He nods. He sits quietly.

He plays with small sparks. Sigh. "Anything you would like to address?"

"I want to make sure no one else dies. I don't think I have enough information to guess what I should be doing."

Sigh. "Yeah. I don't want anyone to die either. Or being beaten by cops. Or being dragged out of their homes."

Sparks.

...His wings are slowly changing color. Some of the orange-red is turning into pale purple and some of the purple is becoming blue.

"The red was scared, and said we'd kill them? And so even though there's no real way to make it safe, you just couldn't - hand someone over to die -"

"You know... I am curious. The people that they sent to do this interfacing thing. How are they picked?"

"The social workers? They apply for the job and the candidates who interview best and have the best qualifications get the job. That's how most government appointments happen."

"Talking to aliens," he clarifies, "I am just curious what are the qualifications for the two blues and you to get this job. I am curious because that phrase the 'the red was scared, and said' implies that the red was wrong without actually saying that the red was wrong. It would be a neat way to mislead the poor, lost, lonely and soft-hearted alien. Did they grabbed the first blues and greens that could pull that off?"

"The qualifications for coming to talk to you were 'everyone assumed you'd kill whoever did and I was willing to chance it'."

"Even before?"

"No, earlier I think they were picking diplomats. Maybe that was a mistake, maybe we should have sent you Isel."

"Possibly, the diplomats are," he waves his hand, "hard to define, but they are something unhelpful. Who is Isel?"

"My cousin the reds person."

"As long she wasn't full of bullshit and lies... yeah, that would've been an improvement."

"Who lied to you?"

"Quote 'you don't need to worry that we'll deliberately defy your wishes on the handling of the situation' unquote."

Nod. "They intended to make sure no reds got killed, for whatever that's worth."

"Oh, well. I guess being twacked in the head by a cop is completely fine. Also, quote 'I can't imagine why any, including the reds, would say that' unquote which was said in response to how a red said that a red's life is worth less than a whim."

"Did you intervene in the downtown district because a police officer hit someone with a stick?"

He gives something like a pained laugh and spends a moment playing with electricity over his arms.

"People were beaten with sticks before the skymage arrived. Which is such a convenient coincidence, right? The intervention happened because there was a... wordless expectation that a chunk of those people would be harmed, tortured or just executed once out of sight. And I guess one would expect that people would try to shoot the dangerous magical alien before shooting a bunch unarmed people."

"They weren't clear on whether the attacker was you or the red. Which was stupid of them, a red wouldn't have done that."

"And a lifetime of-"

He closes his eyes and sighs deeply.

"Uh, could you warn the people that I am going to make dramatic lightning as a frustration outlet? It's not going to strike or increase or anything. The storm is only going to become destructive if this body dies."

"I'll let them know."

And the lightning dances across the sky like a serpent. It would be beautiful if it wasn't so terrifying.

"A lifetime of people looking at you in fear. Pretending that they didn't notice you and crossing the sidewalk because they are terrified of being burned alive. Since before you understood that. Of course the notion 'shoot the reds instead of the skymage' would never cross-"

Deep breath. He wipes away a tear.

"You know the worst injustice? It turns out that skymages' magic comes with... a personality adjustment, it gives them something like a stronger a sense of responsibility? And makes skymages less likely to use their magic like those people feared. Skymages children are probably better behaved even. And the dreamshapers on Earth can't even share that with the public, Fenris figured it out." Sigh.

"Everyone being frightened of you sounds horrible."