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pentanguine · 4 years

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Ask Meme #??

I suppose I have tagged myself from @overelegantstranger, because like everyone else I am bored and looking for distractions.

1. Nickname: I’ve never successfully had a nickname, probably because my name is already a nickname and it doesn’t lend itself to being further nicked. I go by Python on the internet, and I also feel attached to the name Eric, but no one actually calls me either of those things.

2. Zodiac sign: Capricorn. I am perpetually annoyed by the knowledge that astrology is entirely made up and I am, nevertheless, a very stereotypical Capricorn.

3. Height: 5’3”

4. Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw, with a healthy dose of Slytherin.

5. Last thing I googled: “cataloguer” I don’t know how to spell my own job title (technically my job title is “intern,” but cataloguer sounds fancier)

6. Favourite musicians: Coldplay, MCR, The Story So Far, Enter Shikari, The Spook School, The 1975, Julien Baker, The Mountain Goats, Creeper, Linkin Park, The Killers.

7. Song stuck in my head: Primadonna, by Marina and the Diamonds

8. Following now: 175, but I just went through them yesterday to see how many were still active and it’s only 43. So.

9. Followers: Between this and my main blog, I have exactly 1,000 followers. I’ll leave the distribution of those followers up to the imagination.

10. Do I get asks: No. Sometimes my friends ask me things when I reblog ask memes, but other than that it’s dead up in here.

11. Amount of sleep: Last night I got six hours of sleep because I stayed up absurdly late listening to Lady Gaga and talking about Minecraft and sourdough starters. Generally I manage about 8.

12. Lucky number: 17. I feel like it gets overlooked

13. What I’m wearing: Black owl socks, jean shorts, a black t-shirt

14. Dream job: Librarian. I’m not really picky about what kind—I think ideally I’d like to be a reference librarian at a university, but I’d also be happy working in circ, acquisitions, admin, really anything. Except children’s programming because I don’t really like children. I thought I was attached to the idea of an academic library, but I’ve been working in a special library the past seven months and have been enjoying the eclectic knowledge you get from working with very specific collections, so that’s also something I’m excited about now. Really, I’m just generally excited about this career path.

15. Dream trip: Literally anywhere. I’ve only been off work for a week and I’d kill to go to South Carolina just for the exotic gas prices.

16. Favourite food: Medium-rare steak, brown rice with butter, sautéed spinach, Devil’s Food chocolate cake. This is the meal I’ve had for my birthday every year in living memory, and it cannot be improved upon.

17. Instruments: I…took piano lessons for four years and can technically still read sheet music. It’s a halting, andante, mezzo-piano affair that really only gets dusted off around Christmas.

18. Languages: I’m a native English speaker, and I can read French pretty fluently, write French passably well, speak French conversationally, and understand spoken French if I have subtitles. I tried to teach myself Welsh in high school, which was unsuccessful, and then I moved onto learning Icelandic through Sigur Rós songs. This was also…mostly unsuccessful. I can’t speak Spanish, but with my knowledge of English and French I can usually get the gist of written Spanish.

19. Favourite song: Hunger Strike, by Temple of the Dog; It’s Not Living If It’s Not With You, by The 1975; Don Quixote, by Coldplay; The Kids From Yesterday, by MCR; Try To Be Hopeful, by The Spook School; In Bloom, by Neck Deep. I can never decide which one I love more than the others, but they’re all up there.

20. Random fact: I have an accident-prone cat with a missing tail, a missing toe, classic ear notches, a benign tumor on his cheek, a urinary tract disorder, FIV, and about half a life left. I also can’t float.

21. Aesthetic: Itinerant scholar/wizard wandering in the woods. Something eclectic, mysterious, reserved, prone to wearing black capes and emerging abruptly from the shadows covered in leaf litter.

#personal #anyone and everyone do feel free to tag yourselves

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benito-cereno · 7 years

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The Haunting of Netflix House 5: The Netflix Dimension

What’s up Octobocops, it’s Halloweason. Let’s get spooked. Here are some movies of the horror and horror-adjacent genres that you might watch by yourself or with a party of friends or with the spirit of a long-deceased duke who lives in inhabits your house. This is part five; you know the goddamn drill by now.

