Heri, would rather have no woken up being dragged by the ankle. "What do you think youuuu-" the lass word is distorted as Heri' mouth gapes open. "Ken! What did you do?"

Ken shrugs. "I don't know. This place just showed up."

"Places don't just show up!"

Another patron shushes them.

It seems like as soon as the door closes behind them it's opening again, and another boy crashes facefirst into Heri's back.

"-AaaI'msorry!" He stumbles away, head ducking down as he raises his hands. Then he stops, giving a doubletake, and stares at him.

"...Heri?"

Heri takes a step back. "Yes? Do I know you?"

He flinches, "Do you know me?" He takes a step forward, "You don't remember how I looked? I'm Tobir." 

Heri takes another step back, then there is recognition and shock on his face. "Tobir... my brother Tobir? He is dead!"

Kenta looks between them. "You look alike..."

"We look alike 'cause we're twins!" He insists, voice high with the mixture of joy and outrage.

"Who told you that? Where did you go? Uncle said one of dad's other friends took you somewhere, but he didn't know where, and the friend got caught." And then executed as a scapegoat for their parents' murder.

"My aunt... she told me... you three died, that if I told anyone I would die too," he starts tearing up. And that he was actually Red and was now going to live with Reds.

He's not the only one who looks like they're about to start crying. "They... they did die. Mom and dad. But we didn't. They got us out safe. Why would she say that?" He sniffles, glancing between the two other boys. He steps closer again, hugging himself.

Kenta really doesn't know the answer to that and just looks around nervously.

"I don't know." Heri says his voice high-pitch and shaking.

Will either of them stop Tobir from hugging him?

No, but that will just cause Heri to burst into ugly crying.

That's okay, Tobir was only a step away from that himself. Tobir doesn't have any plans that prevent him from spending the next forever clinging to Heri and sobbing messily. 

That's sure an emotional reunion they are having, in the middle of a Bar.

Patrons range from looking sympathetic to enjoying their dinner with a show.

Some of them are sympathetic enough to interfere, even. One of them approaches them, eyeing the hysterical twins with concern. "Do you three need help?" She asks Kenta. 

A redhead teenager approaches the twins themselves. "Did something happen?"

Kenta is not nearly tearing up but he is very overwhelmed. "I don't know. Heri thought Tobir was dead."

Tobir startles at the sound of the voice, lifting his head just enough to peer up at the boy who'd spoken. He nods at Kenta's summary, "Everything is terrible" he adds, tearfully.

She glances over at the teen, and then around at all the other patrons. Back at the table she came from a tall, dark-haired man is watching with equal concern. He catches her attention and motions towards a doorway leading into another part of the bar, and she nods.

"There's a lot of people here, do you want to go somewhere quieter?" 

Heri slowly nods. "Where?" Then he remembers. "Where are we?"

"This is Milliways, it's a place between worlds. Sometimes, a door will lead here, instead of wherever it's supposed to lead. People from any time or place you can imagine end up here, and so long as you're in this place you can understand all of them. The door will take you back home, if you want to go, or if someone else opens it for you it will take you to their world. Once you close it, though, you can't get back until Milliways steals another door you're going through - and many people who find this place only ever find it once." 

As for where, "Bar over there," she motions towards the bar, "Is a person. She will sell you almost any food or drink that has ever existed, and she also rents out rooms. If you want somewhere private, my brother and I will get one for you. Or, if you don't want us to rent you a room, you could also go outside," she motions to another door. 

Tobir slowly tenses as she explains, finally looking around the room he's found himself in. This... isn't a Red District, clearly. And he and his brother and... their cousin? They're all uncovered. The two older red-haired people are, too. 

...But no one is screaming or anything. No one looks angry. Do they not know what reds are? 

He looks between the girl and the older boy, "The other people aren't mad about us being here?" he asks, bewildered. 

(He hasn't loosened his grip on Heri any. Actually it might be tighter than before, given how tense he is.)

Heri understands what that question means and tenses up a bit.

"They are not, anyone that gets a door is allowed in here. Welcomed, even."

That's hard to believe. Are these two even reds, really? Maybe alien reds have different things that show they're polluted. 

...Well, he's not going to tell them. He's not dumb. Instead, he nods, slowly. 

"Maybe we could just go outside?" he suggests to the other two kids. He does want to talk without everyone in the bar listening in, but letting some strangers buy them a room sounds Bad.

"Sure," Felix looks over the redhead girl to see if she will follow.

She's following, yes. 

The man from her table is also following, albeit from a greater distance, so as not to crowd the kids. 

Tobir still doesn't want to let go of Heri, but he is willing to be negotiated down to just holding his hand. Outside they go.

Once there, Tobir's first question is for the other boy, actually. "You're our cousin?" 

"Yeah, our moms were half-sisters."

Heri holds tightly to Tobir's hand, looking in all direction in case this is some kind of weird cop prank.

"I didn't know mom had a sister. I don't remember everything, and... she probably wouldn't have talked about it much. But Uncle Remi doesn't know, either. She said I was dead, which is the worst lie, but... is she okay otherwise?" Not 'is everything okay'. Everything can't be okay. 

There doesn't seem to be anyone else around except for their small group. The area around the bar is pleasant, a springy low grass field leading down to a lake, surrounded by trees. There's mountains in the distance, which seem to stretch as far as they can see. 

Angel idles a short distance away from them, moving to lean against her brother once he steps outside. Best to stay with the kids so they don't end up in different flows of time, but she's not going to intrude on their conversation unless they ask her to. 

Felix sits nearby, enough to not intrude in either conversation, but still obviously part of the group if only because it would be weird if he wasn't.

"Auntie is good... Ken's dad wasn't. But he is away now."

"Maybe she didn't know I was alive?" Tobir suggests after a moment, trying to be charitable. "And... what kind of not good," he asks warily. 

Heri fidgets uncomfortably.

"Dad would beat up Heri, for nothing."

Tobir's eyes go wide and confused, "He hurt you? But- but..." He shakes his head, his hand tightening on Heri's, "That's not right. Everyone else hurts us but we're not supposed to!" 

"Mom left him and we moved districts."

Heri still doesn't want to talk about it.

Felix doesn't want to interrupt this, but he gives Angel a worried look.

"Good." He notices Heri's expression, and pushes back any other comments. Instead he just hugs him again. 

She shares his sentiment.

"'Everyone else hurts us'?" Alex murmurs, just loud enough for Felix to hear. "What kind of place did these kids come from?"

"I have no idea... given Milliways, we can't be sure if they are human." Pause. "I am sort of not, by the way."

