like i GET that it’s part of aloy's character to feel the need to do everything on her own #girlboss but girl avad is literally head over heels sickeningly in love w you and would do anything for you - why not give him a call before gemini huh?

HZD Terraforming Base-001 Text Communications Network

Chapter 13 | Prev chapter | Next chapter Chapter Index

HIMBO: Aloy, did you ever meet up with Talanah again?

Zo: Where did this come from?

HIMBO: Kotallo and I were talking about Carja in the Clan Lands. I assumed they'd be killed on sight, but he says they're not.

Marshall Kotallo: They are hardly welcomed, but as long as they do not cause trouble, most outsiders are allowed to walk free.

FlameHairSavior: Her life would still be easier if she stopped wearing her Carja armor.

Marshall Kotallo: Tenakth armor is complex, and her lack of tattoos would give her away.

FlameHairSavior: She doesn't have to dress like a Tenakth, but even Oseram armor would be better.

FlameHairSavior: Anyway, the thing with Talanah got a little... tricky.

FlameHairSavior: Turns out she was looking for an old love, who was looking for HIS old love.

FlameHairSavior: She was supposed to be dead, but wasn't.

ForgeLordAleMaster: WAIT, TALANAH FAKED HER DEATH?

FlameHairSavior: What? No, the other woman was supposed to be dead.

Marshall Kotallo: Did your friend kill her? Perhaps change her mind at the last moment and send her into exile instead?

Zo: That idea seems to have come to you far too quickly.

Marshall Kotallo: [ShiftyEyes.png]

Marshall Kotallo: I will admit, not all Tenakth stories are about hunting and besting your foes in combat. Sometimes there is romance.

Marshall Kotallo: Usually involving fighting machines together.

HIMBO: Huh. Kotallo, remind me to show you these “romance books” I found. I think you might like them.

Zo: They're the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.

ForgeLordAleMaster: [ForumWeaponLiteralSubjectChange.png]

ForgeLordAleMaster: WHY DID THIS WOMAN FAKE HER DEATH, ALOY?

FlameHairSavior: She didn't, she was pretending to be a man, and was serving in the Carja army. She was thought killed in an attack.

Marshall Kotallo: Why you people would cut off half of your population from serving in the military, I will never understand.

HIMBO: None of us are Carja.

Marshall Kotallo: Fair point.

FlameHairSavior: Anyway, she got captured, Fashav offered her a place as a soldier, she took it. She's been serving ever since.

FlameHairSavior:Then her fortress got captured and she got thrown into the prison.

HIMBO:But you cut through the enemy like dry grass, overthrowing an impregnable fortress by yourself.

ForgeLordAleMaster: AGAIN.

FlameHairSavior:  I had help! Talanah and her... whatever he is were there.

Zo: So Talanah's old love found his old love alive. Did they reignite their relationship? I am hardly an expert in Carja customs. What would be considered the right move in this situation?

FlameHairSavior: I have no idea what the Carja would normally do. The woman insisted she's Tenakth now and the Carja is dead. Talanah isn't sure how she feels about her old love any more. She's big on loyalty, so she might take him back, but I'm just not sure.

Marshall Kotallo: Varl, how would those romance books you found handle this?

HIMBO: I think about half wool have the protagonist pick the mysterious wandering heroine who arrived to help in the hour of greatest need.

ForgeLordAleMaster: HA!

Marshall Kotallo: And the other half?

HIMBO: The protagonist picks all of them. Everybody is happy.

ForgeLordAleMaster: ...DOES THAT WORK?

Zo: NO.

Marshall Kotallo: Sometimes.

ForgeLordAleMaster: HA!

β: im glad i dont have to worry about any of that

β: romance is weird and complicated and stupid

Zo: Don't be so sure.

Zo: Based on what I've read about your mother and observed about your sister, once you start going outside approximately ninety percent of the people you meet will fall in love with you.

Zo: I believe the term is “you'll have to beat them off with a stick.”

β: definitely never going outside then

FlameHairSavior: [ForumWeaponDisapprovalEye.png]

FlameHairSavior: Thanks, Zo.

Zo: ...oops.

Chapter 13 | Prev chapter | Next chapter Chapter Index

A headcanon of how Fashav would interact with the members of the Gaia Gang. Cause...he should have been a member.

Oooh this is lovely. Okay here we go.

