#Siren lore is a bit wack

[borderlandsthirst]

Song of Sisterhood

Tiora isn’t like almost everyone else, it’s said that awakening your siren powers is traumatic, or causes trauma. For Tiora, it was both. When she acquired Steele’s powers, it was in the middle of the night in her bunk, she felt a burning sensation crawling up her left arm and spreading over her chest and back. Her gasp of pain awoke a few of her bunkmates, there was nothing they could do, they couldn’t identify the cause of her agony. But when they saw tattoos etching they’re way across her skin it was too late, the devasting pain erupted from her body in a furious blast of energy, disintegrating everyone in the bunk.  

The explosion woke the rest of the camp, in the mist of the debris stood Tiora, left arm covered in siren marks and unscathed, there was no way for her to explain what happened or how. Not like she was given a chance, as soon as their eyes landed on her arm they were shooting, Tiora had no choice but to flee the place she called home for years, that night left her mentally and emotionally scared.

Years of fighting in the military already left her wounded in more ways than one, but being chased out of Tediore, the only thing she’s known for years, broke her more.  

But there is something new for her to hang onto, the song of the sisterhood, what it is she can’t say, but it pulls her without her even knowing it. The sisterhood is where all sirens belong, it is a safe place, it is a place not only of belonging, but love. If she can find the sisterhood she won’t be as miserable anymore.

There are two reasons Tiora goes to Pandora, to find her brother, and to find the sisterhood, she isn’t aware of the second reason, not yet anyway. Meeting Lilith and Maya changed her life, she had a new family, even after losing Roland, she still had the sisterhood and the other Crimson Raiders. She wasn’t alone, and Roland was watching over her from somewhere.  

The years passed and Tiora started to feel whole again, even though her new family was very odd, she loved them like blood, she was still heartbroken about Angel, but as long as she, Maya, and Lilith stuck together, they would be fine.

But Hector had to come and attack Sanctuary, she doesn’t even know how the hell they got up there but they  started turning the civilians into plant mutants and that’s when shit really hit the fan.  

The journey to get back to Sanctuary was a long one, but it was all in vain, Hector refused to die so Lilith teleported everyone away, the only option for defeating Hector was blowing him up, and the city along with him. She thought she lost Lilith but she PhasedWalked back to them, relief was all she could feel.

After that the Crimson Raiders split off into groups to look for the Vault key and for other vaults on different planets. Tiora stayed on Pandora to help find Pandora’s vault key/map and strengthen their forces, training isn’t easy when you have only the slack-jaw, disease-ridden inhabitance of a dry up, crusty planet. She does her best to stay patient and positive, it doesn’t always work though.

As time went on Tiora form her own group of soldiers to seek out the vault map for Lilith, training and growing her powers as she fended off the sudden appearance of the COV, but to be honest. She felt a little bad for all these people, the longer she stayed on Pandora the more she learned about the bandits and their life before the madness. Just normal people who worked for corporations that didn’t give a damn about them, just cannon fodder to be tossed aside once they’re no longer useful, just human trash.

But Tiora fought on, if they attacked her, she killed them, there was no other option. But they were growing in numbers, no matter how many she killed they just kept coming, they even started building camps across the borderlands, and statues of two E-thots she didn’t know. It didn’t matter, if she sees them, she’ll kill them and move along.

But the COV grew every day in strength, and one by one her crew was picked off until was the only one left. She never stayed hidden though, she just kept fucking everyone up left and right so everyone would fear her. But they apparently feared the wrath of someone name Tyreen Calypso more.

It wasn’t until months into this battle that Tiora caught her first glimpse of a Livescream, both Troy and Tyreen Calypso stood on a deck as they watched their followers tear civilians and themselves apart for these fake Gods amusement. As soon as she saw them the song of the Sisterhood rang throughout her head, they were both sirens, Troy song was weaker, but he was still one, nonetheless.

But these two were twisted, disgusting little masochist who needed to be stopped. She didn’t want to kill them, just “dethrone” them. But there was no way she could do that alone. She’d need her family, luckily Lilith needed her too, although it took a while to get to her, Tiora rejoined the CR and set about her journey from Pandora to Promethea.

There’s actually way more to this but I had to get something out before I left, since I’m a slow writer it might take me til tomorrow to finish this. So here you go, Happy early New Year since it’s still a few hours left for me.

[border-spam]

Maw is rlly good but I personally like the idea of Troy having his skag-mouth as a birth defect from Tyreen leeching him in the womb. Makes for more sibling/family drama, which I inhale like a gas-huffer.

