"Words, not cytesine."

"I also know words like BIOME and ZIRCONIUM and SUNKENMIDDLEOFACAKE*!"

* Literally something like "valley" but an archaic form now fossilized to mean only this property of baked goods.

". . . Maybe example.  Us all go go go go at there - " they point to a tree waaay over on the other side of the park, "Person who, for a moment, is an only person there, is best?"

The kids puzzle over this for a minute.

"You want to race them?" suggests an adult who's been reading on a bench nearby.

"Maybe!"

"Maybe?"

"I don't know what are words!  May I or n't know what are words!"

"I'm not going to tutor you in Lozan, why are you looking for Lozan tutoring in a park?"

"I'M GOING TO WIN," hollers the astro-child and off he runs for the tree.

Lornell starts back-handspringing after astrokid.

. . . That's still not slow enough to lose automatically?  Even with the head start??  They incorporate greater numbers of backflips until their pace matches.

The kid is clearly running as fast as he can! He tags the tree and then sprints back to the other kids.

Lorn jogs behind on the way back and isn't out of breath by the time the two of them return.

"You want not," they illustratively breathe heavily for a moment, "this?  You may take of me!  What is a word of that."

Astro-child giggles. "You talk funny!"

"Make SENSE," says the musician kid, less amused.

"May may may may what is a word of that?"

"May may may may may," repeats the musician. "May may may may may may may may..."

Cake kid is getting bored and wandering away.

Does bench adult seem to have any sort of opinion about this.

Bench adult is ignoring him.

Excellent.  Sigh.

In Cretari: "Does anyone here speak Cretari?"  In Bloudelake: "Does anyone here speak Bloudelake."  In Fareregnite: "Why did the shopkeeper not come back to work after the seasonend?  Because winter autumn spring summer."  (It's a pun.)  In the conlang built for that one play Lorn went to go see two years ago, did it have a name Lorn thinks it probably didn't: "In time of old, when heroes cultivated their own bravery and less was the price of sobriety . . ."

Musician kid apparently likes the Fareregnite word for summer and says it 24 times.

Lornell keeps trying languages.  "'You may value neither your life nor your face, but I, one - may I keep it?'  'The hunted, weary souls cling dear to their hope like a thrashing trout.'  'Forcing you to use both halves of your brain at the same time, a capella.'  'My friend Nara went to Sairus once, and came back with the most interesting hairdo made out of precisely-copied cowlicks; it was really cool.' 'You can't just slow down in the middle of the road, y' . . . know . . . .'"

. . . Lorn notices that they don't actually expect this tactic to work.

In Lozan again: "Sorry and may - ah, please? - where is a persons of words, of where 'something very mysterious has been happening at me', of where person offenses in mysterious country?"

"Mysterious country mysterious country," chants musician kid. Cake kid is building a cairn out of rocks now. Astro-kid says "Do you hafta go on an emergency vacation?"

"What is an emergency vacation?"

"It's if you get overwhelmed about your whole life and not just like a room," says astro-kid, "and you go to a hotel for a few days and decompress."

"And . . . are there a person of something very mysterious has been happening at me?"

"...maybe? I dunno."

Lorn does a walkover into an elbow stand and then drops their head and starts running their hands through their hair.  Sighs.