"Would you mind staying with me, Ma'am?"

"Of course I will. Do you want me doing anything besides making sure nobody finds the door and attacks you?"

"Tell me what it will be like, if I end up going with you?" she asks, quietly. "While we're waiting?"

"Sure", she says gently. DZ's not the only one who'll need a distraction.

"Thank you. I'll go get her, then."

The medical droids come down first, in a loose formation, standing in pairs facing each other to form a path through the room. Deskyl isn't far behind, her black outfit embroidered with broad smokelike swirls of red where it's visible under her cloak, saber out but not lit, stalking through the demarcated route. It'd be an eyecatching display even if she wasn't projecting a grim determination to the entire room, but she ignores the stares, stopping only when she reaches the door to turn to DZ, following in her shadow, and consider for a moment. Love, she ends up signing, simply, and then sweeps off, breaking into a run as soon as she's through the door.

The formality seems very appropriate; Margaret notices herself trying to stand a little straighter despite already being unable to slouch.

When Deskyl is gone, she looks at Daisy, camera-eyes as blank as ever. "I wouldn't want to be her enemies right now."

"It's hard to ever be sure, about a fight between Sith. But I think she's got a good chance."

"Yeah. So, you wanted to talk about my world?"

"Yes, please. What's it like?"

"Hmm. I've mentioned that it's mostly humans, and we only have contact with the one planet, though there could be aliens and we just don't know about them. We've got less tech than your world in a couple of areas, mostly space travel and AI but also I think our medicine is a bit worse. The technology situation is a bit weird because there are mutants who invent things--gadgeteers like me are really good with ordinary technology and things we invent can be mass-produced, and there are devisors who can make things that seem to work by magic and nobody else can replicate them."

"That sounds complicated."

"Yeah, we have arguably way too many kinds of mutants. I can explain the rest of the kinds if you want, or just talk about how it would go if you moved there."

"The latter, please."

"Okay. So, my door lets out in the basement of my school; we'd go outside and find the administration building. The administration is actually kind of used to people showing up from other universes and not being able to get home, they call it being a dimensional fish out of water. They'd probably ask if you wanted to enroll in the school, or if you just wanted some local money to get on your feet and get a job somewhere. If you aren't sure, I would recommend enrolling, the classes are really interesting and useful and it'll be a good way to get used to the world and figure out what kind of life you want, but it's up to you. Any questions so far?'

"What are the classes like?"

"There's a really wide range, but everybody has to take some of the same ones. Everyone has to take a self-defense class, that's probably the one you would like least, plus you'll need to learn my world's history and how the government works and stuff. Oh, and you should learn English, though that shouldn't be too much trouble since you can do languages so quickly, we can do that in the bar. Then you can study whatever you like--math, science, engineering, history, art, anything from the basics to really advanced stuff. And there are more combat classes but you'd only need to take the one."

"I wouldn't expect Bar to have an English upgrade that I can use, but I can learn it from a dictionary in an hour or two. The rest sounds nice - except the self-defense class, you're right, but maybe they'd accept an upgrade for that."

"Oh, that's cool that you can go off a dictionary, I thought I would have to convert formats. I know you have to pass the self-defense final, but maybe if you took an upgrade they'd let you test out of it without showing up to practice."

She nods. "What are the art classes like? I've never taken a class before."

"I haven't taken an art class at Whateley in particular. Most places it's a little bit of studying other people's art and a lot of 'here are some supplies, here are some things you can do with them, have fun'. Some classes are focussed on a specific medium or technique, like 'drawing people' or 'making things with clay and a pottery wheel'.

She nods. "I might like that. What are the classes you're taking like?"

"Intro to Powers is just getting lectured at about the too many kinds of mutants, interesting info but boring format. Same thing with literature and precalculus and history. We get homework, which is to read something or write about something or solve some math problems, and then we get graded on those. Gadgeteer Lab is the best thing in all of the universes, it's a free period and a well-stocked lab and I can do whatever I want. I've also got some classes that are a mix of lectures and labs, and sometimes the homework is to build stuff, those are awesome."

"I could do that," she nods. "It sounds slower than learning from books, but I suppose I'll-" She stops speaking as the door to Deskyl's room opens and a teenage boy in Sith robes comes through. She tries to close the door, but he gestures at it, and it opens again, pulling out of her hands. He stalks over, barely glancing at her, to peer around the bar and look Upload up and down. "What has she done," he asks, apparently speaking to himself.

Upload stares back, not at all comfortable with the presence of an unfamiliar Sith. At least he isn't looking at DZ.