#hzd fic

[han-ban-bam]

Charity

She is Kotallo's service dog, and a very good pupper indeed.

From @myrrkva 's fic Before I Sleep - go read for modern AU goodness!!

[tsukikitsune-exe]

Horizon: Forbidden West

Fics/Series:

“On the Wings of the Ten” by Elialys on AO3

76.1k+ words, 12 chapters, on going, Aloy x Kotallo, slow burn, friends to lovers, sexual tension, hurt/comfort, body paint, machine riding, demisexuality

“Would you like to come on a ride with me? See what it feels like up there?” / Kotallo has always daydreamed about the Ten coming down from the sky, and what it must have felt like. Aloy gives him a chance to find out.

“The Broken Skies” by maelove21 on AO3

66.7k+ words, 10 chapters, on going, Aloy x Kotallo, mutual pining, angst, sexual tension, more angst, fast burn, smut

“After four glorious months in the Service of his Commander, Kotallo mysteriously abandons his post in the Aloy's service and returns as Hekarro's Marshal and second in command. When he is faced with the unthinkable, Kotallo has to decide between unending loyalty to his people, and his unconditional devotion to a certain flame-haired, huntress with penchant for testing just how far he is willing to go in the name of honor.”

“Absence Presence” by runiwritten on AO3

4k+, 1 chapter, on going, Aloy x Kotallo, PTSD, hurt/comfort, vulnerability, eventual romance

In a violent nightmare, he was thrown off the mountain and into the mist, another friend dying just out of Aloy's reach. But when she wakes she does not know him, standing across the room from her, bare of paint. She is haunted by the visage of another, who threatened her atop a snowy mountain, where fear and grief took root in her. How could she not recognize him, the warrior who gave the rest of his life to her? She would know him and let no ghost confuse her again.

“bare me to your quiver's fire” by fantom-flower (vain_flower) on AO3

14.7k+, 6 chapters, complete, Aloy x Kotallo, slice of life, bathing, mutual pinning, virgin!aloy, smut

Aloy can't seem to keep her eyes off Kotallo. He notices.

“My Warrior” by cclightroast on AO3

2.5k+ words, 2 chapters, Kotallo x f!reader, fluff, pining

Some fluff between Kotallo and you! Although it's in his point of view!

One Shots/Drabbles:

“shelter from the storm” by unstable_grad on AO3

1.4k words, 1 part, complete, Aloy x Kotallo, very soft, fluff

In the West, war is the rule. But peace? He would make peace the exception for her.

“Machine Watching” by cclightroast on AO3

1k words, 1 part, complete, Aloy x Kotallo, fluff

You and a certain Tenakth Marshal spend the day together.

[every-raindrop77]

Writer’s game: first sentences!

Tagged by @poppypopp because @fogsblue didn’t know my tumblr (how shocking!)

Rules: post the first sentence of your last ten fics. If you haven’t written ten fics, share as many first-sentences as you have.

I have more than 10 fics, so I've filtered to completed on AO3 and worked back from there! 

1: All Dressed Up Fashav and Nil had cheered with their fellow Tenakth when news came that he was to return to the Sundom.

2: One for Sorrow, add Two for Joy “Are you the witch of the woods?”

3: A Bloom Amongst the Bloodshed There is a quiet, as dense and as thick as the deepest groves of the forest when the blood and the burn of the battle is spent.

4: Kisses, Cookies and a Very Merry Christmas Hekarro woke slowly, and stretched as best as he could, while the pleasant weight of his partner pressed him down into the couch.

5: Flowers in the Glade... The journey back across their lands had been gruelling, and Kotallo’s pre-occupation with the outlander had not gone unnoticed - all of the soldiers persistently teasing him - only for it to roll off of his back unnoticed half the time.

6: Heated Dreams Hekarro smiled contentedly, certain he was dreaming as he replayed the events of the day.

7: The Chief and His Champion It was almost inevitable, most would say - that when all was said and done Aloy would return to Memorial Grove and hope to make her life there.

