She is lost and needs help that is what police are supposed to be for. (Her hands stay up.)

"It's telepathic!" yelps a cop.

"No shit it's telepathic, what is it??" says another one.

"An alien!" suggests a cop. "You a lost alien?"

She's a magical girl. It's not a big deal where she's from but she's very lost. Could that one guy stop pointing the gun at her, please.

"Where you from, Japan?" says one.

"I am resisting the telepathic suggestion!" announces the guy with the gun as though this is a tremendous effort.

"They don't have those in Japan! Moron!" someone replies to the first.

She's from Massachusetts. Just, Massachusetts with magical girls. A magic monster ate her and now she's here.

"- Guys," says a cop, "uh, I think I got this - I, uh - I dunno what her deal is but I know a guy?"

"You know a guy, Gene?"

"Yeah, I know a guy, lemme take her to my guy, okay?"

None of the cops have an obviously better idea.

Sure. She'll go with the guy who knows a guy.

Guy who knows a guy asks her if she can look any less conspicuous on the way to his guy.

She'd really rather not. She can if it's very important though.

"Just till we get there. I can put you in a shock blanket for the wings, I guess."

Magical girls shapeshift, she can get rid of the wings. Can't look all the way human, though, and if she gets too close she loses the telepathy until she changes back. She'll still understand him but she can't talk the regular way.

"- okay. Blanket and fix your - colors and the antennae to look human?" He fetches her a blanket.

Yeah, that works.

The antennae go first, and then the metal insets - she adds jewelry, instead, bangle bracelets and ear cuffs and rings and a large enamel moth pin on her jacket, and then she tries a few different hats before settling on an oversized velvet beanie in indigo-to-black ombre with embroidered stars and swirls. Once that's done, the tattoos go, and she swaps wings again, considers, and puts the owl wings back, slightly smaller.

He drapes her in the blanket. "This way," he says, and he leads her out of the police station, through the back door, into a car.

...attempts to lead her into a car. Uh. This was badly planned.

She has a thing about being strapped down, she will be okay being in the car if the ride is quick but she's definitely not putting a seat belt on.

"I don't think it'd work with your midform there anyway - just lie across the backseat," Gene says.

She can do that. Her what? She doesn't know that word.

"The shape you're in right now? More human than not but still not?"

He's maybe confused about how her shapeshifting works but okay. (She gets in.)

When she's situated he starts driving. "I don't know what species you are, I don't know what your details are."

She's a human. Her world doesn't have other species besides humans and animals.

"You're obviously not a human, kiddo."

If you want to count magical girls as a separate thing then she's that and not human but her parents were regular humans and if she has a kid the kid will most likely be a regular human and that's what being a species means.

"My mom's a human. I dunno what the scientists'd call us."

Whatever.