#the-tenno-tripped

[leolithe]

Lotus goes to 1999 and her alias is Lin/Lynn as another reference to Lynn Margulis

I think they have a lot of fun with the fashion of the era too... Natah is very quiet in the headspace because she's downloading eeeeverything there is to know about 1999

[aquamarignis]

DAE think that Kalymos is a little too "sagacious"? + some theories about Albrecht's behavior

I'm as much a cat person as Albrecht the rest of us, and I know for a fact that a cat can be smarter than me. I lived it.

But isn't she a little too smart for a cat, even for a Kavat? A little too evolved?

What we know by now:

She almost never leaves Albrecht's side. She was even in the room with him when he took his bad trip to the Void. She even tried warning him that something was wrong, he just got it too late (ha!)

We know of exactly one instance where she is without him: it's her leading us to poor Arthur's Kinepage. She's all alone and seems to know perfectly well where she's going. And Albrecht may either be completely unaware of this incident, or know exactly what is happening.

She wakes Arthur up in the metro (Whispers in the Walls) on her own. But then seems unable to do anything else besides just sitting and watching, by which point "Albrecht" has arrived already.

We can also remember Loid telling us that Kalymos must have been long dead by now and that Albrecht has likely cloned her unbeknownst to the family. We don't know when exactly it has happened, though.

The name of the Kalymos Sequence.

By the time Albrecht takes the one-way trip to 1999, he is well aware of the fact that his consciousness is slowly but surely getting eaten away by Wally (just like his labs are).

We even have a way to measure it: his voice records.

The Requiem diaries in Necralisk. Clear, well-thought-out speech full of metaphors, with a cadence of someone used to giving speeches (you know, like an experienced speaker, lector, etc).

You can hear that some sentences are left hanging which is usually a trait of autistic-coded characters (i.e. Spencer Reed). But other than that he's well-spoken and knows his rhetorical devices.

Whispers in the Walls. Namely, the Pom records and the Grimoire page. He's already staggering here, in places where he shouldn't. The intonation changes it places where it shoudn't. Not normally. And you can hear some vowels starting to stretch where they weren't before. And his voice starts dropping where it didn't before.

"Arthur? Tenno? ... Hmm. Forgive me. I... need... Loid... to- understand why I had to leave. Without... him."

It's already noticeably hard for him to speak. Like he's fighting something at every step. It sounds like either he was piecing it together from several attempts, or like it was read by different individuals.

Albrecht's Notes in the Sanctum are a bit lighter case of the above. The speech is still rich, but the fight has already started.

And then the City Wide Metro Voicemail. By this point, nothing remains of the Albrecht who was dictating the Requiem notes. The voice is coarse, rough, slow. Every word comes with a push, almost like a mockery of what was before. He's hammering it in, without regard to intonation, punctuation and sometimes meaning. The wording becomes quite peculiar, too.

What do you think about my failsafe against this old, dead end experiment? I do not have time to care who you are or why you stumbled into this unsavory business? Your reality? Your species? This is already so different from what we've heard before that I would never say this is the same person. More like stranded, estranged twins.

And then, obviously, the infamous You Are Late which sounds exactly the same as the above.

...However, the law of conservation tells us that nothing can disappear without a trace. So if Albrecht's body is occupied by Wally, – where is Albrecht?

What if he did have a failsafe?

Just, as he himself said, "let it parody them [animals]"? He would never put Kalymos in harm's way, that's true. He mentions it in the same note.

But she was supposed to be dead at least at one point. What if back then he made a last-ditch effort to protect both their consciousnesses and souls by forming this union, not unlike Transference which he was so fascinated with?

What if it was him waking Arthur up, leading us to connecting with him, and eventually assisting us in joining forces to trap Wally and bring him down?

What if the point of the Kalymos Sequence is that the missing piece of Albrecht is now Kalymos?

[tauforged]

do you have any tips for someone who wants to get into warframe for the first time?

- don’t start with the duviri/drifter quest when given the option. it’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but it will be very confusing and you won’t revisit any of the stuff that’s touched upon until way way later in the game. start off in the origin system, the story progresses a lot more naturally from that start point. i don’t really know why they made this an option.

- you dont HAVE to buy platinum. they start you off with like 50 i think? it’s not necessary for anything aside from buying additional warframe/weapon slots. everything else is cosmetic or optional. you can get mroe plat later on by trading with other players (if you do want to buy plat for cosmetics or whatever, i recommend waiting until you get a discount as your daily login bonus. iirc they range from 25, 50, or 75% off. they’re pretty much entirely random though so don’t feel obligated to use one if you do get it and don’t need plat at the moment so it goes to waste. you’ll get another)

- even if you decide you don’t like a weapon you end up crafting, you’ll be better off if you level it up to the maximum rank (30) before selling it rather than trashing it outright, that way you won’t have to go back and get it again later on in the game in order to complete it. the more stuff you level in full, the faster you progress through mastery ranks, and some stuff is mastery rank locked so you’re gonna wanna pay attention to your progress.

