SI-Me dies an old man, then finds himself in the Focus of Aloy Sobek. Faced with the rest of his life with the curious girl, he adapts.
Machina, Ut Animalis [H:ZD SI]
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Chapter 1: A Gift from the Past, Plus One.
StrangerDanger51
Novice Writer
- Location
- New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Animal: an English word derived from the Latin Animalis, which means 'Having Breath or Soul.' It's a very broad term. Many things draw breath yet are not seen as 'animals.' There are many things that do not breathe yet are still alive. Coral, for example, is a colonial organism made of living cells that grows so slowly that people mistake it for rock.
I was once a human—an Animal. I breathed, I lived, I loved, I lost, and I died. I assume I had a soul, at least.
Either way, I am a human no longer. It's not exactly hard to accept. My death was slow, wasting away in a hospital bed. Not from sickness or infection. It was much simpler than that. I died of old age, my body breaking down as it ran out of the cells it needed to fix itself. This slow death gave me a lot of time to come to terms with it. In the end, I felt I could have done more. I had a large family, cousins, parents, aunts and uncles. A brother. Never married, though. I wanted to, but... It didn't work out. We were just too different.
I always did want kids, though. I had a fantasy throughout my life, which I found myself returning to. Me, lying on my deathbed, surrounded by my children, grandchildren... heck, great-grandchildren even.
As I lay alone on my hospital bed, I sighed and closed my eyes.
I passed from the world, full of regret.
Would you like a chance to fix that?
My next moment of consciousness began in a dark place—total blackout darkness. I couldn't feel anything, either. There was no sense of touch, smell, sight, hearing, or taste—just uniform, total blackness—the void. Was this the afterlife? Was I doomed to ponder the regrets and mistakes I made for eternity? Bummer. I was hoping for reincarnation. Even hell would be better than this. At least there, you could tell others suffered alongside you.
So it was. I didn't know how long I was there, only that I had no measure to judge time. I mentally shouted into the black; I pleaded, cried, grieved, bargained...
Eventually, though, all things end. With the sensation of a warm smile, I felt a push, and then I fell.
My world exploded into color, and sound reached my mind. I was in a cave, a shaft of light illuminating stalagmites and stalactites. Mosses and lichen covered the ground, surrounding the body in the middle of the cave. It wasn't my body, oh no. This one was very, very dead. Mummified, long wasted away, and on its way to fossilization. What interested me most was the small metal triangle on the body's temple.
As soon as I saw it, I instinctively knew that that was me—or at least, the thing I was in. It looks vaguely familiar, but I'd forgotten more than my fair share of things over the years. A part of me mourns the loss of my humanity, but other parts are intrigued. Am I some kind of AI? Or, no... not an AI. That implies I was made. Silicon-based Lifeform? No...
A noise beyond water dripping and faint rumbling pulled me from my musings. It was a shout, echoing enough to be almost unintelligible. Eventually, a little girl came into view from further into the cave. Her auburn hair was held up by a blue band, and she was dressed in crude tan and blue cloth. She paused, gasping at the body.
"A dead person!" The girl didn't stand there staring for long and continued towards me. She walked cautiously, but she was obviously too curious to resist.
"There's something shiny there," she said, stating the obvious to empty air. Eh, couldn't blame her. I'd talked to myself too many times to judge in my life. Wait. Shiny? Did she mean me? She knelt down, staring right at me. She slowly reached forward, then pulled me off the body quickly, letting out a frightened gasp as it shifted. When it didn't move further, she brought me up to her face. Glancing back at the skull she pulled me from, she reached around and brought me to her own temple.
When I got close, it was almost like I was magnetic. My casing jumped to the girl's temple and stuck there. Joy filled me as I began to feel something happening. Before anything could really happen, though, she immediately ripped me off and threw me away in surprise.
I was almost struck dumb at the loss of sensation so soon after gaining it. It was... Disorientating. The girl's curiosity seemed boundless, however. She returned to my casing and stared at me as I lay in her hand. Now, expecting something to happen, she put me on, and my world burst into sensation again. A purple orb of lines surrounded us as I felt what could only be a computer system booting up. Passive signals were sent out, connecting with nearby devices and activating them. Holograms flickered around the room, lighting up desks, workstations, and more.
"Lights... Everywhere..." the girl said with wonder. Wait, she could see this, too? Oh, my casing has a neural interface. That means she can interact with the holograms through the Focus. Focus. That seems to be the name for this thing I'm in. Maybe I could use the code and systems now that I knew about them? I shifted through the return signals and messages, identifying what was around us.
"How does it do this?" The girl asked. Hey, don't ask me, kid. I'm just figuring that out myself.
Some more systems activated, one that seems to be pulling data from her mind as she thinks it. She spent some time looking around the room, poking the purple holograms and trying to read them. 'What does this do? What is this?' Etcetera, Etcetera. Those were her actual thoughts, by the way. Probably the Neural Interface.
Coincidentally, her poking them put the connection to that device into a more 'active' state, giving me access to the data within. Unfortunately, it's all wholly corrupted and meaningless. So your answer is nothing, girl.
Not anymore.
Curiosity sated, seeing as nothing she did provoked a reaction, she looked around one last time.
'I need to get out of here, Rost will be looking for me!' The program extrapolates her goal and spins up a task list. Another program takes the task and runs a mapping program. 'I can't get back up the way I came... Guess I have to keep going this way.' A pulse of radar, lidar, and other waves burst out, scanning the surroundings to provide a basic map of the environment, and process of elimination provided the way forward. A yellow square blinks into existence with a helpful chime, hovering in the open doorway. She noticed it immediately and perked up, running up the staircase to it.
As we got close, passive scans provided a more detailed view of the next room, and the objective marker blinked to the next doorway. Which was a door. By the red circle in the middle and the data the door was providing, it's locked. New objective: Scan the room. Even this thing knows we're not getting through that with brute force.
"A Metal Door. Closed," the girl stated aloud. "Maybe this device I found can help?" She thought the words as she said them, which triggered the move into 'Active Scan' mode. A whole new series of programs spun up. Infrared, sonic, and many other probing scanners scanned the surroundings, providing the raw data on everything around us. The door is metal, yes. An alloy. Some kind of Steel-Aluminium. All the data is gathered and compiled into a simple, short description.
It was packaged into a hologram that appeared before the girl to her right, like a heads-up display. Her eyes slid over the text, uncomprehending. Could she not read? Oh, this poor child. She spent some time pushing at the door and trying to do something with the red hologram, but it accomplished nothing.
"How do I get it open?" she asked, frustration evident. Another use of Active Scan revealed wires in the walls leading to the room next to this one, along with... an analogue-method digital lock? The system updates the objective marker, which the girl immediately notices. She turns and follows it, leading around the previous room to a side door. It's empty of all but some holograms, though there is a rather large hole in the wall.
Another room, another set of useless electronics suitable only for a light show. However... there was something else. A box on the wall overlaid with a circle. The -45 to 45-degree quadrant was red, and the rest was blue. This time, the girl activates the Active Scan wordlessly.
Once again, the words meant nothing to her, but her eyes traced the purple wires leading from the lock back to the door. Before that, though, something else caught her attention. A large rectangular device was up against another wall. Another holographic ring was displayed prominently, with the red section pointing down while the rest was blue. Above it, the word FARO is shown in white text.
FARO.
The architecture, the state of this place, this device I'm stuck in... Even the girl. All of it gave me a massive case of deja vu. But... How? I was almost a hundred percent sure nothing like this existed in my old life.
So where the fuck was I?
This... Why make a locked door, link its opening condition to an encoded box that requires manual usage, and then leave the code displayed in the same room? Anyone who walked in equipped with a focus could use it...
But that was the point, I was coming to realize.
