Ivan must be drunker than he thought he was. He could have sworn he knew his way around Vivienne's parents' house, since she wanted to introduce him last week and showed him the place, but maybe they have a... secret... upstairs... bar? where Vivienne's room is supposed to be? And most certainly was last time he checked? He's never going to find the sweater she sent him up looking for here, anyway. Why is there a secret upstairs bar in Vivienne's parents' house?
"Then stop wondering to the point where I notice and begin to dwell."
"I am missing at least one of the concepts I'd need to be nearly so discomfited."
"My suspicion is that Ivan is reacting to something in the neighborhood of an incest taboo, differing species notwithstanding -"
"I won't say I don't find it weird, but I think the different species part is a little more prominent for me," says Miles. "Or something. By all means, let's not encourage Ivan to dwell, though."
"So, Ivan," he says, "what if we met an otherworldly version of you?"
"What if we met the otherworldly you when you did not at the time have a girlfriend?"
"Well, we already know what you'd do if you met your own alt, I suppose. Linyabel, suppose a one of you who was an elf complete with pointy ears walked in?"
"Plot elaborate plots and form an implicit pact of mutual aid, but I don't think that's what you're asking, and for what you're probably asking you probably need to hypothetically remove my husband and specify a couple of things about the other me."
"Not doing so would probably require elaborate renegotiations, and this over something that doesn't actually appeal to me nearly as much as the plotting of elaborate plots and the mutual aid thing anyway."
A tall and very pretty man walks through it.
"Well," he remarks. "This isn't a bathroom."
"It's a magic bar. There's a bathroom over there, though," says Linya, pointing.
"It's not a bathroom? Huh?" says a similar voice from the source of the newcomer.
"It's—you'd better come see, darling," he says, turning to address the room beyond the door although his eyes keep straying back to Linyabel. "I do nnnot think I have the context to explain."