>> -- Contrariwise, Danso is likely to know at least an approximate location, at least as far as "by that big park on Bellevue Road in (name of city)". And he'd know a date within 3-5 days, which would allow them to check for road accidents based on the distance she teleported when he set her down to go pee in private. That gives them a starting point to look for accidents, fires, incidents of any kind involving a newborn. <<
It does give them a starting point. It also gives them a starting date because, indeed, Rosita wasn't very old when she crossed paths with Danso. That at least helps narrow down possibilities based on who had missing newborns at that time.
The drawback is that she doesn't necessarily teleport the same distance. Startle jumps aren't as far as panic or danger jumps. But the first time a talent activates, it's often a lot stronger, because they tend to manifest under stress which pushes up people's abilities (ordinary or extraordinary). Furthermore we don't know if Rosita jumped from her parents to Danso directly, or jumped more than once. But with a center point of first contact, the farther away from there, the less likely; as with searching for a missing person from last known sighting.
>> -- Unlikely that they're IN another country, as Danso and the others learned firsthand what the limits of Rosita's teleport range is. <<
It's unlikely but not impossible, given a somewhat variable range.
>> Even if her parents are undocumented, they've probably been given proper paperwork/documentation for her, as she /is/ American-born. <<
Probably American-born. But undocumented people often have undocumented children, and those children can be deported even if they are technically American citizens, because if they are Hispanic then people tend to assume they are NOT American citizens unless they can document that they are. Coming into contact with any authorities can get undocumented people deported, so they try to avoid that, hence the ghost kids. In fact American citizens are getting deported in increasing numbers if they can't convince Immigration that they are citizens, which is really pissing off Mexico and other countries. Without proof that she's American, Rosita is at real risk of getting kicked out due to sheer racism. The attempt at which would start a minor land war as her new siblings would object.
>> More than twenty years ago, we couldn't leave the hospital without a visit from a social worker, mandatory across the state, and mandatory Social Security number(s). I cannot imagine they're LESS intrusive now. <<
No doubt it's worse now, but that assumes a hospital birth, which is common but not universal. You have to pay for that; they turn away people who can't.
>> So there are probably hospital records, matched to footprints, and it was mandatory that each infant be photographed for the hospital records before being sent home, which is another way to sift through the possibilities. <<
It is certainly a logical place to look for connections.
>> --This is what I was thinking. First, there's no sign of damage to her clothing, no smoke or distress on her part. <<
Well reasoned.
>> And the pic you used as a comparison is /definitely/ the kind of "going home from the hospital" over the top cutesy-girly thing that MOST parents don't put their kids in after learning the hard way how few minutes they actually LOOK cute and clean and dry. <<
*laugh* That's an excellent point.
>> I think they fed her, changed her diaper, and got her dressed to go home. When she fell asleep, they put her in the bassinet (as per hospital rules), and something as simple as the nurse coming into the room with their release paperwork would've been enough startlement/distraction to allow the baby to teleport in her sleep. <<
That's a distinct possibility. Or if something went wrong -- a cart tipping over with a crash, a siren going off -- that could have trigger a more panicky and thus farther jump.
>> -- No matter the parents' income, legal status, whatever, they'd gone to a bit of effort for that outfit she was wearing, carefully matched, with accessories, etc. That says either a much-wished for first child in a poor family, a family with means, or an extended family who worked together to amass a layette for the new baby. <<
That makes sense. Another possibility given all that pink: not the first baby, but the first girl after several boys.
>> Ultrasounds are pretty much de rigeur, and I was considered old-fashioned twenty years ago for NOT wanting to know the gender(s) in advance; they've had time to get used to the idea of 'her' arrival. <<
Again that assumes access to privileged care. If we're taking the very nice clothes as canon -- which I don't always do with pictures, but is convenient here because it helps us make choices -- then that's a point in favor.
>> So having this /wanted/ child turn up LESS than "perfect" is going to bring out the least capable, least coping behavior-- "washing their hands" of the problem is a VERY likely scenario. <<
That makes sense. It's also possible that the family would split, with one parent and some relatives rejecting her as a freak but others not caring as long as she was alive.
>> -- Yes, because first she'd be taken from the Muffler, Danso and the others, and put someplace ELSE. That's someone else's jurisdiction, and it's likely to put her out of reach of SPOON as well. <<
Well, they could try. That's what would happen with an ordinary baby. But with a teleporter, the only safe and reliable way to keep her in place is what has just been done: placing her with someone who can muffle her talent. (There are some other options for interfering with superpowers, but they are less reliable or less safe or both.) SPOON isn't about to support switching her to a different foster just for the hell of it.
The mishmash of laws makes cases like this a rat's nest because often there IS no clear jurisdiction -- and even if there is, SPOON has connections both above and below the table, which they will use in the interests of keeping the casualty and collateral damage numbers low. Many ordinary authorities will look the other way in incidents involving a soup, if there are superpowered authorities willing to handle an issue, just because the naries know they are not equipped to handle super-special situations. For example, when a child runs away from foster care, that makes the foster parent(s) and caseworkers look bad. Who's going to want the risk of taking a teleporter when they have no safe, reliable way to contain her? It's safer and easier to leave her where she is -- unless someone has the money and power to make a really huge fight out of it.
