#anyways zavala.

[arcenergy]

i miss season of the haunted i loved logging on every tuesday knowing that i was about to witness the most fucking gut wrenching cutscene of my entire life and start sobbing over lore entries then go about my day like nothing happened

[dragonaqe]

Devotion. Bravery. Sacrifice. Devotion... Bravery... Sacrifice...

[echosong971]

we are COOKING

[hyakunana]

No but I’ve never played the game in my life and yet the few scenes I’ve seen of Guardian and Ghost is really wholesome to me? Like I love their relationship?

It’s so beautiful, how much Ghost cares about his Guardian like with that “Guardian… there you are.” Implying that he was still actively searching for them even after he died and was relieved to see them when he did find them 😭 why am I emotional?

I KNOW RIGHT??? Guardian and Ghost relationships is definitely my favorite thing in this game ;u;

[ahamkara-apologist]

the witness: crow believes his capacity for pain is his purpose. As do you

aeris, who's a maschoist:

[tacticalgrandma]

Replaying the penultimate TFS mission and recalling the first time I did it. I was on a call with a friend who had finished the campaign already. After Targe yelled at the statues, I said, “I really like Targe!” My friend waited a beat then said, “Yeah.” Then five minutes later she said she had to go.

[jate-kara]

The vanguard and "can you pretend I didn't say that?"

“As far as welcome-back parties go, not the worst I’ve seen. Not the best. But you know what? Not the worst, so I’ll call it a win.”

‘Party’ was a generous term. Zavala’s office could hardly be called cheery on its best day, but cluttered as it was now with relics, weaponry, reports, and what looked suspiciously like a collection of half-full coffee mugs in the bookshelf’s corner, it barely passed for a workspace, let alone a party venue.

Besides that, there were no streamers, no balloons, and no fingertips sparking fireworks. No cheering guests, either. The room was lit by the single lamp set on the desk, casting shadows across Zavala and Ikora and absolutely nobody else. The combined weight of their stares was enough to give a guy nightmares.

Felt like just last week he’d been in here, meeting their scowls with a quick quip and a flash of charm. ‘Lame’ is what Cayde might have called the whole thing, under better circumstances. But these weren’t better circumstances. Might even call ‘em ‘apocalyptic’, actually. So he kept his mouth shut, leaned forward, and let his hands come to rest on the edge of the desk. Well within their sight. Not like he had Ace on him; he’d handed it off to Ikora after his resurrection. Return. Whatever. But maybe it helped.

Or maybe not. Ikora’s stare was unwavering.

“I told you,” Cayde tried, for the fifteenth time. “I can’t explain it to you. I don’t know how I’m back. Who brought me back. Why I’m back. I just know I’m glad I am. Sounds like you could use the help.”

Zavala gave an audible sigh. His elbows were propped up on the desk, so his hands were folded in front of his face, obscuring half his scowl. For a moment, he was silent, contemplating Cayde like an enemy and not an ally the Light had found fit to return from a death beyond death.

“We don’t expect you to explain,” Zavala offered at last.

“Great! Then stop looking at me like I’m going to blow the Tower up.”

Ikora winced. Cayde stopped short. “Wait. Nobody did that, right? Wasn’t one of my Hunters?”

Zavala dropped his head to his hands and left it there, scrubbing at his face like that would erase whatever headache was now blooming in the back of his skull. Could almost call it like the good old days, if his eyes weren’t shot through with haunted grief when he looked back up. “No,” he said, his voice barely more than a whisper. His gaze met Cayde’s, and held. He opened his mouth like he was going to say more, but all that came out was a hoarse croak.

Ikora rested a hand on Zavala’s shoulder, then took a measured breath. “The circumstances are…different, but you're not the first to return to us. Last time, we failed to see our enemy, and we almost paid dearly for it.”

Vague as vague can be. Someone got a foothold in the Tower, close enough to spook the Vanguard, or outright infiltrate them. Cayde looked between them.

“It wasn’t one of us,” Ikora supplied. Her voice was softer, this time.

Cayde wondered what he must have looked like to prompt that response, and pushed the thought away just as quickly. “All right, so tell me how I’m supposed to prove I’m me. You wanna hear about the Dare? Where I got the cloak? Best bet I ever lost?”

Zavala’s breath hitched. Ikora’s hand shot across the table and closed around Cayde’s wrist. Too late, Cayde remembered the crushing pain in his chest, and the Young Wolf, beside him, as the light faded, and he fought for a final word.

Cayde coughed. “Can you pretend I didn’t say that?”

