The sideblog of merryclaus for Borderlands thirst. There's gonna be a good amount of Calypso Twins on here no doubt. feel free to torture me with scenarios and what not. I have no shame.
Seifa likes Ven, and that's a real problem for her because it's not the easily manageable kind of like that she's forced herself to utilise over the years. She normally likes people the same way Skags like the smell of day-old roadkill.
Someone who's company you trust and wit you prefer over the other options available for the night, that's an easy like, that's the kind of "friendship" she's tended to propagate for a long time now. Ones that don't need a huge amount of yourself. The kind that last years but don't cut into the meat of your secrets, those are the norm for her. Those are fine.
She likes Ven in a way that makes things harder, 'cause Seifa cares about him, and caring? That's tough. She's not very fucking good at caring about others.
Sei spent years avoiding caring in general, and now she's found herself leading a life where she's practically drowning in worry and fear for people she ended up loving anyway. Deep down she should have known that would happen eventually, the joke's always on her in the end - and it's normally Seifa who sets up the punchline.
Hurting Ven? It matters now, because she let herself care enough that his wellbeing spills over into her own. Him and Jak-Knife, Troy, Eli, the phantom of what she can recall Tyreen Calypso once being before an unknown vileness warped that brilliant smile into something vicious, they all hold a little place inside Sei's heart now, and she can't quite tell if she's pissed with herself for letting it happen, or frightened by how empty it had been in the first place.
Saying the wrong stupid thing as a stupid joke because you were too dumb to read the room right, that matters now, and for all her sharpness she knows damn well that putting her foot in her mouth has been a life long speciality of hers. Still, she makes sure to apologise for it every time, even if it's in one of the frankly weird ways she prefers.
Easier to have a litttttle bit too much to drink in one of the louder clubs before you gut yourself in genuine empathy to a friend, even easier if they are a tad wobbly too, and she's always been able to count on the man to throw a good wobble when she needs the company.
Squashed together like Rakklings in a cordoned off ViP area as the shitty bass music half muffles out her words, arm slung around his shoulder (sloshing gold flakes and vodka over the beautiful coat he's wearing) as she half yells half whispers that she's sorry about earlier - about what she said bout trading him for some junk? Was meant to be a joke, she'd only say that because she'd never do it, because he's so valuable to her, yeah? Still, she saw the reaction, saw the hurt - sorry man, won't happen again. Next round's on her, right?
Right.
Easier to wrap it in a fun night out with envious glances and some flashing neon than go face to face - that's not worked out that well for her in the past. She doesn't really know how to be genuine without maybe showing a little too much of her inner vulnerability, and thing's didn't go right last time she tried. Genuine regret and an honest reminder of how much the person meant to her mixed badly, was misread as something else, and their heart had gotten broken despite her intent being to patch a wound in the first place.
Still, she trusts him. Figures that wouldn't happen, or it's unlikely, but it would be her fault if it did anyway, just like it had been before. Seems she only has her Seifa façade and the sad thing hiding under it to show people, one or the other without the security of something in between.
She knows she should probably work on a middle ground but... who has the time. She's a busy woman.
His reaction when she'd said it had twigged her in on something obvious though, that pang of sharp hurt that wiped the easy grin off his face and replaced it with something practiced and cold had hit a weak point she hadn't known about. Something about his past maybe, or how he'd valued himself.
Close as they were, squashed side by side and chuckling under breath that could blow the place if any of the horde of worshippers pulsating around their booth lit a match, Ven was in many ways still an enigma. His secrets were wrapped in layers of open friendship, he hid them under truths and insecurities they'd spent so many evenings sharing with his brother and Jak-Knife, or even their moody boy-king on long nights in his Sanctum.
She knew he'd tell her in his own time if that was something he was ever going to consider, but she also knew that she was an impossibly nosy little shit who wouldn't be able to let it go now that she had an inkling... and Troy had been NO help.
When Calypso wasn't intentionally wrapping himself around her finger and expertly hiding how much he enjoyed every second of it, Troy could be... surprising.
It's rare he says no to her and means it, but when he really does, he's fucking clear. There's a snap in the air as his voice silences it - a shift.
You don't keep pushing, something in your brain stem sends a warning with a finality that shivers the roots of your molars and shuts you up.