Previously, on The Haunting of Netflix House:

2013: The Haunting of Netflix House

2014: The Haunting of Netflix House 2: Your Sister is a Netflix

2015: The Haunting of Netflix House 3: The Season of the Netflix

2016: The Haunting of Netflix House 4: The Netflix Master

A couple of notes for those who are new to the list:

This is being posted on October 2, 2017. For humans of the future who find this, the links may not all be up to date. Some might even expire by November 2017. Click at your own risk.

I try to offer both breadth and depth of options on this list, but it is by no means exhaustive. I’m sorry if a favorite of yours got left off. There’s a chance I just haven’t seen it yet. Feel free to reblog and add some of your favorites, but please make sure a movie is actually currently available on Netflix before jumping my shit about some nonsense I “forgot,” please and thank you.

This list is based upon movies that are available on Netflix in the US. I have no idea what is streaming on Canadian Netflix or British Netflix or Slovenian Netflix. How would I know this. Why would I know this. Please do not expect me to know this. Feel free to be the Canadian/British/Slovenian Benito and make your own list applicable to your own countryhumans.

Horror movies, by their nature, have horrific things in them. Most of these movies are violent; lots of them deal with torture, abuse, and mental illness. If some element of this jumps out to me while I’m writing these up, I’ll mention them, but if you are sensitive to or have issues with certain types of content, you might look an individual movie up on Common Sense Media first to check for content warnings.

While there are always good horror movies to be found on Netflix, if you really like scary movies, you should just get a Shudder subscription (or even just the free trial!). It has an unbeatable, well-curated selection.

All right let’s get to the goddamn movies what say

Classics (this section seems to get smaller every year):

Jaws (this is about a shark)

The Fly (the Vincent Price version, not the Jeff Goldblum one)

Gremlins (technically a Christmas movie, obviously, but maybe you’re a rebel)

The Sixth Sense (is this a classic? I mean probably your mom has heard of it, so)

Horror Comedies:

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (highly recommended)

Little Evil (new from the maker of Tucker and Dale; great cast; more than the Omen spoof it looks like; recommended)

Troll Hunter (not horror in the traditional sense; not a “Halloween” monster; found footage style; subtitled; awesome)

Young Frankenstein (maybe you’ve heard of this one)

The Host (subtitled; not a “Halloween” monster)

Ravenous (fucking rules)

Housebound (recommended)

Patchwork (in the vein of like Re-Animator and Frankenhooker)

Deathgasm (the best the best the best; watch immediately)

The Bar

Haunted House/Ghost shit:

The Awakening

The Pact (recommended)

The Babadook (highest possible recommendation; how have you not watched this yet)

Under the Shadow (recommended; basically the Iranian Babadook)

The Canal

We Are Still Here (Barbara Crampton is in this; her name will be mentioned a few more times on this list because she is apparently a major selling point for some people)

Last Shift (haunted police station; recommended)

The Legend of Hell House (love this one; love Roddy McDowall)

I Am The Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (very slow paced but atmospheric)

Coraline (yeah, the scary stop-motion one)

Vampire shit:

Stake Land (non-traditional vampire rules; not really my jam but some people love it; no idea if the sequel is good)

Byzantium

Night Watch

Werewolf shit:

Late Phases (old blind guy vs werewolves; pretty good)

When Animals Dream (hit some similar thematic notes to Ginger Snaps, but completely different tonally; subtitled)

Zombie shit:

Train to Busan (this rules; subtitled)

Witch/Demon/Pagan shit:

At the Devil’s Door (from the maker of The Pact; not as good, still interesting)

The Void (Lovecraftian cult shit; very cool visuals and practical effects)

Baskin (subtitled; super gory; also, the protags are asshole cops who tell transphobic stories and say homophobic slurs and talk about bestiality at the beginning, so heads up; worth a watch if that doesn’t bother you)

The Devil’s Candy

Hellions (this is not *great,* but it looks good and is heavily Halloweeny)

The Wailing (fucking amazing; subtitled)

Found footage shit:

V/H/S (lots of sex, violence, and sexualized violence

V/H/S/2 (same)

V/H/S Viral (same but in a different way)

The Den (ChatRoulette the horror movie; highly highly highly recommended)

Creep (recommended)

They’re Watching (not super amazing, but it’s wild af and I kind of love it; what if House Hunters International renovated a witch house?)

