#meet the team: leads

[focusontheheart]

Meet the Team Lead - Foibs

Who could the Lead for the Talanah route possibly be? Of course, it's the ever-talented @foibles-fables! You can also find them on AO3 as foibles_fables!

Howdy and hello, I’m Foibs! You might already know me as that clown who’s always crying over Talanah. Well, get ready for more tears, FOTH-style! My first exposure to the Horizon series was scrolling Twitter, seeing the reveal trailer for Forbidden West, and thinking, “This seems relevant to my interests.” I proved myself right when I started playing in late 2020 and fell in love with Aloy’s incredible world. Since then, I’ve churned out an embarrassing amount of fanfic (overwhelmingly Hawk and Thrush), become a lore connoisseur, and formed lifelong relationships with amazing folks in the fandom. I’ve written fanfiction on and off for—well, most of my life! My inspiration usually comes from epic sci-fi/fantasy and modern poetry, so game script writing has been a fun and rewarding challenge already.

Q&A with Foibs under the cut!

What is a favorite piece of work you've done (completed/ working on/ in-concept)?

True story: I came into my Horizon fixation thinking I wouldn’t write any fic for the series. Then I met the (future) Sunhawk, and all bets were off. This is a tough choice—I’m proud of everything I’ve created for the series—but lately I’ve been feeling soft for rest like you belong here., my first ever Aloy/Talanah fic. It was compelling and fulfilling to explore Aloy’s manifold struggles with vulnerability in a Zero Dawn missing scene.

What are some of your favorite tropes (to read/ write/ draw)?

I tend to gravitate towards capturing and developing those unseen, in-between moments of canon. I’m also a huge fan of diving into a character’s psyche with introspective studies—usually of the romantic variety. Beyond that, I’m a huge sucker for writing pining (mutual or otherwise), friends to lovers, and emotional/physical hurt/comfort.

What is an unexpected thing or fun fact about you?

Outside of fandom-adjacent activities, my hobbies include picking up heavy things and putting them back down. My heart is big, but my deadlift number is bigger.

What has been your favorite thing about working on this project so far?

Definitely the profound spirit of enthusiastic collaboration between all of these fabulous creators. It’s been utterly inspiring to put together a project of this scale and complexity with folks I might never have gotten to work with or befriend otherwise! I’m also very excited to get to explore the development of Talanah and Aloy’s relationship after the events of Forbidden West in this new and interesting way!

[sunnys-side-upside-down]

Blorbo's Eepiest Soldier

Thank you everyone for your kind words, I'm doing better and am back to it <3

[spookberry]

Its my birthday so im posting oc lore <3

[foralleternityidiot]

between us episode 1 corresponds with uwma episodes 1-3 (stopping about 2 minutes into part 2) and everything that follows takes place after winteam’s first time. it is mind boggling.

this scene is their first interaction in uwma after the beach hookup.

notice team uses hia now 😏

[daenerysies]

lol. lmao, even.

[vivitheanimaxen]

there's another ranchers/zits/giggs au story concept in my head i've been playing with, so let's-- just call this a demo.

Feel free to send asks or just give general feedback, not only will it help me to flesh out the au more, it'll also give me more ideas on where to go. I've seen similar aus out there, but nothing quite like this one-- or having all the same concepts as this one. If people like it, I might turn it into an actual longfic. but i tend to run out of steam on my longfics (mostly due to a lack of interaction tbh. if no one else is excited about my au, then it's not worth pursuing, right? but that's my problem and something I have to work through myself, not something for anyone else to fix)

Anyway.

This is a thing.

The moment Jimmy laid eyes on Tango, he knew something was-- off-- about him.

They'd met him in a tavern, in the small town that lay below the abandoned Deepfrost Citadel. Jimmy's adventuring troupe had been commissioned with finding an artifact in the Citadel, and bringing it back to its rightful owner. The bounty offered would be enough to pay off the troupe's debts and much much more. When they'd asked around for any sort of maps, or a guide, the tavern keeper had pointed them over to Tango.

"He's the only one to have ever made it out of that cursed place alive." The dwarf had told them, pointing to where their future guide was sitting in the corner, "If you want a guide, he's the only one who can."

Jimmy's sense for danger had shivered up his spine and stolen his breath the moment he looked over. But-- no one in his troupe paid any attention to him anyway.

