Emerald looked over to Kiah as she said what she did.

"Oh, YOU'RE Kiah." he said.

"I've heard a lot about you." he told her. "And it's all been good." he went on.

"Things like you're a genius, and how the place would fall apart without you, and all that." he went on.

"And... wait, a chemist that uses mana in her work?" he then asked, thinking about it.

"I mean, where I come from, alchemists are a thing of the distant past, but... isn't that synonymous with them?" he asked her, clearly just looking for information, and not trying to start anything.

"Oh, uh, no. No, we haven't." Emerald replied.

"I'm new here. My sister and I are, that is." he went on.

"My name's Emerald, and I'm here from... well... another dimension." he told her bluntly.

"One that's... well... noticeably different from this one, but still similar." he added.

"I'm not sure if you've met my sister yet, but her name's Violet." he finished.

"If it helps, we got here through a black hole." Emerald replied.

"Seriously. We got pulled into it, weird stuff happened, and we were spat out in THIS dimension, where we somehow managed to navigate our way to this planet, and... well... crashed." he muttered.

"So I don't know how far out we were." he admitted.

"But if I recall correctly, the threat of reality tearing stops being a thing around.... 50 ripples out? Or so?" he then mumbled further, thinking about it.

"I'd have to seriously concentrate and recall my education for such small details." he chuckled, scratching the back of his head lightly.

Emerald nodded.

"We are." he said.

"Space has always fascinated the people of our planet." he told her.

"And when we finally managed to plumb the depths of the oceans, and find out what all was down there, down to the lowest point below water level, we moved on to the next logical step." he went on.

"We went out. And out. And out." he said.

"And... well... it led to this."

Emerald was looking quite confused now.

"Her boy?" he asked Rylie.

"Helena? Steal?" he went on.

"Wait... wait, are there kids here?" he suddenly asked.

"I've never seen any children around here, but... wait, are they here in the lab?" he then asked further.

"And... is that safe...?"

"Uh.... right." he said.

"So this guy is Illias..." he went on, before the man himself showed up.

"Yep, that's me." he commented, having come to look for Kiah.

"So... who is Helena...?" Emerald then inquired.

Illias just sighed in response.

"Look, I'm sorry she acts out." he said. "She's always been the rebellious one of my babies." he added, causing Emerald to look even MORE confused.

"Snakes?" Emerald asked.

"You keep snakes?" he asked Illias.

"....something like that." Illias replied.

He then moved his hair out of the way, and several serpents popped out from beneath it.

"Woah!" Emerald exclaimed.

"So you're a Serpadia." he commented.

"...a what?" Illias asked.

"A being with snakes on their head than can turn people to stone." Emerald responded, wondering if he'd made a serious faux-pas.

"Oh!" Illias replied.

"Oh, I see. Well, then yes, I AM that." he confirmed.

"Wow, that's awesome!" Emerald exclaimed.

"You guys are... well... extinct where I come from." he said quietly.

"...hm." Illias mumbled.

"Well, we're rare, but we DO still live here on this planet, in this dimension." he confirmed, as his snakes started to 'taste' the air around Emerald.

Illias perked up when he heard that.

"Yeah!" he said, as Emerald got closer to the snakes.

They sniffed around him for a moment, before they relaxed and went into more neutral positions.

"Means they're comfortable with you." Illias told him.

"At any rate, I have work to do as well." he then added.

"All right." Emerald said, before looking at Rylie.

"I'm good to go."

Illias said his goodbyes, and disappeared back into the lab, while Emerald thought for a moment.

"Hm." he mumbled.

"I can't think of anywhere in specific." he said.

"So I'm fine with meandering about." he told her.

"You thinking of wandering to any kind of area at all, or literally just randomly where our legs take us?" he then asked.