<div class="floatright">(http://i.imgur.com/6f93kJ3.jpg)</div>Ponipua looked at Robert for a moment, and then the others, and then back at Robert as she tried to puzzle out precisely what was puzzling him, which proved quite the... puzzle. After all, she would have thought her form, at least, would be less confusing to Robert than would be, say, that of Laura, or Liliana, or the flower twins. Finally, she connected most of the dots. Or at least thought she had - one could never be sure. Her presence was confusing to him precisely because she wasn't all that different from an ordinary human, at least on the physical side. And that, her not being different, made her very different indeed. It was a charming kind of logic in its own way.<br/><br/>To clarify matters, she answered the unspoken question in a voice as gentle as the undisturbed pool which graced the half-acre from which she hailed. "I am a Tiki. Think of me as a spirit tied to a land, but a land very far away." The very mention of this brought a catch to her voice as it dropped a decibel in volume and a fifth in pitch. Thinking of home always brought a tinge of melancholy to her thoughts, not only about the distance but of the reasons she had to leave it in the first place. Looking deep into his eyes, she continued with the next question that inevitably followed this line of reasoning. One that Laura had answered to her satisfaction countless occasions, but one that an answer from the mouth of the subject himself was still so necessary. "Robert. They say you fix things in the building. That your uncle commands this place. But... you are not a developer of land, are you?"