"Hm. Doesn't really matter if they're human or not, does it? 'Sort of not human' describes me pretty well, too. I can turn into a wolf." 

"I'm human though, far as we can tell," Angel adds. 

"Griffon. I can turn into one, that is. And I meant that they could be... I don't know, genies bound to bottles or something."

"And that would make it okay for people to hurt them?" 

"No? Sorry. I didn't mean that at all. I meant that it might be even more complicated than it looks."

He looks away, "Sorry, kind of jumped to conclusions there," he mutters. 

Angel pats his arm, "It might be more complicated, yeah. It probably is. Still, they sure are acting a lot like kids."

Tobir eyes the older three covertly. They're probably talking about the three of them. He's not sure if that's bad or not.

(The man the girl is touching has brown hair? Either she's not a red or he's an alien red. Or maybe they're like mom and dad and he doesn't care?) 

"...What do we do now?" He asks Heri and Kenta quietly, hoping the others can't hear. 

"Don't ask me. We just woke up."

"I don't know. What is this place?" Heri says in a lower tone.

"She said it was a place between worlds," Tobir recalls. "I dunno about that, but it's definitely not where the door I was using should have gone."

"We should ask." Ken proposes and immediately he turns and does that. "Hey, what's up with this place?"

Heri flinches.

Tobir tenses and makes a small hissing noise, more due to Heri's reaction to it than due to the shouting itself. Kenta's right that asking is the quickest way to learn what they need to know. Still, he shifts a bit so he's standing between the other group and Heri. 

"Didn't you explain already?" Alex murmurs to Angel.

"I'm not surprised that they missed a bunch of the explanation," Angel murmurs back, "They were pretty focused on the idea that they were somewhere they shouldn't be, I think."

"You want to give it a try this time?" Alex offers Felix. "Assuming someone gave you the overview at some point. We probably shouldn't all crowd them." 

Felix nods. "I can try. This place is called Milliways, it's weird but friendly, it receives patrons by temporarily making a door in a world to lead to itself. Like what happened to you three. If you exit through the door you will find yourself back in your world. It's possible you are never going to find Milliways again, or it might become a regular occurrence and this is the first time. Let's see... patrons can be from all over the multiverse. From worlds with magic or technology unlike anything you have seen. Are you following me, so far?"

"Yeah..." He frowns. The description sounds kind of familiar, now that he's thinking about it. "I think... Mom used to say we'd have magic someday," he muses, thinking back. "That she'd gone to a special place before we were born, and met some magic people there who made us magic, too."

"Huh... that could have been Milliways. Do you remember anything else about it?"

"Not really... It was over a year ago. We were really little then." He looks back at Heri, "Do you remember anything?" 

Heri looks down. "Some things. And I remembered you after a moment."

"Okay, you don't have to answer. But if you don't mind me asking. What happened?"

Tobir makes a small, sad noise. 

"...They thought mom was something bad. So they..." He swallows back tears. "But- but me and Heri hid, so they didn't find us. And then Uncle Remi took me away, and Uncle Iri took Heri somewhere else, cause it's not safe to be red twins-" oops. He stops talking.

"Oh, I am so sorry." Felix looks back at the girl and the shape-shifter. "Is there anything we could do to help?"

"I don't know. What can you do?"

"Take you away from there," Alex offers, "Your uncle and - your mother, too," he adds, nodding at Kenta. "You could stay here, or go to another world." Legal identities might be difficult, for worlds like the one he and Angel come from, but they can probably figure something out. Maybe Bar can help, or one of the other patrons.

"I can offer my savings. Maybe help to find people with a good world to take you to, if that's the option you settle for."

Angel is watching Tobir. He looks... conflicted about this idea. 

"It's not your responsibility to save the world, kiddo," she tells him, getting a hunch and running with it. 

"I don't wanna save the world," he retorts. Most of the world can go hang, for all he cares. "Just..." 

"Just your own people. How are you going to do that with what you have?" 

"...I don't know." He's just a kid, and he's a Red. Even with whatever magic their mom got them...

"You need more resources, and you need more time. Your world stays paused so long as someone from it is in this world. It'll also probably stay paused if you go to another world, so long as you mean to come back some day. You've got choices here. Make the right ones, and you could make some real changes."

Tobir looks a little less conflicted, now. "But what if we don't find a door again?"

"Then you don't. You live your life in a world where you and your family aren't in constant danger. Is that so bad?" 

"It doesn't sound like it. You can't keep someone else warm by burning your house down. Whatever what you think you can do you can do better if you and your family are safe."

"...Okay." He looks at Heri and Kenta, "Do you think she'll go? Our aunt." 

"Mom hates our neighbors so much that not saving them will be a bonus."

"Yeah. We will be back for them."

Tobir makes a face at Kenta's words, and then nods at Heri, "We're not going away forever," he affirms.

"I guess we should go get them, then... Uncle Remi was just in the kitchen. I can call him from the door."

"Our door leads straight to our room. There is no other door."

"Well, that could be a problem."

"I could probably bust through a wall as a last resort," Alex shrugs, "Probably give her a heart attack, though." Giant wolf bursting through the wall from her kids' room. Yeah, they should probably leave that one for if they get desperate. 

"I should be able to go through walls. Less destructively, but requires a bit more preparation, my magic is more versatile."

Heri purses his lips. This... magic business still sounds suspicious. 

"One of them could shape-shift if that would help you believe," Angel offers, hiding a smile. 

"Hm," he nods. "Does your magic let you keep your clothes on when you shift?" He directs at Felix. 

"Clothes shift," he nods, "I can turn into a half-eagle half-lion being called a Griffon. And I also have other powers."

"Just show us the magic."

"Okay. Changing shapes." He gives himself wings.

"Huh. Wings." He'd really like to go poke them but the idea of actually touching someone who might not be red is a little too scary for him.

That captures Angel's attention pretty handily, "Oh, you can partially-shift so you only get wings?" Is she envious? Maybe a little. 

"Or any other body part." He says wagging a suddenly appearing tail. He shifts most of his body until he becomes a bipedal griffon hybrid. 

"That's impossible!"

"Maybe, but it's happening anyway." Hm, something tells her he won't want to check how real they are by touching them. "Can you fly with those?" She prompts Felix.

"I can, do you guys want a demonstration?" He is fully non-human now, but his voice sounds very much the same.

He stares, "How are you talking like that??" 

"I am not sure, I think that the same magic that lets me change shape also does something with the sounds produced by my throat when I am in this form. Or at least if I am hit there my voice sounds... like I was hit in the throat, so it's at least related to my vocal apparatus."

