#phaselockandload

[numericalassassin]

(Never make a bet with a Siren, she'll kick your ass and it will be the start of a wonderful, beautiful relationship.

Actually no, go ahead and bet with a Siren. It'll be fine, you'll only be bruised.)

[0ccuria]

phaselockandload

  Polygon out here with this wrong af opinion

It’s clickbait. They want those salt clicks.

oh of course, I don’t doubt that. Just a real shame that this is considered “journalism” now. Everyone is just looking at them like

[shellalana]

Borderlands Asks; 5. 38. 43.

5. A character you consider underrated?Can I pick two? Pierce and Ellie. Here are two well-written female characters, running their own businesses the way they see fit.  They’ve both dealt with a lot of crap Pandora throws at them without losing who they are as people.

38. A character you wish you could play as?Auuuggguuuuust. Lemme play the guy with the secret heart of gold who had more personality in his big toe than certain other characters.

43. Something you wish you could change in the franchise?TFTBL. Delete it just because of Jack. He became a distraction to all over the other wonderful moments that happened in that game. We get 2 WOC for once and they’re overshadowed by everyone’s Jack-boner.

[numericalassassin]

All Good Things - A Meeting

Four months. Zer0 had been avoiding Sanctuary as much as he could, impossible to manage completely when it was the Raider’s hub but he’d been careful to stop by only when he really needed to, like when he needed Gaige to help him tune up his limbs or to deliver a bounty of some sort. He took the long way around the city when he could, completely circumventing the building Maya’s apartment was in when possible. 

He was absolutely avoiding her. Not that he was impossible to contact if she’d wanted to but he was pretty sure she was avoiding him as much as he was her. It seemed neither of them wanted the awkward and painful ordeal of talking right now.

He should have known he wouldn’t manage it for too long, Pandora was too small a place for people like them not to run into each other at some point or another. This time was in Opportunity, where he was working on eradicating the Loader population and any Hyperion troops that had gotten away last time. Dali was at his side as usual, taking on Engineers he pointed her at (he still got no small amount of satisfaction at their deaths) and being a distraction for him to shoot the Loaders down.

He’d heard more gunfire and made his way in that direction, thinking perhaps it was one of the others who’d had the same idea. It was, but not who he’d prefer meeting here. There was a moment while he considered leaving her to it, letting her work through this section on her own and in peace but he saw the Infiltrator coming on her six and switched to his sniper to fire on him without hesitation. When she needed covering fire, he’d never hesitate to provide that at least. It was all he was able to do at this point.

Dali took the opportunity to jump into the fight as well, more then able to recognize Maya and more then willing to help the siren tear the Hyperion forces to ribbons.

[numericalassassin]

[✍ 2 & 6]

2. Being touched

Zer0 can be odd about being touched. They aren’t particularly used to nonagressive contact and are liable to jump if someone touches them abruptly (Axton’s back slaps were hard to get used to) but they are perfectly willing to initiate contact themself. In fact, under the correct circumstances, Zer0 is extremely cuddly.

6. Being alone

Most often Zer0 actually prefers company to being completely alone. They don’t like to be without a distraction and often will volunteer to partner with the others for missions. When they want time to themself well, you just won’t find them anywhere.

[numericalassassin]

All the Little Pieces

Zer0 stood, as still as a statue, on an innocent looking, steep hillside in the Highlands, staring at the boulders before him with an unseeing gaze. He’d left Dali in Overlook, grouchily pacing their little home while he went out by himself this time. Much as he loved the stalker, much as she was fantastic at watching his back, he didn’t want her here for this. He’d just as soon no one be in a hundred mile radius for this.

He stood in that spot for a long time, just staring, wondering why he was here, what he’d been thinking when he’d decided this was a good idea. There were already a myriad of memories crowding at the edges of his mind, each one demanding to be played back in all it’s pristine glory. Without even realizing it, his feet carried him forward, automatically ducking into the opening of a cave hidden behind the rocks, carefully disguised so only those who knew what to look for could find it.

It was almost exactly as he’d left it and Zer0 isn’t sure whether he’s relieved or disappointed by that fact. There’s dirt blown in over the floor and furniture, evidence of stalkers having poked around inside, but no real damage. Hardly any change. The mattresses he’d dragged in here were still in their place, stripped bare but intact, and when he looks he can see her laying there, stretched out and dozing while he cleans his weapons after a long day, hair askew and lips slightly parted in drowsy relaxation. 

He jerks, stumbles in that direction, ends up sitting on the couch somehow with his helmet discarded on the ground. He can see her everywhere, tiny moments that play back for him, unseen in his human eye but so very clear in the cybernetic one he can’t close to block them out. The bed is the worst, quiet, sometimes fumbling but always sincere intimacy layered over and over while his memory whirred and tried to find something to focus on. He gasps, threads fingers into hair that’s grown past his shoulders, fallen from the ponytail he keeps it in now. Finally the barrage slows and his mind latches on to a moment.

