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sapphicwhump · 3 years

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Deception of Luna

Fandoms: Destiny, Destiny 2 Tropes: F/M, trauma recovery, heavy angst, light fluff, creepy whumper, cosmic horror elements, whumpee/caretaker intimacy TWs: flashback, explicit noncon, implied death of loved ones, implied misogyny

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Lich-5 considers herself to be quite lucky. At least with her assignments on Luna; not so much with her loot. She speeds across the lunar surface on her Sparrow towards Archer’s Line, having just received a bounty to clear out the Fallen there. There are three of the usual crimson phantoms en route this time; each one cowers and screams in terror as her Sparrow plows by. To her, these nightmares are just nameless red silhouettes that occasionally make creepy noises; none of them are the slightest bit recognizable. The larger ones, the ones that appear as long-dead enemies rather than Guardians, have names she can recognize from her historical studies, but nothing more than that. Despite her own experience, Lich knows that most of her fellows don’t see them that way.

The Pyramid of Luna is a nasty piece of work, to say the least. She would call it sadistic, but it would be improper of her to anthropomorphize such an alien being. The nightmares it spawns are drawn directly from the Guardians’ most painful losses; vanquished nemeses, outlived mentors, lost loves, and a myriad of others now walk again on Luna. In every case, their passing had left wounds on the people they left behind, and now the Pyramid has made those wounds fresh again.

The worst part, Lich thinks, is that doing so offers it no tactical advantage. The Pyramid doesn’t need to crush Guardians’ morale; it could crush them all very literally if it so chose. This thing’s kind had caused the Great Collapse of humanity’s golden age; surely the Last City of today would be no trouble for it to exterminate. The only thing keeping them all alive is this Pyramid’s continued desire to bide its time. And in that time, it’s chosen to reopen their old wounds because it’s fun.

The reason Lich-5 considers herself lucky is because she doesn’t have many wounds that can be reopened. She'd been resurrected just after the Red War, into a world struggling to recuperate, to make some amount of sense out of the tremendous loss. Her roommate Windy isn’t a particularly old Guardian by any means, only a few years her senior, but that still puts his resurrection date solidly before the War. She doesn’t pry him about it, but she’s aware that the majority of people he knew had been permanently Returned To Light by the forces of Dominus Ghaul. Windy avoids assignments on Luna like the plague, as do many of her elder acquaintances. She’s met Guardians who were resurrected in the Dark Age, now hundreds of years old, who have pushed on through every defeat humanity has ever faced since the Collapse. Lich herself recently turned three.

Will she live to be hundreds of years old? If she does, how much will she lose in that time?

She’s coming up on Archer’s Line now. There’s already some Guardian activity here; in the distance, she can pick out the dull gray bulk of a male Titan’s armor against the background of lunar dust. Ignoring his presence, she drives into the old K1 Logistics facility and gets to work.

Clearing the facility takes under ten minutes. She emerges from the front entrance with her armored Warlock’s robe dotted with scuffs and splattered with Fallen Ether. Her bounty objectives aren’t quite complete yet; there are still a few Fallen skittering around the Lunar surface that’ll have to be dealt with. She’d think that life-or-death combat would be too stressful to become boring, but when that death isn’t much more than a temporary (if painful) setback, the repetitiveness of it can get a bit dull.

Just gotta get it done, then I can relax. The rewards from these last few bounties should be just enough to afford that fancy new armor set she’s been working towards, and then she won’t have much to do until the next big crisis inevitably hits the Sol system. She’s already thinking of a few new science projects she could start work on during her extended down time; monotonous work like this does little to satiate her burning curiosity.

The Titan she saw earlier seems to be approaching the K1 facility now. He’s welcome to loot the place if he wants; she only went in to get her bounties done. It’s nice to see another Guardian out here; the presence of an ally makes her feel slightly less alone in this gray hellscape, even if they don’t interact.

The boxy silhouette of his armor strikes her as oddly familiar. It’s possible that she’s seen him somewhere else before; there aren’t an unlimited number of Guardians in Sol, and Lich has met quite a lot of them.

Wait a minute—

Recognition shoots through her neural network like arc lightning. Instantly, her every piston is tense, all sensors on high alert. It’s him. Why does he have to be here?

She takes it back. Having another Guardian here isn’t nice at all, not when it’s him in particular . Lich quickly ducks back into the empty facility, taking cover from the imminent danger behind one of the large storage containers strewn about. She needs to be in a place where he isn’t in her line of sight.

Maybe she isn’t so lucky. Of course the phantoms wouldn’t reopen old wounds, only for another Guardian to do it instead. Taking stock of her emotional state, she abruptly realizes how much she’s shaking. She forcibly steels herself, struggling to regain her composure while cursing her own weakness. Simply seeing a Titan, even if it’s him, should not frighten her to the point where she’s struggling to even function.

Lich is ashamed to admit to herself how much sway he still holds over her mental state. His existence is a disgusting muck polluting the back of her mind; just being reminded of him feels like wading through a stagnant pit of human sewage, from which she can never truly escape because it’s in her head. Thinking about it more only makes it worse, causes her to sink deeper. She can forget him, at least temporarily, but then eventually something random always jogs her memory and she'll be back, trapped again in that pit of sewage.

She considers abandoning her objectives and transmatting back to her jumpship, still safely parked at the landing zone. But it’s this part of Luna that needs to be cleared of Fallen, and that fancy new armor set won’t be on sale forever, and she really shouldn’t be so pathetically weak to let this get to her. No, she’ll stay, to earn her extended down time if nothing else. She just needs to calm down and wait here until he—

“Oh hey, Lich. Long time no see.”

If Lich had a heart, it would have stopped beating at that exact second. His voice, just his fucking voice, almost throws her back there all by itself. He’s so insufferably casual with his greeting, like she’s just any other acquaintance to him.

“Hey. You mind leaving me alone?”

“Woah, relax. I’m just finishing up these bounties.” Condescension drips off of his words like spoiled milk.

“Yeah, well, please stay away from me while you do that.”

His tone sours, sounding almost disappointed. “Well you’re being awfully frigid.”

“Of course I fucking am!” Lich fumes, rage momentarily cutting through her fear. “What did you expect, that I’d be nice to you!?”

The Titan pauses. “Well… yeah, kinda. I at least didn’t expect to be jilted like this.”

For a brief moment, Lich sees red. Her trembling has elevated to a truly intolerable level, and she’s currently about five seconds away from drawing her Dawnblade on this man. She knows that getting violent with him would almost certainly end poorly for her, though. With great effort, she puts together a facade of something resembling calmness.

“Look… I think I’ve got a pretty good reason for not wanting to see you. Please leave, and never try to interact with me again. I know I’m never gonna get justice, so I just want to move past this and get back as close to normal as possible. You’re making it rather difficult to do that right now.”

“Justice?" He cocks his helmet to the side in what looks like disbelief. As if he has any right to act surprised by any of this. She can practically feel him rolling his eyes at her underneath his blank faceplate, and it makes her synthetic stomach turn. “Fine, fine. If you wanna be like that, it’s not my problem.”

He proceeds deeper into the K1 halls, finally giving Lich a reprieve from his vile presence. She turns to leave in the opposite direction, but stops short when she catches the Titan muttering a final insult under his breath.

“Fuckin’ melodramatic bitch.”

She whirls on him. “Fuck you, asshole!” she spits over her shoulder, still heading for the facility’s exit. “If I ever see you again, it’ll be too soon!”

