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Elisabet is well aware that she's on the back foot in this new-old world. She defers to Aloy's judgement for the most part when it comes to interacting with people despite the fact that her daughter/clone is obviously not very well versed in that herself. She at least trusts her to tell friend from foe.
So when they're tromping through the jungle on a Broadhead and Aloy slings her bow off of her back in one smooth notion, nocking and drawing an arrow immediately, Elisabet goes tense all over, ready to throw herself off of the machine. After a couple of seconds, Aloy clicks her tongue, and lowers her bow. "Nil." For a second she thinks Aloy's just saying that there isn't anything there, but then a man slips his way out of the foliage and she realizes his name is Nil. "One day I will shoot you."
Nil slinks up with a gleam in his flint-grey eyes that makes her stomach churn. He rests his chin between the Broadhead's horns, staring up at Aloy. "My huntress, I would be pleased if you tried." Aloy snorts, and then...Elisabet didn't think Aloy was capable of voluntarily touching people outside of life and death situations, but here she is, resting a head on Nil's head gently. She pats his head, and he closes his eyes. "What brings you this way, my flame-haired beauty?"
She points in the direction they've been going. "Old World things." She looks back at Elisabet. "This is Elisabet." His eyes open and when he gazes at her he goes through two expressions. The first, Elisabet likes to call 'wow, you two look alike!' And the second, mostly reserved for people Aloy knows personally, is called 'wait, you said you had no mother.' He does them both, eyes going a bit wider, looking between them two, brow furrowing. "No questions." Unlike most people, he doesn't ask any.
"Well, if you'd like to volunteer the story, I have a camp about an hour this direction." He smirks, then, flipping an ornate knife. "There's a bandit camp half an hour to the south of there. You've been gone, and the vermin are crawling back." The darkness in his tone makes her uncomfortable, but Aloy just hums.
"Okay. Walk and talk." She slides off of the Broadhead. "You will tell me where you've been." It's not a request, and that's one thing Elisabet adores about her, one among many. Unlike most men, unlike most people, Nil doesn't seem to be uncomfortable with it. If anything he relaxes at her domineering. Elisabet slides forward on the Broadhead, and they start walking again.
"So, Nil. You're..." She probes the silence cautiously. Nil doesn't quite remind her of Ted, like everyone in this world he could break Ted in half, but there is something dangerous about him in a way every other heavily-armed person they've met isn't. More than just having a weapon and knowing how to use it.
"Nil is my mate." Aloy says it with no fanfare, not even looking back, like that isn't the exact thing she didn't want to hear. "I tried to kill him. We cleared many bandit camps. We fought to the death. I won. I did not kill him. Now we are mates." That doesn't clear anything up at all. In fact, that only gives her more questions to ask.
Nil chuckles lowly. "My blood-haired beauty, the story is much grander than that! Passion, bloodshed, love, death and rebirth!" He waves a hand broadly. "I could wax poetic about what a vision of death you are, whirling throughout the camps with your spear a ribbon of lifeblood!" He swoons against her, and she bears his weight with a long-suffering sigh. "Why don't you tell that story?"
"Because that's stupid." Elisabet doesn't want to hear about what a 'vision of death' her kid is, thank you very much. She hasn't mentioned it yet, but the way Aloy approaches battling humans has always slightly disturbed her. She knows full well that it's kill or be killed, but she knows from the Faro Plague days that there is a far difference between bearing the duty of having to kill and enjoying it. That's the issue with Nil, she thinks. That he obviously enjoys it, the kill. "You are stupid. You are nice to look at, and hunting bandits is nice, but you are stupid." Now she leans away from him, dislodging him from her shoulder.
"Yet you introduced me as your mate! That means you enjoy my being here!" They crest a rise, and yeah, Elisabet can see smoke rising into the air, not far away. "Don't hide the truth from your mother, huntress mine." Aloy turns on her heel, and though she looks as unimpressed as always, there's fondness in her eyes, amusement in the way she bares her teeth. She grasps his face in her hand, covering his mouth. He lets it happen with sparkling eyes.
"Shut up. You are annoying. If you talk again, I will stab you, and it won't be fun." She turns to Elisabet. "He is annoying. I'm sorry." She lets him go with a shove, making him laugh. "You can stab him, if you want." She's serious about that, Elisabet knows. "As long as it isn't fatal. I do like him, sometimes." Nil (silently) celebrates that like he just won the lottery.
They arrive at the camp after walking in silence for a bit more. At some point, Nil slips his hand in Aloy's, and she doesn't even react, just squeezes it tight. Elisabet can hear her purring, too, something that never feels to melt her heart. Aloy is always slow to show any outward signs of emotion, and often those noises are the only thing she has to go on. Despite her...reservations about Nil, about the things he's saying, about the kind of person Aloy might be, he obviously makes her happy.
That's enough for her, right now.