Aloy - so like every other person she meets, Fashav is impressed and fascinated by her right off the bat. He’s heard rumors of the Nora huntress who saved Meridian and after seeing her at Barren Light he’s impressed. And when she shares more of her mission and the mystery of the Old Ones with him, he’s even more curious. He respects her judgement as a leader seeing how she clearly knows more of what’s happening than the rest of them and tries not to overstep but will pull her aside if he’s worried she’s pushing herself to hard or pulling away from the group and making decisions that out her in more danger than necessary

Kotallo - they are absolutely friends if not more before the events of the Embassy. My personal headcanon is that the conflict at Barren Light where Kotallo fights and later gets sent to participate in the Kulrut after happens maybe like six months after Fashav has been captured. They’re good friends and have worked well together for years. Fashav is concerned with the fact that Kotallo lost his arm and how that is affecting him, physically and mentally, and is quick to support or encourage him when need be without trying to be overbearing

Varl - they didn’t talk much at Barren Light but once Fashav joins the group at the base, they make a point of getting to know each other. Fashav has curious questions about the Nora and the savage east since he was captured before the Carja made peace with them. And Varl is curious about what all Fashav has learned in his time living amongst the Tenakth, getting to ask questions that he might not ask Kotallo. They like to spar together in their down time, each teaching the other some techniques that are only used by their tribes. And when Aloy has her mind set on running off to tackle some big bad by herself, they team up to stop her.

Erend - Fashav isn’t sure how he’ll get along with the Oseram when they first meet. His encounters with the others from the tribe have either been during the Red Raids or the occasional skirmish with delvers who dare to enter Tenakth territory. So he’s cautious with the vanguard captain. But Erend is warm when they first meet, having heard stories of Fashav from Avad in the months leading up to the embassy. He’s happy to fill Fashav in on what’s been happening with the Carja and his family back in Meridian, giving him more information than any of the sun priests had ever provided. They spend several nights sharing stories over ale and it gives Fashav a little bit of the home he left behind all those years ago.

Zo - Fashav hasn’t had as much interaction with the Utaru as the other marshals. His background serving in the Sun King’s army wouldn’t have won him any favor in those peace talks and trades so he’s never been to Plainsong or the other Utaru settlements, not since the Red Raids. So when she keeps a bit of distance his first few days in the group, he doesn’t blame her. Trust isn’t always easily won and he can respect that. It’s the end of his first week when he’s having trouble sleeping - a mixture of the unfamiliar surroundings and the pain he still feels from the spear he took to the gut. He comes out to the atrium in search of a distraction and finds Zo seated on one of the couches with a cup of Utaru tea. Not much is said but she offers some to him as well and it winds up calming him than he expects. And after that they manage a quiet friendship of sorts, slowly moving past what his people did to hers under the Mad Sun King’s orders.

Alva - The young Quen girl is bursting with curiosity when they meet and he can’t help but find her energy contagious. It reminds him of his own childhood when he tried to get his hands on every scroll in the Sun Kingdom he could to find out about the mysterious lands surrounding his home. She rattles off about a hundred questions about anything and everything and he’s happy to answer as many of them as he can, making her stop her queries long enough for him to ask his own questions about the Quen and their home across the sea. He’s also quick to organize a training regiment when he realizes the girl hasn’t had many chances to learn how to properly defend herself when the time comes.

Beta - He knows that Beta has no desire to spend much time with any of them when she first comes to the base and he doesn’t take offense to that. He knows it can be strange being in a new place surrounded by people you don’t know. And from what little Aloy tells him about her situation, she doesn’t have many reasons to trust others. So he does his best to keep his distance and respect her privacy. He does however make a trip down to one of the nearby Tenakth settlements and pick up a few comforts from the merchants he knows. Relaying his message through GAIA, he leaves a blanket and a few little trinkets he’s collected - mostly wood carvings of machines usually given to children - on the floor outside her door. Something to welcome her and maybe offer some kind of happiness in the gloom their dealing with. They don’t talk after but she relays her thanks through GAIA and that’s good enough for him.

Drunk Niloy: Now or Never

(this turned just niloy but once the image hit i had to run with it fkfkfkf)

They were getting ready to move.

With everything that had happened in the past eighteen months, Aloy had thought she would feel relief when this day came. All the pieces were in place, and all things considered, Aloy could not imagine being more ready than they were. Erend had a grip over the Oseram who disobeyed the Ealdorman and came from the Claim; Sona led her small army of Nora loyal to Aloy; Kotallo and Hekarro kept the Tenakth in line as they remained further east than they had been since the days of the Red Raids. The Banuk had answered Sylens’s call and followed Aratak south, and even the Utaru had picked up arms. The Quen were ready and waiting, eager to fight to avenge their sacred ancestors.

The Carja, decimated as they were by their own back-to-back civil wars, contributed what they could under Avad. It was asking a lot of them to fight for her, but as she and Avad reminded them, it was for all of them.

Yet Aloy still felt restless, unable to sleep in the silence of the room in which she stayed at the Hunter’s Lodge. Her mind churned at the notion of tomorrow, her heart panging at the thought that it could be her – their – last. Just because they were as ready as they could be didn’t mean they were ready at all.

She’d felt this before. The night she spent in Olin’s apartment, resting before the Battle of the Alight, the first time she had called to arms people from the east, the trepidation had her tossing and turning all night. She had come out on top then.

This, though…

Aloy sighed and slipped out of bed, going to the window of her room and looking out at the distant mesa.

This was so much bigger than she ever imagined.