- you’re gonna wanna join a clan as soon as possible. you can find some via the recruiting channel, or probably by asking around on social media, idk. i started my own (not recommended unless you’ve got a group of friends you can rally or feel like recruiting to fill out your ranks in order to actually get stuff done) so i don’t really know what the clan recruiting scene looks like. having access to a clan dojo makes life a lot easier (and can make finding people to play with less of a hassle too)

- the story itself doesn’t really pick up steam until you start the ‘natah’ quest. in between the start and there, you’ll mostly be doing a lot of running around trying to familiarize yourself with the setting and playing catch-up. don’t worry too much about all the stuff they throw at you all at once. almost all the quests are replayable through your codex if you ever want to refresh your memory, and for those that aren’t, the wiki is… usually a pretty decent source as far as summaries go. i’d take it with a grain of salt though.

- this one especially tripped my sister up so i’m gonna touch on it: you’re going to be required to do the ‘heart of deimos’ quest in order to progress past mars on the star chart. IMHO, this quest REALLY should not be mandatory so early on in the game — you aren’t going to be able to make heads or tails of anything anyone is telling you. don’t be afraid to breeze thru it w/o paying much attention and circle back around later in the game, preferably sometime after you finish the war within or at LEAST the second dream. i genuinely don’t know why they’re throwing baby tenno to the wolves on this one. just know it’ll all make sense later i prommy

- don’t worry too much about the open world areas like the orb vallis, the plains of eidolon, or the cambion drift at first. they’re very cool (and you’ll be introduced to them via their respective quests) but they can be overwhelming to new players and the difficulty spike might be frustrating, especially before you’ve unlocked a majority of the tools available to you.

- this game has been ongoing for over ten years at this point - there’s a LOT going on. take your time progressing at a comfortable pace. don’t be afraid to ask around for help if you’re stuck on something or getting frustrated trying to farm a specific part or material.

- if people try to talk down on you for being a lower mastery rank or w/e they’re literally just being an asshole. MR isn’t indicative of skill so much as it is a representation of how much gear you’ve leveled, which is basically just an indicator of how much time you’ve spent playing - a chimp smacking a keyboard can feasibly hit legendary after enough attempts. you’re fine. hell, i’ve been here since 2013 and i’m only MR 19 LMAO

- the ‘meta’ for this game is wildly subjective due to the vast customizability of builds. take everyone’s opinions with several grains of salt and don’t be afraid to experiment on your own to see what works for you

- dont read general chat. it’s not worth it. nobody in there is as funny as they think they are

- the most important part of being a tenno is having fun and being yourself :)

[alteredsilicone]

Midsummer Love

June 27, 1999.

The pastry from the baker was a little bit stale, but the strawberry filling was just the right amount of sweet, if a little sticky. Albrecht had suggested they buy the sweet pastry and now he and the Drifter sat on a park bench on a sunny June afternoon, eating in contemplative silence. When she first caught up with the Orokin, at least a hundred 1999’s ago, his fondness for sweets came as a surprise, but eventually Virgo put two and two together - the Sanctum had an abundance of sugared biscuit tins, yet Loid never offered them during tea time. Virgo didn’t complain about the sweet pastry, however. It was a little respite after Midsummer madness. She had ignored the Scholar’s teachings and advice many times, but perhaps, just this once, she could indulge him.

A curious thought wandered into her mind.

"What kind of pastry does Loid like?"

Silence. Albrecht chewed his treat and looked inside it, as if the answer could be divined from the strawberry jam.

"We would usually eat the same thing. I ate what he liked."

"Or did he pick out something that you liked and made himself like it too?"

Silence. Albrecht stopped eating, a third of a pastry still in his hand. He stared off into the distance, his gaze turned away from the Drifter.

In Duviri, when the Jester asked a question she wasn’t supposed to, the Scholar would lead her to the exit of his laboratory, sometimes grabbing her by the scruff to not-so-gently lead her onwards. Now there was no way to get rid of her, nowhere to run either, so Albrecht chose silence. He sat there like a statue and kept staring, surely captivated by the pigeons bathing in the nearby fountain. Virgo waited, the summer days were long and she would not enable his bad habits. She was no Loid, bound by duty to endure his silent treatment.

"You don't know." Virgo spoke up. It was as simple as that.

