[ There was a sense of foreboding the days before- growing pains, nothing either of them thought couldn't be resolved. So that's why Zero had thought very little of the fact that Aloy left before it was resolved. She'd almost made the mistake of looking away as Aloy left, attentions focused elsewhere, dismissive. And Aloy did what Zero assumed she would do the next time this happened: Aloy had sighed, marched to her side to plant a kiss on her temple before she really left.
'We'll talk about it later, okay? Pickup when I call.'
Zero'd spat 'Whatever.' but she'd at least had the sense to turn around in time to see Aloy's withering smile.
Hours, and then half a day- the others had not heard from her, and the tracking of Aloy's focus had been spotty, darting nervously around the map projected in front of her. The two of them left not very long after that but they should have left sooner. Days and days of surveying the same area, calling in favors and broadcasts from every source and acquaintance imaginable- only then did they finally find her things and no trace of Aloy.
She remembers very little of the days between that and when they'd received the distress signal from the Nora temple-the very same had birthed Aloy. Beta explained most of it to her in between struggling breathes (her face growing increasingly red), but truthfully Zero hadn't listened and didn't care. Aloy stood before them, a replica of herself age 5. Beta struggles to gulp behind her and Zero holds her breath, caught between elation (the intensity and ecstasy the same as if she'd birthed this child herself) and anguish (because she understood now- she'd lost her reason for being). The two things together net 0, and Zero swings between misery and mania in one full swoop only to end back where she was before Aloy had left them.
Zero holds Aloy's hand, and presses her prosthetic palm to Beta's cheek knowing the cool material will be a balm to her miserably warm face.
'Get a fucking grip.' ]
Got a second?
[ Zero hang's in the corner of Beta's lab, hip resting on the door frame- half in and half out.
She enters fully, and removes something from between her shawls with the utmost care. ]
I'd say I forgot I had this, but that'd be a lie. I took it, but it's yours.
[ It's Elisabet's necklace, the world on the end of a silver rope.
no subject
'We'll talk about it later, okay? Pickup when I call.'
Zero'd spat 'Whatever.' but she'd at least had the sense to turn around in time to see Aloy's withering smile.
Hours, and then half a day- the others had not heard from her, and the tracking of Aloy's focus had been spotty, darting nervously around the map projected in front of her. The two of them left not very long after that but they should have left sooner. Days and days of surveying the same area, calling in favors and broadcasts from every source and acquaintance imaginable- only then did they finally find her things and no trace of Aloy.
She remembers very little of the days between that and when they'd received the distress signal from the Nora temple-the very same had birthed Aloy. Beta explained most of it to her in between struggling breathes (her face growing increasingly red), but truthfully Zero hadn't listened and didn't care. Aloy stood before them, a replica of herself age 5. Beta struggles to gulp behind her and Zero holds her breath, caught between elation (the intensity and ecstasy the same as if she'd birthed this child herself) and anguish (because she understood now- she'd lost her reason for being). The two things together net 0, and Zero swings between misery and mania in one full swoop only to end back where she was before Aloy had left them.
Zero holds Aloy's hand, and presses her prosthetic palm to Beta's cheek knowing the cool material will be a balm to her miserably warm face.
'Get a fucking grip.' ]
Got a second?
[ Zero hang's in the corner of Beta's lab, hip resting on the door frame- half in and half out.
She enters fully, and removes something from between her shawls with the utmost care. ]
I'd say I forgot I had this, but that'd be a lie. I took it, but it's yours.
[ It's Elisabet's necklace, the world on the end of a silver rope.
It has been a year now. ]