It was to keep digital entities from navigating this place. Robots wouldn't have an organic brain and couldn't use a focus, so they couldn't interact with the Holo Lock. This civilization... It was in a war against a robotic or digital enemy. Given the human girl I'm attached to, her behavior, and the primitive clothes she wore, humanity took a running jump down the technological escalator. The visible signs of age in this place implied we were thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years after an apocalyptic event.
While my psyche was running in circles, the girl turned the holographic lock 180 degrees, unlocking the door and turning the lock's ring green. Exploration and curiosity followed. By the time I began to pay attention to the world around me again, she'd found another dead body, this one resting on a stone poking out of the ground.
"It's got a device like the one I found." Oh, so it does. Active Scan on the Focus made a connection. This focus was very severely damaged and almost completely corrupted. A single file remained, though it was still missing parts. It was a message. A holographic record? Retrieving the file, my body, the Focus, began playing it automatically. Audio began, followed by a purple hologram of a man messing with a camera.
"You think I want it this way? It's the best I can do, he's right behind you." The man is on his knees, looking forward. "Hi!" he exclaimed, raising a hand. The girl turned, looking for someone behind her. Nothing there, she turned back around.
"Happy Birthday, Isaac. Daddy sure does love his little big man." A birthday message to his son? He must not have been able to leave here for some reason. Security reasons? He reached sideways and pulled a party hat from offscreen. He put it on his head and continued. "Look, Daddy can't be there with you and Mom, but we can still have a party, right? Sure we can." He blows a noisemaker and laughs, trailing off and then pausing entirely. The message doesn't end there, but the rest is corrupted. The girl is smiling.
"Show me... Show me again!" What follows is an obviously love-deprived girl interacting with something giving her attention. Even if it's not directed at her. It's actually quite sad. Helpfully for me, this exposed the section of code which controlled audio output. Step 1, Complete. Step 2 is figuring out HOW to talk through it. The girl repeated part of the message to herself once it finished, then walked further into the ruins with a big smile. A few side rooms were empty of anything but broken interfaces. Soon, we come upon a half-open door. The girl squeezed through the gap, though the act closed the door further.
Some exploration revealed actual, working audio logs. They talked a bit about life in this facility. One by Connor Chasson mentioned a ghoulish New Year's party. Another unknown man raved about Dr. Chana handing out meds for people who didn't want to... continue. The audio ended with a gun being fired. Up a flight of stairs, we entered a room full of beds with the bodies still in them, fossilized.
"Why did they die here?" She asked, confused. "What happened to them?" Kid, you probably wouldn't understand if I told you.
A few of them had audio logs. Connor Chasson again, raving about the director of the facility. Skylar Rivera talking about her regrets in life. Mia Sayied, reciting some rather dark poetry. Ella Pontes, leaving a final message to a lover. Jackson Fyre, praying. It's likely most of these logs were made soon after injecting themselves with the meds.
As the final message trailed off and we left the room, we heard a male voice began shouting.
"Aloy! Aloy, are you down there! Aloy!" Aloy? Okay, that name doesn't just ring a bell, the whole goddamn church is ringing. This entire place has had my mind ringing like Santa's sleigh.
"He found me! Rost found me!" Aloy said to herself, relieved.
"Down Here!" She shouted down the passage, "I'm coming! I'm coming!" She began running towards the shaft of light, which the objective marker kindly pointed out as the exit. When she got to the light, a man who could only be Rost spotted her immediately.
"Aloy! Aloy!" He cried. "All-Mother be praised! Come girl, take my hand." The man reached down. He was pretty large, build-wise. Leather armor, with strange white plates sewn to his right shoulder pad and blue face paint around his right eye. His Viking-worthy long brown beard hung in a tight braid from a kind face. His bow peeked over the back of his left shoulder, as did a spear with the tip the same white material as his armor. When Aloy turned around to look at the ruin, he spoke up.
"You don't belong down there," He insisted. "Come!" She took his hand, and he pulled her out with one arm, placing her on the ground beside him. She looked around but turned to face him when he knelt down. "Such places are forbidden, Aloy," Rost stated.
"I fell in!" Aloy insisted, looking down suddenly.
"They are of the Metal World—" he paused, his eyes catching sight of my casing. "What is that on your face?" he asked, pointing at me.
She raises a hand to cover it. "Nothing," she said immediately, in that tone all kids use when they pretend to not know anything about what they did.
"Did you find it down there?" Rost asked. Aloy nodded silently. "Give it to me," Rost demanded. Aloy shook her head. He reached up to take it, but she moved back.
"No," She stated, determined.
"Aloy, such things are dangerous!" Rost continued, insisting righteously as he stood and made another grab.
"No!" Aloy shouted, turning and walking away slightly. Rost looked conflicted, then turned away with a quick breath. Most likely bemoaning stubborn children. A few more seconds passed before Rost gave in.
"Well, if you're going to go sneaking away from home, you're going to need to know how to survive in the wild." Rost made probably the most sensible decision I have seen anybody make about a curious child. Give her a way to direct her energy without rebelling against a father who punishes her. Then again, she doesn't look much like Rost. They share almost nothing but their pale skin. Perhaps she takes after her mother
"Come, Aloy! Home now," Rost said, turning away. Using his spear as a staff, he began walking. "But, starting tomorrow, you will learn to Hunt." Aloy followed quickly, looking excited.
I had other concerns. Everything I'd seen was so familiar to me for some reason. It wasn't until we passed by some of them that I understood. When Rost said Hunt, he didn't mean animals. He meant the Machines—the Watchers, Striders, and Scrappers—the three machines that inhabit the Embrace, the Homeland of the Nora Tribe. It is roughly a thousand years Post-Apocalypse. I am on the temple of the clone of Elizabet Sobek, the reason life survives on Earth.
And I... am a long way from home.
AN: After many years, I've revisited this story. First chapter is mostly unchanged, but for editing and changing it to past-tense.
I was once a human—an Animal. I breathed, I lived, I loved, I lost, and I died. I assume I had a soul, at least.
Either way, I am a human no longer. It's not exactly hard to accept. My death was slow, wasting away in a hospital bed. Not from sickness or infection. It was much simpler than that. I died of old age, my body breaking down as it ran out of the cells it needed to fix itself. This slow death gave me a lot of time to come to terms with it. In the end, I felt I could have done more. I had a large family, cousins, parents, aunts and uncles. A brother. Never married, though. I wanted to, but... It didn't work out. We were just too different.
I always did want kids, though. I had a fantasy throughout my life, which I found myself returning to. Me, lying on my deathbed, surrounded by my children, grandchildren... heck, great-grandchildren even.
As I lay alone on my hospital bed, I sighed and closed my eyes.
I passed from the world, full of regret.
Would you like a chance to fix that?
-=MUA=-
My next moment of consciousness began in a dark place—total blackout darkness. I couldn't feel anything, either. There was no sense of touch, smell, sight, hearing, or taste—just uniform, total blackness—the void. Was this the afterlife? Was I doomed to ponder the regrets and mistakes I made for eternity? Bummer. I was hoping for reincarnation. Even hell would be better than this. At least there, you could tell others suffered alongside you.
So it was. I didn't know how long I was there, only that I had no measure to judge time. I mentally shouted into the black; I pleaded, cried, grieved, bargained...
Eventually, though, all things end. With the sensation of a warm smile, I felt a push, and then I fell.
My world exploded into color, and sound reached my mind. I was in a cave, a shaft of light illuminating stalagmites and stalactites. Mosses and lichen covered the ground, surrounding the body in the middle of the cave. It wasn't my body, oh no. This one was very, very dead. Mummified, long wasted away, and on its way to fossilization. What interested me most was the small metal triangle on the body's temple.
