Work Text:
A “Flare” Up
Relaxing in her ship, after a long day with the Family on Deimos, Emersyn is mindlessly playing Komi with her Cephalon. She isn’t very good at it, but it’s something to do to pass the time, moving black and white pieces across the board and moving pieces for Ordis, as the poor thing doesn’t have hands. This is… Their 6th game now? And she still hasn’t won.
“We really must improve your skills, Operator.”
“Well, I can only really do that by playing.”
“My point still stands, nonetheless, maybe you can play against the Entrati Family?”
“And get blown out of the water by Gomaitru and Vilcor? I’d rather no-“
And then there’s a squelch, or is it more like a squeeze? Either way, it’s coming from the Helminth room.
“Operator, I suggest you check whatever that was.”
“It’s probably hungry again.”
Getting up from her seat on the couch and brushing off the blanket that was wrapped around her lap, the Tenno quickly pads over to the Helminth room only to be quickly snatched up by two fleshy tendrils and hoisted up into the air, a more common occurrence ever since she was adopted into the Infested Entrati family.
“Ack! You fleshy son-of-a BIT-“
What wasn’t expected out of the writhing and slimy mass of infestation, was something other than Void Tongue. The voice was strange, it had a certain drawl to it, and was feminine? There was also beautiful blue flowers sprouting and blooming, contrasting with the other muted blooms in the Helminth Room. And here she thought the Infestation wasn’t picky about gender.
“Baby! Baby! We finally speak to thee! The Imp who feeds Us full!”
“What the actual fuck?”
Managing to snag one of her hands on the exposed steel beams of her ship and pulling herself up to see behind the seat that she uses for her Helminth to work on her Warframes. Is… Is that a foot?
“Who the fuck is in my ship?”
Hearing a groan and a shift from the foreign body, sounding somewhat human in tone and shape, a wiggle of recognition stirred deep in the back of her head. Snapping back to reality and realizing that she’s still being entangled by Helminth tendrils, she reaches out to the void and pulls out a pair of Ether Daggers to cut off the Tendrils and free her. The infestation lets out an annoyed rumble of pain but slithers away.
Quickly heading over behind the Helminth Seat and remembering not to trip on any loose tendrils her suspicions were confirmed. As there was an unconscious Protoframe lying on her floor. As she crouches down to roll him on his back so he doesn’t suffocate, a loud screech comes from the large mouth a few feet away.
“Do NOT touch them! They are Ours! Ours!”
“Then why the fuck are they in here!?”
Ignoring the pissed off flesh blob Emersyn rolls the man onto his back, now noticing the blood and ruined makeup, as well as the skin and the fiery hair.
“Who…. is this?”
“They are Our sweet Flare!”
“Calm the fuck down! Do you want them to live or not!?”
“We will take care of Them. Better Biomass here. More resources.”
With a huff and a roll of her eyes she stands up, now hearing a ping of the Komm channel out in the cockpit.
“I better not see any flailing bits or exposed organs when I get back.”
“Of course, Baby.”
Taking a few steps back and pausing to give the Helminth a suspicious side-eye, Emersyn commits to padding through her ship and back up to the Cockpit, passing her foundry and Robotic dog as she ascends the ramp, and sure enough, folks demand her attention. Deciding to prioritize she heads over to the… Was it KIM or POM-2? Whatever it was she opened up one of the two only chatrooms available, sensing that the stranger in her ship isn’t in their proper place in time.
[1mp!ing] Syn, you bitch, who the hell is Flare and why are they on my ship?? What the fuck is wrong with my Helminth????
[That_Dr!ft3r] Ohhhh so that’s where Flare went. I see.
[That_Dr!ft3r] So, Flare is a rockstar from 1999, we’ve been looking for them for a while now after they went silent about an hour ago, but don’t worry, They mean you no harm
[1mp!ing] Still doesn’t explain why my Helminth is talking like Ticker.
[That_Dr!ft3r] That’s Lizzie, Flare’s Exalted, did she integrate with your ship’s Helminth?