8: Finding Fortune... It wasn’t long after Nemesis has been eliminated, that Aloy had brought Kotallo to the gauntlet runs - he’d been increasingly bored and restless after they’d eliminated the last of the rebel leaders.

9: This Old House Aloy hadn’t questioned her luck when the modest brick townhouse placed in a quiet suburb had arrived in her inbox on a quiet Saturday morning, the email blank with only the link and the subject line bolded with a red priority flag.

10: The Fall of Paradise Things had seemed so bright last year Ted thought absently, he had absolved himself of ending the world with a few quick commands from his consoles, watching through the holo-meeting as the Alphas slowly died in front of him and the Apollo protocol was relegated to a digital graveyard. 

I didn’t tag anyone - because I think they’ve all been tagged already :D

[admin-in-residence]

MOCKINGBIRD (Chapter 2)

Thank you for all the love and support on this fic! I hope you continue to enjoy it!

Elisabet- no. Aloy is gone.

   It’s been a few days now since she’s woken for the first time, but she’s still sleeping more often than not. She wants to think this is because her body is trying to catch up to all the information she’s learned, about the world, about GAIA, about the end of the world as well which was even more stressful…

   But a part of her knows she’s simply using sleep as an excuse to avoid it all.

   Aloy didn’t have time to explain everything to her, and that’s ok. The Elisabet look-a-like has more on her shoulders than anyone else and by now, she’s a week into her journey to recover some sub-functions of the GAIA program. Her journey will take her far and wide through the ruins of the world that she used to live…it's Aloy’s world now- Aloy and her friends…

   It’s ok though, today is an ‘ok’ day.

   She wakes in the morning because that’s when she’s requested GAIA to wake her. She eats a meal of berries and grain that Zo has left for her by her door. She even takes a handful of steps out of her room, but she swiftly retreats when she hears Zo dragging more supplies and decorations inside. She can’t lie, the base is looking nice…candles and greenery, weaved rugs and thick furs. But the idea of talking to Zo, it would seem like facing reality. Facing the fact that she has lost whatever semblance of life she may have had, whether she remembers it or not, is still too terrifying to grasp.

   Zo is human- which is more than one could probably ask for when you wake up 1000 years after you go to sleep, or so she’s told.

   …

“I can’t really explain many things to you-“ Elisabet…no she says her name is Aloy, “But when we were able to connect GAIA to this facility and the power became stabilized GAIA was alerted to a diversion of power that led down to the lower levels.”

   Zo eye’s her cautiously, as if she’s waiting for an attack. She doesn’t like the feeling that she’s some kind of threat- and she’s fairly sure she wouldn’t even know how to attack if she wanted to. Her mind is still jumbled, clouded and the explanation is just giving her a headache. She’s slept for another day and it still doesn’t feel like enough-

   “GAIA said that the facility had been using its power reservoirs to keep power to that room even since- well…since Elisabet’s world ended.” Aloy says.

   She’s much like Elisabet, at least that’s what her mind tells her, but she doesn’t know why she thinks that.

   “It was a direct instruction from whoever was last in this facility, to supply power to a singular cryogenic pod inside the room. The facility along with the cauldron that eventually merged together kept the cryogenic pod active for nearly 1000 years- I don’t know how it works…there’s missing records, missing data, and we don’t know anything about why you were inside…but it kept you- alive.”

   Aloy doesn’t say anything more after that. There’s no need to, as she said, missing data and records won’t help her now. Everything from here on out she has to figure out on her own, who she was…what she will do now.

   Aloy does hand her a bag however, it's small and cute made out of leather and cloth, and her brain tells her this is a backpack.

   “This was with you in the pod. While you were sleeping, I went through it.” Aloy admits.

   She’s ok with it, but she assumes this is only because she looks and sounds familiar, she almost wishes her mind would forget her so at the very least it would feel like she was talking to a stranger. But there's a comforting air around the room when Aloy is inside, like everything will work out.

   She’s not quite sure how true this feeling is yet.

   “I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t dangerous to GAIA, or my friends. But there’s not much inside and I don’t think you’re a threat. We’ll let you go through it and let you rest some more…we can talk about it a bit later before I leave.” Aloy says.