Heri is just staring agape.

"Human speech and your clothes shift with you? You clearly got the better deal on shapeshifting magic. You will not believe how many pairs of pants I've destroyed since my first shift." 

"Heri?" Tobir taps his cheek. 

Heri just nods.

"Oh, sorry to hear that." He tells Alex. "Do you three need a moment?"

"I dunno?" He looks at Heri again, nods, "Yeah, maybe. Um," He grabs Kenta's hand too and tugs the two of them closer to the lake. 

Kenta follows.

"Everything about this should be impossible."

"Should be, but it's happening." He shrugs. "I'm not gonna complain about it. It's all been pretty good so far." He doesn't expect that to hold true, but he can hope. 

"What do you think we should do?" He asks Tobir, and to Ken. "We should be really careful. We don't know how reds work in their worlds."

Nodnod, "If there's reds in their worlds, I don't think they are." He shifts on his feet, "There's no way to tell we're polluted, except by knowing what a red is. No one could tell mom was when she was pretending to be green. No one knew we were, either. Maybe there's a magic way to tell, though..." That's a scary thought. 

Back by the bar, Alex frowns as he listens in to the kids' conversation, "They're saying something about being 'polluted'," he tells the other two quietly. "Not sure what they mean by that." 

"You're overhearing their converrsation?"

Heri nods seriously. "Maybe we can ask, without letting them know."

"Maybe we can ask about cleaning magic or technology? Someone from a clean caste might ask about that." 

He shrugs, "I can't really help it. Better senses are part of the package. I could probably still hear them if they talked this quietly at the other end of the lake." Also, wanting to help them doesn't keep him from being aware they might be a danger. 

"It's a breach of trust that they put on us."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. And they might try give robots to Amenta."

He looks away, unhappy and uncomfortable, "Angel's safety comes before other peoples' comfort." 

Angel squeezes his arm, "Lex is... psychologically incapable of caring more about other peoples' privacy than my safety. It comes with the shape-shifting, we think. We don't know a lot about how it works." 

"We definitely gotta stop them from doing that," he agrees seriously. "We should stop them from going into Amenta, if we can do that."

Heri and Kenta nod. "Maybe we can pretend Amenta already has robots? So they don't need to give any to it."

"Mhm, good idea." He glances up at the other three, "We should find out that before anything else, I think?" He'll start back towards the bar.

Angel turns to look at the kids as they approach, "You guys have questions?"

"Uh... uh..."

"What are your worlds like?"

"Mine is largely populated by a species called humans. And there are other shape-changing creatures like myself which you might or might not count as human depending on the source."

(Alex keeps quiet about the rest of what he heard, for now.)

"Ours is also mostly populated by humans. We don't know a lot about the supernatural beings there, but we've been assuming that whatever I am my blood family probably is, too. There's another kind of person, too, but we know even less about them. Pale, with stone-like skin, and they smell terrible."

"To you, maybe. Dav smelled very nice to me." 

(He scowls at the name.)

"Anyway, we've been calling that species 'vampires', since they seem to drink blood."

"Wow, weird. Do you guys have space-travel? Are you from different planets?"

"We are from different planets, but not in the sense that we could have travel to each other's planets without Milliways helps. As far I can tell. My world doesn't have space travel."

"Neither does ours, or not beyond a few manned missions to the moon and the space station. We got here the same way you three did - through the door. We might even be from alternates of the same world. Apparently Earth pops up a lot as pretty much the same place, often with different magic. Does 'United States of America' sound familiar to you?" She asks of Felix. 

(She feels like she should address the 'pollution' topic, somehow, or something like it, but she's not sure how to insert that gracefully...)

"Yes, but I am British."

"Wait, that sounds like the same world."

"It kinda of does, but I would expect to have heard of a being like him."

"We wouldn't have, but it's probably not the same one," he shrugs. 

"Do you think we could be from the same kind of world? What are humans like? And, um, what are your castes?"

"Castes? We don't have them. Anyone can have any job." Theoretically, anyway. "Most people decide in their twenties - we grow up in about 18 years and live about 75. I'm an artist, if I'm anything. Alex is a musician, but he used to work at a gym part-time, too. Our mom is a politician, and our dad is an exec in our grandfather's company." 

"India sort of have castes, but I think they are largely a cultural artifact and is something the government is trying to overcome. And my family largely works with being cultural leaders to mythical creatures - we are secret in our world - but my brothers and I are training to do magic research."

"That'd be a lot of different castes," Tobir says, wide-eyed. "Who, um." He glances at the other two, "Who does stuff like, um. Garbage, and plumbing, and stuff like that?"

"Plumbers and... garbage people? They're jobs like any other." This is what they need to know, "Anyone can do them."

"Same here. I mean, you need to be trained as a plumber... which I don't know if it is complicated to get, but that's true to any job that requires certification."

Tobir has to take a moment to absorb this. "Anyone can be one? But- but how do they get people to do that? Don't people think it's gross?" 

"I mean, it's not exactly glamorous, but I think plumbing at least pays pretty decently. I guess a plumber might get covered in some pretty gross stuff, but they can just wash off after a day at work."

Tobir does not know how to explain what is wrong with this. It sounds like she's saying people who do unclean work don't just... get stuck being unclean? But that's not how it works! 

"And... they just work with their hands?" Maybe everyone uses remote controlled robots or something.

"Yes? Is this... a problem?"

He fidgets, "Not a problem," He says. So long as they really are cleaning up after...

The problem is, are they telling the truth? But... why would they lie about this? 

He glances at Kenta and then at Heri. Touches his hair. "Should... should we just..." explain?

Heri holds tightly on Ken's hand. "We should... just ask more..."

"...Doing dirty jobs doesn't make a person dirty," Angel says. "We have prejudices, back home, but they're not about uncleanliness."

"Your world still have... that sort of thing? What is the technology like?"

Tobir is too overwhelmed by the idea that they don't think uncleanliness is bad to answer this question. 

"No one in our world thinks people who work with garbage or sewage or," what else, "Death are unclean or bad." She looks the three of them over, "And certainly not their kids."

Heri breaks contact with Kenta to hug Tobir.

"That's... awesome!"

"Thanks." If he is understands what Angel figured out... these are untouchables, or something close.

"What is the technology level in your world. Like, do you have vaccines? electricity?"

"Yeah."

Hug. Also, cling.

"You really don't think it's bad? Really?"

"No, we don't," Angel reassures him, slipping out of Alex's hold to kneel down closer to them. "You and your guardians will be safe from the kind of prejudice you face in your world in other worlds."

