Disclaimers: I do not own Warframe.
A/N: So I'm now recovering from my sickness, at least enough to work, and I realize that this was halfway done before I stop so I decided to finish it.
I bet a number if you guys are wondering about Mesa's personality change from the first chapter and I hope that this will clear it up.
Also, there's a poll on my profile that you should check out.
Also, This takes place in between Ordis' Observation Log #2 and #3.
Therapy Session: Mesa
Beginning of Log.
I have always enforced a strict rule about scheduling therapy sessions ahead of time as long as I have been the Head Medical Specialist onboard the Orbiter and it is one that I have rarely deviate from due to the fact that I use the time to get everything set up for the individual seeing how the each of the Tenno's personalities varies as much as their warframes and abilities. But when I got the request to meet with Mesa, (aka Jessie Orbal formerly of Mars), in the medical bay, something stopped me from saying no even though I was well in my rights to do so. But I decided to humor the girl despite knowing that I had another session with Chroma coming up not long afterward. It goes without saying that what happened next can definitely be considered one of the low points in my long medical career as it cause me to do the one thing I haven't done in ages.
Dwell on my personal life.
End of Log.
"So what brings you here today, Jessie? If I recall correctly, you just started your 48-hour furlough an hour ago and I'm quite curious as to why you immediately came to see me", Trinity asks as she sat across from the fidgeting Gunslinger Tenno.
"I'll tell you what brings me here, Trinty!", Mesa shouts as she hops up.
"Trinity", the Healer Tenno corrects her.
"My britches are in a bunch!", Mesa says as she started pacing back and forth while waving her arms frantically.
"I beg your pardon", Trinity says, caught off-guard by the sudden and confusing outburst.
"My jimmies have never been more rustle!"
"Huh?"
"I have been toss in the barnhouse and spun in a sandstorm!"
"I need you to start using actual words if you want me to help you", Trinity says, "Did she take a hit to the head recently or something?"
"I do declare that I have been hornswoggled! I have had the wool pull over my eyes! I believe that I have been flimflam! I have been led up the garden path! Someone has given me a bum steer! Chicane! Put one over on me!", Mesa screams, her country Martian accent rapidly seeping into her words, "I have been hoodwinked and have quite possibly been, bamboozle!"
Trinity stares on in silence at the heaving Marksman Tenno in front of her, using the pause in her tantrum to analyze what exactly she just heard.
"You...think you have been...tricked?", Trinity says.
Mesa lets out a scream in frustration, "By the red sands, that exactly what I just told you! I thought you're supposed to be helping me here!"
"I need to have a long talk with the Lotus about giving me some type of financial compensation for the services I provide. I don't get paid enough for this", Trinity thought before bringing herself back to the situation at hand, "Who exactly do you feel has tricked you? Was it Loki and his band of goofballs again?"
"No! It was Aganc, that's who!", Mesa answered, "He's the one who caused all of this!"
"Aganc?", Trinity questions, "Who's Aganc? I don't re-", as a light went off in her head, "Wait a minute, you mean Chroma?"
"Yes, him!" Mesa stomps.
"Let's back up for a moment; how do you know his real name?"
"He told me after the crap show on Mercury", Mesa says.
"He just willingly told you?", Trinity says as she jolted down some notes, "It took both Lotus and Excalibur ordering him to tell me just that."
Mesa gives Trinity a baffled stare, or at least she would have if Trinity could see her face, "Yeah, after I told him my name, he told me his. But back to the matter at hand!", as she resumes her screaming, "I have been a chicken with its head cut off ever since I looked into those breathtaking eyes of his!"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!", Trinity interrupts as she starts typing some more, "You've seen his actual face?"
"Yes, I have! Can we get back to the more important stuff now, please?", Mesa says, "Ever since that day, I have been underneath some spell or something! I constantly want to know everything that's going on with him! I get all giddy in my gut whenever I just think about him! I hear his voice and I get hotter than a whore in church! When I'm just standing in the same room with him my heart beats so fast that I'm afraid it's going to jump out my chest! I get nervous, I stutter, I become a completely different person!"
Trinity slowly comes to a pause in her note jotting and turns her full attention to Mesa, "You have got to be kidding me. Please tell me this isn't going where I think it's going."
