There is no way whatsoever that she's going to be able to put thoughts into words right now, but she can sort of shove them at the telepathic bond without that and maybe it'll work: She doesn't mind what was happening before, in the sense that she's used to people being very cuddly and having strong emotions and that being a sign of them being the type of person she can trust. She doesn't mind what's happening now in the very different sense that objecting to what adults do never works and she's stopped trying. She's still thinking of Marina as someone she's going to be around and do joint problem-solving with, though there's a sense that that may be mostly because her feelings on the matter haven't caught up with themselves yet.

Shoving concepts at people is totally valid and the Telepathy spell will accommodate that! It's super convenient.

:I'm cuddly and have strong emotions but I have to tamp down on this because it makes people uncomfortable. Where I'm from.: she adds, because probably this different place has different cultural standards.

Oh no. Wow. Um. She wants to address that but she's not sure how to address it well. She does hope that Denice comes to see her as someone she can do joint problem-solving with, but you can't force trust.

She's not sure of what approach to take in this situation – she can see several that could work, but none that she feels would be the thing that Denice needs, so she stays silent, but still keeping Telepathy on so that she can respond.

Having strong emotions does make people uncomfortable but being the type of person who makes people uncomfortable rather than the type of person who is made uncomfortable is almost the same thing as being the type of person she can trust rather than the type of person she doesn't. Not entirely - there are definitely people on the 'makes people uncomfortable' side of the line who are actually bad - but the people who are uncomfortable with strong emotions - the adults - are the really dangerous ones, very uncomplicatedly so. (The distraction of thinking this through seems to help; she's not not panicking, but by the time she's gotten to the end of it, the edge is clearly off of it and she's started to calm down.)

- that's true where she was, at least; she's only been free for a few days and doesn't know how things work here yet, not really. But she expects the basic principles to mostly hold, even if the details are very different.

She's not sure what 'adults' means to Denice, because like, Marina is clearly an adult. Yes, her being a Flowers Practitioner makes her look younger, but she's still firmly an adult. 

:I'm not sure what you mean by adult? I'm an adult? In the sense of me being biologically fully grown and having passed the adulthood examination? Also, do you think the woman has gone away? I am willing to stay here for as long as you need, but I do disprefer sitting here behind the garbage container.:

Right, she was supposed to be keeping an eye on that. :Gone, yeah,: she sends, and stands to lead the way out from behind the dumpster and through the alley to the far side, where they can cross a brief strip of parking lot and then follow a deer trail into the woods between the stores and a housing development, navigating without looking around at all.

While she's walking, she'll shove the relevant observations at Marina: Adults on TV are different, but the adults she's known have almost all been very focused on making the children in their care comply with their demands, without any understanding of what's actually possible for them and with just enough care for their comfort or safety that the children almost never died of it. She's aware of the technical definition of an adult, but in practical terms 'hostile adversary with incredible power to hurt me' is really more what the concept means to her, and she's not inclined to put Marina-as-she-first-encountered-her in that category, it's very obviously wrong. (She has no comment regarding what categories Marina-as-she-is-now may or may not belong to.)

It's fascinating how Denice can just navigate like that without sight. Marina could never! She will let herself be led.

The backdrop of suppressed screaming horror coming from Marina has been steadily increasing as Denice transmits to her. 

:Why does this exist. You said you were from an institution? How has it not been burned down yet by some True? Or relevant equivalents here.: 'True' here meaning a follower of the Way of True Self, which is associated with freedom and individualism. :Did any of the children sue the institution after they passed the adulthood examination?:

The Way of Flowers is the way of fullness and abundance, so Marina doesn't notice Denice's omission. 

She's not sure what a True is. She's not personally planning on burning the place down because that'd kill all the kids, but she does want to go back and get them out, once she's ready. She doesn't know anything about adulthood examinations but it's pretty possible that they just never came up where she could hear about it; kids in the institution mostly get moved to adult institutions when they age out of that one. She hasn't heard of the institution being sued as a real thing, just something the staff worried about sometimes.

There's a picnic bench set up in the woods, with a slightly broader path leading away from it in the direction of the houses; Denice sits at it. It's dark enough to see a few stars, now, but there's enough ambient light from the houses for Marina to at least make out Denice's general shape in the dark.