[1mp!ing] Yes, and she’s practically hissing like a feral Kavat whenever I try to touch ‘em.
[That_Dr!ft3r] Good luck, lol. Imma go tell Arthur
[1mp!ing] YOU BITCH
(That_Dr!ft3r is now Offline.)
Staring at the screen and tempted to rip the entire console off the wall Emersyn just…. Turns the whole setup off and heads over to the Komm radio to where a Familiar Entrati awaits.
“Ayatan, finally, I’ve been trying to contact you for 15 minutes now.”
“It’s been only 6.”
“Whatever, something’s changed, and you have something to do about it?”
“How can you be so sure Ker?”
“Because it’s always you, dummy.”
And that statement earned a huff and an eye-roll out of the Tenno.
“What now? It’s only been 2 hours since I left.”
“Come on over to Deimos to talk and I’ll keep Mother and Grandmother from requesting your presence every 2 minutes for a few days.”
The promise of a small break from the somewhat overbearing Entrati Family peaks Emersyn’s interest as the Call disconnects, and she drops to her knees as she puts in the coordinates for Deimos, as the ship lurches forward and starts speeding off to Deimos.
When they finally reach the heavily infested moon of Mars and the ship slows down to chill in orbit, Emersyn stands up and stretches out her stiff joints from kneeling. How the hell do her Warframes do it? Heading back down to the Helminth room she pauses before the door, hearing commotion and talking, straining her ears to overhear it over the natural hum of the Ship and the writhing and gooey noises of the Infestation outside the Helminth room.
“Lizzie, I’m going to ask you this, one, more, time. Where am I?”
“In the arms of the Baby, of course, She feeds us well. It was the best place for Us to care for You.”
“Who the fuck is “The Baby”?!”
Taking a step forward and the door automatic opens, revealing Emersyn to Flare.
“Me.”
They lock eyes, a moment passes, and then another. The Tenno is waiting for a reaction from the…. “Rockstar”.
“Oh…. OH! You’re the Kid! By Lua, Emersyn has told me so much about you….”
“She- She has?”
“Oh, don’t look like that, they’ve all been good things, I assure you.”
“What has she said?”
“While other than a few warnings of how… Out of Pocket… You can be, Emersyn said that your a good soul, and that your the right amount of crazy when you need to be.”
“I…. See….”
Another pause, as one sizes the other the other up and gets a better look.
“Has your older sibling said anything about me?”
“She is not my older sister. And, no. She doesn’t say much about you all in Höllovania, we don’t exactly…. Talk much…”
“Is tha-“
The conversation is cut off as the Infestation squirms and spits something out. Emersyn doesn’t know what it is, a Shawzin perhaps? But it’s nothing like she’s ever seen. But then, it speaks, with the same voice that the Helminth gained.
“Baby! Impling! We are reunited with our paradise once more! We MUST show our sweet Flare.”
“I am not taking you two down to Deimos.”
“Impling, sweetness, please!”
“I’m not taking you to see the family, and that’s that.”
“You have a family? I thought that what happened on the Zariman….”
“They’re more like…. Found Family…”
“Aw-“
“Don’t. I’ll be back soon, there’s food in the blue crate above the companion stations.”
With a huff and reach through the void, senses intertwine, and Emersyn Starts to pilot her Garuda Prime. Heading into the drop pod and landing on the fleshy mass that is the Necralisk. Padding quietly away as to not bother Grandma Degath she eventually reaches Kermerros’ fleshy flower with faint snoring coming from inside and she pulls on one of the tendrils spindling out of the flower. When nothing happens she pulls again, and again, and again.
“Kermerros wake the fuck up you blue bastard!”
With a shallow rake of Garuda’s claws against the flower the Blue Orokin quickly shoots up from his flower, now suddenly awake and very present.
“Ayatan. Hi. What a NICE awakening.”
“You told me to come over, I came over, and you were asleep and I tried to wake you up. But now you’re awake so everything is good.”
Kermerros gives her a strong glare before regaining himself and leaning back before crossing his arms.
“Well… Come down to the barn, we’ll talk there.”
