Let's talk - LazyConstellation - Multifandom [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Chapter Text

Tenno POV:

Before anyone could say anything, the grey fog swirled in the center of the table. Although startled I didn’t flinch, and neither did anyone else; though she could see they were warily staring at the rapidly condensing fog. Clearly someone or something had been waiting for them to calm, and had seized the chance to make a move. Harming them would have been done earlier while they were confused and disorganized. Although everyone seemed to be confused, we’re at least organized into our own groups.

‘Who is controlling this though?’ I wondered. Whoever it was clearly had some form of concealment considering she couldn’t feel anything coming from the fog or its condensing counterpart on the table. Though I guessed I’d find an answer soon considering the fog had just finished condensing into a small paper note. A weird and archaic way to give a message, but ok. Not important right now, an archaic way of messaging wouldn’t help figure out who set this up.

Seeing the way the message formed seemed to surprise some of the creature’s group, though not majorly. Some even seemed a bit offended by the way it had formed, though I could not guess why. Maybe it was their connection to this place or a similar one?

The creature reached his hand out and the note appeared in it. “Give me a moment,” it said. Both to its colleagues and to I, not paying attention to the rest.

Its colleagues seemed hesitant, but didn’t deny it from reading the letter. Not as much trust in each other as I thought, or are they a bit wary because of that aura from when they woke? Probably the second, and their wariness could mean it is higher ranked or stronger than them. Maybe both, but it doesn’t help at all in this situation. If a fight breaks out, they’ll no doubt be on its side, and not knowing what the majority of people in the room are like means I’ll likely only have Umbra and Lotus to count on.

Instead of sighing at the dynamics of this situation; I narrowed my eyes at him but otherwise didn’t say anything, ‘The situation is too delicate to start anything, besides that a fight wouldn’t matter so long as I get to read what’s on that note. I doubt whatever brought us here would allow tampering with its messages.’

It smiled gently, “Good, I’ll only need a moment.” Holding up the note to its eyes, the creature began read and the smile slowly disappeared, its eyes containing a slight madness. “Well, that’s a problem.” It passes the note to its companions who either sigh or frown at the paper as it’s passed to them, and it might’ve been my imagination, but I could’ve sworn some of them changed. The changes too small to tell what they were, but unsettling changes, nonetheless. All of their faces openly showing worry and a bit of anger in some cases, but from what? What could the note say for a group of clearly powerful people to worry even more in this situation?

Then it’s passed on to the redhead man and his friend who read it together. Upon finishing it, the redhead stares awkwardly at his friend who noticeably pales upon seeing what’s written, but slowly relaxes though remains pale while looking back at his red-haired friend, and almost collapses in relief his face planted down on the table though he remains pale. The redhead places a hand on his friend’s shoulder, while passing the note to the next white-haired teen. She lets out an audible hmm and starts to examine note closely. I can feel her release a slight bit of power but have no idea as to the purpose. She appears to find nothing with her inspection and gives it to the teenagers. Upon the handing it to them, she doesn't turn to comfort the panicked teen and instead observes everyone in the room with a disturbing smile. No, it's not the smile that's disturbing, it's the act of her smiling which sets off something in my mind. As if she's faking her emotions. Disturbing, but not really important.

I turn away from them and find myself grateful to the redhead for comforting his friend as quick as he did. I had felt a small urge to comfort him myself, and that would’ve been awkward. Mostly for him since he didn’t know me. The poor guy radiated enough negative emotion that if I couldn’t directly see him and he had a void signature, I might’ve mistaken him for a warframe. The faking teen was interesting and disturbing both because of the unknown energy se was using and her fake emotions, when we all begin talks, I'd have to ask what's going on with her, and see if I could help her.

That is for later though, and so I mentally refocus myself back to the teens.

The blond and her boyfriend read it together, and frown… in confusion? Then their faces change to surprise, and now worry just like the creatures group. The confusion and surprise were weird, but the worry showing up on their faces was giving her a small amount of anxiety, which was annoying. The tan boy got over his worry, and it turned to clear annoyance. I could barely make out any of the words he was saying, but I did catch the word “gods” being repeated like a curse. The blonde clearly wanted to do the same, but instead she passed it to the giant with a look of exhaustion at everything in her eyes. Her boyfriend draws her from her seat to sit on his lap. The giant reads and then pauses at the note. He then shrugs, a bit of apathy crossing his features for a moment. His eyes glow cruelly soon after, but he then closes them and so that had also passed. The giant then slowly passes the note to the Lotus, there's a momentary confusion in his eyes when he sees her, but again it changes back to apathy. And so, they watch us now.

