#aloy/kotallo

[pikapeppa]

Oh, she may be weary Them young girls they do get wearied Wearing that same old shaggy dress But when she gets weary Try a little tenderness

*************************

My beloved @elbenherzart drew me some gorgeous tender Aloy x Kotallo!!!! i.e. two badass warriors who really need a little tenderness and rest 😭❤🙏

#I ADORE THEM YOUR HONOUR #kotallo #aloy/kotallo #aloy x kotallo #kotaloy #kotallo x aloy #kotallo/aloy #hfw #horizon forbidden west #elbenherzart

[mancatrex]

#horizon forbidden west #my art #fanart #kotallo #hfw kotallo #aloy #hfw aloy #kotallo x aloy #kotaloy #aloy/kotallo

[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!

#doing data analysis of fanfic? just really letting my nerd flag fly here #horizon #horizon zero dawn #horizon forbidden west #hzd #hfw #ao3 #fanfic #fanfiction #data analysis #plotly #aloy x avad #aloy/avad #alvad #aloy x erend #aloy/erend #ereloy #aloy x kotallo #aloy/kotallo #kotaloy #aloy x nil #aloy/nil #niloy #aloy x talanah #aloy/talanah #hawk and thrush #words i said #i made this

[chloefraazers]

The Horizon Dating Simulator Project

There’s been so much interest and positive response to this! We’re so thrilled that fans across the board are looking forward to playing!

As an update, several ships have been filled with their teams, but we have some that could use another member! Aloy/Ikrie, Aloy/Petra, Aloy/Yarra, and Aloy/Alva could use another writer. Most ships have artists, but if you are willing to collaborate with the lead or be a back-up, this can help. And if there’s a writer & artist team that wants to take on Aloy/Avad…

Audio and coding help is always in need!

DM me here or @diiddums#1977 on Discord, or reach out to @kittleskittle for more information!

Follow #horizon dating sim project for updates!

Follow @/focusontheheart for updates!

#horizon dating sim project #horizon forbidden west #horizon zero dawn #horizon games #beyond the horizon #aloy/alva #aloy/kotallo #aloy/petra #aloy/yarra #aloy/ikrie #aloy/avad #aloy x kotallo #aloy x alva #aloy x ikrie #aloy x yarra #aloy x avad #aloy x petra

[flamehairwarrior]

“Aloy, can I ask you something? ... May I kiss you?”

So they’re basically in my head 24/7 after reading all those kotaloy fanfics and now this is all i do when i open the game.. 😂 I love them your honor!!

#kotaloy #aloy x kotallo #kotallo #aloy #hfw aloy #horizon forbidden west #romance #kiss #aloy/kotallo #photomode #hfw

[taiyourae-art]

“Kotallo!” Aloy snaps, again, and this time she gets a reaction, though not the one she was looking for.

She wants him to put her down, to leave her to her moping and go back to whatever it was he was doing before he came in to annoy her, but instead of that, he hoists her higher on his shoulder, tightening his hold around her thighs.

“If you refuse to relax, I will make you relax,” he says, and it's the fact that it sounds more like a threat than anything else he has ever said to her that has Aloy going limp in his hold.

Its shock, she tells herself, and definitely not because the timber of his voice just rumbled right through her to settle between her legs.

Fuck.

or the one where Aloy doesn't know how to relax but Kotallo is more than willing to teach her- with his mouth Fic can be found here!

Uncensored art can be found here!

#horizon zero dawn #horizon forbidden west #aloy/kotallo #hfw fanart #hfw fanfic #aloy x kotallo #taiyouraeart

[transdavesprite]

Horizon Big Bang: Not The Sharpest Knife

Fic done by the amazing Firekiln! (AO3)

Kotallo witnesses Fashav gift his knife to a mysterious huntress, and assumes it’s a knife pledging ceremony. He vows to protect his fallen comrades bride for the rest of his life. Aloy, meanwhile, finds herself falling for a grumpy Tenakth Marshal, but has no idea how to deal with it.

READ HERE!