As soon as I saw it, I instinctively knew that that was me—or at least, the thing I was in. It looks vaguely familiar, but I'd forgotten more than my fair share of things over the years. A part of me mourns the loss of my humanity, but other parts are intrigued. Am I some kind of AI? Or, no... not an AI. That implies I was made. Silicon-based Lifeform? No...
A noise beyond water dripping and faint rumbling pulled me from my musings. It was a shout, echoing enough to be almost unintelligible. Eventually, a little girl came into view from further into the cave. Her auburn hair was held up by a blue band, and she was dressed in crude tan and blue cloth. She paused, gasping at the body.
"A dead person!" The girl didn't stand there staring for long and continued towards me. She walked cautiously, but she was obviously too curious to resist.
"There's something shiny there," she said, stating the obvious to empty air. Eh, couldn't blame her. I'd talked to myself too many times to judge in my life. Wait. Shiny? Did she mean me? She knelt down, staring right at me. She slowly reached forward, then pulled me off the body quickly, letting out a frightened gasp as it shifted. When it didn't move further, she brought me up to her face. Glancing back at the skull she pulled me from, she reached around and brought me to her own temple.
When I got close, it was almost like I was magnetic. My casing jumped to the girl's temple and stuck there. Joy filled me as I began to feel something happening. Before anything could really happen, though, she immediately ripped me off and threw me away in surprise.
I was almost struck dumb at the loss of sensation so soon after gaining it. It was... Disorientating. The girl's curiosity seemed boundless, however. She returned to my casing and stared at me as I lay in her hand. Now, expecting something to happen, she put me on, and my world burst into sensation again. A purple orb of lines surrounded us as I felt what could only be a computer system booting up. Passive signals were sent out, connecting with nearby devices and activating them. Holograms flickered around the room, lighting up desks, workstations, and more.
"Lights... Everywhere..." the girl said with wonder. Wait, she could see this, too? Oh, my casing has a neural interface. That means she can interact with the holograms through the Focus. Focus. That seems to be the name for this thing I'm in. Maybe I could use the code and systems now that I knew about them? I shifted through the return signals and messages, identifying what was around us.
"How does it do this?" The girl asked. Hey, don't ask me, kid. I'm just figuring that out myself.
Some more systems activated, one that seems to be pulling data from her mind as she thinks it. She spent some time looking around the room, poking the purple holograms and trying to read them. 'What does this do? What is this?' Etcetera, Etcetera. Those were her actual thoughts, by the way. Probably the Neural Interface.
Coincidentally, her poking them put the connection to that device into a more 'active' state, giving me access to the data within. Unfortunately, it's all wholly corrupted and meaningless. So your answer is nothing, girl.
Not anymore.
Curiosity sated, seeing as nothing she did provoked a reaction, she looked around one last time.
'I need to get out of here, Rost will be looking for me!' The program extrapolates her goal and spins up a task list. Another program takes the task and runs a mapping program. 'I can't get back up the way I came... Guess I have to keep going this way.' A pulse of radar, lidar, and other waves burst out, scanning the surroundings to provide a basic map of the environment, and process of elimination provided the way forward. A yellow square blinks into existence with a helpful chime, hovering in the open doorway. She noticed it immediately and perked up, running up the staircase to it.
As we got close, passive scans provided a more detailed view of the next room, and the objective marker blinked to the next doorway. Which was a door. By the red circle in the middle and the data the door was providing, it's locked. New objective: Scan the room. Even this thing knows we're not getting through that with brute force.
"A Metal Door. Closed," the girl stated aloud. "Maybe this device I found can help?" She thought the words as she said them, which triggered the move into 'Active Scan' mode. A whole new series of programs spun up. Infrared, sonic, and many other probing scanners scanned the surroundings, providing the raw data on everything around us. The door is metal, yes. An alloy. Some kind of Steel-Aluminium. All the data is gathered and compiled into a simple, short description.
[Bunker Door]
[Blast Door. Heavily Shielded. Seal Integrity Maintained.]
[Blast Door. Heavily Shielded. Seal Integrity Maintained.]
It was packaged into a hologram that appeared before the girl to her right, like a heads-up display. Her eyes slid over the text, uncomprehending. Could she not read? Oh, this poor child. She spent some time pushing at the door and trying to do something with the red hologram, but it accomplished nothing.
"How do I get it open?" she asked, frustration evident. Another use of Active Scan revealed wires in the walls leading to the room next to this one, along with... an analogue-method digital lock? The system updates the objective marker, which the girl immediately notices. She turns and follows it, leading around the previous room to a side door. It's empty of all but some holograms, though there is a rather large hole in the wall.
Another room, another set of useless electronics suitable only for a light show. However... there was something else. A box on the wall overlaid with a circle. The -45 to 45-degree quadrant was red, and the rest was blue. This time, the girl activates the Active Scan wordlessly.
[Holo Lock]
[Electromagnetic Security mechanism with standard holographic UI.]
[Interface Unavailable.]
[Electromagnetic Security mechanism with standard holographic UI.]
[Interface Unavailable.]
Once again, the words meant nothing to her, but her eyes traced the purple wires leading from the lock back to the door. Before that, though, something else caught her attention. A large rectangular device was up against another wall. Another holographic ring was displayed prominently, with the red section pointing down while the rest was blue. Above it, the word FARO is shown in white text.
FARO.
The architecture, the state of this place, this device I'm stuck in... Even the girl. All of it gave me a massive case of deja vu. But... How? I was almost a hundred percent sure nothing like this existed in my old life.
So where the fuck was I?
[Code Nexus]
[Secure Encryption Port with Holographic Display.]
[Data shows the required settings for the nearby Holo Lock.]
[Secure Encryption Port with Holographic Display.]
[Data shows the required settings for the nearby Holo Lock.]
This... Why make a locked door, link its opening condition to an encoded box that requires manual usage, and then leave the code displayed in the same room? Anyone who walked in equipped with a focus could use it...
But that was the point, I was coming to realize.
It was to keep digital entities from navigating this place. Robots wouldn't have an organic brain and couldn't use a focus, so they couldn't interact with the Holo Lock. This civilization... It was in a war against a robotic or digital enemy. Given the human girl I'm attached to, her behavior, and the primitive clothes she wore, humanity took a running jump down the technological escalator. The visible signs of age in this place implied we were thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years after an apocalyptic event.
While my psyche was running in circles, the girl turned the holographic lock 180 degrees, unlocking the door and turning the lock's ring green. Exploration and curiosity followed. By the time I began to pay attention to the world around me again, she'd found another dead body, this one resting on a stone poking out of the ground.
"It's got a device like the one I found." Oh, so it does. Active Scan on the Focus made a connection. This focus was very severely damaged and almost completely corrupted. A single file remained, though it was still missing parts. It was a message. A holographic record? Retrieving the file, my body, the Focus, began playing it automatically. Audio began, followed by a purple hologram of a man messing with a camera.
"You think I want it this way? It's the best I can do, he's right behind you." The man is on his knees, looking forward. "Hi!" he exclaimed, raising a hand. The girl turned, looking for someone behind her. Nothing there, she turned back around.
"Happy Birthday, Isaac. Daddy sure does love his little big man." A birthday message to his son? He must not have been able to leave here for some reason. Security reasons? He reached sideways and pulled a party hat from offscreen. He put it on his head and continued. "Look, Daddy can't be there with you and Mom, but we can still have a party, right? Sure we can." He blows a noisemaker and laughs, trailing off and then pausing entirely. The message doesn't end there, but the rest is corrupted. The girl is smiling.
"Show me... Show me again!" What follows is an obviously love-deprived girl interacting with something giving her attention. Even if it's not directed at her. It's actually quite sad. Helpfully for me, this exposed the section of code which controlled audio output. Step 1, Complete. Step 2 is figuring out HOW to talk through it. The girl repeated part of the message to herself once it finished, then walked further into the ruins with a big smile. A few side rooms were empty of anything but broken interfaces. Soon, we come upon a half-open door. The girl squeezed through the gap, though the act closed the door further.
