[One of the last figures to emerge from the door behind Alice might be a bit of a surprise. The creature peeking shyly out from around her skirt looks at first glance like a medium-smallish white-and-black dog of some vaguely greyhound breed, but it doesn't take a hard look to realize that that's not quite right. For one thing, its neck is almost comically long. But more subtly, it's head and muzzle have a bit more of a uniform conical shape like a possum or a seal, and it has five toes on its front paws instead of four, and a half dozen other little incongruities that add up to a distinct impression that whatever this doglike creature is, it is not descended from an Earthly wolf.
And then another, very similar creature pokes its too-long neck out from the door. ... Then another. And another. And soon there are padding nervously out onto the platform fully eight of these weird critters, all with slightly different coat patterns but otherwise extremely similar.
At first they all bunch up haunch-to-haunch, all looking around curiously in a collective posture that suggests the creatures are not afraid, just kind of overwhelmed. Any stranger who walks toward the pack, however, will quite suddenly find at least half of their funny little heads turning to look at you with startling synchronicity. What do you do?]
[Later, after getting a bit more comfortable with these new kids, Amdi can be found walking around the crowd much more casually. He is a friendly lad who will strike up conversation with anyone, but he's especially keen to speak with other "unusual" children. Either way, his go-to conversation opener is:]
Hello! My name is Amdi! Are you from Earth?
[Uh, if you're not used to a group of eight alien dogs "speaking" by way of artificially generating a cheerful little boy voice that is originating nonspecifically from the entire pack while not one of them move their mouths in any way... that sure is a thing that's happening.]
no subject
And then another, very similar creature pokes its too-long neck out from the door. ... Then another. And another. And soon there are padding nervously out onto the platform fully eight of these weird critters, all with slightly different coat patterns but otherwise extremely similar.
At first they all bunch up haunch-to-haunch, all looking around curiously in a collective posture that suggests the creatures are not afraid, just kind of overwhelmed. Any stranger who walks toward the pack, however, will quite suddenly find at least half of their funny little heads turning to look at you with startling synchronicity. What do you do?]
[Later, after getting a bit more comfortable with these new kids, Amdi can be found walking around the crowd much more casually. He is a friendly lad who will strike up conversation with anyone, but he's especially keen to speak with other "unusual" children. Either way, his go-to conversation opener is:]
Hello! My name is Amdi! Are you from Earth?
[Uh, if you're not used to a group of eight alien dogs "speaking" by way of artificially generating a cheerful little boy voice that is originating nonspecifically from the entire pack while not one of them move their mouths in any way... that sure is a thing that's happening.]