The Tennobaum Calendar

by Paleblood

Summary:

After his latest visit to year 1999, Gauss learned about an intriguing concept: Calendars filled with pictures and treats that people used to buy during some kind of winter holiday that reminded him of Tennobaum, so naturally, he decided to make a similar calendar for Tennobaum.

The story consists of 24 short chapters, where Gauss, Grendel and the Operator (who the two sentient Warframes treat almost like their adoptive child) open Tennobaum calendar doors.

Notes:

A quick note for context: The Tenno is loosely based on the female Operator I almost never play as I prefer the Drifter in the rare situations where I can't use a Warframe, but I'm trying to leave her personality and physical appearance mostly open so you are free to use your imagination with her. That's why I'm not mentioning her name either.

Chapter 1: Day 1

“How does this-”

“Let me see, maybe I can-”

“No, wait! I think I’ve got it. There!”

 

Gauss stepped away from the wall, hands on his hips, and proudly admired his handiwork.

 

“Well, what do you think?” he asked Grendel who was standing right next to him.

 

“Uhh… It’s… Nice? What is it?” Grendel asked, not sure what he was looking at.

 

The item that Gauss had attached on the wall was a strange piece of metal covered in cheerful winter-themed painting. What separated it from their usual decorations was the small numbered compartments that made Grendel scratch his head, as the numbers didn’t seem to follow any logical pattern.

 

“It’s a calendar”, Gauss said.

 

The explanation didn’t make Grendel any less puzzled. The thing had only 24 numbers. That was twice the amount of months. That didn’t feel right to him, especially since it specifically had winter art on it. Maybe it was some kind of hourly calendar, but why would anyone need such a thing?

 

Gauss chuckled. He found Grendel’s confusion adorable.

 

“It’s for Tennobaum”, he explained: “The guys back in 1999 said they have a winter holiday around the same time of the year, and some people apparently have these calendars with 24 or 25 doors that hide pictures, treats, small items and so on. I thought it sounded like a fun idea, so I made one for us.”

 

“That does sound like fun”, Grendel agreed: “So, how do we decide who gets what’s inside of that thing? Do we take turns or-”

 

“Yes! I’ve thought of this. First the kid, then you, then me. And repeat until the final door. That one would be my turn, but it would be unfair to open it since it’s the biggest one and I did make the calendar, so whatever is in there is for all of us”, Gauss replied. Grendel could tell his partner was smiling from the way the lights on his head brightened.

 

“What about the other slots? Maybe you put all the best stuff behind every third door”, Grendel said in a playful tone.

 

“Me? I would never!” Gauss protested, placing hand on his chest in an overly dramatic manner: “Seriously though, I asked Ordis to mix them up. I know what’s in there, but I don’t know who’s gonna get what. Except for the 24th slot, of course.”

 

“You really thought this through”, Grendel chuckled: “Should I get the kid?”

 

“Yeah. I wanna see if she likes this”, Gauss replied with a nod.

 

---

 

“So I just… Open one of these? The one with the number 1?” the small Tenno asked after the two warframes had explained what the calendar was for.

 

Gauss nodded:

 

“Yeah, that’s about it. Tomorrow it’s Grendel’s turn, then me, then you again.”

 

The Tenno nodded and reached for the calendar. The first door was in the top row, so she had to stand on her toes to open it. Gauss wondered if he should have placed it slightly lower. Still, she managed to pry the door open. She reached in and pulled an item out of the now open container, then cheerfully showed it to the two warframes:

 

“It’s an Orokin Catalyst! Thanks guys!”

 

“Thank Gauss, he’s the one who made the calendar”, Grendel said, patting the smaller frame’s shoulder.

 

“Oh, right. Thanks Gauss”, the Tenno said with a smile and ran off to install the catalyst to one of the many weapons that were waiting for upgrades.

