#valaloy

[missmrah]

Thank you @valaloy for this absolutely lovely request ❤️ 

I deeply wish we’d gotten more of Vala in Zero Dawn, but at least fandom will never let her die ✨

[oathkeeperoxas]

Serie’s Battleship 2022 Fic Masterpost

Works have been revealed for this year’s round of Battleship, so I can now show off everything I wrote for this event! I ended up writing 24 fics over 5 fandoms, totalling up 40k words

Star Wars

every breath we drew | codywan | 2.6k

After winning the war, there's more waiting on the other side for Cody than he ever could have dreamed of. Including Obi-Wan.

alone together | codywan | 3k

Stranded on a distant planet, Cody and Obi-Wan find a way to use the time they've unexpectedly been given.

the knife and the wound | codywan | 3.2k

The child kicking in Obi-Wan's belly won't let him sleep. Cody gives him a distraction, and some reprieve.

to push through | Din & Grogu | 600 words

The Mandalorian has a mission to complete. No matter how well he's feeling.

trek | Din & Grogu | 1.2k

This journey still has a long way to go.

shooting stars | Din & Grogu | 1.7k

Din and the kid visit a planet overflowing with festive spirit.

the deep night | Din & Grogu | 900 words

A restless night on a distant moon prompts some reflection by the Mandalorian.

Kingdom Hearts

dressing up for a dressing down | sorikai | 1.2k

Kairi plans her dances for the evening as Sora and Riku take their time to appear at the ball.

long afternoons | sorikai | 600 words

Sora, Riku, and Kairi take care of a problem for the town.

just for the week | sorikai | 500 words

Kairi and Sora have a surprise for Riku.

belonging | sorikai | 1k

Kairi knows that she belongs with Sora and Riku.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

midnight | Marianne/Hilda | 900 words

Marianne and Hilda have a midnight chat after dancing the night away.

winter warmth / winter woes | Marianne/Leonie | 1.7k

Marianne reflects on what she's gained throughout the year she's spent at Garreg Mach, while anticipating what moving forward and losing those connections might mean.

thunderclap | Marianne/Ashe/Ingrid | 1.8k

Marianne has been waiting for her two wives to arrive for far too long now.

the aftermath | Marianne/Hilda | 1.8k

Marianne and Hilda recover after a hard battle.

time after time | Byleth/Edelgard | 4.5k

Petra and Dorothea's wedding is interrupted by a successful assassination. Using powers that Byleth no longer believed she possessed, she turns back the clock in order to save the person that she's beginning to think that she loves, and to save the wedding day of some of her closest friends.

there’s a blaze of light | Edelgard/Lysithea | 1.3k

Edelgard likes the Monastery at night; except for when she makes the unpleasant discovery of her partner collapsed under the moon.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

remember us | Vala/Aloy | 2.2k

Aloy and Vala investigate some old ruins, and find some old ghosts.

in your arms | Aloy/Ikrie | 1.7k

Ikrie and Aloy tend to each other's wounds after a particularly fierce encounter with a herd of machines.

lazy afternoons | Aloy/Petra | 700 words

Aloy and Petra relax, with a picnic lunch being everything Aloy needs.

Baby, I’ve been here before | Aloy/Talanah | 900 words

Aloy and Talanah reunite after they've finished their respective goals in the Forbidden West.

all I ever learned from love was | Aloy & Varl | 1.7k

“GAIA?” Aloy asks, sitting up in her bed. The room is dark, and she can’t see any bright lights from the common area, so it must still be night. “What’s wrong?” “I would not categorise this behaviour as something wrong,” GAIA says, her smooth voice coming out of the intercom near Aloy’s bed. Aloy picks her focus up and puts it on, and GAIA shifts to that easily. “Varl has left the Base, and without his focus. I thought you would prefer to know about it.”

Avatar: The Last Airbender

yes, even now | Gaang | 1.2k

Zuko is busy being sick and investigating an old ruin when his friends arrive to make sure that he's not pushing himself too far.

She broke your throne | Zuko & Toph | 2.7k

Zuko is kidnapped from his afternoon of paperwork by a well intentioned friend. There just so happens to be a festival on in town for them to attend instead of working...