   She doesn’t answer, only waits for both women to exit from the room before she opens up her backpack- is it hers? It would be awfully strange to have someone else’s bag.

   Her mind supplies her with more words as she takes things out. It’s a weird feeling to be honest, like someone shoving thoughts into your mind without the full explanation. She knows what things are, but can’t piece together everything about them.

   Clothes- simple, soft, a pair of stretchy pants and a sweater with a hood, there's a logo on the front but it’s worn away, she assumes this was a well loved sweater, it doesn't appear to be her size however, it seems like it would belong to someone of a larger height. A second set of clothes reveal a similar pair of pants and a simple grey t-shirt.

   At least now she has something to change into and get out of this hospital gown…for now however, she continues to go through the bag. It’s probably best to do things one at a time, and she’s not so sure her legs would support her if she tried to stand and change-

   A piece of plastic comes next- small, card shaped, it has a small little photo on it. Was this a picture of her? It depicts a girl, she has medium length hair braided into two fancy braids, it’s brown, like her own hair, and they also have brown eyes, except they're bright…The girl in the photo looks happy, but she also looks mischievous in a way.

It says it’s a Drivers License- but it’s uncared for, the words are scratched in places, worn away. There’s a start of what looks like a name but letters are rubbed away and the last name is scratched so badly you can’t see any of the letters- however…something pops in her brain. Her name?

   Evie.

   Evie-

   “EVIE-“

   She clutches her head- it hurts so badly but she can nearly hear someone screaming in her own mind…was this her mind, or a memory?

   She tosses the license to the side- she wants it away from her…she wants her head to stop hurting. She wants to go back to sleep.

   She reaches in her bag once more and pulls out a small little triangular piece of metal. She turns it over and over in her palm, the smooth metal is cold to the touch and it’s somewhat grounding to feel something physical instead of everything fighting inside her mind.

   Focus- her headache eases and supplies her with this word.

   She allows her own body to go through the motions securing it to her temple like muscle memory. She expects something to happen- but nothing does. She taps on it a couple of times- but nothing happens.

   She takes it off, tucks the sweatshirt under her head and sleeps.

…

The sweatshirt is loose on her, as she expected. It goes down to her thighs, but it is warm and comforting and she sighs with relief when it’s on. When she’s ready she begins the next part of her routine- GAIA said it was important to set a routine for herself if she hoped to recover memories…a new schedule could lead to remembering a past schedule, and truthfully it’s not like she has anything better to do.

Processing data recovered from Aloy’s focus.

Before she left Aloy had given her a new one, and had taken the old one in hopes of finding a way to repair it…if she could, they could retrieve any data from it, and perhaps even solve the mystery to why she’s here and who she is instead of just one disjointed name…Evie.

She’s still unsure who Evie really is- was she kind and caring, or was she nothing but trouble like the mischievous drivers license photo depicted? She doesn’t feel mischievous, she doesn’t really feel a lot quite yet. GAIA says this is a normal reaction, but Evie’s tired of feeling tired and trapped in an endless whirlpool of thoughts-

Why did she get to survive when the people she may have known and her world died?

Aloy has accomplished many things throughout her life, and Evie feels a twinge of guilt that she still can’t even get enough courage to step out and start a conversation with Zo while the flaming haired girl is off saving the world.

Instead she spends as much time pouring through Aloy’s data, learning about how this world works, it’s people, its creatures, the machines that roam these lands and reminds her so very much of different creatures.

She’s learnt history that doesn’t belong to her, tribes and customs she doesn't know how to follow, she’s seen memories that don’t belong to her, things that she’s not sure she deserves to see…interactions recorded by a focus of Aloy’s alongside her friends.

She needs a break.

Despite the fact that her body screams to fall asleep, as it often does, to stop thinking- she finally steps out of her room for the first time. She’s still somewhat grateful that Zo must be out again, or at the very least decorating a private room somewhere, the base is empty and quiet.

Her room- actually, Aloy’s room…she was simply using it while the girl was gone, leads directly to the main living area. Her bare feet pad quietly on the metal floor as she walks around for the first time. Her focus plays soft music, something that she started doing when she discovered the audio files and found the tunes calmed her mind, and she looks around the base for the first time.