Some exploration revealed actual, working audio logs. They talked a bit about life in this facility. One by Connor Chasson mentioned a ghoulish New Year's party. Another unknown man raved about Dr. Chana handing out meds for people who didn't want to... continue. The audio ended with a gun being fired. Up a flight of stairs, we entered a room full of beds with the bodies still in them, fossilized.
"Why did they die here?" She asked, confused. "What happened to them?" Kid, you probably wouldn't understand if I told you.
A few of them had audio logs. Connor Chasson again, raving about the director of the facility. Skylar Rivera talking about her regrets in life. Mia Sayied, reciting some rather dark poetry. Ella Pontes, leaving a final message to a lover. Jackson Fyre, praying. It's likely most of these logs were made soon after injecting themselves with the meds.
As the final message trailed off and we left the room, we heard a male voice began shouting.
"Aloy! Aloy, are you down there! Aloy!" Aloy? Okay, that name doesn't just ring a bell, the whole goddamn church is ringing. This entire place has had my mind ringing like Santa's sleigh.
"He found me! Rost found me!" Aloy said to herself, relieved.
"Down Here!" She shouted down the passage, "I'm coming! I'm coming!" She began running towards the shaft of light, which the objective marker kindly pointed out as the exit. When she got to the light, a man who could only be Rost spotted her immediately.
"Aloy! Aloy!" He cried. "All-Mother be praised! Come girl, take my hand." The man reached down. He was pretty large, build-wise. Leather armor, with strange white plates sewn to his right shoulder pad and blue face paint around his right eye. His Viking-worthy long brown beard hung in a tight braid from a kind face. His bow peeked over the back of his left shoulder, as did a spear with the tip the same white material as his armor. When Aloy turned around to look at the ruin, he spoke up.
"You don't belong down there," He insisted. "Come!" She took his hand, and he pulled her out with one arm, placing her on the ground beside him. She looked around but turned to face him when he knelt down. "Such places are forbidden, Aloy," Rost stated.
"I fell in!" Aloy insisted, looking down suddenly.
"They are of the Metal World—" he paused, his eyes catching sight of my casing. "What is that on your face?" he asked, pointing at me.
She raises a hand to cover it. "Nothing," she said immediately, in that tone all kids use when they pretend to not know anything about what they did.
"Did you find it down there?" Rost asked. Aloy nodded silently. "Give it to me," Rost demanded. Aloy shook her head. He reached up to take it, but she moved back.
"No," She stated, determined.
"Aloy, such things are dangerous!" Rost continued, insisting righteously as he stood and made another grab.
"No!" Aloy shouted, turning and walking away slightly. Rost looked conflicted, then turned away with a quick breath. Most likely bemoaning stubborn children. A few more seconds passed before Rost gave in.
"Well, if you're going to go sneaking away from home, you're going to need to know how to survive in the wild." Rost made probably the most sensible decision I have seen anybody make about a curious child. Give her a way to direct her energy without rebelling against a father who punishes her. Then again, she doesn't look much like Rost. They share almost nothing but their pale skin. Perhaps she takes after her mother
"Come, Aloy! Home now," Rost said, turning away. Using his spear as a staff, he began walking. "But, starting tomorrow, you will learn to Hunt." Aloy followed quickly, looking excited.
I had other concerns. Everything I'd seen was so familiar to me for some reason. It wasn't until we passed by some of them that I understood. When Rost said Hunt, he didn't mean animals. He meant the Machines—the Watchers, Striders, and Scrappers—the three machines that inhabit the Embrace, the Homeland of the Nora Tribe. It is roughly a thousand years Post-Apocalypse. I am on the temple of the clone of Elizabet Sobek, the reason life survives on Earth.
And I... am a long way from home.
-=MUA=-
AN: After many years, I've revisited this story. First chapter is mostly unchanged, but for editing and changing it to past-tense.
Last edited:
StrangerDanger51
Novice Writer
- Location
- New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Neither do I. The FFN category is tiny, and nothing in it interested me. So, I had an idea, and decided to run with it.
To clarify, I haven't planned out more than the bare bones of a plot. I'm not just gonna copy the game word for word, though. It was necessary for this part to introduce the main characters, but the majority of the time, I won't.
Travisplo
The Necromonsieur
I always had wanted kids, though.
Doomed to ponder the regrets and mistakes I made in life for eternity?
I mentally shouted into the black, I pleaded, cried, grieved, bargained...
As soon as I see it, I instinctively know that's me.
Not AI, that implies I was made.
When I get close, it's almost magnetic.
Before anything can happen, however, she immediately rips me off and throws me away in surprise.
A purple orb of lines surrounds us, as I feel systems booting up.
Oh, a neural interface.
'I need to get out of here, Rost will be looking for me!'
Probably should have those around there, to show off its not your SI thinking.
'I can't get back up the way I came... Guess I have to keep going this way.'
It's the best I can do, he's right behind you.
What happened to them?
Down here!
He's quite large, build-wise.
Then again, she doesn't look much like Rost.
It's not till I pass some with(?) them, do I understand. (???)
Not sure about this one. But, I tried to make some sense of it.
But yeah, I haven't seen much Horizon stuff, which is honestly surprising, considering how, well, amazing it is, world wise and all. About the only one of any real length I've seen is a Quest on fiction.live. I'll definitely be watching this, and waiting to see how Aloy reacts to having an Ancient on her temple.
StrangerDanger51
Novice Writer
- Location
- New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Thanks for the corrections. And I know, right? The world is incredible, the lore is detailed and intricate, showing all aspects of their society in such a way that you have to go find it, rather than just reading a wiki.
Aloy's gonna freak. Thankfully, them actually interacting is a ways off. SI is patient, and will want to actually talk to her.
- Pronouns
- Epic
Huh haven't really seen any horizon SI, but so far I like the concept, question do you plan on having him be stuck with Aloy or will he "posess" some Machines and eventually make his body because if so he should totally make some of these guys if he gets control of a production facility
And I could honestly see them in game I mean their not too visually different looking from some other robots
And I could honestly see them in game I mean their not too visually different looking from some other robots
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StrangerDanger51
Novice Writer
- Location
- New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
While Mecha Zerg would be cool, that would require my SI to somehow hack into a Crucible, design a new robot from scratch, somehow figure out the controls and use them, all while navigating code and system made by AI. Sure, the base code was made by humans, but I dont know the extent Hephestus copied human coding practices.
On the 'possession' point, doesnt aloy interface with machines all the time? It would require a connection. To her focus. You see where I'm going with this?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Might want to put dialogue coming from recordings/focuses/machines in italics because it being next to regular text makes it a little jarring.
- Location
- sweden
Hmmm... Yes.
Yes, I do think I'm quite hooked on this.
You have my permission to continue.
Yes, I do think I'm quite hooked on this.
You have my permission to continue.
- Location
- Australia
I Want More Please This Is Amazing.
I like it. The SI has been too passive, though.
One idea is to gain more points with Aloy by suggesting conversation dialogue (especially, but not necessarily, in tense situations), then suggesting conversational practice for her to be better able to think on her feet... until talking to you becomes second nature.
One idea is to gain more points with Aloy by suggesting conversation dialogue (especially, but not necessarily, in tense situations), then suggesting conversational practice for her to be better able to think on her feet... until talking to you becomes second nature.
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StrangerDanger51
Novice Writer
- Location
- New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I like the idea, but remember that the SI can't exactly interact with much yet. Patience. It's not far off.
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Passive? Dude relax it's been one chapter so far let the guy have a freak out about being reduced to jewelry, then at some point come to terms with the idea that a viral nanoswarm could end him, not to mention those superstitious folk thinking Aloy is possessed if she talks about the voice in her head. Let alone him figuring out the new body.