[valaloy]

yall i just finished burning shores and wlw aloy canon??????? lesbians in MY video games???

[retrowhatever]

All the Horizon Fanfic Stats You Never Knew You Needed

So I did some data analysis. More graphs and lots of rambling below the cut.

I love graphs. And spreadsheets. And making my hobbies unnecessarily complicated. So obviously once I discovered that there's an unofficial ao3 api, I had to learn a new programming language so I could throw some math at my Horizon hyperfixation and make some graphs about fanfics. This post is the result of that rabbit hole, I hope you enjoy it!

Before we get started, I want to make one thing explicitly clear: this post is a celebration. It's a celebration of fanfic, authors, and the fandom in general. If you have something mean to say about a ship, a writer, or a fic, this ain't the place. I made these graphs and wrote this post as a love letter to a game I'm obsessed with and the incredible people who make the fan content that is my main form of sustenance these days lol, so let's keep the discussion positive.

One last thing: I generated these graphs from data that I pulled on Aug 4, 2022. Anything published after that won't be reflected here. Alright, here we go! Let's see some graphs!

Fanfic by Length

The first thing I wondered is what the average length of fic was. I did not include any fics below 100 words, assuming they were either art or placeholders, neither of which provide any useful information regarding number of words.

I defined the categories as follows:

Ficlet - less than 2000 words

Short Story - 2K-10K words

Novella - 10K-50K words

Novel - 50K-100K works

Behemoth (pun fully intended) - 100K+ words

Obviously, there's some blurriness at the category edges, but it's pretty clear most fics tend to be relatively short. I'm genuinely surprised by how many huge, sprawling works there are though - I definitely expected there to be a single-digit number of behemoth fics. Mad props to the folks writing those monstrosities for the rest of us to enjoy!

Fanfic by # of Chapters

This graph kind of underscores the point about most fics being relatively short. There are almost twice as many single chapter fics than all other fics put together.

A thing I think is relatively unique to fanfic as a medium though, is that a fair number of those single chapter fics are novella or even novel length. You're not often going to find a book at a bookstore that's tens of thousands of words and has no chapter divisions, but that's not unusual in fanfic.

Fanfic by Author

Okay, the first thing you need to understand about this graph is the following numbers:

1

2.6

Those are the median and mean fics published per author in the Horizon fandom, respectively. In case you slept through your stats class, what that means is most fanfic writers have written one or two Horizon fanfics. Now go back and look at the graph.

...yeah. We as fanfic lovers owe a lot to these folks. Most of them are on tumblr, so even if you don't have an ao3 account (same, babe, same) you have no excuse not to go show them some love!

Serie11 is @valaloy

SoupAndChaos is @soupandchaos

mythicait is @mythicaitt

DragonRose35 I couldn't find a tumblr for

Kittleskittle is @kittleskittle

VidalsQueen is @sun-and-shadow-aloy

NorthernGhost is @thatsgonnabeanogho

sunspot (unavoidedcrisis) is @sunspott

januarys I couldn't find a tumblr for

foibles_fables is @foibles-fables

unstable_grad I couldn't find a tumblr for

Pikapeppa is @pikapeppa

YoGrossDude is @yogrossdude

bioluminesce is @owlswatch

wandereringray is @wandereringray

escafiils is @chloefraazers

Fanfic by Rating

Okay, now things are getting spicy! First of all, if I'd had to guess the most popular rating, it probably wouldn't have been Teen. But, given how popular the "fluff" tag is (foreshadowing for the tag graph later in this post), I guess it shouldn't be that surprising.

Secondly, I'm clearly not the only one who struggles to understand what exactly the Mature rating is for, considering it's the least-used rating by a fair margin.

Fanfic by Ship

The most popular ships, colour-coded based on orientation. From left to right: mlm, straight, wlw, poly, machines(?????), unknown

I want to reiterate here that I made this post to celebrate the awesome Horizon fandom, so if you're thinking of using this graph to argue that one ship is better/more correct than another... just don't, k? Good.