Man Vs (pretty okay)

Slasher shit (needless to say, these are gory):

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

Curse of Chucky (way better than you think it is)

Clown (the haunted clown suit movie so good that Marvel said, “Yo, this guy should be in charge of Spider-Man”)

The Windmill (it’ll do fine if you’re just looking for a new slasher; tbf it is probably the best windmill-themed slasher ever made though)

Other shit:

Monsters (really good; not “Halloween” monsters)

It Follows (hey, what’s up, it’s the best horror movie of the past decade; highest possible rec)

Sleepy Hollow (what section do Headless Horsemen go in? Dunno; the movie not the show)

The House at the End of Time (highly recommended; subtitled)

Honeymoon

Starry Eyes

White God (DOG REVENGE)

They Look Like People (this is a slow burn, but super highly recommended)

Extraordinary Tales (animated anthology of Edgar Allan Poe stories narrated by famous people; a mixed bag, but cool)

Darling (okay, so: this is a really beautiful and atmospheric film that I, generally speaking, recommend; however, it is kind of “artsy,” there is not a lot of dialogue, it is in black and white, there are some light strobing effects, rape does not occur on screen but is implied to have happened in a character’s past)

The Hallow (scary fairies)

Tales of Halloween (an anthology, so a mixed bag; okay overall, but it’s definitely Halloween-y)

The Invitation (highest possible recommendation)

Beyond the Gates (I actually did not like this very much, but some people might find it interesting, especially if you like--wait for it--Barbara Crampton)

Turbo Kid (this is not really horror, but if you like horror, especially splatter stuff, you will probably like it; it is good as shit)

Gerald’s Game (new shit from Mike Flanagan and it’s really great. Deals with lots of hard issues like abuse and such so maybe take a look at content issues if you are sensitive to that kind of stuff. Also definitely not for the squeamish, so head’s up. That said, it’s really really good)

80s/90s shit:

Hellraiser (not my style, but maybe you like this stuff, iunno)

Children of the Corn

The Craft

Non-Supernatural Thriller/Violence shit (these are violent):

Hush (Mike Flanagan directs; home invasion with a deaf woman protagonist; fucking rules)

The Silenced (haven’t actually watched this yet, but it looks good; don’t *think* it’s supernatural?; presumably subtitled)

The Eyes of My Mother (black and white; super bleak; beautiful and highly recommended)

Kristy

Dig Two Graves

We Need to Talk About Kevin (very bleak)

The Bad Batch (from the director of A Girl Walks Home Etc; only kind of horror-adjacent; Jason Momoa and Keanu Reeves are in this)

Sun Choke (visually beautiful but super art-housey, also lots of mental illness and abuse stuff in this one; also *Barbara Crampton*)

Zodiac (biography of Ted Cruz)

I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore (so fucking good; very funny also)

Nightcrawler (basically a vampire movie, but with a camera instead of fangs)

Horror and Horror-Adjacent Documentaries (all the good horror docs got moved to Shudder):

The Nightmare (a doc on sleep paralysis and night terrors that is so-so as a documentary, but super effective as a horror film)

Witches: A Century of Murder (history of British witch trials, reenacted; two parts)

“But, Benito!” I hear you cry. “I don’t have Netflix for some reason! What about some other streaming services?” Yeah, all right. Here are some quick hits that are definitely not exhaustive. Just a couple of party jams you might enjoy if you’ve burned through the Netflix list.

What’s on Hulu though

10 Cloverfield Lane

Monster Squad

Fright Night (the original; a must watch if you haven’t seen it)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

From Dusk Til Dawn

An American Werewolf in London

Hatchet

Pumpkinhead (check this one out if you haven’t seen it)

The Blob

I Saw the Devil (amazing)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (either version)

Shaun of the Dead

The Loved Ones

Wolfcop

The Thing

Rigor Mortis

Borgman

The Descent

Bloodsucking Bastards

Willow Creek

Berberian Sound Studio

Plus a bunch of shit that’s also on Netflix

What about Amazon Prime you idiot

The Girl with All the Gifts

Them (not Them!)

The Witch

Hell House LLC

Neon Demon

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Nosferatu

Green Room

Little Shop of Horrors (the Corman one, not the musical)

The Blackcoat’s Daughter

The Bay

Society

The Last Man on Earth

The Last Exorcism

What We Do in the Shadows

Amazon Prime is hard to navigate so that’s all. If I left off a favorite, it’s not because I don’t like it. It’s because it didn’t pop up in the first 20 pages of search results.