‘Not like they or I could do anything else,’ I muse. We're all powerless against whatever brought us here. For now.

Too absorbed in my observations I miss the reaction Lotus has to the information the note possess; and as she prepares to pass it to me, I see what I can only assume are letters shift. From whatever the Lotus was reading, to the Orokin script that was no longer in use by anyone except eccentrics, the Lotus, Tenno, and a few enemies.

If I wasn’t unsettled before, I was now. It wasn’t impossible to learn the Orokin script, it was in fact easy as buying a lesson package from the approved corpus in Cetus or a relay with a few thousand credits. No, it was the fact that the letters shifted into the handwriting of Margulis. I know I’m not the only one to come to that conclusion; as Lotus’s pause tells me she also came to the same conclusion.

Whatever brought us here didn’t bring us here didn’t just snatch us from our homes, but it knows us and what we’re familiar with. Probably by shifting through our memories, or by some sort of observation.

With so many people observing I don’t let my discomfort show on my face; I resolve to keep it neutral as possible as the note finally enters my hands. I took another look at the Lotus before I read it, but I’m unsure why. I shake my head at the clear attempt to avoid looking at something that might cause me to become emotional, and begin to read. I can’t afford to be uninformed, especially not here.

“Hello, Tenno Enyo. I’ll get to the point, and let you know of your purpose here in this great imitation of mine. Simply put, I need food. Don’t worry I don’t eat people, nor do I want to. I feed off experiences or memories (either term works) old and new, mundane and extraordinary. While normally I’d just eat your memories and copy them to give back, which would cause minor harm to you. Thanks to the backing and personal power most in this room have I’ll not be able to do what constitutes as harm to any of you.

You already know who must be backing you. The Man in The Wall says, “Hey Kiddo.”

You have my sympathy for dealing with such a being, and not going completely insane. I might’ve let you go if not for you being such a good meal.

So, I instead proposed a deal with your patrons. You will all verbally share your experiences with each other, and I will feed off that. While, not exactly preferred, the strength of you all and the intensity of your experiences will make up for it. While here you all have some degree of control over the fog. It will allow you to form objects and individuals from your memories in order to give a more visual demonstration of your experiences, which again, while not preferred; will do. To ensure your safety I impose three rules for your stay that all of you have to follow.

1. Do not cause permanent harm or death. While I can revive you, and many others here are capable of reviving themselves or avoiding death, I’d prefer not wasting power.
2. Do not lie about your experiences, downplay your achievements, or avoid sharing details. I am already restraining myself from devouring your memories, do not tempt me. Make situations involving your enemies and ask others how they would defeat them. Ask others how they would defeat you.
3. Avoid insulting others. While I do not care if you suffer harm, I’d rather not have a rule 1 violation.

Complete your stories and you will leave.

Signed, Constellation.”

There weren’t words to describe the amount of anger, and relief I felt. I’m pretty sure everyone could see the shake in my arms as I handed the note to Umbra. I could feel his concern through the link, but I ignored it. When we got out of here both of us would spend at least a month in the Cavia labs killing every single thing we could. At least that way my anger would be productive.

Of course, ‘Wally’ (The name my fellow Tenno came up with) would be involved in this somehow. Not enough that it caused my parents to go insane, not enough that we died, not enough it killed Rell, not enough that it’s torturing us, it’s just never enough.

My little mental break is cut off by Umbra sending a pulse through the link. The impression I got was for me to control myself, and I did so immediately. I must’ve been showing more of my emotions than I thought. There was also the issue of Wally being involved with this somehow; emotions could possibly be as dangerous as they’d be in the Void itself. Besides, everyone else here were controlling themselves. I could do the same.

