#northernghosts

[buivolic]

💀☠️Tribulation☠️💀 straight from the ashes of Sweden.👹😈 #Tribulation #Sweden #Deathmetal, #darkmetal #Insomnia #metal #metalhead #live #concert #Tour2019 #alternativerock #NorthernGhosts Tour2019 #NorthernGhostsTour #JohannesAndersson #AdamZaars #JonathanHultén #OscarLeander #Swedes #intelligentmusic #Warsaw #Warszawa #Poland #Polska #interestingmusic #music (at Klub Proxima) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvWGPGbBtb6/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ke4xzx0lzdm

[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!

[wildthunder312]

yo can you tell me which Beta fics youve read on AO3 👉👈

yeye for sure! theres rly not many fics ab her yet but these are the ones I enjoyed:

By Fate, By Choice (Ongoing) by NorthernGhost

Family by Stiehl

Behind the holo doors by oddfriend

One in the Same by StrappingYoungLass

and also gonna shamelessly plug my own fic Taking Flight

[shespeaksincolors-blog]

[thatsgonnabeanogho]

This weekend we’ve got a double-header right off the bat! @imagine0314x and I’s collab gets two chapter updates at once because one kind of feeds into the other, so... here we are. Spend some time with two of our favorite literary children, and also, we get some more of one of our favorite aunts and her... friend. Good times will be had by all.

An excerpt:

Kal stood before the polished mirror in the wash room, his chin inclined as he stared back at the image of himself, the blue tunic lit by the faint glow of the metal wings attached to his back.  A smirk tugged at his lips as he braced his hands on his hips, puffing out his chest, as he swore for a moment the small light in the center of his chest glowed brighter.

“Stormbirds aren’t blue, you know.”

Grinding his teeth, Kal turned from his reflection to the real-life image of his sister in the doorway behind him, eying the grey tunic and leggings with red lights that ran along her back to the pieces of metal that ran along her own jaw that constituted the jaws of her Scrapper costume.

“It’s a costume,” he shot back, “and for mine—this Stormbird is blue.”

“Not just because it’s Mom’s favorite color, is it?” Lani teased.

“No, it’s not!” he scowled, his hands beginning to bunch into fists about the fabric of his tunic.  “At least mine shows imagination.”

“Yours?” the auburn-haired girl shot back.  “You’re the one who imagined himself as a machine that could fly, at least mine—”

“That’s enough.”

Both children quickly fell silent as their fire-haired mother appeared in the doorway behind Lani, glancing between the two of them.

“You both look fearsome, and awe-inspiring,” Anukai continued.  “Truly the king and queen of the machine world.”

Lani’s face flushed red as she shuffled her feet awkwardly, while Kal tried his best to hide his grin of satisfaction.

“I concur,” GAIA added, appearing behind their mother and glancing between them with a soft smile.  “The designs of your costumes truly capture the spirit and essence of the machines that inspired them.”

“You… you think so?” Kal asked cautiously, his eyebrows raising.

The AI woman’s smile grew as she nodded.

“I do, little Stormbird.”

[tragicherorec]

We are so happy to welcome “Northern Ghost” to the Tragic Hero family!

[ao3feed-lifeisstrange]

Kill Your Past

read it on AO3 at http://bit.ly/2WM7yZW

by NorthernGhost

“You don’t get to have your punk princess, not unless I die.” That’s what the ghosts of Max’s past tell her, at least. Years after making a decision that has left her guilt-ridden and with a life spinning out of control, she starts to think there may be something to this statement.

Words: 5076, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Life Is Strange (Video Game)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death

Characters: Maxine "Max" Caulfield, Chloe Price (Life Is Strange), Kate Marsh, Warren Graham, Dana Ward (Life Is Strange), Victoria Chase (Life is Strange), Mark Jefferson

Relationships: Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price

Additional Tags: Heavy Angst, Canonical Character Death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Substance Abuse

read it on the AO3 at http://bit.ly/2WM7yZW

[shatterproof-gaming]

Pretty sure those symbols are gonna be the next tattoos on the lower part of my fingers. Why because I’m og @nrthrnghst fan lol. Plus I wanna convince someone to let me be their tour manager again someday haha. Plus they are amazing and why not support your boys and their awesome music. It’s the future. @tonymcvaney @kennypohorence #northernghost #fam #happysaddepressedsuicidal @mrmazzoli @alan_themusical @nolansean (at Ohio)

[iphoneflick-blog]

🎼 Would you recommed "Happy : Sad : Depressed : Suicidal" #NorthernGhost #Rock Link 🔽 https://t.co/XVTLg4sDpY https://t.co/3jcZePSuEH

🎼 Would you recommed "Happy : Sad : Depressed : Suicidal" #NorthernGhost #Rock Link 🔽https://t.co/XVTLg4sDpY pic.twitter.com/3jcZePSuEH

— iPhoneFlick (@iphoneflick) August 30, 2017

from Twitter https://twitter.com/iphoneflick August 30, 2017 at 01:47PM via IFTTT

[thatsgonnabeanogho]

So @imagine0314x and I couldn’t help ourselves. We said our collab “Came New Life” was done, and then we went and wrote some extra parts for fun that we just immediately loved way too much and now they’re out as a separate little project called “Coming of Age”! All three chapters are up now, so feel free to take ‘em all in!