"It's- they- they hate us. The clean castes. They hate us and they're working on replacing us and then they'll kill us. I can't leave forever cause I've gotta do something. It's not enough if we're the only ones who are safe."

"Oh, no. Okay... as Angel said, we can get you out of the situation, and we can help you find a solution."

Nodnod. Continued cling. 

"Do you want to go get your guardians, now? Your Uncle, at least, until we have a way to get your Aunt without breaking any walls." 

"Mhm." But he also doesn't want to let go of Heri again. 

"You might take a moment if you want." Felix tells the kids, to Angel. "I can get through walls with some prep, but it would still involve a... removing the wall."

"There might be someone in the bar who can do better," Alex suggests. 

Taking a moment sounds good. 

(Would Kenta like to join the hug?)

Sure, hug. He pats his cousins on the back.

Eventually, though, they'll return to the bar to let Remi in.

While they do that, Angel looks around to see who's arrived since they left the bar room. Any familiar faces? And/or anyone who looks particularly magic?

There are two identical young men with dark crystals growing out of their arms one o them is manipulating his crystals into elaborate fractals.

Well, that looks like magic.

She wanders over to their table, "Hello! You wouldn't happen to be able to go through walls, would you?" 

They blink.

"Yes. Well, kinda." Says one.

"We can't go intangible. But we can turn a wall into crystal, make a hole into the crystal, go through and then undo everything."

"Why do you need to go through walls?"

"Those three over there," she motions to the three children crowded around the door, "Are trying to evacuate their family from their world. Unfortunately two of them came in from their bedroom, so one of their guardians is stuck behind a wall." 

Meanwhile, Tobir pulls open the door and calls for his Uncle.

After a few moments, Remi comes to the door, very confused and then, once he's had a moment to look around, quite scared. He stays on the other side of the door. 

"Tobir, what-?" 

"It's a dimensional bar or something. They don't have reds, or pollution, or anything, and I found Heri!" Reassurance: important. Telling Remi about finding Heri is important, too, though. 

"What?" He shakes his head, "They don't have- you found Heri?!" Despite the urgency of the other part of that statement, this is extremely distracting. He takes in the other two children, recognizing his friends' other son immediately. 

"Heri," he breathes.

"...You look like your father," he says, tears gathering in his eyes. 

Well, that's a good way to set him off. His aunt would never speak of his dad...

Hug.

Remi hesitates, looking around the room, and then - crosses the threshold, kneeling down to hug both of the twins. 

Angel looks back at the magic crystal twins/clones, "The majority of the population of their world is prejudiced against their people. To a genocidal degree." (Tell them-) "The kids are Heri, Tobir and Kenta. Twins and a cousin - the twins were separated to protect them from something to do with that prejudice. It sounded like there was some sort of abuse on Heri's end, from the cousin's father. His mother left him, though. She's the one we need to go through a wall to get to." 

"Heri?" They both say, then they look at each other.

"Do you remember a...?"

"No." He frowns. "And we met people that met us as a baby."

The other turns back to Angel. "Do you know if the aunt's name is Rose or something similar?"

"Her name wasn't mentioned, but you can ask," she suggests. To the door?

To the door, the one that was playing with the crystals retracts the structure back into his arm.

Heri has managed to get back himself into control by the time the three reach them.

Tobir is still holding his hand though. 

Remi stands, looking around again and spotting the approaching (twins? Clones?) Men. 

"Milliways," he murmurs, spotting the window, relieved and trepidatious in equal measures. "Can we help you?" He adds to the Henries.

"Hi, do you already know Milliways?" Says one.

"We think we might be his alts. Our name is Henry Oswald." Says the other.

Heri has run out of tears by now and is just frowning confused at them.

"Yes, I know it. A good friend - their mother," he motions to the twins, "Introduced me to it a couple years ago." He looks between Heri and the two of them, "Different faces? What would you need to know to confirm it?"

"Alts?" Tobir asks quietly. 

"Alts are basically the same person but from different worlds. We were raised by our aunt alongside our cousin, and she left her husband because of his behavior towards us."

"And our name is Henry. Are you two," he points between Kenta and Heri. "Half-cousins, mothers are half-sisters?"

"Yeah."

"Do you have a me?"

"We don't, we were pretty sure."

"Maybe we should leave the door area and grab a table." He looks at the group. "Or multiple tables."

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea," Remi agrees, heading towards one of the nearest tables - somewhat gingerly. He'll have to get used to being able to wander around this place again. 

Alex shifts some tables around to make a large enough one for all of them. 

He hops up into a chair, "Are you really sure?" Tobir asks the other Heris. "Heri thought- he thought I was dead." 

"Believe us. We are absolutely going to wreck our brains searching for memories to be sure."

"But we've met people that met our parents and they never mentioned and we don't have reason to believe they would lie."

"My mom lied to us. I think."

"I don't doubt she would. But we weren't talking about her."

"Okay," he nods, "If there is one, you should definitely go get him." 

"Who were you talking about?" Remi asks. "For further confirmation," he adds. "Your parents might have had the same set of friends as Tobir and Heri's did. I suppose your parents names might be similar, as well." 

"Ah." They both pause to think. "There were two of our father's school friends."

"Sirion and Remo. ...You are Remo's alt, he was dark skinned, but given the name."

"They have talked enough about what happened to our parents that I doubt they wouldn't mention a twin."

"Sirion - that would be Sirien, here." He looks pained. More than pained, really. 'Gutted' might be a better word. "He's... gone." 

Tobir slips down from his chair to go climb in Remi's lap. "The ones who did it said it was Uncle Iri who killed them," he explains quietly. "Mom and Dad." 

Heri does not climb in Remi's lap, but takes the next sit to hold his hand.

"He did not."

"Or at least our version also got unfairly blamed for it. But we figured out he was innocent."

"I dunno if they'll ever figure out it wasn't him. It won't matter, if they do."

"Capital punishment?" Angel asks gently. 

"Yes," Remi agrees. "For a much longer list of crimes than most other worlds with our tech level. It has to do with our reproductive drive - it's much stronger than most species', despite what the theorists in our home world think. On average, Amentans will settle for five children, who each have the same number of grandchildren, and so on. Overpopulation is one of the greatest problems the world at large faces, so capital punishment is very common for those who can't afford to pay to go to prison instead." He seems a bit more settled after this explanation. 

"Wow. Earth... some countries in our world face a potential underpopulation problem. Some is the opposite, which is largely related to lack of opportunities."

"Adults go crazy because of it during spring."

