#she has every reason and opportunity to leave the cut and ban-ur behind

[tjerra14]

what if ikrie joins the gaia gang at the base since it seems like it’d be considered a werak

sylens cannot be the only banuk they ever meet lol

Anon, I absolutely love the way you think and let me tell you, there's nothing more than I want from the third game than this. Sylens, for all intents and purposes, might look like a Banuk, but even the Banuk doubt he was ever truly one of them, and even if he was, he seems to like thinking himself outside of and above all tribes, so arguing he's the Banuk representative at base is wobbly at best. Let's face it: when they made their game about Aloy learning the importance of friendship and gathering her team for the current and coming challenges from all the tribes, Guerrilla kind of forgot that the Carja and Banuk exist, too. (And then got rid of the Nora, but that's something for a different time, so I won't get into it.) Where Ikrie joining the gang is concerned, there's a few scenarios I've spent entirely too much time thinking about that come to mind. We know that back in Frozen Wilds, she'd lost everything she held dear, and had her life completely uprooted, realising that what she thought would be her path could never be. When you talk to her at the hunting grounds, she says that she's in no hurry to return to Ban-Ur yet, and it's not too unlikely she might ultimately decide that she won't return at all. So, where would she go from there? She seems like a restless character, much like Aloy, so the hunting grounds won't be her final stop, and even though she considers starting some of her own, I feel she might not want to tether herself to one spot right away. (Plus I feel Lauvuk would have an encouraging thing or two to say about her leaving and seeing the world and asking that girl out.)

So I feel we have:

Ikrie staying in the Cut for a while after she last sees Aloy, eventually meeting Gildun, either while visiting Song's Edge, or just stumbling across him on the road, possibly finding him in a bit of a pickle once again; and after talking to him decides to accompany him west on his delves, for protection and company. Since we know Gildun passed through the later-collapsed tunnel, which would put them into Aloy's general vicinity, she could either go and seek her out, or we keep with the game's events and they meet up while Ikrie is trying to get Gildun out of another door incident ("By the Blue Light, you turn away for five seconds and he gets himself trapped again! ....I think I broke that button over in the next room.") After some catching up and Focus-acquiring Ikrie decides to join forces with Aloy again--fate's a long climb on a high cliff for people like her and Aloy, and what higher cliff and better challenge to rise to than facing Nemesis?, and returns to Base with her. (For bonus Banuk points insert Inatut in Gildun's protection squad here. I feel he would really hit it off with Erend, and eventually join the Vanguard. Vanguard Inatut rights!)

Another option would be her arriving late to the Battle at the Spire with Starbucks. News travel quickly in the Cut, even in remote areas, and a hunting ground is a hub for travellers seeking some training and maybe some rest before or afterwards. So Ikrie hears the rumours, and the stories, and learns that Aloy needs help saving the world. Both Aratak and Inatut have already left, and while she might not be able to catch up with them, she hurries to Meridian. When she arrives, the battle is over, the world is (for now) saved, everyone is celebrating, and Aloy, who she came to help, is nowhere to be seen because she already ran away (once again). Since there's nothing for her in Meridian, but she still intends to help Aloy, she joins Varl on his quest to seek her out, maybe following up on a different rumour than he does right before Forbidden West starts so they meet up a little later than that. (This one also comes with a side of Vanguard Inatut. I may be rather passionate about that one.)

Of course, there's also the shippy option fitting the timeline I have for them in my head, but ignores canon a little (or a lot): Aloy straight up asks Ikrie to accompany her to the West, the two of them set out in pursuit of the rumour that there might be an intact copy of GAIA somewhere in the wilderness of No Man's Land; the Embassy happens, Aloy runs off again and Ikrie is left to follow in her tracks, eventually finding her all messed up in Stone's Echo after her narrow escape from Latopolis. While Aloy is resting and healing, Talanah, Milu, and Varl catch up to them, and ultimately the events of Dying Lands take place, so that they all find the Base together.

Long story short, Ikrie as a Gaia gang member yes please. Imagine all the fun she'd have getting into all sorts of ridiculous challenges with Kotallo, too. The Sunwings at the top of the base would never know peace again.