Private Finished Unwanted Attention

“You lost your family?...” Alby’s tone shifted from the excitement he had a moment ago to a more grim one. He had once again run into somebody in a very different situation to his.

He often considered his powers to be a blessing, some lucky gift he’d received by chance that made him special. His powers had never really inconvenienced him in the past and he was quite happy to have arrived at the island, something that was entirely his choice. With this girl, that was clearly not the case. He imagined she’d been gifted powers or something in a similar manner, but her’s must have been more problematic. Something that could’ve driven people to call her a freak and have her taken to the island against her wishes.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have... I lied, there’s no project. I was just curious.” He sighed, regretting having bothered this girl.

"It is like a mishmash of all the fantasy, but I wouldn't say it's a bad thing. There's so much cool stuff here, and it's never boring. I get that some of it might be bad for you, but surely it can't all be. There's so much amazing stuff and things that can happen here!" Alby caught himself a little too late, quieting his tone and shifting the subject.

"Anyway, I really am sorry about the lie. There was just something about you that sparked my curiosity. I could go around asking people to show me cool stuff and there would probably be a good chunk that would. But I'm trying to learn about everything. Can't just overlook everything that's hard and go back later."

He scratched the back of his head. "And sorry about that, I'm Alby. And it's nice to meet you."

“Hmm. You know it’s okay not to be normal here, right? I’ll admit the being accused of being a cannibal is bad, that’s just wrong. But even if you weren’t human, so what?” He shrugged, trying to make her feel better in a sort of backwards way. “I’ve met a lot of people who used to be human or thought they were human. But once they weren’t anymore, it didn’t make them any less of a person.” He sighed. “Some people are jerks and they’re gonna say nasty stuff. That goes for anywhere, here or Earth. But you know it isn’t true, so don’t let it get to you.”

“And what I was really doing was a regular old book assignment. I only wish my assignment was what I said it was.”