"Occam's razor and my admittedly second-hand knowledge of multiversal theory say probably not, no," Alex says, perhaps a little more dryly than he really intends to.

"But given what I do know about alternate universes, that we're currently standing on solid ground, breathing oxygen and not being eaten by snakes the size of subway trains makes us actually pretty fortunate, as far as these things go."

You do not get to be the God of Scales and Silence by being good at talking to people.