How about telling her the truth (without actually telling her the truth)

Thinking about a suitable response took a lot longer than John had expected, but the words were slowly forming in his mind, “Where I come from, it is indeed not that well viewed upon in some tribes to have multiple mates. There are some that believe that a meaningful relationship can only be held between one man and one woman, while others think that you should be free to love whoever you want, be it man or woman. I guess I live in a tribe that sees it in the way that a partnership should be monogamous, but I’m not really sure about that…”

Propping herself up on one elbow, Aloy looked at John from her side, “Your culture sounds bizarre… How far away is your tribe, or multiple tribes with how you put it? And can everyone do these strange things you do?” Now that he got her hooked, maybe he could ignite her curiosity to see the kind of world John lived in.

“Actually, no, I am one of few in my tribe that has these kinds of abilities. And to answer the other question, my home is very far away, so far away that you wouldn’t ever find it if you traveled by conventional means. I have some objects and abilities that can help me travel to and from there, but I can only share them with special people.”

She giggled at that, “So to me you might as well not be from this world. But it is interesting. I’ve barely set a foot outside of the Fold yet to find out more about the people who killed my father, and suddenly, I find someone from even farther away than I had ever heard of… Can you show me? Can you show me how you travel to your home?”

For a second John’s hackles started to rise, fearing that he had been busted on his lie, until she obviously took the bait and asked John to bring her with him. He softly smiled as his clothes started to reappear, and he said, “We can try, let’s see if you are special enough to take the journey with me. Worst thing that could happen is that I disappear without you and immediately come back. Do you need some help with your clothes?”

It took a second for her to register that she was still practically nude with her pants pulled down to her ankles. She then blushed a deep crimson while turning around, “N-No! I don’t need help… I can manage, I think…”

John nodded to that and rose from his place on the ground, looking over the carnage that was the aftermath of their fight with the Sawtooths. It looked like both Thorn and Gary were occupying their time while John had been… busy. They were collecting the various drops that the Sawtooths had yielded, and looking it over, John was quite surprised with how much it was.

3x Enhanced Metal
3x Superior Electronics
3x Essence of the Machine
1x Blaze Canister

Now that he had some actual time to check the loot, he used Observe on the Blaze Canister to find out more about these things.

Blaze Canister
Material
Durable glass canister filled with refined biofuel. Can be used as fuel for most motors reliant on gasoline, but can also be refined to create highly explosive weapons and ammunition. Caution! Blaze is highly unstable and can potentially ignite with but a single spark of electricity.

Well, that at least explained why Thorn was capable of making them explode, these things were very volatile. Maybe he could use them to create some grenades? Or maybe he could get some interesting Essences out of them. To be frank, Essence of the Machine didn’t sound that useful with what his current options in Alchemy were…

By the time John was done pondering about his new loot, Aloy was done putting her clothes back on and rejoined John and his little group of little buddies.

“So, are you ready? Nothing left behind?” asked John as he looked her over. She carried both her spear and her bow on her back and her quiver on her hip.

She quickly shook her head, “I’ve got everything. So, how do you do this? Am I supposed to do anything?”

He simply extended his hand to the sky while staying close to her, “Normally, this should be sufficient. Let’s see if this works,” and then he used Leave Barrier.

The world around them shattered as John was by now used to, but to Aloy, this was extremely shocking. She clung to John out of instinct once the world started to change, and in a matter of seconds, they were standing in front of the white mansion that John could call ‘home’ by now. The moment she saw the structure, she was awestruck, inspecting it closely. “This, this is like the ruins I have found, but not actually ruins… what is this place? And you live here? Where is everyone else?”

Current Barrier Rewards:
Enemies killed: 5
+276 XP
Barrier Rewards:
+50 XP (Time spent in Barrier)
+400$
+3 Random Loot Drops from enemies
+1 Random Gear Chest, Uncommon
Progress:
Arouse, Lv.2
Melee, Lv.13
Throwing Weapons, Lv.6
Flash Step, Lv.8
Buzzing Scorpion, Lv.7

Total Rewards:
+400$
+7 Enhanced Metal
+4 Superior Electronics
+1 Blaze Canister
+2 Scrap Electronic
+3 Scrap Metal
+1 Superior Electronics
+2 Carbon Fiber
+4 Essence of the Machine

John let her have a moment before he answered, “Guess you can call this my home. It’s not the place where my people live, it’s somewhere in between. I have found this place by luck and started to use it as a base. It is called the Nexus; it’s anything but normal, though…” As he said that, the little maintenance drones filed out of the house, scanning both him and Aloy. Slightly spooked by these little machines, she tried to pull her bow before John put his hand on hers. “Don’t shoot, these machines are harmless. They are here to see to it that the house and the surroundings are in top shape. But come with me, I need to show you something.”

