athena

     She learned what that word meant today. It meant that you have decided        to spend the rest of your life with someone that you love, but this time it’ll be        on paper. Even if it did confuse her (couldn’t you spend of your life with someone        anyways if you tried super hard?), she was happy that she was happy, especially        when she had been super grumpy and very stabby around a lot of people        the whole time they had met.

     “ Athena, Can I ask you a question? How come you’re super mad when           you’re around everyone except Janey? “

               “ i’m not always -- “

          aggression nurses sorrow. masking vulnerabilities beneath tough skin just might be the only way she can persevere on pandora. outwardly, it repels, which comes in handy while walking the paths she does. people tend to keep their gaze from lingering, crowds part before her like the red sea. love, though, can be disarming. peeling away emotional armor in order to tackle what the means is frightening, so producing an efficient answer feels like an insurmountable task.

               “ ... she gives me hope. so does everyone else, but it’s different. when someone can look at you, flaws & all, but still be so determined, driven, to accept every part of you, it just -- having someone do that for you, then realizing that you do the same exact thing for them ... “

          words escape, slipping through her fingers. 

                 eyes trail to the side, then back at the woman with the                  mechanic – she swallows, visibly. the desire to scream                  increases, yet she bites her bottom lip –swallowing the                  pride behind her, rolling her verdant hues and nodding in                  response. her footsteps are hesitant, walking towards the                  other woman. she scans her surroundings for an escape                  route, doing her best not to appear to be obvious. 

          JUST ENOUGH DISTANCE GETS put between them to keep the other woman from trying anything inadvisable. far enough away to prevent her from making an attempt on seizing athena’s weapon, but close enough to still remain oppressive -- keep her from making a run for it. if at all possible, she’d like to avoid discharging her gun at all. that’d end up giving away her position. 

@shieldforhire || episode 5 starter call

     If Gortys had a heart the way humans did, it would most likely be        hurting right now, like someone was clutching it or tugging at it in        some way. Yet filled with so much joy as if it could soar away at        any moment. That was how it felt like when she saw Athena again,        after thinking she had lost her along with others because of what        Vallory had put them through. Which was why she didn’t waste time        hugging the taller, more stoic woman once things had settled. She        nestled against her thick clothing like a puppy for looking up and        giving the Vault Hunter a bright smile.

     “ I’m happy that you’re okay. And that you’re here. “

          COMING BACK TOGETHER WITH the team injected a dose of nostalgia into her heart. a considerable amount of time has passed since they’d all been together & to see ... almost ... everyone made it out of the adventure in one piece does wonders for the whole concept of hope. granted, she is a bit upset that fiona enlisted janey’s help once again -- she already wasn’t okay with it the first time, since that put her in contact with vallory. 

          that isn’t the little robot’s fault, though.

  ❝Since you stood there doing nothing while allowing that tyrant to continue pursuing this vault, ignoring Zarpedon’s warnings❞.

   There was poison in her throat. Raw, pure anger at the nerve the assassin had to question why she stood on the opposite side of her firing team.   It made her sick to keep so much rage inside of her, but unleashing so much energy could harm those around her. Forced deep breaths ere the only way to calm herself, her back turned, fingers rubbing the bridge of her nose.

  ❝You could’ve ended t. You could’ve ended it all. You could’ve saved New Haven, you could’ve saved so many people. You could’ve given Angel a chance to live a life that didn’t involved her being the prisoner of her own father. You could’ve–❞ a sharp pause, fists closing on her side.  ❝The Athena that hired us to destroy General Knoxx’s armory was loyal to her mission.And was loyal to the people that got tangled on her mission. You have no excuse❞.

          grief has a way of morphing reality to better suit your ambitions. rampaging through pandora & slaughtering anyone even remotely associated with atlas taught her that, even if it never dawned upon her until fiora stood up against her. with the passing of time, she’s allowed herself introspection -- taken a step away from her fury to look at things from another angle entirely. irrelevant is the fact that she, too, played a hand in the rise of handsome jack, along with moxxi. 

          becoming a silent scapegoat isn’t how she’s going to go down. if lilith plans to kill her, the athena will have her say & plant that seed of doubt in the siren’s mind. make her question the decision she’s hightailing it to. 

               “ give it a BREAK. “

          an unexpected reply, more aggravated than defensive. 

               “ zarpedon wanted to destroy elpis -- no sane person would of taken her side, so don’t try to feed me that BULLSHIT. “

          people, even sirens, are capable of such great fallacies. 

               “ i’m struggling to decide if you actually hold me accountable for all that, or if you’re just trying to run away from your own involvement. loyalty to the mission? loyalty to people? who worked with jack & betrayed him -- AND ME ?! “

          lips pull into a sour grin. 

               “ bigotry & hypocrisy -- that’s all i’m hearing out of you. so unless clairvoyance ended up being one of your abilities as a siren, then i don’t think either of us knew what to expect from jack. i never betrayed anyone -- not you vault hunters, not moxxi, not jack -- you, though? you’re GUILTY. you’re a traitor & he got back at you. now you’re looking for someone to blame, -- desperately trying to forget the likelihood that your betrayal was the last straw & it drove him over the edge. “

          one last thing to say, might be a nail in her coffin -- hell, she’s probably dead already. 

“… gross. The skag stuff, not the mommy issues. That’s a little ‘yikes’, too, though, y’know? God. It’s like every- body on Pandora has a luggage cart’s worth of baggage! No offense.”

          “maybe we’re all off the deep end, with her. y’ever consider that?”

   the words escape gaige’s lips with very little thought. it’s almost second nature, now; defending her friends. on the battlefield and off. today’s defense consists of deflection. because, lilith isn’t crazy– she’s grieving. and, sometimes, grief looks a whole lot like insanity. the real question was, did athena really believe that the woman leading the crimson lance was koo-koo bananas?

          “all she’s done is ask questions, right?”

          HEARING THE WOMAN DEFEND lilith results in palpable disappointment ghosting onto the gladiator’s face. as if hope has been bled from her, reminding athena of her own mortality. everything seems to be heading down a very specific road & it’s not one with a happy ending. on pandora, killing someone usually happens without much thought -- the same holds true even for athena, so perhaps it’s just for her to die at the hands of a grieving vault hunter after all. “ for now, yes. “ she replies quietly. 

               “ -- but she’s going to kill me. i can see it in her eyes; you start picking up on those kinds of things in my line of work. “

“He’s a bartender, or something! Nose ring? Pointy hair? You can’t tell me, you’ve been hanging in Hollow Point and you have no idea who I’m talking about.”