[OPEN] november/december catchall

[lightkeeping]

Who: aloy and you
When: throughout November/December
Where: solvunn, nocwich, the horizon
What: boot camp, survivalist nonsense, continued camp cleanup, robot dinosaurs, whatever I WANT
Warnings: will list as needed!

[open and closed starters in comments! If you want a custom starter or something specific, just hit me up. I’m on plurk at whitticus and on discord also at whitticus.]

Comments

[durge]

( Aloy's response makes Haelva scrunch her face up in a comical manner -- could someone really be so uncurious as to cut off a whole avenue of exploration or knowledge? Unfortunately for the both of them, there is a certain amount of pride in Haelva that lingers from before her memory loss. )

Then I will simply have to make sure to avoid doing either. ( A small concession: ) I've no wish to harm others, especially those uninvolved in my dealings. But nor am I going to turn a blind eye to the forces that govern the natural order of things here. We can't guess at their motives, or their truths, if we simply ignore them.

[lightkeeping]

There's a middle ground, between ignoring and provoking.

[Aloy wouldn't say she's ignoring them, but she certainly doesn't go out of her way to agitate them, either. She's learned, in her time here, that the gods are not something she alone can fight, as much as she'd like to--so she's operating with more patience than she might, ordinarily. It's important, when it comes to protecting the people here. ]

Just...be careful, okay?

[durge]

( Haelva can sense that she's being generous from her perspective, and so she nods. )

You have my word. ( Somewhere Astarion disapproves. Aloy seems capable enough, and experiences Solvunn from a very different perspective, and hard to track down if she doesn't want to be. ) Have you seen anything unusual in the woods that would have been missed by those of us living in the settlements?

[lightkeeping]

[Well, Aloy doesn't know if Haelva's word is worth anything, but she'll leave it there for now. What she can speak on more specifically is the things she finds out in the woods.]

Nero covers it pretty well in his brochure. [But she understands what Haelva is asking.] The monsters out here, they're real. And people get lost, trying to find the shrines. I escort a lot of villagers back to the Commune.

[durge]

( Curious. Haelva places the coin on the shrine -- not as devotedly reverent as perhaps the villagers might, but with a certain amount of respect for the god that finds her holding promise. )

Do you think that there's a relation between the monsters and the villagers getting lost? Cursed lands are not uncommon where I'm from, nor is using magic to lure the unsuspecting to their deaths.

[lightkeeping]

I think a lot of people just don't know their way around.

[Or they see something, and leave the path, or they're trying to find a shrine and aren't as familiar with the woods as they might think. It's easy, to get turned around out here, even without the dangers of local fauna.]

But you can get hurt out here. Easily.

[durge]

( Easy enough to do, Haelva supposes. It's strange to think that there isn't anything else at play out in the woods, but since Aloy seems to make her home there, she'd know best. )

How long have you been out here, then, to know the woods so well?

[lightkeeping]

More than a year.

[Which she doesn't really like to admit out loud, because it reminds her of just how long she's been away. Aloy frowns.]

I came out here right away. Didn't want to be dependent on the Commune.

[durge]

( Hmm. Haelva is silent as she considers this before pressing -- though she will take silence as enough of an answer. )

May I ask why? From what I understand, the yoke of our hosts is quite loose compared to say, Thorne or the Free Cities. ( A pause, as she admits: ) Beyond the whole... cult feeling the place gives off.

[lightkeeping]

I do better on my own.

[She bears the Arcana of the Hermit for a reason, after all. Aloy has always valued her independence--that said, she knows she has specific talents that are valuable to the villagers, and she doesn't want to leave them in danger.

As for the whole cult thing, well.]

Yeah. That's another reason.

[durge]

I think I must have thought the same, once. ( Of doing things alone, of being alone. Not that Haelva has changed that much, considering that if they were to get close to her she would kill them when gripped by the Urge. ) But the companions I have managed to find are a welcome change.

( Ah, cults. )

It's not all that different from my home. A cult there is seeking to manipulate a great many people for an unknown goal.

[lightkeeping]

[Disappointing, of course, to be reminded yet again that extremism seems to be a constant across universes. She'd taken care of the Eclipse, even hunted their remnants into the West, only to find a new kind of zealotry in Regalla's rebels and the Quen. Even Solvunn has shown their religion has a darker side. Haelva is right to have these concerns.]

Were you trying to stop them? Before you came here.

[durge]

We were. More by chance than anything. ( Which isn't to say she doesn't care about keeping the Dread Three at bay or not becoming a brainwashed member of the cult. Just that she hadn't set out to do that at all. Just to get rid of the worm in her head and understand who... what she is. ) But now we're the only ones who can, and so we will.

[lightkeeping]

Sometimes you don't go looking for that kind of thing.

[Sometimes the cult is just in your path, and you have to do what it takes to get past them, and keep them from hurting anyone else.]

Who's we? Your friends?

[durge]

( One day she'll remember that the cult was her idea. But that memory is locked safely away, and for now she's focused on stopping it without any awkward conversations. )

Companions. Though I suppose they're friends now. Going through things together tends to do that to any group, even if some would deny it.

( Lae'zel. Astarion would probably agree to the moniker through great duress, but he would, she thinks, eventually concede the point. )

[lightkeeping]

[There's a noise in the back of her throat that might be a laugh, because that's more-or-less how she accumulated friends as well. Companions, first, then weathered enough together to breach the threshold of friendship.]

I know how that is.

[durge]

( That's enough to get a smile from Haelva, glad that someone else understands simply how that sort of thing works. She doesn't regret it, but she does think it's strange -- they never would have been her choice of friends without that bond. And now that she has it, she doesn't particularly want to lose it. )

Some of them can be quite stubborn about the whole thing, too. Both in forming the bonds and denying it.

[lightkeeping]

Well, it's...hard.

[She knows from experience. Aloy is someone more than a little reluctant to form relationships, and she's only just now come around to the idea that it's okay to open up to others. To admit that she can't do things alone.]

Not everybody knows how to ask for help.

[durge]

( It's true -- Aloy's words put her in mind of Shadowheart, of Lae'zel and Astarion. People who need aid of some sort, but have never considered it possible. Of herself, with her own little problem. )

It takes practice and trust. And perhaps a little faith in others.

[lightkeeping]

[Aloy knows all of this is easier said than done, and she gets the idea that Haelva knows that, too. So she just nods in affirmation, opting not to press the issue further. They can agree on this much, at least, and Aloy doesn't want to keep her now that she has a greater understanding of her forest activities.]

Look, if you're ever out here and you need something-- [Or if you're in trouble, is also implied,] --just stop by.

[Her compound is unofficially open to the Summoned, but she understands it's a bit intimidating just to wander in. Might as well make the invitation more explicit.]

wrap?

[durge]

( The explicit invitation is welcome, and Haelva inclines her head in understanding. While she's confident she can take whatever might lurk in the woods enough to allow her to escape, she also understands that not knowing what lurks in it puts her at a disadvantage.

And a friend is a friend. )

I will do so. Thank you for your time, and willingness to put up with my questions.

( She might have more in the future, but she won't pester the other woman with them now. )