I’m here for drama, yesss. Would actually love to see this idea being used! There is so much there for doing juicy shit with the twins, at the end of the day, both of the nasty little shits are abominations from a galactic power standpoint, so why not go wild with the monster aspect, eh?

My own worldbuilding brain is funky though. Part of why I enjoy doing dives into characters and lore so much, is that I love finding ways to make things make sense, and Troy existing at all in Borderlands does not make any.

So something lots of folks mentioned pre-release was that if the twins were going to be conjoined, they would have to be the same sex. It’s just not medically feasible to have xy/xx conjoined twins as they come from the same embryo split in two but not fully. The only option was they could be chimeric but that didn’t really suit what we were seeing either.

I remember that causing a wave cause holy shit, were we going to get a trans villain and could anyone trust GB to handle that without it being a trainwreck? I’m still happy they used word of god instead cause oof. I don’t want to think of how that could have gone down considering how both these characters ended up being used within the plot anyway. 

That means my smooth, analytically obsessed brain has to come up with other explanations for the absolute fuckery that is the Calypso twins and how the hell they exist in the first place when they couldn’t have formed conjoined, and that’s one of the reasons I couldn’t use this kind of extra fun shit like a natural monster mouth being why it’s so heavily modded. I needed to try and fix Troy so he... made sense to me. 

Bit of a medical dive into the absolute state of this man under the cut:

We end up with two fraternal twins.

Not identical in the slightest and very noticeable about that in their appearance. It’s not just the height difference, Tyreen’s undercut is dark brown, not Troy’s inky black. Their facial shapes vary massively and not just due to hormones, Ty’s eyes have a cheeky lil’ cat eye slope while Troy’s are sadder, leaning downwards at the outside curve. There’s very little to actually make them even look like siblings bar their colouration, but we still have what we know:

They were born conjoined, Troy had to be cut from Tyreen, and that’s likely why he has one arm.

Keep in mind his arm is literally never mentioned once in BL3. Not ONCE. No one ever references the twin’s childhoods bar Troy, so we actually have no idea if the arm loss is even related to being conjoined. 

We just all HC’d that as a fandom with no evidence, not even a hint of information regarding this was provided and I think that’s something we forget about often enough as it’s so widely accepted Troy was born without his right arm. Actually strange to think about that, ain’t it?

But I’m rambling - so, I figured we have two fraternal twins, sharing some kind of horrific all consuming monster entity power between them. One can do fuck all bar embarrass himself and faint, and the other can’t STOP her power functioning to the point she can’t touch anything without consuming it.. so my idiot worldbuilding brain says “Hey. Well, that’s clearly what happened then. They were in the same womb, she started to consume him.” Logic. 

Logic works for me, so it stuck. 

Made sense that it’s how he’s a Siren at all when the entire cosmos has said Sirens are women, he’s one because the power that was consuming him filled his little body enough to see him as itself, so it stopped - leaving the developing twins joined, and half of Troy’s torso lost to Tyreen.

I can’t justify much else to my fact hungry thought processes, the skag mouth wouldn’t work for me because I can’t fit it in, him being a natural Siren doesn’t work for me cause it can’t fit either, but it does open an avenue of logic for my brain to start following down, and that’s why in Leech Lord, Troy is so desperately unwell. 

Growing up barely having survived being consumed in utero is not going to go very well when you’ve no medical assistance living on a shitty little dirthole planet with your dad.

Damaged organs from The Leech feeding as he grew, out of wack hormones ravaging a body that couldn’t really regulate them correctly in puberty leading to massive growth spurts and bone structure issues, no proper nutrition, starving half the time as his size outpaced the amount of food he and Typhon could scavenge, it all comes together into a very delicate health balance. 

We already know Troy is very unwell at times from what we see ingame, it made sense to me, so I ran with this line. 

He’s sick when he doesn’t want to be, he’s weak when it’s an embarrassment to the character role he’s playing. He covers himself in tattoos and aggressive mods to try and combat looking delicate, so he can lie to himself that he’s not pitiful and bolster his fragile ego. The massive, hulking prosthetic is there to MAKE you look at it. A way of proving how unashamed he is of the damage to his right side, and it works. 

The gullible believe, the stupid remain easy to control, and billions see him as a God, rather than the truth - that he’s a very sick, very delicate man.

A lot of what I do with Troy is there to support the underlaying character I’ve tried to write for him in some desperate attempt to try and make the bastard have some logical excuse to exist in the first place. 

If I’d gone down the route of having his Maw be something that wasn’t self inflicted, I would have gone off track with the direction I was taking him in, even though I am WEAK for that kind of monster level shit.. Mmm. 