The faint glow of docile machine lights were on the crest of the hill, a herd of Chargers ready for their riders in the morrow. Between them, she saw the shadow of a tall figure moving, checking them to ensure all parts were in working order. Even from a distance, she recognised the slight swagger in his deliberate walk, the solid stance when he planted his feet, shoulder-width apart – and the telltale mask atop his head, hiding his identity from curious eyes.

Nil.

The Old Ones would have called him her ‘dark horse.’

He had surprised her – as he seemed prone to do. Aloy had been recruiting as many in the east as she could when he arrived in the Sundom, the children and a slew of other willing Tenakth in tow on machines of their own. And then he had proceeded to teach anyone willing how to ride, and more importantly, how to fight while mounted.

He had his own little army to lead. He never asked Aloy who they were fighting. He never asked why. He just knew that she had an enemy, and had pledged himself to her without question.

She hadn’t seen him since he arrived, though she received reports through GAIA about his mounted cavalry's progress. For a moment, watching him with the Chargers, she wondered if they were the only lonely souls awake in Meridian.

Pulling on a layer of furs to stave off the chill of desert night, Aloy slid her window open and slipped out. She whistled for her Sunwing and leapt onto its back as it flew below her, and aimed it toward the mesa.

It didn’t take long to reach it. She jumped from her Sunwing’s back and landed in front of Nil, who didn’t look surprised in the least to see her.

“Aloy,” he greeted warmly. With no one else around, he dropped the fake voice. “You look troubled.”

“I don’t know why I’m here,” she admitted, the doubt hitting her the moment her feet touched sand.

Nil nodded, his hand resting on the shoulder of a grazing Charger. “The anticipation before a task as daunting as yours is sure to cause some measure of insomnia,” he said thoughtfully. “Would you feel worse if you were sleeping?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” She approached the Charger on its other side, pressing a hand on its neck across from Nil’s. “You’re not sleeping either.”

He took a moment to consider, and she wished that stupid mask wasn’t covering his face.

As if he read her thoughts, he reached up to remove it, gripping it next to his side the way he had outside of Hidden Ember. He still wore paint on his face, but it was faded and in need of reapplying. In the moonlight, Aloy could see the faint markings under his eyes from his Carja tattoos. And what hadn’t changed, she noticed, was the tenderness with which he looked at her.

It hadn’t gone unnoticed, nor was it forgotten. As more and more was demanded of Aloy, feeling herself torn and pulled apart in a hundred different directions, the more she found herself longing for the simplicity of the desert, the pounding of hooves on the track, the smell of blood and steel and sand, and a pair of grey eyes that never wanted her to be anything other than herself.

“I rarely do before battle,” he admitted, drawing her from her reverie. “I suppose it’s one old habit I was never able to shake.”

She lowered her gaze in sympathy. Nil had come far from the broken man she had met outside the Embrace, but the thing about broken things was that they were never fully fixed. The cracks were always still there, ready to split again at the slightest pressure.

He had been hopeless at the Spire. The odds were impossible, he had been told, and he had shown up seeking… what? Absolution?

Aloy preferred hope. And Nil deserved hope of his own.

“Nil,” she said quietly, and his gaze met hers. “Thank you for being here.”

His lips curved into a smile without a moment of hesitation, and he bowed his head to her. “I’ve always been ready to give you what you need, Aloy. This time it’s my blade.”

“Yeah,” she admitted at last, knowing he was right. “And… I want to give you something you need.”

She only had a moment to register the way his brows furrowed. Then, Aloy reached for his chest plate and gripped it, pulling him to her over the Charger’s back. She stood on her toes, pressing her lips to his gently, a tender and chaste kiss – but into it, she poured her gratitude, her fondness, her hope. He accepted her kiss willingly, returning it with one of his own, causing her stomach to erupt in butterflies, and Aloy held for a few moments before standing back and releasing him.

“Goodnight, Nil,” she said, taking a step toward her Sunwing.

His fingers went to his lips, the motion sending a flicker of heat through her belly, but she kept up her retreat. “Goodnight, Aloy.”

“Sleep well,” she ordered, and matched his smile as she pulled herself into her Sunwing. With a final glance at Nil, his fingers still on his lips, she turned to head back to her room, feeling decidedly more at peace.

(( u kno wat today is a day for musing again and im still absolutely off my shits with the hzd au do im gonna Ramble

((I was doing some reading up on the lore of the game world earlier today, on the tribes specifically, so that I could start plotting out which one the characters would all come from. Jack was easy--he'd fit right in with the Oseram for sure. .... mostly, he doesn't quite have the bold n brash personality of your typical Oseram citizen, but he'd take to the heavily metalwork based culture VERY well, the deal sweetened even more by the fact that there are no taboos against delving into Metal World ruins, so he can delve and tinker to his heart's content.

((Everyone else I was struggling with a bit more. I image the Monks would honestly most be Carja, with the exception of MAYBE Clay, bc physically he absolutely looks like your average Oseram--which would work out well, and maybe help Show how this aus versions of the Carja and Oseram are allied in that way. This could also peg Wuya as being a member of the Shadow Carja--She would start a civil war and create a cult to build an army if she had no other choice, I think.

