10-13-2015, 09:15 PM
As he made his way through the gate – realizing with some degree of relief that it was as simple as going through it and there was not some silly complex procedure he’d overlooked which would have led him to total his bike against said gate at eighty miles an hour – Alex looked around the general vicinity with an air of relative surprise about him. In contrast with the gate of the Pale Moors which was not only – let’s just go ahead and say it, creepy enough to be unofficially dubbed the gate to “Screw that land” – but had this nasty tendency to make monster noises at you when you stood by it for too long, like some twisted monster inviting you facetiously to enter the premises of its gaping maw so that you could be ingested into the horrifying depths of an oesophagus Alex refused to imagine, this place actually appeared – despite his original beliefs that it would be too arid to be anywhere near comfortable – pleasant. Okay, granted, he’d just popped into what seemed to be a small patch of what could only be generously described as some kind of a savanna, with sparse trees and grasslands, but the relatively warm weather which bordered on the bearable and the surrounding dunes were somewhat reminiscent of Ichor’s beaches… only with less shades of red and gray… and they weren’t strategically surrounded by military outposts in the event of a naval attack… and there were no proverbial oceans of blood tinted so far red that you had to take a sip to realize it was indeed salt water… in fact, there wasn’t any actual water at all as far as he could tell and… okay so it was nothing like the beaches of Ichor, but he did have to look for some kind of nostalgia somewhere. Anything to avoid missing home and the people he had left behind, right?
If he could have bothered to speak to any of the locals before entering, he would have learned – perhaps, Alex had this horrible thing with information retention – that beyond the valleys, the land becomes more arid and so does the danger of death by dehydration or starvation. The further you go, the less there is, until there is only sand in every direction. This would have led him to be actually thankful for the bearable heat of his current location and would have been a bliss. For now, with his lack of perspective, he was just mildly pissed that he hadn’t had the foresight – granted, there wasn’t much foresight to be had when you get unwillfully teleported to an alternate dimension – to wear something more comfortable than his leather coat. In frustration, he decided to strip it off and lay it between himself and the handle of his bike. In his white sleeveless shirt and black trousers, he would likely be much more comfortable. He could only hope at this point that the skin condition that prevented him from burning under the heat of the sun on his home world would also serve the same function on this planet but… hey, it’s not like he could just turn back and go fetch some sun screen, right?
But enough theoretical thinking. What mattered right now was that he was here… wherever here happened to actually be. It definitely beat the hell out of “THERE IS NOTHING FOR MILES ON END NO MATTER WHAT DIRECTION YOU LOOK” land, also known as the Nexus. God he hoped he would never have to return to that place… for an Ichorian, being surrounded by that much pure white blandness was off-putting to say the least and maddening to the point where it could be compared without too much hyperbole to having each and every single one of your hairs plucked off the top of your head in order starting at the nape of your skull and ending at the bangs. But that was the kind of freakish torture warranting its own tale in its own right and – to be honest – Alex wasn’t too much into the kind of fetishism that would warrant that, so he let his mind focus on this place rather than trying to think of good ways to describe how he felt about the Nexus. That was much safer – not to mention saner – than the alternative.
It was just as he was contemplating this idea of focusing upon his location that he became aware of two individuals talking to each other not too far nearby, just out of the – he refused to call it a savannah – brush and just on the edge of the massive desert. His brain had a light… well, ‘brain fart’ at that moment and pondered how many sand castles the kids would’ve made if they’d been brought here with a jug of water. The time those little idiots could waste on enjoying themselves… it was almost fascinating. God he needed something to get his mind off of that whole nostalgic feeling he’d been plagued with since his arrival here! Screw the rules of protection he and Raven had themselves established, he needed to get his mind off of all that and the best way to do that was some kind of social activity. Driving at a reasonable speed so as not to startle the two beings, he would slowly approach them and pause besides them, slowly getting off his bike.
As luck would have it – at this point, he truly couldn’t tell if Lady Luck was actively helping him, fervently against him or just playfully messing with him – it was just as he arrived that the youngest of the two finished talking and the other started giving off exposition. A convenience if he had ever encountered one. He thus politely stood there and waited for him to finish speaking before joining in on the conversation.