Speaking of which, StrangerDanger (awesome name consider this small child just picked up someone she doesn't know in this creepy cursed cave) feel free to ignore if this is a spoiler but do plan to do the Bumblebee thing with different voices if/when he figures out his Record, Cut, & Paste options? At least before he figures out how to do his own voice?
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Chapter 2: Lessons of the Wild
StrangerDanger51
Novice Writer
- Location
- New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The following day found Aloy awake at the crack of dawn. Out in the fresh, crisp mountain air, she began tinkering with the Focus, pressing buttons and shapes. She might not know what they did, but everything she touched sent a new program into readiness, which made me ever more aware of the architecture of my new home.
"All these shapes," Aloy asked the rising sun. She pressed on one that looked like a speaker as Rost walked around in front of her. The hologram lit up pink, and when a bow was thrust into her face, it analyzed its composition, shape, and strength. It's a training bow, obviously. Aloy didn't know that moments before, she'd just activated the training program.
"Take your bow," Rost demanded. Aloy complied, holding the bow in her little hands. Then, the training program displayed the word BOW over the shaft.
"Bow?" Aloy asks. The hologram lit up green, indicating successful enunciation.
"Enough muttering to that, that plaything." Rost interrupted. We descend to the valley now. Follow." He walked off, with Aloy quickly following. Their compound was primitive, obviously. It was a large log cabin surrounded by log walls. Given their status as outcasts, it's likely Rost built this himself. Impressive.
I hadn't been idle all night. Most of it had been spent poking and prodding at the audio software. I only attempted actual use of the speaker when I was sure Aloy was deep asleep, at the lowest possible volume. Static. I guess making an intelligible voice with no base to build from was quite tricky.
Wait. Why don't I use something as a base? I had all those audio files from the ruin; I was pretty sure all the letters of the alphabet were enunciated there. I should be able to build a database of letters, words, and simple phrases. It all came out a mishmash of voices and tones. I stopped quickly. That wouldn't work as it was, but it was better than my first attempt.
I used the time Aloy and Rost spent getting down the mountain they lived on to continue harmonizing the audio. I didn't have enough audio from a single person to make a distinct voice, so by merging them all, I ended up with a gender-neutral and even-toned voice. I didn't get far when Rost spoke up. They were at the valley floor, a wall separating this valley from the rest of the Nora lands.
Rost lectured and taught Aloy to identify medicinal berries, flowers, and leaves, giving her a small pouch to keep a stockpile. The Focus also logged and categorized them, using returns from passive scans to highlight nearby specimens. Now, this world wasn't a game. The scratches Aloy gathered, though being a child, didn't magically disappear because she ate a healing item. What they do do is accelerate her natural healing processes, but not to superhero levels. The scabbed-over scratches will still take a few hours to heal completely, but that's still far faster than humans from my old world.
As Rost spoke, I understood Aloy hadn't been taught much yet. Simple things, like the name of the land she lives in, have obviously slipped Rost's mind. He continued, but this time, he was talking about the Machines.
"All Machines are dangerous, Aloy. Their power must be respected. But I will be beside you." Rost lectured, and yeah, It's the truth. Somebody Aloy's size... Even the unarmed Watchers could just throw their weight at her, and she'd be crushed. Striders could trample her. A scrapper could shoot her dead. Rost ushered the girl into the tall grasses as a Watcher crested the hill.
In real life, even the HZD world's trash mob looked intimidating despite its design, which looked like a tube with legs. Like the Velociraptor of ancient times, it is light and quick, with powerful legs. Unlike the raptor, it has no claws. Its purpose was to watch and observe the areas around Acquisition Machines, defence being better left to other, more specialized machines.
Aloy Active Scanned two of the three they encounter, revealing a host of information. The scanning and neural reading programs seemed more sophisticated than I thought. It took her desire to know more about the Machines and scanned them to provide that knowledge. Different data would likely have been collected if she'd wanted to know something else. Fascinating.
"That's the last of them. You did well; they didn't see or hear you," Rost praised. Aloy perked up, smiling. They continued down the trail until Aloy noticed a man jumping across the rocks and pointed him out to Rost.
"Who's that?" she asked, curious, as the man leaped from handhold to handhold. It was quite an impressive display of skill.
"Ignore him," Rost demanded.
"But why's he up there?" she continued stubbornly. Rost didn't answer, but when Aloy kept watching, and the man smiled at her, she exclaimed, "He's smiling at us!" Another voice echoed off the valley walls, naming the boy Teb.
"Ignore him," Rost reiterated. "We are outcasts, and he is of the tribe."
"Maybe he doesn't like the tribe," she replied petulantly.
"Then he is a fool." Yeah, choosing to abandon the little civilization here for a harsh life on your own, fighting for your life against the unforgiving elements and merciless machines... It wasn't exactly a life you would choose if given any other option.
"Come now, let's find that herd." They continued, crossing a stream and following a well-worn path. It was then that we saw the horses.
"There, see them? These are called Striders." Idea. I'm gonna call overridden Striders Aragon. Rost ran at them off with a shout, causing them to stampede further down the valley.
"Why'd you chase them off?" Aloy asked. 'I thought we were hunting them.'
"To show you how some machines startle easily if they detect you and run away." It's kinda tricky to illustrate that lesson without letting them detect you. "It's best to approach by stealth," Rost explains as they cross the stream again, entering a rocky clearing free of tall grass.
"Now, I want you to find some rocks that fit the cup of your hand."
"Why?" Ah, Aloy. That's the question every kid asks when they figure out what it means.
"Do as I say, Aloy, and gather the rocks. I will show you how to use them." After she has gathered a few decent-sized stones, Rost speaks again. "That's enough. Follow." Like with the Salvebrush, the Focus now marked stones of that size, leading to Aloy gathering a few more in her path. She fell behind. When she caught up, Rost spoke quietly from under a tall tree. "Aloy, come now. Stop wasting time."
They look out over the small cliff, revealing the herd of Striders guarded by a few watchers. "There's the herd. Alright, it's time to throw some rocks." If I didn't vaguely remember this from other video games, I'd call him crazy.
"But rocks can't hurt machines, right?" Correct, but that's not what they're for, little Aloy.
"No, but they can distract them, draw them into traps." Rost pointed out a watcher closer to them, which had roamed too far from the herd. "Like that Watcher over there. It must be dealt with, or it will warn the herd and send them running before we get in range."
"Warn them? How?" Aloy asked. Rost turned to answer.
"The machines speak to each other, Aloy." He instructed, looking back at the Watcher. "Unless they are first silenced. Now, you stay here on the ridge." He stood and began to move away. "On my signal, throw rocks and draw the Watcher over to me. Wait for my signal."
He was soon waiting in the tall grass. A whistled signal and Aloy threw the rock near him, just outside the tall grass. The Watcher's lens turned yellow, and it moved to investigate. Before it had a chance to realize what was going on, Rost charged it and stabbed his spear into its sensory module. A second stab into its guts severed something vital as its lens flickered off, and Rost pushed it over. Confirming the kill, he called Aloy down. When she reached the downed Machine, Rost continued his lesson.
"Let's harvest the kill so I can teach you how to make arrows." Rost went over the different parts of the Machine and what they used them for. While a primitive tribe like the Nora couldn't use most of the parts for anything near their original purposes, they were still valuable to merchants. Sharp metal shards were evidently their currency.
This Watcher gave up a working battery, or 'Sparker' as Rost called it, and some metal pieces. After, they collected some Ridgewood, which the Focus also began tracking,
"Use the stalks as arrow shafts and metal shards as arrowheads." Sigh. Scavengers. These people don't know how to forge crap. They just use plants or Machine parts for everything. Armor: Machine plates. Clothes: Plants. Weapons: A mixture of both.