 

Once their Tenno had left, Grendel turned to look at Gauss:

 

“So, tomorrow’s my turn, right? Should I be scared or intrigued?”

 

Gauss simply shrugged:

 

“That’s up to you.”

Notes:

The idea of Gauss and Grendel acting like adoptive parents to the Operator? An old inside joke with a clan mate. Something to do with Timon, Pumbaa and Simba from The Lion King.

Chapter 2: Day 2

Summary:

It's the second day and it's Grendel's first time opening a calendar door! I wonder what he might get...

Grendel sat on the couch and kept staring at the calendar. It was already the second day, but he didn’t want to open the door before Gauss was with him. If he knew Gauss - and he did - he knew that the other frame would love to see Grendel’s reaction to whatever small gift he would get.

 

The moment he heard Gauss arrive, he jumped up and dashed to the calendar.

 

Gauss looked at him and the calendar, amused:

 

“And here I thought you would have opened it hours ago.”

 

“You thought wrong”, the larger frame said and proceeded to open the little door.

 

He looked at the item and then Gauss.

 

“Is this…” Grendel started, lifting up a red and white candy cane: “Is this a REAL candy cane!?”

 

Gauss gave his partner a nod, the lights on his helmet brightening like they always did when he was smiling.

 

“I’ve only heard of these things, if we don’t count the decorated weapons that look like these. You, uhh… You sure I can have it? The kid-” Grendel said, but Gauss interrupted him.

 

“What’s behind the door belongs to the one who opened the door. It’s all yours.”

 

Grendel’s belly mouth smiled and gave the treat a slow lick, savoring the sweet minty flavor. He loved it, and made sure he would memorize the flavor profile. If he was lucky, he might be able to figure out how to make something similar so they could all enjoy them together some day.

Chapter 3: Day 3

Summary:

It's time for Gauss to open his first door, and Grendel and the Tenno are both curious - perhaps too curious - to see what he's going to get.

When Gauss walked to the calendar, he saw both Grendel and the Tenno sitting quietly on the couch, staring at him. At first, Gauss ignored it, but when he noticed that the two were following his every move, he started feeling uncomfortable. He should have known that something as simple but exotic as the calendar would cause the two to act weird.

 

When he walked past the calendar, the two looked almost offended, but didn’t say anything. Instead of stopping to open the third door, Gauss sat down on the couch too, turning on the Somachord. He wasn’t going to be pressured into opening the door as quickly as possible just to satisfy the curiosity of his partner and the Tenno.

 

After listening to a couple of songs, he got up, and noticed that Grendel and the kid perked up like a pair of kubrows during lunch time. Instead of going to the calendar, he picked up their fancy Orokin tea set.

 

“Anyone want some tea?”, he asked, trying to sound as annoyingly casual as he could.

 

That did it.

 

“Oh come on! I’ve never seen you drink anything! Why would you make tea now?” the Tenno groaned.

 

“If you don’t open that door right now, I’ll do it for you!” Grendel growled.

 

Gauss placed the tea set down and chuckled.

 

“Fine, fine. You two should really learn to be more patient, you know”, he said and moved to open the calendar door.

 

Grendel and the Tenno followed him, more curious than ever to see what he got.

 

“Huh”, Gauss said as he looked at the item he had gotten from the calendar.

 

“What did you get?” Grendel asked.

 

Gauss opened his hand to show his new “treasure”. A red vial.

 

“Err… Gauss? Did you really put a vial of Kuva in the calendar?” the Tenno asked, scratching her head.

 

“Yeah, seemed like a good idea at the time”, Gauss said with a shrug: “I don’t really need this though. You want it?”

 

“Well it is yours, but if you’re not going to use it, I guess I could make a new pair of Rogga’s with it”, the Tenno replied and headed straight to the Foundry after Gauss gave the vial to her.

Chapter 4: Day 4

Summary:

Another day, another door. This time, Tenno finds something for her pet kubrow!