From what the – rather verbose – man said, he gathered that this place, along with the place he had been in beforehand, were called verses. Gates led to Verses. This was basic and common sense enough, but it was a good thing that he knew what to call them, if only so that he could participate in conversations on the topics and so that he could understand what others meant by them when trying to gather information like he was passively doing right now. He then heard that this place was fairly desolate. “Good, that’s exactly what I need after the freaking Nexus…” he ironically thought to himself, though he chose not to share this much as – again – he’d decided against interrupting the conversation for now. The mention of the dataverse and devices capable of accessing it could have off-put some, but context allowed him to gather that this was likely their equivalent of the cybernetic highway from his world and a HUD bracelet. That’d be enough to prevent him from having to ask questions related to that topic for the time being. “Note to self; acquire a dataverse capable device.” He thought. If this place had a bad habit of being peppered with boring dimensions like the Nexus and this one, there was a good chance he would need that kind of distraction to stay sane.
The next topics of monologue – since, at this point, Erik was very much in the middle of a monologue – were also interesting. The distinction between Primes which were summoned by their lord – most likely that ‘Omni’ fellow – and secondaries which were summoned by Primes were particularly interesting. This meant that, just maybe, he would be allowed to bring his allies from Ichor here. He somehow doubted the fact that he would be able to bring all fifty of them along however, so for now he opted not to address that topic either. Instead, he listened on as the NPC discussed the fact that there was no way to go back… as far as he knew. It was slim, but there just might be hope.
Oh, but he had just finished talking. That meant that their attentions would likely turn to the new arrival – himself – shortly. Quick, think of a good introduction. Don’t fail now brain. “Umm… Hey.” He uttered, trying to go for an unassuming tone. At his height of nine feet three and rocking the 'horns, claws and tails' look, the last thing he needed to make this conversation friendly was to come off as intimidating. "Sorry for jumping into your conversation and... eavesdropping... I'm Alex Silver. I apologize if this comes off as an abuse of your generosity but would you mind if I inquired about a few things as well?" He asked the man, making an effort to be polite. He had been nobility after all, so the concept of polite conversation was not foreign to him but, well, he'd grown somewhat rusty. "...nothing worth racking your head over. Just basic stuff like... what's this verse called? Anything worth doing around here? Any differences between primes and secondaries besides this whole 'who summoned who' business? Hope I'm not asking too much..." With that inquiry, his large clawed hand slowly rose the the back of his skull and gave the rear of his right ear a scratch before lowering itself to his pocket and pulling out another of his cigar-sized cigarettes, burying it between his lips. He'd already pulled out his lighter and brought it to his face when he paused in motion to inquire one last thing; "You two... don't mind if I smoke in your vicinity, right?" He asked, still frozen in motion until that topic was addressed.
If he could have bothered to speak to any of the locals before entering, he would have learned – perhaps, Alex had this horrible thing with information retention – that beyond the valleys, the land becomes more arid and so does the danger of death by dehydration or starvation. The further you go, the less there is, until there is only sand in every direction. This would have led him to be actually thankful for the bearable heat of his current location and would have been a bliss. For now, with his lack of perspective, he was just mildly pissed that he hadn’t had the foresight – granted, there wasn’t much foresight to be had when you get unwillfully teleported to an alternate dimension – to wear something more comfortable than his leather coat. In frustration, he decided to strip it off and lay it between himself and the handle of his bike. In his white sleeveless shirt and black trousers, he would likely be much more comfortable. He could only hope at this point that the skin condition that prevented him from burning under the heat of the sun on his home world would also serve the same function on this planet but… hey, it’s not like he could just turn back and go fetch some sun screen, right?
But enough theoretical thinking. What mattered right now was that he was here… wherever here happened to actually be. It definitely beat the hell out of “THERE IS NOTHING FOR MILES ON END NO MATTER WHAT DIRECTION YOU LOOK” land, also known as the Nexus. God he hoped he would never have to return to that place… for an Ichorian, being surrounded by that much pure white blandness was off-putting to say the least and maddening to the point where it could be compared without too much hyperbole to having each and every single one of your hairs plucked off the top of your head in order starting at the nape of your skull and ending at the bangs. But that was the kind of freakish torture warranting its own tale in its own right and – to be honest – Alex wasn’t too much into the kind of fetishism that would warrant that, so he let his mind focus on this place rather than trying to think of good ways to describe how he felt about the Nexus. That was much safer – not to mention saner – than the alternative.
