#dadford at it again beloved. two paragraphs later: sufford at it again the dumbass

[riftwalker-limbro]

intermission - Resignation

masterpost

---

Your leg is the same, no?

The same as a warframe’s repaired-as-best-as-possible scars, that would never heal further, that would always cause him some level of pain.

It had been weighing heavily on Kelth’s mind, the past few days. They were pressed with their nose to the fact every morning since that first transference tryout, as they and Vince tried to figure out his abilities together. They didn’t practise proper transference - Kelth wasn’t going to try that again unless he specifically asked for it, and even then - but it was more like just hanging out together, seeing if they could spot the things he missed, to help prevent him from making mistakes. It wasn’t full transference, but it was still enough to make their knee sting in sympathy on his bad days.

Ordis had said he didn’t think Sufford would mind it if Kelth got a proper fitted cane - and when they’d asked Sufford to come along with them for this, he’d agreed enthusiastically. They couldn’t just go in Sufford for this, as on their more-limited-than-usual budget, it wouldn’t be wise to just eyeball any random cane. Kelth was nervous about going out as themself, not particularly used to it, but plenty of tenno walked around relays as they were, next to their warframes or without entirely. It would be fine.

The relay was busy, with many unfamiliar noises and faces, but Sufford stuck to them like glue, and once in the store, they forgot to be nervous - they’d had no ideas canes could look like that, or that, or have this-

The clerks were nice and helpful, and after what felt like barely ten minutes, they had found out what type of cane worked best for them. They paid for a basic model as they listened to knee brace recommendations and looked at the fancy ones from the corner of their eye. They’d have to be back once their wallet was looking better.

The current state of their funds didn’t stop them from trying to be thrifty and pulling Sufford along to the flea-market-y section of the relay, where they proceeded to dig through piles and piles of rubbish until Sufford poked them and pointed them at a pile of rocks which looked at first entirely ordinary. After one quick once-over with their focus abilities, they turned a wide-eyed look to Sufford, telling him all he needed to know to go bargain for them with the shopkeep. Afterwards, though they were vibrating with energy from all the excitement, Sufford managed to herd Kelth back to the Liset without any further incidents or purchases. 

—

Once back on the Orbiter, Ordis concluded that these were void relics, and they might contain treasures much greater than the price they’d paid for them - and they’d been seeing them laying around on missions, too. They’d have to pay attention and grab them next time they saw one. After a short hour of research, Kelth was much too full of energy to sit still anymore, and together with Sufford, they went out to see if they could crack one of these relics and see what was inside.

Right as they stepped out of the Liset, they could tell something was off - the air itself was crackling, felt ready to snap. Sufford was apprehensive about it, so Kelth forced themself to calm down and not rush him through this.

Slowly, they moved through the base, sniping enemy soldiers as they popped up. Sufford was uneasy about the difference in the air, so Kelth was on guard, as well. They’d read that the relic needed to be exposed to the void energy in the air here, but they weren’t entirely sure how to get it out-

A distance in front of them, a small hole in reality suddenly tore open. Sufford froze in surprise and nearly fumbled his next step, while Kelth was too awestruck to at first really pay attention to what it was doing to the void relic. Then, the enemies came through the tear.

Once they were dispatched, they inspected the dusty rock in Sufford’s belt-pocket, only to find that it was no longer dusty, and did in fact look like it had absorbed some of the energy from the fissure - it was humming softly, but not showing any signs of breaking open just yet.

“We’ve gotta find another,” Kelth said, excitedly. Sufford agreed, but he sounded short, pulling them out of it a little bit.

“What is it?” they asked, taken aback.

“We should finish this up quickly,” he said. “This is unpredictable matter.”

“You’re right,” they said. They’d celebrate their victory back on the Orbiter.

Two steps further, another fissure burst, this time right in front of them. Sufford’s shoulder flared up bright with pain - it felt as though it had burst apart along with the patch of reality in front of them, as though the Stalker’s blade had been driven through it anew. A quick check told Kelth he wasn’t bleeding - had he just been hit by some debris from that? There wasn’t-

Sufford staggered back, rifle falling to the ground as his right arm suddenly dropped to hang limply by his side. Enemies were coming through the fissure, but Sufford wasn’t ready. Halfway taking control, Kelth had him raise his pistol with his left hand and clear out the handful of hostiles, picking them off one by one, running between various crates to duck behind.

After the last one had fallen and they couldn’t detect any others coming to their location, he holstered the pistol and picked up the rifle again with his left hand. His right arm was still immobile, sending regular shocks of pain through his system, strong enough that Kelth could pick up on them. “To extraction?” he asked, strained. Kelth agreed. The relic wasn’t worth it.

—

The Helminth had scoffed at him when he had entered its room. No work to be done, it had said. No damage it hadn’t already fixed up earlier.

Sufford had admitted that the scarred-over injury was likely what had caused it - why exactly it had flared up so badly in proximity to void fissures, they could only guess. He also explained how it caused various other low-grade troubles for him, but none so bad that they’d ever impede the mission, so he hadn’t thought it very important to bring up. With a great and tired sense of déjà-vu, Kelth had scolded him for that one, and themself for not connecting the dots on this one earlier, too. It seems they’d been missing a lot of stuff, recently, and they were just going to give up on hoping they’d catch it all going forwards. It was important to remember that their best was all they could do.

The other important thing was that they were going to avoid void fissures like the plague. They might be able to strike up a deal with Kali about the ones they had gotten now and might find in the future, because they were still interested in the results from it, but they just wouldn’t be the ones cracking them open. That was alright by Kelth - not always being on the front lines suited them just fine.

Well, it was looking like they were a club of three now, together with Vince. A lot had changed in a short time, but they felt more settled now, more sure of themself and their team of two warframes.

Kelth couldn’t wait to see what was gonna mess it up next.