The outfit's really not the first thing on his mind! The first thing on his mind is that he has to leap to his feet and resume attempting to foil the assassin! The second thing on his mind is that this was probably a dumb thing to do because he's probably in the hospital recovering from life-threatening injuries! The third thing on his mind is that this doesn't really look like either of those situations, a holistic impression which does admittedly take the threads into account. ...he doesn't own this outfit. He considered buying something very much like this outfit but settled on the blue one instead; he busts the blue one out for situations like "girlfriend needs a plus one to a wedding and wants her plus one to look excitingly foreign". Also he thinks the one in the store didn't fit this well.

...he goes out the door to see if that's enlightening.

There's a guy there in a historical looking sort of garb.  "Hello, Ivan."

"...hello?"

"The name's Journey Carison; nice to meet you."  Handshake?

........if that is the order of operations here far be it from Ivan to object?? Handshake.

"Feeling alright?  Can I get you anything?"

"Where am I?"

"That's a complicated question!  Let's start with: a pocket dimension which is not directly connected to your universe of origin."

He'd say "pull the other one" but there is sure something up, might as well be that. "Uh-huh."

"You died; condolences.  We resurrected you."

"...thank you, from whom shall I tell my accountant to expect an invoice?"

"We're not going to charge you money for it.  Although we would appreciate the use of some of your time and effort."

"...have I already been declared discharged by way of death in the line of duty, because if I haven't I'm not saying I can't be convinced into shenanigans but I've got a pretty high bar for the convincing."

"...There's a bit of a time dilation situation.  I have no reason to believe you won't be shortly declared that, from certain perspectives."

"...I s'pose a time dilation situation's pretty convincing."

"And you can go back when you're done, if you'd like."

"With a fascinating tale of adventure?"

"The greatest adventure of all, if you think about it.  Say, do you watch any reality programming?"

"...now and again. I will disappoint you if you want me to sing but I suppose if you just want me to be bad at singing for the episode that shows how discerning your judges are it's a small price to pay."

"We could help you improve at singing, if you'd like.  But no, it's not that kind of show."

"I will be far less even keeled about the kind where people have to survive on a half terraformed planet till they cry uncle."

"How about the romance kind?"

"Honestly never understood why people go on those instead of just going out and about and doing things where there are people but I suppose now I know the answer is that the television producers resurrect them from the dead and ask nicely."

"I'm not sure that's the case for ones from your home universe," he laughs.  "Now, I have here," he gestures approximately towards an eye, "that you have 'enough androphilia to work with'; is that so?"

"...you have that from whom?"

"A psychic consultant."

"Well, it's not my first choice, generally speaking, but as long as we're not announcing this anywhere back home, sure."

"Well."

"You're planning to announce this anywhere back home, aren't you."

"If you want to give 'back home' access to the wealth of the multiverse, that wealth will include the ability to purchase permission to watch the season you appear on."

"You know, I really think I'm more fun to observe without that hanging over my head. What if there were a tragic licensing conflict?"

"It's not sufficient that it's a very big multiverse with lots of people producing years and years of content in time dilation compared to everyone else, and you don't necessarily have to tell anyone the season exists?"

"It'd have my name in it, wouldn't it? I'm not saying it'd ruin my life but it'd be so terribly awkward."

"It's feasible that we could develop a tragic licensing conflict, but another piece of the wealth of the multiverse is free travel.  It's harder to set things up so that no one from your home universe would ever be able to see it even while abroad."

"It seems a little less likely that they will specifically be looking up my name while on vacation to wherever people go on vacation to."

"I'll see what I can do.  We could also pseudonymize your last name, if you think that would help at all."

"That would help, yeah."

"You don't think your personal history will come up enough to render it moot?  I suppose it'll still prevent direct searches."

"I dunno how much it'll come up, is the show organized to make it matter much?"

"The premise is that you're competing against twenty-seven other suitors to build a relationship with one person."

"Well, how hard must I sell that this is my heart's desire?"

"Mm, so one thing we could do is that there is magic which allows the editing of people's sexualities.  We could say we were doing that to you, and also that it was undone at the end.  - It would be very nice if you sold that this was your heart's desire."

"Not sure the - victim narrative plays much better than the bisexual all along one, really..."

"Consensual editing agreed to in response to resurrection-based gratefulness?  - Would you mind elaborating on what precisely you foresee the problem being, here."

"It's just not the sort of reputation one wants to cultivate in so public a fashion, you see, it goes over all right with a more curated discreet audience but I'd soonest hold it down to there."

"Well, pseudonym, licensing conflict, then."

