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?"