((I honestly wouldve kept the trend of trying to keep the characters general aesthetic in mind when placing them for Chase to, and said he was (once) Carja as well, but that would get a little boring, and honestly??? He just. Really gives me hella Banuk vibes. Theyre very mysterious, and extremely intelligent in the ways of the Old Ones and the Machines--finding ways to live in harmony with them, and having Shamans who would actually enter old ruins in order to speak with an ancient A.I. that they viewed as a deity.

(( They are the one culture that has gotten closer than any other to the truths of the past, and how things used to be, and how things got the way they are now. The smartest (and snarkiest) character that you meet in the game, Sylens, WAS one of those Shamans. He took the stuff he learned from his conversations with the A.I. and little tinker tools and electronic relics in those ruins, and went exploring, and managed to learn how to Hack still working technology, bringing back the usage of literal actual Blutooths in order to bring the Shadow Carja into more power by allowing them instant long range communication--something COMPLETELY UNHEARD OF IN THAT PERIOD OF TIME!

((And that just sound like a very Chase Young thing to do--hes intimidating and mysterious, but he also seems like a curious dude. He craves knowledge just as much as he craves power--I can easily see him following a similar path to Sylens'

we can assume that one of the reasons lansra thought aloy was a curse was because the machines had started turning hostile by that time.

so you know what would be an interesting AU? if GAIA had managed to self-destruct before the subordinate functions escaped, thus taking them out as well, presumably. the mountain would have still exploded, which would be seen as an omen, and maybe lansra would still have it out for aloy, because she seems like the negative type. but i imagine teersa’s voice might have prevailed had lansra not been able to point to the machines turning on people as further evidence nine months later.

aloy grows up in very different circumstances, with teersa declaring her a gift from the goddess instead. does she live with the high matriarchs, with teersa mothering her, and lansra distant and hostile, and jezza eternally trying to keep peace between them? or does she go to an honored family? teersa’s family? does she grow up with the children of the war-chief as her best friends? and what happens to rost? he’s still saved at the border, but he lives alone as an outcast now.

aloy grows up surrounded by reverence in a softer world where machines still run when humans approach. how does that affect her? nurture and environment shape a person, but they aren’t everything, and there are certain traits that persist through genetics. she’s still elisabet sobeck, so the chances of her stumbling into the ruins of the old world out of curiosity are high. there’s a chance that she still glimpses the past long before the door in all-mother mountain opens for her, that she might obtain a focus found out in the wild before she finds one in the cradle.

does she still meet rost? does she wander where she’s not supposed to and try to talk to outcasts when she’s not supposed to, because she’s still strong-willed and independent, and no taint and no taboo and no law can touch her, the anointed?

she’d still seek to run in the proving anyway, restless as she is. but what would she ask for, if she won? (there’s an outcast she always talks to, who is too honorable to talk back but who silently lets her hunt with him. she dreams of winning the proving and welcoming him back among the nora.)

the world is softer, but changing. it shifts slowly, and so do the machines. they’re not hostile, but eventually, they start to act erratic and strange. patches of land will sometimes be found withered, and stretches of water will become undrinkable, and there will be times when the air seems poisoned, but no one knows that it’s the unintentional doing of a broken terraforming system. it’s as if the world is becoming sick, and no one knows why. lansra will mutter about curses, but others might see it as something that aloy will understand or fix one day.

does aloy believe in all-mother? one can still become a non-believer even when surrounded by faith, with or without the help of a focus, and especially inquisitive children will often start to question early. when does she start? does she learn the ways of the matriarchs so that she can learn to speak with her mother, and does she question it young, when the door speaks and tells her that it doesn’t recognize her? does she see the face of the woman it compares her to? does teersa tell her that she must keep trying and praying?

the alpha registry isn’t corrupted, but GAIA says that physical maturity will allow aloy to access the cradle through her gene print, so aloy doesn’t get her answers until she’s old enough. one day, the door opens, and aloy steps into another world. how does she see it? how does she see the closest thing to all-mother speaking of things that she doesn’t have full context for yet? aloy is smart enough to understand that GAIA means the changes in the world when she speaks of the fate of life on earth being in peril, and maybe she understands some of the old world already, if she found a focus before the cradle opened.

regardless, she knows that she has a mission now, and aloy’s restlessness has always burned just beneath the surface. leaving the sacred land is inevitable, and who is going to stop all-mother’s anointed from carrying out the task she was made for?

but does she know where to go? does she put the pieces together? does she figure out from counting the years backwards that the ruins of GAIA prime must be the mountain that exploded, that lansra mutters about, nine months before aloy’s birth?

and what about the sundom, in the meantime? jiran would have had the makings of a mass murderer before the derangement. such violence never emerges from a vacuum, and there are always signs. he’s still a cruel man who expects soldiers to die in brutal sandstorms, who cultivates violence. would his family have borne the brunt of it? maybe his fall is slower, like the changes in the world. waters dry up and grow poisonous, and deserts become hotter, and the pressure to deal with something not understood still mounts, though slower. when and how does the dam break, if it does?