The Titan is mercifully quiet. Lich is almost at the door; just a few more Fallen slain, and she’ll be able to go home and do her best to forget that she ever saw him again.

“No, fuck you.”

Lich barely registers the Titan’s words in her audio receptors, and she doesn’t notice the suppressor grenade roll between her legs until it’s too late.

————————————

Windy’s day has been restful, to say the least. He lays sprawled out on the couch of his and Lich’s shared apartment, his usual combat armor doffed in favor of boxers and a tank top, lackadaisically swiping through the datapad in his hand. On one tab is the sidearm section of Omolon’s digital storefront; on another is a gallery of images displaying a nude Awoken. He lifts his can of alcoholic liquid from the coffee table and pours the last of it down his throat, sighing in satisfaction. It’s kinda nice to stay home for once while Lich goes out to grind away at bounties.

Fuck, he needed a day like this. He’s been seeing less than his fair share of action recently, but continuously dodging Vanguard assignments on Luna has been anxiety-inducing enough on its own. After his first visit, he vowed to make every effort he possibly could to never return. The Vanguard had assigned him a strike against the Hive on Luna today, and so he had to call in one of his favors for a friend to take his place in the fireteam, hence his current position at home while Lich is out and about.

An Incoming Communication notification buzzes at the top of his screen, and he quickly closes the pornography tab before answering. It’s from Phylactery. That’s odd; Lich’s Ghost hardly ever lets themself be seen, and speaks even less. If Lich had a message for him, she’d give it herself.

“Hey, how’s it going?”

The Ghost doesn’t waste any time on pleasantries. “Lich needs immediate evac from K1 Logistics on Luna.”

Windy instantly bolts up from his slouched position. “Wait, what’s going on? Can she transmat out?”

Phylactery is doing their best to keep their tone clipped and curt as usual, but Windy still picks up on the desperate way they hurry over their words. “No, she’s currently catatonic. We’re stuck here until someone can provide an evac.”

“Catatonic?" Windy balks. “What the hell happened down there?”

The Ghost’s distress is evident. “I’m not quite sure. Lich saw something; I think we were attacked, but she still isn’t cognizant enough to give me the details. I felt something suppress our Light. I was knocked unconscious, and Lich… she’s not recovering. We need you here as soon as possible.”

Fear grips Windy’s gut. Suppressed Light means that an RTL is on the table. He’s got enough dead friends walking around on Luna without Lich joining that long list.

“It’ll take me awhile to get there; can you call any nearby Guardians for backup?”

Windy can detect a wince in Phylactery’s tone. “No, this… isn’t the kind of thing that a random stranger would be able to help with. Might make matters worse, even.” the Ghost quietly speculates to themself. “What she really needs right now is someone she trusts.”

Well that’s cryptic. He knows he’s not getting the full picture of events, and stumbling blindly into danger has always been more of Lich’s thing than his. He doesn’t exactly have time to press the Ghost further, though.

“Already on my way. Just gimme like twenty minutes to get there.”

“Right, thank you.” Phylactery seems relieved to no longer be discussing it.

Windy is already in motion as he hangs up the call. He drops the datapad on the cushion beside him, then vaults over the back of the couch in his usual manner. He doesn’t bother taking the time to change out of his boxers and tank top before exiting the apartment; he’ll don his armor in his jumpship. The residents of this housing block have seen far weirder things than his underwear, anyways.

Fuck. On Luna. Guess I won’t be able to avoid it after all. Dread constricts around his gut like a snake as he approaches the Tower’s hangar, a sensation that he knows won’t dissipate until he and Lich are safely back on Earth. For now, he tries to shove it down as best he can. His current priority is making sure that his roommate doesn’t get RTL’d; once she’s safe, he can go drown his worries at the nearest bar and put this all behind him. He distracts himself by planning out the route he’ll take there, what drinks he’ll order, who he might meet up with...

As he’s exiting the Earth’s atmosphere, Windy briefly speculates that maybe finding a therapist would be a better use of his time than just getting drunk again, before he blasts off at near-light speed for Luna.

————————————

Lich-5 awakens to the sensation of an immense weight on top of her, as if she’s trapped underneath a boulder. She’s laying stomach-down on the couch where she fell asleep, being pressed down into the cushions by the heavy object above her. She’s in an apartment typical of one of the Last City’s massive housing blocks, although not the one she shares with Windy. Night has long since fallen outside, casting the living room in darkness. What little illumination remains bathes everything in an odd vermillion.

The Titan’s apartment is small, but his couch provided an adequate place to crash for the night after a particularly wild bar crawl. Lich can’t get drunk, but flying her jumpship home while exhausted would be just as dangerous. When she proposed the idea of crashing at a nearby friend’s place, one particular Titan was eager to offer. He’s new to her group of drinking buddies, and so it struck Lich as unusual that he would so readily invite her over. Once at his apartment, she figured out his reason pretty quickly.

Tucked away in her backpack at the foot of the couch, Phylactery sleeps soundly, enjoying a well-earned rest after a long day’s grind. Lich is currently not being afforded that same rest. The weight on top of her shifts around erratically, fiddling with something, trying to get it open. She’s nearly driven to panic, but her fear keeps her frozen in place. Just pretend you’re still asleep, her mind unhelpfully provides. Play dead, and soon the predator will go away.

The predator does not go away. She feels a sudden spike of pain, and the irregular shifting of the weight quickly becomes paced and rhythmic.

Lich can’t pinpoint when or how her view shifts, but at some point she finds that she’s above herself—literally. She’s watching the scene unfold from a third-person perspective, her disembodied consciousness hanging a meter in the air over her incapacitated frame. She can’t compel herself to move a single piston or servo, her physical form refusing to comply with her immobilized will.

Long ago, in a time before she could remember, Lich had had nightmares in which she was pursued by an extreme danger, only to find her limbs paralyzed and unresponsive to her attempts to flee. This is a lot like that, only it’s not a nightmare; this is real life and the danger is directly on top of her. There is no chance to flee; she’s already been caught.

The Titan’s head, now free of its helmet, rests on the couch next to hers. Despite the warmth of his breath, a chill runs through Lich’s system. She can feel his wet lips graze against her artificial skull as he begins to speak.

“The Light does not hold its wielders to any standard of morality.” he whispers into the side of her head, where the ear would be if she were human. There’s a horrible wrongness in his tone, like multiple beings trying to speak through one mouth. “In the Dark Age, the Warlords inflicted terrible violence upon the innocent, just as he inflicted violence upon you.”

The motion gradually escalates in speed and magnitude, pressing Lich further down into the couch cushions with an oscillating rhythm. Her pain briefly increases as the pace picks up, but it quickly turns dull, and a sensation of warmth grows in its place as her own body turns against her. He’s speaking again, those wet lips and warm breath directly on her audio receptor. He doesn’t pause for air as he produces the words, regardless of his physical exertion.

“In Light, there is only pain.”

There’s a groan from above her, and the weight slumps, ceasing its rhythm. Lich silently breathes a sigh of relief, although she’s still far too overwhelmed with disgust to really be relieved by any of this. She knows on some level that it’s only been minutes, but her dilated sense of time has stretched the ordeal into what felt like hours.

The floorboards creak next to her, and the Titan exits the small living room, although Lich still remains effectively paralyzed. A heavy exhaustion has seeped into her chassis, now even worse than the one she was trying to cure by crashing here. Still unable to will herself to move, it isn’t long before unconsciousness claims her again.

