"I can probably carry the tune of A Whole New World, since I did have a childhood at one point."

She squeaks happily. 

"Oh, that'd perfect! It's very narratively compelling! And also you have literally taken me flying!" 

Wiggling blue girl! 

"It does seem appropriate that way! We should maybe test it to make sure you are not going to literally hold your breath when I sing it at you."

Ugghhhh her stupid backlash. (And, shit, she's so lucky he's so conscientious, that could have been bad.)

"Ohhh, yeah, we absolutely should, thank you." 

Testing will reveal that though she is in fact tempted to hold her breath, it's much less tempting knowing in advance that it's a song lyric and not intended to be a command, and he can shake his head very slightly while singing it to override it entirely! 

"Does it help that you're also in context supposed to be singing and that's incompatible with holding your breath?"

"Hmmm. I don't think so? It's the recency thing - the lyric happens midsong."

She tilts her head, thinking about it more.

"It miiiiiiiiiight be different at karaoke? Because the lyric display is a bit more instruction-shaped? But maybe not." 

Shrug.

"Well, I can shake my head - or do you think we could assign another gesture to mean 'that's not a command', like if I squeeze your hand twice fast or something?"

Ooooh. "Let's test it!" 

Initial results: not promising.

 "I remember consciously what it means, but it doesn't get picked up the same way. Maybe it's a familiarity thing?" 

"Well, I can keep doing it and see if you get used to it, maybe?"

hhhhhh. "Sure! Thanks." 

She leans on him. "I'm now thinking about the tail risks of language acquisition..." 

"What, being able to receive instructions in more languages?"

"Yeah. Mostly from text? People talking to me in languages I don't know doesn't really happen very often."

"Do you encounter text in languages you don't know very often?"

"Well, I don't read French very well, so there's that? The signs are basically always copies, but there's a lot of online posts... But I shouldn't be looking at posts when I'm backlashed anyways. Maybe it's not too big a deal after all?"

"Might not be but it's better to flag more things than you strictly need eyes on than the other way around."

"Exactly! I'm going to be sooooooooooooooo careful. 'Careful Cara', they'll call me. 'Cara the Cautious', perhaps."

She giggles, then looks back at the song lyrics.

Waitwaitwaitwait

Her eyes light up, and she turns back to Haru. 

"...what."

She makes her best puppygirl eyes at him.

"Haru. Delightful and thoughtful and attractively competent Haru. How would you feel about working a little bit of flight into our karaoke routine. For medical and also perhaps narrative purposes."

"We have a whole routine now? All right, am I picking you up or just floating a little myself."

!!!!!!! Excited happy wiggling Cara! "I think if you picked me up that would be great but if you just want to float a bit that would still be delightful? If you picked me up, maybe at 'over sideways and under' or 'soaring tumbling freewheeling'? If that sounds fun to you." 

Right yes and also she should say. "...To be clear, we do not actually have to have any more a routine than you want to have! I was mostly planning on moving to stand on different sides of you while staying connected via at least one arm most of the time, and staring soulfully into your eyes."

"I should warn you I am going to need to have my eyes locked on the lyrics. But I can pick you up and sway in the air a little on appropriate lines."

She beams at him. "Eeeeee yay! And fwiw¹, I will also be doing a lot of lyric-reading! They have screens on each side of the stage to make it easier to read over the other person's head in a duet, or move around a lot in a solo, it's a great setup."

Oh she's really really excited about this! She nuzzles him.

1: she pronounces this "fuhwuhw"

"Fuh-wuh?"

Sheeee looks a bit embarrassed. "....Oh, that's how I pronounce F-W-I-W. In an informal setting, anyways." Hmmm. Does she need to tone that down...

"I don't think I've ever heard anyone try to pronounce it. I think I would've wound up with... fwee-u?"