"No," he says sharply. "I like it this way." To Jackson, he says: "Their dicks have an extra bit at the base. It's a thing."

He grimaces. "Also, do you guys have a first aid kit? This broken arm has ceased to be a fun time."

"Uh, we have a first aid kit but it really can't handle a broken bone," says Jackson. "Do you need to go to the hospital?"

Xan makes a face. "No, I can handle it."

He breathes in, then incants, "Hecate, mother of magic, grant that my will be done; I ask thee for thy favor, to mend my broken bone."

There's a clicking sound from his arm, and Xan grins. "That's better. But I am gonna need a paper towel, because my nose is about to start bleeding like crazy."

Indeed, as he says it, blood starts trickling from both nostrils.

Jackson tears off a paper towel for him. "You get nosebleeds when you do healing magic?" he asks, bewildered. "Why?"

Xan takes the paper towel gratefully and stems the flow. "Any magic if it's big enough. That's the price of magic, you get addicted to it and it does fucked-up things to your body if you don't get the right prepwork done beforehand. But I don't have any vervain, and I'm not drawing runes all over your kitchen floor, so the prepwork was kind of a non-starter. Also I'm a little bit high now. Thanks for the paper towel."

"...you're welcome," says Jackson. "That's still not how magic works at all though."

"From a different universe. I'm certain I mentioned that."

"People from different universes don't just... show up, usually," says Jackson.

"Maybe it's just that people who fuck up at magic bad enough to get shot through a portal usually just die instead?" Xan shrugs. "I did get pretty lucky, all told."

"Iiiif you say so."

"Oh, you think I'm crazy. Sorry, didn't pick up on that. I mean, believe what you want, I'm not gonna suddenly start following your laws of magic."

"I mean I'm not that kind of psion, I don't know if you're crazy, but something's weird here," says Jackson.

"That is certainly true," Xan nods. "If only someone could offer an explanation for that."

"...anyway I'm Jackson and my dom is Brian."

"Hi! Still Xan. Sorry again for, uh, falling on your house. You seem cool."

"Thanks," says Brian.

This is very awkward. Why is he even talking to these people. He should be going home now.

"I should probably-"

Xan stops. "I was going to say I should get going, but I just realized that I have nowhere to actually go. Because I'm trapped in an alternate universe. Shit."

"You don't know how to get home?" asks Jackson.

"I got here by fucking up. I don't even know how I fucked up, I could've mispronounced something or used the wrong ingredients or- I don't even know. And I don't have any of my books to look up how to get back, either. I'm trapped here until I either reinvent magic from scratch or become powerful enough to rip open the walls of the universe from a standing start."

"Uh."

Xan is not crying. Crying in front of strangers is not something he's going to do.

"I mean- maybe Leo can summon me back. Or something. It's not totally hopeless. Just kind of overwhelming."

"Is that your sub?"

Xan laughs a little. "I guess he is. He's my boyfriend. Back home. He knows more about magic than me, and he's half-demon so maybe his mom'll know something."

"Boy friend," says Jackson, mouthing the word thoughtfully. "Uh, so, when you say demon..."

"She's a shadow-creature that takes human form. There's a bunch of different kinds of demon. She's one of the nicer ones, doesn't have to eat humans, only kills when she has to."