There are plants and real dirt- and Evie sinks her fingers in at the first planter she passes, it's coarse and wet, freshly watered, and familiar to her and Evie sits right down next to it, taking time to shape some of it into little mounds. Her fingers brush one of the leafy plants tucked away in the dirt, it’s green and waxy and it feels like earth, calming and so full of life.

She could spend hours sitting here and feeling the dampness under her fingers and she doesn't care as she let’s the time pass by. She’s finally feeling something familiar and real and she’s going to enjoy the feeling of it without her mind interrupting.

Evie hears the footsteps and she’s unsure how much time has truly passed, but she doesn't look at Zo- it would feel too real to acknowledge another person, and her mind still wants to pretend that she’s sleeping.

“Perhaps you were a farmer in your past life.” Zo says.

Zo is soft, and kind, and not cautious around Evie anymore, she recognizes that she’s more of a threat to herself than to anyone else, and Evie appreciates her kindness even though she won’t acknowledge her existence quite yet. She’s not trying to be rude and she thinks Zo understands this- she just knows when she finally acknowledges Zo or anything else of this new world that she’ll have to accept the fact that her past is over.

   “Here. There isn’t any sunlight in here, but GAIA assured me that plants can still be maintained and cared for here. You could plant some seeds in those little hole’s you’ve created.” Zo is smart- she doesn't say anything about helping, or very much about the outside.

   She simply leaves her a little leaf bag full of seeds and leaves her to the dirt.

   Evie spends the rest of her time outside of Aloy’s room creating more little mounds of dirt, putting a hole an inch or two deep and depositing a couple tiny little seeds inside. The actions are repetitive and they feel familiar, maybe Zo was right, maybe she’d been a farmer in the past?

   Gardener? Her mind forms the word and it’s nice but still not right.

   When the seeds run out she finds Zo lighting some candles and wordlessly hands the bag back to her. Zo accepts it back, but doesnt say anything, only passes the candle in her hand and together they light more candles around the base.

   When the tasks are finished they wordlessly share another meal and go their separate ways back to their rooms.

   …

   Evie is in the middle of helping Zo weave a carpet when she gets the first sliver of a memory.

   It’s been roughly a week and a half since Aloy has departed, and Evie has finally decided that Zo is very much real and that she deserves to be talked to. Besides, Evie will need all the practice for when more companions begin to arrive. Zo’s friend- partner? Person- Varl had been sent to find a friend of Aloy’s before Evie had woken up, and they should be arriving any day now.

   She can’t sit in Aloy’s room any longer waiting for something she can never get back- and if the memories won’t come to her, she’ll just make new memories.

   This is easier said than done and Evie still finds herself ducking into Aloy’s room when her mind begins to think to hard-

Evie awkwardly comment’s something about the weather and how nice it is before realizing that she doesn’t even know what the weather would be like outside. The words are just familiar upon her tongue and it slips out one morning…

   “It is currently raining-“ GAIA announces after Zo finishes laughing.

   “I’ll admit- that wasn’t the first thing I thought you would say to me…” Zo says. “What made you think of the weather?”

   Evie stops weaving.

   She feels like she’s out of her own body for a moment, and hears whispers, echo’s in her brain for a moment. There’s a painful pulse at her temples-

   “Nice weather we’re having-“ Accented slightly- no it’s more like a drawl.

   “We meet face to face for the first time and the first thing you want to say to me is ‘Nice weather we’re having-‘ you’ve got to be kidding me Tate- I don’t have time to deal with this.”

   “Aw- don’t be like that sweetheart-“

   “Evie- not sweetheart.”

   “Evie-“ A hand grips her shoulder and it almost feels painful how she comes back to her body, her head ache’s furiously and she realizes that she’s laid flat out on the floor, her heart thunders in her chest and she can nearly feel it leaping out of her throat.

   “You're ok- it's alright.” Zo soothes softly, a hand hovering over her.

   She wants to scream that none of this is alright- that this is a mess.