>> -- If they're willing to allow the other children to visit, willing to include them in that family, yeah. It's extremely unlikely because of the very things that put the older kids on the streets. <<
Really it depends on whether the parents use reason or reflex. Reason will tell them that A) the kids haven't killed each other yet and have survived pretty harsh circumstances, and B) separating them would traumatize already badly damaged kids including Rosita. Reflex is likely to say, "She's mine and I want her and you have to give her back," without stopping to consider the negative effects.
Specifically, a child might adapt to one removal but the chance of successful bonding goes down every time. That's why kids in the foster system have such a hard time forming healthy attachments ever again. It's why the success rate for adoptions decreases with age. Parents might think it would be possible to pick up their baby and walk away and have that work, but it's really not, and her teleporting ability is only part of why. With the support of her current attachment in place, she could probably reform the previous attachment to her birth parents. But cut the current bonds, and the parents would almost certainly wind up with a baby unable to form a secure attachment to them or anyone else. Not a happy family situation, and easy to predict, although not necessarily easy to convince people.
>> -- Not really. Non-custodial kidnappings make /NEWS/ in huge ways, BUT the assumption here would be that someone TOOK her from the hospital. They'd be checking out everyone with a history of mental illness, postpartum depression, or any combination of mental "problems"- which don't have to be clinically diagnosed, just hinted at-- and an older child taken into foster care for some reason. In short, the authorities would be looking in the wrong areas entirely. <<
Anyone looking from the parental end would be chasing the wrong leads, yes.
What I was thinking: Capable of caring for a young teleporter would require at least one superpowered parent able either to suppress her talent or follow her. If they could do that, she probably wouldn't have gotten away from them in the first place; it's possible but less likely. And if it happened anyway, the parents would probably have turned to SPOON for help -- either if they already had contact, or out of desperation as Danso did.
One other possibility is a cricket parent not wanting out either themselves or their daughter, which is understandable in a culture with such a mixed view of soups. They'd be searching along superpowered routes, but in a more clandestine way that might not come to the attention of SPOON or any other authorities. It might be considered safer to let people mistake it for an ordinary kidnapping and search in private.
This raises another concern: once it comes clear that Rosita was not kidnapped but teleported away, the birth parents' ability to provide proper care is questionable. If they couldn't keep her with them the first time, they probably can't keep her from teleporting again later, which means that is not a safe or secure placement even if they are otherwise suitable parents. The law regarding runaways is patchy at best for ordinary cases, and is really not designed to handle teleporting infants.
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dancing_serpent
Re: Fantastic! Again!
Date: 2014-05-20 05:11 am (UTC)It does give them a starting point. It also gives them a starting date because, indeed, Rosita wasn't very old when she crossed paths with Danso. That at least helps narrow down possibilities based on who had missing newborns at that time.
The drawback is that she doesn't necessarily teleport the same distance. Startle jumps aren't as far as panic or danger jumps. But the first time a talent activates, it's often a lot stronger, because they tend to manifest under stress which pushes up people's abilities (ordinary or extraordinary). Furthermore we don't know if Rosita jumped from her parents to Danso directly, or jumped more than once. But with a center point of first contact, the farther away from there, the less likely; as with searching for a missing person from last known sighting.
>> -- Unlikely that they're IN another country, as Danso and the others learned firsthand what the limits of Rosita's teleport range is. <<
It's unlikely but not impossible, given a somewhat variable range.
>> Even if her parents are undocumented, they've probably been given proper paperwork/documentation for her, as she /is/ American-born. <<
Probably American-born. But undocumented people often have undocumented children, and those children can be deported even if they are technically American citizens, because if they are Hispanic then people tend to assume they are NOT American citizens unless they can document that they are. Coming into contact with any authorities can get undocumented people deported, so they try to avoid that, hence the ghost kids. In fact American citizens are getting deported in increasing numbers if they can't convince Immigration that they are citizens, which is really pissing off Mexico and other countries. Without proof that she's American, Rosita is at real risk of getting kicked out due to sheer racism. The attempt at which would start a minor land war as her new siblings would object.
>> More than twenty years ago, we couldn't leave the hospital without a visit from a social worker, mandatory across the state, and mandatory Social Security number(s). I cannot imagine they're LESS intrusive now. <<
No doubt it's worse now, but that assumes a hospital birth, which is common but not universal. You have to pay for that; they turn away people who can't.
>> So there are probably hospital records, matched to footprints, and it was mandatory that each infant be photographed for the hospital records before being sent home, which is another way to sift through the possibilities. <<
It is certainly a logical place to look for connections.
>> --This is what I was thinking. First, there's no sign of damage to her clothing, no smoke or distress on her part. <<
Well reasoned.
>> And the pic you used as a comparison is /definitely/ the kind of "going home from the hospital" over the top cutesy-girly thing that MOST parents don't put their kids in after learning the hard way how few minutes they actually LOOK cute and clean and dry. <<
*laugh* That's an excellent point.
