There are things Jing Yi expects when he flies through the window to his rooms.

Like his rooms. Like the floor being where he expects. Like all the furniture being out of the way of anyone flying through a window.

He finds none of those things.

There may or may not be a crashing noise. Or a very undignified yelp.

"...does gravity work differently on your planet?"

There's a moment of brief confusion about living on a planet, you know, those bright points in the sky that move through out the year. Those things. Very liveable, in his experience.

But there are probably better things to be confused about, like the person sitting in front of him, dressed like... that. "Like a foreigner" doesn't quite cut it, because he is aware of the fashions of nations around Great Tang and This Is Not One Of Them. And he's better with people than astrology, anyway.

(And he's better at people than existential questions like "How did I get here? This isn't where I meant to be?")

He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "No, it's just a bad habit." He waves vaguely in the direction of the window he just fell out of. "More fun than going through doors though."

"No, that is definitely at this very moment a door. Which possibly explains your current condition."

"It's not normally a problem I encounter," he says breezily, as he looks over at the door he just fell through and how the fuck did his window become a door?

"Welcome to Milliways. It's an interdimensional bar which connects people from a variety of different alternate universes. If 'alternate universe' is not a concept which exists in your homeworld I've been working on an explanation for that. First drink is free. I recommend trying something not from your homeworld but specifying that it should taste good to you and shouldn't have any unexpected effects on your body chemistry, one of the guys I talked to tried a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster and that did not end well."

Jing Yi picks himself up from the floor.

He knows what a bar is! He knows... basically none of the other adjectives or nouns there, but he can work with 'bar'. 'Deeply, deeply weird bar' is a starting point and he will take it.

He will also take 'pumping the first friendly face for information.' Always a good strategy, that one, and the person in front of him does seem reasonably well-meaning, if not easy to understand.. "Do you have any recommendations? Other than 'not the pan galactic gargle blaster.'" (What a delightful string of utter nonsense to say.)

"My recommendation is to ask the Bar. She napkins."

"Napkin" is not something he's used to being a verb, but. When magic doors are involved, weird verbs are the least of one's worries.(Thing to worry about later: working out whether this is an incredibly over-elaborate con, or if somehow magic is real. Neither option is great! Neither option is his main worry right now.)

He heads in the direction of what he's pretty sure is the bar? and, us asks it? (This is probably a prank played on newcomers. But playing along will let the other's guard down, and that's worth a little egg on one's face. Especially seeing as he already has egg on his face on account of the crashing.) "Do you have any recommendations? Uh, 'that will taste good ti me and won't have any unexpected effects on my body chemistry'?"

Yes, says a napkin. 

He is presented with a cup of what an Earthling from the 2010s would probably recognize as salted cheese boba milk tea. 

"Thank you," he says to... the napkin, because that seems only polite, and takes it.

He sits down on the other side of the table to the man he talked to, ready for the hazing or the prank to happen, and takes a sip.

Oh god is that sweet. And rich. It's not the sweetest or richest thing he's ever eaten, but it's probably the richest thing he has ever drunk? It's A Lot. He nearly chokes on the Chewy Sweet Balls of Mystery because he didn't entirely expect them to be so solid. 

It's good but--

--okay, he is never going to be able to explain it as 'I was given a drink so sweet that it convinced me magic was real,' not and sound sane, but. There is a rapidly shrinking number of explanations were nothing supernatural is going on at all.

"So, this exists," he says, gesturing at the cup, and it's not the most appropriate or coherent way to continue the conversation. But in his defense, the bits of his brain that aren't rattling around in confusion are preoccupied going sweeeeeeeeet~~

"Yeah! It's really cool."

He bounces in his seat.

"Do you know what alternate universes are?"

"I can't say I've encountered the concept."

"Okay, so, you can imagine universes that are different than yours-- uh, this would be easier if I knew what traits your universe has, but maybe a different person rules your country or a war went differently or some great scientific discovery was made at a different time?" 

