#niloynovember23

[thunderjawsandlightning]

Niloy November - Day 30: meme

#cor makes memes #hzd nil #horizon zero dawn #nil #niloynovember #niloynovember23 #nn23 day 30: meme

[chloefraazers]

Niloy November Day 1: Light

Horizon Forbidden West (2022)

#horizon forbidden west #niloy #aloy/nil #niloynovember #niloynovember23 #aloy x nil #hfw aloy #hfw nil #mine*gif #nothing stunning #just some quick 15 minute gifs #now to keep working on focus on the heart

[niloycentral]

Welcome to Niloy November 2023!

We’re glad you want to join the fun in our inaugural year! This is something I hope to generate every November for fans of Aloy x Nil, new and old.

What is it?

Above, you’ll find a table of one prompt per day of November, most of which contain special significance to the relationship between Aloy and Nil. For those participating, simply take the prompt and create something around it for that day.

What can I make?

Whatever you feel most comfortable creating!

If you’re a writer: a drabble, ficlet, even a poem! No word count minimum or maximum, but in the spirit of the event, I recommend no greater than 2500 words.

Artists can do sketches, doodles, fully rendered pieces, comic pages, whatever they are inspired (and have the time) to create.

Gif-makers, virtual photographers, and other types of visual media are also more than welcome to participate and we encourage it!

For prompts that limit gifs and virtual photography, alternates have been provided – though you are welcome to use the alternates for art and/or fic for the given dates, if they inspire you more.

In addition, you are not limited to one form of creation. If one prompt inspires art, another inspires writing, another has the perfect shot from in-game photography, feel free to mix it up!

The only ask is that whatever you create be new for the prompt. However the prompt inspires you, run with it! Some may feel “on the nose,” but those can be fun to explore metaphorically too!

What are the restrictions?

For fic submissions, please use the appropriate submission tags below the text box. All ratings are welcome provided they are properly labelled.

As per Tumblr guidelines, we cannot show any NSFW art or photomodes. If your submission contains NSFW material, please submit a suitable crop preview or censored version that can safely be displayed on Tumblr. The post will also, if possible, have a Mature community content label. This also applies for other types of Mature content.

Can I team up with someone for art or writing for a prompt?

Yes! Fics and art are welcome to inspire each other.

Where do I post?

Wherever you feel comfortable sharing. Fics should be posted on AO3 and you are welcome to share the link on your own social media or in a server. Mostly, I encourage you to submit it directly to the niloycentral tumblr.

If you have a Tumblr: You can submit it directly to niloycentral, or tag your post with either #niloynovember or #niloynovember23 – both will be tracked! You can also @niloycentral.

If you don’t have a Tumblr: You can submit the art or photomode itself directly, or link to your creation on other social media (Twitter, Instagram, AO3, wherever it is hosted) through our niloycentral submissions page using the following format:

Creator: your @(social media) or your alias

Prompt: what day/prompt you have submitted

Plus any applicable tags as per checkboxes below the submission area.

#niloynovember and #niloynovember23 will also be tracked on Twitter, but to make sure we see and catch everything, I encourage submissions to niloycentral Tumblr!

Do I have to do every prompt?

We don’t want anyone to get burnt out or frustrated. Some prompts will inspire more than others and we all have days where we just can’t. You definitely don’t have to do every prompt to be included! Your creation will be featured whether you do all 30, or 19, or 12, or if you even only do 1. You’re more than welcome to continue working on the prompts after November as well.

Do I have to do them in order?

No… but if you do submit to the blog for a prompt from later in the month, we will schedule your submission to post on the proper day (based on EST). Any submissions from previous-day prompts will be posted as usual.

Prompts are being released now, but we ask that you do not post until November 1.

Happy creating!

Prompt list below:

Light

Rain

Fire

OT3 (Alternate: Sharp)

Triumph

Honour

Sun

AU - Historical [pre-2000s] (Alternate: Fly)

Wink

Remorse

Throwback

Cleanse

Partner

AU - Genre [sci-fi, horror, etc.] (Alternate: Mask)

Free space/Your choice

Shadow

Hands

Release

Moon

Coping

Reputation

Joke

Hope

Loss

Steel

Innocence

AU - Modern (Alternate: Mask)

Soft

Ride

Meme

#niloy november #niloynovember #niloynovember23 #hfw #hzd #aloy #nil #niloy #aloy/nil #aloy x nil #hfw fanart #hfw photomode #hfw fanfic #horizon forbidden west #horizon zero dawn

[chloefraazers]

Niloy November day 3: Fire

#horizon forbidden west #art #niloy #mine*art #hfw fanart #aloy/nil #aloy x nil #niloynovember #niloynovember23 #nothin fancy just a doodle #proportions? idk her.

[thunderjawsandlightning]

Niloy November - Day 4: Sharp

There were many things that Nil kept honed to sharp, clear precision, and his blade was only one of them.  