Troy is normally a pliant man. He likes being easy to manipulate, especially by women. She's known him long enough to catch that little "interest" of his, but when he's serious? You don't push back, so she stopped asking him to gossip secrets about Ven's history the very first time he denied her so clearly.
She might be underselling herself by saying her hunt for his past is purely out of curiosity, being nosy is only a part of it. In reality?
She doesn't want to hurt her friend again.
The realisation an in-joke, or a snarky comment, or any of the other myriad of shitty little communication tricks she employs could actually target somewhere already bleeding through his armour was upsetting.
That's something to celebrate when it's intended, but accidentally slipping a verbal shank into a friend's ribs isn't the win it is with a competitor, and she'd rather that not happen again, so she tries to heal it her way - reminds him over and over on nights like these how great a man he is.
She makes a scene in public so no one can deny the truth of it. A raised toast to The Oracle, sight of the Holy Twins, and a drunken speech to the club goers about how much he means to the Saints, how valuable he is to her.
She wears the trinkets he's gifted her whenever she can, returns the gestures of kindness with shoddily crafted wire figures, or quick repairs of any of his tech she notices could do with a tune-up.
Loops an arm through his and drags him through crowds for a chance at better seating while slumming, because don't they know who he is??
She'll tell them.
She knows, and she'll make sure everyone around them does too.
The Holy City is full of Saints, and Sinners.
A handful are both.
Ven belongs to @hieroglyphix and JK to @godkingsanointed
She must, because sometimes how her body responds goes wrong when everyone else around her shivers or sweats, but she can't grasp the memory of how temperature felt. Of course she knows what it feels like, you idiot - she just...
Sensations have gotten hard to recall.
It's right there, heat is hot and cold is cool, it's right there dancing in the back of her brain, glancing against her fingers, but how either used to actually feel slips away every time she tries to reach for it. Something in Ty's mind is clumsy nowadays, fumbling its grip when she tries to focus on any memory she knows is missing but can't understand why - there's a barrier somewhere in her thoughts that slithers and constricts around the parts of her that are her, and Tyreen is aware she lost what heat felt like to its choking grip long before they ever landed on Pandora.
When she lets herself sink under the water of her cloister's pool, she knows it's refreshing and cool.
When she sprawls across their couch and kicks her legs up over her twin's lap, demanding a footrub through silent toe wiggles and puppy-skag eyes that he's never been able to deny, she knows his hand is warm and comforting, she just can't... feel it.
When they landed on this shithole all those years ago, she remembers Troy complaining like the whiny little bitch he is for days about the heat.
"It's too hot, why did we come here, this place sucks, you suck, I hate it here, I hate you, I hate rocks, there's sand up my ass, my skin's peeling off, I want to go home, yo that guy just ate another guy, blah blah blah blah"
She remembers every goddamn second of it as the sun left him blotchy and blistering with only his sister around to deal with the moaning, but it just never hit her. She never burned under Pandora's heat, never freckled, never tanned.. just stayed the same as she'd always looked. Perfect, while Troy wilted under Elpis.
She reacts though, her traitorous meat does at least, and that's a frustration that's only built over time. She can't feel the cold dulling her reflexes and slowing her limbs, but it still does. She can't tell it's hot enough for her head to start spinning and words to start slurring, the shakes just hit out of nowhere - nerves firing haphazardly as her shitty, prison of a body starts to error out in a temperature it can't handle but she isn't allowed experience.
Fuckin' unfair really... a God deserves better.
Troy:
He likes the heat.
Everyone thinks he complains about it all the time but that's just Ty talking shit. He doesn't, not really, he just ain't a fan of when it's TOO hot.
Like, when he opens a window, or he goes outside for any reason, or Elpis is enough of a prick to get a blade of sunlight right through that tiny sliver of flexpane between the blackout interlocking panels that curve across his sleeping quarter's main window - the one that always manages to land across his eyes when he's desperately trying to claw out a few more hours rest, or when he's off planet and the aircon's set all fucky by some suited-up corpo freaks swanning inside that weird cloying heaviness of Promethea's high rises, or when his outfit for the night's broadcast is thick in all the wrong places and he's left feeling his maw twitch between practiced lines - prickly heat itching across his skin while he puts on God King Calypso's blood-soaked show in front of scorching hot camera lights, struggling to hide the sweat AND the urge to murder the entire costume team, or...
