The way into the next room seemed to telescope a bit, but settled in on a moodily-lit wood-paneled bar to let Jerald step through. A muscled auburn-haired young woman in sleek black camiknickers and a black bunny-ears headband nodded at his presence, preparing a martini glass. A nametag identified her as 'Suzy'.
"Welcome to Someone Else's Libram." the bartender stated flatly but politely, as if this was a well-worn routine she'd gotten used to ages ago. "It's one of those transitional places between worlds. Bar where the up-and-coming great-and-powerful dealios test out their wings. We're a friend facility of the Elsewhere Train, you can head back to the rest through the door you came in."
The rest of the bar around the train-style butterfly-marked door was pretty scenic in a quiet picturesque manner. A large 'Someone Else's Libram: Anywhere but here' sign was hung above the bar along with miscellaneous bar decorations. A wall-mounted TV played some background noise sports news near a window displaying a starry landscape of purple crystals. A few sets of miscellaneous art supplies were scattered on one of the corner tables, and a hallway led off to the bathrooms and some other 'living and lounging' area. Low-hanging lights lit a few shadowed figures murmuring to each other and passing around cards.
"Don't worry," Suzy said offhandedly, "this is just our default configuration and one of my presented avatar bodies. We can rearrange the space or show up as something else, I just like the old-class and not-what-you're-attracted-to aesthetic to spur a little creativity."
"So, you're magic or something, Suzy?" Jerald asked, deadpan from being unsure how to react.
"Yeah, pretty much." Suzy said with a shrug, pouring out some vodka from a bottle and garnishing with lime. "Talked a bit over the secret channels. Elsewhere Train says you wanted to be a gay author but couldn't get around life circumstances? Have a miracle."
Suzy gestured to one of the bar stools, where Jerald sat. Suzy conjured an orb of light in her left hand, grabbed the vodka with her right, drank deep, and flicked the light into Jerald. In a moment, he...understood. Understood a lot. A lot about how a world could be made of text, and that text was so easy to just reach out and write into, or overwrite, or interpret, or change...it was familiar, somehow. Like becoming a soul again in a space between lives where the rules were more like guidelines and the guidelines were very, very optional. Jerald wasn't sure why he knew that or how, but passed it off as the magic Suzy had passed to him.
"World's text-based here." Suzy commented, fluffing up the narration by wordlessly describing a nearby rack of assorted brews and juices into focus. "See how the words behind this thing have the 'hard' defining stuff I just talked about, then the 'soft' specifics in how the world parses and imagines in the big interpretation? You're not just any author, you're an author who gets to live on the same level as their creations. Try adding some descriptive bits."
"Right." Jerald said, intuitively parsing...Implication? "I'll just go for the non-alcoholic ginger ale over there, I want my first reality-warping binge to be sober."
Suzy grinned and pulled the newly-confirmed bottle from the rack, pouring some into a highball glass and setting it by Jerald. He drank, relishing the taste and noting the degrees of indirect information that spiraled out from the simple source-truth.
"So that's something." Jerald said. "I don't really know what I expected. Some gay fantasy world, maybe?"
"Hey, you could make your own or take the train for that." Suzy commented. "Probably want to make yourself a bit younger and more attractive first. I don't care and the other patrons' projections won't judge, strip naked and jerk off if you want."
"I'll save that for later." Jerald demurred, deciding to go for being hot before getting all perverted in the subjectively open.
Concentrating, he decided how to revise his own description. He could slide down the age of his physical body, but he wanted to be selective in that. Sure, he was throwing out that dirty old life like the trash it had been, but he wasn't going to skip that it had happened entirely...yet. Overall physical appearance he toned down to the silver fox years of his early 50s to start with, not that he had been particularly sexy back then either. Overall musculature he raised a bit, though not much for fat so much as not looking shrunken. The beer gut that made him feel out of proportion he rewrote to a four-pack for now, but it could be a six pack if he worked out more. A lot of the internal workings he set to be closer to that of a 22 year old, letting the secondary descriptions cascade into making his overall body feel much lighter and more flexible. Blemishes faded, everything felt more alive again, and the text in the world was still a clear undercurrent defining himself and all around him.
With this increase in mobility, Jerald decided to correct some more style too. Now shaved by choice rather than balding, and with a short grey beard that matched the mustache, he was a bit too thin for the standard daddy but enough to feel like a peculiar mix of twink and silver fox that was just unreal enough to fit into fantasy. His janitorial outfit he swept away into storage, replacing it immediately with a light leather jacket, matching pants, and similarly black boots. He didn't even bother putting anything under for now, when it'd be fetish gear later anyway. The manhood in his pants was a bit larger than it was originally, a slightly larger than average showy 4 inches soft and six hard (again, to experiment with later). Transformation mostly complete, Jerald shamelessly felt himself up a bit before getting up and stretching, finishing off his drink with a more refined sense of taste to better enjoy the flavors.
Suzy nodded politely, commenting "Ah, good show. A lot of people who don't wanna be accused of youth do the fake-age thing where they look slightly older but bang like they're young again or better, glad to see it's developed independently again. So, you planning to go somewhere?"
"That's a good question." Jerald said, thinking to himself for a moment.