Using transference to hop out of Garuda Prime and hoping into the extended and larger hand as they’re transported through the sinewy tunnels of Deimos. When they reach the Barn, Emersyn’s eyes land on the other sibling, Kaelli. They lock eyes and share a friendly smile before Emersyn is placed on a large and lightly infested towel to regard the two and Kaelli speaks first.
“Well, now that we’re all here. Let’s get this over with. Ayatan, why the FUCK is the infestation blabbering in about a baby!?”
“They’re referring to me.”
The siblings are taken aback and there’s a silence that hangs in the air as they process the information given to them, and Kerrmeros spoke up about his shock first.
“Wh- Why is the marvelous thing that is the Infestation, calling you “Baby”? Who- Who is Flare?”
Well fuck. How is Emersyn supposed to go about this now without revealing all of the Sanctum Anitomica and Höllovania?
“A friend…”
“And how exactly are they still sentient, being Infested themselves?”
“Delayed infection?”
“Hmm…. Seems plausible, depending on the strain…”
Oh hallelujah, that worked, now Emersyn just has to bullshit the rest of the conversation. Kaelli pipes up, a frown of concern on her face.
“But still, the “Baby” things is still concerning. As much as I adore our girl talks, and Grandmother having you come over for tea, none of us want you getting infested if your immunity falters for just a moment. You may be Tenno, but you aren’t infallible Ayatan.”
The concern hits something deep inside, a sore, aching, and unattended part of Emersyn’s soul and psyche. While Margulis comforted her after the Zariman, and Lotus taking care of her and the rest of the Tenno, the affection never stuck, not like this.
“Kaeli… I- If it’s any comfort, you can just run some tests….”
With a somber nod and a turn from the Water Scourge, tools and needles are picked up from their meticulously organized and placed spots on a large slab- a definitely infested workbench, curling and sprawling with tendrils and spores seeped into the stone it was carved out of.
“It… Does kind of make sense, actually, with the infestation calling our dear Ayatan, “Baby”.”
“What!? I- Wuh- HOW!?”
Now a Tenno is stuck between 2 super-sized Infested Orokin twins that are now bickering, all the while she’s taking off layers of protective clothing so that Kaelli can take samples and do tests.
“Hey- Uh-“
“Look what it did to us! To the Family! I know you have an Obsession over it but come on Kermerros!”
“Kaelli, we and the Tenno understand the Infestation better than the Corpus and Grineer do.”
“Obviously! Look at our bloodline!”
Getting already tired of this and and ache starting to form in her outer shoulder from the needle being too deep she reaches out to the void and the void reaching back with one of her Ether daggers, with a flick of her wrist Emersyn nicks Kaelli in one of her large and lightly infested hands, her nails still retaining a manicure, somehow.
“Ack-! Hey, what was that for!?”
“1, calm the fuck down. 2, you have the needle half an inch deeper than it needs to be and it hurts. 3, you still can’t be pissy about what Khal said, that was 3 months ago.”
“Emersyn-! Wait- Who’s Khal?”
“Grineer defector.”
With a snap of his head to his sister with a face pale and full of shock at the news.
“You’ve been talking to TUBEMEN!?”
“Oh, y’all didn’t know?”
With an evil idea stirring up in that little impling’s head and the most smug, shit-eating grin gets plastered onto Emersyn’s face.
“Well, maybe I should go tell Mo-“
“NO-!”
Now both of the twins have spun around to frantically look at the smug little Tenno sat on a table between them, blood trickling down her arm as a forgotten needle overflows. With a gentle tsk coming from Kaelli as she removes the needle and patches up the bleeding gash and missing tissue that was removed for samples. While she does care, Kaelli is still pissy at being nicked in the hand and then exposed about her dealings with Khal at The Drifter’s camp.
“I also side with Kermerros, I work with the infestation constantly. My Warframes, some of my weapons, you two and the rest of the family, the Helminth, all of it. I work with on a daily basis, is it really that far out that it has at least some feelings about me?”