This place must have an incredibly corrupt legal system if that place hasn't been sued to the stars and back for treating people like that. She's normally the type of person to try and resolve things formally and amicably, but it might not be a viable option here. She's not sure how much help she'd be, though – she has no combat magic save glamors, and glamors are the exact opposite thing you need to sneak people out. Glamors make people pay attention to you: the opposite of stealth.

:Where I come from, children take adulthood examinations that test you on math, language, law, and life skills, and when you pass you get the ability to sign contracts, have a will, get married, get an apprenticeship – basically all the rights adults have. Most people take it between 14 to 16, but you can take it as many times as you want until you pass. It's offered yearly. I don't know whether they do things like that here. If they don't speak Towan, not even one of the dialects, then this must be a place very far away indeed. My last foster child passed it at 15 and got an apprenticed to a builder soon after.:

Marina will sit next to Denice.

Denice scoots closer to lean on her slightly, without really thinking about it, and then catches herself and straightens back up.

:Don't think that's how things work, here. It sounds like I would have heard about it, on TV or from staff talking about their kids or kids parents talking about their other kids. If it's same as us it's, eighteen, adult, not eighteen, not adult yet.:

:Probably not the most important thing right now.:

18 is a little late, but not unusual. 

:Yes, it does sound different. I ought to learn more about this place. And learn the language. I can communicate via Telepathy, but you mentioned that this would out me as a cape, and capes risk being put in coercive institutions.:

:Where are you planning to sleep? Or, well, I suppose I could ask myself the same question.:

:No, being a cape is fine, most of the kids aren't and they didn't know I was. Bad if they find out I am and catch me, though, I think. For sleeping I'm not sure yet but probably best is to get into one of the houses that doesn't have people living in it, but safer to wait until people are mostly in bed so there's less chance they see us.:

Mm. She's not sure she likes the sound of that, but she doesn't say anything about it. Being caught breaking into someone's house would probably end up with her getting stabbed or dying if she did that where she was from.

:Hm. What would they do to try and catch you? Would they use violent force? Or would they try to do it legally and get police to arrest you? And on what legal standing? If it's just that you don't have a parent, I could be your parent. Or pretend to be, for the purposes of freeing you from having to worry about them. Living like this seems unsustainable.

It's quite tragic that I'm not a True, because otherwise I could cast The Old Must Die. It's a transformation ritual that can also change your appearance. It might — actually I shouldn't bother contemplating that, because I don't know how to cast it and it seems like your capes work differently from our Practitioners.

What if you traveled really far away? Would they get you then? Hm, no, you said you wanted to rescue the others, and I wouldn't promote a solution that prevented you from trying that: even though I am uncertain of the chance of success.

:What's your plan for getting the others out? I might be able to help, I'm not sure.: 

She thinks quickly, once she gets into the groove.

She doesn't trust that they wouldn't use violence, she sends wordlessly. :My plan is not to find out what they'll do if they find me. I do know the police are dangerous, they've been talking about me on the TV and said for people to call the police if they saw me. I don't know if you pretending to be my parent would work at all. I do want to get farther away but I need to figure out to do that - I think I can sneak onto a vehicle once I figure out where the good ones are. Being able to hear where people are and what they're looking at is good for sneaking around. I'll figure out how to get the others out once I've figured out how we can live out here, I don't think it's going to be fast and I don't think trying to do it close to the place is a good idea.:

Marina gets from Denice's thoughts the gists of what TV and automobiles are.

:Although I can't speak or read the language – what is it called, by the way? – I do have the advantage of never having been here before, so I don't have a bad reputation. Do you think people would react badly if I used Telepathy on them?: People do get startled if they're not used to it, but basically everyone knows that Opens and Flowers can do Telepathy. Of course, here it would be different.

:How close are we to the place? Do you have a shortlist of which places might be good to go to set up more permanently? I wonder if I could get a job or employment. I've worked as a Flowers ritualist, an economist, a teacher, a foster parent...you said that I would be a cape, right? Because of my powers? Do you think I could earn money that way? If I get one, I could get us a permanent place to stay.:

:I walked three nights to get here but I was too hungry to go very fast and cars are a lot faster than walking. I want to try to get to New York, that's the biggest city around here and I think it'll be easier to hide there.You can probably get a job doing cape things but I don't know how it'd work - letting people know you're a cape without using a secret identity is unusual but I've seen it on TV before, I don't think it's a problem. I'd still want to be really secret though. The language is English.:

:Secret identity? Do tell more about that. 

