#horizon stuff

stolen from @foibles-fables / @finrays.

1.ride or die ship (your otp): Ereloy fics and art give me so much serotonin it's unreal.

2. most annoying ship: I don't find any ships annoying. There are some that are not for me, sure, but if people love it who am I to judge?

3. second favourite ship: Ugh, I dunno. Beta/Milu is adorable, Aloy/Ikrie is classic, Niloy can make for some very interesting reading, but I guess Hawk and Thrush makes the most sense.

4. favourite platonic relationship: It's got to be the Erend and the guys in the Vanguard. Their endless jibes and grumbling at each other are very reminiscent of some of my very best friendships. Varl and Erend's interactions are great, too, they're just so easy with one another.

5. underrated ship: I really like ships that involve minor characters - the recent rair pair roundup has been delightful for me. I long for a fic about some of the Oseram salvagers getting to know the Tenakth whose land they've invaded.

6. overrated ship: see no. 2.

7. one thing i would change in canon: Like, a lot. There were some pretty big chunks of HFW (and Burning Shores) that just didn't sit right. I don't think I can better the responses of @foibles-fables and @finrays (both of whom might be actual geniuses), but I'd settle for the returning characters (Varl, Erend, Talanah, Avad) to be treated better!

8. something canon did right: I think the Horizon series is best when it focuses on poignant storytelling over action. The way the history of the metal world slowly reveals itself at the Grave-hoard and in the Zero Dawn facility below Sunfall is hauntingly beautiful; I'd love to be able to play them for the first time again. In HFW, the quests in Dunehollow to recover POSEIDON were practically perfect, and Gildun's return in Burning Shores was the best part of the DLC by a country mile. In both these cases you get to peek into the lives of a person from the past via emotionally impactful datapoints whose recorded thoughts parallel the people you're trying to help in the present, yet it never feels too on-the-nose. Of course it helps that the people you're trying to help are some of the best realised characters in the whole game.

9. a thing i'm proud of creating for the fandom PLEASE BRAG ABOUT YOURSELF I WANT TO SEE/READ YOUR ART: Eh. Alas, I'm not artistically talented. I just take virtual photos of stuff I like. I put a lot of effort into my machine headshot series, though. If you go to @singingkestrel and search for 'headshots compilation' (or 'hfw machines') they should all come up.

10. a character who is perfect to me (wouldn't change a thing): None of the main cast were treated 100% right in HFW. I mean, there are some things that make me genuinely angry if I think about them too much. Varl dying for no good reason, Erend being turned into a bumbling oaf, Regalla being criminally underused... ugh. UGH I SAY!

But you know who is perfect?

Morlund.

I love his optimism and his determination and his intelligence and his companionable nature. He's a nerdy mad inventor and a very strong candidate for the most overtly hopeful and kind chap in game (I mean, there is also Varl. And Gildun.) and I just adore him.

11. the character i relate to the most and why: I look at the Oseram in both HZD and HFW and see myself, my friends and my home. I adore their aesthetic with all of its chunky wood and sturdy iron, I love their down to earth attitude, their culture of hard work and social drinking and affectionate insults, their adventurous wanderer spirit and inventiveness and willingness to argue about everything. Are they flawed? Sure! Like me, they're loud and blunt and often speak without thinking, thinking they know best. Unlike me (I hope), they're too dismissive of other cultures, their lack of environmental awareness is deeply concerning, and we all know 🕯The Claim🕯 is going to be a hideous hotbed of rampant sexism - one that I will gladly watch Aloy tear to pieces like a tasmanian devil with a grudge. I don't think I can pick a single Oseram character I totally relate to, though.

But I do relate to Tom Paech. As soon as I heard those broad antipodean tones swearing about wanting to inflict actual bodily harm on Ted Faro I knew I'd found the scientist I was supposed to identify with. He was hot-blooded, as he put it, whilst also revering nature, the 'miracle of life.' And him wanting to help, despite significant reservations, and then not wanting to live on once the job was done? Exactly how I think I would have reacted. Plus as a marine biologist/ecologist (assuming I'd be in any way qualified!) I'd end up working on ARTEMIS too.