   She wants to go back to sleep again, but not because her head feels like it's going to crack open and not because she wants to avoid data or avoid Aloy’s companions.

   Because she’s afraid that she may just be a part of the history that Aloy had spent so long searching for.

   Travis Tate is a part of her memory, the voice she heard so very like the audio recordings Aloy has collected in her travels. She doesn’t know how big or small of a part he played in her life, but it offers connections, perhaps to Elisabet and her familiarity, or Project Zero Dawn and this base.

   Later that night, Varl returns with another man by his side- Evie only gets the tiniest glimpse of the two before she ducks into Aloy’s room and she doesn’t miss the loud boisterous voice questioning her quick departure.

   Instead she creates a new file, a list and jots down everything she can in the two sections she creates. One for her new life, new memories and experiences.

   The other for Past Evie- this list is already significantly smaller.

Past Evie:

Liked Dirt

Friend of Elisabet Sobeck (I think-)

Mutual Acquaintance of Travis Tate?

   This list only leaves her with more questions and a bigger headache.

[gaiasnewdawn]

Project Zero Dawn

[skylessknights]

A Blessing and a Curse (You are Cold and Flame) by skylessnights

Layan stood up from her seat and slipped away from Varl’s bedside before moving past the anxious healers and cautiously stepping over the wounded warriors that were placed on the floor. As she stepped outside into the hallway, the scream echoed through the passageway. She moved her feet briskly, using the tortured sound as a compass until she finally came to a guarded entrance, thin curtains blocking the view on the other side.

But before she could draw back the drapes to get a better look, the two guards posted outside crossed their spears over the other, stopping her in her tracks.

“Skeeva.” The woman sneered, her eyes forming into blades. “The Tenakth do not suffer your kind in the Clan Lands.”

OR: After the ambush at Barren Light, the few surviving Tenakth soldiers bring their wounded and fallen to The Grove. Layan follows, taking a weakened Varl with her, as he recovers from his own injuries. But when she catches sight of a screaming and grimaced Tenakth Marshall in the presence of tribal healers, she cannot help but offer her assistance in hopes to ease their pain and suffering.

Author’s Notes: Big hugs and kisses to @princess-marida​ for inspiring me to think bigger and broader! I’ve had so much fun restarting this series, planning and writing the fics all because of you 💜. I also want to thank @minako85​ (let me know if I’ve tagged the wrong account) for their continuous support, reading your comments on my fics have been a joy and mean so much to me!  🥺️

[sockodot]

Writer’s Month Day 3: Outside

So this is about Aloy and Varl from Horizon: Zero Dawn. Varl goes outside of his comfort zone about the Old Ones and Aloy goes out of it by trusting him. This is a snippet of probably a larger work but here you go.

Word Count: 1073

   Varl stares down at the focus in his hand. “It’s Old One’s tech.” Forbidden is what he doesn’t say. Aloy doesn’t think, wraps her fingers around his wrist.

   “It was meant for you.” At that, Varl looks up at her sharply, confused. “This school, this place of learning was meant for the children here-” she squeezes his wrist “-your ancestors. If things had gone to plan, then everything would be different. The whole world would have been different. We would constantly be using Old One’s tech.” She looks away, bitterness creeping up. “Instead, Apollo’s dead and HADES was almost unleashed upon the world.” She still gets angry when she thinks about what she discovered at GAIA Prime. Apollo’s fate, the Alphas’ fate. Fucking Ted. Varl speaks again and she looks back at him.

   “You said All-Mother- GAIA created you to stop HADES.” Aloy tilts her head, not knowing where this is going.

   “Yes.”

   “Then you wouldn’t have existed if things had gone to plan.”

    He’s not saying anything she hasn’t considered before. This thought is one of the many that creep on her at night. But she’s not sure they’re thinking the same way. “And I don’t think I want to live in a world without you in it.” Definitely not what she meant. It’s like her breath has been punched from her with his statement.