—

He always kept his blade sharp, and his arrowheads sharper. And sometimes, when days had passed and there was yet no sign of her on the roads, Nil would run the arrowheads over and through his fingers as he kept and counted through his quiver; a familiar pattern done almost without thought, the motions done as if they were instinct.  A distraction for his hands as his mind counted the numbers of lookouts and fighters within the bandit camp, as well as the wayside travelers who were unfortunate enough to be caught and kept prisoner within the crumbling walls of old stone and metal. 

There were other things that he had to keep sharp – not just his weapons.  His mind and his body were just as important as the blade in his belt, and the Voice of Our Teeth on his back.  And so, when he could feel the anticipation draw tight in his mind and coil into feeling just behind his sternum, Nil would seek out a nicely secluded area to run drills with his sword – slicing through enemies invisible to the eye but spouting delicate fountains of blood within the theater of his mind.  The drills only did so much to keep his mind sharp; rote forms and military methods of practice that did little to sate the simmering hum in his veins. But it would do, for now.  

Cut.  Block.  Mid-parry.  Downward slash.  Block.  

Slash down, slash up.  Block.  Parry, parry.  Block.  

Moving smoothly from one set of drills to another, Nil thought of the way in which the blood-haired huntress fought.  Stealth-wise, swift upward stabs through the ribs, a knockdown kick and twist with a plunging stab through the heart.  Straight melee, and it was upward swings and parry-slashes to take advantage of her speed and smaller stature.  Truly a sight, to watch her fight; to see the breadth of the skills that had clearly been drummed into her for years.  And as Nil continued moving through one pattern of drills to the next, he found himself altering them, countering for a spear stab here, a slashing cut there.  The sprawl of a bandit camp in the hills behind; he wondered how it would feel, clearing this final camp.  The last of his – their – hunting grounds; the remainder of his quarry extinguished like a final candle flame.  As he made a final upward slash with his sword, he could almost see her across from him, bow poised with an arrow nocked, aimed straight at him.  Nil couldn’t help but utter a short, sharp laugh at the image, equal parts amused and invigorated at the thought.  No, no.  Perhaps a thought to consider after.  Until then, he could be patient, and wait for her arrival. 

#cor writes #horizon zero dawn #hzd #niloy #aloy x nil #niloynovember #niloynovember23 #nn23 day 4: sharp #ok so i headcanon that shattered kiln is always the last camp you complete with nil in hzd #and the fact that he has various lines (both meeting and speaking to him over the course of the bandit camp sidequests and not) #about how much he has thought about the duel with aloy #and how he can clearly see that they've each been sizing up each other's skills over the course of their time fighting side by side #nil has definitely thought about how best to fight aloy if it were to come to that #and yes the scene at the end is a reference to the comic test pages by ann maulina #i couldnt resist

[thunderjawsandlightning]

Niloy November - Day 1: Light

There are flickering lights rippling over the dunes, shifting colours like silk banners in the air.  The lights look ephemeral, transient, almost eerie if not for the delicate structures they outline on half-buried buildings.  Nil pulls up his Charger to a halt atop a sand dune, the mask cocking to the side as he surveys this new sight.  He’d been through the Stillsands not too long ago, maybe a fortnight or so? And the desert had been coloured only with spiraling dust devils and the red-and-green markers of Rebel camps that he’d taken care to avoid.  But now, the desert was alight, and Nil couldn’t resist the curiosity that tugged from behind his sternum to investigate closer.  The light in the sky reminded him of Aloy, of the machine-light she often seemed shrouded in.  The largest, most lingering memory was the explosion of blue at the top of the Spire, him and the old general surrounded by sparking demon-machines and flames, faces turned upward and his body thrumming with the knowledge that she would have been at its epicenter.  The quieter, more constant memory was of her, on the road, backlit by the placid blue light emanating from her mount.  

He ran a hand along the glowing blue wires, giving his Charger a pat before urging her forward.  The machine gave a subtle chitter, an accompanying flicker of her lights as she turned her head as if in acknowledgement, and Nil chuckled to himself.  First, it was back East, and now here in the ever-dangerous West, that seeing humans astride machines was becoming an ever more common sight.  Although, nothing would quite pique his interest the way Aloy had that one day, thundering up to the bandit camp among the Gatelands on the back of a Strider.  She had left her machine a ways back on the road, behind the rocks – a smart move, given that a lone grazing machine would have looked out of place so close to a camp.  

To see someone riding a machine felt like something out of a story, more like the fireside tales of his childhood, or one of the lurid fables of Considerate Udain. The time it took for her to approach his waiting spot allowed him the breadth of feelings from a mild awe and shock, to an impressed appreciation, to a quietly burning curiosity that he let simmer to embers in his mind.  That same wash of feelings came surging through Nil’s chest now as he dismounted and walked forward in wonder.  The apparitions shimmering and flickering overhead felt so much like something Aloy would have walked through, something she would have been drawn to, or drawn forth from the depths of the sand like water from a well.  

