermaid, mentally, for the moment.

"You ok?" Depending on the problem might be hard to answer with limited language, but.

"Mmmmh. No. Please wait... Please... Talk?"

...Well no is a clear enough answer to that question in one way. ...And oh, is this the thing where you language learned some time ago and now you ubderstand more words than you can come up with?

He looks at Alessa, who will probably be better at this.

"We're not in a hurry anywhere."

"Are you lost?" It's probably a good first guess. Or - "...Is it something with your dom?" No knowing what they can do if the answer to that is yes, but.

"Lost. I'm..." She waves at the ocean. "Very lost. I was... In that for a long time."

...Shit. Well that is not a problem he feels like he has any idea how to deal with. He looks at Alessa again - she doesn't look like she's freezing from having been in the water for a while at this weather - maybe it's a Gift thing, come to think he'd be cold in this weather if he dressed like that even without jumping in the water.

Also doesn't look like she almost drowned and needs to get water out of her lungs. ...Well, doesn't look like people do in movies, what does he know about what that looks like in real life.

"Gods, I'm sorry. Do you need medical attention? Er - are you hurt?" He looks like he's ready to stand up - he thinks an emergency would look different and he doesn't know if it's anything he could help with, but if it is -. (It wouldn't really be a problem if he collapsed right here from pushing his Gift. ...Though that would leave Kente alone with both of them...)

Headshake and small smile. "I'm fine. Just... Lost. I'm not... Worried. Want to sing? And-" she makes the same hand motion to indicate the illusions again.

...This is rather whiplash-y. But she still looks fine, and if it's a Gift thing then that would cover it. Maybe she figures her dom will come looking for her and she might as well enjoy herself in the meantime. That also sounds like a thing he'd do.

And if her dom comes looking for her and is annoyed at them for just sitting there - well, it's not as though it would be more helpful if they walked off instead, and he's pretty sure it's not illegal to hang out with someone and not call the police when they haven't actually done anything. Not that the Home won't be happy to punish them anyway, if some important dom is annoyed over them and wants it. But they're not about to call the police on some random sub, that is sure not happening, so if that's what going to happen then that's what will happen. Hanging out with a neat singing sub with a cool Gift is well worth a beating anyway, in his opinion.

(He looks over at Alessa, but they're on the same page about not calling police on random subs, he already knows that. And Alessa isn't going to agree to just go off somewhere else and try to leave it all on Kente if it comes to that.)

He smiles back. "Sure thing! I dance myself, actually." The stone beach isn't exactly idea surface, but he can stand up and do a few steps, swirling the illusion around him as counterpoint to his movement.

(It's true that they are on the same page, and that he isn't going to agree to do that. He sits and watches.)

She's very happy to watch him dance!! She grins. And sings in that wordless, wave-evoking way again.

That's not something already in his repertoire but he can improvise, and try to account for the unideal surface. 

"Thank you! Wow, that's so pretty, you know- It's great with the dancing! I can understand you better now, I think."

He will interpret that as the 'you think about it a bit and you remember more than you did at first' sort of thing. "Thank you!" Her singing continues to be fantastic and he will also tell her so.

"Do you perform?"

"I'm not that good, really. Not as- Work. Just some shows on the-" She reaches for a word. "-Hmm, I don't think you have it? I'm very extremely lost. Which is a little worrying but really, fine, it's the most exciting thing that's happened to me in years!"

That also won't come across as strange to him - 'sounds nice to a random music-enjoyer not familiar with the genre or style or conventions' is obviously not the same thing as 'top of the art wherever the art is actually a major thing' (he wonders if it's the sort of thing the library would have some tapes for, if he digs for them). "Well, I'm glad I got to hear!" He wonders what the thing is that they don't have. Some kind of amateur performance organization system? Sounds cool. 

He laughs a little. "Hope you have fun with it then. Let us know if we can help, though. We know our way around, mostly, and - Ale do we still have the guest bus pass this month?" (They do). "We have a guest bus pass so we could take you somewhere if you don't have fare along. Not that we'd get in the way if you just wanted to stay right here." 