maybe the red raids still happen, but later, in full swing by the time aloy leaves the sacred land. does she find herself having to dodge carja raiders on her way to GAIA prime? but she makes it unscathed, and she finds a workshop in front of a closed door atop the mountain.

sylens probably isn’t there, but he would have found a focus by now, and though he wouldn’t have found a subordinate function soon after, he’s smart enough to understand much of how ancient technology works anyway. so aloy’s arrival draws him there through the safeguards he’s left behind to alert him to any other curious minds. maybe he finds her while she’s still in GAIA prime, trying to understand. maybe he tracks her down through her focus later. either way, they still meet.

and where does it all go from there? does aloy get caught up in an uprising, crossing paths with an oseram freebooter and a carja prince? does she cross paths with a banuk shaman who knows a spirit who sounds all too familiar? does aloy find the cauldrons and start to learn how to use them? is the liberation won not just with oseram cannons but with an army of machines and the nora too? does aloy find the zero dawn project facility and learn of project zero dawn’s true nature there? does she find maker’s end or the grave-hoard? and where does sylens fit into all of this - still hungry for knowledge and with far less of it, knowing that aloy is his only path to it?

what about the entity who sent the transmission that started it all? what have they been doing in the meantime? do they interfere before aloy has a chance to restore GAIA, or are they still in the shadows? and what happens when aloy finally revives GAIA? are the subordinate functions revived with her? what happens with them?

Lord of the Rings Verse:

Nil was once a Ranger of Ithilien during the Wars of the Ring. His zeal for killing orcs and Haradrim made him exceptional at his duties during his campaigns in the South. A man of Gondor, and possibly of the lineage of Númenor, Nil is an immensly large man with a face of a human in his thirties, but easily passing his fiftieth birthday. Nil forsake his post in the South eventually when he heard of the armies of Saruman rising in Isengard, and considered joining them. The betrayal was a fantasy, however, since by the time he arrived, the Tower of Isangard, Orthanc, was destroys by the March of the Ents, and left Nil with no where to go.

Now a rogue Ranger, the betrayer of Gondor has cut his ties with the civilizations of men and travels as a simple killer. His favored prey is still the Orc and the sought-after Uruk-hai. He does not only disparage the dark creatures of Mordor and Isengard, but has no qualms with destroying men, elves and any creature that poses great power that walks Middle Earth.

His services can be bought. The Ranger leaves his trails as various signs for those that know to look for them, and opens invitation in a secret location in an area of his chosen. He only accepts hard money, up front, before the kill will be done.

Modern Verse:

Last of Us Verse:

Horizon: Zero Dawn (Red-Raids):

FORBIDDEN WEST UPDATE TWO: i’m actively hunting down sylens and his bff HADES

* BURROWERS CAN SWIM i love them so much * they wiggle their little butts when they move i need to find a cauldron so i can be friends with them