“Fourth day! My turn!” the Tenno shouted as she dashed to the calendar so fast that Gauss - who was currently removing pebbles that had gotten stuck between his armor plates during his latest visit to Plains of Eidolon - would have been proud of her if she hadn’t accidentally knocked over his toolbox.

 

She pried the door open quickly, and pulled out a new item: A hat with red and green stripes. She tried it on, but realized it was too big for her. She would have to alter it, or…

 

As her pet kubrow walked past her, she got an idea.

 

“Come here, boy! I’ve got something for you!” she said in a cheerful tone that always got his attention.

 

The kubrow happily ran to the Tenno, wondering what the girl was so excited about. When he got to her, the Tenno showed him the hat.

 

“What do you think? Wanna show a little Tennobaum spirit?” the Tenno asked.

 

The kubrow cocked his head, confused.

 

“Let me put this on you, it will be perfect”, Tenno said with a smile.

 

The kubrow whined in protest. Why did he have to wear the silly hat? He didn’t see anyone else wearing anything related to Tennobaum or any other celebrations.

 

“Look. If this was smaller, I would wear it myself”, the Tenno pointed out and put the hat on. It covered most of her face: “See? Too big.”

 

She took the hat off and offered it to her pet again. The kubrow huffed, but lowered his head so the Tenno could give him the hat.

 

“Good boy!” the Tenno said happily and put the hat on the kubrow. She also made sure to give him more belly rubs than usual, which made him completely forget any suspicions he had about the hat. As long as the hat gave him more belly rubs, he was happy to wear it!

Chapter 5: Day 5

Summary:

Grendel gets a mysterious box from the calendar. There's something inside, but does he dare to open it and take a look?

It was the 5th day, which meant it was Grendel’s turn to fetch a surprise from the calendar. The candy cane had been such a rare thing that he wasn’t expecting to get anything even remotely as good this time. He wished that he had paid more attention to what Gauss had been doing last week, so he might have some kind of clue on what to expect. Still, if he knew what was inside, it wouldn’t be the same.

 

Grendel looked at the calendar and quickly found the right door.

 

“Number 5. Let’s see what you’re hiding”, he mused and opened the door.

 

“Huh”, he said as he pulled out a small box.

 

Tenno who had just walked into the room looked at the item:

 

“Is it just a box? Or is there something in it?”, she asked: “Come on, shake it!”

 

“No, I’m not gonna shake it”, Grendel laughed: “What if it, I don’t know, explodes? Or breaks.”

 

“Good point, I guess”, the Tenno said, nodding: “Though I doubt that Gauss would put something dangerous into-”

 

Grendel gave her a look.

 

“Okay, yeah, he might”, she agreed, remembering that when left alone, Gauss was often faster at doing things than thinking them through: “But didn’t he say that Ordis put the stuff there? He wouldn’t have accepted anything that could potentially damage the ship. Or us.”

 

“True”, Grendel said: “Anyway, time to open this! I can’t wait to see what’s inside.”

 

He could hear something, or possibly some things shifting slightly as he opened the box. He looked inside and saw a handful of shiny Entrati Obols.

 

“Huh. How practical! I’ve got nothing to build though, so I’ll just keep these in the box”, Grendel decided as he closed the box and placed it on a nearby shelf.

 

“And here I thought the calendar would only have one item in a day”, said the Tenno, wondering what else could be hiding inside the strange calendar.

Chapter 6: Day 6

Summary:

Gauss returns from latest his trip to Void and is upset thanks to annoying enemies and bad loot. Will opening the Tennobaum calendar make him feel better - or worse?

Gauss had just returned from a mission, and he was pissed. There had been enemies everywhere. Weak ones, yes, but in such inconvenient places that he had tripped down several times because of them. He had been grabbed by Ancients more times than he could count and when he had tried to find even one single Argon Crystal, it was like all the deposits had vanished into thin air. He had literally gone to Void and back only to return home empty-handed.

