#clone siblings

That had been two days ago, now. Although everyone was getting antsy about their plans, Aloy was still recovering from her trip to the isle of spires. For once in her life she agreed that she needed to rest. Securing HEPHAESTUS was too important to take unnecessary risks, and going in injured was practically begging for things to go wrong. As such… she had been staying at the base as much as possible. Thankfully, there were plenty of things she could do to further prepare for the upcoming mission, which alleviated the restlessness she felt.

At the moment, that meant seeing if Beta needed any assistance. Maybe also, you know, checking to see if she was doing alright.

“-sorting out the malignant data will be easier if we divide the processes into their relevant streams, but focusing too much on one section could cause HEPHAESTUS to adapt, shoring up the other areas,” a voice becomes clear as Aloy descends further into the Base, undoubtedly Beta speaking to herself. A habit gained from her isolated childhood, one that she shared with Aloy. “Having two Sobeck clones should help with that. What if it’s not enough? What if we don’t finish in time and Zenith- no, no, stop it, we have to do it. Failure isn’t an option, failure isn’t an option, failure is not an option.”

“Everything okay down here?” Aloy calls out, leaning against the doorframe as she does. The question has an obvious answer, but asking it was her way of announcing her presence, as well as her intentions.

“Yes?” Beta stutters, every bit as unconvinced by her answer as Aloy was. For a moment she avoids making eye contact, wringing her hands together, carefully selecting her next words. “Not really. But I’ll be fine, it’s a minor inconvenience and it shouldn’t bother me as much as it does, I really just need to adjust to it-” she runs a hand through her hair as she speaks, only to flinch halfway through the motion, eyes clamping shut. When they reopen, she gives Aloy an apologetic smile. “You’d probably think I’m crazy.”

“And you’d probably think I’m crazy for fighting a Thunderjaw on my own,” Aloy counters with a shrug. Although Beta does nod in eager agreement, she does not immediately open up about what’s bothering her, and Aloy decides to pry just a tad further. “I won’t judge you, okay? I can’t promise that I’ll understand, but at this point I think I can accept that we’re different people, with different experiences. Besides, maybe I can help.” With a deep breath, Beta at last relented.

“My hair is getting longer,” she explains, in a matter-of-fact tone.

“I can see that,” Aloy replies, stiffly, only after several seconds of silence. Now that she thought about it, Beta’s hair was getting messier than when she first arrived, the style not quite meshing with its growing length. But that didn’t necessarily mean anything on its own. Seeing as Beta didn’t offer up an elaboration, however, Aloy figured it wouldn’t hurt to take a guess at the actual root of the problem. “Do you… want me to cut it for you?”

At that, Beta fumbles a little. First she goes perfectly still, then her eyes dart between meaningless spots, her head tilting to the side. One of her hands moves forth to her chin, and she becomes lost in thought. Something about her expression (the way her eyes went wide, perhaps) made it seem like she hadn’t previously considered a haircut. Or, more likely, she just hadn’t realized that Aloy would be willing to help. After a few moments of relatively awkward silence… Beta looks back up with a tiny nod.

“That would be better than doing nothing,” she practically squeaks, exuding as much nervous energy as she always did. “You would certainly do a better job than if I tried cutting it myself. Or if Erend tried. Zo might do a good job, now that I think about it, and she is always offering to help me,” she starts to ramble, voice trailing off into a quiet murmur. Suddenly she seems to realize what she’s doing, and cuts herself off mid sentence, clearing her throat before once more speaking at a regular volume. “But you’re here and you already asked. So… if you can spare the time, I would be grateful.”

“I wouldn’t have offered it if I couldn’t. Let me grab a couple things, then we can get started, alright?”

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“So… just want it shorter, or do you want to try something new?” Aloy asks, internally hoping for the former option. Honestly, she wasn’t even a hundred percent confident about just giving Beta a quick trim. Over the past year or so, she had only needed to cut her own hair once, and the effort was made much easier by the fact that the length was uniform. By the looks of it, Beta’s hair was a bit more varied. No fancy layering, or anything like that, but it wouldn’t be as simple as pulling it into a ponytail and chopping off the end.

“Just a couple inches off, please,” Beta answers, quickly. She’s sitting in front of Aloy, facing away, some scrap fabric laid over her shoulders to catch fallen hair. Though they’re still in the basement, they elected to sit away from the servers. The last thing either of them wanted was for a few stray strands to end up in the casing (and potentially causing a plethora of problems).

“Shouldn’t be too hard. Hopefully,” Aloy said, muttering the last part under her breath. A spark of nervousness forms in her chest, even though she’s starting with combing, as opposed to skipping straight to cutting. Part of her is already regretting volunteering to do this. Were the stakes particularly high? Not at all. But she had barely started to bond with Beta, and messing up a task that she offered to do would not be a great second step. It’s okay, Aloy, she thinks, if you can hit a Thunderjaw in the heart, while sliding downhill, at fifteen or more meters, then you can handle giving a haircut.