Rost walked Aloy through the carving of arrows, how to bind the shards to the shaft, and the correct length and balance. He let her do the rest by herself. Thankfully, she's a quick learner, and most are usable. They soon have twenty brand-new arrows.
"Let's put those arrows to use. Follow." They snuck around behind a rock into some tall grass near the herd. "It's time to make your first kill, Aloy."
"A Strider," Rost whispered, pointing at the nearest Machine. "One of the weaker machines." That massive piece of metal and synthetic muscle is weak!?! "But even a weak machine can kill a hunter if she is careless." Rost pointed out the armored spots and spots where the servos and hydraulics were visible. The most obvious weak spot was its eye. He asked her if she could spot another weak spot.
Aloy purposefully triggered Active Scan, giving me a whole host of data. Most of it was useless: size estimates, alloy durability, etcetera. The critical part is the tube of liquid on its back. Scans revealed it was liquidated biomass. Even while the Strider gathered more from the grass below, it used a minuscule amount to power some strange bioreactor.
However, Aloy was explicitly looking for weaknesses. This form of biomass was also volatile and combustible, and its container was obvious and exposed. I assume its innards held the production parts necessary to produce the liquid, so it couldn't be stored internally. Also likely for ease of access once it returned to a Cauldron
Noticing the highlighted fuel tank, Aloy made a guess. "The canister on its back. Is that a weakness?" He looked a little stunned.
"Yes. How did you guess that?"
"The device, it showed me!" Aloy insisted. Rost was dismissive.
"That plaything? Stop playing games." He showed her how to draw the bow and aim. "Aim for the eye or canister. Either way, prepare to dodge if it charges."
She fired, knocking the canister off the Strider in one hit. It was alerted and turned to face her. Successive hits alerted the rest of the herd, who all ran off. The injured Strider, however, kept getting hit in the head, preventing it from charging before it could start. Finally, it was felled by a shot to the eye. Rost approached, signaling Aloy to join him. He showed her the differences in what they harvest between Machines. It was too hard to access the batteries in some machines, and they could sometimes strip the wiring from accessible parts if it was undamaged.
Once they were finished, Rost spoke.
"You did well today, but you have much to learn. Tomorrow, we train again." A scream of panic echoed in the distance. "What was that?" Rost asked, to a thoughtful look, then realization from Aloy. Who was the only other person we've seen in this valley?
"That boy, the one running the brave trails!" Rost nodded, frowning at the distance.
"Follow, Aloy!" He ordered getting to his feet, "Quick!" They sprinted further into the valley, over rocks and an enormous metal plate, over a river, and then up a hill before stopping at a cliff. The valley was full of Striders and Watchers, and a boy hung from the opposite cliff face by one arm. They watched his fingers slip, then fail. He fell to the valley floor, at least 15 meters. The Striders and Watchers were alerted by the sound, and when no immediate danger presented itself, the machines began investigating. The boy was alive, surprisingly. He was obviously injured but still conscious.
Aloy tried to help, but Rost stopped her. "I can do nothing. It's only a matter of time before the machines find that boy and kick him to death."
Aloy narrowed her eyes, already determined to do something. She brought a hand to her Focus and used an Active Scan. With a more vague request, the scanner picked out movement patterns, revealing where the machines planned on moving next from their previous movements and extrapolated paths.
It wouldn't work in the heat of battle, but it worked for now.
"But if I shoot, it will cause a stampede, and they will trample him," Rost said, clearly frustrated. He wanted to save the boy but saw no way to do so. It was in his eyes. From what I remember, Rost was respected despite his status as an outcast. A man who inspires such respect wouldn't abandon someone to die.
"But I can see the paths they take!" She exclaimed, eager to help the boy.
"Stop telling stories!" Rost demanded harshly, grabbing her arm as she moved to stand. He pulled her back to kneel on the ground beside him.
"I'm not! I can sneak through!" Aloy insisted, rubbing her arm when he let go.
"You will not!" Rost growled, and Aloy seemed to accept his decision, sitting back on her feet. Mollified, Rost looked back into the valley. I assumed he was trying to figure out how to get down there and past the Machines.
Aloy had other plans, though. She rushed forward, trying to get down before Rost could stop her. He tried, reaching out as she slipped down the embankment. He only managed to snag her training bow, leaving her defenseless.
I didn't blame the man; he was trying to be a responsible adult. I could even understand not believing Aloy about seeing their paths. To someone who'd never used a focus, it seemed downright impossible.
"Aloy!" Rost cried, despairing as she forward-rolled down the cliff. He refrains from speaking further, as did Aloy.
In a feat of stealth never seen before, Aloy snuck through the entire field of machines. She waited long minutes for the Machines to pass her at the right time, quickly sneaking between patches of long grass. She even crossed a river near a Strider, yet it didn't notice us. She reached the boy in short order. "Follow me!" She whisper-shouted, pulling him to his feet. To Teb's utter bewilderment, they navigated back to Rost in one piece. The Nora boy kept asking how she was doing this, but she didn't answer.
Reaching the hill again, Rost pulled Aloy up the rest of the way and gave her a fond, exasperated look. Teb scrambled up next to her, holding an arm to his chest.
"So, it is no plaything," Rost said as he returned her bow and motioned to her temple. Aloy nodded with a smile, feeling vindicated. She was exultant, luxuriating in his admission that she had been telling the truth.
"Wait," Teb said, holding out a hand. "All-Mother bless that girl. Bless you both."
"Boy!" Three Nora Braves approached them, two the same age as Teb, another much older. Teb tried to get what he was trying to say out before they reached us.
"She... She saved me. I just wanted-" He stammered.
"BOY!" The men reached us. "Seal your lips!" The older one scolded. "They are outcasts, both. And she..." He scowls at Aloy, who hid behind Rost. "She is Motherless." Wow. What a dick.
"Come now, back to Mother's Heart." The group moved off. Teb tried again to speak but only got a swat around the head for his troubles. Once they were out of hearing range, Rost spoke up.
"That boy should not have spoken to us, it's against tribal law." Jesus, man, relax. Teb had been coming to terms with his death, and then a little girl saved him. He was overwhelmed and just wanted to say thanks. "Come now. Let's go home."
Aloy must have shared my sentiment because she stormed off in a tiff.
"I know the way."
AN: Little changed here. Tenses were modified, and some wording was changed. Since this is the 'tutorial' section and our MC currently needs more agency, little can change.
"All these shapes," Aloy asked the rising sun. She pressed on one that looked like a speaker as Rost walked around in front of her. The hologram lit up pink, and when a bow was thrust into her face, it analyzed its composition, shape, and strength. It's a training bow, obviously. Aloy didn't know that moments before, she'd just activated the training program.
"Take your bow," Rost demanded. Aloy complied, holding the bow in her little hands. Then, the training program displayed the word BOW over the shaft.
"Bow?" Aloy asks. The hologram lit up green, indicating successful enunciation.
"Enough muttering to that, that plaything." Rost interrupted. We descend to the valley now. Follow." He walked off, with Aloy quickly following. Their compound was primitive, obviously. It was a large log cabin surrounded by log walls. Given their status as outcasts, it's likely Rost built this himself. Impressive.
I hadn't been idle all night. Most of it had been spent poking and prodding at the audio software. I only attempted actual use of the speaker when I was sure Aloy was deep asleep, at the lowest possible volume. Static. I guess making an intelligible voice with no base to build from was quite tricky.
Wait. Why don't I use something as a base? I had all those audio files from the ruin; I was pretty sure all the letters of the alphabet were enunciated there. I should be able to build a database of letters, words, and simple phrases. It all came out a mishmash of voices and tones. I stopped quickly. That wouldn't work as it was, but it was better than my first attempt.