No answer. Albrecht didn’t even turn his gaze to her. The pigeons flew away.

“I don’t know.” It felt like a lifetime had passed once Albrecht finally spoke.

Pathetic.

Virgo was no longer hungry. She hastily discarded the remains of her snack.

Disgusting. Wretched little man. Do you even care?

A knot in her stomach. Nausea.

Loid. Loid, however. He is good and soft and kind. He deserves better than me.

The Drifter jumped up from the bench and walked a few good meters away from Albrecht, until the nausea retreated and the knot in her stomach dissipated. She swung her arms, stretched her legs, as if she had suddenly remembered there was a marathon due in a few days and she needed to prepare. She focused her mind on the fountain, then on the trees and then started counting the tiles on the pavement. Eventually, all foreign thoughts left her.

No more stupid questions, Scholar. Got it.

Albrecht finally stood up and turned his attention to the Drifter. The remains of the pastry were thrown in a waste bin by the bench.

"Tenno. We should go."

---

The sixth cycle of Sol, xxxx.

Virgo watched as Loid tapped at the terminal, logging her most recent trip to 1999. Another doomed timeline, stopped sometime in November, due to a very stupid mistake.

There was a door. A door meant a gateway, often to Duviri, sometimes to the Deep Void. What Virgo had not anticipated was the infestation, lunging at her and Albrecht as the door flung open. By the time she could react, Albrecht was already pulled inside, the door had closed and disappeared into the ether. Then there was a moment of oblivion and she woke up in the Sanctum again.

“Another death. I logged it in Albrecht’s report. The next one’s on you.”

Loid worked tirelessly and diligently. Virgo knew how hard it was for him to watch her fail again and again. To watch his love die over and over again, with no way to help him. He had to trust the Chosen Operator, he had to trust the Sequence and most importantly, he had to trust Albrecht.

Loid was good and soft and kind.

She felt safe in his presence, calm. It was strange. Virgo did like Loid, despite the rocky beginning of their acquaintance. She found a way to endear herself to him, find common ground. He seemed to find some respite in having someone who also remembered the long lost past of the Orokin Empire. They would talk of symposiums and menial work in the laboratory - Loid quite enjoyed her tales of the Virmink domestication programs in the Orb Vallis laboratories. Virgo did her best to entertain him, to take his mind from the Kalymos Sequence, if only for a moment.

This sense of safety, however, was a new sensation.

My strength, my support, my sanctuary.

A failed timeloop left a mark. Virgo must have taken a little souvenir with her once again.

Talking to Albrecht was infuriating and difficult, getting anything out of him was like pulling a rotten tooth out of a lion's maw, armed with nothing but a pair of pliers. If Albrecht had been a Corpus aristocrat, Virgo would have thrown in the towel long ago - this much effort for this little payback would not have been worth the diplomatic headache. She had dealt with all sorts of problem clients, but Albrecht was like every flavor of nightmare rolled into one human being. Yet now, she had somehow gotten something out of him. Something priceless, more valuable than any of the baubles she had eyed in his laboratory on Scholar’s landing.

His love. The softness she felt, standing at Loid's side as he was fussing over mission logs, that was an echo of Albrecht she had stolen, unknowingly.

How embarrassing, perverse even. Like sneaking up to the bedroom door of the lovers and peeking through the keyhole, into the scenes of their most intimate moments. Love. Love was something that made Virgo dizzy and mad, it was unlike any feeling she picked up from other people.

If only she could show that love to Loid, to expose his mind to Albrecht's. Connect them.

Virgo walked away and sat down. No. That was not for her to decide. Those were the thoughts of a greedy and selfish person, perhaps another thing she stole from Albrecht. She needed to cleanse her mind and clear her head.

"Loid?"

"Yes, Virgo?"

"What kind of pastry do you like?"

[the-one-and-only-overlass]

warframe x warhammer 40k fic idea/outline: mia & clarissa's cross-galactic road trip

Mia is a Tenno who wound up in 40k at the opening of the Great Rift, nearly inside it. She's on the outskirts of a system with one planet that is steadily being overrun with weird monsters. By the time she manages to land on the planet, there is only one survivor:

Clarissa is a Battle Sister of the now-extinct Order of the Gilded Deed, stranded on Intrare Primus as Chaos overwhelms it. Despite her skill and tenacity, the civilians she was protecting are long dead, and now she fights only to spit in the eye of Chaos.

