Imagine If

Destcember Day 12: Last Man Standing

A warlock stands in his friend's apartment, dreading having to ask for his advice. Although his friend is less academically inclined, he is no less passionate in his work. Asking him for advice will inevitably lead to a two hour lecture including several charts, but what must be done must be done. Apparently, these thoughts dragged out long enough for the silence to become awkward, so the titan takes the initiative and breaks the ice.

"So Ash, what brings you here? Usually you just call when you want to chat, so it must be important."

"Well, you know that I never got a Recluse."

"Really, I could have sworn you had one by now."

"Nope. Furthermore, no amount of bribery will get anyone with one to give me theirs. I can hold my own in the Crucible, but not well enough to convince Shaxx that I deserve his ultimate weapon. So Buloke, what I'm asking is can you give me some tips on the Crucible."

With this the Striker's eyes literally spark with excitement. He sprints out of the room only to return several seconds later with a corkboard covered in in pictures, thumbtacks, and enough red yarn to knit a sweater.

"I'm so glad that you finally asked! The current meta is quite complicated, so I'll start with the basics. You are going to want to bring a shotgun. There are a couple choices, but I prefer the Last Man Standing for its perks. You see..."

As Buloke begins his rant, Ash finally starts to realize what it is like to be on the other end of one of his manic speeches about his research. Although he is grateful to his friend, both for so easily agreeing to help him and for so frequently listening when he got in a similar state, as the lesson just finishes with the shotgun tips at around the half hour mark, a part of him begins to regret every decision that he has ever made.

"That gun had better be as good as they say it is," he mutters internally.

Destcember Day #8: Alternate Universe

Two friends sit talking on top of a skyscraper that just reaches well above the clouds. Below them sprawls a gleaming metropolis that extends as far as the eye can see. The sky is clear and bright, without a hint of smog or rain. Overall, it is a beautiful day on Venus.

"You ever feel like something is missing?"

"What do you you mean? We literally have everything. Ever since the Traveler showed up a few millennia ago, things have just gotten better and better. We colonized every planet in the system and a few beyond, we solved scarcity, and now no one has to work anymore if they don't want to. Hell, we even cured death a while back. I mean, there was that thing with those evil pyramid things a few decades ago, but we sorted them out pretty quickly, with all the warning the Traveler gave us and all the time we had to prepare. What could possibly be wrong?"

"I don't know. It all just feels anticlimactic, you know?"

...

Simulation #540608849333807 Results:

Processing Power Required For Simulation: High

Paracausal Interference: Extreme

Accuracy: Within Acceptable Range

Premise: Golden Age collapse averted via failure of Darkness to locate Traveler before overwhelming force was accumulated.

Outcome: Convergence rendered unobtainable before heat death of the universe due to excessive presence of Light based paracausal interference and high level of human technological progress.

Timeline Deemed Nonviable

Simulation #540608849333807 Terminated

All such amazing options

the next destiny 2 season, you’re put on a string of various dates arranged by emperor calus cause he heard you were alone the past two years of crimson days and felt bad after all you’ve done for him

that’s the entire raid. if you don’t get with anyone by the end of the raid you have to date calus himself

Destcember Day 2: The Last City

I don't get to go home often recently, with all my time being split between helping Petra keep the Dreaming City from falling to the Taken or Scorn and trying to track down the Scourge Syndicate and their stolen weapons. When I do get a chance to take a break, I have an apartment deep in the Last City. A lot of guardians prefer to live in the Tower, but living up there has never appealed to me. Too much Vanguard supervision, asking hard questions and giving me sceptical looks when I come back with a new set of Hive tomes or Ahamkara bones to study or a few tanks of either for my Eliksni friends. The citizens though, they don't ask questions or give looks, just chalking it up to the eccentricities of a guardian. They never mention the whispers from the bones inside my silver plated cases, no matter how loud they seem to me. I find it reassuring to see so many people happily going about their lives, even when everything seems like it's all going to hell outside the walls. I don't agree with Zavala on many things, but at least we agree on this. This city is my home and its people are worth protecting.

I just realized, no one has told Jolyon that Uldren is alive again. Someone need to tell him right now. No, better idea, someone needs to find Jolyon, find Uldren, then drag them together and scream "Now Kiss!"

I just read the new lore book, "For Every Rose, A Thorn", and I have to say, everyone needs to read it right now. Also, Shin Malphur gets a slot on the favorite characters list.

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 11: Knowledge Is Power

Knowledge is power. That has been my mantra since I was revived in service to humanity. When I awoke without any memory of myself or the world, I wanted to know. To know where I was, to know who I was, to know what I was, because if I could just know, then I would be fine. But with every answer I learned, another question sprung up and the desire to know never abated. I think that's why the Traveler brought me back, to learn about all I could for the sake of humanity. So, now I research the deepest parts of the Darkness, the searing brightness of the unknown parts of the Light, and the strangest mysteries of our universe. I collect the whispering bones of the Ahamkara that we destroyed because we could not control them or tame their parasitic nature. I fight into the depths of Hive strongholds to steal their tomes and objects of power. I make deals with Cabal and Eliksni to learn about their history and their culture. I work with Osiris to unravel the machinations of the Vex. And even though I am set in my course, the Vanguard still seek to dissuade me. Stare not to long into the Abyss, they warn, lest it stare back at you. But I must continue to to learn, for it is better to risk losing myself to find a light than to stumble blindly into the night.

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".

Destcember Day #9: Nine

The topic of the Nine can be a touchy subject for some guardians. I mean, they are invisible magical planets that have an unknown amount of power and goals alien to our own. At least with the Hive gods we know we can kill them with enough concentrated firepower. We can't even hurt the Nine unless we are willing to remove all life from the solar system then blow up a few planets.

This especially annoys the Vanguard, the control freaks that they are. If the strategy of "throw teams of six at a problem until it stops breathing" followed by "steal everything shiny that's not nailed down" fails to resolve the issue, then they try to use bureaucracy. They try to keep us from associating too much with them. "Don't talk about classified information around Xur or the Emissary" this and "Don't trust trust the Drifter" that. I'm pretty sure they are the ones who got the Trials shut down too, but that's a conspiracy theory at best. Not that it matters anyway, considering they're probably omniscient.

Personally, I think that having them around is in our best interest. Aside from the fact that I support peace and friendship with anyone not actively trying to murder us at this point, from a utilitarian perspective, they need us more than we need them. If we die, they die. If they die, nothing happens to us. Of course, they are working on that and I wish them the best of luck, but for now our interests are required to align. And considering every other species that we've encountered has actively tried to murder us all upon first contact, that makes us practically best friends.