Private Finished Entering a Whole New Ballgame

Sprinkles left the community center with Kallias following behind, being his shy, fidgety self. Despite the center being relatively quiet this time of night, he looked shaken up by quite a few things there. Mostly Azalea things. Getting Kallias out of there for a "normal" walk might be better to get him acclimated. Sprinkles may not look normal, but he was raised with humans and knew how to speak to them. He was confident that he was also new enough to be able to genuinely empathize with Kallias on all his new-islander woes.

Not content with most of this walk being silent, Sprinkles plugged his left ear, put on some music, then attempted to start a conversation with Kallias. "I'm surprised you were up for walking with me when it's so late. Didn't take you as the nocturnal type. Then again..." he looked Kallias up and down, "you look like a plain human to me, and appearances sure are deceiving here."

Sprinkles nodded as Kallias spoke, all the while giving his gait a bounce to the beat of his music. Before speaking, he took some time to figure out exactly what he wanted to say. He wanted to avoid using any words that Kallias could mistake for something else. Keeping up a conversation with Kallias was going to be more difficult than Sprinkles had thought.

"At night the community center can be empty to almost empty, so you picked a good time to visit. Can't say the same about other places. This island is pretty active day and night."

Sprinkles gave Kallias another look over. Honestly, he wanted Kallias to respond with an explanation on what he was. Time to be more direct. "So, if you don't mind, do you have any coo—er, interesting things you can do? Um, things other humans can't do." Was that too personal? Not as personal as asking what brought him here, hopefully.

So that was too personal. Sprinkles was socially aware enough to notice Kallias' shift from "general discomfort" to "you specifically made me uncomfortable" discomfort. That was, unsurprisingly, something Sprinkles was used to seeing in people who interacted with him.

Judging by how Kallias described himself and his general ignorance towards everything, Sprinkles decided to settle on time-traveler. "Sorry, I can get too curious. If it makes you feel better, there are a lot of regular humans here. Can't say I understand being from long ago though. I've only been alive for five years." Sprinkles tried to lighten the situation with a laugh. He expected that detail to catch Kallias off guard, but at least he wouldn't be put on the spot anymore.

As the two walked, Sprinkles kept to the emptier parts of the streets. He was more or less wandering through the city, looking around for anything that caught his interest.

And just as Sprinkles expected, Kallias looked confused. He had to will himself to not wink at Kallias' staring. This boy has suffered enough.

Sprinkles responded to Kallias with a cheerful tone. "I don't find it rude at all. I'm a human given some of the traits of a cat. Catperson is a pretty general term, but the people who made me and others like me use the name NEK0."

"No no no," he replied quickly. "Cats don't look like me. I just have ears and a tail like them." Hoping to clear things up, he showed some cat pictures to Kallias on his phone.

And then Sprinkles remembered what Kallias said about phones being too much. He pulled the phone back, nervous that he showed Kallias something he wasn't ready for. "Sorry. Forgot about the phone thing."