#horizon forbidden west #horizon Big Bang 2022 #aloy/kotallo #kotaloy #hfw #my art #art

[happy-little-vegemite]

find the full NSFW version here (and here if twitter implodes)

#Aloy/Kotallo #Aloy #Kotallo #horizon forbidden west #myfanart

[theshadowsandsilhouettes]

5.5k of fluff smut and marginal angst! Aloy kotallo pairing. I promise i love then your honour!

#aloy #kotallo #horizon #horizon forbidden west #aloy/kotallo #kotaloy

[just-here-with-my-thoughts]

Chapters: 9/9 Fandom: Horizon Forbidden West - Fandom Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Aloy/Kotallo, Kotallo/Aloy, Aloy & Kotallo, Kotallo & Aloy, Kotaloy - Relationship Characters: Aloy, Kotallo, zo, Erend, Varl, Alva Additional Tags: Feelings & Smut, Canon-adjacent Summary:

Singularity – the point at the centre of a black hole where the laws of physics as we know them cease to operate. – the point at which an AI technology becomes more advanced than its creator, becoming ungovernable.

Event Horizon – a one-way boundary at the edge of a black hole. Anything passing this point has no way back.

(A Kotaloy fic set the night before the assault on the Zenith Base - mission named Singularity - fanfic title Event Horizon. See what I did there?)

#horizon forbidden west #hfw #hfw fanfic #hfw fanfiction #aloy #kotallo #kotaloy #aloy x kotallo #kotallo x aloy #aloy/kotallo #kotallo/aloy #i wrote this literally a year ago and apparently didn't finish it? #it's like 90% complete #so i posted it now and will see if I can write the ending #i haven't played the dlc this is all canon-adjacent set before the assault on the zenith base

[nimthirielrinon]

“Hug? Hug.”

It’s pretty obvious who’s actually in charge here!

@feedthemuse21 thought you might like these ;)

#horizon forbidden west spoilers #hfw spoilers #hfw photomode #aloy/kotallo #Aloy #Kotallo #hekarro #horizon forbidden west

[pikapeppa]

Year-End Writer's Round-Up: 2023

It’s that time of year, writer friends — time to take stock of what we’ve been up to this year! Tagging to literally ANY AND ALL WRITERS who would like to participate, but I’ll throw down some tags from the top of my head: @contrivedchaos @jadefyre @kittynomsdeplume @iamcayc @hollyand-writes @elveny @johaerys-writes @crackinglamb @mogwaei @alyssalenko @about2dance @cthu-boo @chloefraazers @fogsblue @lordofthenerds97, join in if you fancy!! If you're not a smut writer, feel free to leave out those stats, and feel free to add any accomplishments and "metrics" that are significant to you! 🥰

(Blank template at the bottom for convenience!)

Words written (published or not, WIPs totally count too!!): 999 496 — ARGH IT WAS SO CLOSE TO A COOL MILLION. I did this calculation on the evening of Dec 31 and I was like DAMMIT I NEED TO WRITE A DRABBLE LMAO. 😂🙈 Honestly, I’m surprised the word count was so high this year — I could have sworn my word count had dropped because I wrote very little for a few weeks after BG3 first came out LMAO!

Smut scenes: 42 — I've done better LOL. I’ll blame the slow-burn BG3 ships I’m working on currently. 😂

New things I tried:

I started dabbling in M/M smut this year, in the context of my beloved Horizon F/M/M polycules (Aloy/Drakka with either Kotallo or Nil). Usually when I write F/M/M threesomes, the focus is on the men pleasing the lucky lady of the group, but I headcanon Drakka in particular as being very unapologetically bi, so it’s only fair and right that he get some sweet M/M action. I’m looking forward to putting this M/M practice use on Halsin/Tav/Astarion when my BG3 writing finally gets to that point! 

This was also the first time that I wrote an AU where I gleefully yeeted the canon deaths LMAO. I’m usually a stickler for adhering to significant plot points including character deaths, but the dastardly and darling @iamcayc nudged me into writing Here Come the Dreams, where Varl and Fashav both get to live, and it was a total delight to keep those darling men alive and happy. 

