“If you just want to play around with some real swords or spears or whatever else, just use ballistics gel blocks or dummies. We could also hunt a wild boar, kill it and then test weapons on the carcass but that will be a lot more work.”

Once we were done taking our second shower of the day, Chameleon made a suggestion while eating some chocolate ice cream from a gallon tub. I had a few spoonfuls myself, but after watching her guzzle it down so voraciously, I kinda lost my appetite. As I drank a glass of water to wash my mouth out a bit, I asked: “By the way… What about your yard? Shouldn’t we get started on fixing your fence and planting stuff soon? Kinda feels like we’ve been putting it off…”

“I’m the main provider for fresh fruits and vegetables on the island, so I really should stop being lazy.” She chuckled and then ate another big spoonful of ice cream, “Mmmn~… But it’s really not that big of a deal. Until we build the fence, we can’t start the garden or it’ll just get ruined. Even then, it’s a constant struggle against wild animals and well… Thieves. It’s fine to just kill the pets like rabbits and rats, but dealing with the Rejects can be problematic. Most of them can’t communicate properly or have various disabilities and disorders, they aren’t quite ‘monsters’, but they’re still not what I would consider completely human.”

“Even humans kill each other all the time.” I sighed and shrugged my shoulders, “It would be a lot easier if we could form some sort of deal with them though. Haven’t you guys tried having Cicada talk to them?”

“Pft~, Cicada doesn’t even like talking to ‘us’ and we’re her family!” Chameleon grumbled, “That girl has the power to communicate with pretty much anything, even plants to a certain extent, but she’s totally anti-social.”

“Ah, my mother talks to her plants. And birds, and the cat… And mice… My mother talks to any animal except cockroaches pretty much, hahaha~!” I smirked and then shook my head, “Sometimes I wonder if I inherited my ‘powers’ from her… Like maybe she comes from a family of Druids or something? I know that her father’s ancestors were like welsh or something. Of course, my father’s side of the family could also be Italian witches hahaha~!”

“I’d like to meet my ‘father’ one day.” She smiled wryly as her skin started to turn from brown to blue-ish, along with her irises: “At first I used to hate him for rejecting me. But as I got older, I realized that he made the right decision. Besides, he’s Jacob James, world-famous basketball player and almost a billionaire… He also has his own clothing line, supposedly really popular sneakers and even starred in a few blockbuster movies once he retired. A man with a wife and three kids already, one of the children from his previous marriage. And you don’t seem to know who he is at all.”

I snickered and complained, “I’ve never really been into sports. Of any kind. Judging by how fucking tall you are though, I figure he’s gotta be a giant too. Which is actually pretty common in basketball so… I feel like I would recognize him if he was in movies though. Maybe if you showed me a picture?”

“Sure, here.” She stopped stuffing her face with ice cream for a moment to grab her phone off the bar in front of the kitchen counter, then unlocked it with her thumbprint and handed it to me. There were a fuck-ton of files and apps, but fortunately, there was a searchbar at the top: “Just look for Father or Jacob James.”

The moment I typed in Jacob James, a file appeared, which I opened and saw hundreds of pictures. There were some from him playing basketball when he was younger, and a few where he was acting in movies when he was older, while most were generic paparazzi style photos of him in daily life. By the way, our Infinity Phones have absurdly large harddrives, at least a terabyte, and then a seemingly ‘infinite’ amount of cloud storage that was probably located somewhere on the island. There were five full-length movies stored in the Jacob James folder, all of which were critically acclaimed blockbusters… At least according to Chameleon, but the moment I looked at them more seriously I started to feel something sinking in my gut.

When she noticed my expression, Chameleon asked: “What’s wrong? Ana?”

“Eve… I’ve never heard of Jacob James. I’ve never seen him before either.” I sighed dramatically and then handed her back the phone, “I’ve also never heard of any of those movies. Never heard a single person mention them before. Never saw an advertisement… But the worst part is that they look eerily familiar. Like movies I do recognize, but with different actors and slightly different settings.”

“Are you saying… My father isn’t a real person and Infinity lied to me all these years?” Chameleon didn’t seem all that shocked, “Honestly… I’ve thought about that possibility too. But even if it’s true, it’s not that big of a deal. I’ll probably never meet him anyway.”

“No, Eve, I didn’t say that.” I took a deep breath to calm myself down before I told her one of my greatest fears, “What I’m saying is that on the Earth where I was born, Jacob James doesn’t exist, or at least he isn’t famous. But these articles, these stories and movies, Eve… They probably aren’t actually from my world at all.”

“What?” It took her a moment, but then she frowned and her skin started turning dark-blue: “So what you’re saying is that…”

“Yeah.” I nodded and sighed again, “The biggest clue was the movie ‘Starlords 9’ that came out in 2021. Eve, it was only 2019 when I came to the island. And I’ve never heard of any franchise called ‘Starlords’. I love sci-fi and fantasy, so I would’ve definitely heard or seen something about a series that supposedly went on for fifty fucking years and spanned nine movies.”

“I’m… I’m so sorry Ana.” She wasn’t that upset for herself, but was more concerned about how I was feeling. After all, she never had much attachment to Earth to begin with but I… I have two brothers, cousins that I’m close with, uncles and aunts, but most importantly, my parents that I would probably never get to see again.

“Fuck.” I can’t believe I actually started crying. Well, it wasn’t certain that I would never see them again. After all there was another possibility, “I don’t wanna say this, because it would be even more confusing and fucked up but… Chameleon, is it possible that when you entered the portal with Ana, the world you returned to was actually a parallel reality? That’s why nobody remembers Ana aside from you? But then again, there’s still the physical evidence of the phone which I assume you didn’t take with you, and the paintings…”

“I thought about that before too. But like you said, there’s too much evidence left behind. I’m so sorry Ana, I would’ve never mentioned my stupid father if I knew it would hurt you this much!” She came over to my side of the table and started rubbing my back, hugging me and even crying louder than I was…

“Hahaha~, fuck, maybe I really am pregnant now.” I cackled, “It usually takes a lot more than traveling to another world to make me this upset…”

“Yesterday you were crying a lot harder after I threw up on you. Hahaha~!” The bright-blue giantess retorted while tears and snot were still getting all over my shoulder.

“Shit, don’t remind me of that nightmare!” I almost gagged when I had a flashback, then complained: “Damn it, I shouldn’t have eaten that ice cream… Ugh.”

“Ah, I should put away the rest of the ice cream before it melts!” Chameleon shouted and then stopped hugging me, putting the lid on that half-empty gallon container and shoving it back into the freezer in the well-stocked ‘deserts’ section.

After a few minutes I finally calmed myself down and then said, “I don’t think it’s as bad as I originally thought.”