"-Oh, right. I don't have any money they'll accept here."

(Should she be trying to appear 'normal'? Eh. That's doomed to failure when she doesn't know where she is or what's normal here. She's obviously on a strange, backward planet by some bizarre contrivance, and what to do next really depends on information she doesn't have... Maybe she should shift to a form less likely to go with the flow, but... Eh. They don't seem too surprised by her fins changing into legs but something more extreme might be a bit much. Maybe that's the Mer-brain talking but it's fiiiine.)

She's frowning slightly as she thinks this over. "I don't suppose I could ask you two for advice on getting my bearings?"

...He supposes they could offer to take her to a bank, but he's not actually sure how banks feel about changing pocket-money amounts of money for random subs. And he has some pocket money along, and taking around a cool foreign singing sub around if she does want to go somewhere sounds like a more fun use for it than whatever else he could do with it. Maybe she can give him some of whatever he has and he can have a neat coin collection, but we won't mind if that doesn't happen, either.

He brushes some rock-dust off his robe. "Sure. Glad to help." He can't immediately think of what the first most useful things to say are, so he'll pause to see if she has some already.

She stands up- Her bare feet and legs look mostly normal now, though her legs still have those pretty scales.

"I'll need a place to sleep, to get something to eat, to earn money. I'll need to know what things are like here. You really have no idea just how lost I am, I'm not sure you'd believe me."

Ok, not - what he was expecting. ...He could come up with ideas about what she's talking about but that seems more likely to correlate with whatever is on his mind than with what she actually means.

(He looks at Alessa.)

Alessa looks uncertain, and more worried again.

"...You could check by telling us?" he suggests, mostly because that seems pretty relevant information and he's not actually sure what else to say.

"I think I'm from another, hmm, I still don't have many words- Another round rock in space!" (This is said in a cheerfully relaxed voice without any worry or alarm.)

Well, either that or she's in an elaborate hallucination, or this is real and someone is pulling an elaborate prank with something stupidly powerful to create a fake starscape and block out her links. But that wouldn't be helpful to say, would it?

...

He looks at Alessa again. He. Does not feel like he knows what to do at this point. Obviously any advice would tell them to call the relevant authorities, and obviously they're not going to do that, and he's not really sure where that leads in things they could do, he is feeling very out of his area of any knowledge here -

He - is too. But. They're not going to call the police and he's - pretty sure that telling her that's probably not true won't really help with anything, and if they can help with anything then that's good, and she did ask for things.

"We can help you get some food. And - talk about what things are like here." He doesn't know how that kind of knowledge - ?translates? doesn't? But there's a lot of things where it seems better to hear them if you know and take them for granted already than not to risk not knowing them.

We'll, they'll see soon enough. If she want to bother to really prove it.

"Thank you so much. Hopefully I can help you in return somehow."

"Of course. Did you want to get food right now?" He is now worried about how she might have been eating, and of course he can't really ask about it...

"I'm fine without eating for a while actually, I am - really really resilient to cold and food and sleep and stuff like that. Not perfectly but pretty good. Same thing that does the legs. But, food sounds nice. You just - buy it, right?"

...He's not sure if that should make him more or less worried. Could her Gift do that? Probably, but he thinks believing it when it's not true could also happen. If her Gift can cover it it's not the best use of money. But she said food sounds nice. And he doesn't want to risk it.

"Yeah, we buy it." He gestures back the way they'd come here. ...Except. "...Do you have other clothes?" He's not sure what to do if she doesn't - maybe Kente has something, but if not. They could have one of them go and bring her something back, maybe...

"I could make them change? It takes a few minutes. What's wrong with them? And I'll pay you back once I have a way to do that."

"They're gorgeous," he assures her. "If we leave the beach, there's street dress laws." 

She looks puzzled and looks down. Her breasts and groin are plenty covered??

Shoes, maybe?

"...I need to know what they are to comply with them?"

He hadn't wanted to get into the laws until he knew what she'd say. He ducks his head a little, somewhat apologetically. "If it's just the robe, then to below the knee, and some sleeves," he can say now. "- more sleeves will get people to look at you not as much, but some is alright by laws." How is the material of her clothes? 