He half-smiles at Kenta, "Yes, we do, don't we. We're only fertile during that time," he explains to the others. He nods to Felix, "Even having had a couple years to get used to how few children people from most other species want, it's still somewhat hard to believe." He squeezes Heri's hand gently and briefly tightens his grip on Tobir. "I've been able to make do with Tobir, this past year. Three is a little too old to satisfy the urge to have children, though. Ah," he realizes, "Our years are four times the length of most Earths'. I'm not sure if any of you are from one of those, but the year length is actually quite common in other worlds, too. These three are all two years old."

"We're from Earths," Angel nods, motioning to Alex and Felix. "I'm not sure about you?" She adds to the Henries, "What is your world like?"  

"Humanity might have started in a world by that name? I… we… our birthplace was in a space station. But we crash-landed on an island and that's where our door leads out of."

"That's a weird pronoun confusion."

"We are clones. In the sense of being copies with the same memories."

"Our magic lets us absorb things into crystal," he waves his arms, "and duplicate them later. It's common safety procedure to do that during a dangerous landing."

"Except, something happened to the chunk of crystal with us and instead of creating a single copy, it just kept going."

"It has going like this for... a while."

"Any prospects on fixing that?" He glances at Angel, but she just shrugs. 

Yeah, she doesn't have any ideas on that topic.

"Are you stuck on that island?" 

"Yes, we are. We don't know how to stop the crystal from cloning people, just how to slow it down."

"And it likely has been going for quite a while, the current iteration has been going for three generations."

"But the island looks like it has been populated before? A set of clones might have left, deciding to just abandon the crystal instead of tending to the copies."

Remi frowns, "How limited are your resources?"

"Ah, we can keep ourselves fed, alright. One of the signs of populations are crystals spontaneously spitting food, clothing, etc."

"And give our growth rate we don't expect to be a major problem in the foreseeable future. It's just, you know, really disturbing knowing that you are one of a dozen or so identical instances of the same person."

"Is it. I'm not sure I'd feel the same."

Alex frowns. Angel glances at him and they share a silent conversation, and then she looks back and shrugs. "It might end badly for other reasons, though," she admits. 

"Is it just instances of you or do you have companions besides... yourself?" 

"We have Gabe, which is an alt of him." He points at Kenta. "There are more of the two of us than any other cloned people, but half the population is original, for lack of better term."

"And earlier when he said three generations, it meant that there are people with grandchildren around."

"Uh... do you have problems with... inbreeding?"

"Ah, yeah, that's a concern. But we managed to get people from Milliways relatively early on."

"Not the best selection pool given that they were the people that preferred a random island in an alien world."

"Yeah, but it has helped. I also abstained to have children myself, so have Gabe, who is gay."

"Extremely gay."

Remi leans forward in interest, "You're taking immigrants?" 

"They," Tobir waves at Angel, Alex, and Felix, "Said we should move somewhere else, while we wait til we grow up so we can help more." 

"...That might be a good idea." He sighs, "We were evacuating people through Milliways, before everything went wrong. I don't have the connections we used to, though." Or the spirit for it, frankly. 

"We would love to take immigrants."

"Uh, fair warning. Milliways does not like to be used permanently."

"Or at least our experience is that it gets rid of people that tries. Stay for a few days, get as much out of the place as you can, but permanent plans tend to fail."

They both pause.

"Sorry, we just realized that... it must have happened to you."

He laughs. Not a nice laugh. A bleak one, maybe a little hysterical. He covers his face with one hand and breathes for a moment. (Tobir turns to hug him around the neck.)

"It rather did, yes," he agrees after a moment, voice quiet and half-muffled. 

Yeah. Hug. A little of crying.

The two clones will also provide hugs.

He's not usually one for a lot of physical affection, but if there was ever a time, or a group of people... 

(He doesn't deserve it. He's the only one still alive. He must have done something wrong to be the only one left-)

("I'm so sorry," he murmurs a few times, under the tears.)

(Hug. Crying. Miserable nodding.) 

Angel pulls Alex a bit out of the way, motioning Felix and Kenta after them. "Let's give them some space," she murmurs.

Yeah, he will just leave all the ugly crying.

Felix wants to help, but feels he wouldn't be able to.

Yeah, there's not really a way to help in this situation without, say, resurrection. 

Eventually, Remi pulls himself together. He lets out a deep, shaky sigh, and looks over at the door. 

"We should get your aunt, I suppose," he says at length. 

"We should. Could you get us the door?"

"Okay..."

Heri does that. And under the Henries instruction, he stands by as one of them grow a lattice of crystal over the wall in their bedroom.

This is more of a cupboard than a bedroom, but whatever. Soon enough they have an onyx-crystal covered wall, and then that onyx retracts and shrinks until they have a hole in the wall with an onyx rim.

One Henry goes through while the other stands guard.

They can hear Heri's aunt scream all the way into the bar. And it's cut off abruptly.

Then after a minute, one Henry is dragging and pushing a woman through Miliways' door and the other is patching the hole in the wall, as the crystal receeds the wall returns to it's configuration.

Some eyebrows are raised at all this fuss. "Perhaps we should have sent one of the children in to get her," he says, a bit too late. 

Yep. Angel will step forward to see if she can help with... all of that. 

"Mom! It's alright." Exclaims Kenta dashing over his mother. 

"Ken! What madness is this?" She hugs him and looks around her, scared.

"This place is called Milliways and I found it after waking up."

"Milliways is a bar between worlds," Angel explains. "Sometimes a door will lead here instead of where you expect it to. Your son and nephew found a door to it, and asked us to evacuate you from Amenta."

"Other worlds don't believe in... hereditary pollution, most relevantly," Remi tells her tiredly from his spot closer to the table. 

Tobir is watching her suspiciously from Remi's side. No matter how charitable he's gonna try to be, she did tell Heri he was dead.

She passes out.

Kenta barely manages to keep her from hitting the ground...

"Wind and moon make her feather light!"

And suddenly Kenta can easily support her now.

There's a moment of silence. 

"...Well then." 

"Yes," Angel agrees, approaching Kenta and his mother. "Does she do this often?" She asks Kenta, checking the woman over briefly. 

"Nice catch," Alex murmurs to Felix. 

"She does not." Kenta says sullen.

"Thanks. I don't think I mentioned that i could do that?" He tells Alex. "And we should take her to the infirmary." To Kenta. "She will be fine.

"We should," she agrees. "Have you got her?" She asks Kenta. She'll help if not, but either way they can head to the infirmiry to get his mother checked over. 

"Versatile magic, you said. Definitely more useful than anything I know about in our world."

