#this is my first time drawing Aloy in that Carja armor

[nerd-artist]

Which cutscene are you more excited to see in Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered?

Me:

I can’t wait to see what they did with the new mo-cap 👀

[somewhataveragefangirl]

Okay so the thing that was making me too busy to write or draw has ended! I'm editing my Aloy x Erend one-shot again! Because of that! here's a sneak peak to my first draft of the flashback of Erend’s marriage proposal to Aloy!

Erend proposes to Aloy!

Author's Note: This takes place at least 3 years after HZD, whatever events of HFW have already taken place, and Aloy now lives mostly in Meridian. Erend has a focus now as we saw he had one in the first HFW trailer.

ALSO this is literally from my barely edited first draft! There will be grammar errors! And still contains some [Insert stuff here] notes!

The final draft will definitely look and read differently! Please understand this does not reflect on my final draft writing quality!

This is also my first big Tumblr post with a fic so if it's formatted weird please forgive me (^▽^;)

And now without further ado!

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Aloy thought back to Erend’s proposal. 

Talanah had dragged her out of town for a Lodge Hunt, which ended with Aloy drenched in blaze. Instead of just rinsing off in a nearby lake, Talanah had insisted they visit a local bathhouse.

 As repayment for her getting drenched, Talanah had helped Aloy re-plait her braids and even gifted her some Carja Silks to wear home as her armor was still drenched and in desperate need of repair. Aloy had fought it every step of the way, but in the end, she was glad she had gone along with Talanah’s plan.

She returned to her house later than she wished, the sun already beginning to set beyond the Forbidden West. On approach to her home, she noticed the door open a crack, which was unusual as Erend had made her an Oseram lock. She activated her Focus, expecting an intruder, instead, it was just Erend, which wasn’t uncommon these days as they spent most of their evenings together, the uncommon part was his pacing. 

She pinged his Focus and she watched as his form whipped around to her direction as he received her signal with his Focus.

The first thing she noticed as she entered her apartment was that he had pulled her meal table away from the wall to the center of the room, and on it sat all of Aloy’s favorite Carja and Oseram foods as well as a few traditional Nora foods, where he had gotten those she had no idea.

“Aloy!”, he said on seeing her, his face lighting up into a huge grin. He was missing his traditional armor and was instead in just his Vanguard tunic and trousers. “You’re back! I was wondering if Talanah would ever bring you all back.” He laughed nervously, lifting his arm and rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “Well, now that you’re here, would you like to have dinner together?”

They’d spent the evening eating and talking. She learned that he had been the one to make the traditional Nora food. He told her that now that the Nora were free to leave their Sacred land and return as they wished, some had been visiting Meridian to visit the memorial. Erend told her of how he had noticed them on his rounds. When he mentioned to a few that he had wanted to surprise her with some traditional food, many had volunteered to help him please their Anointed. 

She had grimaced at the mention of her Nora title, and Erend had noticed, she was grateful when he stood and pulled her out of her thoughts and seat to take a walk around the city. As they walked they reminisced of their many adventures. They spoke of their travels to the ruins of the Metal World, their journey out to the Cut as well as the Forbidden West, and the final defeat of Hades and Silens. As well as Aloy’s continuous work at Gaia Prime. Erend also spoke fondly of their more calm adventures, the times they had traveled out to a Vantage point simply to watch the sunset or stayed in Free Heap to get away from the busyness of Meridian. 

As they were laughing at the memory of the first time Erend had ridden a strider, Erend had stopped to admire the view, he put his hands on the railing, staring out into the distance, still smiling but distractedly. Aloy realized they were on the middle of the bridge to the Palace; she hadn’t even noticed as this was a common path they took whenever she joined Erend on his rounds of the city. Out in the West, the final rays of sunlight could no longer be seen peeking from behind the mountains, above them, the moon was already high in the sky, its full-faced light shining down on them. 