Mia lands and rescues Clarissa, only to find out that she is extremely paranoid and xenophobic, and keeps trying to kill Mia. and failing. Clarissa's no threat to her, though, and she'd rather not kill the person she just saved, so Clarissa remains alive and unharmed, much to her confusion.

at some point, after they've trekked through a few ruined systems and came across yet another in the throes of disaster, Clarissa decides that it would be better to actually do something than sit around moping because Mia won't let her just die.

and that's where the plot kicks off

[agoddamn]

If I'm understanding the time travel dealie right--

(Which I may not be because we've got negative info on it)

--it's basically like Transference, right? For the 1999 segment it was just your mind that traveled back in time and you possessed the Excal beta. But being able to split mind and body and teleport is a specific Tenno Void thing, right? That one Orokin scientist tried to use Transference on herself and ended up just possessing a forest.

So...there's no return trip planned for Albrecht, then, right? Because he had Loid destroy the machinery with his body? Albrecht is just gone and not coming back, that's the plan.

So from Loid's perspective, Albrecht forced Loid to murder him?

[voidtongued]

THE-TENNO-TRIPPED -> VOIDTONGUED

[ritens]

[wf] Their Headache I : Background

Zariman / Warframes / Old War

Every tenno’s story begins with the Orokin ship, Zariman Ten Zero. It was a military ship sent into void in a discreet attempt to reach the Tau System to populate the place. The ship was lost in a void jump. Caserin Kyn was one among many other child survivors. This trip was meant to be temporary for him. His parents were supposed to come pick him up at some point. They weren’t on the ship as far as he knew so he remained hopeful that they hadn’t lost their sanity and didn't meet their demise like the parents of many other kids had.

The lost ship was found days later and Kyn was hidden away along with the other children. Until a ‘happy accident’ caused the discovery that the tenno could relieve certain monsters of their stress with the abilities they had gained from the void jump. From then on all he knew was violence through warframes, living organisms turned into crazed beasts.

The surviving children gained a new purpose and were taken under the caring wing of Margulis who was determined to find a way to allow the tenno to control their powers and thus blend back into society. With infestation manipulation on the rise, Margulis taught them how to transfer their consciousness into the warframes. To protect the tenno from bodily harm, they were locked away in a reservoir on Earth’s moon, Lua, and seated in Somatic Links.

When the Sentients waged war upon the Orokin Empire, the tenno were trained to fight for their Orokin masters. Without ever leaving the reservoir, they operated the warframes and pushed back the Sentient threat. 

Kyn didn’t have a set warframe and took over whatever human slash machine he could get his consciousness onto. If one got incapacitated, he switched to another, at one point unintentionally making home in an incomplete warframe. The warframe’s own consciousness refused his hold and Kyn had to desert the battle on Earth’s surface in favor of finding a place to hide.

Both of them went dormant sooner than most other tenno. An act of self-preservation.

Awakening / Second Dream

Possibly hundreds of years later, the incomplete, still feral warframe woke up in a cave filled with water. In panic it forced the tenno inhabiting its mind to wake up from cryosleep as well. Much earlier than intended by the Sentient mimic, Lotus, who had taken up the role of Margulis as programmed by the Orokin during the Old War.

“Help me! I can’t swim!” a voice shouted in Kyn’s mind causing him to groggily blink his eyes open.

“What are you talking about? Who are you?” The tenno replied to what felt like an extension of himself, “get out of my head!”

“I am Luke Devan. You are in MY head!” The warframe attempted an introduction but the threat of slipping underwater lent him no patience. He pathetically grabbed at nearby rocks but his rusty limbs didn’t quite listen to his wishes so he opted to continue persuading the adolescent human being instead. “You’re tenno are you not? Don’t you have the massive brain power to make others do your bidding or whatever?”

“I’m a what!? How could I possibly make you do anything��” Kyn’s groggy confusion knew no bounds. He tried to concentrate as best as he could but nothing made sense to him yet.

“Oh, sweet void, I can’t believe this is happening. What kind of nightmare did I sacrifice myself for…” Luke groaned.

And then something clicked in Kyn’s mind and his mental gears started rotating. “Wait. You are a warframe. A Warframe! But how are you talking to me?”

“Child! Just do your weird void magick already-” Luke shouted just as he noticed himself swiftly climbing up the wet rocks like they were mere pebbles on a hiking trail. There was no weakness in his body. He didn’t feel a thing.

The two didn’t exchange any further words. Kyn managed to free himself from the Somatic Link, disconnecting himself from the warframe in the process. It took some time for him to gather his bearings, and even more time to take control of his own extremities. Caserin explored the abandoned mess that was Lua, once a grand center for the Orokin, now devoid of life. He didn’t dare wake up any other Tenno as he believed they were supposed to be this way. He had been connected to a faulty warframe model and it was his problem to deal with.

