Hello there, fellow Rogue Traders!
Rogue Trader Women Week is over, and what a beautiful week it was! Thank you all so much — whether you created something, shared your thoughts or simply liked and commented. We couldn't have done it without you ❤️
We wanted to run an appreciation week for the women of this game because we love these characters and want to see more of them, because we wanted to share this appreciation with the rest of fandom, and because we wanted to bring the like-minded fans together. It was very touching to see all the enthusiasm for the event and the love shown to the creators ❤️ We got to live our fandom dream for a week, and we hope you did too.
The ao3 collection will remain open for a week more, and we'll be checking our mentions and the #rtwomenweek tag for any late entries during that time as well. If we missed a post from you, please tag this account in replies and we'll get on it.
See you around,
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
set your mind to the under realm
to the land of no return
to the house bereft of light
to the dwellers in the shade
dust is their bed and clay their food
feathery wings are their garments
cracks in the stone are their voices
ash has covered the great stair
ash has gathered on the doors
and the bolts
Summary:
Idira Tlass becomes a witch. Idira Tlass buries a friend. And a town.
——
Psychic awakening is a quiet breeze. Psychic awakening is a primal catastrophe. And there is always a price to emerge from the land of no return.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Warhammer 40.000, Warhammer 40.000: Rogue Trader (Video Game)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Relationships: Idira Tlass/Original Character(s)
Characters: Idira Tlass, Nergel Lexis (OC)
Additional Tags: Psykers (Warhammer 40.000), Psychic Abilities, psychic awakening, The Warp (Warhammer 40.000), The Crone - Freeform, The end is the beginning, unwilling kinslayer, Psychosis, Hallucinations
Series: Part 2 of An Asylum, A Dream
Remix of the previous account of Idira’s psychic awakening, for @rtwomenweek
summary: While enduring their wait at the Palace of the Adeptus Administratum, Jae and Sidonia discover the one thing that can rival bureaucracy in its power to instill visceral discomfort in the masses—inappropriate PDA.
wordcount: 2.9k
warnings/rating: M for somewhat explicit sexual banter (they just make out here but they talk about fucking), no other warnings
notes: just a goofy little fic written for @rtwomenweek of jae and sidonia’s adventures at the space dmv ft. quick cameos from some of the other rt ladies!
“I am so bored!”
Sidonia groaned out what was probably her two hundred forty-sixth (one for every number ahead of them in the queue that had been called, not that she was counting) repetition of the complaint that day, slouching forward to prop her forearms against her knees in defeat.
“This is so—” She rubbed her hands over her face, then thrust her fingers into her hair to tug fistfuls by the root, having long given up on maintaining her usual slicked back tidy styling. “This is so throne-damn boring!”
Whatever cursed sorcery caused time to distort during warp jumps was also clearly at work in the waiting hall of the Palace of the Adeptus Administratum. Though the distortion seemed to only go one way in the latter.
Sidonia had come through plenty of warp jumps that seemed to be over in the blink of an eye only to find days had passed in realspace. But in the queue, all she found was an unreasonably long wait that stretched out to feel somehow even longer than long, the full Terran day she’d spent there dragging out to seem more like a week. A very slow week that was more like a month. The kind of month that took years, in one of those years that seemed to never end.
Sidonia was beginning to think she’d been born waiting in this queue and she would die waiting in this queue, and the fading memories of there ever being anything else were just stories she’d made up to entertain herself.
The queue was her future. The queue was her past. There was nothing beyond the queue. The queue lays waste to all.
Sidonia shook off the thought and instead wondered for the Emperor-knows-how-many-eth time how long it had been since she’d last complained about being bored, the unresponsive, glass-eyed stares of her companions not serving as a particularly helpful gauge.
“I said I’m bored!”
Despite her (likely hallucinated) pre-queue lower-middle hive at best origins, Sidonia found herself for once slipping quite comfortably and naturally into the role of overgrown spoiled child raised her entire life to expect the privileges granted by a Warrant of Trade, constant entertainment among them. Such was the transformative power of the queue.
“The pain to my ears from hearing of this misfortune cannot rival the deep ache in my wounded heart knowing I have brought you to such an unenviable fate, shereen,” Jae drawled in an uncharacteristic lazy deadpan. She put equally little effort into the sympathetic look she briefly cast in Sidonia’s direction before turning to the side to surreptitiously take a swig from her flask. “I can only offer you my hope that the riches my status as an official trade representative is sure to bring us will be consolation for your suffering.”
