seventhe | Have some more word vomit

It appears it's time for lesbian werewolves in space. someone asked how they met / got together?

The attack came out of nowhere; ironic, really, since they'd been more or less expecting it: they'd taken on crew, for cosmosake; Lika's presence onboard was proof and preparation, an enormous banner shouting well we know there are raiders tapping the MPR line from Gashen-C to Broadport, in bold. And it wasn't as if Emberle hadn't expected it; she was aware of Lika's presence in a way Ash and Sal weren't, tied to the werewolf by that damned Earther pack magic that kept tempting her - tempting and terrifying, as flashbacks from her lost years on Earth surfaced at random, reminding her that were magic was dangerous at best. Random moments like now, really; Emberle clung to the wall beside her as the Ausrine's wards lit up in her mind like stars, their usual gentle song turning to battle-cry as the first wave hit, an ennie-wave designed to take out any sensors it could reach: her mind turning in circles to flash her wolf-years back at her in a slow motion incredibly unsuited for the moment.

"Emberle!" Sal called, just as Ash shot forth, Emberle, sing those ward lines strong, now. I'd rather not use our new muscle if we don't have to.

Her clutching grip on the wall shifted as she breathed deep, pressing her palms to the cool metal. It warmed to her, instantly. Ash talked to the ship, better than any sensate she'd ever seen, but Emberle heard the ship's protections: its brain, its brawn, the lines of its armor and its offences, singing sharp now as they tuned themselves towards the oncoming threat. She closed her eyes and turned her mind in towards the ship's main lines: singing from the core of the ship itself, they were strong and fierce. Emberle tucked the edges in mentally, pulling back a bit of the defensive shield aura and running those threads back into the smaller lines that would give the ship mobility, flexibility, options. No use singing the main lines dry if the threat turned out to be something completely unexpected.

Her hands flexed until only her thumb, middle finger, and pinky rested lightly on the metal, and Emberle started listening to the song: Ausrine had turned aside the ennie-wave, but hadn't fully deflected an emmie-burst which had misaligned one of their detection sensors. Slowly, surely, Emberle lowered her full palm to the metal and began humming, reaching out through the metal skeleton of the ship to grasp the sensor, turning her note slowly like fingers carefully curling in, until she and the ship together moved the sensor back into its place. She noted the stress bend in the metal remotely, storing the note in the back of her mind; it would hold through a confrontation, but they'd want to fix it before it became a fuller problem.

"Suits!" Salo called.

A low growl at her shoulder commanded her attention: literally; Emberle's hands had dropped from the ship and she'd turned to face Lika before her mind had much caught up with her. Damned Alpha instincts. "Suit up," Lika ordered. She was already mostly garbed, helm under her arm, her eyes glowing a sharp gold that Emberle recognized. "We need to take them out before they get to us."

Emberle swallowed her instinctual urge to comply, to obey, and instead said, "Why?" It sounded rather stupid in her mouth, but Lika made her feel like this always: that temptation of strength and safety, too knotted up with her wolf-years long ago.

"The best defense is a good offense," Lika said, and her mouth wrenched in a surprising grin. Lika never smiled; the best she gave was a snort that always sounded amused at someone else's expense - but she was grinning, now, if wryly and somewhat more fiercely than an average spacer. It brightened her usually sullen face, turning the stern brow and sharp eyes into something compelling and dangerous. "Suit up, singer. You're with me."

Go ahead, Em, said Ash, sounding somewhat distracted. Emberle knew Ash was elbows-deep in the cryplate by now, all her veins and nerves synced with the ship's wires and wards, working for max maneuverability -- just to spite Lika, a little bit, she set her palm back against the metal, and she could feel Ash's magic pulsing through it; it felt like Ash was sizing up an ennie-blast of her own to scorch back, from the power she felt building. We've got this, for a while. Go give them a surprise and get rid of this bullshit, okay?

"Fine," Emberle sighed - both aloud and mentally - and called her suit out. It came into form around her body neatly, tucking round her arms and legs and torso, knitting its way into each finger and wrapping round her head. She'd designed this suit herself. Technically neither emmies or ennies - or hybrids - needed a suit to head out to space, although if you wanted to last more than an hour or two you needed the ward-woven protection it gave. In a fight, with energies flying around, only the most dedicated and focused sensate would be able to hold their place in the celestial energies of space without disintegrating, like an Earther vamp in the sun.

Lika's grin turned a little wryer, kind of lopsided, and she said, "Not a bad look on you, singer. Let's go - back door."