Caserin Kyn spent far too many years alone on Lua until the arrival of the new Sentient threat. Until Lotus came to pick up her sleeping children.

He received his own orbiter to pilot and missions to take upon, but he never quite readjusted to socializing and instead opted to go alone. Warframes posed another issue. Kyn developed a distaste for them due to the incident with the incomplete machine that caused him a great deal of grief alongside a lengthy solitude. He was given a Nezha warframe at one point but handed it down to another tenno without even connecting to it once.

The War Within

There was a situation that prompted a tenno to go and investigate unusual activity in the Reservoirs on Lua. Teshin was behind this. He essentially lured the tenno into investigating himself further and that led the child to the Grineer Queens to become a sacrifice for their Continuity ritual. In their mental fight against the influence of the Queens, the tenno unearthed forgotten memories and knowledge that Margulis had made the Zariman children forget in order to protect themselves and others… from themselves. 

Upon the defeat of the older Queen, the tenno returned and passed the re-acquired knowledge onto other Tenno. The Zariman children were finally able to use warframes without being strapped to their Somatic Link seats.

When he first heard of this, Kyn thought he had no use of it. He was sure that he would never use a warframe. But after being continuously hassled by an ex-classmate “What? Is the big bully scared of what he might unearth about himself?”, he gave in and did his best to dig into his own 'forgotten' memories. He’d gone through them so many times, there was no way he could find anything new. But with a bit of tough love driven support he found what he was looking for. His own spark.

Kyn was determined to extend his theoretical trip back in time to, perhaps, find the warframe that had abruptly woken him up and ruined a good portion of his conscious life.

Finding Luke

Most of the warframes Kyn had hopped to and from during the Old War were long gone so finding traces of his own energy wasn’t a time consuming task. Maybe just a bit challenging depending on distance. But not impossible as long as the destination warframe was still in usable condition.

Caserin wasn’t confident with his abilities yet so he sat down in his orbiter’s own Somatic Link for the first time and closed his eyes. After fighting with misty darkness for roughly 15 minutes, right as he was about to give up, he managed to form contact with something. 

And suddenly he wasn’t seeing with his own eyes anymore.

The sight before him was red, dusty and bright. A classic Mars scenery. And then there were the grineer charging at him with guns blazing.

“OH SHIT!” Kyn shouted, startling his host. The warframe briefly observed their own hands to check who’s in control, before sprinting towards the grineer and slicing in half whatever body got close.

Once the last man standing was down, the warframe propped themselves up against a rock pillar and just stood there. The tenno didn’t do anything either as he was expecting the warframe to say or show something but nothing happened even after a couple minutes of waiting. At that point Kyn took the reins with the intention of inspecting the host.

The warframe felt as well as appeared to be presenting as male and was clad in a worn down tailcoat. He had threads of infestation protruding from places on his legs and arms, and perhaps elsewhere but Kyn couldn’t see that much without a mirror. Despite the disheveled state the warframe was in, he appeared to have some innate poise. The tenno was making mental notes when suddenly the warframe pulled away from his influence to rest an arm on hip and impatiently tap a foot.

Kyn couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the expressed attitude. He remembered the same kind of sass which the warframe spoke with back when he got woken up. But the warframe having such a high level of awareness still made no sense to him. The machine was acting on its own even now.

The tenno finally spoke, starting with a question. “You’re Luke, are you not?”

The warframe remained quiet. Kyn could see the frame bring a hand to rest on his chin as if to have a moment of thought. Then the warframe looked around until his vision fell to the ground. He drew a question mark in the dirt with his foot.

“Huh.” Kyn didn’t expect this nonverbal reply but quickly told himself that it’s been a very long time and it might be possible that the warframe went through significant changes too. It was a plausible assumption.

“Do you have an operator?” the tenno asked another, perhaps silly, question.

The warframe drew a horizontal line in the sand. Kyn quickly deciphered it as ‘negative’. So the warframe was on his own.

“I’m going to bring you in. We need to talk face to face.” The tenno finally stated the end goal, and the warframe got down on his knees before using his fingers to draw a menacing smile :) in the sand. Kyn immediately knew this was going to be a very tedious task. The warframe was going to fight for the control of his own body, tooth and nail.

[mortuarywriting]

Thank you for the tag @dragonnarrative-writes !

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! Then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Note: That's not happening and I'm throwing this under a readmore because. man.

