#tildaloy

Against the Lightning

Thanks for the tag, @foibles-fables

The Rules: Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤️

Trying to run the gamut rather than going with recency bias (because Otohan, obvs~), so from oldest to most recent, we have:

Prometheus Bound (Aloy/Tilda van der Meer; Horizon Forbidden West, Rated M)

The fanfic I started writing for! This was my first "fine I'll do it myself" moment (because canon Horizon simply did not utilize Tilda to the best of all her manipulative, bitchy potential), as well as my first longfic! Also the first true sign of my thing about awful older women.

When the Darkness Comes (Silga & Untalla; Horizon Forbidden West, Rated M)

My Horizon Big Bang piece, and the first fic I ever wrote all at once before posting. Look I just adore these two NPCs that never meet in-game; they're now best friends because I said so and they hold a very dear place in my heart.

Let Me Lay Waste to Thee (Imogen Temult/Otohan Thull; Critical Role, Rated M)

Y'all. What can be said (Strap in I'm bout to say so much because I'm feeling especially sentimental, I should probably check my period tracker..) While working my way through c3, I got to ep33 (the "is she your favorite" episode), and instead of being traumatized by imodna angst, I saw the horrible awful murderous bitch tenderly and terrifyingly urging Imogen to give in and thought 'surely someone else has noted the Tension these two have.' Well APPARENTLY if anyone had they didn't do anything about it, because a couple weeks later I created their ship tag on AO3. Exploring this fucked up rarepair was the reason I picked back up writing after a six month break post-Big Bang, and ultimately Otohan became Thee Reason I kept writing. I never truly got the concept of a blorbo until Otohan (which is insane given we know next to nothing about her canonically and I just made everything up. Well, I extrapolated a lot but still I did so quite well imo). ANYWAYS, I love Themb. Y'all know this. Of course the first fic I wrote for them is my fave.

Unexpected Company (Grace/Athena; Stray Gods, Rated G)

If I somehow didn't realize I had a thing about awful old women, this made it embarrassingly obvious. I maintain that Grace and Athena really are wonderful foils to each other. I still absolutely intend to one day get back to the slow burn long fic I have for them, but this lil oneshot was such a fun way of dipping my toes into it through Athena's perspective.

A Dance With Danger (Imogen Temult/Otohan Thull; Critical Role, Rated T)

Obviously, Imogen and Otohan are tough to make work in a believable way (tho I like to think I do so well), especially when strictly constrained to a more canon lens. This fic was my way of tackling them from that strict angle, and my god was it difficult and immensely fun to write. 'What if Otohan attended the Jrusar ball waaaay back in ep 13?' was already a super fun concept, but taking an Imogen that was so much less knowledgeable and practiced with her powers and giving her the opportunity to get that information by literally dancing around this dangerous-but-can't-put-her-finger-on-why person? Mwah, they just WORK, people, I've been saying this for going on two years and I will keep saying it!

I pretty much never share my playlists, so this is pretty new to me, but I've been itching to show off my pride and joy for a while now, so I thought the Horizon Base Jams would be the perfect chance!

My ship playlist for Day 1 centers around Tilda/Elisabet and Tilda/Aloy. That might be cheating a little, but I'm sure that, for Tilda, the latter is a bit of a continuation of the former, haha ^^ You might know I don't really ship Aloy with anyone, but this can be intepreted as one-sided.

Essay with my reasoning under the cut for anyone who wants it!