* okay after a bunch of exploring time to check out OSERAM TOWN which i’m very curious about bc while playing a large part in the first game we never really found out much about oseram society * god i’m still mad about avad. maybe his cousin won’t be dead and will go overthrow the monarchy AGAIN * PETRA * PETRAAAAAAAA * dumb oseram expression count: “cool your forge” * LMAO there’s an actual mini game named strike?? i used that as a generic card game name in one of my fanfics once lmaooo clearly i’m the best at canon * dumb oseram expression: “give it to you in a hot spark” * oh no i really like strike * dumb oseram expression: “well spark my forge!” * wait wait so the oseram town’s conflict is that the dude vaguely in charge is trying to make the magistrate sign a writ claiming that the town is on oseram land and under oseram law…………even though everyone knows it’s part of the sundom………at a moment there are a lot of carja and the king’s personal army in town………and they’re just assuming that the carja will not notice or care??? like as far as calculated risks go it’s a good once because the carja are real eager to prove how nice and peaceful they are currently, but also wow * dumb oseram expression: “that’s a far spark in the wind” * okay the magistrate is a carja so instead the dude is just asking the carja to surrender their territory OUTRIGHT i guess that’s? better? * lmao ulvund keeps going into dramatic monologues i love it, he keeps wandering away from aloy and making hand gestures like he’s in a play, for a dude who hates carja so much he’d get along great with them * god the character animation is so good now * like not just the facial animation but all the gestures and hand movements and like. how reactive everyone is now. and the camera angles! the first game was really quite good too but really stuck to still shots and close ups and people just talking while looking at one another, and now they blink and pace around and aloy never makes eye contact and i love her * people have veins!!! and arm hair!!! and yet aloy’s hair still moves under its own gravity * honestly erend’s first lines being whining about how much he hates working in meridian and then getting knocked flat on his ass? checks out * okay this game doesn’t need to shame me for misjudging my tripwire distance by littering the battlefield with failed tripwires tho * aaaand he fell on his ass again * erend’s voice actor sounds about 10 years older than last time sdfddf * unlocked cooking and OH I SEE YOU TRYING TO SNEAK STAMPPOT INTO THIS GAME BY CALLING IT POT STOMP “mashed root vegetables and boiled greens” uh _huh_ * love that the explosive obsessed oseram girl is literally just called boomer. boomer and delah. love them * oh my god i am never going to get to the main plot of this game * i haven’t talked about  the gameplay  at all!!! i love the new focus pulse feature, and i’m  still getting used to the new machine and tool combat — especially since i JUST finished replaying the first game. the controls are all the same, but the mechanics are just subtly different enough — it feels more challenging overall which honestly i Love * okay i’m still mad at avad but i love this twilight carja bullshit because YES CARJA POLITICS, of course a bunch of people just fell into the middle ground between “eclipse cult” and “what the fuck avad just killed the king” and just fled. of course they don’t want to go back to meridian. this weird little group aside i bet there are actually  a lot of them and i love the game for pointing that out * kind of wonder if people will stop calling aloy “the nora” the further from the sacred lands we get. like we’re still technically in the sundom so people know what nora are. but further west? * I REALLY LIKE THE STRIKE MINI GAME * oh cool erend is drinking again neat love that character beat glad it’s back * STOP BEING SUCH A WHINY BRAT EREND JESUS * that said he has some amazing character animation it’s making him way more likable * but here’s my WHY FRIDGE ERSA RANT 2022 EDITION: erend’s “character development” clearly didn’t STICK, he’s still passive-aggressive and drunk and needy, so seriously, what was the point? her dying to force him to grow up is stupid but at least it’s a purpose, but CLEARLY he didn’t actually. which means she’s still uselessly fridged and no i don’t care she got a nice funeral back in  the claim honestly good for her since both her boyfriend and her brother lowkey suck * LOL HEY VARL * WELCOME BACK BESTIE * aloy: please let me thru the gates before varl catches up to me and i have to be friends :((( * erend just sitting there watching lmao * okay absolutely love this little erend and varl team up wow what if they were best friends * “forget something back in meridian? :))))))” GOD I LOVE VARL * I LOVED HIM IN THE FIRST GAME AND