I also combined similar tags, so if someone used all three of the tags "Aloy/Erend", "Aloy/Erend (Horizon: Zero Dawn)", and "Aloy (Horizon: Zero Dawn)/Erend (Horizon: Zero Dawn)" for the same fic, that's actually going to count as three fics in the Aloy/Erend column. I'll probably end up redoing this graph eventually with a less naive counting algorithm, but for now this is what we've got.

Now that we've got methodology out of the way, let's talk about some cool things this graph shows!

First, Kotaloy shippers obviously have a lot of things to say. Unlike the other five most popular ships, Aloy/Kotallo is the only one involving a character that wasn't in the first game. And it's the second most popular ship! Y'all are rabid and I love it.

Second, of the wlw ships, the second and third most popular ships involve a character from the DLC and a character who dies immediately after you meet her, respectively. You guys are out here making meals from crumbs and I am impressed. Also, though, why don't Petra and Vanasha get more love??? I'm unsurprised that Talanah and her favourite Thrush are the #1 ship, but I (a clueless straight, to be fair) loved both Petra and Vanasha and definitely expected to see more fic involving them.

Third, I love the variety here. This graph only includes ships with at least 10 fics, and there are so many different ships represented! There were tons more that had 5-10 fics too, and it honestly made me so happy to see that there were multiple fic options for almost any pairing in the game.

Fanfic by Tag

Y'all. Look at all the fluff. People always joke about making their blorbos go through it in their fanfic, but like. There is SO MUCH FLUFF. We all really just looked at these characters and went "well, they deserve nice things for a change", huh? I also love how popular canon divergence is - anecdotally, I usually see that tag on fics that are like "well, what if that shitty thing didn't happen?"

That's not to say it's all sunshine and rainbows. The next two most popular tropes are "angst" and "hurt/comfort", and as an enthusiastic consumer of both, I'm not surprised. But again, anecdotally I see a fair number of fics tagged with one or both of those and a "fluff" tag.

Going back to the ratings graph, where we learned that the most popular fic rating is Teen & Up, it shouldn't be surprising that both "First Kiss" and "First Time" are more popular tags than any of the more explicit sex ones. Also, given that Aloy grew up an outcast, I think the popularity of those tags speaks to how fun it is for both writers and readers to delve into what that means for her when it comes to sex and relationships.

Finally, the most-used content warning tags will surprise exactly no one, I think. Canon-typical violence (because duh), PTSD (growing up a literal outcast before finding out you're a clone made by an AI so you can save the entire world from extinction will do that to ya, not to mention all the shit Aloy's friends/lovers have been through in their own lives), and canonical character death (glares at GEMINI) are all pretty obvious choices.

Conclusion

Because I have zero impulse control, I'm already working on a part two for this post, where I will address such pressing questions as "Which ship has the most verbose authors?" and "Who's the gayest Horizon character?" as well as recklessly use the powers vested in me by the math and algorithm gods to find some hidden gem fics that you might not have read yet.

In the meantime, I would love to hear some more opinions on these graphs! I've commented on some of the things I found interesting, but there's lots more to address here, so feel free to reblog this post or snag any graph you find interesting to use in a post of your own. I only ask that you tag me if you do - because I want to read what you have to say!!

Also, if there's any stats or questions about Horizon fanfic that you're particularly curious about, let me know. I'm limited by the information available on ao3, but I will do my best to find you answers and include them in the next post.

Lastly, one final reminder that we're here to celebrate the awesomeness of Horizon fanfic, the fanfic authors, and the fandom in general. I will humbly accept all constructive criticism about my (somewhat questionable) statistical methods and data interpretation, but ask that you keep comments about ships, tags, authors, etc positive and productive. Remember these are real people creating free content for the rest of us, and don't yuck someone else's yum.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you found this half as interesting as I did!

[witheringfears]

Horizon Ask Game

Thanks for tagging me @meg-noel-art

1.) ride or die ship (your otp): Aloy/Petra. I'm sorry but I love both of these characters and the chemistry the two of them have together. In the first game these two are only ones who mutually flirt with each other. Also I love that Aloy's actress Ashly Burch said that she thought Aloy and Petra were the only couple that makes sense.