Running a comb through Beta’s hair is surprisingly easy. There aren’t any real tangles or knots, and the strands aren’t terribly thick. More than that, the hair is incredibly soft, despite the basic nature of tribal shampoo. Aloy can’t help but wonder what it felt like back when Beta had access to whatever fancy conditioner Far Zenith used. Up until this point, she hadn’t fully understood why the Ancient Ones cared so much about hair care; beyond taking basic care of it, that is. They did seem to enjoy soft things, she muses, setting the comb aside for now.

“I didn’t think my hair getting long would bother me so much,” Beta mumbles, out of the blue, more to herself than to Aloy. All the while she’s fidgeting with her hands, doing her best not to move her head at all. For someone as twitchy as her, she was doing a great job, channeling her nervous energy into something inconsequential.

“Your hair is pretty short,” Aloy says, still confused about the exact nature of Beta’s discomfort.

“Comparatively,” Beta all but snaps, much harsher than she had intended. “It’s long to me, alright? Longer than it’s ever been. My ‘caretakers’ never let it get any longer than it was when we met.” With that said, she moves her head the slightest bit, staring down at her hands. Though Aloy cannot see her face, it’s not hard to guess that Beta is frowning- that there’s a tremor to her lips, a shake that will not be denied.

“If that’s the case, do you really want to cut it now? If you’ve ever wanted to let it grow out, now is as good of a time as ever to start,” Aloy carefully offers. There’s more that she wants to say, comfort that she wants to provide, but has no idea how to articulate. All she can bring herself to do is place a gentle hand on Beta’s shoulder, a gesture of reassurance that Rost had shown her many times.

“I’m sure. I,” Beta stutters a little, then takes a deep breath and tries again, “I’m sure. The sensory input has changed too much to be comfortable. If we weren’t working under limited time I could afford the distraction… but right now I feel strange every time I turn my head to the side and my hair tickles my neck, or when I try to sleep and it takes longer to find a good spot- though I suppose that second one might just be because of my bed’s quality. Or lack thereof.”

“I think I understand. Once Gaia is fully restored, and we’re in the clear, you’ll be free to try all sorts of new things. Maybe I can even pass on some of the braiding styles Rost taught me.” With a pair of fine Oseram scissors (picked up during her last trip to Chainscrape, as part of a set of tools) in hand, Aloy lines up the first cut, only slightly less nervous than before.

Snip. Snip. The first few strands of hair fall, and the two of them both release the breath they had been holding. No turning back now, Aloy thinks. At this point her attention shifted entirely to the task at hand. There were more things she could say, either of kind visions of the future or questions about Beta’s time with the Zenith, but they were better saved for another time. One where she wasn’t holding a bladed tool adjacent to someone’s neck.

A few minutes pass in relative quiet, with the worst offender being the sound of Erend’s music drifting through one of the vents. At this distance, with the way the notes twist within the metal, it actually makes for decent white noise. Mixed with the sound of the scissors clicking together, Beta finds herself more relaxed than she had been in quite some time. And soon enough she would have one less thing to worry about! Even now, she can feel the first signs of change, as the air moves around her. Already her hair seems less suffocating (to put it as dramatically as possible, of course).

“Does your hair ever bother you?” Beta asks, eventually, once Aloy sets the scissors aside. There’s still a bit left to do, mainly checking to ensure that she hadn’t completely messed up the cut. At Beta’s question, Aloy pauses briefly, then gives a soft noise of disagreement. “You’re always running across the country, climbing and jumping around, fighting mechanical animal amalgamations with hundreds of complex, interconnected parts… wouldn’t it make sense to minimize loose materials? What if your hair got caught in something? Couldn’t someone grab you by it?”

“Most people who get close enough for that don’t really bother. If they’re close enough to grab my hair, they’re close enough to try and stab me… which is why I do most of my fighting at a distance,” Aloy explains, sounding oddly amused considering the subject matter. “Besides, my hair has been this way for as long as I can remember. I’m not sure I could get used to even having it pulled all the way back, let alone cutting it short.” Satisfied with how Beta’s hair looked, Aloy reaches for a handheld mirror she had borrowed from upstairs (she wasn’t entirely sure who it belonged to, but it had been left in a shared space, so she didn’t feel guilty about taking it). Handing it over to Beta, she all but held her breath in anticipation. “What do you think?”

Several long, quiet seconds drag on, as Beta moves her head around, inspecting every aspect of her haircut. Admittedly, she did not care much about how it looked. But the movement also helped her experience the shift in sensory input, so, well, might as well see if everything looked alright. In the end, she gives a small nod before setting the mirror aside. Then she turns in place to better face Aloy.

“This should be a lot less distracting,” she says, smiling softly. A beat passes before she suddenly speaks again, as if suddenly remembering her manners. “Thank you!” They both laugh a little at that.