Destcember Day #8: Alternate Universe

Destcember Day 11: Guardian of Nothing

Guardians have a tendency to hoard. I think it has something to do with whatever the Traveler did with our brains when it brought us back to make sure at least most of us would help people instead of just wandering off. But as a side effect, we tend to take things we like and guard them too.

We all have things we store away, myself included. There are always a few dozen guns and bits of armour that are rattling around in our vaults that we tell ourselves will come in handy one day. All those ghost shells, mods, shaders, and shiny bits that we gather by the hundreds. We regularly spend enough glimmer to feed a family for months to buy things from vendors, put it in the pile, and promptly forget. And it's not just physical things we hoard. We love hoarding power.

Everyone loves power, be it physical or status. The Vanguad and the factions all cling desperately to positions. We all grind for that next arbitrary rank in crucible. We want more numbers. Bigger numbers and better numbers than our friends. It's more subtle than the physical hoarding, but it's still there.

I think that's why Guall's attack hit us so hard. Sure it killed people, but everything does that. But for a bit, we lost everything we guarded. Our guns, our gear, our ships and sparrows. Our ranks, our power, our people. Even our Light. For a while, we were guardians of nothing.

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.

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.

Ash has, at present, 10 silver piercings split between his two antennae. Each piercing has a small trophy from his proudest achievements, including a small glass bulb of radiolorian from Atheon's mind core and a shard of chitin from Oryx's corpse. Side note, it is hard to find a piercer willing and able to do exos without causing any damage.

Additionally, he wears an emerald Gambit necklace and a Fallen House of Light cloak, earned not stolen, to show his alliance to Mythrax and the Drifter.

I Headcanon that…

Attack wears rings, a necklace and has his ears pierced. The 3 rings he has go on his right hand pointer, right hand ring, and left hand middle.

The ring on his left hand is a simple metal band. The one on his pointer is a stone that holds a “galaxy” common among the Awoken. And the one on his ring finger is an old wedding ring.The necklace he wears has a small red stone in an amulet. He has two simple small hoops in his ears.

What kind of jewelry does your Guardian have?

I know it will never happen, probably because it would be a nightmare to program and balance, but I want a flamethrower. Just imagine it. Finally being able to literally kill all of those creepy thralls and screebs. Seeing the home of the enemy burn down around you. Looking at your Ghost worry as the fire glints off your wide eyes and wolfish smile. In conclusion, fire good.

Destcember Day 14: Chosen Undead

I've read a number of books from before the Collapse. In some of the fantasy novels, there was a creature known as a lich. A monster of magic and undeath, living forever as long as they could protect their philactery, but having to kill endlessly in return for their power. In some ways, we are like them. We have been granted powers of Light and eternal life as long as we can protect our Ghosts. In return, we serve the Light, killing the enemies of humanity, over and over, thousands and thousands. There is once difference, though. In the stories, they were always the villains, selfish for living forever and killing others. We, however, are the heroes, praised for our endless lives and slaughter in the name of humanity. I suppose times have changed.

Million glimmer idea:

Carve Ahamkara bones into bullets. Will they grant the target they get lodged in cursed wishes? Will they drive them insane with whispers? Who knows! But it will be interesting, whatever happens.

I wonder what Uldren has been up to for the last few weeks. Has he made it to the Tower without anyone noticing, even the Vanguard? Did he get lost somehow and is just wandering the system aimlessly? Did Mara and/or a Corsair swoop him up, requiring us to maybe have to stage a daring rescue mission? Or, more likely, does he keep getting spawn killed because he is a level-1 kinderguardian in revived in the Dreaming City, a level-50 war zone, completely unarmed and unarmored. I'm guessing that it is the latter. Probably about time to start sending out the search and rescue parties, whatever the case.

Jobs For Guardians In Peacetime

It's interesting to think about what will happen to Guardians after the perpetual wars that humanity is in end. Of course, many will likely stay on as warriors. Even if we do ever defeat the Darkness fully, there will always be threats that are unrelated to it, such as the Cabal Empire.

Others will likely just retire, having more than earned the rest of their possibly eternal life off.

Besides those, there will be some who are tired of fighting, but still would like to work. They could do dangerous jobs, like construction, mining, or demolition.

For those who want a more peaceful job, there careers too. They would make great historians and teachers, with some Guardians having been there for every event since the collapse, or writers. In fact, with infinite time to become good at their job and an inbuilt drive to do so, they would be great at any profession.

Finally, and my personal favorite, there are the jobs who can't give up the love of the unknown and wanderlust. Guardians would also great explorers, due to them not strictly needing food, water, environmental protection, etc and an eternal companion to prevent isolation insanity. They could search for new civilizations or habitable planets to colonize. If the explorers ever find a civilization who isn't immediately, genocidally hostile, certain Guardians would make great diplomats. They have spent years dealing with hostile and insane aliens, they have their Ghost and personal experience to help translate, and the unspoken warning of being able to use an immortal warrior who has killed tens of thousands including gods as a simple diplomat wouldn't hurt.

Anyway, those are just some of my headcanons. What do you think that Guardians will do during peacetime?

Destcember Day 31: Make A Wish

"Look, it's a shooting star! Make a wish."

"I thought that the Vanguard told us all not to do that anymore, after the Ahamkara kept using it to secretly grant Guardians wishes against their will."

"Don't worry about that. They were all killed in the Great Hunt, remember? It is completely safe now."

"Fine, I suppose you are right. What should I wish for?"

"It really doesn't matter. Just think of a wish and think hard about it."

"Ok.

...There, I made a wish. Is it just me, or are your gauntlets a bit shinier? And do you hear that quite, raspy laughter?"

"Hehe. I'm sure your just imagining things."

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Wow, that was the last one. Thanks to @destcember for the great prompts and thanks to everyone for reading! Happy New Years.