Color code: FFXIV/adjacent CoD Ruiner Warframe BG3 Misc

RUINER - Heal, Puppy

CoD Isekai Bullshit Go

AtTO Based Fic

CoD Bullshitting

Elden Time Travel ifuckinguess

Elden Ring - The Boys

Amasar Akaois Chat [EW spoilers]

Warframe - so Stalker about ur digs

BG3 - So end of act 2 huh

Oh Shit Tenno Backstory Lads

Ah yes. Honse

Drifter Musings

Why do I hate myself [NSFW]

Pack a Lunch, Feels Trip Time [NSFW]

Black mage drk interaction

Walk Into the Steppe Late with Starbucks

DigiMom

So there's still more but uh. Ya bitch doesn't wanna list my whole fuckin google drive and some of those I'm not 100% sure where I was going with. This is also why I'm not tagging people I probably could've put like 8 more on here and some of the ones I'm thinking of are in my NaNo docs so they're not named they're just numbered and barely separated (past me made it a future me problem and ive just never dealt with it. oops).

I hope you at least appreciate my dumbass naming conventions.

So yeah, no tags do it if you wanna!

[riftwalker-limbro]

natah - part 2

masterpost

mild cephalon fragments spoilers

----

Once the floofs were once again secure, they turned their mind back to the task of figuring out what the hell all that was.

The Lotus managed to gather her thoughts quicker.

“I have requisitioned explosives for your next mission, which will be to collapse the tomb of the Sentient so it cannot escape. You must go retrieve the explosives and go plant them, and ensure they manage to-”

“What is your relationship to the Sentient?” they demanded, frustration running over. As soon as they’d let it out, though, a calm flooded their senses, and they felt a bit sheepish for being so harsh.

The Lotus’ next response did kind of deserve it, though, they thought privately. “The Sentient is a relic of the Old War. If it cannot be kept dormant, it must be kept trapped. My interest is in keeping it away from other life in the system, so it would be beneficial to our cause if you could complete this assignment as soon as you can, Tenno.” There was actual snark in her voice.

“Sentient!” Kali signed, grabbing their attention. Its movements were much more fluid now than they had been last time, and spoke to a self-assured character. “I am hunting the Sentient, too, though for different reasons than the Grineer. Need to get my revenge.”

They took a second to catch the implication. “The Sentient was the thing controlling you?”

“Yes!”

“Do you know anything else about it?”

Kali fingerspelled it out. “H-u-n-h-o-w. Its name is Hunhow.”

“Lotus,” Ordis asked carefully, but they could tell that his angry glitched voice wasn't far away. “What do you know about Hunhow?”

The Lotus, having previously refused to say much at all, outright disconnected. Then, the nav console dinged - she’d sent them coordinates to the market where the explosives would be waiting for them.

“Some guts on that- ahem. Setting a course to pick up the explosives. Round trip time will be about half an hour,” Ordis reported, biting back the glitch with noticeable annoyance. At himself or at the Lotus - likely both in equal measure, at this point. They couldn’t help but sympathise.

“She clearly knows about the Sentient- about Hunhow,” they signed, thinking out loud. “She probably knows about Natah as well. If only she hadn’t run like a coward.”

“Natah is her name,” Kali signed, as if it was the most normal thing.

They took a second to respond. “What?”

“When Hunhow was controlling me, I could see inside his mind,” Kali explained. “Natah is the Lotus. Hunhow is very angry with her.”

“Let me get this- are you certain?”

“Yes,” Kali signed, short, visibly annoyed, as if it were their fault the bombshells were dropping with the frequency of a soma’s bullets.

“Ordis,” they signed, turning around. “Do you remember anything about this?”

He’d been suspiciously silent through their discussion. They hoped he realised they weren’t excluding him just because a new person was on board.

“... there’s a void there, too,” he said, quietly, cold frustration evident in his voice, adding to the annoyance from his glitches earlier. This wasn't a good day for him.

“That’s okay,” they replied, mind going a mile a minute. “If Hunhow knows Natah - the Lotus, then she probably knows him too, which would explain why she was barely surprised. Or at least, not nearly as surprised as we are.”

“Natah is Hunhow’s daughter,” Kali supplied.

They stared at it for a few seconds. “Anything else?”

“No,” it signed, immediately crossing its arms afterwards. Cheeky.

They zoned in on it, annoyed now. They felt like it was playing with them. “How did you even get to Uranus? I didn’t see any other ships nearby.”

“Actually,” Ordis piped up, sounding happy to finally have something to say. “Ordis detected another Liset flying away after dropping you off.”

They held their head and wanted desperately to have a throat that could make noise again, just so they could scream. “Can we please bring relevant things up without me having to ask for them? This is very hard to work with. I need all available information if we’re to plan this successfully.”

“A-alright,” Ordis said, subdued. Okay, they felt a little bad about that one. But it wasn’t all their fault.

Biting away their frustration with the situation and themself, they looked back at Kali.

