Tag: nil

Nil and Aloy argue about who would have won if she’d agreed to fight him on that mesa overlooking the Spearshafts. 

“I’d have ended you, Suntress. I’m just as fast as you. You couldn’t dodge me forever.” He grabbed suddenly for her arm.

Aloy snatched her arm out of his reach and skipped nimbly around a large fern, placing the plant between herself and Nil. She snickered. “Just as fast, huh? Yeah, right. You’re like a Trampler compared to me.”

Nil eyed her, his silver eyes burning with humour and desire. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looking for all the world like a Sawtooth waiting to pounce. Then he raised one eyebrow. “I dare you to put this little argument to the test.”

Aloy narrowed her eyes suspiciously, and Nil continued. “A sparring match. You and me. You can use your spear. I’ll use my knife. We’ll find out once and for all who would win.”

Read about their shenanigans on AO3. 

In an alternate universe where Nil is a scrub:

Nil: hey can u give me a ride

Aloy: uh I have my own paths to follow Nil

Nil: I’ll pay u back I swear. After the next bandit camp. I’m good for it

Aloy: are u serious

Nil: cmon I thought we were partners

Aloy: ffs Nil

Nil’s nightmare

A little hurt/comfort, this time when Nil has a bad dream. 

Kadar.

Nil sneers. A former name from a former life. He keeps running. Down a corridor. Through a crumbling passageway. Through a dank, calcified corridor with a metal door at the end, punctuated by a ring of blue and pink light.

A flash of hope. Maybe she’ll be on the other side of the metal door. He twists his hand, and the ring of light turns green. He rushes through the door.

He stops short with disappointment. Two pairs of brown eyes gaze at him. The princes are smiling, but he sees through their smiles. He sees their fear. Disdain washes over him.

“Kadar, let’s go to the Hunter’s Lodge.”

Nil doesn’t bother to answer them. He turns on his heel to keep moving. If he’s fast enough, he might make it back to Sunstone Rock in time for the evening meal.

“Look around, Kadar. You’re already here,” Janeva reminds him.

Nil recoils in disgust again. He knew the Rock wasn’t his real punishment. He knew he’d been let off too easy. This was the real punishment.

Read the rest on AO3.

Well damn, I want to know all 1-31 now, but I guess I’ll settle for three, how about 6, 11, and 15 for Niloy? :D

Aww!! You sweetheart!! Thanks for the asks!

6. Who is the big spoon?

NIL of course! HAHA! But there’s another reason for this than just that he’s physically bigger than Aloy. Nil feels very protective of Aloy, right? But Aloy is very independent and confident, and she doesn’t like when people treat her like she needs to be taken care of. When Aloy and Nil are sleeping, this is one of the few opportunities where Nil gets to curl up around her and feel like he’s protecting her in some way, even if it’s symbolic.

11. Do they have any inside jokes?

Mostly in the form of little snarky quips or remarks that they say frequently when they’re bantering. Aloy’s fond of telling Nil that he’s disgusting, to which he replies: “You know you love it.” (Of course he’s right.) When Aloy does something violent, or when the teeth or claws come out during sexy times, Nil likes to tease that she’s out for blood. And of course, if this counts, there’s her nickname. Those who are closest to Aloy know that Suntress is Nil’s nickname for her, but neither Aloy or Nil has ever explained the origin of the nickname to anyone else… or told anyone that Nil didn’t know her real name for months.

15. How do they think each other sees the other, and is this different from their own view of themselves?

Wow. This is an amazing question and holy fuck I could write an essay about it. I hope you won’t be sorry you asked… 

  • How Nil thinks Aloy sees him, compared to how he sees himself: Nil’s perception of himself matches pretty closely with what he thinks Aloy sees. Nil thinks Aloy sees a killer without a conscience, and that somehow she loves him anyway. Nil knows that Aloy sees some kind of good in him, but he doesn’t really see what she means; he just shrugs and accepts that this is what she thinks. And even after all they’ve been through together, he genuinely still doesn’t really understand why Aloy allowed him to travel with her in the first place and why she let him stick around for so long. In short: against all odds, NIL IS A FUCKING CINNAMON ROLL AND HE’S TOO SWEET FOR THIS WORLD.
  • How Aloy thinks Nil sees her, compared to how she sees herself: Aloy feels that Nil knows her better than anyone (and she’s right). Nil has seen Aloy in good times and truly terrible times, and she loves that he accepts her for all the strangeness that seems to follow her: her upbringing and her strange birth, her curiosity about the Old Ones, her ability to override machines, and her mastery of ancient technology. Despite her uniqueness, Aloy sees herself as a normal human with flaws and skills like anyone else. What she doesn’t realize is that, even though Nil knows her extremely well, he doesn’t perceive her as having any flaws. Even when Aloy steamrolls over his wishes, he doesn’t realize this is a flaw on her part, and thinks that this is fine. This, as you know, is a problem that’s explored in Shadow of the Stormbird, and in my headcannon of these two, it will indefinitely remain a point of contention between the two of them, and a significant vulnerability on Nil’s part.

THANKS @vythika96 for the asks!! I hope you enjoyed the answers! xoxo

Aloy’s nightmare

I’ve been meaning to write a little oneshot for a while about Aloy having nightmares. And then yesterday it occurred to me that it would be interesting to see what Nil’s nightmares would look like as well… so that oneshot will come in a day or two.