I used the time Aloy and Rost spent getting down the mountain they lived on to continue harmonizing the audio. I didn't have enough audio from a single person to make a distinct voice, so by merging them all, I ended up with a gender-neutral and even-toned voice. I didn't get far when Rost spoke up. They were at the valley floor, a wall separating this valley from the rest of the Nora lands.
Rost lectured and taught Aloy to identify medicinal berries, flowers, and leaves, giving her a small pouch to keep a stockpile. The Focus also logged and categorized them, using returns from passive scans to highlight nearby specimens. Now, this world wasn't a game. The scratches Aloy gathered, though being a child, didn't magically disappear because she ate a healing item. What they do do is accelerate her natural healing processes, but not to superhero levels. The scabbed-over scratches will still take a few hours to heal completely, but that's still far faster than humans from my old world.
As Rost spoke, I understood Aloy hadn't been taught much yet. Simple things, like the name of the land she lives in, have obviously slipped Rost's mind. He continued, but this time, he was talking about the Machines.
"All Machines are dangerous, Aloy. Their power must be respected. But I will be beside you." Rost lectured, and yeah, It's the truth. Somebody Aloy's size... Even the unarmed Watchers could just throw their weight at her, and she'd be crushed. Striders could trample her. A scrapper could shoot her dead. Rost ushered the girl into the tall grasses as a Watcher crested the hill.
In real life, even the HZD world's trash mob looked intimidating despite its design, which looked like a tube with legs. Like the Velociraptor of ancient times, it is light and quick, with powerful legs. Unlike the raptor, it has no claws. Its purpose was to watch and observe the areas around Acquisition Machines, defence being better left to other, more specialized machines.
Aloy Active Scanned two of the three they encounter, revealing a host of information. The scanning and neural reading programs seemed more sophisticated than I thought. It took her desire to know more about the Machines and scanned them to provide that knowledge. Different data would likely have been collected if she'd wanted to know something else. Fascinating.
"That's the last of them. You did well; they didn't see or hear you," Rost praised. Aloy perked up, smiling. They continued down the trail until Aloy noticed a man jumping across the rocks and pointed him out to Rost.
"Who's that?" she asked, curious, as the man leaped from handhold to handhold. It was quite an impressive display of skill.
"Ignore him," Rost demanded.
"But why's he up there?" she continued stubbornly. Rost didn't answer, but when Aloy kept watching, and the man smiled at her, she exclaimed, "He's smiling at us!" Another voice echoed off the valley walls, naming the boy Teb.
"Ignore him," Rost reiterated. "We are outcasts, and he is of the tribe."
"Maybe he doesn't like the tribe," she replied petulantly.
"Then he is a fool." Yeah, choosing to abandon the little civilization here for a harsh life on your own, fighting for your life against the unforgiving elements and merciless machines... It wasn't exactly a life you would choose if given any other option.
"Come now, let's find that herd." They continued, crossing a stream and following a well-worn path. It was then that we saw the horses.
"There, see them? These are called Striders." Idea. I'm gonna call overridden Striders Aragon. Rost ran at them off with a shout, causing them to stampede further down the valley.
"Why'd you chase them off?" Aloy asked. 'I thought we were hunting them.'
"To show you how some machines startle easily if they detect you and run away." It's kinda tricky to illustrate that lesson without letting them detect you. "It's best to approach by stealth," Rost explains as they cross the stream again, entering a rocky clearing free of tall grass.
"Now, I want you to find some rocks that fit the cup of your hand."
"Why?" Ah, Aloy. That's the question every kid asks when they figure out what it means.
"Do as I say, Aloy, and gather the rocks. I will show you how to use them." After she has gathered a few decent-sized stones, Rost speaks again. "That's enough. Follow." Like with the Salvebrush, the Focus now marked stones of that size, leading to Aloy gathering a few more in her path. She fell behind. When she caught up, Rost spoke quietly from under a tall tree. "Aloy, come now. Stop wasting time."
They look out over the small cliff, revealing the herd of Striders guarded by a few watchers. "There's the herd. Alright, it's time to throw some rocks." If I didn't vaguely remember this from other video games, I'd call him crazy.
"But rocks can't hurt machines, right?" Correct, but that's not what they're for, little Aloy.
"No, but they can distract them, draw them into traps." Rost pointed out a watcher closer to them, which had roamed too far from the herd. "Like that Watcher over there. It must be dealt with, or it will warn the herd and send them running before we get in range."
"Warn them? How?" Aloy asked. Rost turned to answer.
"The machines speak to each other, Aloy." He instructed, looking back at the Watcher. "Unless they are first silenced. Now, you stay here on the ridge." He stood and began to move away. "On my signal, throw rocks and draw the Watcher over to me. Wait for my signal."
He was soon waiting in the tall grass. A whistled signal and Aloy threw the rock near him, just outside the tall grass. The Watcher's lens turned yellow, and it moved to investigate. Before it had a chance to realize what was going on, Rost charged it and stabbed his spear into its sensory module. A second stab into its guts severed something vital as its lens flickered off, and Rost pushed it over. Confirming the kill, he called Aloy down. When she reached the downed Machine, Rost continued his lesson.
"Let's harvest the kill so I can teach you how to make arrows." Rost went over the different parts of the Machine and what they used them for. While a primitive tribe like the Nora couldn't use most of the parts for anything near their original purposes, they were still valuable to merchants. Sharp metal shards were evidently their currency.
This Watcher gave up a working battery, or 'Sparker' as Rost called it, and some metal pieces. After, they collected some Ridgewood, which the Focus also began tracking,
"Use the stalks as arrow shafts and metal shards as arrowheads." Sigh. Scavengers. These people don't know how to forge crap. They just use plants or Machine parts for everything. Armor: Machine plates. Clothes: Plants. Weapons: A mixture of both.
Rost walked Aloy through the carving of arrows, how to bind the shards to the shaft, and the correct length and balance. He let her do the rest by herself. Thankfully, she's a quick learner, and most are usable. They soon have twenty brand-new arrows.
"Let's put those arrows to use. Follow." They snuck around behind a rock into some tall grass near the herd. "It's time to make your first kill, Aloy."
"A Strider," Rost whispered, pointing at the nearest Machine. "One of the weaker machines." That massive piece of metal and synthetic muscle is weak!?! "But even a weak machine can kill a hunter if she is careless." Rost pointed out the armored spots and spots where the servos and hydraulics were visible. The most obvious weak spot was its eye. He asked her if she could spot another weak spot.
Aloy purposefully triggered Active Scan, giving me a whole host of data. Most of it was useless: size estimates, alloy durability, etcetera. The critical part is the tube of liquid on its back. Scans revealed it was liquidated biomass. Even while the Strider gathered more from the grass below, it used a minuscule amount to power some strange bioreactor.
However, Aloy was explicitly looking for weaknesses. This form of biomass was also volatile and combustible, and its container was obvious and exposed. I assume its innards held the production parts necessary to produce the liquid, so it couldn't be stored internally. Also likely for ease of access once it returned to a Cauldron
Noticing the highlighted fuel tank, Aloy made a guess. "The canister on its back. Is that a weakness?" He looked a little stunned.
"Yes. How did you guess that?"
"The device, it showed me!" Aloy insisted. Rost was dismissive.
"That plaything? Stop playing games." He showed her how to draw the bow and aim. "Aim for the eye or canister. Either way, prepare to dodge if it charges."
She fired, knocking the canister off the Strider in one hit. It was alerted and turned to face her. Successive hits alerted the rest of the herd, who all ran off. The injured Strider, however, kept getting hit in the head, preventing it from charging before it could start. Finally, it was felled by a shot to the eye. Rost approached, signaling Aloy to join him. He showed her the differences in what they harvest between Machines. It was too hard to access the batteries in some machines, and they could sometimes strip the wiring from accessible parts if it was undamaged.
