Who: Khora, a Narrative What: Khora vs Hotel Overlook Where: Overlook When: Evening Warnings: Violence, Fears etc Status: Closed, Complete (1034 words)
Khora and both her Kavats were exploring the forest. They'd taken to wandering every day a few hours, they wanted to know the layout of the land and while things never stopped being interesting, there was a lot to learn about the place they'd ended up. Fog rolled through the trees, night was coming fast, though Khora liked the night as much as she liked the day. It was a friend, to her, and she did not see the worry with it like many others did.
She did not fear. Not the Tenno. Tenno did not fear they lived and fought. And fought to live. Really it did not matter to her. Not much could hurt a tenno for long, not really. And she was as strong as she'd ever been. It did feel good to walk the earth again - as a figure of speech - and she was grateful for her operator. The woman had put her together again and revived her. Venari and Vetinari bounded ahead of her, the two kavats enjoying the room to romp together.
Darkness tugged at her and she followed. She always followed. What could they learn? What could they do today? She was not sure but she was curious. She had not intended to visit the Hotel but ah, it seemed, the Hotel had other plans for her. She did not argue. The dark living warframe moved through the trees, parting the mists lazily as she went. Her connection to Venari was strong, she did not worry about losing hte pair as they would always come back to her.
Coming out of the trees she came across the Hotel.
So it wanted to test her. She gave it a look, quiet, thoughtful. Khora did not speak. She snapped her fingers twice and the two kavats darted back to her side. One on each, they both nuzzled in for pets before they approached the hotel. She nodded, waving them on, before she followed, long legs carrying her without feat.
She ran her fingers over the railing before she ascended the stairs to step inside. Her armor clad hand light upon the rail up. The moment she opened the door and set foot inside, though, the warframe armor was whisked off her, and Venari vanished in a puff of smoke. Harper stood in Khora's place, looking momentarily bewildered. That was unexpected.
Khora might not have fears but Harper did.
She proceeded carefully.
Long limbs swept over the stairs, heading up into the depths of the place. What else was she going to do? she wasn't sure what she wwas supposed to be facing but she hadn't seen it yet. She didn't know what it would be. She could not, in fact, think of anything that would be a deep enough fear to be used against her. She had fears but were they enough?
She did not know.
Then.
Ever so quietly. "Rap Tap Tap" echoed around her. She jumped, white hair whipping around her. She closed her eyes. "Not real." she repeated before she looked around, then sucked in a breath. This was not okay. She couldn't manage this without her frame. She needed Khora. The rest of the voices started to come through.
A familiar tightening in hShe raer chest. She hated this.
Her heart raced as she turned a corner. "Mmmm no. Mine". she pressed against a wall. Not okay, she couldn't handle this without her Warframe. Ventinari head butted her hip and Harper jumped, and screamed. Then scolded her Kavat. "DONT DO THAT YOU KNOW I HATE THIS." She flattened against a wall and breathed slowly until she could focus.
You cast him out
"Oh hell no. Nope." she pushed her hair out of her eyes and called to the Void. The energy crackled around her hand, eyes closed for a moment. "No, Vetinari, we have this. We've been through this before. We can do this, right?" she wasn't sure.
The dialogue bounced between her ears, making her jump every few minutes. She hated Rell. It never worked out well, and she'd needed the power of her frame to defend herself.
Then next to her ear: "Rap Tap Tap" and she about ran. She slid and turned around, palms out, sending a blast of void energy at the shadows. She missed, because there was nothing there, and ran. She ran until she couldn't run anymore, then hid invisible for a few minutes until she was sure the final boss wasn't on her heels.
She could do this. She'd DONE this. Why was this so scary now?
Slender fingers pressed on a wall as she collected herself. She threw open a door to see Harrow in Chains and she got to work to free him. Harrow needed to be freed then she'd be okay, right? She hoped so. She eventually got the chains free and as Rell went to sleep, and Harrow collapsed at her feet, in her ear: "Hey Kiddo".
The man in the wall.
And for the second time she screamed like a small child and whipped around to void blast the voice's owner in the face. "No. No no. Nope. You are fucking creepy and I am not here for it." she shuddered as she hit him with void blasts until she couldn't, breathing heavy, sweat on her brow. This would be so much easier with Khora, damn it.
Finally one large blast to the face sent her flying, tumbling out of the Hotel onto the ground. She was going to have nightmares about Harrow and Rell for weeks and she just knew it. She sat down on the ground and wrapped her arms around her Kavat, shuddering as she looked at the hotel.
"Hey Kiddo" echoed in her head and she was sure she was going to hear that specifically in her sleep tonight. She called her warframe back to her, wrapping herself in the unfeeling, unworried, armor of her Tenno, of Khora, Venari reappearing, and she rested her hands on both of their heads, before she turned away from the hotel.