I LOVE NEW AND IMPROVED SASSY VARL NOW * “oh well! at least now you have some backup! :)))))” SASSY VARL MY BELOVED * OH HI AVAD’S COUSIN * gone native have we * even if he hadn’t been identified by  the subtitles, the “savage east” line was a dead giveaway that this fucker is Carja Nobility * “avad always was polite” love that he makes that sound like a threat what was their relationship like * fashav, a carja soldier, nephew of jiran: “yeah i had to fight machines to the death in an arena, it’s this wild custom, you’ve probably  never heard of it” YOU MEAN THE SUN RING, FASHAV? THE THING YOUR UNCLE DID? A LOT? * at least aloy is like yeah been there done that * “marshals are protective spirits of the ancient past” the tenakth found some old cowboy badges i see * love by the way that the game keeps mentioning the carja are wine drinkers and have vineyards. like i feel like it was always IMPLIED but now we KNOW and that’s great * fashav glances at varl “a task so important, and it’s just the two of you?” aloy (stares at the camera) JUST THE ONE OF US IF I HAD A SAY IN IT * okay what is going to ruin this embassy and lead to the murders of everyone this feels like a proving moment if ever there was one * HERE WE GO * LITERALLY THE PROVING 2.0 * VARL IF YOU DIE LIKE YOUR SISTER DID I SWEAR TO GOD * well i guess i’m glad i asked for fashav’s long backstory before this cutscene lmaooo * HI I WANT THAT SHIELD THING * DIE AND GIVE IT TO ME PLEASE * “guess i’m stuck with erend” hahahahahaha sorry varl * i hope this entire game is just people trying to hang out with aloy and aloy trying her hardest to ditch them * I SEE A DEAD HORUS * HAHAHA A DATALOG with the oseram complaining the utaru drink “leaf infusions” i guess tea is not a Thing in this world * so we’re calling bandit camps “rebel camps” in this game huh * just waiting for nil to pop up at one like “hey bestie :)” * omg i love all the “where is the hidden murderer” search dialogue, they keep arguing over whether or not they know how to look for stuff * sons of prometheus is an INCREDIBLY sus name and has Old Ones written all over it. either they found a subordinate function all their own or something  along those lines * PLAINSONG IS SO COOL * i love the whole city in satellite array concept, i love the woven and curvy aesthetic, i love the COLORS like these people really went what if we wove ENTIRE CITIES * okay going to try and do the actual plot now * hey sylens * so the signal that activated HADES lasted for 17 years — but is that 17 years before aloy was born, or did it stop three years ago? AND IF THAT, that times up rather suspiciously with the liberation. can’t be related, right? * HADES’s kryptonite is bunnies in fields of flowers dfgdfgdfg PERFECT * okay so sylens’s log seems to imply that the far zenith actually did work and they’ve spent the past 1000 years advancing and… what? want to come back to earth and clear it out so they can settle? that has to be too obvious? * HI HADES * CONVO TREE WITH HADES * “i remember you” plus SUSPICIOUS SILENCE when aloy says “you mean at the spire” oh my god is there ANOTHER elisabet clone running around * OKAY so HADES seems to be implying that there was ANOTHER world ending apocalypse, right? he says we’re on earth version five. version one was wiped out by ted. two, three, and four were rebooted by HADES as part of normal GAIA stuff (which i like, actually, just that it proves that HADES once actually did matter). but — IDK the way that whole conversation went SOUNDED a lot like there’s another one that happened. * And that actually makes sense? We know the Old Ones died a thousand years ago. But the Nora, Carja, Oseram — the first Sun-King Araman was 14 generations back, which is only a few hundred years. The Carja were part of the Nora before that, but not for _long_, it’s implied. We don’t know how long it takes to terraform earth, but even in the first game I remember it striking me as a little weird there’s like a 500 year gap between ‘Zero Dawn’ and societies starting to form. * So a couple hundred years ago, was there another version of Earth? With their own new generations? The goddamn Prometheus cult that was mentioned — Prometheus was the person who gave fire to humans, who was sentenced to death by the gods for helping humanity. So is that what fucking happened? These humans — IDK, had Apollo somehow, and for some reason this made the world end all over again (without HADES doing anything? Another way the machine’s activated?), and the survivors are still alive in bunkers or something somewhere, creating the advanced tech Sylens mentioned, sending out the Mysterious Signal to get rid of the current tribes and replace them with themselves??? * i have a feeling i’m about to GET SOME CLUES so i’m going to post this as-is and CONTINUE ONWARDS