>> I think they fed her, changed her diaper, and got her dressed to go home. When she fell asleep, they put her in the bassinet (as per hospital rules), and something as simple as the nurse coming into the room with their release paperwork would've been enough startlement/distraction to allow the baby to teleport in her sleep. <<
That's a distinct possibility. Or if something went wrong -- a cart tipping over with a crash, a siren going off -- that could have trigger a more panicky and thus farther jump.
>> -- No matter the parents' income, legal status, whatever, they'd gone to a bit of effort for that outfit she was wearing, carefully matched, with accessories, etc. That says either a much-wished for first child in a poor family, a family with means, or an extended family who worked together to amass a layette for the new baby. <<
That makes sense. Another possibility given all that pink: not the first baby, but the first girl after several boys.
>> Ultrasounds are pretty much de rigeur, and I was considered old-fashioned twenty years ago for NOT wanting to know the gender(s) in advance; they've had time to get used to the idea of 'her' arrival. <<
Again that assumes access to privileged care. If we're taking the very nice clothes as canon -- which I don't always do with pictures, but is convenient here because it helps us make choices -- then that's a point in favor.
>> So having this /wanted/ child turn up LESS than "perfect" is going to bring out the least capable, least coping behavior-- "washing their hands" of the problem is a VERY likely scenario. <<
That makes sense. It's also possible that the family would split, with one parent and some relatives rejecting her as a freak but others not caring as long as she was alive.
>> -- Yes, because first she'd be taken from the Muffler, Danso and the others, and put someplace ELSE. That's someone else's jurisdiction, and it's likely to put her out of reach of SPOON as well. <<
Well, they could try. That's what would happen with an ordinary baby. But with a teleporter, the only safe and reliable way to keep her in place is what has just been done: placing her with someone who can muffle her talent. (There are some other options for interfering with superpowers, but they are less reliable or less safe or both.) SPOON isn't about to support switching her to a different foster just for the hell of it.
The mishmash of laws makes cases like this a rat's nest because often there IS no clear jurisdiction -- and even if there is, SPOON has connections both above and below the table, which they will use in the interests of keeping the casualty and collateral damage numbers low. Many ordinary authorities will look the other way in incidents involving a soup, if there are superpowered authorities willing to handle an issue, just because the naries know they are not equipped to handle super-special situations. For example, when a child runs away from foster care, that makes the foster parent(s) and caseworkers look bad. Who's going to want the risk of taking a teleporter when they have no safe, reliable way to contain her? It's safer and easier to leave her where she is -- unless someone has the money and power to make a really huge fight out of it.
>> -- If they're willing to allow the other children to visit, willing to include them in that family, yeah. It's extremely unlikely because of the very things that put the older kids on the streets. <<
Really it depends on whether the parents use reason or reflex. Reason will tell them that A) the kids haven't killed each other yet and have survived pretty harsh circumstances, and B) separating them would traumatize already badly damaged kids including Rosita. Reflex is likely to say, "She's mine and I want her and you have to give her back," without stopping to consider the negative effects.
Specifically, a child might adapt to one removal but the chance of successful bonding goes down every time. That's why kids in the foster system have such a hard time forming healthy attachments ever again. It's why the success rate for adoptions decreases with age. Parents might think it would be possible to pick up their baby and walk away and have that work, but it's really not, and her teleporting ability is only part of why. With the support of her current attachment in place, she could probably reform the previous attachment to her birth parents. But cut the current bonds, and the parents would almost certainly wind up with a baby unable to form a secure attachment to them or anyone else. Not a happy family situation, and easy to predict, although not necessarily easy to convince people.
>> -- Not really. Non-custodial kidnappings make /NEWS/ in huge ways, BUT the assumption here would be that someone TOOK her from the hospital. They'd be checking out everyone with a history of mental illness, postpartum depression, or any combination of mental "problems"- which don't have to be clinically diagnosed, just hinted at-- and an older child taken into foster care for some reason. In short, the authorities would be looking in the wrong areas entirely. <<
Anyone looking from the parental end would be chasing the wrong leads, yes.
What I was thinking: Capable of caring for a young teleporter would require at least one superpowered parent able either to suppress her talent or follow her. If they could do that, she probably wouldn't have gotten away from them in the first place; it's possible but less likely. And if it happened anyway, the parents would probably have turned to SPOON for help -- either if they already had contact, or out of desperation as Danso did.
One other possibility is a cricket parent not wanting out either themselves or their daughter, which is understandable in a culture with such a mixed view of soups. They'd be searching along superpowered routes, but in a more clandestine way that might not come to the attention of SPOON or any other authorities. It might be considered safer to let people mistake it for an ordinary kidnapping and search in private.
This raises another concern: once it comes clear that Rosita was not kidnapped but teleported away, the birth parents' ability to provide proper care is questionable. If they couldn't keep her with them the first time, they probably can't keep her from teleporting again later, which means that is not a safe or secure placement even if they are otherwise suitable parents. The law regarding runaways is patchy at best for ordinary cases, and is really not designed to handle teleporting infants.