I remember being asked:

Would troy have gotten the face mod if Seifa hadnt left?

[battlestar-royco]

here is part 2 of my sci fi recs masterlist! again, i could’ve gone on with even more recs but i decided to draw the line here. this set for the most part errs on the darker side, thematically, visually, conceptually etc. i personally find it super thought-provoking and intriguing but that’s just me. i highly recommend reading the tw under the cut if you’re thinking of watching, especially the matrix and space gothic slides. please view at your discretion <3

part 1/2

If you like WLW (um idk why I only made this slide based on identity; it just kinda happened lmao but I think it works):

Siren: (tw: parent loss, grief, thalassophobia) a mermaid surfaces in a cove town looking for her lost sister. Polyamorous relationship between a man, a black/indigenous woman, and the mermaid!!!! Environmentalism! As a person who has thalassophobia, I didn’t find this too hard to watch. There aren’t that many underwater scenes, thankfully.

Black Mirror: San Junipero: (tw: grief, but otherwise none that I recall; it’s pretty lighthearted) two women meet in a beach resort in the 80s and fall in love. Interracial wlw!

Orphan Black: (tw: suicide, infertility, rape implication, VB, language, drug use) a woman realizes she is one of several clones and uncovers an elaborate corporate conspiracy. This is one of my personal favorites with great rep of complex women of all ages and bodily autonomy. Several central queer characters and a black male secondary character!

Starfish: (tw: grief, a few jump scares and brief monstrous imagery, blood) after the death of her best friend, a young woman breaks into the deceased’s apartment and discovers a chain of music tapes that could save the world. Weird, subtle, and experimental. Not to sound like a surfer but you kinda have to allow yourself to be in the vibe. The main character and her friend were definitely a thing imo.

Annihilation: (tw: body horror, VB, disturbing imagery) a team of women scientists explore an anomaly that rapidly mutates genes. There are canonical and coded wlw and multiple (light-skinned) POC in this but the rep is short-lived. I put it on because although it should’ve been more ambitious with the casting, I think it breaks *some* ground for Hollywood sci fi with the all-woman team and more than one WOC. Wack ending though.

Mad Max: Fury Road: (tw: rape implication, violence) I think everyone knows about this one but: in the apocalypse, a woman breaks 4 younger women out of a harem. A badass car chase across the desert ensues. A bit light on plot/worldbuilding, but sooooo cool-looking and very thematic!!!!

If you liked STRANGER THINGS:

It: (tw: VB) don’t actually watch this lmao I’m serious. It’s really stupid, and not in a funny way. But I do think Stranger Things was inspired by this story overall. The modern It films are better but they’re also really kjslsklskls stupid? Stephen King in general is obsolete imo.

The Thing: (tw: VB) an alien that can take the form of others wreaks havoc on a scientific facility in Antarctica. It’s dark and vibey, but I feel like it’s just Alien in Antarctica with truly terrible special effects tbh?? Others feel differently. It’s also classified as sci fi/horror, so stay away if you’re easily scared! Not too good on representation.

Super 8: (tw: some language) a group of preteens witnesses an alien-caused train crash as they’re filming a home movie. Not diverse but I definitely think it inspired a lot of sci fi for the 2010s, ESPECIALLY Stranger Things. Not too scary either!

ET: (tw: it’s been a really long time since I watched so I don’t remember but it’s rated PG) I think everyone knows what this is about!

Alien: (tw: VB) truckers in space discover a deadly evolving alien. One of my favorite movies of all time! I love the aesthetic and the mood and worldbuilding so much. Ellen Ripley is one of the first Final Girls in the horror genre. I personally found this more of a sci fi than a horror movie but I’d say stay away if you’re nervous!!

Terminator: (tw: VB) a deadly android is sent to kill a woman who’s destined to birth the man who saves the world. Terminator 2 is way better imo because it centers on Sarah rather than the dudes saving her and trying to kill her. But it’s still worth a watch, you know, for the culture.

If you liked CONTAGION:

War of the Worlds: (tw: blood) pretty straightforward aliens come to Earth to take over. Sorry to rec another T*m Cruise movie but I really like the alien design and the apocalypsey feel of this one. Baby Dakota Fanning is in it too!

Falling Skies: (tw: VB, body horror, rape) alien invasion yada yada but the alien lore gets more interesting as it goes on. It’s kind of cheesy and yeah maybe I did discover it by looking up the iCarly boyfriend (and what about it??) but it’s nice to have on in the downtime. An Asian woman co-stars.