Normally, Jae would also offer her a drink from the flask, but Sidonia supposed she couldn’t blame her. It was every woman for herself in the queue. And unlike the queue, the contents of Jae’s flask were not infinite.
Sidonia wracked her increasingly empty brain for any response besides another proclamation of her profound boredom, quickly distracted at the sight of Jae flashing an ingratiating smile towards the Guardian of Order passing by as she hurried to tuck her flask back into her waistband. Thankfully, the Guardian did keep walking as if he didn’t spot it, either because he was just that dead inside or because Jae was just that pretty.
Despite the lack of life behind the man’s eyes, Sidonia chose to believe it was because Jae was just that pretty. Because Jae being that pretty was what landed her there in the first place, after all.
And Jae was still that pretty, even in the unforgiving clutches of the queue. The normally full and bouncy waves of her hair may have been laying a bit flatter than usual, and her eyes may have become framed with dark bags sinking beneath them, but her face was still the greatest sight the God Emperor had ever bestowed on humanity. And even if it had been roughened and weakened by the hours of waiting, Jae’s voice was still music to Sidonia’s ears each time she spoke.
And the words spoken by that beautiful voice were still like… Well, maybe not like poetry, because Sidonia had never managed to read more than five lines of poetry without falling asleep. If she had, maybe she would be able to better put into words how good Jae was at putting things into words. But since she wasn’t, she just marked that down as ‘pretty’ too.
And those beautiful words Sidonia couldn’t describe had to come, obviously, from a mind that was just as beautiful—quick and clever, and full of knowledge, and able to tell right from wrong. Which was exactly the kind of mind that deserved the power of a Mercatum Tabula Officiale, and would make good use of it.
Which meant Sidonia was faced with the same revelation she’d reached about two hundred forty-six times before—Jae was not just pretty enough to land her in the queue, but pretty enough to keep her waiting there patiently and listening for her number instead of giving up and storming out. Not that there would be an ‘out’ to storm to anyways, because there’s nothing outside the queue, there never was and there never would be, there is only the queue.
But she would have kept waiting even if there was, because Jae was worth it.
And because at least Jae was also in the queue, and very pretty. Even though the queue also meant she couldn’t fully enjoy Jae’s beauty in ways she otherwise might have, which almost made her still being so pretty worse. If only the God Emperor could see fit to grant her an eternal existence that had Jae, but didn’t have the queue, so she could—
It was then the God Emperor did bless Sidonia with a new idea for how to pass the time—or at least grasp a fleeting moment of joy as the queue ground their souls to dust.
“I’m bored,” Sidonia muttered under her breath again, leaning in closer to Jae, who continued staring forward as if she hadn’t heard her. She dropped her voice low enough for only Jae to be able to hear it as she continued, “I’m so bored… All I can think about is how much I wish we were out of this stupid queue and back in my chambers. And also out of our clothes.”
For the first time in at least two Terran hours (roughly equal to four Queuean days), Sidonia saw Jae perk up.
“Why, shereen,” she answered in a breathy voice, lowering her eyelids and looking towards Sidonia. “Your mind wanders to such interesting places.”
“Interesting places are easy for any mind to find, with someone so beautiful in front of them,” she replied, invigorated by Jae’s willingness to play along. “Throne’s sake, I’d bet most the people in here with any life left in them are thinking about how much they’d like to see you naked.”
Jae tossed her hair over her shoulder with a subdued but amply coquettish laugh. “My, my—the oppressiveness of bureaucracy has not robbed you of your skill for flattery. Many can dream, and all are welcome to enjoy the view, but…” Her voice dropped lower. “You are the only soul here I foresee getting to hold such precious treasures in your own hands, rather than admiring from afar.”
“I am lucky. The only way I could be luckier is if I could be holding you right now.” She subtly flexed her arms beneath her jacket—somewhat more than subtly perhaps, because it took exaggerated effort for the gesture to read through several pounds of ornamented fabric she’d donned in foolish hopes of throwing her weight around to get things done quickly. “I think as soon as we’re finally handed that certificate of yours, I’m going to pick you up and carry you all the way back to the voidship. Straight to my bedroom.”
