[...That was an unusual reaction. He tilts his head slightly as he reaches for one of the finished skewers.]

You're in a Fissure, an area of distorted and damaged reality and uncontrolled magic. It's possible to pass from other worlds into this one through it, but so far we haven't found a way to go in the other direction. Right now, we're working on stabilizing them to make the world more livable and to study them more safely.

We've been living in a research station a few miles from here, along with a group of androids native to this world...though, depending on our success at stabilizing this Fissure, maybe we'll be able to claim some of these buildings to live in, instead. It is getting a bit crowded.