HZD Terraforming Base-001 Text Communications Network
is a comedy chatfic by Discar, hosted on Archive of Our Own. It follows the characters of Horizon Forbidden West, who have just discovered the "texting" function of their Focus artifacts, and their ensuing commentary on canon events.
This fic contains the following tropes:
- All Caps: Erend texts this way, mirroring his deep voice.
- Class-Based Insult: In Chapter 34, a png called "DamnRichPeople" is mentioned while talking about rich people and nobles not caring about anything beyond their hobbies:"Aloy: It was interesting, sure, but it really felt like [Tilda] thought the art was more important than anything else going on right now.
DIVINER: From my experience with both the Quen and the Legacy, I think that is unfortunately common among the upper classes!
DIVINER: [AngryFistShake.gif]
DIVINER: [DamnRichPeople.png]
HIMBO: YEAH, DAMN THOSE NOBLE BASTARDS!" - Comically Invincible Hero: Aloy's explanation of what happened at the Rot is cut off by Varl accurately predicting, "You cut through the enemy like dry grass, overthrowing an impregnable fortress by yourself."Erend: AGAIN.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Inter-tribal disagreements form the bulk of the fic's comedy.
- The Carja have laws forbidding underage and excessive drinking, which are completely opposite to Oseram social expectations.
- Zo doesn't believe polyamory could ever work; Kotallo (whose culture places a huge emphasis on squads and small, tightly-knit groups) says it does "sometimes". Talanah, the resident Carja, has never even heard of the concept.
- Hollywood Atheist: Aloy sometimes forgets that the chatroom is not a soapbox for mocking her comrades' religions.
- Log Fic: It comedically abridges the events of Horizon Forbidden West, as described by characters completely new to communications technology.
- Pop-Cultured Badass:
- In Quen culture, knowledge of the Ruins of the Modern Age is a mark of status. There's a scene where Alva, a Quen colonist tasked with exploring a foreign continent, is chided by her superior for only having surface-level knowledge of Neon Genesis Evangelion.Alva: Sorry, but I never got into Eva! Aren't we missing like half the episodes??
Bohai: No, we have them all, none of you understand complex storytelling. - Aloy grew up hunting and gathering with her father, so the only books she had access to were ebooks scavenged from Old One ruins. It's explicitly mentioned that one of her favorite characters is Katniss Everdeen.Alva: That explains so much.
Beta: yeah
- In Quen culture, knowledge of the Ruins of the Modern Age is a mark of status. There's a scene where Alva, a Quen colonist tasked with exploring a foreign continent, is chided by her superior for only having surface-level knowledge of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Produce Pelting: The Oseram way of giving performers negative feedback. Except that wrenches may be thrown alongside fruit.
- This Explains So Much: In Chapter 20, during a conversation about Old One entertainment, Aloy reveals that she found an intact copy of The Hunger Games when she was a child. Beta and Alva immediately realize the implication that Aloy took Katniss Everdeen as a role model.
- True Art Is Incomprehensible: Bohai insists that the Quen have recovered all the episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion; people only believe they haven't because they don't understand "complex storytelling".