“How scandalized the clerks will be!” Jae gasped theatrically, placing a hand to her chest. “But I would be helpless in the face of such a powerful and passionate captor! I can only imagine what you might do once you have me all alone and at your mercy.”
“You at my mercy? C’mon, don’t play coy now, Jae,” Sidonia replied, leaning in to nudge her nose against the underside of Jae’s jaw. She tilted her head upward to whisper in her ear, “What would you like me to do to you, my princess? Would you rather I keep holding you up and fuck you against the wall? Or throw you onto the bed and take my time?”
Sidonia pulled away just enough to confirm that the color in Jae’s cheeks had begun to deepen. A feeling of accomplishment washed over her upon seeing she’d flustered her in earnest. And proved they were both still alive.
In the back of her mind, she also registered the Guardian who’d kindly overlooked Jae’s flask beginning to stare at them, as if trying to decide if they were committing some offense. But she chose not to worry about that.
“How am I to choose but one of such equally tempting prizes offered to me, knowing my heart is sure to long for whichever I forgo? It is like asking if I would rather taste a glass of the finest thousand-year-old vintage from Holy Terra itself, or of the most expensive pleasure stimm infused amasec from the sprawling vineyards of the Golgenna Reach! But, if you are truly so eager to indulge my heart’s every passing desire…”
Jae reached over to delicately wrap one of Sidonia’s tousled curls around her finger, twirling it as she added at full volume, “Perhaps the best way to celebrate my certification as an official trade representative would be to express our passions atop the Rogue Trader’s desk. Where better than the place you will sit to make important, lucrative deals?”
“I do love the way your mind works,” Sidonia replied, abandoning subtlety to turn fully to the side and cup Jae’s face between her hands. “I serve at your whim. I am more than eager to have you anywhere you ask, any way you ask.”
She lowered a hand to Jae’s neck, gently pulling her towards her so that their foreheads rested pressed together.
“I-I’m sorry, Lord Captain, I—” Sidonia glanced past Jae just long enough to see Cassia cover her face with her sleeve and turn away from them. “I’m afraid I m-must excuse myself!” she barely managed to stutter out before scurrying towards the exit.
She thought she also caught Argenta muttering a prayer under her breath as she watched Cassia disappear, but she couldn’t bring herself to dwell on it once an even more divine voice graced her ears yet again.
“The Exalted One has truly blessed me to have earned such favor from a woman of your status.” Sidonia just barely noticed Jae toss a wink towards the praying Sister of Battle with the comment before turning in her seat to lean further into the embrace. “And one so free in expressing her passions, no less.”
“I have half a mind to express them right now, in front of everyone,” Sidonia rasped, only egged on by Jae moving her hands to rest on her hips. “The wait to make it back to the voidship might be too long.”
“Is—Is this kind of display permitted in the Palace of the Administratum?” The Guardian still standing to the side of Sidonia’s retinue had given up any pretense of decorum in his own way, now openly rifling through a small copy of selected code sections of the Lex Imperialis he’d pulled from his pocket as he asked the question to no one in particular. “Is this allowed?”
“If you keep looking at me like that, I might want to celebrate right here,” Sidonia continued, ignoring the Guardian. “Maybe I’ll fuck you right here in the waiting hall as soon as the ink on the certificate is dry.”
“And if you keep talking like that, the ink on the certificate is the only thing you can expect to be dry,” Jae retorted before closing the distance and pressing her lips against Sidonia’s.
“Astounding.” Even with her eyes closed, Sidonia knew the flat but distinctly judgmental tone of the remark meant it could only come from Yrliet. “What time and energy the mon-keigh do not spend wasting their short lives inventing volumes of pointless and elaborate rules for themselves, they spend acting on their most primitive of impulses.”
As Sidonia reluctantly pulled away from the kiss long enough to ensure no Guardians of Order had dug up a regulation they could be ejected from the hall for violating, she saw Yrliet was now making her own measured path towards the exit. Meanwhile, Argenta had paused her prayers to glance anxiously between the departing xenos and her embracing companions.
When Sidonia decided it was none of her concern and leaned forward to trail softer kisses along Jae’s jawline, Argenta nodded resolutely and spun on her heels.