And among honeycomb-patterned metal and glass, under beautiful, ghostly, scintillating lights, already seeing a path of twists and turns through stone and over sand, Nil thought, ‘The perfect place for a different kind of duel.” 

#cor writes #niloy #niloynovember #aloy x nil #horizon forbidden west #hfw #niloynovember23 #nn23 day 1: light #yes i'm posting these way out of order but whatever #have some nil introspection #i will never get tired of writing about Vegas and the Stillsands

[chloefraazers]

Niloy November Day 9: Wink

Horizon Forbidden West (2022)

#horizon forbidden west #hfwedit #hfw nil #niloy #aloy/nil #aloy x nil #mine*gif #niloy november #niloynovember #niloynovember23 #i've made like 8 fuckin different gifs of this stupid wink i love it so much

[thunderjawsandlightning]

Niloy November - Day 3: Fire

"Not my first firestorm", he'd told her, amidst the flaming buildings of Meridian Village and the Royal Maizelands. Behind him, the fire was raging – thatched-roof buildings going up in a crackle, upright timbers shivering beneath the roar of the flames, spitting embers that were crushed underfoot by both devil-machines and men.  Aloy gave pause for a moment, letting loose an arrow into the breast of the Longleg, before Nil stabbed into its wing-vents, downing the machine.  Shouting at her to go on ahead, to the path that called her further forward– and then she was gone, her hair whipping behind her, a wave of red disappearing into the fire.  The inferno was almost a beast unto itself, the heat whipping up gusts of air that prickled Nil’s skin and searing his eyelids as his eyes whipped around the battlefield, ever alert for a new enemy.  

The last time he'd been in a blaze this fierce, the sky had been choked black with smoke; the air filled with screams and war-cries of Nora Braves, and the clattering crash of a Carja gong and the sonorous call of a war-horn to signal maneuvers to the soldiers rushing down into the fray.  As the tall grasses and the triangle-shaped huts burnt in such a fury that made even the rocks ripple in waves, Nil could vaguely recall standing at the base of the ridge, the heat wafting up and licking across his face and snaking over his armour.  It was his first time in foreign lands, and the excitement and fervor of the skirmish began to take hold in his body.  The blood pounding in his ears, so loud it seemed to drown out the roar of the fires; a keening cry in his veins to stab-slash-parry-cut as Nora warriors emerged from the smoke with clubs and spears upraised.  

And after, in the calm and the quiet, Nil wiped his sword clean, seeing his own blood-spattered reflection in the blade.  As he stared at his own steely-eyed reflection, he became aware of a sound, reaching past the slowing, thundering tempo of his racing heart.  A ringing in his ears that would not stop, nor could the shivers that now washed over him quell the fire in his veins.  More, his body seemed to whisper to him.  More.

#cor writes #niloynovember #aloy x nil #niloy #hzd nil #niloynovember23 #nn23 day 3: fire #i originally had in mind that “fire” was going to be the raids in the west #of the burning of the utaru fields and tenakth in a display of carja power and might and intimidation and fear #but there's something poignant about the fact that the first place nil chooses to go on his journey of atonement is east into nora lands #plus i was struck with inspiration about the forsaken village #and lo an behold it's the closest settlement to daytower #so reasonably the first of the nora settlements to be hit at the start of the red raids #anyways i digress #nil backstory speculation will always make me write angst because of course it will

[thunderjawsandlightning]

Niloy November - Day 2: Rain

It was raining on the day he met her, Nil recalls. It's raining again — another day, another camp filled with bandits, another meeting of this huntress with hair like blood and a fierceness in her eyes that belies her youth. The blood they shed today will mix with the rain, the gentle waters washing away the evidence of their violent actions.

A shame, really. There is some quiet enjoyment to walking through the camp again when it is emptied of the spoil and rot it was once infested with, reliving the subtle thrill of the hunt, of a blade parried there, or an arrow shot returned here. No matter. As the huntress said before, you can only kill once. To relive it is but a little death, no chance to savour it truly but in the moment. 

Savouring the taste of blood and battle though– the cold of the rain is but a contrasting sensation to the burning in his veins; a carefully honed precision to cut through what would soon be washed away.  It’s a small rebirth: like plants flourishing from the water; like a wound rinsed clean; a camp cleared of rot and scum.  He turns his face skyward, letting the chill drops run down his face: like tears; like a waterfall; like blood seeping from his temple – It was raining on the day he fought here, Nil recalls.  And it’s raining again – another day, another camp filled with bandits, another meeting with this huntress with the blood-red hair. 

#cor writes #niloy #aloy x nil #hzd nil #horizon zero dawn #hzd #niloynovember #niloynovember23 #nn23 day 2: rain

[chloefraazers]

Niloy November Day 2: Rain

It rained like this every time Nil’s life changed course.

Read it on AO3.

#horizon forbidden west #niloy #niloynovember #niloynovember23 #aloy/nil #aloy x nil #teeny tiny ficlet #not beta read #slapped down like a unseasoned chicken tiddy