Tell me some good Shudder ones

The Innkeepers

A Tale of Two Sisters

The Gorgon

Lake Bodom

Prevenge

All the Phantasms (maybe not Ravager)

Shrew’s Nest

Noroi: The Curse

The House of the Devil

Black Sunday

Let the Right One In

Murder Party (highly recommended, esp for Halloween)

WNUF Halloween Special

Ghostwatch (play this at your party if you want to fucking win Halloween)

This list could be a million more entries long. Shudder rules.

What about Crackle/Vudu/YouTube/etc

Please shut up

As usual, please do me a solid and only circulate the current version of the list, so people aren’t clicking on dead links and thinking I’m an idiot. Again, this list is not and could not be completely exhaustive, and if I left off your favorite movie, I swear I was not targeting you personally. And, again, some of these movies are more interesting than they are good AND horror is a highly subjective experience, so your mileage may vary on some of these.

If you enjoyed this list, perhaps consider checking out some of my other Halloween-related posts:

a primer for spooky stories

a primer for Lovecraft specifically

a list of “essential” horror movies

a list of “essential” silent horror movies

a list of “essential” horror comedies

a list of suggested horror double features

a primer for Hammer horror

a list of cool movies starring Christopher Lee and Vincent Price

this list of resources, including short films and even more scary movies

a suggested Halloween playlist

a primer for spooky classical music

the scariest 20 minutes in radio history

free to play spooky games

and my general Halloween tag, which includes short films, movie trailers, comics, stories, and more

Also maybe consider checking out my Letterboxd profile, where I rate and review movies of all types (but primarily horror) all year long and from all sorts of sources, in case you’re wondering what’s good on more than just Netflix. Also also, maybe take a look at some of my comics, several of which are appropriate for Halloween times.

Happy Halloween, nerds!

#halloween #long post #netflix #horror movies #horror #hulu #amazon prime #shudder #the haunting of netflix house

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eri-223 · 6 years

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HZD: Winter’s Bargain Chapter 3

Read here on AO3

This fic is becoming a jigsaw puzzle of a project, so the posted chapter numbers may change, but not likely by much. This also seems like a decent time to say thank you to the people who have reblogged or commented so far. Especially in a small ship in a small fandom like this, comments can make a big difference.

Marad had suspected. The Eclipse had been scattered, its leadership slain in front of Avad’s eyes. Those people still held their grudges, though, as Dervahl had done. Some, with efforts at restitution, could be bought back into the Carja proper as quiet citizens who could live their lives, tilling their ground and nurturing their children or their village’s children. Recovery was a steep hill, but one that could be climbed.

Others would not turn aside from the mission they had been told was holy. Marad sighed, lifted his hand against his forehead to shield his eyes and steel his nerves as he stood at one of the golden railings near Avad’s canopied throne. He had foiled eight assassination attempts in the parlor stage in the last year, eight people or groups of people who had wanted to see Avad’s young blood on the golden floor. Marad’s agents had ensured those plans never got past the parlor, never got past drunken boasts. When people were guided home and the bottle eased from their hands, a knife held to their throat or an embarrassing secret whispered in their ear, that attempted revolutionary would go to sleep into nightmare and wake up sick and ashamed of jumping at shadows. Most political furies could be eased this way, with the right pressure point of embarrassment and threat.

Avad did not carry out the threats, of course. Avad’s anger was patrilineal and sated. That was a valued trait in a ruler, true sanguinity and true kindness. Marad was fond of Avad for it.

This was why Avad gave the spy work to Marad and his agents. This was one of the reasons Avad chose not to hear every record of Marad’s work.

Another reason: it helped the king sleep.

Aloy’s return had spooked the dissidents. While not many were left after the attack on the Spire had torn up everyone’s carefully planted plans, Marad had been beginning to see new signs of anger. He was not yet certain whether they had come from a central source, an idea person, or whether they were working on their own. They could even be newly adult hunters, flush with too much energy and not enough work in the fertile maizelands. Whoever they were, Aloy would find them. The Sun shone gently onto him as Marad thought it, and his own mild religious devotion stirred vaguely godward and rolled back to sleep.

He just had to be sure that she did not become the claw of the Carja such that when she left — and she would — people perceived Avad as defenseless again. Her companion seemed savvy but harmless; Aloy had had to rescue him from falling off a cliff, Marad recalled. He shook his head and turned to go back into the halls at the center of the plateau, there to walk down to the library near the cliff’s edge. Aloy and Vanasha would reach the top of the hill soon.