I wrote a smut scene in first-person POV for the first time, using the adorable voice of Karlach from BG3. This was a particularly interesting challenge because I feel that the first-person voice calls for a more urgent in-the-moment kind of narration, which means that I had to alter my usual way of writing smut in terms of phrasing/wording and pacing, so it was a fun challenge! 

With Astarion/Tav/Halsin, this is my first time writing an OC who falls in love simultaneously with two people, and it’s been… interesting trying to negotiate the polycule coming together. Of course I had to get enamoured with (arguably) the two most emotionally complicated male LIs in BG3 and make my own life difficult, LMAO. I’ve been struggling a little with bringing the relationships together and it’s been slowing my writing down over the past month or two, but I’m trucking on because I love both Halsin and Astarion and I really do believe in the dynamics of the OT3. SILVANUS GUIDE MY HAND AS I FIGURE THIS SHIT OUT.

Fic I spent the most time on: 

Even The Hardiest Desert Blooms! I really sank my focus into my beloved Desert boy this year and wrapped up his fic, which is always a bittersweet feeling when you adore the pairing. 😭

Fic I spent the least time on:

Burning Blue (Karlach/Dammon). I was bitten by a sudden bug of adoration for them, and that piece basically came together in a day and a half because I was on fire to get it out. I LOVE THIS PAIRING SO MUCH. 😭🔥

Favourite thing I wrote: 

Even The Hardiest Desert Blooms has always been my self-indulgent pleasure because I just love Drakka to the moon and back, so focusing a lot of this year on his fic was a treat. But Here Come the Dreams was also an enormously fun project because I just went ham and hyperfocused on it for a month and a half. I really wanted to see if I could finish it in a month just for shits and giggles, but AS ALWAYS it ended up being longer than anticipated so I didn’t meet that goal, but it was still a total ball to come up with a fun little project and finish it as quickly as possible. 

Favourite thing I read: 

Hands-down, without a doubt, What’s A Sex Tape Between Friends?  by @auntie-coagulant. I don’t read much fanfic, and when I do, it's only for the ships that I don't write. So when I saw this fic recommended in the Kotallo server and I was like “Travis/Lis?? You have my attention.” My eyes were popping and I was HOWLING by the first chapter, and I’ve been dead in the water for this fic ever since and procrastinating on finishing the fic because MY EMOTIONS ARE NOT READY FOR THE HEARTBREAK.

Writing goals for next year: 

Finish Coming In Like A Western Wind. I’ve been sleeping on this fic since September because Astarion and Halsin turned my head and I feel really bad about it… but I do mean to finish it! 

Just keep on keeping on with my BG3 fics for Astarion and Halsin! I’ve been DYING to write smut for Halsin for months, and I have images living rent-free in my head of Astarion enjoying some very tender sensate focus, so let’s hope I get around to writing these scenes before I explode. 

**************

Template time!

Words written (published or not, WIPs totally count too!)

Smut scenes written (if applicable)

New things I tried

Fic I spent the most time on

Fic I spent the least time on

Favourite thing I wrote

Favourite thing I read

Writing goals for next year

Enjoy, friends!!! And cheers to another fulfilling year of writing! 🥰🥂

-- love from your friendly neighbourhood Pika! xoxo

#pikapeppa writes #fanfic writer's life #tag meme #horizon forbidden west #hfw #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #kotallo #drakka #astarion #astarion bg3 #halsin #halsin bg3 #kotaloy #aloy/kotallo #aloy x kotallo #aloy/drakka #aloy x drakka #bg3 halsin #bg3 astarion #astarion/tav #astarion x tav #halsin/tav #halsin x tav #karlach/dammon #karlach x dammon #heartforge #dammon bg3 #bg3 dammon #karlach

[slowlivinggirlie]