“Aloy, we’ve had so many fun times together, I know I’ve definitely gotten my two minutes”, he said referencing her words after they had fought Dervahl, “and while I don’t know Nora customs all too well, this isn’t really Oseram traditional either, I was hoping it would be alright if I ask for more of your time” before she could ask what he meant, he held her hands in his and continued, “These last few years together have been amazing! Sure, we’ve both had our fair share of struggles, both ups, and downs, but it’s been us, side-by-side against whatever the world has thrown at us, and I was hoping that it could always be this way. If I’ve learned anything from our time together, I know it’s you I want to spend my life with. So,” he got down on one knee, leaving Aloy speechless, “Aloy Rostdaughter, will you do me the greatest honor and be my wife?”

[They kiss]

[sun-and-shadow-aloy]

Favorite Passage

I have done this one once and went with a passage from a Dragon Age story, so @pikapeppa hit me again ;)

This time I am going to share one of my favorite passages from Seeker of the Nora. It was insanely hard to choose just one but this passage shows how deeply two of the men she loves care for her and she for them. (Also, maybe a bit of a nod to Pika, since she was the one that tagged me ;) )

“So, you’re here. Really here. You risked your life.”

Sylens glared at her for a moment. “Of course, I did. If you’d have been killed, the Nora’s Sacred Mountain would have never given up its secrets.”

This man’s cruelty knew no bounds. He had saved her only so he could continue using her. Here she was thinking that maybe he was actually beginning to care what happened to her, but no. She was simply a prize, a weapon, a tool.

“Too bad you wasted your time. Helis destroyed my Focus and the Alpha Registry with it.” She was tempted to turn her Strider away and continue on to the Sacred Lands without his aid. She knew if she ever saw the man face to face, she’d want nothing more than to punch him.

Sylens laughed then, a small one, but enough to turn Aloy’s attention back to him. “Not at all. The whole time I’ve been monitoring your Focus, I’ve duplicated every data file you’ve scanned. Installing that data to a new Focus was trivially easy. ‘Happy birthday, Isaac. Daddy sure does love his little big man.’ He tossed a new Focus to her and she nearly dropped it in her shock.

She hadn’t heard those words in so long. It used to be her favorite find. Amongst all of the data her Focus had collected, it was the first and the one she watched when she wished for a family of her own. Of course, Sylens must have known this. There were little collection ticks anytime a file was opened. It always showed her, her most viewed files first. Among them were favorite pictures of beautiful landscapes, photos of Avad, Erend, and Nil. Audio and video recordings of times long since past and even one of Rost fishing. That was the first time she’d realized she could capture a video log. He’d had no idea what she was doing, so he sat there and took in the gentle breeze and the cool crisp air. It was him in his element.

“You’re really good at making it impossible to like you. But I guess I need this.” She wouldn’t let him know what some of those images meant to her. She placed the device on her ear and felt a calm settle over her as if she had reattached a piece of herself that had been missing for far too long.

Sylens smiled then. “It’s time to see where you were born. Maybe even learn why.”

Aloy’s frustrations with the man piqued again. “Yeah. Meet the machine that birthed me into this world. Isn’t that how you put it?”

He shut down then, turning his strider away from her. “I’ll be off.”

“Wait,” Aloy said suddenly. Not even sure why she was unwilling to let him wander away.

He turned back to her then. “Yes.”

She wasn’t sure what she wanted to ask him. Many thoughts and questions ran through her mind. She was about to ask but then their attention was drawn to the not so far off distance. A cloud of dust rose, signaling an oncoming horde. Aloy froze. Sylens watched in silence. Both of them seemed wary of whoever was coming.

“Shadow Carja,” she asked.

“Not likely. Coming from the wrong direction.”

This eased a bit of her nerves and she pressed on. “Helis recognized you back in the Sun-Ring. You told me that you’d assisted the Eclipse. Not that you knew the men who killed my… who almost killed me.” She had almost said her father, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of being able to correct her again. Rost wasn’t her biological father and he knew that. It would be one more thing he could throw in her face.