"Very generous, thanks."

"You're entirely welcome.  ...You haven't yet expressed much curiosity about the guy, I notice."

"If he is my heart's desire after all I'll be so embarrassed but I doubt you're putting anyone on a show who isn't easy on the eyes and quick with a word?"

"Fair enough.  He also ended material scarcity on his home planet."

"...nice work if you can get it?"

"Isn't it just!  Can I trust you to keep your attention and affection on the Bacheloret - Cam's his name - and off the other contestants?"

"Are the contestants all guys?"

"No, it's a mix."

"Are the girls all really into your leading man in particular?"

"Some of them are doing a different thing than that," Journey admits.

"Well then this will be a challenge but I can do my best."

"If you'd like to have your attraction to women temporarily removed, that's also something we can do."

"I do not think I said anything which sounded like that at all."

"No, I frequently in conversations bring up things which the other party has not already suggested."

"Well, your invention is not in fact something I would like."

"Then we won't intervene thusly!"

"'Preciate it."

"The format is that everybody comes out one at a time, gets a few minutes to introduce themself to the bach, and goes inside.  Once everyone's there, you'll all get to mingle for a few hours until he decides who's staying till next week and who's going home in a Rose Ceremony where he passes out meaningful flowers."

"Huh. And I suppose you want this to be suspenseful so everyone's got to be giving it a fair enough shake?"

"Ideally, yes."

"I will see what I can do but perhaps if I look at the ladies out of many years of habit you can just edit that out."

"Sure.  The real risk is the case where you aren't immediately eliminated and proceed to develop some more substantial competing relationship."

"I'll do my best not to."

"Thank you.  You might also consider coming up with a gimmick to make yourself stand out among the other contestants, for the limo exits.  A pun or a way to turn the interaction into a slightly scripted one."

"What, you're not going to give him whatever kind of eyeball doodad you're using to take notes on us so we have to be punny to be remembered?"

"...We could, I suppose.  I bet he'd like that quite a bit, actually."

"I will claim credit for this, how's that for a gimmick."

"Perfectly acceptable!  It'll still be nice to give the audience something to latch onto, in any case, but that should do it."

"Great."

"You're also one of the only ones from a 'verse with a lot of space colonization.  Almost everyone else from a world with an Earth is part of a culture that's still stuck there, or at least in the system."

"Huh. It's a nice enough place to be stuck but wow."

"Relatedly you're the farthest ahead in time, too.  Second place is in the 2300s; Cam's from 2009."

"I dunno a lot about history, what's that going to mean, like, culturally?"

"I wouldn't worry about it too much.  You're getting along fine with me, and while I'm certainly not from 2009 - currently - the way I act is tuned to go well with people from around then."

"...currently?"

"If I have ever been from a 2009, it's been long enough that I don't strongly expect that to affect me in any meaningful way.  And I've visited plenty of 2009s - it's a big multiverse - though it's not really the same when they've been connected to a larger society."

"...if you say so."

"This is season ten-twenty and I came on in the late hundreds.  I assure you I'm acclimated."

"Damnation that is a lot of these."

"Time dilation!"

"You'd think you'd run out of audience attention!"

"We know how to keep things fresh.  I'll ask again now that you have a better sense of the scope: can I get you anything?"

"...had this really good garlic mussel thing on Earth once."

"I can get you a fancy garlic mussel thing which I can hope you'll like; I cannot actually have our chefs pull recipes out of your memory.  Just to be clear."

"If you never overshoot you always undershoot. But sure, the chef's approximation."

"Very true!  I can get you something our psychic thought you'd like, though."  Fingersnap, and a plate of garlic mussels and a glass full of pink liquid shimmer into reality on the coffee table.  "Be aware that's alcoholic."

"Cheers." Sip. "Oh, that is very nice."

"Glad you like it.  Feel free to ask the staff for anything.  Obviously we won't always provide it, but especially with anything to be used in the service of a romantic gesture, we'll see what we can do."

"I'll keep that in mind if I come up with anything."

"We'll also want to work with you on your wardrobe.  Well, I say 'we', but, the costuming department."

"I have only what I've picked up incidentally from m'mother and it's not very 2009."

"We encourage you to show off your personality and culture."

"Well, whoever picked out what I've got on now did fine at it."

"It might be a brief conversation, then."

The mussels don't bear an especial resemblance to the ones he remembers, but they are pretty good.

No complaints.

"There's also the option for physical tweaks, should you want them.  To your appearance."

"...do I keep those no matter what?"

"Unless you get them changed later."

"I'd take a tuneup, the present model serves but there's always room for improvement."