Besides, the negotiations had gone well, Tango seemed amical enough, and no one else seemed to have a problem with him. It was only Jimmy, and his overzealous avian anxiety. They would pay Tango half his fee up front, and half when they got back to the village safely.

It took them half a week to get up to the Citadel, and that was with the help and knowledge of Tango as their guide. Jimmy kept him at arms' length, not quite knowing why but deciding to trust his gut on this one. Tango was dangerous, in a way that he couldn't figure out. He'd brought it up to the others in his troupe, but none of them believed him. They all loved Tango. He was clever, quick to laugh and even quicker to crack a joke, and ever so useful.

By the time they made it to the door of the Citadel, Tango had become an invaluable member of the troupe.

Tango disappeared that first night, spent barricaded in an outlying tower and hoping not to freeze to death. Jimmy had been on watch, and between one glance and the next, Tango hadn't been in his bedroll anymore.

But-- he'd been right back in the morning, acting like Jimmy didn't know what he was talking about.

It was the little things that kept setting Jimmy on edge. Tango knew a little too much about the Citadel, he'd found the 'hidden' door to the crypts too easily, had pushed the troupe to descend into the depths faster than was safe, not letting them scout it with a familiar like they normally would. He could pick the locks almost like he had a silent knock spell in his fingers, and somehow knew his way through the maze of icy caverns like the back of his hand.

And every night, after everyone was asleep, he disappeared. Jimmy was the only one who noticed. No one else believed him either, did they just-- not notice the empty bedroll when they were on watch?

When they finally believed him, it wasn't until Tango disappeared for good. One morning, he just-- didn't come back.

Then the monsters started appearing.

One thing lead to another as they pressed deeper and deeper into the dungeon under the Citadel, icy crypts full of wraiths and furry beasts morphing into wet caverns covered in mushrooms and a pirate ship complete with it's undead crew; leading down into black mines that had supposedly been blocked off by cave ins over a hundred years ago-- and before they knew it they'd lost a member of the troupe-- their healer-- and then they were tripping tail over teakettle into a maze so dark and cold that even those in the troupe with darkvision couldn't see.

It spat them out into a chamber not unlike the throne room found mirrored high above in the Deepfrost Citadel. It was full of gold and magic and things that would make any adventurer drool at the prospect of having them to keep.

Jimmy hadn't felt 'safe'-- not since he'd first met Tango in that tavern all those weeks ago-- but the sense of someone watching them stayed his hand.

The rest of the troupe had gotten busy, plundering everything in reach and searching for the artifact they'd been sent to collect.

But not Jimmy.

When asked why he wasn't stuffing his pockets with gold, he waved off the troupe with the excuse of keeping watch. After all, there were the monsters to contend with still--

Tango's giggle seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"Oh, you really should have listened to poor, sweet Jimmy when you had the chance~"

And suddenly Tango was there, on the throne in the center of the room, but instead of the blond, brown-eyed and rough-hewn guide they'd come to know and trust, it was a creature made of frost and shadows.

Jimmy's heart dropped out his stomach.

"Dragon--!"

Oh, they were dead.

Scratch that. Apparently everyone but Jimmy was dead.

Not like that was much better.

[madame-mongoose]

Y'all I think my boss is fucked lmao

[c-l-y-d-e]

yeah i should have just booked this entire week off what a fucking mess

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

Like just single dad space cowboy Lance au, that keeps rotating in my head, absolute bullshit but just know it is inspired by Smokin Joe Rudeboy by Tom Cardy

[thescreaminghat]

Response #1: This is a very unprofessional question - did you not receive any training on what is considered an appropriate conversation topic in the workplace? 

Response #2: No, and you should ask Agnes herself, not me, if you’re interested in knowing more about her dating life. 

Response #3: . . .have you not noticed how I have been pining for your best friend for literally years

[focusontheheart]

Meet the Team Lead - fogsblue

Say hi to the Lead for the Kotallo route, it's the ever stalwart and sweet @fogsblue! You can find her on Twitter and AO3 as fogsblue!

Heya, I’m fogs, an Aussie who learned about HZD accidentally -- just before release -- and pre-ordered immediately. I fell in love with the game and Aloy, and Horizon took over a corner of my brain and I settled in for the long haul. I drifted around the edges of the fandom from the start, met some amazing people but it was the release of HFW that pushed me from quietly loving the series (my shelves would argue *quiet*) to diving headfirst into the fandom. It's mostly Kotallo’s fault, he stole my heart, seemed to me to be a good match for Aloy and suddenly I was gone for the ship as well. Even got me writing fic again, after more than 5 years!