 

Well, not completely empty-handed, and that was partially the reason why he was so upset. Every void relic had given him a Forma blueprint and what was even worse was the amount of certain other blueprints. The Harrow Chassis ones. He tossed everything he could to the foundry and storage boxes and walked straight to the personal quarters. Even though Warframes didn’t have to sleep, he felt like he could just lie down on the couch and stay there for the rest of the day, if not longer. Sure, he could charge his electrokinetic battery by running around, but that wouldn’t help with mental exhaustion. Just as he was about to take a seat, his plan was interrupted by the Tenno.

 

“Aren’t you going to open the calendar?” she asked and pointed at the calendar on the wall behind her back.

 

“Can’t I do it later?” Gauss groaned.

 

“Nope, unless you won’t mind me staring at you until you do”, the Tenno stated with a wide grin.

 

Gauss muttered something about bothersome kids, but walked to the calendar and started looking for the right door, a task that took him an embarrassingly long time considering that he had made the thing by himself. Finally, after about a minute of searching, he found the right door, opened it and took out the item.

 

“Well? What did you get?” the Tenno asked excitedly.

 

Gauss stood silently for a moment until he couldn’t contain his emotions anymore.

 

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?”

 

His shout could be heard across the ship, and he stormed off to toss another Harrow Chassis blueprint into a box that was already overflowing with them.

Chapter 7: Day 7

Summary:

Tenno opens the calendar and finds something she sees as a true treasure.

“Is he still upset?” Grendel asked from the Tenno as they were drinking tea.

 

“I don’t know. Haven't seen him all day. I thought you would know”, the Tenno said as she sipped her warm drink.

 

“You would think so, but no”, Grendel said and poured some tea into his belly-mouth: “I think I’ll go look for him if he doesn’t show up in an hour or two.”

 

The Tenno nodded. Gauss was probably taking the frustration caused by the previous day's bad luck out on some poor Grineer or Corpus troops. Might not be a healthy way to deal with things, but better that than breaking something on their own ship by accident or even on purpose, she figured. She also found it a bit funny that Gauss was always trying to teach her to stay calm but he was also, usually, the first one to lash out when things went south. She figured that this was one of those “do as I say, not as I do” situations.

 

“Oh! Have you opened the calendar yet?” Grendel asked, changing the subject.

 

“I haven’t! I’ll go open it now!”, she replied, placed the small cup on a table and ran to the calendar.

 

Finding the 7th door was easy since it was one of the bigger doors.

 

“Huh. Wonder what’s in here… Must be something good”, she thought out loud.

 

She opened the door and saw a roll of something. A scroll? No. A comic book that was rolled up to make it fit inside the calendar. She unrolled it and saw the first issue of The Countessa Comic.

 

“Oooh! Grendel! Look!” the Tenno shouted and waved the comic for the large frame to see.

 

“Let me see that”, Grendel said and the Tenno gave him the comic. He examined it quickly and then gave it back to her.

 

“Nice! Isn’t this the one you were talking about with Amir when he visited us?” he asked.

 

“Yeah, and now I finally get to read it!” the Tenno chirped happily: “Though… Gauss likes comics. Maybe we should read it together.”

 

“Actually, that’s not a bad idea”, Grendel concurred: “I’ll go find Gauss and drag him back to the ship. Then it’s comic time for you two. Sound good?”

 

The Tenno nodded enthusiastically.

Chapter 8: Day 8

Summary:

Things are back to normal and it's time for Grendel to open the next calendar door.

Fighting low ranking Grineer and Corpus troops had managed to cheer Gauss up, and any lingering pieces of anger had been dealt with a loving hug from Grendel. Of course, asking him to read Tenno’s new comic book had probably helped too. Things were back to normal, and that’s how Grendel liked it. He didn’t care for the drama some Warframes seemed to live for.