The material of her dress is something swimsuit-y and slightly shiny in a synthetic-looking way, like pure nylon, though it's not nylon. Or at least doesn't look like it.

Yeah, these two are both wearing strange outfits. It must be the local fashion for some reason. Though laws about it are... A bit ominous. But sure, sure. Alright then. She stares into the middle distance again and the outfit - clings tightly to her wherever it's touching her skin for a few seconds, almost seeming to bulge slightly, then relaxes again.

"Alright, it's starting. Hmm, sure, but why, exactly?"

(He's in past-the-knee submissives' robes over long sleeves; Kente's in his own longer sleeved and longer-hemmed and looser preferred version.)

He's not sure what she means?

"It just seems a little strange to have those specific rules. Where I'm from the range of - okay - clothes is pretty wide?"

"I - think it varies from place to place? We have submissives' robes here, and some rules, but some governments do it differently, or have rules about colors or patterns or jewelry or embroidery or more rules about hair or they're stricter. And some aren't so strict."

...That word is coming up a lot on the radio. She thought it meant 'women' and this was one of the backwards places and she was going to have to shift into something masculine, but these are both men and are wearing robes, so it's something else.

So, pretend everything is fine, or admit ignorance?

If she were a catgirl or lamia right now she'd love to start on some kind of elaborate pretending or deception game, but it doesn't sound very appealing to mer-her, and she thinks the most clearheaded version of her would agree that doing that would be stupid.

"I'm from a different planet. I really mean it. What's a submissive, exactly?"

He doesn't think there's something better to do than just answer. Doesn't know it if there is. He tries to think what to say.

"Submissives are - we have two roles here," he's not sure if she's actually also foreign? And most places have the two but not everywhere. "dominants and submissives. We - submissives - orient to belonging and being kept and useful and obedience and devotion."

So-

Basically, gender roles? Sort of. With some different things emphasized, different exact shape. And not having anything to do with what bits you have, which is more sensible than how Earth used to do it, at least.

Nodnod. "We don't do it the same way, I think. In modern times roles are much more flexible and there's sort of more of them, and before that we divided by-" It turns out radio shows and songs don't often talk about gender when it's mostly irrelevant compared to role! "-Mrh. If someone can carry a baby?" Gesture near her belly. "Which was a little stupid, but, when you don't have much technology you have to divide work somehow."

Well, various medias will totally mention or acknowledge gender more than never, and occasionally when relevant mention various features of biology people might have, though they seem to use one to assume the other much less than the time she's thinking of in Earth history.

...He's - not really sure what she's talking about or what she means, and not sure if he should ask, or how to ask.

"Dress laws are some of the laws that are different for dominants and submissives," he says instead. "Here," he remembers to add (and everywhere in the world that he knows of but she's here right now so it's ok, probably, not to say that.)

(Well, the first part of that sounds like an interesting novel that the government probably wouldn't like, and the second part sounds like potentially a really weird and horrifying novel (he thinks he may have read some kind of aliens with something like that, they were inspired by ants or something?), and he has no idea what technology has to do with anything.

He continues to leave the talking to Alessa right now.)

"If there's actual laws about it I'm guessing you can't just... Not." Sigh. "I need to know what it's like here since I have no way to even get started on going home."

"We can't not  --?" (He leaves a blank in the question - we can't not what, it's asking). "We can answer anything you need to know, if we know it."

"Not have a role. Neither of yours fit mine."

Oh. He looks at Kente who - knows something about that, at least. "No. I'm sorry."

"Pretending to be something you're not is tragic. I - change myself, a lot, on purpose, but once I know more of what a sub and a dom is supposed to be more exactly I can be it, probably."

He looks down. "Cross-pretending is - really awful. I'm sorry." That's not enough at all and he doesn't know what else to do (and he should probably have thought about this more, before...)

"Yeah. It could be a problem. I'm good at pretending- I change my mind a lot- But not forever every time."

"I'm sorry," he says again. Doesn't know what else to say. "...Is there anything we can do while we're around you? That would help, I mean. Since we know."