“It still makes me worry, with all the chaos the infestation has made…”
“And I’ve killed it a thousand times over.”
Kermerros, finally getting over his shock and processing what just got exposed, finally speaks up once more, as Orokin always do.
“With those lustrous Warframes of yours, no wonder Father loves them so much.”
“Either way, I’ve came here and let you two ask me whatever so…”
“Yes, Em. You can go, I’ll uphold our bargain.”
With a small but firm tug on the bandages that Kaelli has just finished wrapping, Emersyn gives hugs to her found family before using Transference to zip back up into her Orbiter and into Garuda Prime, its only after a few steps and a Kuburow pet before Emersyn starts to wonder where the Rockstar is. Swimming through Transference streams as naturally as breathing and soon feeling the weight of gravity and matter around her as the Transference Throne opens up to a very surprised Prototemple who was looking over the white roots and silver flowers that make up the roots of Lua, a symbolic thing more than mechanical.
“Don’t look so surprised, I’m just more proficient than Syn is.”
“Syn?”
“Em- Right, you don’t know… We have a system whenever we’re in the same room or being spoken about in the same topic, I go by Emer and she goes by Syn or either of our titles so that there isn’t any confusion.”
“I see… And this works…?”
“For the folks who know both of our existences, yes. But enough of that, we have to get you home. Did you have anything to eat?”
“Reluctantly, yes, but I have no idea what Lizzie put in me.”
“And I’m not going to ask you to describe it because there’s 25 differ types of resources in that Helminth repository.”
Hopping out of the chair and dragging Flare along after realizing that they weren’t following her they head to the room to the right, back into the infested and spore-caked room with a giant mouth.
“If the infestation could bring you here then it could send you back.”
“Wait wuh-“
“Get in the mouth.”
“What.”
“Get in the mouth so I can get you home.”
Placing her hand against the large infestation mouth that’s been very quiet and also very… Purry… Emersyn sends sparks of Void and Transference through the mouth, causing it to sprout beautiful blue flowers and… Resonant ads? Who the fuck is On-Lyne?
“The way’s open, head in while it’s hot.”
“Are you sure this is safe?”
“You came in here the same way Flare.”
With a sigh and a look from Flare they don’t have to act as tendrils snatch them up and yoink them back into the wet, dripping and fleshy infestation mouth. Once the last yelps and surprised screeches of Flare are gone the tendrils try to reach out and grab Emersyn to yoink her into the mouth as well, but in her surprise she lets go of the mouth and the tendrils recede with a small hiss in pain and annoyance. Taking a few steps back and looking at the new blooms, she gently touches a blooming blue flower and pulls away silvery powder on her hand, how odd, those aren’t usual spores… Taking the proper precautions, Emersyn bags up the glove in order to be sent to Loid. As she walks out of the Helminth room, a mischievous giggle resonates in background transference static and it runs a shiver down her spine, it’s probably just Wally again…. Right?
———
Waking up to Infestation gently starting to cling onto the playing that now makes up their changed body, Flare sits up and easily rips the infested webbing off of them. A throbbing headache in the back of their head and trailing down their spine resonates and aches, a stiffness in their joints points to inactivity for some period of time. Standing up with legs that are waking back up again, they look around, another Helminth Repository above them, and TV’s all around… This is where Arthur first met Drifter yes? They believe so. But something just woke up down in the bowels of the subway and they quickly make haste, willing their limbs back into action and climbing up debris, Infestation vines, and rebar. They only stop when their gaze lands on their fellow Protoframe, and a voice resonates softly in their head.
{Flare, thank Lua and Sol, there you are, we’ve been looking for you for hours, I know our Drifter confirmed that you were alive, but we were still all very worried.}
“Thank you, Eleanor… Ugh, you wouldn’t believe what I just went through……”
{We will speak of it later, for now we must return soon, Arthur has been worrying so much more of his hair is turning white.}
Following the Protonyx out of the subway and back onto Höllovanian streets, Flare feels Lizzie stir within them a small giggle bubbling up out of her, and Flare can only wonder what she’s up to now.