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Published:
2023-04-26
Updated:
2023-04-27
Words:
2,374
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2/4
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66
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3,809

Alva Spills the Beans

Summary:

The Quen fleet is reunited, Alva loses a Focus, and Seyka is realizing maybe Aloy had a few more secrets than she thought.

Based on: https://www.tumblr.com/bs-fangirl/715420183890657280/you-just-know-dear-sweet-alva-is-going-to?source=share

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1: Landfall

Chapter Text

Alva is waiting for her on the dock. She’s rocking back and forth on her heels, buzzing with excitement. “Seyka!” she cries in delight.

Seyka can’t help but smile. “Alva.”

“Oh, it’s so good to see you in person! Welcome to Legacy’s Landfall!” She isn’t expecting it, but the second she steps up onto the wooden planks, Alva pulls Seyka into a hug. “Oh, this is great!” Alva pulls back. “We’re all back together again!” Movement behind Seyka grabs Alva’s attention. “Admiral Gerrit!”

“Hello, Diviner Alva. It is good to see you again.”

“Yes, yes.” A short man, another Diviner, steps in front of Alva, a permanent-looking frown on his face. “I am pleased that we have managed to reunite our fleet.”

The Admiral shoots Seyka an amused smile. “Yes, it was certainly yours, Diviner Bohai, and mine own efforts that led to us being reunited, and nothing to do with these remarkable young women standing with us.”

The man—Diviner Bohai—purses his lips. “Of course. Come, we have much to discuss.” Bohai gestures back up the dock. Admiral Gerrit nods and proceeds past him, smiling at Seyka.

“I should take Seyka to my tent, so we can go over some, uh, things,” says Alva. Bohai waves his hand dismissively. Alva stifles a squeal. Seyka hides a snort behind her hand. Her energy is infectious. The past few weeks have found them in regular contact with one another, and it’s been nice to talk to another like-minded individual, able to see past the stifling aspects of Quen culture. They have mostly stuck to business though, and as much as her curiosity has been burning within—where did the Zeniths come from? What exactly happened to the others? Are there any updates on Nemesis, and ways to defeat it?

Has she talked to Aloy recently?

Now that their objective to reunite the Quen fleet has been achieved, maybe they have time for questions like that.

Alva grabs Seyka’s hand and with a surprising amount of strength pulls her up into the settlement proper. They weave in and out of the crowd, who all cheer and clap as others from the skiff follow behind.

“You’re going to love it here. We’ve been working hard to expand the settlement to accommodate everyone else, though it will be a bit cramped until we finish the expansion into that building over there.” Alva points at a nearby ruin of a high-rise. Alva then leans in conspiratorially and whispers, “I think we’re going to stick Compliance in there.”

“Oh.”

They reach Alva’s tent quickly, and she drops her grip on Seyka. “I’m so glad you’re here! Now, Aloy can stop asking me about you, and just talk to you herself!”

A warm feeling fills her chest and threatens to brighten her cheeks. “Aloy asks about me?”

“Every time she checks in! Sometimes she stops by herself, but it’s more often in a message. Given that you’re back with us now, and,” Alva gestures to Seyka’s Focus. Well, Diviner Vai’s Focus. “It took a lot of talking to get Diviner Bohai to back down from…”

“Executing me?”

Alva smiles apologetically. “Given you do have Admiral Gerrit’s favor, and the story of taking down the Horus, I was able to convince him it would be a terrible idea to lose you, given how valuable your experiences are. Plus, it helped that I told him that Aloy would likely be very upset, and you don’t want to upset a Living Ancestor! Especially Aloy.” Alva laughs, then cuts off. “Which! Sorry, I’m all out of sorts! Aloy wanted me to get you set up with a brand new Focus. Well, as new as a Focus made a thousand years ago can be.” Alva starts rummaging through her tent, muttering to herself. “I thought I put it there….”

There is a lot to unpack from that entire thing, and she would really like to focus on the part about Aloy asking about her, but something else is causing her to mentally trip on her face.

“Living Ancestor?”

“Oh, you know, how Aloy is a clone of Doctor Elisabet Sobeck, Ted Faro’s Assistant— which, of course, she would have explained to you is actually a misinterpretation of the Legacy, due to our Focuses not being able to process data from the 2050s on. Oh, did she explain to you what clones are? Sometimes she simplifies it when she’s explaining it to new people.”

“Uh, no, I don’t think she did.”

“Well, cloning is just making a copy, more or less! Kind of like being reborn, but she’s her own person, of course.”

“Like, from DNA?”

“Exactly!”