And They Were Roommates

Aloy/Kotallo Modern! AU

Chapter 6 - Treasure Hunt

#aloy/kotallo #kotallo #horizon zero dawn #ao3 link #ao3 fanfic #ao3 #mowrites

[pride-moth]

Kotallo/Aloy "there's only one bed" pre-relationship for the drabble requests? (I'm basic and I love this trope)

Hell yeah, I love when there's only one bed!!! (But also oops I made it angsty)

Dare To Look (Aloy/Kotallo)

Kotallo steps into Aloy’s quarters with all the confidence and boldness of a fox caught between a Stormbird and a Thunderjaw. His eyes dart around to look at anything that isn’t her. She’s the one who offered him to stay the night, and yet… He doesn’t feel he should be here, with her, in her space. Her personal, private space. “I can simply leave to get the parts needed for the bed right now, I don’t wish to intrude-“ 

Aloy merely looks at him and he swallows. She has this way of looking at people that makes them fall silent in an instant with the understanding that any objection will not be heard. He usually admires it, but he is anything but thrilled to have it cast on himself. “I can see the dark circles through your paint, Kotallo. And I fought a Stormbird and a Thunderjaw today and I ran into two Slitherfangs on the way back, so I’m going to get a good night’s sleep now. You should, too.” 

He nods, tightly, unwilling to refuse, and makes his way to the large carpet in front of her bed. He can’t even sit down on it before she stops him.

“Don’t even think about it. You’re not sleeping on the floor.” 

“I really don’t want to intrude.” 

She gives him a look he doesn’t quite know how to read now, stern but not as serious and with an eyebrow quirked up. He hasn’t seen her use it before, but he nods and sits down on the bed, next to her, as she takes off her armor, revealing a simple tunic underneath. 

He doesn’t dare look at her for too long, for fear she might find it indecent. He turns away to get out of his own armor and can’t help but bitterly smile to himself. It’s her learning the truth that he’s afraid of. That his thoughts so often do turn indecent when he thinks about her and especially when he sees her fight, drenched in sweat and fire in her greenshine eyes.

And she mustn't know. He’d rather remain in this state of minor but persistent agony than have her reject him and look at him with the same pity she regards Erend with sometimes. 

“You can’t intrude when I’ve invited you. Now come lie down.” Her voice is firm but gentle and he is not about to disobey her. Not when she's smiling at him. Not when the dim lights make her hair glow like a cozy campfire in a cold night.

So, he lies down, at as respectful a distance as he can manage in this bed that is, while larger than his own, still evidently made for only one person. Her scent is in his nose, his eyes caught in the intricate braids in her hair, and he wonders how, in the name of the Ten, he is supposed to find any sleep tonight.

#horizon forbidden west #kotaloy #aloy/kotallo #drabble requests #there's only one bed you see #i had an earlier draft where alva tried to keep a pet fox but it peed in a bed #but that seemed a bit silly and also would've taken too long #this is already kind of over drabble length oops #so yeah kotallo's bed is hand-wave broken #also it's about the YEARNING not how we get there #my writing

[flamehairwarrior]

What actually happened in the briefing..

Aloy: “Sylens can fuck off. While Kotallo can fuck me. Understood.”

:3

#MY CRAZY HEAD #SORRY I CANT HELP IT #SORRY NOT SORRY #KOTALLO IS BEST BOY #i love them your honor #aloy x kotallo #kotaloy #aloy/kotallo #horizon forbidden west #sylens #poor sylens #kotallo #aloy #kotallo hfw #aloy hfw #video gif edit

[elialys]

good news: i jumped ahead to the second part of my chapter and wrote 5000 words of pure aloy/kotallo goodness with smut

bad news: i am trying to write the 5000 words that are supposed to come before that and dying at how not successful i am being at writing it

#writing #is so hard #watch me turn this into five paragraphs of pure telling you guys what happens #who cares about show don't tell #and this is why i never ever jump ahead haha #aloy/kotallo #kotallo #aloy #for those wondering when the next update will come #someday *sobs* #thats smutty scene is so full of gentle sin though i wanna share it #on the wings of the ten