Destcember Day 12: Last Man Standing

Destcember Day #5: A Day Off

A concerned guardian stands in the doorway of their friend's study. Inside, a frazzled looking warlock is scrawling notes with handwriting almost as indecipherable as the Hive language they are studying. The glow of the runes cast a green light on the face of the exo, forming shadowy bags under his eyes. He looks up from his work as his friend begins to speak.

"Ash, you look terrible. When was the last time you took a day off? No, forget that, when was the last time you even slept?"

"Does dying count as sleeping?"

"No."

"In that case, I don't know. I think it was Thursday."

"Today is Wednesday."

From beneath a pile of scrolls, a muffled voice joins the conversation.

"First of all, it wasn't even a Thursday this month. Secondly, could someone please help me out here."

Surprised by the voice of his ghost, the warlock quickly unearths his buried ghost. Now freed, the bemused companion floats up to hover above her guardian's shoulder.

"Sorry Yew. I was wondering where you had gone. How did you end up under there anyway?"

"I fell asleep. Honestly, it's a miracle you haven't collapse yet. The only rest you have gotten in the past week was the time one of your expirements killed you and even that was only for the few seconds until I could resurrect you."

"Technically, exos don't have to sleep. Nor do we have to take days off."

Finally shaken out of their shocked stupor by that statement, the titan calmly walks into the room and proceeds to throw the warlock over their shoulder. They protest weakly as they are carted off before they fall silent. Ignoring their protestations, the titan explains what is going to happen to happen, making it clear that their cargo has no choice in the matter.

"That does it, you are taking a day off. No! You are taking a week off. You may not physically have to sleep, but it is terrible for you mentally. Not to mention the effect that prolonged exposure to all this Hive stuff must be having on you. Don't bother trying to argue, I won't take no for an...

Aaaannd he fell asleep."

When you see someone else wearing the same armor set as you in Gambit Prime, there is always the mental fight between "Oh, I guess I better switch sets to another role" and "I do not trust this random person to play my role as well as me or myself to play a role I'm unused to".

Do the Offering to the Oracle First This Week

Hopefully no spoilers, but seriously, it's super important to the story. Don't put it off, you'll want to see it.

Fireteam member, helping to drag a heavily traqulized Royal Beast back from the Pleasure Gardens to my ship:

"So why are we doing this? It would have been easier just to kill it and take the loot"

My Warlock:

"I need it for... ... ... psionics research."

*whispering to the dog* "Good boy. New Pet."

Destcember Day 21: High Stakes

"Hey Ash."

"Yes?"

"I've been meaning to ask you. Where did you get that Fallen mantle that you're always wearing?"

"Oh, I got it from a high stakes on a Fallen Captain."

"Come on, you can't leave me with that. Tell me the whole story."

"Fine, but you have to promise not to tell anyone about this, alright?"

"I promise."

"So do you remember a while back when I helped an Eliksni Captain named Mithrax fight of a Hive Knight and he left me the reactor he was going after as thanks?"

"I do."

"I felt bad about taking the reactor that he needed so badly, so I search around and managed to find an alternative one. It wasn't nearly as good, but it was enough to get myself in his good graces. Since then, whenever I have fought any Eliksni and found extra either on them, I take it to Mithrax and his crew. I have managed to bring quite a lot. He has grown somewhat since we first met, probably from that extra either, and as thanks for my help, he gave me this mantle that he outgrew."

" ...You know that if the Vanguard found out about this, they would probably call it treason, right?"

"I do. That's why I said it is a gamble."

Destcember #1: A New Look

"Should I even ask why you have a screwdriver in you head?"

"Ok, so you know how exos can have the same base body but different colored eyes? Well, I think it might be a setting I can manually adjust and I want a new look."

"Then buy some shaders. All you are going to do is blind yourself."

"No I'm not, and even if I did you could just revive me good as new.

There, I think I got it. Let's see, red, orange, white..."

"Black?"

"No, I blinded myself. I'll just turn it back... and its stuck."

"I told you."

"You did. Now just reset me before I fall off the Tower."

"In a bit. It's funny to watch you stumble. I'll be back one have learned your lesson. In the meantime, enjoy your new look."

"Hilarious Yew...

You still there, Yew?

Well, she's gone."

Destcember Day 22: Drifter's Gambit

The Drifter walks a fine line, a tightrope made of the sharpest razor wire. On one side lies the forces of the Light, with the forces of the Vanguard and the Man with the Golden Gun ready to strike if they suspect that he has gone too far. On the other, the forces of the Dark, ready to consume him or break his mind if he makes a mistake. If he wavers, he will fall to one side or the other. Too late to stop or turn back, he walks on, hoping to eventually reach his goal. He uses the the Dark to fight the Dark, using Guardians to kill the enemies of humanity and collect the Motes of Dark that fall from their corpses. His menagerie of constructed monsters and summoned horrors slaver to consume, accepting motes in lieu of consuming a guardian's light to turn their path of slaughter where the Drifter directs. But I've noticed however many motes he uses to conduct his games, there are always far more collected than used. I don't know what he plans for them, but I want in. I understand that it may take more than the Light to beat the Dark. So I work with the Eliksni and bargain with the Ahamkara. And I do his bounties, and earn the ranks, and bank the motes. I use weapons of the Dark Age and forged a new Weapon of Sorrow. I will earn his trust, even if it puts me on Malphur's list. Because I believe that the Drifter's Gambit will pay off, and when it does, I want to have been a part of it.

Among kinderguardians, it is almost a right of passage to get your own sticky grenade stuck to your hand. In fact, there is a somewhat secret betting pool in the Tower for how long until it happens to each new guardian. The longer a kinderguardian goes without it happening, the larger the betting pool grows. The current record is two weeks.

If Mara Sov's shade of morality had a hexadecimal code, I'd say it would be around #383838. Not evil, but definitely not good. Mara Sov: committing pretty evil acts for the Greater Good*

*Terms and restrictions may apply

Destcember Day 13: Theism

I live close to the center of the City, mostly for practical reasons. Any attackers would work inwards and therefore I would have time to pack before and grab a few people before I head into the sewers that are also under my house. Plus, all the best shops are here. However, this also means that I'm almost directly under the Traveler and it attracts the crazies like moths to a flame. As such, there is a temple to it just a few blocks away.

I've never put much stock in worshiping the Traveler. It never asked us to pray to it nor responded to prayers, so why should we. Furthermore, if it was really a god, it wouldn't need our help or praise. Did it kill Crota? Oryx? Guall? Did it beat back the Darkness another dozen times to rebuild the City? No. We did.

Even if it did ask us to pray, should we? It certainly isn't working out for the Hive or the Vex. All they did was join a magic pyramid scheme. "You work hard and give us 99% of what you make and die for us. We will sit here and watch, maybe doing something when we are all about to die." Even their "gods" aren't really gods. I've personally killed two and have the bits to prove it. The Black Heart and Xol went down with enough bullets and I assume the Traveler would too.

Therefore, the only manner of Theism ascribe to Maltheism. Everything that claims to be or looks to be a god is either incompetent or evil. The only good one needed an army and it's own heroic sacrifice to save fraction of one of the numerous species it tried to help. The rest are omnicidal bastards. So, screw the gods, we are better off without them.

...

"Did you really have to tell off those missionaries quite so severely?"

"Yew, the only reason I did it was because you vetoed dropping water balloons on them from the roof."

"Because that would have been cruel and childish. Anyway, you could have just said no to a donation."

"That's what I told them last time and they came right back the next day."

"They were from a different temple!"

"Oh, well now I feel a bit guilty."