"Yes, it is. But it is a bit complicated and even dangerous to fully master."

"She is, like, super-light now." They move to the infirmiry quite easily.

Where a lady in elaborate robes looks her over and determines that she will be fine - she was overwhelmed, and should wake up in her own time, though she could speed the process along if they'd like. 

"Is your magic learnable by people from other worlds?"

"Largely not, it is mostly hereditary, there is a part of it that uses rune symbols that draw energy from the environment, but I don't know it and it's extremely complicated and a single mistake can be deadly or unfixable and weird. I don't think it's worth trying in other worlds."

Kenta looks at his mother and shrugs. "Let her sleep? I don't know how to calm her down if she still nervous after waking up." He still can't believe, she is the sort of person you see in shows that just faints when things get too weird.

Alright, they can move her to one of the beds in here, then, if they'd like. They're welcome to wait with her, as well. The healer will just be over here, helping another patient.

"Ah, that's a shame. It seems most magic systems can't be shared easily. I have a few small items we traded for, at home, but we only managed to collect one magic system - the twins will apparently be manifesting powers when they turn four." 

Yeah, Ken will wait.

"Oh, can you share that? I am a twin."

(Angel figures she might as well stick around too.)

"I don't think so," he says regretfully, "From what I understand it can only be passed on before birth." 

("So we are magic," Tobir says, nodding, "I thought so.")

(That's still hard to believe, but Heri nods.)

"That's too bad, but..." he shrugs.

"What sorts of magic things do you have back home?" 

"A few things. A ring of invisibility, a visor which shows the wearer's surroundings - though the power source for that has almost run out. The remains of the system we used to keep in contact with Milliways. I should actually go back to get all of them, before we settle on a world to move into." 

"I thought we were gonna go to the other Heris' world?"

"Well, we should ask Kenta's mother what she thinks before we decide," he points out.

The Henries look at each other. Very meaningfully.

Remi notices this, and frowns. "It seems as though you expect trouble from her," he observes. 

Henries, in synchrony, look between Remi, Heri and Tobir.

"We definitely think you all should stay together."

"I absolutely don't think Kenta should be separated from his mother.

"Me too, but... our version was not... ideal."

"To put mildly."

Tobir grabs Heri's hand as though this will prevent anyone from separating them. 

"She's bad for Heri but not for Kenta?" He asks, uncertain. 

"Ah," Remi closes his eyes, regretful. "If I'd known where Sirien had taken him..." he sighs, "No, I couldn't have. Raising them together could have easily become a death sentence for all of us, if the wrong people had noticed. I might have been able to take him somewhere else, though."

"She is not." One Henry answers Tobir.

"And we are not going to separate you two." Reassures the other. "And you did the best you could given the information you had."

"But... wherever you go, I think at least one adult set of clones of me and Gabe should come along with."

"That does seem like a good idea, yes," he agrees. He frowns. "Do you think she's likely to want to go back? Rather than moving to another world? I'm not sure I could conscience sending a red child back to Amenta when there's an option to safely remove him from it. Strictly speaking," he sighs, "We should also be evacuating some of our neighbors, if we're leaving for good. Though of course there's trade-offs there, in that the disappearance of a large group of reds would likely send the clean castes into a panic... and the reds as well, come to think of it..." he trails off. 

"We're not leaving for good," Tobir insists. "We're gonna come back when we're older and fix things."

"I'm sure you'll try," he agrees, tired but fond. "You're too much your parents' child to do otherwise." It's entirely possible they'll never get a door again, however, he doesn't point out. Tobir can be very stubborn.

"We have to go back." Heri says nodding at Tobir. They have to return to stop reds from being hurt ever again.

The Henries nod. "Gabes are lucky at finding Milliways doors, and one advantage of our world is... our abundance of Gabes."

"But we still should look at our other options."

"Ah. Well, that does make evacuating less urgent," he agrees. "Still, there remains the question of her reaction to all this - what is her name?" He asks Heri. 

"Roaja."

"Besides her son being safe, what things she cares about?"

"Huh," they both get thoughtful looks. "Ours cared about status and reputation."

"But hard to be sure how that changes when you are..." He waves at Remi's hair. "our didn't have that much status, but she cared."

"Could she be convinced that going to another world is essentially moving up in the reputation ladder? A place it doesn't matter that she is a Red?"

"Thank you," he tells Heri, "If she cares about reputation, yes, roughly anything better than outright slavery could be presented as better than what we have. Caring about reputation might also translate as the kind of red who cares an unusual amount about pollution, however," he adds. "Most of us care more than the average human does, but not nearly to the extent that the other castes do. If we ever did care that much, it's been bred out. Still, you get an outlier, here and there." 

"She... refuses to take outside jobs. And is kinda of picky about inside jobs too?" Heri says in a small voice.

One Henry pets Heri's head. "It's okay."

"Well, we don't really have that much work on the island. And we can probably set both of you up with cloned babies and... I don't know how cleans things need to be, but it's probably doable with our magic."

"He at least doesn't find it repulsive," Felix points out. "My family can probably take care of the four, wait... eight of you." He pauses to rethink. "Nah, that's still doable, specially if you're willing to teach your magic. Less available babies. I think most cities have nice parts that are this clean. My avalon is definitely clean."

"Avalon?"

"It's like a secret neighborhood for magical creatures like me."

"I know the type," He says in response to Heri's statement.

"Both of those sound like fairly good options," he agrees, "But, is she... ah, trustworthy, with that sort of secret?" He asks the Henries warily.

Another meaningful look, more doubtful this time. "We are honestly not sure." One says finally.

"Uh... I am optimistic about eventual integration between magical and non-magical society, but I would rather something firmer than that? It would be a world-changing secret if the existence of magic came out."

"Perhaps we shouldn't be planning to move to your world, then," he says. He looks around, taking in the lack of other patrons. The bar must have emptied out while they were busy discussing. "What of your world?" He asks the tall fellow with the dark hair. 

Alex looks up from where he's leaning against the doorframe which leads to the infirmary, keeping an eye on the open door just down the hall to try to keep the time flows synced up. 

"I wouldn't recommend it," he says after a moment. "We know almost nothing about the magical species of our world, but the two we do know about are dangerous. I described the beings we've been calling vampires earlier - they're blood drinkers, incredibly fast and strong, alluring to humans. I was able to fight one off in my other form - I can turn into a wolf," he clarifies, "But a human wouldn't stand a chance." He pauses, "And that's just the species we know about. For all we know there could be more." 

"Maybe we should send some of us with you and share our magic?"

"We could hardly say no to help," he agrees, surprised by the offer. "So long as you're aware of the danger."