The library in the palace at Meridian had not been sacked during the coup. This had been a matter of apathy, not choice: the Sun-Priests had burned and exalted other books in their day. Many were the scrolls that had burned in the city’s public braziers for the crime of mentioning the prowess of kings before Jiran. The king’s private library, inherited and redecorated by Avad and his advisors, had remained a sanctuary for older texts in which records of Meridian’s founding had been given the newly fashionable, more amicable political slant. Meridian’s expansionary wars were reframed as noble explorations under both regimes.

Sylens enjoyed the quietude of the place. Tightly rolled scrolls wrapped in neat ribbons sat in cubby holes made of wood stained red and bronze. Books were open to delicate drawings and detailed maps. Even the pieces in places of honor were not chained down. The library occupied a cool stone vault inside the plateau palace, and it would take just a day more of casing to figure out how to walk out with the best of its works.

Aloy moved ahead of him, following Vanasha, both of them loping along the neatly organized walls as comfortably as Aloy had moved in the maizelands. She touched her fingers to her Focus, holding the scan for just a heartbeat before marking off any reactive data for later. Vanasha did not seem to notice. They quickly outpaced Sylens and the Kestrels.

Avad, Marad, and Nasadi met Aloy at the other end of the room. Sylens had not seen Nasadi since Sunfall; the queen looked as if she had aged backwards, becoming more radiant and straight-backed after her captivity. She spread out a map across a table and began to weigh its edges with stones.

“This isn’t the first attack.” Avad, barely more than a boy-king, looked nervous. In the oppressive heat he acted as if he was cold, arms crossed and jaw tight. His gaze skimmed over Sylens, more concerned with Aloy and Vanasha. Good. Would it not be a nightmare to be recognized here? Sylens had travelled to the furthest outskirts of Carja territory and now stood here, back inside by some law of physics that demanded objects in circular flights stay in circles. If that track was interrupted, the forces released would be terrible.

If Bahavas or Helis were still alive and spotted him here, he could be executed on the spot … but he and Aloy had made sure that they were not.

Sylens kept half of his attention on Avad as the king explained that Eclipse marks had recently been found on gates, on masons’ stones, on wells poisoned by corpses of dead rabbits. Marad cautioned that it could be copycat work, an unsubtle attempt at mockery now that the wars were officially over, the Eclipse mostly scattered, and the rumors of the attack on the Spire running wild. Or perhaps it really was remnants of the Eclipse, shorn of their leaders, trying to rally around delinquency instead of or in advance of genocide.

Aloy, concerning herself more with logistics than motive, began to trace lines where machines had come from. Nasadi conferred with her about where traders or refugees entered the city, and Marad offered quick summaries of where people had been displaced after the fighting. Marad had been in Jiran’s court while Sylens was recruiting Bahavas, but he had not been a spymaster then. Bahavas had remembered him as a clever page, one whom Behaves had eyed as a potential for priesthood. Marad’s own inclinations had never lead him that way, though, and Bahavas had moved on to recruiting toughs and dead machines.

Aloy and Vanasha muttered at the war table in the corner. “A new break in the tree line here —“

“—not likely to come from the city if —“

“—searching around the waterfalls —“

Sylens examined the scrolls nearest to him. What could Meridian possibly have from before the attack that HADES itself did not? Had anyone measured how machines behaved around it? If the method of transmission could be understood in more detail … He had been inducted into some of the mysteries of spectrum, but some studies needed to be put aside because they did not involve the specific frequency through which the Focuses spoke to one another or, Sylens remembered with a chill, HADES spoke to its FARO Scarabs.

There was something in the cubby among the scrolls, a black machine claw like the tread of a Corruptor. Sylens glanced at the guards. He might pick it up just to see what they would do. How much did they know about what secrets this library might hold?

The claw was half way inside one of the shelves. Sylens reached in and slid it out without wrinkling the paper to either side.

Yes, this was something important. The guards reacted quickly, a coordinated flinch across three men. The man nearest him reached out a hand but did not quite touch him. “Excuse me. Do not move the artifacts.”

Sylens turned the claw over. “This?”

“Do not …”

“I find both your hierarchy and security to be disappointing, if removing two Bellowbacks is not enough to allow one the privilege of touching an artifact set out in the open.”

