[Aloy is not particularly tall (quite the opposite, really), but she is stable, and she provides support for as long as Claire needs. No harm done, really, and she takes an extra moment to make sure she's stable before she takes a step back.]
Hunter's reflexes. Don't worry about it. Can I help you with that?
[She doesn't want to wound Claire's pride, but she does have a terminal case of RPG protagonist. If she can help, she wants to.]
[At least not for a little bit, anyway. She might balk at the prospect of what seems to be the making of a communal dinner in a farmhouse, but she's become very good at ducking out of social situations. A bridge to cross after she helps with the immediate issue. For now, she'll follow along.]
Aloy. [A tight-lipped smile accompanies the introduction, giving the distinct impression that she doesn't really do this too often. Still, she'll dutifully hold her arm out for the basket, if Claire is inclined.] You'll have to lead the way.
[She knows Claire means well, and is just trying to fill the silence (because god knows Aloy isn't very good at that), but it's clear that most people don't talk to her like this, and she's not quite sure what to do with a comment like that.
Claire is, however, right. She remembers Rost calling for her, after she took a tumble into those Old World ruins. Loud, clear, and incredibly efficient. Aloy smiles, but there's a certain wistfulness in it.]
That sounds like an advantage to me. Are you from, uh. Earth?
[Many of the Summoned are, so she doesn't necessarily feel foolish asking.]
[ The awkwardness of initial conversations: Claire knows this well. But now that she's older, she feels less so and easily breezes on. ]
That I am, though I have met a person or two who isn't. In fact, Solvunn is quite like home for me, in the country my husband's from. What about you? Earth, or somewhere else?
[The fact that Claire's Earth still has countries tells Aloy most of what she needs to know, and her curiosity is piqued. She can't help but be at least a little interested in hearing about someone else's experience.]
Yeah, there are a lot of us. Lots of different versions.
[Her situation is a bit hard to explain, but she does fish for any recognition.]
[ Claire's always had a glass face, and so her surprise isn't at all hidden at Aloy's answer. ]
Are you really?
[ Her own curiosity is similarly perked, and she blinks away her astonishment. ]
I'm sorry, that was rude. I've lived the last, oh, twenty or so years in the American East, so I'm always a bit excited when someone says something familiar. Something that remotely sounds like where I've lived most of my life.
[To her knowledge, she's far in the future of any Earth that's represented here, so she won't blame anyone for questioning her, especially given her preferred modes of dress and the weapons she carries, to say nothing of the state of her Horizon.
Claire says the East and Aloy tries to picture the maps and globes she's seen--she knows it all exists, now, but given the relatively small scope of her travels so far (and the effort it takes to travel), it feels impossibly far away, almost as if it belongs to another world.]
[ Claire takes a deep breath, thinking back on Boston before exhaling softly. The beginning of her time in Boston is a haze of pregnancy and grief, and then being a new mother and grief. But eventually, as she clawed her way out of the hole she'd felt buried in, she began to explore her new home with Bree in her stroller. ]
The exact city I lived, Boston, is a busy city; one of the oldest in the nation, if not the. I can't quite remember, I wasn't the historian in the family. In any case, there was a harbor, so I liked to take my daughter fishing when she was older.
[ When she was older and Frank was out of town, unable to take Bree with him. Claire as the default parent, and it was felt. Still, she smiles at Aloy. ]
The east in general has the Appalachian mountains, and I've been told, from someone quite in my future, that I'll be living there, in the backwoods. My husband's a hunter, and I'm a forager, so I can't say it doesn't make sense.
[ And it's their land, to boot. That blows her mind and terrifies her all at the same time. It means Jamie had to turn traitor, but she can't think about that now. ]
For all the green, there are major cities as well, so busy that you can find anything you need at any time of day or night. On vacation, I used to take my daughter to the beach, it was an annual holiday and there were carnival games along the pier, plenty of other families doing the same.