"I shouldn't complain. But this is a lot less exciting than it was five minutes ago. Uh- It honestly sounds like I'll have a better time if I pretend to be a dom instead of pretending to be a sub? Since I'm not either, really. From what I'm listening to on the radio, it sounds like you're not really allowed to... Do things, make big decisions..."

"I'm sorry." He tries not to shiver - that wouldn't be fair, when he's not the one who thought he might have a little freedom from - whatever kind of place she's usually, she hasn't said but he can't think it can be good - only to find(?) that he's still trapped in the worst way. "I - don't think you shouldn't complain.

"If - whoever you usually live with - thinks you're a sub, or government records do," he says carefully, "and they find you pretending as a dom, you'd be punished for cross-pretending." Which seems further unfair if she has to cross-pretend either way, but -. He can't change it.

"Hey- I'm sorry. I'm upsetting you two, aren't I? Well- Your government won't have any records of me."

She tugs at the shoulders of the swimsuit/dress. They sort of - flop out into long sleeves. She stands up, and the skirt is longer now too.

"I dunno what to do next, is all."

(There's kind of a lot of things that are more important than that right now but that is really cool. Shapeshifting clothing.)

"No, no! We're - upset when bad things happen to people, but you're not upsetting us." That's the kind of statement he could get in trouble for, in context, if it got reported somehow, but at this point they're going to be in trouble over not going to the authorities, and they aren't going to go to them, and he wouldn't not say it, anyway.

...He's not sure what to do about the cross-pretending idea. He doesn't want her to get hurt for it by surprise. But if that's what she wants to do he doesn't want to - get in the way, be another person trying to put an unwanted painful wall around her. (It's not as bad for a sub who just - goes out dressing like a dom, and doesn't try everything with fake documents and living that way. Maybe it's not as bad if whoever is in authority thinks it's just about delusionalness in a sub who has that? He doesn't know at all though, might be - wishful thinking.

Will it be better or worse if there's already the having-stayed-away?)

...It - doesn't look like she's wanting to change to dressing like a dom right exactly now, anyway. And - her clothes seem maybe done, so -

"We could go get food?"

"Food sounds good, food's not upsetting. I don't have any real idea how things work around here - I'll need that going forward, but... Food for now?"

That sounds like good reason to go get food, in addition to other existing reasons.

They can show her the way off the beach to where there will be cafes and such?

She attempts to imitate their body language and is definitely watching everyone. She doesn't say anything at the moment. Luckily the correct body language seems pretty close to the demure mermaid-mannerisms she already has for this form.

Leaving the beach takes them up a narrow path through some trees. At the top of that they'll come out onto a wider flat walking-road, lined on the other side with an assortment of mostly one and two story buildings - cafes and little restaurants and shops and a few other sort of places. The walking path isn't crowded or full, but there are other people out. She can recognize the subs by body language and by the robes - varying styles, and in some cases partially covered by jackets or sweaters, but the shared central features. The remaining people have their own body language tendencies, and dress in pants and skirts - in this weather mostly not shorts - and shirts of various types. The surface level body language isn't completely universal, though depending on what sorts of analyses her systems can do, they might notice a deeper more underlying and considerably more subtle level, which basically is.

People walk around in all sorts of configurations - three doms younger than Alessa and Kente are looking into a store; a dom and sub pair, the sub leading a toddler who tugs on his hand, go into a cafe; a dom with maybe a ten-year-old sub read a menu on the window of a restaurant. When doms and subs come in mixed company, the subs sometimes walk next to the doms, sometimes a little behind. Subs not with doms get out of doms' ways on the sidewalks, while doms who pass subs with doms avoid getting closer to the subs.

Her body language seems to be passing. People notice her more than they notice any other random person, but based on what they're looking at it's for her bodily appearance - no one seems to think it's alarming or suspicious, so much as a neat thing you don't see often. Some people also seem to notice her lack of shoes, but not in a way they seem to think needs any action either.

"Do you want to eat anything in particular?" 

He points at the array of options.