* lmao kotallo speaking up for the FIRST TIME on the focus to tell aloy where she can find some amazing food he just got +18 points

or: in this episode of helen plays HZFW2: i go swimming and i love varl

* WELCOME TO VEGAS i loved briefly running  into talanah for three seconds before she ran away again * okay so i went on a backtrack binge and CAULDRON IOTA oh man * as soon as i saw that tallneck i knew i would not be disappointed and “there appears to be a tallneck blocking this platform!” i cackled * I AM CACKLING * riding the tallneck head!!! override the tallneck to escape the cauldron!! THE SHOCKWAVE WIPES OUT THE CAULDRON’S ELECTRICITY AND ALL THE FLOATY GUYS FALL * the pop up: “new tallneck discovered” * this is truly two great flavors that flavor great together * THE MUSIC * wow wekatta the super hardass asshole who gets mad when use the word crazy because he likes to wear women’s clothing * SILGA INVENTED THE RADIO * running around a random bandit camp near vegas and OH THE SONS OF PROMETHES ARE OSERAM HUH. OH THEY HATE THE CARJA AND VANGUARD HUH. my ears fucking _perked up_ * everyone fucking hates the carja * that is the theme of the game * everyone hates them * and for good reason! * but it puts the game in a weird situation, where they want us to like the carja and understand that most of the carja who remain are the good ones and that they sincerely only want peace * the carja are doing their best on that front. they've reached out to the nora, banuk, and ESPECIALLY the oseram, even if the last is still contentious. they're working on the tenekth and they tried with the utaru, and seem to be respecting the utaru's disinterest for now *  the carja are still pretty clearly shown as the wealthiest and most "advanced" of the race -- they're the goddamn roman empire, they're building and writing and have scholars and naturalists and explorers who aren't just seeking fortune like the oseram but actually trying to understand the world. you could imagine a version of the game where the carja become the sort of head-state of a larger empire. i'm not convinced that's the message here, but they --even if they spent most of the last game on the attack and on the defensive, the fact that basically all of western america is kind of terrified of them still -- regalla is acting in hatred of them yes, but also acting as though the carja remain a threat. they could mobilize if they wanted to, and the rest of the world could probably stop them but for now treat that as a serious threat. *  they're the roman army! * and then you have fucking avad on top of it all * and * he's a bad king. * he's a good person. * he wants peace and he's willing to put in the effort to get it. * but he also wants to abdicate asap. he has no interest in the future, in building any lasting coalitions that we've seen. diplomacy is a way to stop wars, not create this potential unified continent — not unified as in "we're all carja now," but like, city states allied together. * maybe he gets there later in the game, but so far, his only political interests are: stop the wars, be friends with everyone, i don't want to fight. * which are marks of a good person, but also, what if itamen comes of age and is king of a country that everyone hates and who are now seen as ineffectual? * what if the oseram don't just ally with the tenekth, but the nora, and the carja become surrounded? * avad is thinking of being nice, he's doing nice things, he's looking for peace, but all we've seen so far is deeply, deeply temporary — and deeply fragile. the oseram are the carja's closest allies, and clearly a lot of them still hate him… and apparently he hasn't been doing any further diplomatic work to strengthen their ties. he got peace and open borders with the nora, which was much more due to aloy accidentally making that happen. he got peace-ish with the tenekth, but they're fighting that one out -- that's not on the carja this time, lol. * but at any moment the carja could go from "big scary neighborhood bully" to "the one we all band together to kill" * what avad SHOULD be doing is leveraging his power and pushing even harder for diplomacy and friendship between countries. he should be sending erend to the claim to make friends with the oseram, not letting erend fuck off with aloy * and yes, the world will end in a year etc etc *  but you still need to plan for the future! * and in conclusion i bet that marad is tearing his hair out trying to get avad to think big picture and avad is just like "but i don't wanna" the end * CARJA POLITICS!!!! * anyway * OH CUTE morlund and aloy bonding over Building Stuff i like him already * oh no he’s obsessed with holographic advertisements i love him * sorry erend you’ve been replaced new favorite oseram * “and he…” “complains?” “he handles the money, which amounts to about the same thing.” the mocap/voice acting on this guy is so good * LOVE this level. love the swimming, love the vibe, love the holographic fish and the buried city of sand turned ocean like AMAZING * THEY’RE TURNING VEGAS BACK INTO VEGAS I LOVE THIS WHOLE QUEST * aloy’s like “time to head back to GAIA” but nah i got scuba gear now TIME TO EXPLORE * "take it from a bird who grew up in the wilds - birds don't provide much conversation" ALOY WHAT IS THE BACKSTORY HERE * BETA IS WATCHING THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISAAC VIDEO I !!!!! * “you know, i used to watch that a lot too.” fdgdfgdfg GOD i lowkey always had the headcanon aloy would talk to this “isaac” fellow oh my god * and yes of course varl got thru to beta, he is the MVP of this game * TILDA! i was rightttttttt she’s the one from HADES * she and elisabet were totally gfs huh * god loving this good cop bad cop thing aloy and varl have going * god i love their friendship so much * HOUSE ON THE OCEAN HUH i bet it was in california i bet we’re gonna see it * i mean with a name like “van de meer”, obviously tilda is dutch, but “every time we met she showed me a new painting… i think she was dutch” is the greatest thing beta has ever said. you know those dutch people. always forcing you to look at art * hahahahahaha beta liked watching cheesy family movies * so beta thinks that tilda cut contact with her because beta did something wrong. i’m sure it isn’t that — just to start, tilda could have done so because the others were catching on and she didn’t want to get them both in trouble — but it’s very telling that beta for all her genius and knowledge would think that. she’s still hiding in the server room, not making eye contact, quick to anger or collapse in on herself: she’s even more socially stunted than aloy is, and i think she’s still in a very selfish mindset — selfist? she has no object permanence. if something happens, it has to be because of her, because she has no experience with the concept that other people have agency and lives when she isn’t around. it’s also why she lashes out at aloy when she realizes aloy isn’t as “far along” as beta had assumed she would be. beta lacks _empathy_, not in a way where she’s some horrible asshole, but in a way where she hasn’t quite grasped that _other people exist._ * oh my god varl calling aloy out on repressing her own emotions. i think his actual point just sailed the hell over her head though, lmao. but he’s like “you always seem to have it so together, but literally a couple of months ago you were near dead and calling for rost, your dad who you never talk about.” aloy’s just like “your point?” but i think that is his point: aloy is mad at beta because beta has no ability to hide or suppress her trauma, and aloy is suppressing her fears and grief and refusing to admit they even exist. aloy should be able to tell varl about rost and how much she misses him, she should be able to be afraid and anxious, just like beta could do with a bit more of a spine and less fear. * and varl just sighs and says he’ll keep working with beta HE REALLY IS THE BEST * OH NO THERE’S A DIALOGUE OPTION WITH VARL NOW CALLED “ROST” * oh no varl just did a righteous “ELISABET SOBECK SACRIFICED HERSELF FOR THE WORLD” rant he is literally the best * “a good drink is the best way to bring people together” — ersa, apparently. * varl and aloy talking about rost! varl talking about vala! sometimes he has to stop thinking about her so he doesn’t dwell on his grief, but he cautions aloy not to repress! * HAHAHAHA ALOY  AND ZO zo being like “oh i wasn’t trying to kill erend for being a racist piece of shit just break a few ribs :)” i love her so much * honestly i’m not the biggest fan of erend but even i am starting to feel a little bad for how much this game is making him out to be the useless member of team aloy dfgfg * “you and varl have been friends for a while.” “i like to think so.” “i was wondering… what do you know about his mother?” OH BOY ZO. “Oh.” HAHAHA “That bad, huh?” oh god i love zo and aloy’s friendship and them just talking about varl together and just. gosh i love these three. * like “couple and a third” can be a weird dynamic but these three have such a relaxed vibe, not at all in a poly way, just like, varl and aloy could absolutely just spend 12 hours hunting together or 12 hours fishing with zo in total silence and all three would be super happy, you know? * okay where’s kotallo he’s even more anti-social than beta i swear to god * LOL they’re using the shower room for storage yeah none of these idiots have any idea what a shower is * honestly love how aloy keeps reaching out to kotallo. like he’s literally rost 2.0 he’s probably the one personality type in the world she Gets, she’s just like “hey bestie” while everyone else is like SCARY DUDE * okay, i’m off to find DEMETER!