————————————

Windy summons his Sparrow within the second he touches down on Luna. His stomach churns as he exits his jumpship, doing his best to keep his eyes on the ground and away from the lifeless red Guardians hanging motionless over the landing zone. The Pyramid must know this is a center of Guardian activity, and so the nightmares swarm here like some kind of macabre flock.

He passes three more of the crimson phantoms on his way to the dot Phylactery marked on his heads-up display. He gives each of them as wide of a berth as he reasonably can, trying to keep them in his periphery while still steering the vehicle on course. If he looks at one too closely, there's a decent chance he’ll recognize it. He fails to give the third one enough room, and winces under his helmet as it wails at him for help in a voice he’s pretty sure he can put a name to.

Phylactery’s coordinates lead him to the K1 facility at the far end of Archer’s Line. A short distance in, he finds his roommate’s distinctive hive-bone helmet lying discarded to one side. It’s not until he proceeds down a hallway and searches behind a storage container that he finds the Warlock it belongs to. She doesn’t appear to be in any immediate physical danger, although he wouldn’t think it purely by her posture; she’s curled up in a fetal position on the floor, trembling violently, the shutters over her optics squeezed as tight as they’ll go.

One of the red phantoms looms over her cowering form. This one is clearly a Titan, and Windy can’t restrain his relieved exhale when he fails to recognize it. It does not turn to acknowledge him as he enters, keeping its blank gaze fixed on the ball of a Warlock curled behind the box.

It takes Windy a moment to realize that Lich is crying. Her digital optics don’t feature tear ducts, but the anguish in her soft vocalizations is unmistakable. It’s a sound that he doesn’t hear often, but still far more than he’d like.

Windy steps straight through the phantom towards his friend, passing through it as if it’s not even there. The spectral Titan’s body offers no resistance and induces no sensation. The thing recoils in a mimicry of pain, then disperses into maroon wisps as if it were mist. The instant it vanishes completely, her optics fly open.

The first thing that Lich sees is Windy leaned over her, right where he had stood, offering her a hand.

"W-windy?" She accepts the hand graciously, allowing him to pull her to her feet. “What are you doing here?”

“Phylactery told me you needed an evac.” The somber concern in his tone catches her by surprise, and she briefly feels a pang of guilt for causing him to worry this much.

Lich emits a single humorless laugh, barely holding in a sob behind it. “Yeah. You could say that.” She’ll have to thank her Ghost for their forethought later. She takes a moment to collect herself, brushing the lunar dust off her robes and trying in vain to suppress her shivering.

“You didn’t have to come for me.” she tells him frankly, refusing to meet his sympathetic gaze. “I know how much you hate this place.”

“Lich, it’s fine. There is nothing in all of Sol that could make me leave you behind.”

For a moment, Lich looks like she’s about to cry again, before she closes the distance between their bodies and embraces Windy in a tight hug. He tentatively returns the gesture, protectively wrapping his arms around her back, and her hold on his torso quickly turns into a death grip. She’s no longer crying, but he takes careful note of the way she still shivers and shakes in his embrace.

Lich buries her face in the crook of his neck, hiding away from the world in the rough fabric of his Hunter cloak. Her chemical receptors flood with the particles that cling to the garment; it smells like his shampoo and sweat and the dust of a hundred worlds, all composing into a unique odor that is very distinctly Windy. His smell is grounding, bringing her attention back to the here and now.

“So, did the nightmares get to you?” he asks, tracing his fingers over the top of her fiberglass cranium in the way he knows she likes. He immediately withdraws his hand when she unexpectedly flinches away from the gentle contact. “I thought you hadn’t lost anyone.”

Lich shakes her head gently against his cloak. “I, uh… I saw him again.”

Windy’s blood freezes. Then the phantom Titan was—

“Oh shit, Lich, I’m so sorry.” He suddenly feels very conscious of the way he’s holding her.

Windy can’t forget the morning that Lich had nearly collapsed into their apartment, utterly disheveled after a long night out, and he had to delicately explain to her that sex is not a required payment for a male friend lending you his couch to crash on. Working through that day had been a painful experience for them both, although Windy has no illusions about which of them had it worse. Despite his seniority as a Guardian, dealing with this particular type of violence was entirely outside of his expertise. To his knowledge, aside from him and Phylactery, she’s never told another soul of what happened that night.

“This fucking Pyramid.” he spits out venomously, staring out at the lunar expanse beyond the facility. That fucking Titan. Hate festers within his ribcage like rot. At the time, he’d had half a mind to bust down the Titan’s front door with his Golden Gun in hand, ready to vaporize both him and his Ghost. But Lich needed him more than that Titan needed a bullet, and so the obligation to support her had stayed his hand.

With the Pyramid, though, it’s so much worse. Even though he couldn’t act on his impulse against the Titan, at least there had been some degree of hope there. With how utterly infinitesimal he is compared to the Pyramid’s world-ending might, he doesn’t even get the luxury of a revenge fantasy.

"It was like—" Lich begins to speak, but stops short as her chassis is taken by a violent shiver. Windy can almost feel the intensity of the chill that runs through her. "Like being there all over again."

His attention snaps back to her, and all the hate goes cold. His rage is not what Lich needs right now. Staying angry is impossible when she’s still so visibly distressed. He mentally reminds himself that this is her pain, not his; she’s the one who gets to have the revenge fantasy, if she so chooses.

“Yeah. I... get what that’s like. It sucks, but the suck is ultimately temporary. You’ll get through this.”

The pair are silent for a moment as Lich’s mind swims. She really wishes she could take his words to heart, but the memory of him freshly burned into her mind is all she can focus on. She tries to clear her thoughts by concentrating on the steady rise and fall of Windy’s chest, while her own remains eternally still. She reminds herself of what’s real: he’s here, holding her in his arms, and soon they’ll be home safe. The danger has long since passed, and was never even here in the first place.

“I feel disgusting.” Lich voices the thought aloud, her gaze remaining firmly downcast. “I’ve felt disgusting since that night. I don’t know if it’s ever gonna go away.”

Windy winces, sucking in a quiet breath through his teeth. "That… I lack experience with. But, from the experience I do have, I can tell you that it’s not true." Now he’s the one to strengthen the embrace. Through the heavy weave of her robes, he soothingly runs a hand up and down her mechanical spine, and is relieved when she relaxes into the touch rather than flinching away. "You’re smart, and beautiful, and brave, and you can be really really annoying when you want to be, but I still care about you. You’re the furthest thing from disgusting that I can imagine. What he did doesn’t make you any lesser as a person; you’re still the same Lich I’ve always known.”

Lich tries to form a response, but words fail her, immediately getting caught in the knot that’s formed behind her speakers. She settles for simply holding Windy close, savoring the feeling of their arms wrapped around each other. Some part of her is still trapped in that sewage pit, but it’s further away now, distanced from her by the closeness to him. For the briefest moment, she believes with absolute certainty that everything he said is true, and almost manages to clamber her way out.

“Y’know, if Guardians really are amoral, you’re a pretty good counterexample.”

“Hm?” He turns his head towards hers with a raised brow.

“Ah, nevermind. Symmetrist ramblings.” Windy can’t help but notice another chill run through her.

It’s a long while before Lich feels stable enough on her own to leave his arms. When she finally begins to move away, he retracts his protective embrace, allowing her to separate from him without resistance.

