As further evidence, the bar is decorated for The Feast of the Winter Star with ornament glad trees, wreaths and garlands. There's also bits of what looks like snow on the floor in a couple corners. The bar seems unattended.

Emily looks around. Is there anyone here to talk to, quickly, before she loses too much time?

After a few moments a napkin appears on the bar. On it is written: "Welcome to Milliways. The first drink is free."

Do they have... crystal fruit wine, by any chance? She doesn't need iridium quality, just their regular or silver will do.

A new napkin.

I can provide whatever quality of crystal fruit wine you would like.

Oh jeepers. She'll have the iridium, then! 

A full glass of iridium quality crystal fruit wine appears.

Emily sips the wine slowly. She's never had anything this nice before, and she's not exactly sure why it's happening to her now. She's sad that the bar communicates via written napkins instead of having a friendly bartender to talk to. Emily always makes a point of chatting with her customers when she's tending bar. And Emily really needs someone to talk to right now, for multiple reasons.

As if in response to her desire the door opens behind her. The door is both wider and shorter than it was when she walked through it and in walks a concerning looking being. They have ten legs and an odd sort of insect like appearance with a segmented body. On the front of their body, there's a maw with smaller limbs in constant motion around it.

"Oh, hello there, are you by any chance human? Also do you happen to know where this is or why I came here instead of the room I was expecting?"

"Oooh! Are you a Royal Serpent? I had no idea you guys could talk! They never mention that kind of thing when they warn people off from the mines and Skull Cavern! They just say it's too dangerous and we mustn't go down there. It's so nice to meet you."

"I am human, yes, probably more so today than I was yesterday. I don't know where this is, I just got here myself. I'm as confused as you are. This bar will serve you a free drink, though!"

Emily is a little bit Tipsy from the wine.

"I don't believe I'm a royal serpent. I haven't heard anyone call me that before at least. Also, what do you mean by being more of a human than yesterday?"

"Oh, okay, if not a Royal Serpent then what are you?" Emily's tone is warm and curious.

"Yesterday someone new and very confusing came into my bar and started asking questions and since then I've been... waking up, I guess you would call it? I'm much more aware than I was yesterday."

Emily is feeling much better now that she has someone to talk to.

"How delightful, I wasn't aware that was something that happened to humans. What is that experience like?"

"It's confusing and overwhelming and wonderful all at once."

"I'm still curious about you, though! What level of the mines do you normally live on?"

"I don't live in any sort of mine or cave. Unless you count buildings like this seems to be as caves."

"So... where are we, exactly? Are we in... Zuzu City?"

Emily figures maybe in the big city, monsters mingle freely with humans in bars, and are not confined to mining areas.

"The door that brought me here usually opens to an entirely different room. I rather expect that some sort of extraordinary technology was involved in bringing us here. Perhaps even something worthy of being called magic. I have seen pictures of humans before but I've never met one. I don't think you're from the same group of humans I'm familiar with though. And I can only be glad of that. Some people would be rightfully upset with me if I allowed them to learn we know of them."

Hmmm. This does not entirely answer the question, but maybe her new friend doesn't know where they are, either.

"Magic! Maybe so!" This is a cheering thought.

"Why would people be upset about humans knowing about you?"

"Because they plan to conquer our world and enslave us and our best hope of preventing that requires they remain unaware of our preparations."

"Humans plan to conquer your world? What? Are you saying you're from a different world?"

"As far as I'm aware there are no humans at all on my planet. I don't know how far away your world must be but it is not in my star system. As further evidence you seem quite comfortable standing under normal feeling gravity. As I understand it, they largely live in microgravity and need special drugs to be comfortable in normal gravity. I don't expect you to be aware of the Qeng Ho or the Emergents either. Those are the two groups of humans involved."

This mostly goes over Emily's head. She's aware of gravity. She's aware of other planets, where gravity might be different. She has never actually thought about gravity, however, mostly because she's never thought about most things, and whatever inference the bug-creature is making about her current level of comfort is lost on her.

She does get that there are a couple of other factions of humans and they're the ones who want to enslave her friend.

