[It's long enough for the gloom to become routine and the sharp edge of deadly danger to wear off into ugly, grey boredom. Shepard's making a circuit of the place when she glances up at a flash of unaccudtomed color and sees— holy shit.]
Aloy. In the flesh.
[She is almost— almost happy to see you. If the circumstances were different... But they aren't.]
You know, it's been a long time since I had to survive off rats. [Ah, memories. Shepard hauls herself up the rocks to a perch nearby Aloy. Not too close, all the better to move if they both needed to, but comfortable.] How you holding up?
[Here, have some raisins. Five isn't many, but anything is a lot when it isn't half-raw rat or lean snakemeat.]
III: Surviving
Aloy. In the flesh.
[She is almost— almost happy to see you. If the circumstances were different... But they aren't.]
You know, it's been a long time since I had to survive off rats. [Ah, memories. Shepard hauls herself up the rocks to a perch nearby Aloy. Not too close, all the better to move if they both needed to, but comfortable.] How you holding up?
[Here, have some raisins. Five isn't many, but anything is a lot when it isn't half-raw rat or lean snakemeat.]