"It must be something that happened when his flames wash over me back on Mercury! He must have some sort of special ability in them or something!", Mesa rants as she started pacing once again, "I'm supposed to be the tough country girl, not some weak inner-colony folk! This has thrown off my aim on missions! I went from a 99.90% accuracy rate to 99.02%! Can you imagine that?! Me, of all people!"
Trinity leans back in her chair and puts her hand on her helmet's forehead, "Definitely need to talk to the Lotus about getting pay for this."
"Mesa", she says after a moment, "Do you recall how old were you when you got pick for the Emperor's Grand Parade?"
The Gunslinger Tenno stops dead in her tracks and turns her head to look at the medic, "Huh? What does that have to do with anything?"
"Just answer the question, please", Trinity says.
Mesa starts going through the jumbles memories in her mind, piecing together what she could from their shattered remains, "I believe I just turn twelve like a week or two before that."
"Do you remember what your life was like back on Mars at the Olympus Colony?", Trinity then asks.
"Well, while on paper my family was from Olympus, we lived like two days travel from it. My first time ever seeing it was when the imperial guards took us there to depart on the Zariman-Ten-Zero. We were actually closer to the small town of Crimson Wind which was just six-hour travel by train from my family's ranch", Mesa explains.
Trinity started up her notes taking once more seeing how this may be the only time she could get such answers out of Mesa.
"And who lived at the ranch with you?"
"My pa, my ma, my three brothers, and my little sis", Mesa listed off, "What exactly does this have to do with anything?"
"How far were your nearest neighbors from you and how often did you see them?", Trinity press on, ignoring Mesa's questions.
Though slightly frustrated, Mesa merely shrugs, "In all directions, our neighbors were beyond the horizon, half a day's walk so we didn't meet them very often, I say twice out of the year at best."
"I see", Trinity merely says, "One last question, how often did you go to town?"
"Um", Mesa says as she thought, "Three, maybe four times, tops."
Trinity stood up, "Okay, I think I see what's going on here. Mesa, due to your isolated upbringing in the plains of Mars, you didn't meet many people outside of your family, so I theorize that you never develop a crush on anyone before."
…
…
…
"Crush? As in I want to crush their skulls or something?", Mesa answers.
"Oh by the stars", Trinity grumbles, "No. Crush is, in official terms: a brief but intense infatuation for someone. It means you have a high degree of affection or love for somebody."
"Okay, what does that have to do with me?", Mesa asks.
"Look, seeing how you never developed such feelings for someone like that back at home and your life from then on out was strictly dedicated to seven years of fighting, training for war, and service to the Emperor, you never got to experience a full childhood", Trinity began, "But now that you're no longer shackled to that life, at least not to the same degree that you once were, I believe that your body is merely playing catch-up."
Mesa stares at Trinity in silence for a moment, mulling over what she just heard.
"So what you're getting at is….?"
"You are experiencing your very first crush, Mesa, and it just happenings to be on Chroma", Trinity finish, "Can't believe it took you this long to realize it."
The silence was deafening inside the Medical Bay as Mesa was frozen solid.
"Now I realize this is a brand new experience for you and believe me it's completely natural. I myself have had a few crushes back in my younger days, even as a medical student and-" Trinity began.
"Butterflies!", Mesa erupts, once more catching the Healing Tenno by surprise.
"What?!"
"That's what I feel in my stomach whenever I think of Chroma! Oh by the red sands, I remember now! My ma was telling my sister and me that's what she felt when she first met my pa!", Mesa explains hastily, "She said her stomach was all filled up with butterflies!"
"Wait, there were butterflies on Mars?", Trinity asks.
"They were a Mars sub-branch but yes!", Mesa answers, "She said from that day forward she always got butterflies in her stomach just thinking about my pa!"
"Well, at least we're making progress in her memory recollection", Trinity thought, actually happy that this wasn't a complete waste of her time.
"Wait!", Mesa shouts, "Does that mean I have to get hitch to Chroma?"
"There are a great number of more steps in that process you have to do before you can even start thinking about that", Trinity replies. The Healing Tenno didn't care if the other Tenno pursued romantic relationships with each other, they were still human after all, and as long as it didn't interfere with the mission, she believed it posed no problems. But she did recognize the downside of what could happen if a relationship ended badly, especially since the two parties would be living in such a tight place as the Orbiter.
"First Nezha falling for Hildryn and now this", she told herself, "You should first see whether or not he even likes you back."