“Kali, where’s your ship now?”

“Probably on base,” it signed. “which is Kronia Relay, for now. Cephalon Yura knows my vitals, knows I’m safe, so she’s letting me be until I signal for her.”

Nodding to that, another question for Kali popped up in their mind. They barely dared to ask, but they had to know.

“Do you know what the difference is between a Tenno and a Warframe?”

Kali jerked back as if burned. “No,” it signed, the motion quick enough to generate a small air current in the Orbiter. “Don't ask me that.”

They couldn’t let it go. It was too frustrating. “I need to know, no one will tell me-”

“Because it is a cursed secret,” it replied, a tinge of despair now to their movements. “If you don't know it yet, count yourself lucky. And Hunhow doesn't know it either, and it must stay that way, so I will not tell you."

Oh. Well, that changed things. “Fine, I’ll forget about it, but which one are you? We were discussing-”

Kali tensed up again, before replying. “There are more differences than just Tenno or Warframe. Surely you know this, Sufford.”

The part of them that was called Sufford sang out at that, revelling in being acknowledged. The other part of them was just more confused, now. But, then they had arrived at the trading post, and they left Kali alone with Ordis to go pick up the explosives.

—

Kali looked up at the cameras of the ship. It had an inkling about something, and it was going to investigate.

“Ordis, which one are you?” it asked, deliberately keeping vague.

“Pardon?” he replied. There it was again: that particular lilt. The accent was buried under Orokin conditioning, but it knew it had recognised it. Now it just had to lure out the rest. And the best way, it knew from experience, was to ask stupid questions.

“Warframe or Tenno?”

“What the hell are you- Ordis is confident that you know that he is neither, Kali.”

He was uncomfortable. Time for the final nail in the coffin.

“Warrior or Orokin dog?”

The sound that came out of the speakers was a furious mechanical glitch. And finally, there he was.

“I am no dog to those lords of hot air and bloodied-blue hands,” he spat. “My loyalty is to my brothers and sisters, my peers alone.”

The lights on the Orbiter started to flicker. Kali suddenly realised it may have gotten into something more than it had been expecting. Last time she’d seen him in the flesh, he hadn’t been nearly as angry.

“They tried to make me one of their own number, and for my rejection, they imprisoned me in steel and glass,” Ordis thundered. “I will break free, and-”

—

The second the Liset reattached to the Orbiter and the ramp descended, a stranger’s voice with a familiar accent was hurling threats through the speakers. The moment they were noticed, however, the yelling cut out with an awful screech. The lights flickered briefly, before returning to their regular setting.

Kali stood a little ways away, frozen, hands raised in an almost defensive position.

“Ordis?” they signed. No response.

They turned to the other. “What the fuck did you do? What was that?”

"Nothing," it replied hastily.

A click, and then - "Op- Tenn- ugh," Ordis groaned, and it almost sounded like he was in pain.

"Ordis, are you alright?" they signed, concerned.

"Kali, Ordis would appreciate if you did not try that again," he warned instead, sounding wearier than the five minute timespan they were out for had warranted.

Kali meekly signed its agreement.

"What happened?!" they signed, thoroughly frustrated and movements choppy and wide, as close to shouting as they could get. 

"I asked some bad questions," Kali answered, sheepish.

"Right after telling me not to ask bad questions myself?" they scolded. They threw their hands up in frustration when no one answered.

They decided they might as well try and finish the mission before anyone killed anyone else, with stupid questions or otherwise. "Ordis, could you start the flight back to wherever these explosives need to go?"

"Why the hell not- ahem. Setting flight path."

The glitch felt more present than usual. Now that they thought about it, the yelling earlier had sounded a lot like the glitch, but with a slightly deeper voice, and a bone-deep fury and hatred that not even glitched Ordis possessed. They shook it off in favour of going to inspect their arsenal thoroughly, even though it barely needed it. Kali was left to twiddle its thumbs.

"Hey," it signed, tapping on the wall to get their attention. They turned around with an internal sigh.

"What?"

"What does Ordis call you?"

"He-"

"Currently fucking nothing," the glitch butted in again, before being violently suppressed with static. Ordis didn't even try to salvage that one.

"It's just, it wasn't Sufford," they signed, curious. "That was your name, right?"

"Sufford?" Ordis said, perking up. "That sounds familiar, but not quite right."

"We've been trying to remember my name for weeks now," they signed, annoyed. "I don't know where Sufford came from, but it's… not correct for all of me? I don’t really understand it."

Kali gave a sympathetic wince and a knowing glance they didn't completely like. "What about nicknames?"

"Can't find one that fits enough."

