Okay wow that didn't help, since she was nervous already. Hopefully everything will be fine. Milliways is relatively safe.

"Um, I was training with some- people, humans at home, to gain more control of my magical powers. They're not my parents, or elders, because humans don't metamorphose. Our parents- mothers and fathers- are just people, same as us. We do start off as children and then we grow up but mostly that means we start, um, getting taller and bigger and women have breasts and everyone has," blush, "um, reproductive organs? Anyway, I'm still growing up- we consider there to be stages but since it's not metamorphosis they're not as clear cut. We go through a process called puberty where children turn into a adults, but people still in puberty are considered a third stage, teenagers."

"All right. And why did you put your... place... in our community?"

"Oh, Milliways? It's not my place. It just shows up wherever it wants to go, including different universes. I can't control it, and it's not mine."

"Ah, apologies. Can you tell me more about the door situation?"

"Sure. So when Milliways replaces a local door with its own, it leads into this place- the bar,"

"-where you can meet all kinds of aliens and order drinks from all over the multiverse. You can get some food, but if you want the really good stuff you want the restaurant-"

"-and of course there are rooms upstairs for rent if you need those. Um, as for how the door works- when it's closed, no time will pass in your universe. People usually can't get into Milliways from different parts of the same universe at once."

It waves a feeler acknowledgingly. "Are there any dangers we should be aware of?"

"Milliways is usually safe to most kinds of people, but um, it probably has to compromise sometimes. What are the dangers you would worry about if you went to any new place?"

"Being able to get back, most obviously," it replies immediately. "Or being attacked, or leading dangerous creatures back. Here I'd worry about the food being safe but it may be interesting to visit even if it's not, I've eaten recently enough."

"Getting back is easy. Just open your door, and you're home. There's no violence allowed in the bar or restaurant- if anyone tries, they get put in the cell by security until they agree not to try again, or decide to leave Milliways. The food is safe as long as you order it- you shouldn't anything just sitting out is okay, but if you order it, it should be fine. What kind of food do tagmata eat?"

"Home food, mostly - fruit and fish that our mothers produce for us - and klasata and klenta and a few other species of animal that we raise. Home food is usually poisonous to tagmata from other communities, is why that's a concern."

"-oh, huh. We can talk to the bartender, he usually knows these things. Um, it's hard to get very good answers out of him though."

Kira knocks on the bar. After nothing happens for a minute, she sighs. Figures.

"I guess he's busy, or in a mood, or confused about time?  Um, you can try to request home food, if you want? Just put your hand on the bar and ask for the food. Can you tell by smell, or would you have to taste it?"

"I'd have to try it and I'm not sure I could tell even by taste, it's not something I have personal experience with. I don't need to eat soon, in any case."

"It's not a big deal. You should be able to get back home and eat anyway. As long as one of you is holding the door open, time will pass in your world.

So you're one of the elders?"

"I am - not from the original band but still three times as old as any of the non-elders. -speaking of which-" it taps its feeler on the larger tagma's to get its attention: "Go tell elder Tikta where I am, they should be by the ponds, and ask if they think it's worth the risk to invite elder Kal in. Kal is our best for outside work," it explains to the human as it dismounts to allow these instructions to be followed, "and we'll be in some trouble if anything happens to them, but they're the obvious next one to send."

Nod.

"You're feeling fine so far, right? All of your basic needs are being met by this place? It's supposed to be good for everyone, even when that doesn't make- physical sense."

"Yes, I'm fine." It lets the door swing closed once the other tagma is clear of it. "So what are aliens like, or are they too varied to really say?"

"Too varied to say, in Milliways. A bunch of them have the same basic body plan as humans- bipedal, two arms, two legs, a head," she says, pointing at the relevant body parts. "There are also others, though. I've also run into symbiotic..brain-shaped slugs, centaurs, um, there was this one big crab thing...does any of that translate?"

"We have slugs and crabs, and symbiotes. I'm not sure what you mean by brain-shaped, ours aren't the same shape as each other, but it doesn't matter much. I have no idea what a sen-too-or is."

"Oh, um, centaurs are mythical creatures in my world, who supposedly look like human torsos on horse bodies? The one I met wasn't as silly as that image makes it sound, though. She had kind of blueish-purple fur, and these...eye-antennae? It's not important, just an example. The symbiotes weren't called anything, but the humans on the planet who bonded with them called themselves Trill."

"We don't have horses, either." It peers around her with a pair of eyestalks, checking out the rest of the room, though it keeps another pair on her.

Around the room, it can see other aliens! There a variety of species drinking and eating and talking around the bar and restaurant area.