"She's floating," says the kid.

"...okay, maybe she is an alien - I wonder how it works -"

She turns her hair yellow, then reddish-orange, then black, then back to brown.

"Whoaaaaa," says Alaior.

"I still don't understand what she's doing here. Or why the sparks or the floating - do you suppose she's dangerous -"

"Well we shouldn't presume - let's call the senator's office, though, Luta can make the call."

"Ooh -" Someone pulls a rectangle out of her pocket.

She peers curiously at the rectangle.

Luta taps the rectangle.

"But she doesn't even know our senator," says Alaior.

"She's going to make a good first impression," says one of the other adults.

Alaior watches the rectangle and waits.

She points at the rectangle and makes a querying noise.

"...she doesn't want my pocket everything, does she?" asks Luta. "I'm on the call queue."

"Who knows?" wonders another adult.

"...Want knows," she tries.

Alaior giggles at her.

"Like a parrot," someone says. "Parrot alien."

"Understand," she insists.

"If you can understand Oahkar how come you can't speak it?" asks Alaior.

She waves a hand and a cloud of multicolored mist comes out. "Magic," she says in Genoshan.

"I don't speak alien," Alaior says.

She sighs.

She waves a hand, throwing mist. She snaps her fingers, throwing sparks. She hops a few inches higher into the air. And then she points at her ear.

"You're like a movie," says Alaior. "I wanna be a movie."

"Movie?"

"Yeah!"

"Want understand."

"Ummmmm..." She sings the alphabet.

This is useful! She sings it back.

Alaior giggles. Luta is still in the call queue. Adults are variously peering over her shoulder, finishing their dinner, or watching Odette and Illia warily.

This is reasonable.

Odette explains the alphabet song to Illia.

Illia also sings the alphabet song, then.

Alaior claps.

"Cute kid."