Whatever reason Wally has for preventing me from losing my memories doesn’t matter right now, it could wait until whatever this was, is over. As far as the note is concerned, I felt like burning it. Constellation could go f*ck itself with all the lies it wrote. Saying it didn’t eat people was basically a lie, because what are people if not the sum their experiences or memories. Might as well have killed us if Wally did not stop it.

The fact that I now owed Wally was sickening, but I’d get over it. Not the first time it had done something to save me for the sake of our deal, whatever it entailed. For now, I’d sit in silence until someone said something. The last two appeared to be done with the note, and now were sitting in silence with us.

The silence didn’t last long as the tan boy got impatient, “OK, let’s get this over with. We’re all stuck here and have no way out; unless someone here has an ace up there sleave?” I didn’t and no one else appeared to, so he continued to speak, “Then let’s just do what it says and go home. With gods or whatever the thing is that brought us here its usually quicker to do what say and we go back to what we were doing previously. Who wants to go first?”

“Before that we should introduce ourselves. I have no doubt most in the room are tired of not knowing the names of who we share this space with.” The redhead said, his smile sincerely friendly. Ah, now I can see why Lotus found him unsettling. Though I can’t see his soul; I know that if we were to fight, I’d find myself in the Void for a while. Wonder how she knew without him doing anything though? Nothing really stood out besides him being the only one besides me to withstand the waves of madness coming from the creature. Though, that by itself should have clued me in to something going on with him. “I am Reinhard Van Astrea,” he then gestures to his pale friend. “And this is Natsuki Subaru.” Subaru raises his head up and waves before putting his head back down. His soul is also obscured by some kind of darkness? Hmm, no not darkness; it’s something else. Is it from his backer?

‘What did that note have on it?’ I wondered. I’ve got no doubt if he had the sort of backing, I did that he’d be unsettled, but he was acting like someone drained the life from him. Hmm, maybe something did? The note could’ve held information that the person backing him didn’t want to be known, and it tried to attack whoever read it but failed for some reason. Yes, that’d be reasonable. Then again, reason doesn’t exactly apply to this situation.

The faker goes next, "I am Echidna known as the Witch of Greed. I hope for us all to learn much while we are here." For a moment her true self leaks out, and I see darkness in her eyes. An all-devouring greed uncaring of what it had to do to get what it wanted. I'm tempted to attack her here and now, but a sharp reproachment from Umbra kills my foolish thoughts. He's right too. Anyone who attacks in this situation will be ganged up on, and I have no doubt that someone else in this space sensed her nature. To attack while they hadn't would be stupid.

A man from the creature’s side spoke next, “I guess, we’re next then? Miss Audrey, would you please start us off.” He gestured towards the kind looking blond with emerald eyes, who obliged by standing straight and performing a small bow in greeting.

“Hello everyone,” her voice just as king as she looked. “I am Audrey Hall, and these are my friends.” She gestures for the others to rise up along side her. Ah, she must want them sit down as she introduces them. “Alger Wilson,” The man with bronze skin and dark blue hair sits back down. “Derrick Berg,” A tall man in a pristine white robe and neat brownish-blonde hair. “Fors Wall,” I pause at this woman. Not because of her beauty though that is noticeable. What I pause at is her aura, a hidden twisted insanity, tinged with suffering deep in the depths of her mind. I want go deeper to look at what causes her pain, but I stop myself. It’s not my place to do that. She’s not a warframe, from how her aura feels she’s strong enough to handle herself. So long as that insanity stays hidden it is not my problem.

I must not have hidden my probing well enough, because when she sits; she turns to look me directly in the eyes with a smile. Then a knock on my mental defenses, nothing alarming but I raise them all the same. It felt somewhat similar to how a Nyx would communicate when comms were cut off; the only difference being this felt more… subconscious, where a Nyx was more of a full force mental battering ram. I shift my defenses to allow for communication, and I’m met with a confusing language. It sounds like gibberish to me, and I find myself annoyed at her for wasting my time.

Which doesn’t last long, as something utterly alien intrudes on whatever allows her to communicate with me and translate the thoughts. “I will not touch what is yours, so long as you pay me the same courtesy,” comes what I can only assume is the untampered thoughts of Fors. A warning for me to not probe so deep? I feel no maliciousness from her, so I assume she’s warning me of something. I send to her a feeling of agreement and see her blink in surprise. Though from what I don’t know, maybe she didn’t expect me to back off so easily? Ignoring her surprise, I quickly tune back into the introductions and find that she is still about to introduce the next guy. Did Fors dilate time or was someone else responsible?