 

When his black-and-white pet kavat ran past the Tennobaum calendar, he realized that he hadn’t opened the door even though it was his turn. Drama? That he didn’t like. Small, good surprises? Those were nice. 

 

He approached the calendar, wondering what he would get, and opened the door to find a single neon green File-a-Style highlighter. Even though they didn’t use paper notes like people did back in 1999, he was sure he could find some use for it. If not, he could always travel to the past and grab a notebook or two. Or those colorful sticky notes. Grendel knew that Gauss often forgot to double-check his weapon mods before missions, and figured that maybe some hand-written notes would prevent it, as long as someone made sure he didn’t just run past them.

Notes:

Shorter chapter, but I hope introducing a kavat makes up for the lack of text!

Chapter 9: Day 9

Summary:

Grendel plays Frame Fighter with Tenno.

“I win!!” the Tenno cheered.

 

“Good job, kid! It’s a tie now. You wanna keep going?” Grendel asked.

 

Before the girl could answer, Gauss walked in and made his way to the corner where the two were playing on Ludoplex.

 

“Frame Fighter, huh?” he asked seemingly casually, but Grendel and Tenno knew that tone.

 

“Yeah, we’re having a small contest", the Tenno explained.

 

“Want me to join?”, Gauss asked.

 

“Gauss, dear, I don’t know how to say this kindly so I’ll just spit it out: You’re horrible when you win and a sore loser when you don’t. But you’re free to watch”, Grendel stated.

 

“No I’m not!” Gauss protested, but had to take it back when Grendel gave him a flat look: “Okay, yeah. I kinda am.”

 

He wasn’t proud of it, but he had always been competitive and it was something that all his time as a Warframe hadn’t changed. It really would be best to watch, but first, he would see what the calendar had in store for him. What he hadn’t told the others was that he had only gotten enough items for about 18 slots, and he had asked Ordis to get the rest from his personal stash, as long as they weren’t particularly rare or expensive. In other words, even he didn’t know the whole content of the calendar. He walked to it, opened the door and picked up…

 

A handful of credits.

 

Not bad, but he figured that the Tenno would have probably appreciated them more.

Chapter 10: Day 10

Summary:

This time, we meet another denizen of the Orbiter: Umbra.

The Tenno had the ship all to herself. Well, if she ignored Ordis, the pets and Umbra, but Ordis and the pets didn’t really count, and Umbra was - like always - nowhere to be seen. She had no idea how he managed to stay on the relatively small ship and stay out of sight unless someone deliberately called him. As long as nobody contacted her about some truly important mission, she could do whatever she wanted to. 

 

She went through different options: She could give makeovers to the non-sentient Warframes, decorate the ship for Tennobaum, she could play with the pets… Then she saw it. The Narmer Shawzin Gauss loved so much. She was so tempted to try it out. Gauss never let anyone else touch it, it was his prized treasure. She looked around, almost as if she was expecting someone to walk in at any second and carefully stepped towards the musical instrument. It was almost within her reach when she felt her hand being grabbed.

 

She yelped in surprise and spun around, seeing Umbra standing behind her, shaking his head in disapproval.

 

“I was just gonna try it out a little”, the Tenno whined.

 

Umbra let go of her and crossed his arms.

 

“If you wish to use someone else’s things, you should ask them first”, he stated sternly.

 

“Ugh… I know, but I’m so bored! I was so happy to be alone so I could do anything I wanted to, but- You know the feeling when you have so many choices but it gets overwhelming and you don’t feel like doing anything?” she complained.

 

Umbra chuckled. He rarely did that:

 

“Do you really want to play Shawzin?”

 

The Tenno nodded.

 

“In that case, you can use mine. Would that be alright?” Umbra asked.

 

“I didn't know you had one!” the Tenno exclaimed.

 

“An old one”, Umbra admitted: “But it sounds as good as ever. I'll go get it.”