He wished dearly that it hadn’t.

He’d slipped out of bed, reading the message over and over to be sure it was real. Not all of his former contacts had deserted him or tried to use him when he’d briefly reappeared with Maya, a few had surprised him with support and he’d been getting updates from them occasionally. This one though... Three of his friendly contacts murdered, each left with a message for him, this latest contact terrified they’d be next and trying to warn him of the danger. One. He’d discounted the name before, written it off but now... One and siren hunters, murdered contacts, a message containing all they’d known about this rival assassin. He’d flicked through it all night, Maya sleeping peacefully though she’d stirred a bit when he’d gotten up. Before the sun rose again he’d made a decision and he’d known he would hate himself for it, she would hate him for it, but this... to lose her forever in death would kill him. The thought froze him to the bone. He had to protect her... But a person’s memory is a strange thing and one thought does not lead in a linear pattern to another.

One was laughing, driving a sword so like Zer0′s own through Zer0′s chest, immobilizing him with his own damn memories. Injuries stack on top of each other, nicks and scrapes and deep slices carved out of his flesh, a smashed visor revealing his face, blood dripping into his eye, cuts caused by the sharp pieces rattling around inside his helmet. No one to keep him in one piece but himself.

Zer0 screamed, clutched at his chest, remembered pain exploding into his senses so strongly he staggers. He doesn’t know when he stood up but as One presses his sword through him and out his back, a detached part of him knows he won’t keep his feet for long. The other assassin is just as beat up as he is, their fight having been long and bloody, two cybernetic eyes staring back at Zer0 from where he’d punched a hole in the other’s helmet as payback for his own.  A hand locks around Zer0′s throat and his scream turns to a wheeze, head lifted so One can properly regard him.

“After I kill you I’ll be sure to bring your head back for her. At least give her something to bury before I sell her off.” The scream of rage is all Pandora, all the pure survival the planet forces one to learn, all for her. He knows he moved but doesn’t know which one of him it was until there’s a clattering crash that rocks him out of the memory just barely enough to register he’d knocked into the table, sent something loudly to the ground. A jar, a large one full of bits and pieces of metal, bullets stained rusty red, shrapnel with blackened edges. He reaches for it with shaking hands, pulls it against his chest. Its something physical, something real, something he can use to ground himself. How many pieces of metal, bits of former pain were here that they’d pulled out of each other? How many times did they save each other? How often had they sat here, on that couch, at that table, and taken care of each other?

Slowly the pain subsided and he could breathe again, the jar now spider-webbed with cracks from where it had hit the floor but intact all the same. He held it against his chest as he levered himself upright, throat sore from screaming, head bruised from his fingers digging at the seam between man and metal, but still here, still here. The jar is cradled tight, a shield against the flow of memories he can’t stop seeing, a physical barrier between him and things that were no longer here. It’s all he can do to replace his helmet and stagger home, fall into his bed exhausted with the jar still held against his chest and an anxious stalker on his legs and waist. He weeps through the night but greets the sun feeling somehow a little better, a tiny bit lighter.

She’s no longer here but she’s still the only thing solid enough to really save him. Always would be even if he has to treat her like the Sun now, untouchable, unreachable, but he can’t live without it. His Blue Goddess.

[numericalassassin]

😡 🤞 🔮

😡 What would someone have to make them lash out in violent anger?

Threaten a child's life, particularly if it's one they’ve claimed. Zer0 is viciously and ruthlessly defensive of children and will absolutely lash out violently, no matter who does the threatening, friend or foe.

🤞  What is one of the biggest lies they’ve told (or their most recent lie)?

The biggest lie they've told is that they've moved on from their past or that they're over everything that has happened to them in the past. They're not, not even close. They never will be.

The most recent? Probably to whatever civie last asked what's under the suit. It was probably something stupid too, like telling them "air" and walking away.

🔮They have a premonition that something terrible will happen to them. How do they handle the situation?

To them? Depends on circumstances I guess but they'd try to avoid the situation while simultaneously planning for it. Plan for the worst and hope for the best, right? If its something truly horrible and potentially deadly that involves messages ready for friends, some sort of a distress call they can use, carrying extra weaponry, etc. They don't have to prepare alone anymore so they won't either. Much as they don't want their friends hurt, they don't want to go down yet either, especially not alone.

[numericalassassin]

Not an offering so much as a gift, most of a dark tea set with it's pieces repaired in kintsugi.

Leave an offering for Zer0!

This one gets a place of honor, both useful and symbolic, and the deity offers back their warm affection and regard. She doesn’t need their protection, not really, but their aid at her side is there when she’d need it anyway.