“Suntress. Wake up.”

Aloy tears her eyes open and gasps. That’s when she realizes her face is crumpled into a grimace of grief. Nil’s hands are on her face, wiping away the tears she didn’t know she was crying.

She scrabbles desperately at his hands, squeezes his arms to reassure herself that he’s real. His skin is warm under her palms. His scent of orange-oil and sweat is proof that he’s here, he’s alive. It was just a dream. Just a dream.

“Nil,” she gasps, her chest tight with residual fear. She rolls towards him and wraps her left arm around him tightly. She buries her face in his chest, pressing her cheek to his skin to hear the slow, reassuring thudding of his heart.

“I had a nightmare,” she whispers against his skin.

Nil wraps an arm around her and rolls onto his back, taking her with him so that she’s sprawled across his naked chest. “I could tell,” he says.

Read the rest on AO3.

Niloy 4, 7, 17

4. Their favorite
physical feature on each other? 

The immediate answer
that everyone knows? Aloy loves Nil’s pale silver eyes. She’s fascinated
by how his eyes can transition from blank and empty to blazing with heat in the
space of a heartbeat. And Nil, of course, loves Aloy’s flame-red hair: hence
her nickname Suntress! He loves winding his fingers in her hair, tucking her
braids behind her ear, pulling her hair… *wiggles eyebrows*

The more subtle answer
that only Nil and Aloy know? Aloy loves Nil’s voice. She loves the sound of
that sarcastic, musical voice in her ear, mixing bloody jokes with shameless confessions
of love. And Nil loves the feel of Aloy’s skin. He’s endlessly amused by how
soft and smooth her skin is even though she’s a seasoned huntress.

7. Favorite date
activity? 

HAHA oh man at first
when I read this I was like… I can’t even picture them on a date. Ain’t Aloy
got no time for that! No for real, here’s what they would do: grab a couple of
Striders, race to an unexplored mesa/Tallneck/mountain peak/Old Ones’ ruin, and
race to climb to the top. And then they would have a snack of Scrappersap and
dried figs while they watch the sunset or the sunrise, depending on the time of
day.

And then they would
make out because obviously.

17. Their ways of
expressing their love:

Ooh, I like this one,
mostly because these two have no qualms about expressing love. They’re so
securely attached it’s almost sickening LOL. Nil and Aloy both take comfort
from physical affection – especially those little gestures that become
unconscious and automatic over the course of a relationship, but that you
sorely miss if they’re gone: Nil’s casual hand on her back, sliding up into her
hair. Her fingers skimming along the inside of his forearm to hold his hand.
Nil flicking back a lock of her hair over her shoulder. Little things, but they
convey a Shellwalker’s cargo container full of feeling.

But Nil’s also a
motherfucking Carja wordsmith. This dude has no shame telling Aloy exactly how
much he loves her (with some nice macabre imagery, of course). Aloy, on the
other hand, will gracelessly blurt out her feelings for Nil whenever the urge
strikes, but Nil appreciates her blunt words just as much as Aloy appreciates his bloody
poetry.

And finally, as a
writer (and a human being), I hate the term ‘making love’ because ew. But I don’t
think I’ve yet written a sex scene between these two where that’s not what they’re
doing. It’s an emotional release for them as much as a physical release.

Phew!! Thanks so much
for the asks @jadefyre!! I love it!! xoxo

Headcanon: Nil tolerates pain better than anyone Aloy knows, but he’s a total baby when he gets sick. 

Once she’d caught a rabbit for their dinner, Aloy returned to the fire and was mildly gratified to find that Nil had drunk the ochrebloom-and-winterfresh tea as she’d commanded, but he looked more miserable than ever as she skinned the rabbit and set it on a spit to roast. “I can’t breathe through my nose,” he complained; indeed, his voice had a distinctly hyponasal sound.

Aloy bit the inside of her cheek to stop from laughing. She kneeled in front of him with her little pot of winterfresh ointment, then gently rubbed some of the ointment on his chest and dabbed a tiny bit under his nose. “This should help,” she told him softly. Then, in an equally soft voice, she asked, “Did you whine this much when you got sick as a soldier?”

Nil recoiled from her, looking deeply offended. “I am not whining,” he protested, and Aloy finally laughed. It was hard to take his offense seriously when he sounded so stuffy. “Then what would you call it?” she asked.

Nil folded his arms petulantly. “I’m stating facts,” he said. Aloy rolled her eyes, then crawled back towards the fire to turn the spitted rabbit. “Well, try stating your facts more quietly so I don’t have to hear them,” she replied.

Suddenly Nil grabbed her waist and dragged her back towards him, then nuzzled her face roughly, smearing the winterfresh ointment from his nose onto her cheek. Aloy squealed in disgust and struggled to free herself, but his strong arms were locked around her, keeping her captive in his lap. “Nil! You’re disgusting! Let me go!” she cried.

He snickered vindictively. “Never,” he purred against her ear. “You’re stuck with me and my whining. I hope you enjoy germs as much as I know you enjoy hunting bandits.”

“I really don’t enjoy either,” she insisted haughtily, but she stopped struggling against his embrace. Even when he was gross and infectious, Aloy couldn’t help but appreciate the heat of his arms wrapped around her.

But his words had given her an idea. If anything would perk Nil up and bring him out of his complaint-laden funk, it was hunting bandits.

Read the rest on AO3.