“I will not allow an enemy of humanity to gallivant about the Palace of the Adeptus Administratum unguarded!” she shouted before breaking into a run after Yrliet.
“Don’t look now, shereen, but I think this little show of ours is beginning to work on more than just our sweet-voiced Sister of Battle,” Jae whispered in Sidonia’s ear, before grabbing a fistful of Sidonia’s hair and smoothly yanking her head bank and to the side—discretely turning her to get a better view of the crowd under the guise of gaining better access to kiss her neck. “It seems the power of our affection is too overwhelming for some of these worn down petitioners.”
With heroic strength, Sidonia managed to keep her eyes squinted open despite their reflex to roll to the back of her head as Jae’s lips graced her neck. Jae was correct as usual—the crowd had thinned out significantly in a surprisingly short amount of time. And the better share of the remaining petitioners had begun shuffling awkwardly as they cleared their throats and tried to look away from Jae and Sidonia, eyeing the exit with increasing frequency.
“Well, then,” Sidonia laughed, her head lolling forward as she wrapped her arms around Jae’s waist. “Maybe we should up the ante.”
Jae tossed her head back and allowed an enchanting laugh to spill from her lips and ring off the stone pillars of the hall as Sidonia scooped her up to position her atop her lap, the sound as rewarding an encouragement as the numerous pairs of eyes now freshly glued to them.
Jae draped her arms atop Sidonia’s shoulders with a dissonant aura of refined grace. “This is probably the most fun anyone’s ever had waiting in an Administratum queue.”
“Let’s make it count, then,” Sidonia replied before pulling Jae down into a kiss.
An eternity in the queue didn’t sound nearly so bad anymore, now that Sidonia knew she could spend it with the warmth of Jae’s lips against hers, tasting the lingering sweet spice of the liquor she’d sipped earlier. It was the best forever she could dream of, actually—Jae in her arms, pressing tighter against her body with every quickening heartbeat.
And with no reason to rush, her hands could take their sweet time caressing up and down Jae’s sides in reverence of every perfect curve—before stopping in a firm grip on her hips as the nip of teeth at Sidonia’s lower lip sent a shudder through her, an extra surge of electricity rippling through her every nerve ending.
Even more exhilarating, she could feel Jae’s lips curve into a smile against hers as she stifled a gasp to deepen their kiss, and she thought that the only downside to kissing Jae was not getting to admire her smile at the same time.
But at least she could admire the soft, subtle moans she poured into the kiss, the heat of heavying breaths every time she parted for—
“Either that servo-skull over there has been calling your number for about five minutes now, Lord Captain, or else some very dull paper pusher just bit the dust and joined my whispers.”
Sidonia blinked and jerked her head to the side, seeing that Idira, sitting to their side slumped back in her chair, was one of very few other people remaining in the hall.
“Oh, throne—” Sidonia shot up from her seat in a flash as realization hit her, reflexes barely keeping pace to catch Jae by the arm and save her from spilling onto the floor. She paused just long enough to ensure Jae had regained her balance before tugging her along by the arm towards the window. “Let’s go! We’re almost out of here!”
“I admire your optimism, shereen. But I must warn you, I’m sure the next stack of forms will take another few hours at the very—”
Sidonia enjoyed drinking in the sound of Jae’s voice, but shook off any worry her warning might inspire as she dashed to the window.
It had been proven to her even the time-slowing powers of the queue were no match for Jae’s beauty, wit, and charm, after all.