He then led her to the edge of the island, revealing the vast sea of clouds beneath them in the blue sky. “This place is not really connected to any land. I have no idea how it stays in the air, but then again, there are quite a few things I don’t know yet about this place…”

The redhead took some cautious steps backwards from the cliff. “And you don’t worry about anything throwing you off of this thing and dying? And how does one find an island in the skies ‘by luck’?”

Thinking about it, John decided to reveal a bit more about his abilities. “I have told you before that my abilities are magic and that there are a lot of them. Well, one of them is that some enemies I kill will leave behind items that can be beneficial to me. And one enemy dropped a key that led me here.”

Taking another look down into the clouds, Aloy sighed and looked straight into John’s eyes, “Okay, I need you to be honest with me. Where are we really? I’m not stupid, I know abilities like yours don’t exist in my world. The shamans might think they have such abilities, but nothing like the ability to make weapons appear out of nothingness. From what I’ve seen in the ruins so far, this island wouldn’t be possible, you shouldn’t be possible. Are we actually still in my world?”

In an instant John was nervous again, cold sweat running down his back. He knew Aloy was perceptive, and he knew she was smart, but this was beyond what he had expected. Sighing, he relented to tell her the truth, “Okay, I tried to make this as least weird as possible, but I guess I should be more honest… No, this isn’t your world. In fact, this here isn’t even the world I come from, but in a sense, it is ‘my’ world. I am the ‘owner’ of the Nexus; I have made a deal with the sentience of this world. To my knowledge, there are many worlds out there, many more than I can even imagine probably. Does that bother you?”

She shook her head to that, “If we can talk with one another, what’s the difference between one tribe and the other and someone from another world? The distance is all. I have seen people from my world that I want to deal with less than you, so why would it matter where you are from? Now, can you show me your world?”

John was honestly surprised with how easy she took that. It was fascinating to see someone so unimpeded by social boundaries and to interact with them. With a nod, he led her inside the house. While they were walking towards the door to Earth, he asked Sarai and her drones to check on Aloys measurements and to purchase some mundane clothes in that size so that she could more easily fit in with the world. Sure, most people would look strangely at her, but no one would say anything as long as she didn’t take her weapons with her.

As they entered the terminal room below the surface of the island, Aloy’s eyes widened as she looked at the big screen on which Sarai waited for the both of them. Today she was clad in the avatar of Leona, the Sun Champion from League of Legends. As he saw that, he sent out two silent prayers: one, to thank whatever deity actually listened to him at this point that she didn’t use Aloy as her Avatar, and two, to praise the sun. “Greetings, Master, and greetings, Aloy, I am Sarai, an Artificial Intelligence created to serve the Master. The requested clothes are being delivered as we speak. Apologies, Aloy, but your current clothing is not really usual in Master’s world; I hope you can see the need.” The redhead was a bit taken aback by the talking computer but quickly found her composure again.

“It’s alright, as long as I can blend in, for now, I am fine. So, where to?” asked Aloy, looking around the mostly empty room. John still had to think about what to do with the room; he had to look at the new options that he would have gotten for the upgrades thanks to the quest.

But first he had a girl to take around and a bike to get! Because looking at the time, it was almost noon already!

As they stepped through the portal, Aloy was surprised by the scenery she saw in front of herself. This room was certainly like nothing she had seen before. “Is this your home?” to which John nodded.

“Yes, this is my actual home, this is where I live. My parents both don’t have these kinds of abilities I have. Well, my mother at least doesn’t, never met my biological father, and I honestly want to keep it that way. Now, your new clothes should arrive any minute.”

As if the drone had heard him, a soft tapping on the window signaled John that it had arrived. Looking it over, the clothes were a matching pair of a dark skirt and a dark, wide top and fitting shoes and underwear. The clothes looked like they were heavily worn and washed, but it was obvious that they were brand-new.

John handed the bundle of clothes to Aloy as the drone left the room again. “If you want some privacy, there's a room on the end of the hall where you can change yourself and maybe wash if you want to.” She should be smart enough to understand how doorknobs work. Nodding shortly, she went to the door and left the room.

Now John had some messages to send…