"Well, I've got plenty of horror on tap, but I'll go for something more benign. How about: in a couple of centuries, if your world is on track to be mine - which it almost certainly isn't, I'd've noticed the magic - humanity is going to discover how to transit wormholes and start madly colonizing every half-habitable planet in sight, across a network of jump points that will come to be called the wormhole nexus."

"Well, filtered for 'my terrible non-knowledge of physics', that sounds maybe probably really cool! Did you use them a lot?"

"I travel a lot, yeah. Born on one planet, grew up on another, most of my family lives on yet a third, and I was in a bit of a nomadic phase before my travels were rudely interrupted by a bloodthirsty magical cult."

"What's that like?" Alli asks wistfully. "I don't even have a passport... bloodthirsty magical cult aside, I mean."

"Has its ups and downs. I like seeing a lot of new faces, but it'd be nice to settle down long enough to get to know some people. Maybe I'll stay put now that I only have the one planet to roam around on anyway."

"Or you could explore this planet! I'll do that. Someday... Once I have a job and all that shit." She cocks her head at him. "Do you have a job? I mean, if you just appeared from the future. Don't you need food and a place to sleep and shit like that?"

"I'm used to getting by," he says. "I don't really need money. Not that it's not convenient to have, but petty theft sustains me just fine."

"...look at that. I just spontaneously decided not to share you with my other witch friend. Also, this decision? Totally unrelated to the thing where her dad is the chief of police."

"What kind of details don't match up?" Alli wonders. "And don't say spaceships, I will throw glitter at you if you say spaceships."

"Spaceships," he says immediately.

Well, he asked for it. After a quick surrepticious check to see if anyone else is on the street: "Nitidi!"

He giggles helplessly.

"Isn't it great? So much better than actual glitter. It vanishes instead of sticking to things! So I can do it as much as I want... Nitidi! Nitidi! Nitidi!"

"That's perfect, I want to try it," he says.

"Hah. Well, I'm not stopping you. It's just an incantation spell, you just- say it and think about glitter."

Well, this might have to turn into a bit of a war now, won't it. Nitidi!

A glitter war! Nitidi!

"I think that might be my favourite magic spell," he says, grinning down at her. "I think that might keep being my favourite magic spell even once I actually know any other ones."

"If there are better ones, I have not found them," Alli agrees happily. She climbs back to her feet and dusts herself off. "I'd say sorry about the delay but- nope. I refuse to apologize."

"I wouldn't accept it if you did. That was the best delay."

"Do you do this kind of shit a lot?" Alli wonders. "Here, the future, whatever."

"Not exactly," he says. "I did cover an intelligence agent's hotel bed in neat rows of dried beans once, which was almost as much fun but lacked the feeling of gleeful abandon."