Summary:

Being the first generation of Sobecks in 1,000 years that aren't clones is a heavy prospect to come to terms with--for some more than others. 

An excerpt (from Chapter 1):

 “Kal? Are you okay?”

 “Kallik, say something.”                  The boy felt his head swimming, a thousand thoughts coming all at once. It was clear this talk had been a long time coming, and while he might have gleaned the general idea over the years, hearing it spoken in detail now left him feeling empty.

 Why? Why did he always have to be the one on the outside looking in?

 The one who didn’t match the fiery coloring of his family, the one with a      borrowed     house name. And now he was the one      manufactured,    unable to even lay as much claim to his existence as his own sister. He stewed in silence, watching as Bekan shuffled politely out the door, the Oseram shades of red that Kal hadn’t even known were possible. Somewhere in the distance he could hear Lana preparing a bag to go see their grandmother.

     Her    grandmother, Kal reminded himself. Even if the circumstances were strange, they were at least related. He couldn’t say the same. Everything about him was a patchwork of pieces: begged for and stolen and rearranged.                  It made him so, so      angry    .

 “Kal?” Anukai asked again, kneeling at his side, the worry creased into her face. “This doesn’t change anything, you know that right?” Her fingers dug into the hem of her off-white shirt, nervously fiddling with the fabric.

 The boy balled his hands into fists, his jaw clenching before he exploded. Bekan was his...was his…

 He was nothing. Just like he wanted to be.

[thatsgonnabeanogho]

So, it’s my birthday, and I decided to give a bit of a gift to others!

This is a little collection of one-shots that are basically fanfics to the collab fic I’ve been working on with @imagine0314x, primarily following after her chapter “Longest Nights”, which we both loved... and also explains the title of this one.

Anyhow, mostly just good all good-feels abound here, so enjoy!

An excerpt of Part 1:

 “What’s this?” she asked, sniffing it.

 “My magic cure for hangovers,” Vansa shot back, smirking.

 “I mean… I’m not even that hungover but…”

 Ara shrugged and took a sip of the drink, considering it for a moment before her eyebrows raised.

 “That’s… really good.  Where’d you get it?”

 “I can keep a      few     secrets for a bit longer,” the healer teased, winking.  “Might keep you coming back to my place, if I do.”

 Ara paused for a moment in her work at the stove, setting the glass down on the opposite side before clearing her throat and turning back to Vansa.

 “I… I want to… if you’ll let me, of course.”

 The healer quickly took another sip of her drink before setting it down on the counter behind her and pushing forward.  As she turned toward Ara, she wrapped her arms behind her, clasping her hands in the small of the redhead’s back.

 “I will if you let me come by your place.”

 Ara grinned nervously, but nodded, prompting Vansa to smile broadly.

 “Of course you can come back here,” she continued softly.  “I      want     you to.”

 “So… last night…”

 “Drunk words, sober thoughts,” Vansa interrupted.  “I told you.”

 “So…      also     not too drunk to remember…”

 “Oh,” the healer breathed, leaning in close so her lips were inches from Ara’s ear, “I remember it all.”

[thatsgonnabeanogho]

New chapter of @imagine0314x and I’s collab is up now!

We may or may not be trying to play your heartstrings like a damn fiddle.

Enjoy!

An excerpt:

 Ikrie found herself unable to hold back the smile that tugged at her lips, brought on by the incredibly forceful feeling in her chest, like something radiating out from her heart threatened to burst through her ribs at any moment.  The image of the redhead, hair plastered to the sides of her face and her skin still flush, with a look of pure incredulity on her face as she stared down at the small bundle held against her chest was one that immediately felt as if it would be burned into her memory.  The dark-haired woman held back for a moment longer before carefully stepping forward, placing one hand on Anukai’s shoulder and prompting her to glance over quickly.

 “I-Ikrie… she’s… look at her!” she breathed, quickly turning her attention back to the tiny form in her arms.

 The dark-haired woman nodded, taking a precarious seat on the edge of the bed beside the redhead, sliding her hand to her opposite shoulder as she leaned downward slightly until she could truly make out the face under the blanket, just beneath a tuft of reddish hair.

 “She’s gonna look a lot like you,” Ikrie said quietly, grinning.

 “Told you those Sobeck genes were strong.”

 The dark-haired woman rolled her eyes before they both broke into laughter.  After what felt like hours, Ikrie cleared her throat, leaning her head atop Anukai’s.

 “You’re sure about the name?”

