I've Heard of This

[maggie_of_the_owls]

...This is not her brother's room.
Is this Milliways? Wow! Mama told her about this place, but she's never seen it before.
If Raven were here she could just check if the bar was a person like in Mama's bedtime stories but Sarah is going to have to go up and check the long way.
"Hello?" she says, climbing up onto a bar stool."

Comments

[alicornucopia]

Welcome. Can I interest you in a drink?

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Eee, it is Milliways. Um, Mama says you're good at recommending things."

[alicornucopia]

I'd be happy to recommend you something. An icy strawberries-and-cream something manifests.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Sarah tastes the something.
"You're awesome," she says happily.

[alicornucopia]

It's nothing, really.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"It's awesome is what it is."

[alicornucopia]

I'm glad you like it.

[if_at_first]

The door opens.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

Sarah turns around to see who it is.

[if_at_first]

It is someone she has never met! The person is wearing peculiar but practical-looking clothes and the glimpse past the door prominently displays a wooden horse.

"Um."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Hi! I'm Sarah! This is Milliways!"

[if_at_first]

"...Hi, I'm Sylvi, what is Milliways?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Milliways is a bar. It makes doors in lots of universes. Some people get doors a lot and some people only get one once and most people never do. My Mama gets doors occasionally and my aunt gets them a lot."

[if_at_first]

"I've never heard of such a thing. Entire universes?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Yep."

[if_at_first]

"Who are those other people who - get doors? Is there a way to get more doors if I want them?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"...My Mama and my aunt? I don't know if there's a way to get more doors, if there are Mama never said."

[if_at_first]

"...Come to think of it I'm not sure how we're speaking the same language at all, but I don't understand - are parts of their names getting turned into possessives somehow?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"...Parts of their names? I haven't said either of their names at all."

[if_at_first]

"Titles, whatever."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"...My Mama is my Mama. She isn't most peoples' Mama. She's Raven's Mama and Erik's Mama too."

[if_at_first]

"I don't understand."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Do you. Just not have a mother?"

[if_at_first]

"...Are you some kind of non-human that can talk? I'm a human, the stork dropped me like everybody else on my world."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Of course I'm a human. No one who's not an idiot thinks mutants aren't human. And no one over the age of, like, three, believes that storks bring babies, but even if you do, storks bring babies to parents."