....Ok, so, maybe he might not like the heat, but he DEFINITELY doesn't like the cold. Pandora gets so fuckin' cold at night, way more than offworlders would ever guess.
In the weeks leading up to when the rainy season breaks through the drought months, the Holy City frosts throughout the night, ices deep into concrete and rust. Nekrotafeyo never changed, it was a stable, constant warmth. Hot, but not too hot, touched by a breeze that cooled enough after sunset to sleep bundled and comfortable, sometimes even crisping enough that Ty's furnace of wriggling sleepy limbs next to him in their little shared cot was welcome.
What he likes?
Well, Sei's ship is usually comfortable enough, so that temperature - that's nice. Sanctum always feels cold somehow, he's never got the thermal settings the way he'd be happy with even after years of tweaking them obsessively... it gets good when people are over though! Maybe Ven's just really warm or something, not that he'd tell him. Can hear that molten caramel chuckle already - "You callin' me hot, boss?😏"
Jak-Knife must emanate heat too, cause Troy's sat near campfires on freezing nights listening to them whisper lies and truths and lies that might be truths wrapped in secrets Troy can't understand to their retinue of crusaders, and that's not felt cold the way Sanctum does.
Even though, I mean, it was, or it should have been 'cause he was shivering next to them so, uh... oh you know what, screw this.
Man, fuck it this question is dumb as shit, who even ASKS somethin' like.. do fans actually think he's got the time to waste on answering complete freakin turds like thi-
Seifa:
"What? There's nothing WRONG with the air, the eco scrubbers don't need replacing. Kid, shut the hell up. They're fine, I refurbed them myself - got like, 400 more rotations easy... I hope."
"... Excuse me? Are you joking? Do you know how much those things cost to run compared to what I've setup?? Feck sake, look if you want to keep moaning about "burning your lungs" n' other bullshit while I'm busy piloting us between debris moving towards us at pants-shitting speed, how about you BREATH less? It's my damn air you're SUCKIN IN FOR FREE. Know where you won't have to deal with it itching your delicate widdle throat? In the vacuum outside this hull, so how about I send you on a nice long spacewalk you jumped up cheeky piece of s-"
Also Seifa:
Aircon on full, surrounded by fans and heaters humming at top capacity, 3 dehumidifiers set to max, atomisers arranged to hit all sides of her face, splayed across her sofa watching the latest Love N'circuits:
[ID: a drawing of vaughn from bl3, jumping midair in a running stance while yelling "blood feud!!!" in blocky green text. the background is outdoors on pandora in warm lighting. END ID.]
hi hi sorry for the delay ㅠ_ㅠ heres some bandit LYFEEEEEE
decided to go through my old borderlands fanarts and since i actually like this old picture of Angel I did and started to re-draw it and make it look better:’)
man i drew the original pic 2 years ago
dang
anyway changed some things and the pose, gonna finish it soon I hope:’)
When you like someone so much you want to BITE them - and other adventures of Hedwig (Pticenoga) and Vaughn >:)
I've been dealing with some health issues (nothing unusual for me, so no worries; also my husband takes care of me the same way Vaughn does here lol), which kept me from posting for a while. Now I'm trying to get back into it 💀
As you can see, I've also been experimenting a bit. I have 0 training in animation, but I've always admired it, so I decided to try animating something small myself. These are some of my older attempts, I've created more since then (you can find them on my Patreon), and I even revisited Hedwig's leg animation to make it smoother and as if she's rushing forward. I still have a lot to learn, but I'm really excited about it!
Would you watch an animated movie about Pticenoga and Vaughn?
P.S. - don't forget to pay attention to the frogs 🐸
I'll sacrifice my first newborn if needed only if it means i get to see katagawa in your style once again 🥺❤️
now now theres no need for that, a newborn's a very valuable bargaining chip! keep the little dear for your future deals. he was a good warm-up
honestly for how much i still adore him, and how much ive replayed this game (many times) i really should have drawn him more. maybe the inevitable next playthrough will give me the katagawa bug