Knowing: (tw: blood) school students unearth a time capsule that contains a sheet from a girl who predicted all the tragic world events between 1959-2009. This is NOT a good movie but it’s SO hilarious to me because of the acting and contrivances. Fun to group-watch!!!!

10 Cloverfield Lane: (tw: VB, emotional abuse) a woman wakes up in a bunker to a captor who tells her that the world has fallen to alien apocalypse. I think this movie elevates the original Cloverfield in pretty much every way. Again, super tense and moody. The conflict revolves around whether or not the captor is being truthful.

Train to Busan: (tw: extreme VB and disturbing imagery) a man and his daughter are on a train when a zombie hops on at the last minute. It’s Korean with an all-Asian cast; Choi Woo-shik co-stars. I definitely wouldn’t watch if you’re scared of blood and gore. It’s very gross and violent.

12 Monkeys: (tw: ableism, violence) a man from the 2030s is sent back to the 1990s to prevent the plague that will end the world. I think the aesthetics of this are really cool but otherwise it’s not a favorite. But I think it appeals to people who like apocalypse and time travel stuff!

If you liked THE MATRIX:

Strange Days: (tw: rape, sex, nudity, VB, racism, police brutality) memories can be saved to hard-drives and sold on the black market for exorbitant prices. Very problematic and triggering presentation of rape, but young Angela Basset stars and there’s a condemnation of police brutality that’s still relevant 20+ years after its release.

Upgrade: (tw: ableism, VB, fridging) a disabled man installs an AI in his spine to help him move and investigate the murder of his wife. The premise is glaringly ableist and I feel weird even recommending it tbh but it’s got great visuals and a few good twists.

Altered Carbon: (tw: VB, weird interracial body switching, uhhh I haven’t finished this one IDK) in a society where human bodies are interchangeable, a man wakes up in a new body after 300 years of his mind being dormant. A Latina woman co-stars, two Asian characters in a subplot, a few other POC here and there as well. I think season 2 stars a black man.

eXistenZ: (tw: VB, anti-Asian racism, general weirdness? IDK it’s hard to describe. There are guns made out of bones and weirdly sexual visuals.) after someone tries to assassinate her, a video game designer and her bodyguard must play through her virtual reality game in order to save the only copy of the game.

Minority Report: (tw: VB, eye removal/insertion) all crimes are predicted and criminals reported before they are committed. The main character is preemptively accused of murder. This one is really white but it was one of the first movies that got me into sci fi. Early 2000s Colin Farrell <3.

If you liked WESTWORLD:

Humans: (tw: uncanny valley, objectification) androids are household helpers and public assistants throughout Britain until one day they start developing consciences. It hits a lot of the themes of Westworld without all the unnecessary pretentiousness, “edginess,” and “grittiness,” and it stars Gemma Chan and Colin Morgan!!

Blade Runner 2049: (^) an android is ordered to find and kill a human/android hybrid. It’s not without its issues but it’s one of my favorite movies of all time, right up there with Alien. So beautiful, so thematic, so thought-provoking (to me, anyway. I know a lot of people thought it was way too slow).

Ex Machina: (^) a man is invited to a private estate to help test the intelligence of an android. It’s kind of predictable imo but you know Oscar Isaac and Sonoya Mizuno are in it so we have to stan, and so is Domhnall Gleeson, for the SW fans! I like how isolated and quiet it feels.

I Am Mother: (tw: blood, gaslighting) after an extinction event, a young woman is raised by a lone android in a human repopulation facility until one day a woman knocks. It starts off slow and a bit generic, but I’m obsessed with the 2nd and 3rd acts of this movie---good acting, dialogue, and fantastic visuals. It has that same isolated feel as Ex Machina with only three characters, all of which are women/woman-coded!!!

If you liked ALIEN (space gothic):

Battlestar Galactica (2004-2008 reboot): (tw: genocide, war, colonization, VB, uncanny valley, rape, infidelity) space opera that follows humanity as it fights the ever-evolving and powerful enemy of their own creation: androids named Cylons. Um? I  L O V E  THIS SHOW SO MUCH and I truly do think it’s everything sci fi should be. There is a really unfortunate Miss Saigon-esque romance plot in season 1 and a lazily-written love triangle involving a black woman in season 3, but otherwise it’s one of my all-time favorites and I highly recommend. It’ll spin your mind and tug your heartstrings for years.

Black Mirror: Men Against Fire: (tw: genocide, war, nudity) soldiers in the near future protect citizens from mutant zombies, but one soldier starts experiencing strange hallucinations in the field. This is such an underrated Black Mirror episode starring a black man. There’s brief objectification of a black woman but it’s very anti-military and it has an interesting sterile aesthetic that reminds me of Alien.