• She was always (inofficially) groomed to potentially become the next Vox Master by her family, so from very early on she learned Vox operation and maintenance, communication security and encryption, diplomacy and speech/rhetoric, fleet etiquette, cipher lore, etc, and got to shadow her grandfather in the Vox chamber on most days once she was old enough
She was even allowed on the bridge sometimes, and caught glimpses of Theodora herself exactly twice in her youth, but most of her life was confined to the upper middle decks (where her Clan resides) and the Vox chambers
• Her Void-Clan has a naming tradition of [Given Name | Father's Given Name | Mother's Given Name | Dynasty Name]
Octavus denotes that she is the 8th of her line to serve as Vox Master
In the fic I am writing for her, her grandfather's full name is Septimus Arnór Kaj Svala Toliman, seventh Vox Master to come from the Toliman Dynasty
All their names are scandinavian-adjacent
• She is a similar age to Idira, but the younger one of the two
• The two of them were roughly in their 30s when Idira was brought aboard the ship (~10 years ago, at the point of the prologue)
• She is very reserved and controlled, but that is exactly why she enjoys the chaotic energy that Idira brings forcing her to let loose a little
• Vigdis is very bad at relaxing, and will often default to tidying, organizing or categorizing things for fun in her free time, when left with nothing else to do
• She prefers non-fiction to fiction books, and has an interest specifically in linguistics and taxonomy; she especially loves grammar
• She loves the static hum of empty vox channels
• She cannot leave the voidship without getting anxiety and vertigo, but she loves hearing stories about the worlds outside the ship from Idira
• She has an uncannily accurate internal clock, but a terrible sense of direction in unfamiliar environments (another reason she prefers not to leave the ship)
• Her Vox Caster mouthpiece is removable, but she is basically never seen without it in public - she feels naked without it, and if she takes it off around you it's a sign of huge trust
• She has pronounced scarring around her lips/mouth due to elective subdermal implants (different types of Vox enhancers)
• She has a seperate Vox caster implant inlaid straight into the throat, augmenting her vocal chords. This one is technically separate from the mouthpiece, but can be and is usually connected via cables. Its also mostly subdermal and only visible via voxgilles on the throat and some circular interfaces
• She likes to tinker, and has some obsolete old Vox Caster models that she likes to restore and repair and keep as a collection in private; that collection started in her youth
• She is ace/aro spec; specifically, she experiences no sexual attraction unless she is already romantically interested, and she is rarely romantically interested in anyone (so grey-aro/demi ish)
• Idira was not the first person she was ever romantically interested in, but the first person where it was reciprocated and worked out; prior to that, she only had experiences with some awkward unwanted suitors, or unrequited crushes
Idira was not her first kiss, but she was her first time
• Idira and her were officially (though privately) in a relationship up until the point when she succeeded her grandfather as Vox Master, which is when Idira officially broke up with her
They started growing more distant even before that, though, as Idira grew increasingly paranoid about her Psyker ability 'accidents' and continuously withdrew from her (despite her attempts to reassure her that she'd rather take the risk and spend her life with her, than be safe from a distance, but Idira saw it differently)
• She never really liked alcohol, but started growing fond of sweet Amasec Spritz;
It was her go-to drink when she and Idira often met in the middle deck pubs at the start of the relationship, and later on they went there to drink with my RT Lucien, so she associates the taste with a lot of fond memories
• Her favorite color is dark green, and she does not like sweet flavors in food, but she likes a mild sweetness in drinks
• Don't ask me why, but I like the idea of her Rogue Trader parent being her mother, and when the time came to think about heirs, she essentially went to look for a suitable man with a good genetic predisposition and noble family background, and then she sent him back to the void right after, and delegated a servant to actually carry the child to terms
So Theodora was essentially the result of a sperm donation and surrogacy
• Having some covert mommy issues, she did not want to take the same approach that her mother took precisely because it is what her mother did
Instead, she preferred finding existing relatives that are already exceptional in hopes of molding them into the perfect heir, rather than risking the genetic lottery and ending up with a child that's incompetent and unsuited
If her plans of procuring an heir from amongst living kin had not yielded results, however, she would have defaulted back to the same method her mother used, rather than risk remaining heir-less
• Theodora grew up knowing only audacity, confidence, and great expectations; she was raised by the best tutors available and lacked for nothing, but she was far from spoiled either
Her mother only ever accepted excellency and competence from her
• She hates posturing nobles and officers who only know how to perform obedience, and likes to surround herself with excellency and potential - even the unconventional kind