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no subject
[Aloy is not particularly tall (quite the opposite, really), but she is stable, and she provides support for as long as Claire needs. No harm done, really, and she takes an extra moment to make sure she's stable before she takes a step back.]
Hunter's reflexes. Don't worry about it. Can I help you with that?
[She doesn't want to wound Claire's pride, but she does have a terminal case of RPG protagonist. If she can help, she wants to.]
no subject
Well, if you don't mind accompanying me to the fish stalls, I'm hoping to get something big enough to feed everyone in the farmhouse.
[ Which means it would likely be too unwieldy in her basket. She was going to make do, but if someone is offering assistance... ]
I'm Claire, and I would very much appreciate it.
no subject
[At least not for a little bit, anyway. She might balk at the prospect of what seems to be the making of a communal dinner in a farmhouse, but she's become very good at ducking out of social situations. A bridge to cross after she helps with the immediate issue. For now, she'll follow along.]
Aloy. [A tight-lipped smile accompanies the introduction, giving the distinct impression that she doesn't really do this too often. Still, she'll dutifully hold her arm out for the basket, if Claire is inclined.] You'll have to lead the way.
no subject
Aloy, that's a unique name I've never heard before, it's pretty. Good for shouting if you're a parent.
[ The more vowels the better. ]
Whereas Claire falls short on the tongue, you can't stretch it out. I used to pretend I simply couldn't hear my uncle when he shouted for me.
no subject
[She knows Claire means well, and is just trying to fill the silence (because god knows Aloy isn't very good at that), but it's clear that most people don't talk to her like this, and she's not quite sure what to do with a comment like that.
Claire is, however, right. She remembers Rost calling for her, after she took a tumble into those Old World ruins. Loud, clear, and incredibly efficient. Aloy smiles, but there's a certain wistfulness in it.]
That sounds like an advantage to me. Are you from, uh. Earth?
[Many of the Summoned are, so she doesn't necessarily feel foolish asking.]
no subject
That I am, though I have met a person or two who isn't. In fact, Solvunn is quite like home for me, in the country my husband's from. What about you? Earth, or somewhere else?
no subject
Yeah, there are a lot of us. Lots of different versions.
[Her situation is a bit hard to explain, but she does fish for any recognition.]
I'm from the West, I guess? The American West.
no subject
Are you really?
[ Her own curiosity is similarly perked, and she blinks away her astonishment. ]
I'm sorry, that was rude. I've lived the last, oh, twenty or so years in the American East, so I'm always a bit excited when someone says something familiar. Something that remotely sounds like where I've lived most of my life.
[ And apparently, where she's living again. ]
no subject
[To her knowledge, she's far in the future of any Earth that's represented here, so she won't blame anyone for questioning her, especially given her preferred modes of dress and the weapons she carries, to say nothing of the state of her Horizon.
Claire says the East and Aloy tries to picture the maps and globes she's seen--she knows it all exists, now, but given the relatively small scope of her travels so far (and the effort it takes to travel), it feels impossibly far away, almost as if it belongs to another world.]
I've never been. What's it like?
no subject
The exact city I lived, Boston, is a busy city; one of the oldest in the nation, if not the. I can't quite remember, I wasn't the historian in the family. In any case, there was a harbor, so I liked to take my daughter fishing when she was older.
[ When she was older and Frank was out of town, unable to take Bree with him. Claire as the default parent, and it was felt. Still, she smiles at Aloy. ]
The east in general has the Appalachian mountains, and I've been told, from someone quite in my future, that I'll be living there, in the backwoods. My husband's a hunter, and I'm a forager, so I can't say it doesn't make sense.
[ And it's their land, to boot. That blows her mind and terrifies her all at the same time. It means Jamie had to turn traitor, but she can't think about that now. ]
For all the green, there are major cities as well, so busy that you can find anything you need at any time of day or night. On vacation, I used to take my daughter to the beach, it was an annual holiday and there were carnival games along the pier, plenty of other families doing the same.
[ Claire glances at Aloy, just as curious. ]
What's home like for you?