Ther eis one phrase that shows up in every novel I write -- "hiding in plain sight".
This phrase refers to the fact that every novel of mine involves people with some sort of preternatural talent -- the strength and teleportation of the Archetypes, the time travel of the Travellers, the Gaia-given talents of those who eat of the Trees, and the inborn random talents of the Prodigies. All of these beings, human and other, live in the world of ordinary people, and all of these people deal with what "hiding in plain sight" means.
Josh, poet and Keeper of the Garden, believes that one can do anything in the open and people will re-explain it as something plausible. He is the only human who believes in humans' obliviousness to this degree. It could be because his given talent is to have visions, which are not very obvious to other humans.
The Archetypes, immortals in human form, are reluctant to "out" themselves to humans, and so generally don't teleport or lift objects, nor do they transport themselves in view of others. Usually. Lilly (who lived as a human for 30 years) once teleported a car -- with her husband in it. Archetypes even carry themselves differently around humans -- their natural state is to look like superlative examples of humans, so they shake themselves into less beautiful forms of themselves -- a kind of reverse glamour.
Meanwhile, the Travellers are the most hidden -- they don't hop out of rooms when non-Travellers are looking, and they stick with their own kind complete with secret societies. If humans understood that the Travellers could manipulate the future by changing the past, Travellers' lives would be endangered, and they have no non-human strength like the Archetypes.
Prodigies' talents are most often subtle, and so are often practiced in public. A little emotional manipulation here, a little polyglot talent there -- nobody catches on. Except for the man who can cure or kill by touch -- he's very guarded by his talent.
There's a logic here -- a risk/benefit analysis. What is the risk of disclosure versus the benefit? It's the type of thinking I don't see in superhero movies, where the heros don't understand why there's so much anti-human sentiment.
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*Lilly tends to be impetuous and imperious, like her namesake.
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