• Although she is no-nonsense on paper, she does enjoy people like Idira or Lucien for their unsanitized humanity and the particular ways in which they are unhinged - the type that a lot of other upper class nobles like to turn up their noses at
She finds them both, and Crime Lord RTs in general, to be very entertaining
• Her humor is very dry, observational, and morbid in it's amusement; she finds humor in things like moral hypocrisy, predictable vice, and human weakness, as long as she gets to observe it from the outside (she does not lightly tolerate it amongst her crew tho)
• She allows sharp wit and banter for that reason, as long as it shows intelligence, situational awareness, doesn't derail the task at hand, and most importantly doesn't undermine her authority
• Privately, especially later in life, she becomes very obsessive about control and struggles a lot with stillness; she is not superstitious, but has fallen into almost compulsively observing her own personal rituals to fill the silence
A lot of those rituals hinge on memorizing contingency plans, calling to mind betrayals and shortcomings she is unwilling to forgive, or rehearsing past or future conversations
She basically ping pongs between thinking herself untouchable, and latent paranoia, which becomes worse once she starts dealing with Calcazar
• She sees other people primarily as variables in a bigger system she controls, and is reluctant to let anyone closer than arms length;
she enjoys learning others' patterns, noticing their contradictions and failures and shortcomings, and planning around them like puzzles to solve, but she does not like revealing herself to others as a person and doesn't care much to know most others as people either
• Because of that, she shows affection in very covert ways - correcting you in private instead of publicly (or not at all), letting you in on information sooner than everyone else, correcting your mistakes before you can make them (without making a display out of it), granting you insights into logistics and planning, etc., but also first and foremost by showing trust in your competence
She generally expects results without holding peoples hands, but she is more willing to grant you leeway and setting you up for success in small, unassuming ways if she is fond of you
• In romance, she does not believe in a "happily ever after" - to her, romance is a temporary alliance between two independent parties whos interests temporarily align
• She prefers discreet, contained, compartmentalized, and above all time-limited dalliances
• She hates emotional dependency, PDA, mixing command and desire, and basically anything that makes a spectacle out of the relationship, so the moment you show idolization, possessiveness/clinginess, melodrama, or expect her to whisk you away and save you, she will cleanly and firmly end the relationship without as much as a broken heart
• When it comes to choosing partners, she is drawn to intelligence, competence, emotional discipline, and moral ambiguity
She is averse to people who are only drawn to her power/status or people who try to "claim her"; she does not care much about beauty or status
• I think of her as bisexual and mostly romance-averse (at least, romance in the traditional sense)
• She loves ice planets for their silence and predictability
• She also tries to stay well-educated and well-read in both fiction and non-fiction across a variety of topics, and prefers tactical/strategic past times, like Regicide etc
• She secretly does not actually have that much appreciation for culinary arts, visual arts, or music, however, and mostly indulges in those for prestige reasons (such as maintaining collections, etc)
For food, she mostly prefers to eat nutrient paste when by herself, and would do so all the time if banquets and fancy dinners weren't part of upper class expectations for someone of her status
(her wiki page is basically empty, so it's free real estate to make up what i want and none of you can stop me)
• Octaviana was born into a solidly respectable middle-class family - neither blue-collar laborers, nor nobility; her parents were registered under a Hive World chem guild and essentially fulfilled the role of apothecaries
She, herself, was expected to learn the family trade and take up the business, so she received an education in chemical synthesis, reagent handling, pharmaceutical work etc
• However, Octaviana is a trans woman, and her family was not happy with that - they tried preventing her from living her truth, and as a result, Octaviana eloped and left her homeworld young in her teens, to wind up on Footfall instead
• She called herself Octaviana and completely left behind her deadname, including her family name, so her new official name is only Octaviana
She is not planning on adopting a surname again
• There, she managed to land a job as a barkeeper/distiller/brewer at the Adeptus Amasecus, specifically because of her chemical background that helped her a lot with distilling moonshine and creating unique alcoholic blends - an application of her knowledge that she actually found herself really enjoying, and she really came to love both the distillation process, and the creation of new beverages and mixology as a whole
• Sometimes, she still sells other chems on the side as well, but only ever what she deems "harmless" party drugs; she stays away from really addictive or dangerous substances, for the same reason she, as a bartender, cuts off people who are too drunk for the night: because she feels a certain degree of responsibility for her patrons, and doesn't want to provide them with a space to consume irresponsibly, nor does she want to cross the line to enabling heretical overindulgence