Mesa snaps, "You're right. Can't just jump the gun on this. So how do I do that?"
"When the rift did I become a love therapist?", Trinity thought, "Hmm, talk to him. Flirt with him. Try doing stuff that he likes to do alongside him."
"He likes to go hunting, I know that!", Mesa suggests.
"Well, he's not doing that anytime soon, so try something else", Trinity counters.
"Ooo, he likes to swing his sword around a lot!", Mesa says before looking at her wrist. A map of the ship pops up and a red dot appears in the secondary training room, "He's in the training room right now doing it!"
"Then you might want to get over there then", Trinity says.
"Right", Mesa says as she takes off out of the room, "Need to grab me one of those Skaal thingies! Thanks, Trinty!"
"It's a Skana and the name is Trinity!", the medic shouts back as she slumps down in her chair, "And to think the day is just beginning."
The sound of the doors opening once more draws her attention and she looks up to see Mesa peeking her head from the side.
"Yes, what is it now, Mesa?"
"Hey", she said in a meek voice that surprises the Vampire Tenno, "If I remember correctly, you said you used to have these "crushes" back in the day, right?"
"She was paying attention during all that?", Trinity thought, "Yes, I did. I was a little girl once too; what of it?"
"Well, just between us girls-"
"I'm old enough to be her mother and then some," Trinity thought.
"Is there anyone that you like now? You know, have a crush on? I mean, I rarely see you interact with anyone outside doctor stuff and whatnot", Mesa wonders.
Even if she couldn't see it, Mesa could feel the glare Trinity was giving her. A mixture between fire and ice, she felt like she was in the crosshairs of a thousand Corpus sniper crewmen and she instantly knew that it probably be for the best if she vacated the premises as soon as possible.
"You might want to get moving, child", was all Trinity said.
"Okay! Bye! Got to go!", and Mesa took off down the passageway, once more leaving Trinity alone with her thoughts.
...
...
After she was sure the young Tenno was gone for good this time, Trinity gets up and makes her way over to a locked cabinet at the back of the room. After unlocking it, she reaches in and pulls out an ancient Orokin wine bottle dating back to well over five centuries ago along with a glass. It was a keepsake she found while on a sampling gathering mission in the ruins of Earth in what use to be known as the City of Paris. After running it through the ship's filters and having it declare safe by Ordis to drink, she lock it away for safekeeping, mostly because more than half of her fellow crewmembers were, in her option, too immature to be drinking. She pours herself a glass of the sparkling liquid and downs it in one gulp through her mask's liquid filter all the while thinking about how back in the time when she was the top doctor in the empire she wouldn't even be caught dead drinking while on the clock. But seeing that peace was a luxury nowadays, why pass up an opportunity?
"Ha", she finally says, "Me, having a crush, laughable. Crushes are for little girls who have yet to experience what a broken heart feels like."
Memories started to bombard her mind.
Memories of past lovers.
Old flings.
Her first heartbreak.
Her first divorce.
And many more memories she wishes she could just forget that happen even before the incident.
All of them merge into a refine Skana blade, the likes of which she has never seen before, wielded by a warframe that looked similar to Excalibur in some ways but different in the rest. It was more elegant and… pure if such a word could be used.
The sword propels itself forward toward her head, threaten to easily slice through her flimsy armor and expose her body to the harsh Mercury landscape, that is if the strike didn't kill her first.
But the blow never came.
It wasn't because Excalibur intercepted it in time.
It wasn't because Limbo transferred her to the Rift.
It wasn't even because Loki switched places with her.
It was because a big towering moron decided that she was worth taking a blade for, deep into his left shoulder.
That was too much, Lotus Directive 17.5 be damn. She almost couldn't save him from that.
And then, on top of everything he had the sheer audacity to act tough through it all to his attacker.
"Listen here, boy. I don't care if you're a prime or whatever", he said, "Ain't no one going to be hurting the lady behind me, not while I'm around, you hear?", right before he connects with a solid right Landslide punch straight into the unidentified warframe's chest, sending it flying back into a cliff.
"Damn you, Atlas. Bravado is for young men, not an old kubrow like you", she tells herself as she stares up at the ceiling and a faint smile graces her face before slowly slipping away, "Especially not for an old Kavat like me."
A/N: Well that took a turn. Also Chronically, Mesa was 19 while Chroma was 23 when the Tenno Rebellion began.