"What is your magic, exactly? I hadn't realized it was transferrable."

"Oh, we can control and manipulate these crystals to do several things," One Henry says making his crystals grow into a spike.

"The crystal can convert other things into crystal, memorizing the absorbed material patterns, you can then use that to get back your object."

"Or duplicate the object." He bifurcates his spike to point at himself and the other Henry.

"And there are also empowered crystals with more exotic effects. Each one produces one unique to themselves."

"Our does anti-magic. You can duplicate someone's else crystal, if you have it available, but it's hard."

"One of the more straightforwardly useful magic systems I've heard of," Remi notes. "What is it about the crystal which is cloning you that stops you from controlling it?" He asks. 

"They are fuelled by your lifeforce, which is why they are embedded in our flesh."

"They also feed off light. The one that clones us is huge and we can't master it."

"And it's not only a matter of raw power, but skill. We are largely self-taught and we don't know what's wrong and how to fix it."

"That's unfortunate. It sounds like something that will only be solved with time and more experimentation, I suppose." He makes a humming sound, "Still, your world does sound like the best option, so far. Now, how do we convince Roaja of that."

"Well, in ours she will have access to babies, won't need work and she - and her son - will be far safer there than Amenta?"

"She might decide the other options are better. But then our world is likely to find Milliways again and she will be able to return to Amenta or find a new world."

"I don't like this, but we can just nope her out of any other worlds that aren't Amenta and theirs?" Felix says looking between the Henries and Alex.

"It's pretty easy to sell mine as too dangerous, clearly. Dirty, as well. If having garbage kicking around is unclean, then our cities qualify."

"I'm not sure I like the idea of preventing her from seeking other options, but," he sighs, and then motions around the empty room, "At least at the moment there aren't any other options. We could offer summaries that make the Earths out as unclean, and the island a much better option than Amenta - which it is." 

"It should be easier to accomodate that sort of need in our island."

"At least there will a larger percentage of the population willing to do so."

"Her home didn't look cleaner than our own."

"It shouldn't be too difficult. Don't leave garbage lying around, do your... business, in the washroom, wash afterwards, and after touching garbage or dead things. Shower at least once a day. They're not unreasonable standards." 

Henries nod. "That really isn't. We can enforce them harder as necessary."

"It sounds like we have a plan, then." He glances down at Tobir, "Come hold the door for me so I can retrieve some things from home?" 

He nods, and they go over to the door to do that, "I wanna take some stuff too," he tells Remi. "Coming?" He asks Heri, "It's not... really nice, or anything, but..." Honestly he doesn't want to show off the house, he just doesn't want to be too far away from Heri.

(Alex motions one of the Henries over so they can talk about that offer to send some of their copies to his and Angel's world.)

Heri follows Tobir. Holding tight to his hand. A Henry and the Felix offer to help Remi.

And a Henry follows Alex.

Remi appreciates the help. He'll send Tobir in first to grab the things he wants, though he'll be going through after to pack up the necessities the two-year-old doesn't think of. Meanwhile, he turns to Henry to ask what those necessities should be.

"What will we need to bring with us? I think the more we can leave behind the less panicked the authorities will be about our disappearance, in the case that we are unable to return. It could be bad for our neighbors if it looks like we packed up and left of our own volition." 

Tobir pulls Heri over to his bedroom. It's larger than the one Heri shared with Kenta, but not by very much. There's a small shelf of worn books, and a few toys - a block set (currently in the shape of a small space fleet), a couple of colouring books and a pack of pencil crayons, and a pair of stuffed animals. A lightly patched blue dog, and a soft and fluffy green deer.

Tobir hardly gives the other things in a room a glance, bee-lining straight for the stuffed animals. He tugs them down from their shelf, and solemnly turns to hand the deer to Heri.

"...It's yours," he says after a moment. 

Heri hugs the stuffed toy, and something about its smell, brings up the vaguest memories of being held in someone's arms. He holds it tighter.

Felix speaks first. "How limited is your ability to duplicate things? Could you just crystal-fy his entire home, furniture included and then let them keep the copies?"

"I can't do that much, but I can do somethings approximately this volume," he gestures something roughly the size of a cube, two feet in size, "per day, without exhausting myself."

To Remi. "I think the main things we are missing is anything internet and communication related. So, it would be a good time to download any information you might want? We do have clothes, hygiene products, variety of food, all replicable by crystal. We also have medicine, but mostly we relay on these slow-acting health crystals, and we also know how to use crystal magic medically."

Tobir will help with recalling the feeling of that memory by hugging him. 

"Ah. Alright. I'll see how much I can fit on my everything. If we need more space you could copy my laptop - what sort of tech level are you working with, actually? If there's anything Amenta has which the island lacks I could look for any information on it." 

"We use magic for everything. But we have light, heating, freshwater. The main thing we need that isn't a way out, is mostly entertainment and variety."

"Hm, alright. I'm afraid we don't have FTL yet either, but movies, music, and books I can do - though of course they'll need to be translated." He looks off down the hall at the door to Tobir's room, "Tobir? Do you need help carrying something?"

Tobir looks back at the door, and then around at the things in the room. He shakes his head, "No, I'm okay," he calls back. "Do you wanna take some of this stuff?" He asks Heri, "They've probably got stuff to do there, right... but they probably don't have the same books." He bends down to look through the selection, pulling a couple off the shelves.

"Speaking of," Remi adds, "Do you have a translation solution, or will we have to learn the language the usual way?"

"Both, one of our empowered crystals does translation, but they are short ranged and we use them to read stuff out of the library."

"Yes? I don't know what to take."

He straightens up holding a couple books in the same arm as the stuffed dog. "Anything? Hm, maybe they won't have brickblocks? You can stick them together to make things," he sets his things down and picks up one of the spaceships to demonstrate, pulling it apart and putting it back together, and then offers it to Heri. "And the books," he adds, "These ones are my favourites, but maybe you'll like some of the others..." He looks down, fiddling with his hands, "I don't really remember what your favourite books were, before..."

"Well, I fairly successfully pretended to be green for three years. I'm sure I'll manage, and the kids are all young enough to pick it up without much trouble, given some time." 

"Oh, good. At any rate we will help you out."

Heri frowns... "I remember I liked one with a talking star?"

He smiles at Henry, "Thank you," he says. "Both of you," he adds, nodding at Felix. "You've been very kind to us, and what you're doing for us..." he shakes his head. "Just, thank you."

Tobir tilts his head, thinking, and then nods, "Oh! I think I know the one," he bends down again and runs a finger over the spines of the books, eventually pulling one out from the bottom shelf, "This one?" It is, in fact, called 'The Talking Star'. 