"A different person could rule my country, that is something that is imaginable." Should be be saying something close to treason to this man? It'd probably be fine; it's not like he knows who the Emperor is. (He is enough of a Chang'an native and a member of the nobility to find the idea of someone not knowing who the Emperor is weird, like someone not knowing what a mountain was, but he's not so self absorbed as to not be able to imagine it.)

"Right, so, it turns out those universes actually exist and Milliways lets you meet people from them. Except sometimes they're different in ways like 'magic exists'-- or 'magic doesn't exist' if you're from a world with magic-- or 'cats are people' or 'everyone breaks into songs about their feelings constantly' or 'instead of humans everyone is octopuses.'"

(There are brief mental images of some of the ways the world and his life could have been different, which get very quickly stuffed back in their box for being Irrelevant.)

(There is also the brief mental image of Xiao Jinyu in one of those worlds where everyone bursts into song all the time, which is is allowed to stay because it is hilarious. ("♫ I care about Justice so much~♫"))

"You sure know a lot about this stuff." (Yes yes its very tacky to get someone talking about themselves to get information, but tacky works.)

"I've been working on a form to simplify the meeting-people process!"

He presents an odd glowing rectangle with words on it. The words say:

I am from:

-An Earth 
-An Arda 
-A Valdemar
-An Amenta
-A non-repeating world

[These are illustrated with pictures of the geography of each.]

Lev is from an Earth. 

My world's tech level is:
-Stone Age (counting, oral tradition)
-Bronze Age (arithmetic, writing)
-Iron Age (geometry, scrolls)
-Medieval (algebra, books)
-Age of Sail (calculus, movable type)
-Industrial Revolution (mechanical calculators, telegraph)
-Mechanized Age (electrical calculators, telephone and radio)
-Nuclear Age (mainframe computers, television)
-Digital Age (personal computers, Internet)
-Microtech Age (artificial intelligence, real-time virtuality)
-Robotic Age (nanotech, brain transplants)
-Exotic Matter (cellular regeneration, portable fusion)
-Extreme High Tech (full regeneration, black-hole bombs)
-Magitech (faster-than-light travel, zero-point energy)

Lev's society's tech level is Digital Age.

My world's magic level is:
-No Magic 
-Very Low Magic (almost no one can do magic; magic is very powerless e.g. predicting the next card in a deck)
-Low Magic (a few people can do magic; magic is relatively powerless e.g. lifting a small object)
-Normal Magic (magic is limited to a small percentage of the population; magic is powerful e.g. healing)
-High Magic (many people can do magic; magic is relatively powerful e.g. resurrection)
-Very High Magic (everyone can do magic; magic is a routine part of every part of life)

Lev's society's magic level is No Magic. (He thinks.) 

Ah, a glowing rectangle. Truly a thing he knows exactly how to interact with.

It takes a bit of squinting at the maps, but he can recognise the coastline and some of the mountain ranges on Earth. (And he is not going to question the large extra land masses to the south and east, not right now.)

Also the technology section is jarring. Just lists of things he does not recognise and that sinking feeling of failing a test you didn't know existed. (Except it's not you that's failing, it's somehow your nation, and the test is "do you know what television and black hole bombs are?")

"Earth, Medieval, and no magic unless it is very sneaky."

"There is lots of very sneaky magic! Apparently people on Earths are all the time pretending magic doesn't exist. I have no idea why."

"We have the opposite problem. Lots of people claiming to do magic, it mysteriously keeps turning out to have a mundane explanation. And equally mysteriously, everyone with magic tries to profit off it."

"See! That's what I would think would happen, but apparently if you can actually summon demons everyone pretends that you can't. --Oh, no, you're Medieval, I'm sorry, the smartphone must be confusing as hell. I have got to come up with a better system for this."

"Hey, at least I now know what a smartphone is. --I know that a smartphone glows and has text on it."

Bounce bounce. 

"Oh, man, you gotta see this--" He puts his fingers on the tablet and then presents it to Jing Yi with a flourish. 

On the glowing rectangle, a man is dancing around. Strange music plays, and someone sings: We're no strangers to love, you know the rules and so do I.