Once they were finished, Rost spoke.
"You did well today, but you have much to learn. Tomorrow, we train again." A scream of panic echoed in the distance. "What was that?" Rost asked, to a thoughtful look, then realization from Aloy. Who was the only other person we've seen in this valley?
"That boy, the one running the brave trails!" Rost nodded, frowning at the distance.
"Follow, Aloy!" He ordered getting to his feet, "Quick!" They sprinted further into the valley, over rocks and an enormous metal plate, over a river, and then up a hill before stopping at a cliff. The valley was full of Striders and Watchers, and a boy hung from the opposite cliff face by one arm. They watched his fingers slip, then fail. He fell to the valley floor, at least 15 meters. The Striders and Watchers were alerted by the sound, and when no immediate danger presented itself, the machines began investigating. The boy was alive, surprisingly. He was obviously injured but still conscious.
Aloy tried to help, but Rost stopped her. "I can do nothing. It's only a matter of time before the machines find that boy and kick him to death."
Aloy narrowed her eyes, already determined to do something. She brought a hand to her Focus and used an Active Scan. With a more vague request, the scanner picked out movement patterns, revealing where the machines planned on moving next from their previous movements and extrapolated paths.
It wouldn't work in the heat of battle, but it worked for now.
"But if I shoot, it will cause a stampede, and they will trample him," Rost said, clearly frustrated. He wanted to save the boy but saw no way to do so. It was in his eyes. From what I remember, Rost was respected despite his status as an outcast. A man who inspires such respect wouldn't abandon someone to die.
"But I can see the paths they take!" She exclaimed, eager to help the boy.
"Stop telling stories!" Rost demanded harshly, grabbing her arm as she moved to stand. He pulled her back to kneel on the ground beside him.
"I'm not! I can sneak through!" Aloy insisted, rubbing her arm when he let go.
"You will not!" Rost growled, and Aloy seemed to accept his decision, sitting back on her feet. Mollified, Rost looked back into the valley. I assumed he was trying to figure out how to get down there and past the Machines.
Aloy had other plans, though. She rushed forward, trying to get down before Rost could stop her. He tried, reaching out as she slipped down the embankment. He only managed to snag her training bow, leaving her defenseless.
I didn't blame the man; he was trying to be a responsible adult. I could even understand not believing Aloy about seeing their paths. To someone who'd never used a focus, it seemed downright impossible.
"Aloy!" Rost cried, despairing as she forward-rolled down the cliff. He refrains from speaking further, as did Aloy.
In a feat of stealth never seen before, Aloy snuck through the entire field of machines. She waited long minutes for the Machines to pass her at the right time, quickly sneaking between patches of long grass. She even crossed a river near a Strider, yet it didn't notice us. She reached the boy in short order. "Follow me!" She whisper-shouted, pulling him to his feet. To Teb's utter bewilderment, they navigated back to Rost in one piece. The Nora boy kept asking how she was doing this, but she didn't answer.
Reaching the hill again, Rost pulled Aloy up the rest of the way and gave her a fond, exasperated look. Teb scrambled up next to her, holding an arm to his chest.
"So, it is no plaything," Rost said as he returned her bow and motioned to her temple. Aloy nodded with a smile, feeling vindicated. She was exultant, luxuriating in his admission that she had been telling the truth.
"Wait," Teb said, holding out a hand. "All-Mother bless that girl. Bless you both."
"Boy!" Three Nora Braves approached them, two the same age as Teb, another much older. Teb tried to get what he was trying to say out before they reached us.
"She... She saved me. I just wanted-" He stammered.
"BOY!" The men reached us. "Seal your lips!" The older one scolded. "They are outcasts, both. And she..." He scowls at Aloy, who hid behind Rost. "She is Motherless." Wow. What a dick.
"Come now, back to Mother's Heart." The group moved off. Teb tried again to speak but only got a swat around the head for his troubles. Once they were out of hearing range, Rost spoke up.
"That boy should not have spoken to us, it's against tribal law." Jesus, man, relax. Teb had been coming to terms with his death, and then a little girl saved him. He was overwhelmed and just wanted to say thanks. "Come now. Let's go home."
Aloy must have shared my sentiment because she stormed off in a tiff.
"I know the way."
-=MUA=-
AN: Little changed here. Tenses were modified, and some wording was changed. Since this is the 'tutorial' section and our MC currently needs more agency, little can change.
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My headcanon is that they're all secretly machines (at the very least, cyborgs, but probably machines).
I mean, seriously, taking out giant robots with arrows and spears?
StrangerDanger51
Novice Writer
- Location
- New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sharp arrows and spears. If you notice, you do a lot more damage when you hit vital components, even if it's just body not covered by armor. Very sharp arrows severing hydraulics and synthetic muscle, breaking wires and smashing processors. Machines are just as delicate as humans, but they don't care about their own lives.
It's canon that the human genome was unchanged from pre-Faro Plague. The whole point was to preserve life, not make humans better. Personally, its game mechanics, dont think too har about it. I mean, I'm already integrating most of the HUD into the Focus.
If you HAVE to be more 'realistic', then say the berries, leaves and herbs she uses have been Enhanced by Gaia to help aid the terraforming operation by keeping the animals alive.
Yeah just look at what some of those pesky animals did the first time around! One animal got mad at another, made a weapon without thinking it thru and we ended up with the Fargo plague! But seriously I definitely see humans using themselves when they are that advanced and with the name of some of those plants it's obvious Gaia thought ahead and altered some ants to be especially good for when those human-animal break themselves.
Also I am glad your going to be doing some chapters in between the tutorial and the main game. It'll allow for some allow for some original content, character growth for both of them and set up the foundations for whatever we see in the timeskip(s).
Saphire
Lurking dragon
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Shouldn't that be Aragorn?
I hope that dialogue on general will diverge from the game except for the specific things like songs/hymns/etc (unless caused by this Aloy). Others this feels more like a novelization of the game instead so far, with some commentary running in background. An SI that doesn't affect the world at all except for commentary is not much better than just reading/watching/playing the original thing.
Rather strange how little awareness SI has over its new "body". Hopefully it won't stay in this guest mode and some actual communication, programming and such will be done. And signal interception, etc. Should explore surviving networks and other radio. The Focus seems to have a pretty good suite of SDR, sensors and other things. The fact they still haven't found a way to launch anything, make any messages and so on is a bit sad. But I guess it has been barely a day... Still hope for some original system diving and so.
Also, the corrupted terminals and other things feel a bit strange when it's "just only one file intact". This fits in games where player attention span is barely enough to keep them focused on 2-3 paragraphs of text. But there's obviously much more saved on what amounts to a PDA with neural interface input/output system. Though could be a blackbox, but still not very believable outside of an action-y game that tend to not be very detailed except when concerned about things.
Also, I'm pretty sure that Aloy "talking out loud" is just her thoughts voiced out. Otherwise her talking in middle of enemy camps/wilderness, etc sounds rather stupid. As a child maybe probably can get it, but otherwise no. Especially as she shouts in between her lines when moving.
- Location
- va
I hope this isn't just a rehash of the game with commentary.
StrangerDanger51
Novice Writer
- Location
- New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It won't be. The SI just cant really interact with anything yet. Next chapter is the start of original content.
All the data's corrupted from being thousands of years old; the 2-3 paragraphs are the little that could be reconstructed </lame excuse>
Maybe, in this version, the SI gets her into the habit of talking to her focus all the time.
That's what I was thinking too. Unless he gets good enough that he cam read her mind or whatever she thinks 'at' him. Would take hours of her just thinking 'water' and so on to get that these signals mean this or that. Perhaps he can teach her to subvocalize?