"Yes!" Heri says jumping in place. He starts flipping through.

"It's no trouble. I wish I could've done more."

 "I am glad to be able to help you."

"You've done plenty," he tells Felix. "And just wanting to help is more than we usually get. Though, I'm aware my standards are considered low by most people," he admits, wry. Henry gets a fond, somewhat wistful smile, "I know I never truly met your parents, and they can hardly take credit for the person you are, but I am reminded all the same." 

The book is about a little boy who is afraid of the darkness. He tells the sky of his fears, and a star comes down to reassure him. The star teaches him that all things are connected, and that he doesn't need to be afraid of what lurks in the darkness. There's nothing unknown which he can't understand, in time. 

(While Heri reads, Tobir packs up some of the blocks, putting them, his stuffed dog, and the books into a box.)

Heri hugs tight to the book and the stuffed toy once he is done.

Shrug. "I am going by close enough."

"Felix, I am sorry, but do you mind if you could give us a moment of privacy?"

"Sure. I will just check in on the others."

The others are all off in the same direction. Alex and the other Henry are talking in the hall outside the infirmary. Inside the infirmary, Angel and Kenta can be seen near the bed where the healer on duty is checking over Kenta's mother again. She pronounces that Roaja should be waking up shortly. 

Remi watches him leave and then turns his gaze back to Henry, "Was there something you wanted to ask about?" 

"I am going to be blunt. Gabe and I, are together. Have been... since ever."

He blinks, "Ah... I don't see the problem?" He pauses, "Assuming you can't have children together? Or if you can, that you aren't. I could see such a close relation being a problem, then, though not one that couldn't be overcome." 

"...I am sure that there is some way to use crystal magic for that purpose, but is not one I will try to employ. And we have picked up our relationship to examine in all the ways we could." He makes a helpless gesture. "I am not sure how alts work, but I don't want to challenge whatever forces governs them too hard. And keeping a version of me and Gabe apart would be that."

"I don't have any insight on the topic, either. I haven't met any of my alts." He nods, "I suppose we will have to do our very best to convince Roaja that your world is the best option, then," he says. "I'm not willing to leave Tobir with her, or to separate him from his brother, either."

"I think that's everything," Tobir says, looking around. "The other you said they had magic that makes clothes and stuff, so we probably don't need those..." Back out into the hall?

Henry makes a face. "I would be willing to just... not mention, but that might be my vindictiveness talking. Mine... didn't react well once she figured out."

"Yeah," Heri follows. "It's only the two of you?"

"Mhm... Uncle Remi and Uncle Sirien were married," he adds quietly, looking down the hall at the bathroom door to make sure Remi isn't paying attention. 

He isn't - he's a bit busy with this conversation at the moment. "Do you think that's something which could be kept from her," he asks, frowning. "She might try to keep Heri and Kenta apart if she realizes the two of them are the same sort of person as the two of you, if that attitude carries over - not that she necessarily needs to know that," he adds.

"I am not sure." Henry says helplessly. "I think she will inevitably pick up a fight about it. But she was never good at dealing with peer pressure. 

"Yeah... do you know what happened?"

"Only a bit. Uncle Remi doesn't like to talk about it, and it was a blue trial, so..." He shrugs, eyes cast down, "I just know they said he did it. And they're still looking for us - me, Uncle Remi, and you - so Uncle Iri wouldn't tell them Uncle Remi is red, or who Mom really was."

He sighs, "I gather she's inevitably going to find out when Kenta and Heri are older, if this is as firm a circumstance as you say. It seems to me we should either cut her out of this plan now, robbing Kenta of two more years with his mother, or try to keep her from learning that you are alts for as long as possible. Does she need to know that alts even exist?"

"She does not... Do you think the kids can keep it quiet? And I think that cutting her off from Kenta is as bad as cutting Kenta from me."

"I think Tobir could, if we explain why. He will certainly try, at least. I don't know Heri or Kenta well enough to guess." 

"Maybe? I think we should bring in one of my Gabes to give an informed opinion on the matter."

Heri nods gravely at Tobir and carefully closes the book.

He nods, "A good idea," he agrees. He looks down the hall, spotting Tobir outside the door of his room, "Finished? Come hold the door for me, please."

Tobir looks up at his call and nods, going over to do that. 

So Remi heads inside, and begins packing up. First, though, he sets his laptop to downloading entertainment of various kinds, as well as some reference materials. The he heads into his bedroom and packs up the invisibility ring, the mapping visor, the broken communication system - it looks like a crystal which someone hit with a hammer - some documents, and a few mementos. 

That done, he looks around the room one last time, and shakes his head. He grabs a worn jacket from the chair by his bed, and then carries it and his box of things back out to the living room, picking up his laptop and it's charger (and his everything charger) to head back to the bar. 

"I think that's everything," he tells Henry. He shoos the kids away from the door and closes it, leaving it free for Henry to collect one of his cousins. 

Henry suggests them to go to infirmary to keep Kenta company.

He then opens the door to his own world. In another time, that door looked out of a hut, and someone who had seen this view might even recognize the rock formations in the distance.

Everything else has changed, and there is no one that can appreciate the difference. The door opens to a small, but nicely constructed room made out of rock and lattice of crystal for support, and further ahead there is a beautiful archway opening to a street that shows several buildings, they are square but richly ornate with stone decorations in fractal patterns.

There are two Henries on this side, already facing the door.

"I want a Gabe. Any should do." The Henry in Milliways says.

"Alright, hello and goodbye." One Henry says, waving at Remi.

Henry starts giving a summary of what happened to the Henry that remained.

Tobir will follow Heri to the infirmary, box of toys in hand. 

It's a bit surreal - the three identical faces, while knowing that there's a fourth in the bar somewhere. He'll have to get used to that. Remi waves at the Henry who greeted him, and then stays to offer any information the Henry with him misses or doesn't have. He also looks around at what he can see of the world while they talk. It looks nice - definitely like it should meet the requirements of an unusually pollution-conscious red. 

The not-met-in-Milliways Henry has questions, yes.

Two main ones: Why did his communication crystal broke? Do you think they could fix it?

They were not sure why it broke. It wasn't on their end, so it must have been something the team inside the bar did, and they must have been caught in another world which prevented them from simply opening the door to get them again. He doesn't think it can be fixed, no. It ran on a type of magic none of them can do. 

Oh, well, nothing else he could tell them? How it worked? Where they got it? Any idea how hard was it to make. Interworld communication would be so convenient.