“And… um.” Seyka tries to ask another question, but she doesn’t even know where to start. Aloy, a Living Ancestor? “The Zeniths,” is all that manages to come out.

“Oh, thank the Ancestors they’re gone. Or, I guess, thank Aloy.” Alva laughs to herself. “Amazing job with Londa, really.” Her brow furrows. “Okay, it’s not there….”

Seyka takes a step back as Alva hurries to the other side of her tent. “Aloy isn’t a Zenith though, right?”

“Oh, of course not, she was born here on Earth. Well, technically. She came from an artificial womb, from within a Cradle facility inside a mountain located far to the east of here, in the lands once called Colorado. It’s Beta that was born in space with the Zeniths.”

“Beta?”

“Her... sister….” Alva slowly ceases her searching and stands up straight. For a second, Seyka thinks she’s crossed some kind of line, and Alva might call her out for her apparently incredible lack of knowledge about Aloy. But there’s a look of horror on Alva’s face when she turns to face Seyka. “I… I can’t find the Focus.”

“You lost it?”

“I didn’t lose it— I couldn’t have! I’m very, very careful about such precious tools. It should be here. That means that… someone had to have taken it.”

“Someone stole your Focus?”

“Someone stole your Focus, the one Aloy specifically gave me to give you.”

“She wanted me to have it?” That warm feeling from before comes back, washing away all that messiness about Ancestors and clones and Colorados.

“Yes, I said that before.” Alva frowns, and paces back towards the large table. “There’s no telling who it could have been.”

“Maybe you can track it?”

“Yes! That’s a great idea!” Alva taps at her Focus. “GAIA? Sorry to bother you, but we’re having a bit of a situation. No, no, it’s just, it seems like someone might have taken the Focus that was meant for Seyka. Do you think you could help me locate it? Fantastic! Thanks, GAIA!” Alva taps her Focus again and lets out a great sigh of relief.

“Were you talking to someone, just now?”

“Yes, GAIA. Oh, she’s just amazing.”

“GAIA?”

Alva’s smile turns confused, but doesn’t fall. “Oh, Aloy didn’t talk about her?”

“Not really.” Which isn’t strictly untrue. It’s not even a lie. “She might have glossed over a few things. There was a lot going on.”

“There is something of a learning curve to everything, so I get why she might not have gotten into the specifics. GAIA is the AI—

“Like Nova?”

“Londa’s AI, right? Yes. Except, instead of being a personal servant, she was created to save the world after the Time of Ashes, by Doctor Sobeck—”

“Who Aloy is a clone of.”

“Right!” Alva nods with a grin. “Wow, she was right, you are a quick learner! Twenty years ago, Nemesis attacked GAIA, and allowed HADES, one of her subfunctions to be released, along with the others. HADES then tried to destroy the world, of course, but Aloy stopped him in the Carja Kingdom, luckily! Otherwise, we’d probably all be dead right now! It’s why she’s so revered by so many different tribes. She has a way of saving the day. Of course, that’s why GAIA made her, because without the Alpha level clearance that a Sobeck clone provides, no one would be able to access the ruins with the tools needed to save everyone.”

All the words are swimming around in Seyka’s head. She’s trying to piece it together, truly, and she knows eventually she will, but it’s hard because she’s still trying to wrap her head around Aloy as a Living Ancestor. She’s trying desperately to recall if she learned the name Sobeck at any point, but it’s coming up blank. In fact, the only thing she can think of is the fact that she had kissed Aloy, a Living Ancestor on a beach.

“Seyka?” It comes to her attention Alva has been calling her name for an indeterminate amount of time. Too long, apparently, because Alva’s face is slowly falling. “You didn’t know about any of this, did you?”

“Just about Nemesis.”

Alva’s mouth drops. “Oh no!”

A flicker of light from Alva’s focus. She taps on it. “Oh, GAIA? You found it? Great! I’ll head right there.” Her eyes suddenly split wide. “No, no! No reason to send Aloy! It should be fine, there’s no trouble here!” Alva waves her hand around in the air, and the Focus dims down again.

Alva takes a deep breath. “We can… talk about all that later. Right now, we need to focus on the Focus. Ha! Focus on the Focus. Anyway, I can take us to it. Be ready for anything.”

“Is Aloy coming?”

“I hope not.”

Chapter 2: Speed Walking

Notes:

Alright, so, overwhelming reception. Fine, fine, you've forced my hand. I mean, 600 hits in 24 hours? 150+ kudos? The comments???? Uh, okay, I hear ya.