“Emlyn White,” A extremely handsome pale man with red blood eyes reminding me of Vasca kavats in the plains, black hair; his expression filled with barely suppressed disdain, though at what I cannot guess. “Cattleya,” … No last name? I can’t judge her though; I can’t even remember my own. Maybe I could ask Drifter? Hmm, no. Those loops have been hard on her recently it’d be better to wait till she’s calmer for her to tell me my-no our last name.

As I focus back on Cattleya, I see she has long black hair, slightly purple eyes, and wears a robe with symbols of some kind on it. What they mean I cannot begin to guess, so I leave them alone and listen to the next name. “Leonard Mitchell,” The man told Audrey to start them off. He has black hair, green eyes, red gloves, and a black trench coat. Also has almost supernatural good looks, but not to a disturbing level like the creepy dolls group. “Xio Derecha,” A short woman with messy blond hair, somewhat tanned skin probably from being out in the sun since it reminds me of the Ostron a bit, and an outfit that some Tenno would probably hound her for. Most likely Tenno that used Mesa and Hydroid often.

I look at Umbra and wonder what a similar outfit might look like on him. Hmm, I decided to just send him a vague mental image of what I’m thinking, and get a fast no. I expect it, he isn’t exactly fond of direct reminders of what he is now. Not dwelling on his fast rejection, I turn towards the last of the group.

Audrey does not speak for him, and instead sits back into the stone chair. He turns to her and smiles in amusem*nt, “Giving me the chance to introduce myself Miss Justice?” Justice? Her response is a joy filled smile. So, he turns to us showing a bit of an awkward smile which seems to horrify and Fors a bit. “I am Merlin Hermes or The World, a pleasure to meet you all.” He gives us a small bow, then turns to the tan teen and his girlfriend. Before I turn to the teen myself, I see Subaru give Merlin a confused/suspicious look, but I leave it alone. There’s enough to think about, and piling on to that will be of no help.

When I turn to the two teens, I see the blond is also giving the man a suspicious look, though it is well hidden. The tan teen looks like he’s annoyed at Merlin for something. What did he do for three people to instantly become even more wary of him? He only introduced himself. Which means there’s something wrong with his name? Fake, maybe?

I stop myself before I become too focused on it and look at the two teens again who have ignored what problems they had with his name.

The tan teen rubs the back of his neck and gives an awkward smile, “My name is Perseus Jackson, but please call me Percy. Only my enemies and Gods call me Perseus.” I think we all catch the muttered, “Not that there’s a difference most of the time.” Which makes me curious about him and the girl, they’re only as strong as the creepy dolls group or near that level; but they fight Gods? Either their Gods are weak, or the teen is special. Either way I want to learn more.

Next was his girlfriend, “I’m-.” was as far as she got into her sentence before the fog swirled over her like a tsunami before settling down, and from what I could see. She was gone. I couldn’t react fast enough to do anything about her disappearing, and I don’t think the rest could either. In her place was a note which Percy snatched before the fog could even dissipate completely. Looking at his face I could tell he didn’t like what he was reading at all.

Eventually he looked up at us sighed and forced himself to talk through his anger, “Constellation decided she wasn’t necessary for telling our… story. Annabeth,” The girls name? “Is apparently in some kind of frozen space and will be out once we’re done.” Okay, if we are not useful to the… discussion we’ll be taken out by an incredibly fast-moving fog. Noted. I can see no one in the room likes the idea of any person in our groups disappearing from our sight like Annabeth did.

The giant's eyes stared at the place she did, his apathy vanished with Annabeth's disappearance, replaced by a cold anger. I prepare for some type of effect to wash over us, but nothing happens. Enough restraint to not take out his anger on others? Refreshing. Again, he snaps from whatever is going on in his mind and looks at Percy in apology, who just shakes his head dismissing it. Probably thinking nothing could be done for her in this situation. Looking back towards us, the giant speaks, "I am Iapetus known as the Titan of the West." He then gives a small smile as if thinking of something funny, "You may also call me Bob." Bob? The others are also appear confused at the name, but seeing Percy grimace while also holding back a smile gives me the idea that he's playing a small dark joke on us.