 

As the Tenno watched Umbra leave, she noticed the calendar on the wall and realized she hadn't opened it yet. She wondered if Umbra would have liked to participate too, but she supposed that it was a bit late to ask now.

 

She opened the 10th door and saw something shiny and purple. A riven sliver! She took it out and looked at it, wondering if she should keep it or give it to Umbra. Even though they technically shared most resources with each other, giving gifts was a Tennobaum tradition, and she figured that Umbra would appreciate the gesture.

Chapter 11: Day 11

Summary:

Grendel returns to Orbiter after a failed shopping trip.

Grendel returned to Orbiter from Fortuna and was still confused about the whole trip. He had been trying to trade stuff like usual, but apparently someone somewhere had broken something important and it had messed up the whole trading system on several planets. Since there was nothing he - or anyone else - could buy, he had decided to leave Venus and go back to the ship.

 

Because of the disappointing shopping spree, he headed straight for the calendar. Sure, he wasn’t going to get new Moa parts or a new fishing spear, but that hardly mattered. The calendar was all about small surprises, and he could certainly use one now to balance out the earlier negative surprise.

 

He opened the door and grabbed a metallic item. A cipher! Grendel could definitely use that item, as he was usually the one hacking the enemy systems anyway. Since he had nothing else to do, he decided that he might as well find some use for it immediately, and so he walked to the Star Chart and started searching for suitable missions. Perhaps he should go cause mayhem inside a random Grineer ship. Or maybe he could look for some people to rescue. Corpus always had people locked up somewhere for the wrong reasons, and someone had to get them out. He decided that a rescue mission would be more important than kicking some Grineer around, and so he let Ordis know that he was heading to Pluto.

Notes:

Reference to the bug from the Old Peace update that caused the game to freeze if you tried to buy something. Had to restart twice. Too bad today wasn’t an Operator day - I would have used DE's joke about the merchants being stunlocked by the glory of our remastered Tennos.

Chapter 12: Day 12

Summary:

Gauss is sick of cold temperatures.

Gauss had tagged along to Grendel’s rescue missions yesterday, and now he wanted to have nothing to do with the frozen dwarf planet or any other cold places. Sure, Warframes didn't freeze easily, but he still felt the cold and didn’t like it unless he was running fast enough to overheat, in which case the extra cooling was welcome. Now? He wanted to spend the whole day doing something he hadn’t done in a long time: Bury himself under a pile of blankets.

 

First, he would need to get blankets, which was easier said than done since the Tenno usually slept in the Somatic Link device and the Warframes - even the sentient ones - didn’t really need to sleep. He went through his options, and decided that capes were the easiest way to go. Going through their syandana storage, he picked a couple of nice feeling ones that were used rarely if ever, and carried the pile to the personal quarters. Once his makeshift nest was finished, he opened the Tennobaum calendar and found something flat and square shaped: An On-lyne CD.

 

He took it as a nice surprise. Now he had something to listen to while he hid in his cozy blanket nest.

Notes:

Headcanon of the day: Gauss likes snow but hates cold unless he's running or the temperature drop is caused by his freeze attack. At the same time, he doesn't like too hot temperatures either because those can make his systems overheat more easily.

Chapter 13: Day 13

Summary:

The Tenno is faced with a positive financial problem.

All members of her Warframe family seemed to be more or less exhausted - except maybe Umbra, but he was once again nowhere to be seen - and she had enough empathy to avoid bothering them with things that didn’t truly need their attention.

 

She casually opened the Tennobam calendar. This was the fifth time for her, but she still felt excited because based on what she and the others had gotten, there was no telling what one would get.

 

She pulled out an item. Well, a small box. Similar to what Grendel had gotten one day. She wondered if that, too, would have Entrati Obols. If so, that would mean that there was a chance to get the same items multiple times, though it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if it was materials or some currency. She opened the box and peeked inside to see if her guess was correct. To her surprise, it wasn’t. Instead of the Entrati Obols she had been expecting, there was something better: Platinum!