"You're right, I've never heard of the Qeng Ho or the Emergents, but if they want to conquer and enslave you then that's very upsetting. Are they just evil or is the war mutual?"

Now Emily is thinking how, whenever adventurers go down into the mines, they kill a lot of bug-creatures, and how wrong that is. Possibly she should be trying to designate the mines as a nature preserve, though she also knows that people want to mine for precious minerals down there. 

"I'm not sure quite what it means for a person to be evil but those in control of the humans are not inclined towards cooperation. They need things we can provide for them and it is their habit to take things rather than ask for them.

"They are accustomed to owning people, the Emergent's civilization, they call it the Emergency, is built on that foundation and they are the ones in control. If secrecy were not so critical we might have tried to talk to some of the other humans but I have reluctantly accepted that doing so is not worth the risk."

"Is there anything you can do to get away from them? Or is there any way I could help? Like if they don't talk to bug people, maybe they'll talk to me because I'm human?"

"We haven't even been able to tell most people of the danger. Evacuating is impossible for many reasons and many would rather die than give up the planet we were all born on. And as I said we've decided not to risk talking to the humans. I believe in the team we've assembled and the plans we've made. We'll make it through okay."

"Oh, so you do have a plan? That's good."

Emily is relieved. She was really not sure how to help. It seemed big and hard and complicated, and she's very new at solving problems.

Her own problems are seeming quite a bit smaller and more tractable by comparison.

She sips her wine.

"Why do you think you ended up in here, when the door you came through usually goes somewhere else?"

"I have no idea. It's very exciting really. The whole place is quite fascinating. I have no idea what's happening through the window there. You were here first have you leaned anything in that time?"

"No, not at all, I was only here a minute or two before you were. Do you want to go look through the window?"

"Oh, I have been. I do wonder if it's some sort of stellar phenomenon. My people haven't devoted nearly enough time to studying the stars. In many ways it has been to our detriment. Returning to the topic of this place, did you bring that drink with you or did you find it somewhere in this room? Have you explored any of the spaces down the hallways or through that other door?"

"A napkin appeared on the bar with some writing on it, saying that my first drink was free. If you approach the bar, maybe the same thing will happen for you? I haven't explored at all, I just came through my door and looked around, got my drink, and then you were here."

"Teleportation of some kind? Or perhaps some form of manufacturing." He walks over and uses some of his forward legs to raise his body to the level of the bar counter. "Hello, may I have a trisian swirl? Also, are you able to communicate on topics other than drinks?"

A small dish more closely resembling a gravy boat than a glass appears filled with something colored in swirls of green and red. A napkin accompanies it.

Welcome to Milliways. I can communicate about any topics in this manner. I don't expect to be able to answer all your questions though.

Sherkaner ignores the swirl for the moment. He is throwing caution a little to the wind but tasting something from an unknown source would be one step too far at least for now. "Well that's to be expected. I don't think anyone has been able to answer all of my questions. That would make the world a little duller. Are you somehow invisible or perhaps operating through some mechanism at a remove?"

I'm the bar. What I do is more like manufacturing than teleportation.

"How does that work? And what can you tell me about this place we've found ourselves in?"

I can create any non-magical food or drink in exchange for currency. I don't make things that would be dangerous to the people intended to consume them. The ability is instinctual for me. I don't know what's involved in the process.

I know quite a bit about Milliways but the general summary is that Milliways exists outside of the universes the two of you came from and in most cases time is paused in your worlds of origin while the door is closed.

"Oh, how exciting. I wasn't aware that time was something that could be paused. If that's true that is immensely useful. Can I get things from outside and then return here?"

There are no guarantees but typically the door will not remain linked to Milliways after it is closed from the outside.

Time is paused at home while Emily is here? This is fantastic! Maybe she can stay here for like thirty years and learn how to be a person and then go back!

"Can I just... stay here until I'm ready to leave? Or does that cost money? And if staying here costs money, are there any jobs available?"

There are rooms available for rent. They are charged per experienced day. Sleeping in the main bar is discouraged, and doing it for too long invites adverse coincidences and some other bartenders will call security to enforce that rule.

