unc0nquered:
Zer0 had finished the delivery they’d come to give Ellie half an hour ago, and spent all the time since then scrolling through their hologram map of Pandora, trying to find something, anything, that sounded interesting enough to do next. Head back to Three Horns? No, they’d just been there. Go pick a fight in Lynchwood? They didn’t know if there was anyone left in Lynchwood worth fighting. Maybe they’d jump on the train that passed through Lynchwood, hold on top, and see where it took them. That was something to do, at least. … But nah. There were only so many train stops on Pandora, and they doubted any of them were interesting enough to justify the effort of—
Zer0 started at the yell, turned off their map, and turned with sword handle in hand to face their confronter. But they didn’t turn the blade on; despite the suddenness of the demand, more than anything they were surprised by how polite the request was. (By Pandoran standards, they’d found, any request that wasn’t backed up with several bullets was polite. Even a warning shot could be cordial, depending on where it was aimed.)
They supposed they were blocking things, weren’t they? They’d swung around behind Ellie’s to avoid their technical drawing the attention of the roving bandits out front; but in the process, blocked the narrow exit to Bug Gulch. They hadn’t thought anyone would want to visit Bug Gulch, but…
After a moment, they said, “Sure,” nudged the gas, and scooted out of the way. Since they’d been asked so politely.
She… really honestly hadn’t expected that to work. It wouldn’t have for any bandit but then… this was a Vault Hunter she found herself dealing with. Apparently one didn’t have to shoot first to get them to do something, which was good because she really really didn’t want to jeopardize her standing with Ellie by starting a fight out behind her scrapyard. She was really the clan’s one friendly link to the world outside their canyon and one of the only things standing between them and the Hodunks or Bloodshots if they decided to pick them all off someday.
Morrie took several steps backward and out of the way, not keen to be ran over by the technical if the Vault Hunter decided they were into squishing bandits today. Mim clicked and chittered and Morrie was quick to return to her, feeling much better when she swung back up into the saddle and was at least the same height as Mask Guy. What the hell was his name anyway? She was sure she’d seen a poster of him before but could not for the life of her remember what they’d called the guy. Oh well, not like she was likely to have many more encounters with him, not if she was lucky anyway. She’d call it a good day if she continued to sneak under the radar for now.
“Er… Thanks.” God Avery was rubbing off on her. But since he hadn’t shot at or stabbed her and had actually moved the big piece of junk that was clearly meant to be a vehicle (she wrinkled her nose at it under her bandanna; that was one ugly technical), she figured he at least warranted some amount of politeness. That said, she wasn’t too keen on hanging around, and was soon making her way past, Mim picking daintily around the pieces of junk laying in the way.
It wasn’t until she stepped away that Zer0 noticed her ride. An exclamation point flashed in front of their mask. Spiderant. Spiderant with a saddle. That was a brand new sight. And Zer0 lived for brand new sights.
... Mostly in the hope that they could then go on to kill said brand new sights, but that was neither here nor there.
They quickly stowed their sword handle, clambered out of their technical—almost banging their knees on the steering wheel in their haste to get to the ground—and followed after the woman on the spiderant. “Spiderant bandit. Ellie’s told me about you. You live back here, right?” They gestured down the gulch.