Emberle swallowed her surprise and followed.

The raider ship had come up from above, and she and Lika existed out the bottom hatch. Emberle felt the pull of space almost immediately and had to swallow against it - she'd forgotten how well-tuned to the Ausrine's wards she was - she hadn't been out in celestial space in years - the song of it, a nearby planet with two moons howling through her blood instantly, a potential well pulling at her matter-sensate gifts; beyond it, the faint but competing cry-song of another planet. The high shrill of the star at the heart of the system: no energy she could pull on, but its hold on the planets manifested anyway, like light static on a wave. Emberle gasped, and kept one hand on the Ausrine's hull, her own ward-lines the only thing keeping her head from drifting out.

This was dangerous. She'd forgotten, and Ash had maybe strayed too close to those planets; Ash was a hybrid, so everything seemed balanced to her. Emberle struggled to open up the channel in her helm, to tell Lika she was a liability now, that she couldn't be out here singing the wards while Lika attacked--

A voice in her head. Can you trust me? Lika. Alpha. Can you trust me... just for now?

Emberle swallowed again. The voice was calm, quiet; Lika's pack magic cutting through the din of the Ausrine and the wild song of the system beyond.

"I--" she said aloud and then. Yes. For now, I can.

Behind her helm Lika's eyes blazed; they went from shimmering gold to molten, tiny stars behind the crystal, and Emberle felt something settle within her: a bond, to Lika, to the Alpha. Something inside her twinged, wanted to run, wanted to be free --

--but this bond wasn't like the ill-set pack she'd been a part of on Earth. This was clean, and bright. Simple. Straightforward. Her magic rose up and sang itself into Lika's, as Lika's strength settled into her own bones, and Emberle took a breath as she realized that this, maybe, was what pack magic was for--

Better, said Lika, and Emberle could hear the smirk.

From there it was over almost instantly. They could see the suits coming over from the other ship, growing specks in the space between, their suits glowing with the radiance of extra ward charges - probably triggered right before they launched. Lika looked at them, growled low in her throat, and then leapt from the Ausrine with more speed and power than Emberle thought possible. She sang up the outside wards almost instantly, and through that impromptu bond, sent that strength out to Lika. She could see the fight as it started: Lika's initial blast tearing through the ward charges like paper, two lights winking out immediately and a third after, and then she felt the joy in Lika's limbs as she fought. Zero-grav celestial combat suited Lika. Her kicks spun faster than the opponents could keep up, and her few punches gleamed with the power she was pulling from Emberle. One opponent spun off in a lazy spiral, obviously unconscious; Emberle caught the moment someone from the ship mindgrabbed their body and started to pull it in.

There were still two more, two against one: but those two must never have encountered Earthers, or this particular manifestation. Emberle, feeling solidly grounded and somewhat tranced out, reached out a small song to that nearest planet and its moons - felt the gravitational pull of the three of them, intersecting at a point of power - she sang it back, low and strong, and Lika did some untrackable sort of flip that sent their other two attackers hurtling back to the ship, control of their suits lost entirely.

Emberle pulled, and within seconds Lika tumbled into her arms. They grasped each other, both of their mind still burning with the bond.

I knew you were worth your pay, Sal said snidely, as Ash called, Hurry inside - I'd like to be well out of here while they're preoccupied.

Emberle tapped her foot on the wardline beneath them, and with a pulse much like a breath of air, she and Lika were back inside the bottom hatch.

Lika's helmet was off. She was breathing hard, but that grin was still on her face. Emberle vanished her helmet and couldn't keep a responding grin from her own lips - Lika's fight-triumph was still singing in her mind, and Lika's eyes had softened to that golden glow again, and through the bond Emberle knew her own eyes were glowing, a sharp cool blue.

"I'm sorr-" she began, but then Lika took two steps forward, tucked her hand into Emberle's hair, and kissed her.

The bond lit up, golden fire along every plane on which they touched, and something settled for Emberle: clicking into place, like a ward finally aligning, or a ship touching ground. Her mind, usually full of Ausrine's song and the celestial map's endless pull, quieted, and for once - the first time in years - all she heard was her own breathing, and all she felt was the firm press of Lika's mouth on her own.

Oh.

They parted, and Lika looked - smug, on the surface, but nervous, something Emberle had never seen on that cool and powerful face. She reached up, and touched her lips, as the low songs of the world approached gently.

Yeah, Lika said, that. And without further explanation, she headed down the hallway to the bunks.

Emberle touched her lips again, and then leaned back against the cool wall, listening to her own breathing.