This is a lil mini-chapter, so don't expect much. Just wanted to let y’all know more IS coming, and it'll take some time. Also, thank you???? For all the engagement???? Wow, man.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Seyka didn't know what to make of Alva at first. The fleet had been large, so she knew tangentially of Diviner Alva, simply by virtue of her being one of their rare Diviners. But Seyka can't even recall if she ever saw the woman prior to casting off across the Great Sea. She had been second to Bohai, who she apparently didn't recall either (it's been such a long year, maybe she could be forgiven for her lapse in memory, or skills of observation, it seems), so Alva wouldn't have been immediately relevant to Seyka's duties.

But the weeks of constant interaction between them have led to a familiarity between the marine and Diviner that could only have developed under the most extreme of circumstances— such as their lives have been of late. So yes, Seyka could say with confidence she knows Alva personally, and her own name is now known across the upper ranks of their expedition, and not just for her infamy (thanks, Rheng). Of course, Seyka has another reason to be recognizable—Alva already knew who Kina was when Seyka mentioned her. Alva had been quite complementary—of both sisters, to Seyka's surprise.

"Wow, she must be so proud of you!" Alva once said.

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, you did rescue her and take down a Metal Devil. No one has done that since the Time of Ashes, and maybe never by only two people! It makes sense that Navigator Kina's sister would be just as impressive."

Alva is open and generous with her words in a way Seyka was not expecting. She's gotten used to it, and it has fostered a close camaraderie that has put Alva in a special category—her people. Not the Quen, not the survivors, but those who have had their eyes opened. Not just about the real fight, about Nemesis and the Zeniths, but how stifling and plain wrong parts of the cultures they come from can be. Well, Seyka doesn't entirely know if that is the case for the other tribes around, and the only one she has met is Aloy, but if they know far less about the Legacy and its context than the Quen do (and the Quen are lagging behind, obviously) then perhaps the entire continent is in the dark.

Of course, there's the whole Aloy connection too. They haven't talked about her much—their days are taken up by not only the pure logistics of the reunion, but the threatening political clash that will inevitably come from two populations that have operated autonomously for months. Not to mention the whole Ceo mess. Alva had asked her to keep it to herself, how the man that was to be their deliverer became a twisted psychopath that, uh, killed Ted Faro. Seyka can still remember the rousing speech he had delivered at the Imperial Port, how hopeful he had made everything sound in the face of what might be certain death on the open ocean. Maybe, just maybe, it would all be okay. To know that he had fallen so far before his death is beyond disheartening. Alva had glossed over the details, more focused on the ramifications this would have for the reunited fleet—particularly with Compliance and the Admiral—but she did say Aloy had been involved in some capacity. Of course she was, Seyka almost says. She's figured she'd get the full story later, once they finally met in person and had time to talk.

Complicating things further, of course, is the Fallout from the whole Londra mess. The half at Fleet's End has found itself further divided, between those who had left and those they left behind. And even among those who had gone missing, there were some who still held lingering loyalties—devotions—to Walter. Though few in number, the hostility that they have had towards Seyka specifically has been hard to stomach.

And then, there's Kina. It's been easier to focus on working with Alva than work through her feelings about what happened. Kina is struggling to process it all herself, and Seyka wants to be there to help, truly, but then she hears Kina's words from inside that silly attraction at Londra's park–

—Forget everything: your Ancestors, your past, even your family—

—and she cannot truly shake that echo from her mind.

Seyka had been meaning to talk with Alva about how she reconciles everything, but it's never felt like a good time, and maybe a better conversation to have in person. Which, she thought would be something that would take up a good part of her day, but now they're speed walking through the vacant market—everyone is down at the docks—and something tells Seyka this might get crazy.

For someone so unassuming in physique, Alva is surprisingly fast.

Notes:

Bruh I wrote this waiting to volunteer at an event over like the span of an hour, so don't sue me over any typos. Inputing the italics on my phone was a BITCH.

Just wanted to say thanks and don't worry, I'll write more.

Notes:

I don't post fanfiction. I write it and hide it in a corner of my Google Drive. But there's like... 15 works in Aloy/Seyka and like, top ship Aloy/Kotallo is at 640, and I think it's just criminal that we're now a week into Burning Shores being released and canonically sapphic pairing Seyloy has such little content. So, here we are. I do *intend* to finish this, I promise, but Chapter 1 is exactly what I sat down to write, but then, uh, it got bigger. Reception will decide how likely this will be finished.

Y'all are lucky I ain't doing multiple passes, or this would inflate to a few thousand words. I'm just eager to push something out, y'know?