Wands and Warframes

Decisions

Decisions

Sitting on a crate behind Varzia's shop, Dora stares at the tablet in her hands with its chat message written out, before looking over at her Christmas present from Harry and Kitty.

"It's just two or three years here. Finish school, come back, and..."

"And what?"

Dora looks up in alarm, to see Digger leaning against a crate, "I was just talking to myself."

Digger nods, "I could tell. Do you want to talk about it?"

Dora's hair slowly turns rosy, and she looks down at the tablet in her hands. Swallowing hard, she slowly starts to talk, "What if I'm too old? Harry and Kitty gave me this present, but I'm 20 now. What if that's too old? What if I accept and he says no, or I go insane. What if I don't do it, and you all forget about me by the time I can come back again."

Digger sits down next to her, "You can always go the Sentient route."

Dora shakes her head, "Except I can't. My biology changes too much, because I'm a Metamorph. I had one of the Dax implants done, and it just slid out of my body."

"What about the brain implants?"

Dora grimaces, "We haven't tried. Though the nanites are fine. It's just, here nobody is asking me to look like other people. I've not had anyone try to get into my pants either."

Digger grins, "I can't tell if that last is a good or bad thing."

Dora laughs, "It's definitely a thing. But it really depends on who we're talking about if it's good or bad."

Turning more serious, Digger takes Dora's hand, "Dora, this isn't about what if's or age. Space Mom is now Tenno in truth, and she's older than all of us. It's about family. As that's what we are, a massive, dysfunctional, family. Those blueprints are an invitation to the family. Most of us never get to know anyone well enough to consider inviting them into the family. Maroo, Teshin, Varzia, maybe Legz, the family on Demios, that's about it really for most of us."

"Why though?"

"Reputation, we're 'immortal' mercenaries that work for anyone. Nobody wants to get close to us in case they get caught up in one of our bounties or missions. Even Maroo and Varzia used to keep their distance, even though that's changed in the last decade. So the question you need to be asking yourself is 'Do you want to be part of our family?' Not worrying about the risks and what if's."

Wordlessly Dora looks down at the tablet, and hesitantly presses the send button.

{Changling} Hey, Digger, you have one of the new Railjacks. Do you think you could help me visit Wally?

Digger blinks a few times as he looks at the private message, "Wait, you wanted to already?"

Dora nods, "Uh huh."

"So what was that conversation about?"

"It was me talking through my fears and worries. Like an emotionally mature person should do."

Digger laughs, "Emotionally mature, you?"

Dora turns her nose into a pig snout and sticks her tongue out at Digger, "Yeah, have to act my age occasionally."

"Come on, we'll let Maroo know where we're going. I think I've got a spare frame or two you can use until your Christmas present is built. They're not prime frames though."

"Why do you have spare frames?"

"Feeding to the Helminth, it can extract abilities and graft them onto another warframe."