“It was inside the shelf,” one of the guards attempted.

It was this that seemed to finally draw Marad’s attention. He glided over from the king’s side. “What’s this?”

“Captain said we aren’t supposed to let anyone touch anything in the library, except the king and queen-mother.”

“Remind me of your name,” Marad said softly.

Sylens opened his hand. “I am an interested wanderer.” The Corruptor claw thumped onto the table. With no power source at all and not even a way to connect to one with the ends sheared clearly apart, it was as heavy and lifeless as a rock. “Aloy and I worked together, before the attack on the Spire. You have us to thank for some of your walls holding.”

Marad’s expression smoothed out, replacing an increasingly sour look with an envoy’s blank one. He looked over at the table. “Is that right, Aloy?”

She had been bent over the map, pointing at a location nearer to Nasadi. While Avad hovered like a frightened bird, Vanasha had almost blended into the background. Uncannily for someone so striking, she could lean against a table and project an aura of astonishingly convincing boredom. Just a citizen visiting the library. No information here at all.

Aloy’s gaze was even more unsettling as she turned to Marad. “I didn’t hear you.”

“Your friend says that we owe him for our city still standing. Is that right?” I just saw him palming the artifacts, Marad did not say. The Carja could be so courteous about their cruelty.

Not the reaction Sylens had wanted, but neither a problem he could not solve. Aloy, though. She caught his gaze and stared, her cheeks flushed, clearly feeling as blind under the Sun as he had been when he thought about his orbit around the library too long. She would hold information over his head, but which part exactly? That he had founded the Eclipse? That he had worked with HADES? That he had taught Bahavas and cultivated Helis through inaction? Helis could have been talked down from his mad devotion. Sylens had not done that.

Aloy narrowed her eyes. “Why?” Her suspicion was cold and fiery at once. “Sylens. What did you do?”

Marad raised an eyebrow.

Ah, so now Aloy was suspicious. That was a problem — and he felt guiltier about it than about dislodging the work of an anonymous librarian. She had rescued him. She had tied both of them together in their deals and plans, risked death for one another. The world owed them both, and the pressure of it made them into diamonds.

He gestured at the claw. “I examined that.”

Aloy’s cheeks flushed. She knew something. Maybe she was thinking of Ban-Ur, of the theft that had unlocked the very first door to the Metal World that Sylens had ever known. “Your examining is going to get us into trouble.”

“And why is that?” Marad said.

“He’s a tinker,” Aloy said. “He used to work with the Eclipse, too. But we have a deal, Marad. You won’t break it.”

Sylens felt cold. Aloy’s regard was like water seen through ice: distorted, shifting. He had the sudden and terrible sense that she might reveal him. What would that give her? She would lose a partner in the research. He was certain that she would not risk their alliance. Or was he? He knew himself to be a liar and so struggled to think of a reason for Aloy not to lie.

Marad shrugged wry assent. “I trust you, Aloy.” The royalty by the table had raised their heads to look over now. Conscious of his audience, Marad raised his voice. “Aloy’s deeds allow her leeway. Her deeds and the rumors. They say you can become invisible, that you kill people who displease you, that you call machines. Some rumors are kind, others are fearful. Both serve different ends, depending if one wants to demonize the Nora or the Carja or another group entirely. You understand the value of a good rumor, I think.”

Aloy said, “Give us — he and I and whoever you can find for us — the chance to catch these Eclipse soldiers, or pranksters, or whoever they are. If we find out who did it and there’s proof that it wasn’t Sylens, we’ll go on our way. Ways. If we find out it was him, I won’t stop you from whatever you want to do.”

Good, Aloy. Appeal to their desire for control.

The Kestrel behind Sylens had begun to bristle, his expression souring and his grip on his long, thin spear tightening so hard that his knobby knuckles turned bone-white. The man with the Oseram-style mustache straightened his shoulders. “Keep him inside the city, not outside the library.” Marad crisply chastised the guards. When he met Sylens’ eyes he managed to look calm. “You must understand that your prior association may be useful in this endeavor. We ask —”

“You insist,” Sylens said.

“We do.”

Was that a civic plural, the whole city arrayed behind Marad’s reptilian-cold eyes? Bahavas had been contrary too, sometimes. Helis had been easy to lead, as simple to goad as a Strider on a rope. What hooks could he put in Marad? Sylens made an obvious effort to turn away from the claw.