• Eventually, she inherited the Adeptus Amasecus from her Mentor and previous owner, as they grew very fond of each other and fell into a bit of a father-daughter-by-choice relationship; she still supports and regularly visits him in his retirement
• She is not a "full member" of the Kasballica, but has ties with them and their agents because the Adeptus Amasecus sometimes serves as a smuggling waystation, they sometimes deal in her chems or call on her for chem expertise, and she provides services, private backrooms/a neutral meeting ground and discretion in exchange for Kasballica patronage and protection
This relationship between the Kasballica and the Adeptus Amasecus has long been ongoing and had already been established before she took over the bar
• She originally DIYed her own synthesized HRT at first, until she later switched over to having an endocrine regulator implant installed
She actually originally got to know Jae (who is also a trans woman in my headcanon) by pure chance, as the same black market tech-priest maintains both their implants; before that, they were aware of each other due to Kasballica business in the Amasecus, but never really interacted much
• The two of them were never officially in a relationship, but had and still have an on-and-off affair throughout their time knowing each other that ebbs and flows in levels of commitment; romatic status aside, they do hold each other very dear and are generally close
• I personally imagine her and Jae to be roughly in their mid 30s
• She used to be an overt party girl in her youth, enjoying her newly found freedom, but just as quickly started growing tired of it and grew into a more measured appreciation for nightlife
• Overall, she is a very extroverted and people-friendly person, but she also takes no shit; her personality both fit her barkeeper role very well, but also developed further into that direction thanks to working as a barkeeper, so it's a bit of a nature-nurture-feedback loop
She is not naive however, given that she is accustomed to dealing with criminals and tough crowds
• She does have a bad habit of voicing her unfiltered opinion, and she is not one to start a fight but will definitely not back down from one either
• She keeps her space messy, but not dirty - she is not good at organizing things, but she is good at somehow finding whatever she is looking for in her disorganization, so it seems to work for her
• Romance and dark romance picts/literature are her secret guilty pleasure - both those that are uncensored works, not sanctioned by the Ecclesiarchy and tip-toeing the line to being declared heretical, and those that are overtly dogmatic and imperial to the point of being a bit soap-y
• She is also pretty athletic and likes to stay physically active in her free time; she is the type to be up early and energetic after a long night of drinking with not even a hint of hangover in sight, as well as the type to happily get up at 4am to go for a two-hour jog
• The red hair is dyed (shocking, I know), and her natural hair is black, though she has one streak of poliosis, so a white streak where her hair naturally lacks pigmentation, as well as some patches of poliosis affecting her body hair. She used to leave that patch undyed, since she liked it, but accidentally dyed over it once and decided to just commit to it for now (since getting the color out again would be a massive pain in the ass)
• I actually like the idea of her being born hard of hearing - but that's a very soft headcanon
If you seen her without her mouthpiece, you have her trust
Vigdis for @rtwomenweek ; this was meant to be a part of Idira morrowinf fic, but I am suffering migraine and prob won't be able to finish it today, so uploading her separately ;)
++ Just seen a beautiful set of Vigdis headcannons from @atnichos; it's so nice when you are having a resonance with another ))
Vox Master Vigdis Headcanons – @atnichos on Tumblr
Secrecy has certainly made their business much smoother. Tocara is one of the only people who knows that Incendia has returned to Footfall. He only suffers her presence because she has returned a neutered, tethered thing. A rogue trader turned seneschal for a competing dynasty. Incendia thinks that rather endears Collista to him all the more. He must believe this is a punishment.
Incendia holds the car door open for Colliista, and slides in after her. He has renewed the von Valancius dynasty exclusive shipping contract with Footfall for the next ten years, with minimal concessions. If him believing that she is suffering nets the dynasty greater profit, well. Incendia is simply being good at her job.
Got a @rtwomenweek fic up for free day! Incendia and Collista, with background Collista/Jae. Featuring voyeurism, seething, and dolphins.
Idira Tlass, my beloved, the only woman of Rogue Trader who has done nothing wrong, ever, in her life. And if she has, it wasn't that bad. And if it was, it was Theodora's fault.
Yes, I teared up when my RT hugged her in that scene before the last mission.
100 word drabble for @rtwomenweek! 💜
Also on AO3 here.
Cassia spreads the flower upon a cut of waxed paper. Its magenta petals are finely napped; even now the fragrance rises, sweet and redolent, carrying the memory of sun and surf. Mindful of her claws, she eases a folded petal open, arranging the blossom just as she wishes to remember it. She has read of such preservation methods before, though never had the chance to try. Slowly, she folds the paper, feeling the delicate specimen flatten beneath her palms. She tucks the parcel between the pages of the heaviest tome she owns and closes it gently, sealing the day inside.
