#and now i can accurately have feels about aloy and kotallo that i just want to scream over

[unstoppablc]

hi i'm awake and alive and have a lot of feelings about this redhead and just ... yeah .

gotta tackle some work stuff but i intend on being here most of the day <3

[unyieldingfashav]

Here goes round two of me rambling and raving about everything I love about this because it's perfection and was the bright spot of my day today

Okay right off the bat, I love that we're starting from Kotallo's perspective, you did an amazing job writing him, absolutely on point and just fantastic.

The fact that he's immediately suspicious of what she's up to is so on brand. I love it. He's like you're scheming, I can see it in your eyes.

The bit where he's like "I can still swim" and like can't help but feel like he still has to prove what he's capable of makes my heart ache for him because as much as he's proven how capable of a warrior he is it does kind of feel like he has this own personal need to keep proving to himself and everyone else that whether or not he has his arm he's just as strong and fierce as he was before the embassy.

Aloy's comment about him getting some sun because his face looks a little white had me full on cackling it was such a dumb joke but also so incredibly perfect and I can just picture the scowl he would give her at a comment like that.

I love the fact that he sees Aloy's discomfort with people praising her achievements and makes a point of trying to not do that and to make sure when they talk and spend time together she doesn't feel that pressure that she must whenever people are calling her savior and champion. It shows how observant he can be and how much he can care about the feelings of the people important to him.

Kotallo reflecting on being sent to Stone Crest has my heart ACHING for him, I just want to give him a hug. Just knowing his emotions were kind of a mess after everything that happened at the embassy (not surprising) and then he was having to go home and face Tekotteh with all of that stress breaks my heart and he just deserves the world.

"More often than not, he finds that his gaze is drawn to her the way falling objects are drawn to the ground, obeying a pull that is inexorable." This line is the kind of line that love stories are rooted in and gives me all the butterflies it's so lovely.

Her coming out of the water and just like "onto our next stop" without any explanation about what's going on and him just kind of being grumbly but gladly following her because of course he's going to follow her no matter what just makes me so happy.

"he wraps his arm around her without a second thought" I squealed. Out loud. In front of other people. It was embarrassing but that's how you know it's a good story.

"He doesn’t loosen his hold." Again, squealing. I went full on fangirl and lost my mind over that sentence like a crazy person. I ship this so much now.

I love the switch to Aloy's perspective and that we get to see a somewhat insecure side of her as she goes through this little stunt of going to get the seashell and then taking him to Hidden Embers. It's that very realistic feeling of trying to impress your crush with something you hope they like and worrying in the midst of it all that it's all just going to backfire.

The mention of Varl made me tear up, the idea that he's still there in the back of her mind as some kind of guiding voice, giving her advice on what to do.

I absolutely adore that the two of them riding the sunwing has become a regular thing and just like the quality time for the two of them. It's so sweet and I just love the idea of them soaring all over the place going to different corners of the west.

"There is an emotion, there, the kind he doesn’t voice, but she feels it all the same." More squealing. I cannot handle these two. I have so many feels. I ship it so much.

Kotallo actually smiling as he listens to a seashell is the most precious image and I absolutely adore it.

Aloy trying to analyze the seashell and figure out what it is and what makes it do that is so accurate. She is absolutely the kind who tends to analyze instead of just enjoying most things.

And I absolutely love that Kotallo is the one to bring her out of the analysis and make her just be in the moment.

Everything about him moving closer to her, him turning off her focus, him making her be in the moment and just listen to the sound of the ocean in the middle of the desert. It made my heart explode, it was so lovely and sweet and gave me chills and was just perfection.

“Close your eyes,” he says simply, his low voice making the air between them vibrate, his tone encouraging more than it is commanding. “And listen.” SIR. I CANNOT. THIS MAN. GOOD LORD.

When she opens her eyes and smiles, meeting his gaze again, she knows he doesn’t just see that phantom ocean, surrounding them.

He sees her, too.

It's sheer perfection. I left me a pile of goo, absolutely in love with how you write these two and dying to read more. You are doing such an amazingly wonderful job with this. It's perfection.

[Aloy/Kotallo] On the Wings of the Ten - Seashells

Here I go. Officially doomed. Ah well.

Previous parts: Flying

[READ THE NEW PART ON AO3]

“Wait here.”

That is the extent of her instruction as she pulls an odd-looking gear from her satchel, made of some sort of tubing.

Kotallo is not one to question orders while in the thick of battle, but this is the opposite of battle.

“What are you up to?”

He doesn’t even try to mask the suspicion from his voice; from her crooked smile alone, he knows she won’t answer.

“You really think I’m just gonna tell you?” she confirms indeed, and when he scowls in response, her smile widens. “What would be the fun in that?”

“I don’t know about ‘fun’, but it certainly would be an unexpected yet welcome development,” he states with a note of sarcasm.

“It sure would be,” she banters back as she finishes hooking the device to the front of her armor.

She’s already knee-deep into the water, clearly moments away from diving in—and leaving him behind. This surprises him; it is unlike her, to dismiss him like that.

“I can still swim,” he says. “Not as fast as I once did, but my legs work well enough.”

[CONTINUE READING ON AO3]