"You ready to head home now? I'll ride with you to the landing zone and fly us back to Earth. We can pick up your jumpship later."

Lich releases an extended sigh, exhaling her residual tension into the thin lunar atmosphere. “Sure. Thanks for all this, by the way. I… needed to hear that.”

He gives her a warm, relieved smile. “Don’t mention it.”

Lich finally escapes from K1 Logistics with her hand firmly in Windy’s. While the Sparrow is intended to be a single-occupancy vehicle, that’s never stopped particularly affectionate Guardians from riding them two at a time. Lich and Windy share the single seat, with her clinging to his back, holding on with her arms wrapped around his midsection.

The ride back to the landing zone is short, but both Guardians savor it. The red phantoms don’t cause either of them much distress on their return trip. Holding each other close, the nightmares seem just a little bit fainter.

#my writing #whump #lady whump #female whumpee #tw noncon #lich-5 and windy

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darbiebot · 3 years

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Daily Wring Challenge: Day 5- Savage, Pinapple

She paused a bit to pull the scarf over her face as the wind blew across the icy terrain. She hadn't back back to Dragonblight since she'd been stationed there as part of the support team defending against Naxxramus. Her first post as a soldier with the Silver Dragoons. The tower looked less active now, she'd heard that many Dragons were living amongst the mortals now, given the misfortune affecting the Flights, she wasn't that surprised.

There were still bones everywhere though, and not just of dragons. No shortage of people met their end here, the bulk of the battles that took place in Northrend occurred here, the Nerubians and the native humans, Arthas and his crews pursuing the Legion, the peoples of Azeroth invading to kill the Lich King? Armies met their ends here, and this wasn't the sort of land you could bury the dead in.

She crested and ridge, her ice shoes digging in for a good foothold, as she got her snapper out and took a few shots, as windy as it was, the sky was clear and blue, and it was great visibility to capture the vastness of the fields.

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA!"

She heard it, spinning around just in time to feel the impact of the screaming thing as it barreled into her, sending her flying off her feet and dazed. The creature, a Kobold, it looked like, lay howling in pain in a crumpled mass beside her, and as she stood she could feel the sting of bruised, if not broken ribs. She looked outward.... and her fears were founded. A Magnataur. It had thrown the Kobold at her, the creature was bellowing with laughter, and reading a large... axe?

No... it was an old anchor, probably salvaged on the coastline. The creature was massive, even more so for a gnome. She found herself diving out of the way of it's attack, feeling the impact and the cracking of ice just where she had been seconds ago.

The creature had crafted itself a... not a saddle, more of a pelt blanket, with longs belts with old trophies displayed. Pin managed to wrap her arms around an old tuskar fishing pole, from the looks of it. Her body dragged along as the beast ran around, looking for a second charge. When it paused, unable to find her, she quickly scampered over the old bones, tools, and... even a gnomish skull from the looks of it...

It didn't even register her weight as she clambered along, drawing her greatsword. She didn't waste time, running quickly up the backside and driving the blade through the back of the neck. The Magnataur didn't even have time to react, she'd clearly caught the spine, and it slumped down in a heap, she had to leap to avoid getting crushed.

It took her a good fourty minutes to get her sword from the corpse, having to pull it through the wound from the front. A blue dragon, young, by the looks of it, swooped down, and looked at her inquisitively, "Are you going to eat that?" She blinked, giving a pained laugh. "Just give me a ride to the tower when you're done, and I'll tell everyone that you got him.."

The drake seemed pretty pleased with that arrangement.

@daily-writing-challenge

#dwc2021 #day052021 #darbiebot.tumblr.com #pin writing

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xembongda · 3 years

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Xemdabanhhd đưa tin: Olympic Tokyo 2020: Philippines thành công nhất ở Đông Nam Á

Với 1 HCV, 2 HCB và 1 HCĐ, đoàn thể thao Philippines đã vượt qua Indonesia và Thái Lan trên bảng tổng sắp huy chương Olympic Tokyo của các nước khu vực Đông Nam Á.

Tấm HCV duy nhất của đoàn thể thao Philippines ở Olympic Tokyo 2020 thuộc về lực sĩ Hidilyn Diaz ở hạng cân 55kg nữ môn Cử tạ. Với tổng cử là 224kg, nữ đô cử này đã đánh bại đối thủ người Trung Quốc Liao Quiyun với chỉ 1kg nhiều hơn.

Đáng quý giá hơn khi đây là tấm HCV đầu tiên của thể thao Philippines ở đấu trường Thế vận hội sau 97 năm chờ đợi.

Xem thêm: Clip c1

Hidilyn Diaz đi vào lịch sử thể thao Philippines và Olympic Ba tấm huy chương còn lại của Philippines đều thuộc về các võ sĩ quyền anh. Hai tay đấm Nesthy Petecio (hạng lông nữ) và Carlo Paalam (hạng ruồi nam) cùng giành HCB, còn tấm HCĐ thuộc về Eumir Marcial (hạng trung nam).

Thành tích này giúp Philippines giành vị trí số 1 trên bảng thành tích các đoàn thể thao ở khu vực Đông Nam Á. Nhờ kỳ tích này, Philippines xếp hạng 49 trên bảng tổng sắp huy chương Olympic Tokyo 2020.

Đứng thứ 2 ở khu vực Đông Nam Á là Indonesia, sau khi đoàn thể thao xứ sở vạn đảo có được 1 HCV, 1 HCB và 3 HCĐ.

indonesia-gianh-hcv-lich-su-tai-olympic-tokyo-2020.jpg Greysia Polii - Apriyani Rahayu giúp Indonesia giành HCV lịch sử tại Olympic Chiến thắng của hai tay vợt Greysia Polii - Apriyani Rahayu trước bộ đôi của Trung Quốc đã mang về cho Indonesia tấm HCV đầu tiên ở nội dung đôi nữ môn cầu lông tại đấu trường Olympic.

Trong khi đó, tấm HCB thuộc về VĐV cử tạ Eko Yuli Irawan ở hạng cân 61kg, hạng cân có sự tranh tài của lực sĩ Thạch Kim Tuấn của Việt Nam.

Ba HCĐ còn lại là của các VĐV Windy Cantika Aisah (cử tạ, 49kg nữ), Rahmat Erwin Abdullah (cử tạ, 73kg nam) và Anthony Sinisuka Ginting (cầu lông, đơn nam).

Với 1 HCV và 1 HCĐ, đoàn thể thao Thái Lan đứng thứ 3 khu vực. HCV duy nhất của đoàn thể thao xứ sở chùa vàng thuộc về Panipak Wongpattanakit ở môn taekwondo, hạng cân 49kg của nữ. Wongpattanakit chính là VĐV thắng võ sĩ Trương Thị Kim Tuyền của Việt Nam ở vòng tứ kết. Tấm HCĐ do nữ tay đấm Sudaporn Seesondee giành được ở hạng nhẹ môn quyền anh.

panipak-wongpattanakit.jpg Panipak Wongpattanakit với tấm HCV quý giá cho đoàn Thái Lan Trong ngày thi đấu cuối cùng của Olympic Tokyo, cua-rơ Azizulhasni Awang đã xuất sắc mang về cho thể thao Malaysia tấm HCB ở nội dung Keirin của nam. Trước đó, hai tay vợt của nước này là Aaron Chia - Soh Wooi Yik giành HCĐ nội dung đôi nam môn cầu lông.

