Sneck IC inbox

[despitethenora]

[Out of habit, her greeting starts with a sigh. Hey, for a long time the only person who called her was Sylens, and it really set a tone for phone conversations. Be glad it's just a sigh.]

What do you need?

Comments

[nobetawedielike]

β: It's Beta.

[ a beat, then a follow up text that she totally should have sent first: ]

β: β stands for Beta, so I use it as a display name.

[despitethenora]

[Oh. Scales back her attitude.]

I don’t think I’ve seen it that way before.

So suffocation is one of the less dangerous ruins?

[nobetawedielike]

β: It's the second letter of the Greek alphabet, a language lost to Faro's arrogance. Alpha is the first, Omega the last. That's likely why Elisabet had Alpha clearance while Faro had Omega.

[ more reasons Beta isn't really a name, but she's not going to get stuck on that right now. ]

β: There are a few ruins with entry requirements that involve telling stories, or humming, or children's games. However, they don't have what we need to get you set up while enabling me to assist you and avoiding a fight without your gear.

It's also the first ruin that appeared here.

[ and just to be extra helpful, she sends a list of the ruins and their entry requirements. piling information on Aloy probably won't actually do anything to keep her from running to do something dangerous to find out instead, but it makes Beta feel useful. ]

[despitethenora]

[Whether she knows it or not, Beta’s doing the best thing to keep her from running headlong into something she’s not prepared to handle: Beta isn’t telling her not to go.]

First and last. Elisabet bringing life, and Faro ending it.

[She’s going over the data, and eventually:]

The ninth ruin might be worth checking out soon, too. But you’re probably right. ThMight as well start with the first.

[Especially if she’s supposed to (attempt) sleeping indoors for a long time.]

[nobetawedielike]

β: No doubt he had a much more self-aggrandizing interpretation.

I don't know about other teams, but Kalim and Jamil have been here since the very first day. You could talk to them if you think it would help, as well.

You can come to Salamander whenever you'd like. If someone tries to demand a visiting gift, just tell them I said you don't have to. If you try to argue it, you'll probably get thrown into the moat outside with magic.

[despitethenora]

It couldn’t hurt. They might have some insight, or plans already coming together.

I’ll let you know when I arrive. Did they dig a moat just to have somewhere to try throwing people?

[nobetawedielike]

β: No, I think Leona just enjoys doing it when visitors are rude, annoy him, or wake him up from a nap. I'm fairly sure they won it as an upgrade sometime before I got here.

There are also spikes everywhere and he raised the house pretty high after the blood game to make it harder to get in.

[despitethenora]

It’s going to make an underwhelming fort. But I can understand wanting some kind of defense.

[nobetawedielike]

β: Until the blood game, Salamander did fairly well when it was team against team because many of our members were popular with other teams.

The results of the blood game blindsided us, and I suppose it was safer to overcorrect.

[despitethenora]

Popular enough to start demanding visitor gifts. Maybe it started backfiring.

[nobetawedielike]

β: Finch would likely agree with you. Our relationship with them as a team is badly strained, and I think it's usually enforced against them because of it.

[despitethenora]

Finch? I'll have to keep an eye out for them.

[On one hand, nice, someone who would agree with her. On the other, better not hurt her sister.]