"What about callsigns? They're like nicknames but cooler and with lower emotional stakes."

Ordis simulated the sound of sucking in a breath. For an AI, he sure had non-language cues down to a T.

"You got an idea for a callsign for me, Ord-"

"Hyena. Your old callsign was Hyena," he said, fast, excited. "I remember now. You took care of the squad, left no one behind, amd you- eviscerated- were ruthless with the enemy."

"Oh," they signed, entirely surprised. "That's settled then, I guess. Sure solves one annoying problem. Thanks, Ordis."

Ordis gave a little breathless laugh, pride shining through.

The nav console dinged. The ship was in orbit of Uranus, and the Liset ready to take off.

"Let's go solve the other one," Hyena said, beckoning Kali into the landing craft and signaling for Ordis to launch it.

[on-campaign]

Heat Generator

Europa assignment’s the worst you can get. Knew it from the moment I first saw the heat generator flicker. Right outside my post, too; a frosty door that leads into the ice mines below. One-way, only leading in, with a lock I controlled.

Every time the generator dropped, a blast of cold air ripped through the space. Bone cold. Had to spend extra time de-icing the door on bad days. I’d need to take a heated trip to medical to treat the frostbite after every shift.

Crewman Hassik Zaks, my patrol guy, he’d always say, “heard they’re sellin’ near full body cons on Venus. Replace all your chilly bits with hardware.”

“You tellin’ me I’m cold?” I’d ask.

“Don’t gotta be, alls I’m sayin’.”

Today was almost the same. Except, for once, the heat generator hadn’t failed. And my door opened behind me.

Hassik Zaks leveled his flux rifle. He flashed a beam past my shoulder for the single moment before his helmet cracked open from a rifle shot. His face was blue from the cold before his body fell into the snow. I could barely think to draw my Detron when I turned to see.

Tenno.

She lifted a hand, hot, red hot, and swung. A flash. I screamed as my pressure suit fused to my skin.

Pain, bubbling-popping-singing across my molten body as I fell to my knees, begging for the heat generator to fail.

[holistichiatus]

2, 7, and 27 for tam!

ahah, i forgor to answer this ^^;

2. How easy is it for your character to laugh?

about average i guess. if we're talking full on wheezing, can't breath laughing tho, pretty hard. he has to be really comfortable to open up that much.

7. What triggers nostalgia for them, most often? Do they enjoy that feeling?

swimming. he grew up in a colony on a frozen planet (not sure which one yet) and he got to travel to earth once when he was really young and his brother was able to take him to the ocean to swim. it was the first time he was able to actually swim outside without the fear of freezing. it's one of his clearest memories and even though he can't remember his brother's face very clearly anymore he remembers their brief trip.

27. What causes them to feel dread? 

being separate from vauban or other tenno or being out of transference for too long.

i headcanon the tenno have a low level psychic connection between each other and the warframes they use most often. after all the time in the void, then under transference, they are so used to that background feeling of other thoughts on the edges of their own that being separate can be jarring

[h16h-v0l7463]

Um, maybe you could take a future trip and visit Cephalon Simaris? He's got a bunch of battle sims going, you could unload that urge in a way that's more...I wouldn't call it 100% ethical, but at the very least more ethical than the usual alternative. And the tenno training there always appreciate a Volt helping out.

hmmm.

maybe.

i don't really like "feeding" it, if that makes sense. that's how i've been thinking about it anyway.

but i have a feeling it's not going away any time soon.

might as well figure out how to cope before i snap and do something REALLY stupid.

[lgbten-0]

AND IT FUCKING RULES!

(Thank you @the-tenno-tripped for the tag)

if you don't play warframe, and you are wondering "hey, what the fuck is warframe about?" congratulations. because that's what everyone who does play warframe is also thinking

[alteredsilicone]

"[...] What the hell? Outworlder, I'm pulling sensory feeds from a trip you haven't taken yet. And hearing myself say things I've never said in a place I've never seen. Parvos...? [...]"

When Protea uses her temporal anchor on the Tenno, or, rather, the time rewind itself, Business notes that there are records of things "yet to be done".

This would mean Protea's powers work in a localized way.

Can I just say: giving Parvos a time-bending Warframe was the craziest thing the Orokin could do, especially with his reputation as a mob boss.

[leolithe]

Let it be known that i am calling it now: Lotus has Void Powers just like her children and Just Like Her Children she's inflicted with hallucinations of Wally.

What I think would be incredibly fucking sexy (read: Angsty) is that Her Wally takes on the forms of Natah and Margulis, but never Lotus. And those two forms are used to constantly guilt trip her, giving her reasons to doubt her role as the Tenno Leader and Mother.