Như vậy, chỉ có 4 quốc gia của Đông Nam Á giành huy chương tại Thế vận hội mùa hè năm nay.

Đoàn thể thao Việt Nam với 18 VĐV dù đã thi đấu rất cố gắng nhưng không giành tấm huy chương nào. Xạ thủ Hoàng Xuân Vinh cũng bảo vệ tấm HCV giành được ở nội dung 10m súng ngắn.

Như vậy, ngoại trừ Philippines có bước tiến với tấm HCV đầu tiên trong lịch sử thì tất cả đều có kết quả không bằng cách đây 5 năm. Thái Lan chỉ còn 1 HCV (so với 2 ở Olympic Rio), Indonesia vẫn giữ được 1 HCV cầu lông nhưng ít hơn số bạc, Malaysia thì đến ngày cuối mới có thêm tấm HCB (so với 4 ở Rio). Việt Nam và Singapore sau tấm HCV đầu tiên trong lịch sử năm 2016 thì lần này đều không có HC nào.

Tính đến hết Olympic Tokyo, có 5 quốc gia ASEAN đã có HCV Thế vận hội, đó là Thái Lan, Indonesia, Việt Nam, Singapore và Philippines.

Bảng tổng sắp huy chương Olympic Tokyo các quốc gia Đông Nam Á:

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lichlairs · 4 years

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Checkout our new post over at http://lichlair.com/daily-monster-10-air-elemental

Daily Monster #10: Air Elemental

Somehow my least hated Eladrin managed to roll a 14 on a 1561 sided die so here we are folks; talking Air Elementals for our milestone 10th post. I’ll be making sure that The Lich deals with this little green bugger later this week but for now, let’s take a look at…

Air Elementals

The basics

Alright! Looking at the stats we can definitely tell that these creatures aren’t the smartest or most charismatic of the bunch with a -2 to INT and CHA. Their WIS is a standard +0, and their CON is above average with a +2 mod. Their strongest suit is most definitely their DEX with a +5 mod to it.

They possess a Darkvision of 60ft, have an AC of 15 and a pretty meaty hit point pool of 12d10+24. Their speed is most definitely a highlight with 90ft of flying (hovering).

When it comes to resistances, we get a few of them including Lightning, Thunder, and the standard non magical weapons resistances. We also get a single immunity to poison and quite a few interesting condition immunities.

Because of their gaseous nature, these large elementals can remain on a hostile creature’s space without issue and move through openings as small as 1inch.

In terms of attacks, we get a standard double slam multiattack and a especial action called Whirlwind (recharge 4-6) which deals a decent amount of damage on a failed DC 13 strength save.

All we need now is some sharks

The Lore

So the thing about Air Elementals is that they’re surprisingly common, just like Tornado Alley, really. Chances are that if you’ve been playing D&D for long enough you’ve already encountered a few of these. That said, for the sake of those of us who are a bit newer to the game, let’s cover our basics here.

Air Elementals are beings made out of living air and wind. They appear almost like a shapeless cloud except for a vague semblance of a face.

These elementals are native to the Plane of Air but can also be found naturally in regions of the world that are specially high up or windy. Their sizes can vary from small dust devils o gargantuan hurricanes with an almost humanoid form.

While they share a kinship with creatures of the air and those of storm, they’re often at odds with other creatures of earth and rock.

Although Air Elementals possess a consciousness and can even communicate in Aruan, they are for the most part simple creatures that only seek to prolong their existence.

The Execution

I’ve had first hand experience in getting my behind handed to me after a series of unfortunate rolls so I can attest to there being more to these creatures than meets the eye.

As always with these articles I’m looking to take whatever makes a creature especial and use that to create interesting and unique encounters. In the case of Air Elementals, we will focus on their incredible speed and condition resistances.

I think it would be interesting to have these creature move in a somewhat erratic circular pattern on the field, constantly moving and circling around the players. Picture your elemental barreling through the midst of the party and sending all of them flying. Next turn it’s already on two of the characters again thanks to its impressive speed. It slams against them and sends them flying towards the rest of the party. Pieces of parchment and house decorations fly across the room barely missing (or not) the overwhelmed players. They try to shout to reassemble and maneuver around the force of nature in the room but can’t seem to get a word across over the deafening sound of the wind.

Thanks to their speed, Air Elementals are the kind of monster that can be run effectively regardless of terrain. As a last note I would definitely recommend trying to come up with interesting situations that make use of this versatility.

If you enjoyed this article and would like to be updated whenever we post something new, don’t forget to follow us on our social media. If you have any interesting comments of funny anecdotes do leave us a message in our forums!

#Behind the Screen #Daily Monster #dnd #dnd5e #dndbeyond

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sapphicwhump · 3 years

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Vexed Roommates 3

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Lich-5 is currently standing in the Tower’s central water treatment facility, surrounded by a maze of pipes and massive tanks of water in various stages of purification. Ordinarily, this place would be deafening with the rattling and rushing of water and machinery, but it’s eerily silent now with the flow brought to a standstill. Lich holds her Dawnblade under the surface of one of the pools, waiting for its entire contents to finish boiling as bubbles of steam cascade upward from the flaming sword.

This isn’t the only tank she’ll have to do. She’s already been at this for an excruciatingly boring two hours, and with the current energy output of her super, she’s calculated it’ll take at least another twelve to boil the Tower’s entire water supply. Despite Ikora’s mercy, it’s difficult to not feel at least a little bit bitter over being stuck here all day. Whether it’s at Ikora, Windy, or herself, she isn’t quite sure. All of them feel somewhat misplaced, admittedly to varying degrees.

From the hallway behind her, the clacking of boots against concrete draws Lich’s attention. When she looks up, Windy is there, leaning against the doorway.

“Hey.”

“Way to throw me under the maglev train back there. What, come to gloat at my humiliation?”

“Actually, I came to help you, as novel of a concept as that may be.” He twists toward her, placing a hand on his hip. “And also, I’m the one who suggested boiling the water, so I think I deserve a bit more respect. Unless, of course, you’d prefer to handle this one solo.”

As tempting as it would be to simply tell him off, being stuck here for the better part of a day would be far more excruciating to deal with than his smugness. She bites back an insult and gestures him in.

“Since when have you ever willingly taken on extra work?”

“Since I last owed someone a favor.” He gives her a grin, and at least gets an amused exhale out of her.

He approaches her beside the water tank. “I already scrubbed the living room down with bleach and called a repair company. You can thank me for that one later. They can’t come and assess the damage until tomorrow, but when they do, they’ll probably be pretty confused how you managed to accomplish both water and fire damage at the same time.”

Ordinarily, Lich might have laughed at that, but now she just scoffs. Windy ignites his Golden Gun and plunges it into the open water tank next to where her Dawnblade is burning. The two settle into a tense silence as the roiling of the water doubles with the combined heat of their supers.

“So… Ikora really wrung you out there.”

“She let me off easy. I’m just thankful I’m not in a holding cell right now.” Lich doesn’t look up at him from her submerged Dawnblade. “And plus, it’s not like anything she said was incorrect. It’s only right that I clean up my own messes.”

“I think contaminating the Tower’s entire water supply with an infectious microorganism goes a little beyond just a mess.”

She sighs deeply. “Yeah. I get it. I fucked up. You don’t need to rub it in anymore.”