“So, now you know. The man is a serious threat. So let’s do all we can to make sure he and Hades do not succeed.”

She didn’t know what she expected him to say. Maybe some form of argument or some admission of guilt, but as always she got nothing. She sighed, “Right.”

She knew she would get no further answers from him and the dust cloud was drawing ever closer, making Sylens antsy. It was apparent that he did not want to be seen, even if they had just surmised that these people weren’t likely Shadow Carja.

“I’ll be on my way. To make matters worse, Helis ordered an Eclipse detachment to attack the Nora Sacred Land. The tribe’s already weak. They won’t stand a chance. You should come with me.” She knew a fighter lay under his intellectual façade. He wouldn’t have gotten this far if he weren’t.

He huffed. “Absolutely not. I have preparations to make elsewhere. Besides, it looks like you may have more help than you thought.” He gestured to the crowd of men that still drew closer to their position.

Her eyes still weren’t at their best and she tried to squint through the blazing sunlight to see what Sylens meant, but she couldn’t make out what he was trying to tell her.

Before setting his heels into his Strider he handed over one last gift, Shadow Carja armor. He said it would help her should she need to return to Sunfall or Shadow Carja territory. And then he apologized for being needlessly cruel about who or what her mother may be, telling her he did hope it was a who, not a what. That lifted her spirits somewhat, but not as much as the next thing she caught sight of.

Avad’s banner, along with the banner of the Vanguard swung proudly in the hands of the men coming toward her. And at the head of these men, two figures sprinted toward her. One was bulky and in heavy armor. He couldn’t quite keep up with the man ahead of him but he pushed just as hard.

Aloy jumped from her seat on the Strider. Tears sprang to her eyes as the sun’s gleam caught on the white of the Carja armor, made the red feathers glisten. She never thought she would be so happy to see that stupid headdress. He was alive! And he had brought the whole of the Vanguard with him, Erend included.

She raced forward. The tears made her swollen eyes ache but she didn’t care. She needed to touch him, to make sure the Sun wasn’t playing tricks on her. She needed to hold him, to kiss those thick lips and to know he was real. After her battle with the Behemoth, her legs ached, but she pushed through. She would make it to him, even if she collapsed into his arms.

As they closed the distance to each other, Aloy was rewarded with one thing she thought she’d never see. Nil was smiling. A genuine ear-to-ear smile. The last few days must have been just as hard on him as they were on her. To see emotions from him in any capacity was more than she had anticipated and made fresh tears bubble to the surface.

When she was close enough she leapt into his arms. She didn’t know she had the strength left, but somehow she made it and neither of them could help the laughs that sprang from them as they collided. Nil swung her around and buried his face in her neck as she wrapped her arms around him.

“I love you, Aloy. I love you.” He kept repeating the words like a mantra.

Aloy began to believe she would never stop crying. Her heart felt lighter than it had in a very long time, but they continued to spill down her face. With each new revelation the moment brought, it was like a wall was broken letting the rains pour and wash away all of the hurt and pain of the last few months. Hell, the last few days. Neither one of them had been certain that the other had survived. She knew he had made it out of the room before Helis’ bomb went off, but nothing past that. He must have thought the same when he heard the explosion behind him.

When he put her down, she pulled him into a deep kiss. Her heart exploded. She couldn’t contain how she felt about him any more than he could. “I love you, too. Everything about you.”

The moment was broken, but in no way ruined by the sound of someone else coming up behind them. She turned to the sound and opened her arms. Erend pulled her into a tight hug and the tears started anew.

“Fire and spit, Aloy. You have got to stop doing this to me. This is the second time I thought you may be dead.”

He squeezed her so tight that his armor started to hurt but she didn’t care. He was here. She had her rock to see her through this next phase. She had the Vanguard at her back. She had Nil. She might be able to give the Eclipse a real fight.

I believe I have tagged everyone already, so if you are reading this and haven't been tagged yet... consider yourself tagged.