 “It’s a little late now, isn’t it?”

 “It’s been less than an hour, there’s still technically time,” Ikrie teased.

 Anukai sighed, nodding.

 “I’m sure.”

[thatsgonnabeanogho]

This weekend’s going to be 2-parter, and Part 1 of the next section of the collab with @imagine0314x is live now! Probably gonna post the other tonight, since both are somewhat on the short side, but a little something for your Sunday morning/early afternoon!

An excerpt:

With a shake of her head, Anukai instead turned to Kal, who had remained in the main living space of the apartment, taking a seat on the edge of their couch with a turbulent expression.

 “Hey, did everything go okay?” the redhead asked, kneeling before the dark-haired boy.

 “I… I guess…” he sighed, shrugging.

 Anukai frowned, placing her hands on the boy’s knees.

 “That doesn’t sound very encouraging.”

 Finally, after another moment or two, he sighed, leaning back on the couch, despite the fact that his head barely reached the cushions at the back side from where he currently sat.

 “Someone mistook Lani and me for—friends—again.”

[thatsgonnabeanogho]

Howdy y’all!

So I wrote a crazy series of stories in this AU from Horizon: Zero Dawn starting wayyyyy long ago in 2018 with Duality.

I finished the 6th “mega-fic” in that series last week, The Cusp.

Now, me and my friend @imagine0314x have unleashed the first 2 chapters of our new work we’ve been cooking up all summer.

Want some feels, some fluff, some angst?

Come along, why don’t you?

You don’t even need to have read the entire preceding fics to jump in.

A summary to catch you up:

Eight years ago, Aloy discovered she wasn't the only Sobeck clone.

After a perilous journey west to the Port, her younger counterparts now reside alongside her in Meridian, adjusting to a life where death doesn't lurk around every corner.

Now 28, second-generation clone Anukai and her sisters Ara and Ashana will have their bonds tested and cemented by the arrival of the newest additions to the family...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A teaser:

It was fine. It was going to be fine.

They already had what they wanted and how could she dishonor Ikrie’s efforts by making this about her? She’d just go to Ara’s and do what had to be done, she told herself. Ara was practical. She’d understand, wouldn’t she? Anukai would tell Ikrie they’d gone out drinking and gotten carried away and not show up until morning. She’d hate herself for it and surely draw Ikrie’s ire, but at least it would be done and she wouldn’t have to burden the woman she loved with the knowledge of what had happened.

Before she knew it, she was at Ara’s door, knocking with her shaking right hand and holding the small bag in her left--sure that the metallic appendage wouldn’t lose its grip.

The door opened and Anukai was greeted by her near-reflection. Ara stood, wearing some sort of black, sleeveless top, the pendant Aloy had given her years ago, and sporting her typical hairstyle--the sides buzzed short while the rest was tied back in a fiery topknot.

“Hey,” Ara said fluidly, leaning into the doorframe, “come in.”

She picked up a small glass with some sort of amber liquid in it from the countertop as they entered, taking a sip. Ara gestured to Anukai to take a seat in the main room, the short-haired redhead flopping back casually onto her couch while the Banuk took the seat opposite her. The apartment was sparse but clean, always lacking the tribal flair of so many other homes--much like Ara herself.

“What’s going on, sis?” Ara asked, leaning into the moniker with her usual sarcastic edge. “Not like you to drop by unannounced… or without Ikrie. How is she?”

“Ikrie’s fine,” Anukai said softly, keeping her head down.

Ara took another sip, the liquid loosening her tongue.

“Those first couple months are brutal. More reason for me to never do it,” she chuckled. “Wait. Wait. Are you two fighting? Is this some lovers’ spat? Because if you’re looking for a couch to sleep on--”

“We’re not fighting,” Anukai growled, the sound causing Ara to pause, her face taking on a more serious demeanor.

“What’s going on?” Ara asked softly, her usual swagger all but evaporated.

A small whimper escaped Anukai, her voice cracking.

“The timing’s all wrong.”

[thatsgonnabeanogho]

Second of two chapters focusing on our favorite aunt character, Ara, in @imagine0314x and I’s collab! This one is by Imagine and it’s got some pretty heavy feels involved, and one of our favorite moments in the whole collection!

An excerpt:

“Hello?”

Anukai froze at the dinner table. The user ID read like the call was coming from Ara, but the voice wasn’t one she recognized. “Who is this?” “Ah, yeah, this is Jira. I run that tavern at the west end of the city. You know the one--seen you around here sometimes.”

“Why are you calling from Ara’s Focus?”

“She’s in a bad place. Fire and spit, girl, you need to come pick up your sister.” The redhead sighed, the cold fear that Ara had backslid into her old habits sinking into her stomach. “Ugh, not again,” Anukai muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Nah...it’s not like that,” Jira said, her gravelly voice softening. “Hasn’t been like that for quite some years now, least not on my watch. But you still need to get here. Now.”