“But, I was the one who caused it to get to that level. It’s one of your few fuck-ups that I’ve had a hand in, actually.” His free hand goes to the back of his head. “After Ikora nearly threw you in prison while almost completely ignoring me, for something that I did, I’d feel like kind of an asshole if I didn’t help you out.”

“Aw, Windy, you actually do have a conscience in there somewhere!” Lich clasps a mocking hand over her chest where her heart would be. “And a work ethic, apparently.”

“Yeah, well, don’t expect it to last.” he chuckles. “You’re still paying for a new couch.”

She rolls her optics. “Yes, I’ll pay for a new couch.”

“And new carpet.”

“Fiiine , I’ll replace the carpet too.”

The two Guardians continue their work in merciful silence. A few minutes later, Windy offers to get chairs for the both of them, and Lich gladly accepts. Her feet might be made of metal, but they’ve still grown numb over the two hours she’s been standing. When he returns, she’s unsurprised to see he brought two cans of cheap beer along with a pair of folding chairs.

“Figure we’re gonna be here awhile.” he explains without being asked. Lich nods, gratefully reflecting on how he’s halved the time she’ll be stuck here for.

It’s a bit difficult to sit while keeping an arm in the water tank, and Lich fumbles her beer can while trying to open it one-handed. It rolls over to the foot of Windy’s chair, and he rolls it back over to her with a nudge from his foot. Despite the awkwardness, it isn’t long before the two Guardians are conversing freely, like this is any other lazy evening between them. Windy empties his can long before Lich does; the taste is poor without the motivator of getting drunk.

“Oh, and I was right, by the way. The results confirmed my hypothesis. For just a second before it blew up, I got to see what the Vex mind was thinking. My experimental methodology was solid; it just ended up causing some unforeseen collateral damage.”

“‘Unforeseen Collateral Damage’ could be your full legal name.” Windy laughs, slightly buzzed. “So what were its final thoughts before it decorated our faces?”

Her optics glow with enthusiasm once again. “Nothing but pure horror! Its last thought was a desire to self-terminate. I’m pretty sure that’s why it blew up; the explosion was voluntary.”

He pulls away from her slightly, deeply disturbed. “Wait… so that Vex mind was so horrified at being connected to your thoughts, that it chose to blow itself up?”

“Yep! Isn’t it fascinating?” she replies cheerily.

Windy brings two fingers to his nose in a very Ikora-like fashion. “If your test subjects are gonna explosively kill themselves just so they don’t have to put up with you anymore… you think you could start conducting your science projects in your room from now on?” he hazards another attempt at the request.

To his pleasant surprise, Lich sounds unexpectedly sincere when she gives her reply. “Yeah. I think I can do that.”

#my writing #not whump #lich-5 and windy

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sapphicwhump · 3 years

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Vexed Roommates 2

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“...As I was saying, Executor Hideo has some… concerns about how the Vanguard is allocating their funding from New Monarchy.”

Ikora takes an impassive sip from her teacup, concealing the frown that her lips would have pulled into had she not. “Oh? What might those be?”

The New Monarchy representative flips open the manila folder in front of him, extracting a spreadsheet and looking it over. “I noticed here that nearly five million Glimmer is being spent annually on ‘viscera cleanup,’ specifically around the base of the Tower; would you care to explain the details on that?”

On her walk here, Ikora had watched a Guardian fling themselves over a loose safety railing, giggling madly as they’d plummeted to the street below. Thirty seconds later, they’d resurrected and done it again. I would give anything to not be in this meeting right now.

Both politicians whip their heads toward the door when three hurried knocks reverberate through their private chambers. The New Monarchy representative shoots Ikora a questioning glance, and she gives a small shrug in response.

Whoever is on the other side jiggles the knob, then knocks again faster, with an edge of desperation.

“Ikora?” The voice has a staticky crackle to it, like it’s coming through a damaged speaker. Definitely an Exo on the other side of the door. For the briefest moment, she could have almost believed that Cayde was the one coming to interrupt her diplomatic meeting again with some asinine query, before a pang of grief brings her back to reality. This voice is too feminine to be him, anyways.

“Excuse me for one moment.”

Upon seeing the representative give a reluctant nod, Ikora stands from her seat, setting down her tea on the table between them. She feels immediate relief at an excuse to put this meeting on hold, but it’s quickly curtailed by her sense of duty. As much as she doesn’t want to be here right now, there are some responsibilities that simply have to be done, regardless of her personal feelings on the matter.

She walks over to the door and answers through it to the perturber on the other side. “I’m in a highly sensitive political meeting right now. Whatever it is will have to wait.”

“My apologies, Vanguard, but this really can’t. If we don’t address it immediately, there are going to be casualties.”

Ikora lets the tiniest growl escape her. “Tell the maintenance staff that Zavala will have the new safety railings installed tomorrow.”

“Oh, no, this is way more urgent than that.”

She turns back to the representative with an apologetic grimace that she doesn’t really feel. He nods again, giving a diplomatic facade of understanding, although clearly peeved beneath it. So much for that funding.

Ikora opens the door to see a disheveled Exo Warlock, dragging along a similarly distressed human Hunter by the wrist. Half the Warlock’s body is blackened by a thick layer of ash, while the Hunter’s armor is soaked like he was just pulled out of a pond. She groans reflexively; whatever absurd story these two have to tell her had better be worth her time.

“What is it, Guardians?” She deliberately lets more than the necessary amount of annoyance slip into her tone.

With his unrestrained hand, the drenched Hunter points an accusing finger at the ash-coated Warlock. “She infected the water supply with Vex jizz.”

The Warlock spins on him. "You washed the Vex jizz down the drain after I told you not to!”

Ikora takes a furious step through the door and slams it behind her, jolting both of their attentions to her. She goes for the Warlock first.

“What. The FUCK. Did you do.”

Ikora’s glare reminds Lich of some of the fiercer opponents she’s faced in the Crucible. It’s alarmingly off-putting to hear the usually serene Warlock Vanguard swear, for everyone involved. She takes a defensive step back, still clinging to Windy’s wrist.

“U-um...” A beat passes between the trio while Ikora waits for an answer. Lich’s mind races for a way of explaining things that would deflect her Vanguard’s anger, but she’s too anxious to find the words and keeps coming up blank.

Ikora folds her arms irritably. “What’s your name, Warlock?” she questions, and Lich’s train of thought comes to a screeching halt.

“Uh, Lich-5, ma’am.”

“And you, Hunter?”

He raises his free hand in greeting. “I’m Windy.”

She narrows her eyes at the Warlock. “Well then, Lich, I believe I asked you a question. And you’d better have a damn good explanation for whatever idiotic move you pulled.”

Lich pushes through her fear to stammer out an answer, raising her unoccupied hand as if trying to ease a feral animal. “Okay. So I got a living sample of Vex datalattice from the Black Garden. I built a life support system for it and kept it alive all the way back to the Tower. I theorized that it would operate as its own Vex mind when it was separated from the collective. Sooo... I tried to hook my neural net up to it to see what it was thinking.” Ikora’s eyebrows fly up at that.

“And then it blew up.” the Hunter interjects.

“...Yeah. It blew up. And splattered radiolaria all over us. And then HE washed it off in the shower, after I told him not to! ”

“I was already in the shower when you told me!”

“Enough!” Ikora bellows. “Explain to me exactly how any of this is my problem.”

