"They're squid people who mostly keep their tentacles wrapped around each other in such a way that they can, like, fit into human clothes and stuff, they were created by the Flukes to interact with humanity. Flukes are people from the planet Axile who are very big and also aquatic."

"Our Earth is so much less complicated. It's just humans and magical girls and also swarms which are black shapeshifting things that glom into larger monsters if not killed immediately."

"Yeah it sounds like on your Earth I might spend less time running around waving carrots and sticks to get people to stop being horrible to each other, that sounds nice." 

"I mean, humans can be fairly horrible but perhaps it's worse where you're from, if only because it's the nineteenth century."

"I have yet to completely stamp out the practice of spontaneously stoning Rubbery Men to death on the grounds that they have squid faces." 

"Bleah."

"I'm glad to know that in 2006 things have improved enough that 'because it's the nineteenth century' can be considered a reason for horrible." 

"I mean, not everything's better everywhere, but the average is up."

"Well. Of course not." Sigh. "I mean, you can't raise the dead at all, apparently, so that would put a strict cap on how much better things can get anyway. Well. All that means is we have a lot of work ahead of us." 

"Starting with waiting for that car to have someone in it who can tell us where we are."

She squints down the road. "I think the driver stopped to fix something, is why it hasn't showed up yet." 

"Huh. Hope they get that handled, it doesn't seem densely populated enough here that I'd definitely expect another vehicle today."

"Worst case scenario I turn into a giant crab and carry you two to town." 

"...can you see the person well enough to tell if they're a human or not? Winged human might be less likely to spook the locals than giant crab, even if they don't have magical girls here either, but if they're actually, uh, space mice, all bets are off. So if we can't hitchhike I might want to fly into town and scope it out while you guys park a ways back."

"Human," she confirms. "Or at least about as close to human as devils look when they're piloting humanoid paper bodies." 

"Okay. So plan A, hitchhike, plan B, I descend all angelic into the town and - oh, heck, we are unlikely to be able to talk to them. Sky's wrong, this isn't even an Earth."

"Damn, you're right. Well, at least I'm good at languages, if I can get them to hold still long enough to point at things while saying words we should be able to communicate in better than pantomime in, oh, not quite a month." 

"I am not especially gifted at languages and Xander is worse but I can probably figure it out if it's the only way to communicate instead of just the only way to get an A in a Spanish class without very high expectations of my retention."

"I've played translator before, I don't mind." 

"It'll still be logistically less complicated if we learn. But maybe this person will also improbably speak English just as you and we improbably landed near one another."

"Wouldn't that be a treat--oh, the vehicle's starting again, that's good." 

"Also hopefully the locals are friendly."

"Worst case scenario we leave and find a locale where they are. Or are willing to pretend to be in exchange for magic healing." 

"If necessary I can do pearls and other organic shinies but, like growing plants, this sounds uncomfortable and I haven't done it before."

"You can make pearls? What's the limit to what you can and cannot make?"