High Life: (tw: rape, black holes/space anxiety, very disturbing) prisoners are given the option to join a space expedition and serve as experimental subjects en route to a black hole. Please please stay away if you are triggered by sexual violence of any kind. There’s almost no physical violence in this movie but it’s psychologically haunting imo.

The Faculty: (tw; VB, drug use) high schoolers discover their teachers are being possessed by an invading alien race. I LOVE THIS MOVIE LMFAOOOO. The cast is SO wild---Elijah Wood, John Oliver, Usher, Salma Hayek, Josh Hartnett??? And I’m probably forgetting more. The combination of the cast, the terrible dialogue, and shitty special effects is PEAK comedy imo. But bear in mind it’s bloody!!

Prometheus: (tw: body horror, VB, uncanny valley) a crew of scientists heads on a deep space mission to find the aliens who created the human race. A prequel to Alien, but I kind of view it as its own thing. Despite the plot holes, I love this movie too! It was one of my sci fi gateways and the visuals are stunning. It’s pretty gory though so if that’s not your thing stay away.

Life: (tw: extreme VB) a lesser Alien, but it provides all the space gothic tropes (jokey crew, shots of space, really pretty spaceship, everyone dies, creepy alien) with a well-known cast---Gyllenhaal, Reynolds, etc.

The X Files: (tw: a few episodes contain 90s racism, sexism, queerphobia etc but you can skip them) a lot of people have watched this so I barely have to explain, but it’s one of my favorites. Two FBI agents investigate multiple aliens and get involved in government conspiracies along the way. A good gateway!

A Quiet Place: (tw: child loss, VB, tension) I think most people know what this is about too. Alien apocalypse with aliens that hunt by sound. The daughter in the family is deaf, and so is the actress who portrays her. The representation of deafness was critically acclaimed.

[semi-imaginary-place]

bell blue mage is going the stage performer route. martyn was suuupeer sketchy at the beginning but the inadvertently spread a deadly plague to which the people have no resistance to is oof. im just going to overlook the magical native americans thing and keep going. that new lv40 quest dude is also totally going to backstab us

*wack wack wack* this was pretty funny tho

the somnus flowers was a nice touch as it explains why martyn is paying through the nose for not much result. somnus flowers seem to be inspired by opium (which is from poppy flowers) and opiods are used to treat people though mostly as supportive care and pain relief, it isn’t an antibiotic.

machinist 50-60: ok joye marrying and disappearing is super suspicious.

ok so ishgard has gendered labor. The fact that its expected for women to quit their jobs after marriage means that women are less likely to be promoted and would struggle to hold careers.

the girls are fighting.

I wasn’t quite convinced when i heard everyone talking about the gay hw bard npcs. but wow they really are having a lover’s spat. the longing. the romantic tension is so thick i could cut it into blocks with a knife and sell it as cheap building material.

this entire questline really is just you third wheeling for their romance/drama. which conceptually is quite funny. they were a little cheesy but decent. guydelot and sanson makeup and we beat the siren with the power of song. just look at the way these two idiots look at each other. disgusting.

I’m neutral on the headpieces, but even though this outfit doesn’t seem very popular, I like it. also the head piece is funny because between aurele’s hair and this head wrap dipping over his right eye, he can’t see anything. time to become the ultimate black mage

yeah so this dude is alive after all. like bruhh. not cool. someone is dead because of your antics. solkzagyl then goes on about some bullshit about pitting paladins against each other to strengthen their resolve or something. the “it was to make you stronger” bs and how through fighting the two apprentice’s souls will destroy each other unless we fight and we’re doing all this to prove someone worthy of the old paladin heirloom sword and

yeah. me too.

so i was quite happy to punch solkzagyl’s face in. can’t believe i was sad when i thought he was dead.

glad we’re on the same page.

true and yet I just spent the last 10 levels being manipulated into getting that sword to shine.

I had high hopes for the hw paladin quests but i can’t believe seeing jenlyns was the highlight of it. either this questline was a bit of a mess or it was trying to pull a drakengard by making the player hate playing and im not sure which it is. a lot of the dialogue for the last quest is a clear criticism of solkzagyl but im also not sure i trust the writers that much.

yeah see the writers might have been trying to go for a “its the journey not the destination” thing but then it got muddled.

I also finished the black mage quests. I don’t have strong feelings about it. I enjoyed the little lore tidbits sprinkled in there as well as lailai snarking. It was funny though since I was a level 50-55 white mage while doing these quests.

godbert is at it again apparently

ok this honestly surprised me. not the crossover i was expecting.