2.) most annoying ship: Probably Aloy/Avad. I like both characters as friends but I don't see them in a relationship. Also most of the interactions between the two involve Avad getting rebuffed by Aloy.

3.) second favorite ship: Aloy/Talanah. Not my main ship but I can definitely see it happening.

4.) favorite platonic relationship: Erend/Aloy. I know a lot of my friends on here love this as their OTP but I see them more as siblings. They have a lovely brother/sister relationship that both of them need.

5.) underrated ship: I don't know if they would actually be in a relationship or just be really good friends but I love the idea of Aluki and Nakoa spending a lot of time together.

6.) overrated ship: Again with Aloy/Avad. Sorry it's just not there for me. If you enjoy it though then I fully support you.

7.) One thing I would change in canon: I can't pick one thing. Don't kill Varl, have Regalla be the main villain in HFW, and the Zeniths be the main villain in the third game instead of Nemesis.

8.) something canon did right: Beta. Seriously she's a fantastic addition.

9.) A thing I’m proud of creating for the fandom: I have a number of WIP pieces. Hopefully I get one ready enough to post.

10.) A character who is perfect to me (wouldn’t change a thing): Petra Forgewoman. She is literally the best and her face model is also here on tumblr. They're New Hologram and I love their videos. @newhologram if you want to check them out!

11.) The character I relate to the most and why: Personality wise it would be Teb. They're just always ready to help their friends even then they're in crippling pain.

12.) Character(-s) I hate the most and why: Drakka and Yarra from HFW and Resh from HZD. I was hoping that Resh might apologize or learn something or have chracter development. Drakka and Yarra's questline was one of the most developed but, like most of the side quests in HFW, amounted to nothing and both sides were unlikable.

13.) something I’ve learned from the fandom: How many good friends I have made by talking to folks.

14.) three tags I seek out on ao3: Aloy/Petra, Poly, and trans

15.) A song I strongly associate with my otp/favorite character: Force of Nature by Miracle of Sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_epoUlyzGM&pp=ygUgZm9yY2Ugb2YgbmF0dXJlIG1pcmFjbGUgb2Ygc291bmQ%3D

Tagging: If we're mutuals and you see this and you like Horizon then you consider yourself tagged. Also if I tag you but you've already done it they don't worry about this. @aloyphotoshoot @aloyxtilda @system-threat-detected @tipanot @valaloy @felrend @tjerra14 @deadletterpoets @neuroweird @aakziikrin @immortalspacelesbian @lonski @meep-m33p

[mechecolomar-archive]

List five things that make you happy, then put this in the ask box for the last ten people who reblogged something from you. Spread the positivity :)

horizon zero dawn

horizon zero dawn

horizon zero dawn

horizon zero dawn

horizon zero dawn

[sun-and-shadow-aloy]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Aloy/Vala (Horizon: Zero Dawn) Characters: Aloy (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Vala (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Bast (Horizon: Zero Dawn) Additional Tags: what we all wish would have happened, Wishful Thinking, Fix-It, vala deserved better Series: Part 3 of HZD Prompts Summary:

This is for the prompt "First Kiss"

[offbrand-valk]

So remember that Vala x Aloy prompt i got? Yeah it got way longer than i had been planning, which is why its not a part of TWGY

Anyways if you’re in the mood for some Valaloy forbidden love fluff, i got you covered

[horizonzerodawnaesthetic]

“When my time comes around, lay me gently in the cold dark earth. No grave can hold my body down, I'll crawl home to her”

A Valaloy mood board requested by @bi-aloy. If you want anything changed, please let me know! Thank you for the request.

Requests are open!

[eri-223]

Last Line Meme 

tagged by @oops-gingermoment

The chapter-opening graph which was going to be in a different POV and may yet change: 

Some of the shadows came from the ship’s dim illumination, a comfort to Eris’ eyes. Others came from the creature that hung above them, curious about the ship’s wake. 

Tagging @titan-mom @shockdroptrooper @warlordfelwinter @euxiom @valaloy if you want it! 

[oathkeeperoxas]

Writer’s Roundup 2018

Thank you @pikapeppa​ for tagging me!! Just a fun few facts to reflect on the writing I did last year...