Moving on from Iapetus we’re the next to introduce ourselves, and I see some of them curiously looking at Umbra. Scanning his form with their eyes. I hope he doesn’t look too weird. He was currently styled using the Dex customization (except for that chest plate since it clashed with the scarf), primary black with silver thanks to the Dex customization.

Seeing as Umbra couldn’t exactly introduce himself I did so for him. So, I gesture towards him and say, “He is Umbra my friend, and a Warframe.” Umbra sends satisfaction at his introduction through our link, and outwardly nods to everyone else.

I see Subaru look at Umbra with a sort of dulled awe, Percy, Reinhard, and Iapetus with confusion though I can only guess what about; while the rest only seem like they’re mildly interested in him. No one commented on his non-human appearance which surprised me the most, but I got over it quickly. I was likely to find answers when the introductions were finished.

Getting it over with I give a short intro, “And I’m Tenno Enyo. A pleasure to meet you.” Same as Umbra another small nod to them. I see a bit of curiosity in the eyes of a few, mostly Merlin’s group.

Now all that’s left is Lotus and the creepy dolls group.

Lotus herself was still wearing the form she had when she killed Ballas, except in the place of gold and black accents there is silver. She perhaps looked the strangest to these people thanks to her helmet. “I am the Lotus; it is likewise a pleasure to meet you all,” she says, her tone unnervingly polite. Though that’s usually how she is, even with allies. It helps people not get too comfortable with her, is what she said after that meeting with Cressa.

I turn my head to the white-haired woman as she speaks, her voice was surprisingly polite for how cold her expression was. “I am Saint Nephis.” She then gestures to her group, “And this my cohort.” Through my link with Umbra, I see Percy perk up at the word, but grimace shortly after. Interesting, does he also have a cohort? Or did he have one?

The one with cloth over her eyes is next, “I am Saint Cassia.” She says with a small smile. I find myself drawn to the cloth over eyes, and wonder if she was injured or born blind. Not that it matters, but it’s rare that I see someone blind outside of a settlement. Usually those are the ones have died first, before we’ve arrived to drive off whatever force was killing them.

The smaller Hildryn grins, “I’m Saint Athena, looking forward to this talk of ours.” She’s clearly the friendly one. Reminds me of Varzia a bit. Hopefully, she’s not as…sharing of her more private thoughts.

The handsome one smiles and I’m fairly sure it’s magic of some kind. No one human can be this charming just by smiling. He’s nowhere near where Orokin gene f*ckery got people, but he’s damn close. Through the link I feel Umbra hesitantly agreeing, which I find a bit relieving. If I were overreacting, it’d be embarrassing. Umbra then sends me a mental image of everyone else and I squash the grin forming on my face. Everyone besides the handsome guy’s cohort, and Merlin’s group was just as stunned. Merlin’s group actually looked unimpressed, which has me wondering what type of experiments his people do on others for them to make this guy unimpressive.

The charmer then introduces himself, “I am Saint Kai, I hope nothing unfortunate happens while we’re here.” The creepy doll looks at Kai as if he has said something profoundly stupid, but quickly masks it. The only reason I catch it is because of Umbra’s vision. The benefits of being linked to a sentient warframe is that almost nothing escapes our sight.

Finally, the murderous one is next. Though I guess I can’t call her murderous, her expression has become neutral since I last gave attention to her. “I’m Saint Jet,” she says her voice polite, but cold at best. She then turns her head in the direction of the creepy doll. Not interested in saying more then?

Understandable, few people are warm when they’ve been subdued easily. I’m surprised the others here aren’t throwing Merlin dirty looks. It’s not like he could kill them, nor does it seem like he’s petty enough to rage over a look. He seems more like the type to subtly mock you in a joyful manner.

The creepy doll smiles, “I’m Master Sunless, but please call me Sunny.” Interesting name. Different title from the rest too. Is he higher or lower ranked than the others? They all feel similar except for Sunny and Nephis. Those two are somehow more than the others. Nothing I could identify with my level of skill without alerting one of them to my probing of their souls; if they had such senses.

“So, who’s going first?” Percy asks sounding resigned, and looking it.