Angie waited for a moment for a reply before quickly excusing herself “Uh- Actually before we chit-chat I’m going to go find some people to find out a bit more about what exactly I’ve gotten myself into. It’d be nice to have some gal-pals about so maybe I’ll see you later!” She pushed her way out of the girl’s bathroom and back towards where everyone had gathered. She caught the tail-end of a conversation, only the last few words about Mike’s hands. 

“Oh- That was me, actually.” She cut in and waved briefly at Mike to catch his attention before looking around, spotting Mark disappear into the crowd. “Aw, I was gonna try a little like… ‘Heyyy M&M’ joke, you know… Like the… like the chocolate?” She trailed off a little awkwardly and laughed half-heartedly, the joke wasn’t exactly her best work but the whole situation was so strange she wasn’t sure what else to do at the moment. “Uh- [i]anyways[/i] I actually wanted to ask a few questions, you know about everything. I mean I probably should have talked more on the drive, but you know… Shell shock I guess. Now I’m here though it’s like everything’s been thrown in my hands and all I got to work with is some trail mix and water-” She laughed a bit more genuinely this time and pulled out the trail mix packet and wiggled it around until one of the m&m’s came forward. “Hey, haha, m&ms…”

Mike and Míra stared at her for a moment, slightly dumbfounded by her sudden appearance and rapid fire barrage of confectionary based jokes.

“Uh… yeah, that’s funny.” Mike nodded, good naturedly, though it sounded a bit more like he was agreeing to something than amused. “Yeah, that’s a good joke. Míra, this is Angie, she fixed my hands.”

“That so?” Míra raised a dark eyebrow at Angie. “That’s quite the talent, you know. I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who can do that - even if his hands look a bit like my abuela’s garden now.”

Angeline, blissfully unaware of the good-natured politeness of the response simply smiled until she was addressed again. “Oh gosh, yeah sorry I never introduced myself, Angie, like he said, or Angeline, whatever…” She looked at his hands “Oh, yeah haha I dunno… He looked like he was in so much pain that I was desperate to try anything… I don’t know, maybe if I try fixing them again they might get more normal? It’s far-fetched but so was the initial idea… It just seemed like a good idea at the time.” She ran her hands over her hair, smoothing down any flyaways as she contemplated her ‘work’ “At least the other ones a bit less… Plushy.” She decided. Shifting her weight from foot to foot she looked rather uncomfortable thinking about it, [i]What if his hands stayed like that forever?[/i] It was a thought she couldn’t get off her mind but she was never going to say it aloud. It was like she was some evil witch who cursed him or something… 

“Oh right! What I came over here for… Um not to sound impatient or anything but well what do we do now? I get this is like a safe haven or something for people who can… Do things like that but is that like it?” Angie wrung her hands together nervously, feeling her dry skin from dehydration, making a mental note to chug that water later. “We just sit around and hide and hope no one finds us?” 

“Well, the general idea is that we’re gonna keep everyone housed here for a little while, just ‘til the heat dies down ‘n’ what not.” Mike replied, rubbing the moss hand idly.

“Yep. A few weeks at most. Then we’re going to relocate people to more permanent hiding spots and boltholes, where the population density is a little lower.” Míra added.

“An’ of course, if people are wantin’ to give the Underground a helping hand in a more active sorta way, we’re always lookin’ for more manpower. If you were thinkin’ of volunteering, trust me when I say that a person with your unique skillset,” he held up his hands, “is oh so incredibly welcome.”

Míra shuffled on her feet a little, taking a step closer in to the conversation.

“Mike, cool it, will you? The poor girl’s only been here for half a fuckin’ hour.”

“Ah, yeah. Beg your pardon. What I mean to say is that we have a sort of general policy of shelterin’ everyone - there’s no need for you to provide any sorta service or skill that you’re not completely happy providin’, is what I mean - and of course we ain’t hardly gonna kick you out if you don’t wanna take a more active role or anythin’. But we do also have a big shortage of folks who can provide vegan prosthesis.” He gave another big, cowboy grin.

Míra sighed.

“As for your magic, yeah. From what the few mages I know have told me - Mike included - that’s basically how it starts. You have this subconscious epiphany, you have an urge to do something that doesn’t really make sense, but makes sense to you - that kind of thing.” Míra gave a glare in the vague direction of Mark, who had finally produced a coffee out of thin air and was talking to some guy in hushed tones across the hall. Eventually she refocused on the conversation. “Eventually, more things will start to come into focus in your mind, you’ll get more of those ‘good ideas’ and most of them will work - and then, once you have a grasp of the basic principles of what you in particular can and can’t do…” she waved her hands in a particularly emphatic shrug.

“Then you start experimenting.” Mike’s grin broadened. “First time I did that little jump thing you saw me do back then, I just sort of instinctively leapt from my office into a toilet cubicle. I was darn lucky it was unoccupied, let me tell you.”

Then, he had a sudden realisation. His face lit up, and he thrust his hands in the direction of Angie.

“Hey, I meant to show you earlier, look at this!” He used his more solid hand to sort of push the moss on the other one aside, and-

Flesh.

The beginnings of it, at least. Sinewy and thin, not enough to provide real structure yet, not enough to use… but it wasn’t a plant.

“I reckon your plant magic is even better than we thought!”

Angeline looked incredibly nervous at the thought of getting even more involved than she already was, but she supposed if she was stuck here already… Well what else was there to do? If she really could help then surely that is the best thing she could do with her time here… It was something she would have to ponder over a lot more, really.

She nodded along slowly with the explanation of ‘magic’. It did seem pretty much exactly what she experienced. Angie supposed, like anything, that practice made perfect and if she were to be at the impressive level of Mike and probably most of the other mages around here, she’d have to put her Botanics to work, chuckling at the story, things were a bit tense around here and a little laugh was much appreciated.

At the exposure of some quite raw looking flesh, Angeline looked genuinely surprised, before catching her expression and apologising “Gosh - I’m sure that look doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence but- well wow… I mean I guess it’s kind of like a skin graft with moss?” She leaned in and looked at it curiously, she supposed the magic worked over a period of time to replace the skin lost. “So you think after a while your hands will be back to normal again? Oh- Well I guess I’m supposed to be the expert but wow I’m just glad you won’t have plant-hands forever. It’s not exactly subtle…”