 

She counted the platinum and was happy to see that the small amount would be just enough to get a new floof or a display. Or perhaps she should try to be responsible and save it for later, she wondered and put the small box into her storage locker. Still, she was very tempted to go check the market for new decorations.

Chapter 14: Day 14

Summary:

Grendel gets a surprise.

The 14th door was one of the bigger ones, so even though it was Grendel’s turn to open one, the Tenno stared at the calendar in anticipation. She was dying to see what was inside and had been waiting for Grendel for almost half an hour. When the said Warframe finally showed up, the Tenno immediately perked up and pointed at the door.

 

“I hope you haven’t been sitting there on the floor all day. The couch is right there, you know”, Grendel said, chuckling.

 

“This spot has a better view”, she replied with a wide smile.

 

Grendel grinned, his belly-maw opening slightly before closing again. He pried open the 14th calendar door and looked inside. Then, he silently took the item in his hands and stared at it. The Tenno was puzzled.

 

“It’s…” Grendel started.

 

“A threshcone”, the Tenno stated: “I definitely wasn’t expecting that. Why would Gauss put one into the calendar?”

 

“This is perfect!” Grendel beamed.

“Wait. Really?” the Tenno said, visibly confused.

 

“I love threshcones! They’re useful. Where do you think some of our health packs come from? Also, they look nice on a shelf. Perfect decorations”, Grendel said, belly-mouth smiling happily as he started making room on the nearest shelf so he could make a perfect spot for his new favorite decoration.

Chapter 15: Day 15

Summary:

Sometimes, chaos is part of life.

When the Tenno returned to the ship from her visit to Cetus, she noticed that something was off. There were strange colorful notes everywhere.

 

“Operator! I’m so glad you have returned! It’s a mess in here!” Ordis cried out.

 

“Yeah. We could use a hand”, Grendel grunted and removed one of the notes from his shoulder.

 

When she looked around, she saw that Umbra was there too, kneeling down in a corner and removing some of the excessive notes. She also noticed that Gauss was nowhere to be seen.

 

“What happened?” the Tenno asked.

 

“Amir, Gauss, Amir. In that order”, Grendel sighed.

 

“Amir was here?” the Tenno asked, now truly puzzled: “Why? And where are they now?”

 

“Long story short, Amir challenged Gauss to a duel, except by duel they meant some kind of race. Gauss refused - he knows that I hate how he gets when there’s a competition - but of course Amir decided to take the sticky notes he just got from the calendar, and told him he’ll get them back if he races him”, Grendel explained.

 

“Okay, but why are the notes here instead of with Amir?”, she questioned and removed a note from a nearby wall.

 

“Because he started putting them all over the ship to get Gauss to chase him. It worked. Of course, Gauss isn’t going to mach rush in here, so Amir had an advantage.” Grendel sighed.

 

“I caught him and asked him to clean this mess or get out and come back once he’s learned to be less chaotic”, Umbra said flatly: “He ran back to 1999 and Gauss followed him before Grendel could stop him.”

 

“In other words, I missed all the action”, the Tenno chuckled.

 

“Yeeeah, but I should really call Gauss and tell him to come back before Höllvania ends up looking like our ship. Or before our Saint of Altra ends up doing something not so saintly”, Grendel deadpanned and moved to KIM so he could persuade his hot-headed partner to stop the chase and come back home.

Notes:

Headcanon to go with the fic: Amir has way too much energy for his own good and once he learns that Volt is not the only fast frame, he tries to challenge Gauss whenever he gets a chance to do so. Even though he knows what Warframes are, it’s hard for him to fully comprehend that he’s not bothering a fellow young guy - or even someone like the Drifter and the Operator - but an ancient techno-organic warrior. Of course, he doesn’t do it out of malice, but because he simply doesn’t know how else to approach him.