Words written in 2018: 257,423 (published on AO3. I haven’t published any of the work I did over nano there yet *sweats*)

WIPs started: 2 – currently have 4 in progress

Works finished: 43!! I can’t believe it almost, that’s so many...

Smut scenes written: a whole 1, which was Aloy/Talanah/Vanasha, which honestly I was not planning on writing but a oneshot just kind of spiralled into it so *shrugs* I’m not big on writing or reading smut

Achievements: One of my NY resolutions last year was to write more, and I definitely think I achieved that goal. I wrote 61k for femslash February, and I’m still not sure how I managed to pull that out of my hat. I’ve also gotten a chunk through my wild soulmate AU idea I had at the start of last year, to which I’ve written 117k for, which I am very impressed by.

Writing resolutions for this year: I want to keep up my momentum and publish something at least once every two weeks, whether it be a oneshot or a chapter of a fic. I would also love to finish Limerance this year! It’s already over 100k, and I have plans for a lot more, but it would be good to have that done so I could focus on other projects.

I tag: @sun-and-shadow-aloy @ir-anuk @queeranarchist @idoljiminie !! interested to hear from yall

[valaloy]

just realised I've been shipping valaloy for over 6 years....

[inolescos]

a sweet commission for @valaloy of vala and aloy ✨

[sun-and-shadow-aloy]

WIP Wednesday

Eep! I'm a day late with this but eh... I just finished chapter 50 of Seeker of the Nora, so here's a little sneak peek. Thanks for the tag @pikapeppa

Aloy began to worry the feather at the recurve of her bow. If she wasn’t careful, she knew she’d strip the small fluffs but she was less concerned with how her bow looked than she was with what she was about to say. “This mission, it is more than it seems.” She shifted her weight, raising one leg onto the platform and squaring her body to face him, wanting to ensure her words were clear. “I may have found my Mother. And I am quite sure it is not the woman I have been chasing this whole time.” She hoped that some kind of realization would cross his face, that he would somehow understand what she was trying to say but there was only his calm visage reflected back at her. There was patience and waiting.

She wasn’t sure she could bring herself to say the words aloud. She needed to find peace with it but she hadn’t even gone into the Mountain, yet. How was she supposed to reveal her deepest fear if she didn’t know it was real? What would be revealed when she entered the Nora’s Sacred Mountain this time? She now knew that the door to the Mountain hadn’t recognized her but Elizabet Sobek. She was still uncertain of her connection to the woman. She really only knew that they looked and sounded alike. 

Nil took her hand then, rubbing small circles into her flesh with his calloused fingers. “Aloy, I don’t care where you were born, who your Mother is. You could have fallen from the Sun’s anus and it wouldn’t change who you are.”

Aloy scrunched her nose and held back a small laugh. She should have known Nil would use his macabre sense of humor to bring her anxiety down a notch. She flipped her hand over and took his rather large one into hers, squeezing it gently and just holding onto him for a while longer before deciding that they should probably make their way back to the camp and to, what she could only assume, would be an over-anxious Erend.

Okay, I had to share with you the line I was most proud of... and I'm sure you can figure out which one it is.

Things are about to come to a head in SotN. We are headed back to the Sacred Lands. Luckily, Aloy has company.

Tagging: @radiant-avad @oops-gingermoment @nerdy-bird125 @sacrificethemtothesquid @valaloy @littlesnowarrow @ all of my writer friends!!!

[offbrand-valk]

This can be read as a follow up to “the brave and the outcast” or as an independent story, either way, Valaloy fluff!!!

[mrscullensrutherford]

Give a brief description of the beginning of 3 of your WIPs or recent works, and tag 6 people.

Thank you for tagging me @rpgwarrior4824

Tagging: @pikapeppa @mythicaitt @kittleskittle @flamehairedsiren @natsora @myrddinderwydd @mordinette @n0rmandysr1 @valaloy @eri-223 @cryptid-jack

1. "War criminal" turns herself over to the authorities.

2. A friend tries to help another but goes too far.

3. A young girl discovers herself.