The Warlock continues with her explanation. “The thing is, I don’t know if the Tower’s water reclamation system will kill the radiolaria. If it doesn’t, then anyone who drinks it is gonna get infected and slowly turn into a Vex construct. Like Asher Mir’s arm, but on a more full-body scale, happening to the Tower’s entire civilian population.”

As the offending Warlock explains herself, Ikora’s rage becomes increasingly mixed with horror. She recalls all the nights she spent by Asher’s hospital bedside, the right side of his body mangled and interspersed with grotesque machinery. A breakout of this sheer scale would be so disastrous she doesn’t even want to speculate on the implications. She might’ve given anything to escape that meeting, but she wouldn’t give this.

"Why would you ever think this was a good idea!?” She irately gestures to the Warlock.

“Uh… well, we could predict Vex troop—”

“She just wanted to see what would happen. And thought it would be cool.” the Hunter interrupts. The Warlock whirls on him, positively fuming, but Ikora’s infuriated groan silences her response.

“I would have expected better from you, but I suppose I held too much faith in your competency. How can a Warlock be so smart, and yet so incredibly stupid?”

That stings Lich, even more than the Radiolaria did. She searches for words, but quickly decides to remain silent. There’s nothing she could say at this point, anyway.

“I’ll message the maintenance crews to shut off the water. As for you, ” Ikora spits derisively at her, “there are two ways we can handle this situation.

“First, I could follow proper protocol and arrest you for criminal water pollution here and now. I’d take you into custody myself, then call the Praxic Order and have them drag you off to the Tower’s holding cells, where you would await trial. Based on your own testimony so far, that is not a case you’d win.”

Lich freezes in her boots. She’d protest, but is suddenly too stricken with fear to find the right words. From the moment Ikora had to be involved, she knew she’d be in deep shit, but it’s just now starting to dawn on her how deep the shit really is. Oh fuck, she might seriously end up in prison over this stupid science experiment.

“Alternatively, since I’m in a generous mood today…” Ikora really isn’t, but she’s learned in her many years of being the Warlock Vanguard that sometimes discretion is the best policy. “...You can take full, one hundred percent responsibility for fixing this problem yourself. You will do nothing else until every drop of water in the Tower has been purified of your little experiment. If you can’t get it done in a timely manner, I’m sure the Praxics will be happy to meet you.”

Lich swallows heavily. “Yeah, I’ll go with the second one.” she concedes. “Just one thing though… how would I do that?”

Ikora shrugs dismissively. “That’s your problem to figure out, not mine. If you don’t want to be found guilty of criminal negligence, I suggest you think of a solution fast.” If it wasn’t made of fiberglass, Lich’s face would have paled.

The Hunter pipes up. “Well, how are you gonna clean up our living room?”

The Warlock pauses, with that same expression of puzzlement she had in the living room. Absolutely typical. “I could sterilize it with solar fire, like I did before.”

“You fucking melted our couch in half, and now you wanna light up the whole apartment!?”

The Vanguard interrupts the two. “You are not just going to fill your apartment with Solar grenades. You’d start a fire that would burn down the entire housing block. You are extremely lucky you didn’t start one already, unless you also want arson charges added to your case.”

“Uhh…” Lich can feel her thought process scrambling around in her metal skull, reaching for anything resembling a feasible idea. The anxiety isn’t making it any easier to figure out a solution. “If I need something sterilized, and solar fire isn’t an option, my next thought would be bleach.”

Ikora’s rage only grows. “You are not going to pour bleach in the water supply either!”

“Okay, okay! I wasn’t planning on it!”

The two Warlocks continue squabbling for awhile longer, and it’s the Hunter that finally puts the obvious two and two together. “Maybe use the solar fire on the water, and the bleach on our living room?”

Lich stops in her tracks, immediately distracted from her hurried attempts to placate the Vanguard. “Huh… that might actually work. Radiolaria are a bit tougher than most microbes, but they shouldn’t be able to survive at the boiling point of water for more than a few minutes. At least, I hope so. Bleach could soak or discolor the drywall, but... I think we’re already well past that point.” She hesitates slightly at Windy’s look of irritation.

“It’s settled, then.” Ikora sticks an arm out down the hall. “The water treatment facility is that way. Get moving.” Lich gives a quick nod and scurries off in the indicated direction, eager to avoid further beratement.

Although letting the Warlock go is technically a breach of policy that she knows Zavala or Aunor wouldn’t appreciate, Ikora’s experience tells her that imprisoning a Guardian over a mostly innocent mistake wouldn’t benefit anyone. The Warlock could probably get the water purified faster than the maintenance crews, anyway. When a Guardian really puts their mind to something, instead of their usual screwing around, they can make surprising headway with almost any task at hand. They just need the right motivation, and in this case, the fear of prison works adequately enough.

With his wrist finally freed, the Hunter lingers behind. “Um, may I go, ma’am?”

“No one’s keeping you here.”

“Ah. Right then. Apologies again for the interruption, Vanguard.”

Ikora brings two fingers to the bridge of her nose, her face screwing up with tension. “No, it’s fine. Wrangling idiot children is part of my job description.”

Windy wisely decides to excuse himself as quickly as possible after that.

[ Next ]

#my writing #not whump #lich-5 and windy

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sapphicwhump · 3 years

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Vexed Roommates 1

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Fandoms: Destiny, Destiny 2 Tropes: comedy, roommates, sexual humor, mild hurt/comfort, not whump TWs: None

When Windy walks in, Lich-5 is sitting on the couch of their apartment, one hand tapping furiously on the datapad to her side. Her other is fiddling with a new thing on their coffee table. It’s a white, crystalline lattice structure, mounted on a plate of Vex metal and crisscrossed with wires. Light and dark spots subtly shift within it as she makes adjustments, almost as if the crystal is flowing.

Ah Traveler, not this shit again. Lich has made a long-standing habit of using their living room for her twisted Warlock-y science projects. Each time he’s told her to take it into her room, she complies, but then always seems to conveniently forget his request the next time. It wouldn’t even be such a big deal, if half the experiments didn’t result in gigantic messes that were a pain in both of their asses to clean up. He’s pretty sure there’s still Hive blood in the carpet from a few months ago.

He doesn’t even bother this time. Whatever she’s doing has to be at least mildly interesting. Vaulting over the back of the couch, he plops down beside her, causing her to jump.

“Whatcha doing with that datalettuce?”

“Oh!” After her initial surprise, her face lights up, literally and metaphorically. Showing an interest in her work has always gotten an enthusiastic response out of her. “I got some living datalattice from the Black Garden! It's a crystal that Vex radiolaria make out of their silica exoskeletons. Most of the time, the radiolaria inside die pretty quickly after you harvest it, cuz they’re disconnected from the Vex collective. But I got a living sample! The radiolaria in this one are still alive. I made this life support system to sustain it separate from the collective.”

He nods, managing to mostly follow along. “And what’s it doing on the coffee table?”

Her strawberry-red eyes beam even brighter. “That’s the cool part! If my theories are correct…" Windy is convinced that the use of that phrase is the sole reason she is a Warlock and he is not. "...Now that I've separated it from the Sol Divisive subnet, the radiolaria in this datalattice should now be operating as its own individual Vex mind. Each radiolarian acts as a neuron, like in your brain. So I'm gonna hook my neural network up to it and see what it's thinking!"

Windy had been following her explanation up until the last sentence. He doesn’t possess her understanding of Vex biology, but he can definitely intuit when an idea is unbelievably stupid.