She's mostly paying attention to body language on an entirely human level right now. Though she's recording little snippets of video. It'll take a while to properly absorb.

"Something cheap is fine. A grocery store. Bread and some fruit?"

Oh - yes, they can do it that way.

There's not a grocery store right on this street, as far as he knows, but they can take a cross-street and walk further into the little neighborhood (People here are a bit more surprised about the lack of shoes, but still don't seem to think they should do anything about it.)

Alessa asks a passing sub if she could direct them to a grocery store, gets some directions. They can walk that way.

The place looks peaceful and prosperous enough, on the surface at least. She's quietly nervous anyway.

"I don't usually wear shoes because I don't need them. Do you think it's worth buying some? I could make my dress produce some shoes but it'd be kind of awkward, it's not really meant for that."

(Seriously, such a cool Gift, part of him continues to notice.)

He notices the nervousness. He doesn't ask 'are you alright'. "Anything we can help with?" he says instead. And, "It's not illegal to not wear shoes - people will probably look, but I don't think more than they'd look because of your Gift, and they'll probably just think that's why, even when we're not near the beach anymore. We could buy shoes if you wanted though? We don't have money for anything more expensive with us, but there are cheaper simple shoes."

These other streets have more houses as well as a few other kinds of business. Also sidewalks, and cars parked along them. A sub is unloading groceries out of a car. In front of a different house, a sub is mopping the porch. He's rolled up his sleeves, and has hand-shaped bruises up his arms. 

"Does that happen a lot." She says of the bruises. Sounding less wary, more... Tense.

He's - not sure what she means (doesn't realize the tension isn't general). "Do - people clean their porches often?"

"No. Bruises. Do people hurt subs often?"

Not tense. Angry.

He's - not sure what (- does she not bruise? That could happen with her Gift, maybe. But - ). 

"...It was - probably his dom? It can happen if someone - grips hard.

People aren't allowed to - grab subs at random, here. Even if they're not walking with doms. We don't have to worry about that."

Angry walking.

"Grabbing someone hard enough to bruise, or hitting them, is a serious breach of - general social protocol, even in most romantic relationships. Especially, even. Often it's a crime. I-"

Deep breath.

"I want to change again but that's a bad idea because being this-shaped is helping keep me calm, in fact."

He is - unsure and unbalanced and worried and confused (and he doesn't actually know if those particular bruises might have been from - perfectly happy circumstances - but he's not going to say that, it's not like there's isn't many and many that aren't and so not like that matters, what the ones they happened to see might be, and if whoever usually grabbed her didn't leave bruises because she's Gifted it's not like that's the important thing -).

"...I'm sorry."

"It's- I'm upsetting you again. And I might be misunderstanding something, or not saying things right. Groceries."

(Stomp stomp step step calming...)

"You're not upsetting us. Please don't worry. Can we - help answer something?" By the directions they should reach the store in a few more blocks.

"Is people hitting their sub a thing. Does it happen often. Would you be - surprised and appalled to hear of it."

"Do - you mean as punishment, or...?

It's - frowned upon, here, to just suddenly hit a sub for no reason. A lot of people won't even slap a sub in public with a reason, they'd take them aside.

I'd be - surprised and appalled if someone... hit a sub in public with - a bat, something like that. And that's not legal."

"I was afraid it was like that. I don't know if I have the truth of it but to my eyes hitting your partner at all is some level of evil. It's abuse."

He looks at Kente for a moment. Looks down.

"I wish that - punishment when it's not - when the sub wouldn't wish for it. Didn't happen. And - other things - didn't happen.

That would - make sense, to say it's abuse. I think.

I don't think there's any law in the world that thinks so."

"That's sad. I don't think it helps that you're all kind of poor."

He's not sure what she means. "Poor?"

"You're not safe. You don't have - machines to do work for you, except maybe in big factories? You don't have - sun power plants, that do the thing the sun does instead of burning fuel. I saw old people so you get old - I don't. I'm hearing people talk about death on the radio and you can't be brought back like I can if a part of me is intact- Most governments will give everyone food and a house and more for nothing at home, because those are both so cheap it's not a strain at all-"

...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."