"Ah, he is a sweetie, isn't he? But yes, he is a bit. Well," she gestured vaguely. "Sweet as pie, but about as easy to have a conversation with."
She sat next to him so the book could balance, opened, on their thighs.
"generally, this is the world. The fae call it the mortal coil, and you can get other names from other cultures here. We have several. New earth is gaining popularity among the people from level four tech universes, but so is old earth. It's not really either."
It looked spherical enough. Like an orange.
Except for the crack in it.
Closer inspection should that it seemed to be drawn, hollow. Still an orange, but just the peel of it.
Even closer inspection, or maybe just waiting a moment, meant the pen and ink illustrations moved.
Not a lot. Just a bit. When you weren't quite looking at then. But time and consideration meant that the globe turned.
"You're on the island of Namoka, roughly the middle of nowhere on the sea," she took a sip of wine, and picked up a shard of the same dark chalkboard they kept in the front windows. "And no, we don't have a stargate," she added, tossing it back onto the table. Stargate. Odd thing to ask for.