12. character(-s) i hate the most and why: There are characters you are meant to hate. It's fun to have a villain. Ted Faro, Helis, the Ceo... but the hate is both intentional and enjoyable. They're good characters. If I had to pick a character I disliked where this wasn't the aim, however, I'd have to pick... hmm. I'm not sure. Amadis seemed largely pointless and annoying in HFW though. Talanah deserved better.

13. something i've learned from the fandom: Before HFW came out, I hadn't been involved in any fandom for about a decade (maybe longer, eek!) - I was a solitary creature. Coming back made me rediscover the joy of sharing my obsessions with others. Also that it doesn't matter how small your contribution is, someone will enjoy it.

14. three tags i seek out on ao3: That's between me and my ISP.

15. a song i strongly associate with my otp/favourite character: I don't, really. Bit weird, considering how much of my life involves music, and how readily my brain seems to play musical association with images. But I can't think of a single one. Sorry 😕

Is there a passage you'd be willing to share (posted/WIP) where you honed your words until they were just right, and elaborate on why you settled for the words/sentences you chose in the end? Or just a bit you're very proud of because you consciously decided on something for a very specific effect?

You warned me and I still panicked because oh god what do I want to talk about--

Mirror passages. I quite like to reference previous fics when writing, and while it usually is more or less a sentence or two in passing, sometimes I consciously decide to re-use and alter a specific section, usually to contrast the new information with the old.

One such example is this passage in Linger:

Her mind doubts, dismisses, but her skin remembers. The soft touch of Ikrie’s fingertips at her temple, taking off the Focus as if she knew that as long as she wore it, they were never truly alone. Caresses exploring uncharted yet familiar paths, diligently mapping her scars, her stories. Fingers first, then lips: the one on her brow, token of the outcast. The one on her neck, token of the Seeker. Countless marks on her hands, tinker; her forearm, archer. Shoulders, back, chest, all cuts and claws and arrowheads: machine hunter, warrior. The one next to her navel, still fresh and angry and pink, where she caught shrapnel from a Bellowback’s exploding gullet as it charged her. Ikrie doesn’t know that one yet. She would hesitate and look up at her with questioning eyes, just a hint of worry in them, and the pad of her thumb would brush over it repeatedly as if she could smooth it out while Aloy tells the story. Friend. Talanah had dragged her to safety that day, nursed her through the fever, and while she had insisted there had been no need, Aloy knows it wouldn’t have healed half as well if she hadn’t. Ikrie would listen, quietly, and then she would lean in and kiss her, one of those lasting, heavy ones that leave her breathless and hungry, desperate for more.

Which I subsequently picked up again months later in Latency (if I was going to repeat myself as I realised while taking notes for this fic, I could just as well do it properly):

You know her shape as intimately as a painter knows their art. Your hands are the pigment-stained hunter braving the heights, she is the mark faded on the cliffs, and with each return, you retrace her lines. Fingers first, then lips; diligently, so that you won’t miss even the subtlest of changes: the remnants of the sun’s kiss on her arms; a faint smattering of freckles fading on her shoulders; the scars that pale, others that are added. All parts that make her, carved into her skin: on her brow, baffling compassion; her neck, perseverance. Countless marks on her hands and forearms, witnesses to her resourcefulness, curiosity and skill; chest and back praising unwavering courage against machine and man. The one next to her navel—

That one was new, and it made you pause. Look up at her, eyebrows raised, and she told you the story: a moment of recklessness, a Bellowback charging, safety reached only for the kindness and care of another. As you kissed her, soft at first, then deepening, losing yourself in her breath and taste and body, this piece, too, fell into place: the light she gives to the world and other people; that they give back. That you give back.