Through the sea of sand (Open)

[Alex Silver]

Alex listened intently to the ways in which the normalisation of the omniverse affected the Kid. He noticed two things which stood out particularly from what Sebastian said, and could not help but feel a little bit irked to know that some people actually got benefits from this whole ordeal. What’s worse; why was it that the Kid still had his weapons? This struck him as a bit unfair but, then, balancing was balancing. Surely there must have been some logical reason for it all. “I did not get any benefits from coming here, unfortunately. I’m a lot weaker, slower, less enduring and – I checked by throwing a pebble earlier back at the fountain – I’m ninety percent convinced that my aim got worst. Not too significantly, but I’m pretty certain nonetheless. Back in my world, I could run faster than this thing can go.” At that, he took a pause and gave a light kick on the side of his motorcycle. “Now? It goes almost six times as fast as I do at full speed.”

At this point in his description, Alex hesitated for a second. He wondered if it was worth trying to make comparisons the boy would likely not understand from his world, but then Sebastian had mentioned a few things that he was unfamiliar with in their conversation thus far so at worst, he imagined he could always explain. “In my world, I could run five hours around the Nexus without breaking a sweat, here I broke a sweat by running halfway from the fountain to one gate. In my world, I could tear through plasma-fiber like paper. In this realm? I’m not entirely convinced I could punch through a sheet of iron. Heck, I’m not certain I could reliably hit a target at two hundred feet, which is less than a fifth of my usual reliable shooting range… but that’s not even the worst part.”

With that said, Alex pointed to the necklace around his neck. “See this? It used to contain an arsenal vast enough to arm an entire country’s military force. Twice. But I tried pulling out a weapon from it and I got nothing. I think something about the omniverse impeaches my connection with the Arcane forces which govern it. That would also explain why I can’t fly or call upon my abilities here… all in all, by the standards of my world of origin; I am horrifyingly weak right now. Hence why I’ve opted to be as careful as humanly possible in everything I do until I can find a work around of some sort… if ever.” With that, Alex brought the talisman up to eye level and observed it for a moment as he pondered what the boy had said about his arrows. Perhaps it was simply that the talisman itself had been nerfed down and that was why he had no access to his weaponry? No, that made no sense; if it had been the case, he would have appeared in the omniverse with the Demigra – his trusty revolver – still in hand. There had to be another reason and not understanding how this universe worked frustrated him to no end. Though in his face, this barely showed with a light furrowing of the brow and pursing of the lips.

“Oh, one last thing before we go; in my universe, this motorcycle could easily hit speeds of three hundred miles per hour with no issue. Here, the speed caps at eighty miles per hour. How is your… Nelly… fairing in that regard?” He inquired, taking a drag of his cigar before beginning to drive forward slowly at a pace of roughly ten miles per hour, figuring Sebastian’s vehicle he had put so much praise into would no doubt be able to catch up. It may have seemed a bit impolite, but Alex didn’t like ordering people to “Go” or “Stop”; instead he headed forward and let people decide whether they would follow him or not. When the Nelly would catch up, he would match its speed. Well, Alex simply hoped he would be able to, but as he would soon learn; no vehicle could exceed 80mph in the omniverse, so he would be able to without problem.