Ikora’s hand didn’t move. For a beat that felt like whatever eternity he’d spent beyond, no one spoke.

“I don’t know how to prove that you aren’t an agent of our enemy,” Zavala said at last. His voice was soft, softer than Cayde could ever remember hearing it. “But I want to believe that you aren’t. I want to believe that you are truly returned to us.”

Cayde waited for a however, we can’t just- or an I’m sorry, but that’s not enough. It didn’t come. From either of them. He looked at them, and he felt the weight of Ikora’s hold on his wrist and the suffocating hope in Zavala’s eyes, and his chest ached. And he wondered what had happened while he was dead, and whether ‘apocalyptic’ could even begin to cover where they were now.

And for a second, he didn’t give a damn.

“All right, now don’t shoot me,” Cayde said. “But I’m gonna hug you. Both of you.”

And they let him.

—

[hyruviandoctor]

I am both intelligent enough to know that Targe should not have done that, and wise enough to know that people rarely do the most logical thing in the heat of the moment. Protecting the people you care about sometimes means doing dumb shit

[crow-posting]

⚠️ vent post ⚠️

So I just figured out why I've been so frustrated by Bungie's current storytelling, especially TFS. Like I've been trying so, so hard to see Destiny as a story of love and hope and forgiveness and togetherness so why isn't it working? Why can't I see past the tropes and beige (non-lore book) prose and pitfalls of writing for an MMO-FPS?? Am I missing the point everyone else is seeing?

And then I saw this post.

Destiny isn't a eucatastrophe. Yes, it has broken the mold for certain tropes [esp. when it comes to portrayals of second chances], but it doesn't evoke the same sense of "existential hope" that LotR does. It feels like Micah-10's pessimism in the Pale Heart: Everything's got consequences. The sun may shine out the clearer one day, but it's not today, and while you're out playing hero there's a pretty good chance you're actually the monster. A lone monster at that, despite NPCs' insistence to the contrary.

And while I don't think Destiny is actually meant to be a eucatastrophe, I do think it sucks that it tries to evoke the same sense of hope / wonder without understanding how it works. Defeating the Witness isn't the same as defeating Sauron or destroying the Death Star, because the hope is overridden by fear and desperation. Assisting the Dissenters doesn't have the same impact as redeeming Darth Vader, because there's no love or forgiveness involved. And even when Ghost comes back, and Cayde gets a proper sendoff, and everyone gets to breathe again, it doesn't actually matter because someone else comes around to reopen old wounds.

Destiny has tried to prove that bullets aren't the only way to solve problems. Destiny has tried to show that love and hope and unity matter, even if they don't change the circumstances, and you can always get a second chance no matter who you are as long as you're willing to take it. But it tried to take eucatastrophe elements while also being a grimdark space opera so now I'm sitting here like 🫠

*btw I'm aware that a good chunk of players don't view D2 as a story of hope, but rather a never-ending "Young Wolf's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," and that view is also entirely valid! I'm just talking based on my perception of the current lore / grimoire.

[flowers-of-io]

Calamity Protocol

“The Traveler…” There is both awe and dread in Shinon’s voice. “It’s doing something. Healing itself, I think.”

“It can do that?” Runi spins in the air like a whirligig toy. “And why now? Do you think the Darkness—”

He cuts off. The civilians murmur in fear.

For the first time, Ór is afraid of dying.

Read on Ao3

[thelvadams]

i think every guardian knew exactly what to do

[planet4546b]

image id: the current tumblr mobile banner, which says ‘june on tumblr’ in gradient text on a colorful background. end id.

love this banner. yes she is on tumblr you’re right. thank you

[erismourn]

please tell about how your eris morn impression lost you your virginity i am dying to know

ok well I met my ex around the time beyond light came out. she was introduced to me via my friend who she was dating (she's polyam) and my friend goes "oh you two like destiny you should talk about it" (which, thank you, I'm so bad at conversing with strangers)

so we're driving 40 mins to the rez to visit a native crafts store (my friend is also indigenous but can't drive, hence why we were doing it) and we get talking, and at some point I drop the "do you feel it as I do, guardian?" line. I think we were trading character impressions because making up dumb things for d2 characters to say is really funny

I would say my ex's expression was something like this

and then a while later she asked me out (it took her 3 tries because I'm fucking blockheaded) and then the rest is PRIVATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH

[hyakunana]

Tomorrow — aka May 15th​

[n7viper]

give me warmind back now, I'm no longer asking

[trans-estinien]

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