"Wait, what? Why?"

Lich pauses. Her fiberglass face is less expressive than a fleshy one, but Windy reads it as puzzled.

"If this works, we could apply it in the field to predict Vex troop movements. It could be a game-changer on Nessus or Mercury."

In their time as both friends and roommates, Windy has developed a knack for cutting through Lich's particular brand of bullshit. He sighs and looks directly into her glowing camera-eyes. "You just want to see what’ll happen, cuz you think it’d be cool. This is an intellectual flex for you. It's like a Titan trying to bench press their entire fireteam."

She deflates, knowing she’s been beaten. "...Yeah. I don't know about that other stuff, but it would be really fucking cool though."

And also incredibly stupid, but he'll give her the cool factor. He leans into the cubic crystal, focusing on the tiny adjustments she makes to the cables keeping the microorganisms alive.

“But that’s irrelevant. The only difference between science and screwing around is writing it down. And I’ve been taking careful notes.” She taps the datapad to her side, getting a chuckle out of him.

She keeps one eye on the graphical displays and text documents on her datapad, pulling them up and making edits every time something changes. “Alright, that looks stable enough.”

She picks up two heavy fiber-optic cables from off the floor, and plugs them into the sides of her head where the ears would be on a human. Each one snaps into place with an audible click.

He chuckles again. “A hundred Glimmer says you go insane from getting your mind overloaded with knowledge or discovering some terrible eldritch secret of the Vex.”

She doesn’t answer. Taking her datapad in both hands, she pulls up a page full of code, and hovers a finger over the ‘run’ button. Windy sucks in a breath, and abruptly realizes he’d been on the edge of his seat for the last few minutes.

Lich lunglessly mimes a deep breath. “Starting the connection in three… two… one…”

She taps the button, and immediately her eyes and mouth fall agape. The expression reminds Windy of some of the more extreme psychedelic trips he’s helped friends through.

“Oh, wow… ”

A fraction of a second later, she does the robotic equivalent of furrowing her brow.

“Wait, wha-”

The crystalline pillar of radiolaria on the coffee table explodes. With a sound like shattering glass, the white structure instantly reverts to a liquid state, spraying a wave of radiolarian goo outwards in all directions. The blast strikes them both, the pressure of the liquid knocking them back into the couch. Both of them, as well as their entire living room, are now splattered top to bottom with an organic white slime.

The two scream in unison as the sticky, salty Vex milk blasts into both of their faces. Something analogous to pain floods through Lich’s sensors as the residual electricity in the radiolaria soaks into her cranium and overloads her circuitry. Windy, just barely managing to close his eyes in time, leaps up off the couch and attempts a blind vault over it in the same way he had sat down. In the process, his feet snag on the back, his momentum causing it to topple backwards with Lich still on it. He promptly faceplants onto the carpet, then begins desperately trying to extricate his feet from the cushions.

Still screaming and clutching her milk-coated face, Lich falls with the couch as it goes down. Her head heaves on the cables still plugged into her as she falls, dragging the plate of exploded datalattice off the coffee table with her. The incredibly complex, hand-crafted mechanical apparatus, which once supported a living culture of Sol Divisive radiolaria, snaps in half on impact with the carpeted floor.

Finally freeing himself from the couch, Windy bolts on all fours for the bathroom door, yanking it open and slamming it shut behind him.

"Don't wash it down the drain!" Lich manages to stop screaming for just long enough to call after him. Radiolaria dribbles into her open mouth, and her voice is reduced to a burst of static as it painfully zaps her speakers.

Desperate to kill the electrified microorganisms, Lich does the only thing she can think of: activating her super. Immediately, she’s engulfed in solar fire, sterilizing her body and evaporating away the dead radiolaria while leaving her unharmed. Still on fire, she allows herself to roll off the couch and onto the carpet, letting out a simulation of a sigh. For the time being, it escapes her notice that her flaming body leaves a blackened and smouldering circle of incinerated carpet where she lays, and half the upturned couch is in a similar state of ruin. The burned-off ends of the fiber-optic cables still dangle from her not-ears.

What she does notice is the sound of water rushing through the pipes under the floorboards. Sprinting over to the bathroom, she furiously jiggles the locked knob, then begins pounding on the door.

“Don't get in the shower!” she yells at Windy through the door. “You’ll contaminate the water supply with radiolaria!” No answer, nor a change in the sound of water through the pipes. She beats it harder. “Windy, open the door right now! Get out of the shower!”

The door swings open and Lich stumbles forwards, nearly colliding with a dripping wet Windy, still in his armor.

"You gonna break down the door too?"

“You washed it down the drain, didn’t you.” It’s not even really a question.

“Of course I did! That shit stung!”

“Ohhh this is really bad for health and safety.”

Ignoring her distress, Windy looks past her at their ground zero of an apartment. “You know what’s bad for health and safety? Exploding a thing of Vex milk in our faces and wait why is the couch melted in half?”

“I used my super to kill the radiolaria. I’ll get us a new couch, but that’s really not important right now, please- ”

“You popped a fucking Dawnblade in our apartment!? ”

She groans and throws her head back, while he takes in the disastrous scene of their living room. Seeing the white slime soaking into the drywall, his demeanor shifts as he chuckles to himself again. Leave it to Windy to find amusement in this situation. She's always hated that fast and low chuckle; it means that a joke is coming at someone's expense, usually hers.

He gestures to the fluid coating the walls. “It looks like your insides after a Titan takes you home.”

“Shut the fuck up!” she spits back. If she had blood vessels, her cheeks would be burning red. “Just listen to me, for once in your damn life. If the water reclamation system doesn’t kill the radiolaria, then anyone who drinks it is gonna die.”

He cocks his head to the side in bewilderment. “Wait... Why?”

“You know what happened to Kabr the Legionless?” He shakes his head curtly.

“How about Asher Mir?” That rings a bell. His expression morphs into one of horror.

“Yeah. If you ingest radiolaria, it grows inside you and consumes you from the inside out while slowly transforming your body into a Vex construct.” She claws her hands and gestures with a twisting motion for emphasis. “Sure it’ll die without my life support system eventually , but not before every person in the Tower has gone for a drink. Guardians can rez out of it as long as their Ghosts aren’t infected, but the civilian staff can’t. It’s gonna kill people, and then we’ll have to fight off our former friends as Goblins and shit."

"And you were working with this shit on our coffee table?"

She’s unfazed. "Yeah. It's completely harmless if you don't get it into your bloodstream. Well, aside from the electric shock, but that's not a biohazard. Wait… did you get any in your eyes or mouth?"

"I had my eyes closed, but I spit some out in the shower. Is that good enough?"

"I hope so. You might wanna shoot yourself and have your Ghost rez you just to be sure. Also, burn your corpse afterwards too."

She runs her fingers over the ornamental horn on her forehead in exasperation. "Fuuuuck I’m gonna have to report this to the Vanguard. They need to shut off the water as soon as possible.”

Windy shrugs and turns to the kitchen to look for cleaning supplies. “Well, have fun with that.”

“Oh, you’re coming with me too.” Before he can react, she grabs his wrist and starts dragging him towards their front door.

In shock, he throws a hand towards the far side of the living room. “But this is gonna stain the drywall! I have to clean up your mess again.”

“Telling the Vanguard to shut off the water is part of that. You washed it down the drain, you’re gonna tell Ikora with me.”

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#my writing #not whump #lich-5 and windy

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