   It’s still weird to feel wanted. All her life, being shunned and cast aside. She’s not used to someone wanting her around, it’s always came with a condition. Help me find my sister, take care of these bandits, find this person, stay in Meridian to become my second and let’s get together. Okay, she did forgive Avad for that but now its less embarrassing and more ridiculous. And she was happy to help her friends because it’s the right thing to do. She can help these people so she should. Rost’s last lesson…

   And Varl- something’s just different. He doesn’t call her Anointed anymore, has less of that reverence when he’s with her. She can be a person with him. And he wants her around, not for her to do anything for him but simply because he wants.

   “Oh.” Is what she settles on. Varl smiles at her, sheepish.

   “Yeah well.” He ducks his head, rubs the back of his neck. He stares down at the focus once again and belatedly she realizes she’s still holding his wrist. Jerkily, she lets go, lets her hands hang at her sides. Now she’s all too aware of them. “How does this work exactly?” Aloy breathes a sigh of relief. Old One’s tech she knows, feelings not so much.

   “It lets you read and see Old One’s tech and writings. Explains how they work. Shows valuables around an area, how machines work, their weaknesses, and tracks. It works for any enemy really.” She tilts her head. “It’s very… knowledgeable.” She scratches the back of her head. “I’m not entirely sure of the inner workings of it.” They meet eyes once more and she chuckles a little. “Didn’t want to take mine apart in case I couldn’t put it back together again.” He smiles.

   “Smart, but now you have a whole slew of them.” Varl spreads an arm around them.

   “True. In fact,” she walks over to another stall, and another, and another, gathering up focuses. “You reminded me on why I came here in the first place.” She grabs two more. Some to tinker with.

   “Oh?” Varl questions.

   “I said I was planning on going west?” At his nod, she continues. “Well, I have some ideas.”

   “You want to give the focus’ out, right?” She nods, once again relieved that he’s picking this up.

   “I- I’m used to working alone, fighting alone. But with the battle of HADES, everything I’ve learned and been through, everyone I’ve met… It wouldn’t be bad to have a few backups and a way to contact people given that I’ll be so far.” She hesitates again, still that small bit unsure, still just that much untrusting. She said it, she’s not used to allies, to friends. “And people want to help me. I’m…. trying to accept that.” She looks at Varl again, not sure when she looked away. His smile lights up the room better than the screens around them. He takes a step forward, and another one.

   “That’s good Aloy.”

   “Yeah.” She looks away again. They’re right back to feelings and emotions. And her plan isn’t even finished yet, by the sun its barely even a draft but- it seems useful, strategical, and there’s a part of her that wants it.

   Ever since she was a little girl she wanted that connection, that community. It’s gotten smaller over the years, of course, but it’s still there. She wants people, even if she has no idea how to interact with them and sort of hates doing so. There’s a reason she keeps company with ghosts and secrets, after all.

   “Anyways,” she clears her throat. “I should be able to like, sync these so we can communicate over distances.”

   “You can do that?” With Varl’s excitement she’s able to push away her own complicated feelings.

   “Yeah. Think of like a net across the world, linking focuses.” She uses Sylen’s own example because it just makes the most sense right now. For Varl and for her. “You just need to activate your focus.” She stares down at his hand. She meets his eyes. “That is, if you want to.” Once again, he brandishes the focus, lying flat in his hand.

   “Okay.” Varl looks up and a jolt of excitement shoots through her. He tilts his head, squinting. “Okay. Where do I-” She tilts her own head for him and seconds later he’s pressing it to his ear. Finally, finally someone she can trust is wearing one, is learning with her. Joining her.

  She steps forward, lifts a finger to poke it. “To activate it, just press it.” She’s close enough to hear the little whoosh it gives. She watches as he startles, just a bit, eyes wide as he takes in the new visuals. He looks her up and down.

   “You’re purple!” Aloy laughs.

   “Yeah! Allies and good things are purple. Enemies and their weaknesses are orange.” Varl looks around the room, eyes scanning.

   “This is so…”

   “Different?”

   “Cool!” He looks back at her with that wide smile back on her face.

   It makes her heart pound.

[asongofpiratesandzombies]

‘a dangerous trait when it comes to a warrior.’ — chapter 4 ⋆ broken and scarred by nymheria (ao3)