Q&A with fogs under the cut!

What is a favorite piece of work you've done (completed/ working on/ in-concept)? 

Probably my one long Horizon fic, which is a Kotaloy AU I had a lot of fun creating, called "Secrets of the Forest" (E) followed by the almost crack "Kotallo versus the Goose" (E). I aim for sugar overload, somewhat successfully I think.

What are some of your favorite tropes (to read/ write/ draw)?

To write: fluff, smut, fluff-and-smut, something that hopefully makes people smile. To read: friends to lovers is my fave. Stories exploring the moments between and anything that gives characters who’ve had to deal with the worst some moments of peace.

What is an unexpected thing or fun fact about you?

I have a pupper named Lilo and way too many Horizon toys? I’m also stupidly proud of organising, and participating in, Kotaloy Celebration Week, a ship event run in April ‘23 (irl I’m very dull).

What has been your favorite thing about working on this project so far?

Working with so many wonderful, creative people with so much love for the series and sharing the excitement with everyone, no matter the ship! 

[thedreadvampy]

here is a situation I would like you to consider. Imagine a charity, right?

This charity has a staff of 207, of whom around 5-8 are people of colour

This charity works in poverty and homelessness reduction, an area which disproportionately affects Black people, Asian people, and non-EU migrants.

This charity operates in Scotland, a country which is considered extremely white with a population who identified as 96% white in the 2011 census

This charity operates in Edinburgh, a city with a population that's still pretty overwhelmingly white, with 91.7% identifying as some form of white in 2011 (5.5% Asian, 1.1% Black or African, 1.6% other/mixed) (the 2022 census numbers aren't out yet so this is real outdated)

The charity has an Inclusion and Diversity staff working group

Despite operating in a pretty white country, this charity is still managing to limbo under the line of 'less white than Scotland as a whole in 2011' by having a staff body which is under 4% people of colour, despite operating in the capital.

All staff of colour in the organisation are below junior management level

All but 2 people of colour in the staff team have, at some point, joined the staff working group then left. Several have mentioned feeling like they're being expected to take on extra diversity work because of their race, and one spoke to feeling like there was no room or interest in discussing racial equity.

There has never been any concerted data gathering or analysis on the racial picture of applications vs successful recruitments in the organisation

When asked, the general take from management is 'people of colour prefer to work for BAME organisations'

When asked about racial equity in recruitment, managers in the inclusion and diversity group repeatedly deflect to talking about reaching BAME client groups by co-working with BAME-focused community organisations.

When asked about putting budget underspend behind scoping the reasons for racial inequity in hiring and retention, managers in the (entirely white) I&D group said, and I quote, "obviously it's important but it's never come up as a priority and we don't need people to come in and tell us what we already know"

"ok what do we already know"

fucking nothing as it turns out because it's "never been a priority"

we don't even know if it's a recruitment or hiring issue

except I do

because I've talked to multiple people of colour who applied and went through the hiring process and were not hired

so people are fucking applying aren't they

anyway I had a very angering day yesterday, how are you all doing?

It's not, in fact, that "they don't want to work here for some reason"

[adashofniallandasprinkleoflunacy]

work today was fucking terrible

[foundationsofdecay]

work day is saaaaaved thanks meds for my life

[mephiles-the-jester]

across the spiderverse is making me think of shadow and others visiting an alternate universe where maria lives via being frozen for 50 years but the shadow from that universe doesnt

[our-inspire-verse]

I love being plural. Oh, how i love being plural!

I love it, and all it's struggles. It is not to say to be plural does not hurt. That it cannot be torture or agony. Like it isnt sometimes the most woeful, painful part of my life sometimes.

When is anything permanent, at any point? The trauma slowed down. It will never fully stop, as life itself is designed to tear a soul apart, i do fully believe it cannot end. However, i will dance with glee at the opportunity to feel pain. To live, and to feel and to breathe. My gratitude has saved me.

I now thank my system for being my soul, for being as alive as it is and for continuing to fluctuate. I thank it for its confusing complexity and the secrets it keeps. Thank you for being as loving and daring and sometimes cruel as you are. For your differences and relations and your stories and lives. You make me Me and complete Micheal.

I love my system, my system was with me and helped me survive life. And now we are out to share one we're building together.