"I had a plan, but it seems like things are worse out there than I thought they'd be.

If I could find someone to pay as a messenger, they might have more luck actually getting to my friends, and they'd be able to escort me safely if they knew I was here."

"That isn't likely to be possible. Time is paused in your world while the door is closed and holding open the door is likely to invite coincidences that make you close it."

"Then I guess I'll be looking for - better armour? I wonder if it's possible to make an umbrella that works against jaculi..."

"I can cover the cost of a room if you plan to stay for a while and don't have money. Sleeping here without a room is also likely to invite unfriendly coincidence. I can also give you basic food though Bar sells much better food if you have money. As I understand it Milliways is friendliest when you're a staff member or you are using it as a resting place. Trying to leverage it as anything else is taken poorly by whatever causes the coincidences."

"I mean, I am using it as a resting place. What kind of staffing does it need? I do have a bit of money, although it might have to last a while if I can only hold the door for a little while at a time."

"Milliways employs people to do security, maintenance, and medical work. Due you the nature of Milliways if you're accepted as an employee you are guaranteed to be able to complete any assigned task."

"Oh? What's the 'nature of Milliways' that does that? I'm a great wemic surgeon but other species, I can only slow down the inevitable for another doctor to come along."

"When Milliways offers guarantees they can be regarded more as immutable laws of physics than the more mundane agreement you would expect from the paperwork."

"So, if I hang around here being available to treat people, I'll see some more wemics come in?"

"If Milliways accepts your application. Or else you'll have people from other species with minor issues that don't require major expertise to address."

"I suppose if Milliways is doing the supplying, I do know how to use a wide variety of hangover cures and the like."

She looks kind of conflicted. "He'll think I've abandoned him if I don't go back to him, but I'm not keen on dying just yet. I mean, I'm sure it'd work out in the end, Jaguar might even want to make up to me for the stupid situation he put me in. But, ugh. I wasn't done yet."

"Time is paused unless you decide to never return. Though you will need to go somewhere else unless you become an employee and even employees can be dismissed if Milliways sees our actions as trying to make Milliways into something it doesn't want to be."

"I mean, Milliways wants to be a place of rest, right? I figure I am due a bit of a rest. Even better if I can do it and still know where people are going to be once I've gathered my strength."

"That sounds reasonable to me."

"So how did you end up here?"