Ugh, I forgot that being a Flowers ritualist would mean I'd need assistants. Flowers rituals don't really work without them – it's why I suffered backlash when I healed you. I would have thought about teaching you, but you wouldn't be able to help me because you need to be in hiding. Probably I could find other people willing to assist me.

Yes, if I do get such a job, I will not talk about you or act in such a way that implies I know you, though I'd let you sleep in whatever house or apartment I find, or give you money if I need it.

Right, English. Do you think you could teach me English? I won't have time to get fluent here but knowing phrases is good. I can teach you Towan, but it's very unlikely to be useful to you.:

:I'm really bad at talking, that's a lot of why I was there. I can try to teach you, though. Secret identities are, like, you act like a normal person when you're doing normal things and then when you want to do cape things you wear a mask and use a different name so nobody knows who you are, that way if you have enemies they can't find you as easily to hurt you. Most capes fight each other a lot so that's a problem for them. It means normal people won't bother you about being a cape when you don't want them to, too, so some capes do it even if they don't fight.:

:Thank you! I appreciate any help that you might be able to give me.

That makes sense. I'm guessing it also comes with some sort of helm or mask, and another name? And maybe a costume. That seems very useful, though I'd have to figure out where to get the materials for such a project. Do capes work in teams? If we got a bunch of costume and mask materials, do you think you could just pose as your cape identity forever?

Yeah, I probably wouldn't do fighting. Flowers spells aren't conducive to that. It does have any combat spells – there is a spell that can cause growths to appear on someone, or give them cancer – but it's very expensive energetically, and besides, I don't know it. The most I can do is support.:

:Masks yeah, costumes yeah, names yeah, teams sometimes. Some capes work for the government and they get teams that way, other hero capes usually don't have teams I think, villain capes do sometimes but I don't know how commonly. I think it'd be dangerous to rescue kids in a costume I use other places but I guess I could have two.:

:Sorry, I don't know what you mean by 'hero' and 'villain'. The closest concepts coming to mind are 'sympathetic' vs 'unsympathetic', 'white market' vs 'gray market', and 'prosocial' vs 'antisocial'.

One plan might be for me to try and get a job as a cape in New York, so that we can get ourselves a place to stay and money to buy costumes and equipment with. That way, you can buy two costumes. One throwaway costume and persona to rescue the others, and then another one that you'll keep. I might do the same, if having me there would help.:

:Prosocial/antisocial, or maybe cop-type/criminal-type. If I do get the kids out and they figure out it was a cape they'll call me a villain but usually you hear about villains doing actually bad things, and heroes stop them or do things that help people.:

:That sounds like a pretty good plan but I think we should find out more about how cape jobs work, or jobs in general, I wasn't planning on having one and don't know much about them. I'm not sure how to do that but figuring out how to get into the library at night might work, they'll have computers.:

:Mm, I see. So it's more of a government-supported vs not plus an aesthetic difference? 

Indeed.: She likewise intuits the broad shape of what 'computers' are from Telepathy nuances. :Your world is so fantastically rich. I cannot begin to fathom the supply chains and industrial infrastructure you'd need to make such a thing! What percentage of New York's population engages in farming or ranching? Ah, you probably wouldn't know. But the computer might.

Do you want to go tonight, or tomorrow night? Are there libraries near here?:

:I don't think people farm or ranch at all in cities but I don't know much about it, yeah. I don't know where the library is, either, but I can check if it's nearby if you don't mind waiting while I do - we can go tonight if it's close, I'm not that tired. Heroes are... I think that's wrong but I don't know how to explain it better.:

:I don't mind waiting. And I'm not tired either. It's one of the perks of Flowers. I could also cast a vigor ritual or spell, but I think I'll hold off on doing any casting aside from Telepathy, at the risk of backlashing again.

That's fine. I think I could get an explanation from the library's computers. As an aside, I'm also illiterate in English. Once we do get in, I'll have to ask you to read the content for me. Not out loud – just think it in your mind, and send it to me.:

:Yeah, that works, I can read just fine. - they don't know I can read, if you somehow wind up having to talk to people about me please don't mention that. But I can. Anyway, I'll check for the library now.: And she settles onto her elbows and stops sending anything.