Marad pressed his fingers on either side of his nose. “There is also the chance that someone may have let those machines in, or driven them in out of the forest.”

“They could have had Focuses, to see the tracks,” Aloy said.

Marad made a sound of recognition. Aloy turned to him. “Do you know something about that?” She asked.

“I had thought they were referring to you,” Marad said. “But there are rumors of people with strange devices that glow like your Focus.”

“If so, that would remove the possibility that they are with the Eclipse,” Sylens said.

“Because we took down the network.” Aloy nodded at him. “So we have a way to eliminate some suspects. If they have a Focus, they weren’t part of the original Eclipse.”

“Yes.”

“Yariki, the envoy from the Banuk, is in the city and might have seen something.”

“Good,” Marad said. “Talk to her when you can.” He looked at Sylens.

Sylens spoke before Marad could. “Am I a captive then?” He glanced at the guards. Aloy rolled her eyes behind Marad.

“Stay in the city and the fields until we sort this all out. Not past the Spire.” Marad looked at the guards to be sure they understood. “And Aloy, talk to Yariki if you think she knows something.”

Some of that work would be easier than others, Sylens thought. With Aloy keeping his identity secret — if only to hold the information over his head — he didn’t think Marad would bother him. Something had stuck in his mind about Marad, though, some data point that Sylens thought he had seen somewhere else. Had he ever met the man before?

It would have to be one of the many answers he found here.

After they were done mapping out potential routes for the machines, Aloy left the library quickly. The room had started to feel stuffy. Carja architecture was beautiful, but so heavy. Something had also begun to nag at her about Sylens’ presence. She wasn’t used to being in the same place as him for so long, for so many of her actions to have consequences around him in particular. After Sunfall she had begun to lean against the idea of him, to take comfort in his grudging aid. She had started to wonder again what it would be like to touch the cords on his arms, or to kiss him against the shelves in that library.

Having the reality so close was odd.

He seemed to think so too. He followed her at a distance, looking out over the steep drop toward the pools below.

It didn’t quite feel right insisting that Sylens be a captive in the city, but nor did it feel right knowing that he could still be working on something for HADES. Their bargain was set: Sylens would pause in his dangerous experimentation as long as Aloy kept the Carja from skinning him alive. Had she said the right thing to Marad today? She supposed she would have said the same thing about Nil. He is dangerous, but only when it serves him, and usually then it also served Aloy.

She started to speak without preamble. They were far enough away from one another that the Focus picked her voice up, transmitting to the channel he had forced open. Once she realized it, she lowered her voice so that the passersby could not hear. “Look, when you said that Marad was keeping you captive I wasn’t angry at you. I was disappointed. You can be subtler than that.”

Sylens ranged further around the other side of the balcony. It was so much easier to talk this way, Aloy thought. Without looking at his eyes but knowing he was there. “Now I know that. I will be. Don’t start ordering me around, too.”

This was more familiar ground: Sylens being short with her and Aloy not caring. “Remember, Marad said that I kill people who displease me.”

He paused. The slight crackle around the words, stronger in the stone palace, was as soft as an indrawn breath. “Do I displease you, Aloy?” he said, wry.

She felt her cheeks heat up. Well, that would haunt her.

“No, Sylens.” The balcony curved; it brought them together at the bridge, to stand in front of stony-faced guards. Aloy met his eyes, willing him to understand. She would say this like she had him at spearpoint, and she would say it as if they were sitting side-by-side in safety by a fire. “You and I have a bargain.”

She broke the stare and moved across the bridge at a jog, relishing the slam of her own feet on the solid wood.

Last night she had dreamed about walking through the maizelands with Vanasha. They needed to reach a particular canyon in the mesa walls, but neither of them could find the right paths despite their familiarity. Maps became blurry, memory more so. Vanasha said that they needed to find the most quiet pathways, and so they moved from trail head to trail head listening. Aloy woke up before they found the canyon and lay under her blankets thinking about how they had gone from place to place looking for silence, silence, silence.

The slam of her own feet did not distract her too much from the voices around her. Over the sound of Sylens’ own footsteps and the shuffling of the guards, she heard Vanasha call her name insistently, as she had done when they first met.

“Aloy,” said the spy. “Wait.”

#Horizon Zero Dawn #Aloy/Sylens #Aloy #Sylens #Blameless Marad #Vanasha

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