It was just as he was contemplating this idea of focusing upon his location that he became aware of two individuals talking to each other not too far nearby, just out of the – he refused to call it a savannah – brush and just on the edge of the massive desert. His brain had a light… well, ‘brain fart’ at that moment and pondered how many sand castles the kids would’ve made if they’d been brought here with a jug of water. The time those little idiots could waste on enjoying themselves… it was almost fascinating. God he needed something to get his mind off of that whole nostalgic feeling he’d been plagued with since his arrival here! Screw the rules of protection he and Raven had themselves established, he needed to get his mind off of all that and the best way to do that was some kind of social activity. Driving at a reasonable speed so as not to startle the two beings, he would slowly approach them and pause besides them, slowly getting off his bike.
As luck would have it – at this point, he truly couldn’t tell if Lady Luck was actively helping him, fervently against him or just playfully messing with him – it was just as he arrived that the youngest of the two finished talking and the other started giving off exposition. A convenience if he had ever encountered one. He thus politely stood there and waited for him to finish speaking before joining in on the conversation.
From what the – rather verbose – man said, he gathered that this place, along with the place he had been in beforehand, were called verses. Gates led to Verses. This was basic and common sense enough, but it was a good thing that he knew what to call them, if only so that he could participate in conversations on the topics and so that he could understand what others meant by them when trying to gather information like he was passively doing right now. He then heard that this place was fairly desolate. “Good, that’s exactly what I need after the freaking Nexus…” he ironically thought to himself, though he chose not to share this much as – again – he’d decided against interrupting the conversation for now. The mention of the dataverse and devices capable of accessing it could have off-put some, but context allowed him to gather that this was likely their equivalent of the cybernetic highway from his world and a HUD bracelet. That’d be enough to prevent him from having to ask questions related to that topic for the time being. “Note to self; acquire a dataverse capable device.” He thought. If this place had a bad habit of being peppered with boring dimensions like the Nexus and this one, there was a good chance he would need that kind of distraction to stay sane.
The next topics of monologue – since, at this point, Erik was very much in the middle of a monologue – were also interesting. The distinction between Primes which were summoned by their lord – most likely that ‘Omni’ fellow – and secondaries which were summoned by Primes were particularly interesting. This meant that, just maybe, he would be allowed to bring his allies from Ichor here. He somehow doubted the fact that he would be able to bring all fifty of them along however, so for now he opted not to address that topic either. Instead, he listened on as the NPC discussed the fact that there was no way to go back… as far as he knew. It was slim, but there just might be hope.
Oh, but he had just finished talking. That meant that their attentions would likely turn to the new arrival – himself – shortly. Quick, think of a good introduction. Don’t fail now brain. “Umm… Hey.” He uttered, trying to go for an unassuming tone. At his height of nine feet three and rocking the 'horns, claws and tails' look, the last thing he needed to make this conversation friendly was to come off as intimidating. "Sorry for jumping into your conversation and... eavesdropping... I'm Alex Silver. I apologize if this comes off as an abuse of your generosity but would you mind if I inquired about a few things as well?" He asked the man, making an effort to be polite. He had been nobility after all, so the concept of polite conversation was not foreign to him but, well, he'd grown somewhat rusty. "...nothing worth racking your head over. Just basic stuff like... what's this verse called? Anything worth doing around here? Any differences between primes and secondaries besides this whole 'who summoned who' business? Hope I'm not asking too much..." With that inquiry, his large clawed hand slowly rose the the back of his skull and gave the rear of his right ear a scratch before lowering itself to his pocket and pulling out another of his cigar-sized cigarettes, burying it between his lips. He'd already pulled out his lighter and brought it to his face when he paused in motion to inquire one last thing; "You two... don't mind if I smoke in your vicinity, right?" He asked, still frozen in motion until that topic was addressed.
![[Image: Fromm.gif]](http://s7.postimg.org/gk03y9xjv/Fromm.gif)