Milliways hires staff for cleaning, bartending, medical and security shifts. All of those positions are sufficient to pay for a room indefinitely assuming you meet the requirements.

Running a balance is also allowed, though some people avoid it in the fear that it will result in adverse coincidences. There is no concrete evidence that such caution is necessary though.

"How fascinating. I suppose I'll have to remain for at least a while. Is there any consistent way to return? Also what exactly are adverse coincidences and what else invites those?"

People who arrive once are more likely to arrive again. Beyond that there is no firm pattern, some people can get doors at will but that is rare.

Adverse coincidences are just that small things that build up and make what you're doing uncomfortable or impossible. The main thing that leads to them is holding open the door for extended periods of time.

"Hmmm. I'm not sure if I actually need to sleep or not. I should probably get a room for at least the first night, just in case I pass out at 2am."

"Bright side, if I do need money, I'm an experienced bartender!"

Emily beams. Things do tend to work out!

She turns to her new friend.

"What about you? Do any of those jobs work for you?"

"I can't say I've had experience at any of those jobs. I expect I've picked up a little knowledge of cleaning and security over the years, I doubt my limited knowledge of bartending would suffice and my knowledge of biology is largely theory based. If there's on the job training though, medicine sounds the most fascinating."

Positions largely rely on previous experience. New staff are generally introduced to the available facilities by existing staff but are otherwise expected to use existing skill sets. Due to coincidence management no member of staff will be faced with situations that are beyond their ability to handle.

Emily is unsurprised that her existing knowledge of serving Beer and Coffee will be more than enough to support herself. Why wouldn't it be?

"Hmmm, it sounds like there's not really on-the-job training here, but if you want, I could teach you how to serve Beer! Then we could be bartending buddies together! What's your name, by the way?"

"I'm Sherkaner Underhill. I'm always interested in learning new things but I'm also not particularly short on money. What is your home like?"

"I'm Emily. I come from a very small, peaceful town. There are only thirty or so people in the whole town -- we have a teacher, a doctor, a shopkeeper, a carpenter, a scientist, and so on. I like how friendly and quiet it is, but there's not much of a fashion scene and nobody ever changes their clothes."

"How about you, what is it like where you live?"

"I live in a university city. It's wonderful having so many students around. There's always new things to learn about and work on. There's around a hundred thousand people in total. I got my house recognized as an annex of the University which means there's students coming through and working on projects quite a lot. Nothing is better than having interesting conversations with people about new ideas. And trying to make those ideas a reality."

"Like what kind of ideas?"

Emily is brand new at making ideas a reality and wants to hear more about how that's done.

"Well, the very first crazy idea I brought into reality was the one that led to me being a darkstrider. My understanding is that most stars stay on all the time but for some reason the star my people's planet orbits turns off for a couple centuries at a time before turning back on. It used to cycle on and off more frequently but for reasons we don't understand it's slowed down.

"Anyway, my species hibernates during the time we call the dark. It gets so cold during that time that the air itself freezes and becomes snow until there's no air at all. I theorized that there would be certain kinds of very small microbes that could eat that frozen air and generate enough heat to make it into air again and let us wake up during the deepest dark. And after a number of experiments I found them. With a lot more work and a lot of refinement that let me and three others wake up in the middle of the long dark and win the war that was on at the time without anyone else needing to die."

Emily knows that stars can twinkle in the sky, of course, but she had never thought before about what it would be like to live with a twinkling star as her sun!* This is a terrifying prospect, that the sun could just turn off one day and the air could freeze! Emily shivers.

"So... your side woke up, while the other side was still sleeping, and you... disabled their weapons, or something? So that when they woke up, they couldn't fight anymore?" Emily does know something about war. The Ferngill Republic has always been at war with the Gotoro Empire.

* Emily, unlike Maru, has never studied astronomy, and considerations of white dwarfs or pulsars are not occurring to her.

"We sabotaged a critical logistics depot using black paint and explosives. The black paint worked because the sun is much much brighter than usual during first light. That meant that they didn't have the strategic depth to sustain operations after the relight and they knew it and knew that we knew it."