orendalogs | IT'S YOUR DESTINY!!!

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IT'S YOUR DESTINY!!!

Who: Anyone, everyone? Aoba and Declan to start.
What: Destiny
When: After the House of Wolves, before The Taken King.
Where: Earth, The Last City, The Tower and beyond.
Warnings: Could be sorta zombie stuff (Hive), could be xenophilia? I dunno. Gen warnings, yo.

Earth. 700 years into the future, humanity is all but gone, huddled in a massive city in the mountains, surrounded by gargantuan walls and living in the shadow of the slumbering, perhaps dead, body of The Traveler. The massive being of benevolence and light that came to Earth bearing gifts of knowledge that would bring about the longest Golden Age in Terran history, hovering in geostationary orbit over The Last City of men, protecting what is left from The Darkness beyond with the remains of it's Light.

For those on Earth it is a well-known story. With The Traveler's dying breath it created Ghosts, fragments of living Light that in turn resurrected men and women across the galaxy, bringing to bear the Guardians, warriors to fight the Darkness. Earth and all the nearby planets are populated by humans, the Awoken, Exos and a variety of species of ever more distant origins, some less generous than others. The Guardians make their headquarters in a colossal spire at the edge of The Last City. There, in the Tower, the Vanguard and other factions of humanity work together to hold the line and fight the Darkness and every other threat to the known universe. The little understood Guardians rarely venture beyond the Tower, preferring the company of their brothers and sisters in arms, but all look to the Tower as a beacon of hope.

There is danger and adventure to be had; the likelihood of death and the possibility of rebirth. The future is uncertain, but all who walk in the Light know the Darkness is coming, and the wise life to the fullest.

[ Destiny Wiki ]

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Sooner or later, they found him. It was the first time Aoba got to witness Declan in full action, and it was certainly impressive. All on his own, the Titan plowed through hordes of enemies, throwing up shields, rolling across the ground and reloading as he moved, cutting down swaths of Vex. Mac made some vague sound of relief when he found the man, then called out directly for Aoba to follow close behind and watch their six before charging in ahead.

"INCOMING!" Mac shouted, Declan's head whipping up in confusion, expression unreadable behind his mask. His tense posture said everything: he was not happy to see Aoba in the field. Fortunately for the lot, there was no time to dwell.

All hell broke loose in an instant. Mac leapt into the air and literally burst into flames, heat and light radiating from his body as he threw blast of flame everywhere that exploded moments later, turning metal creatures into slag. Declan thundered over on heavy boots, turning hard and slamming his back up against Aoba's, throwing a shield up around them both. Standing back to back and turning a step at a time, he fired rapidly while Mac drifted on wings of fire.

Aoba got to see Declan angry mere seconds later, Vex Minotaurs bursting through his shield and going after the human while the Titan was stuck reloading. Roaring at the metal creatures even as they screeched in return, the massive man threw himself bodily, balled fists hitting so hard he caved their armored chests in. Bodies started falling as Mac landed and started throwing bolts of lightening, Declan abandoning his good sense and gun in favor of physically pummeling everything in sight.

Mac leapt away from him and Aoba has his eyes to his sights, picking out his targets. In the end, the Vex made for remarkably convenient targets. A body was a wider target than a head, and the glowing white sections of their abdomens practically broadcast their positions. Even when they ducked their crested heads in the way, craniums shattering under the gunfire and driving them berserk, all he had to do was keep aiming.

He heard Declan more than he saw him. Felt him. That thud against his back, the fury he radiated. When the Titan stepped, Aoba read him and stepped to. He was no Guardian, no Hunter, not trained and probably never would be, but the contact Declan made with him was electric and somehow, Aoba read it right away.

Maybe it was because only moments later, the Titan was something just as feral as Aoba’s core was. And somewhere in that madness, Aoba was laughing.

One of the hulking chassis, the kind called Minotaurs, escaped Declan’s swathe of destruction and thundered Aoba’s way. He fired the last shots in his magazine, shifting his stance when his trigger pulls earned only dry clicks, focusing all of his attention on that shimmering white core-

-at lot more happened at Aoba’s perspective than the outside. Between one step and the next the Minotaur uttered a warbling, distorted keen and the light went out as it buckled to the ground. As for Aoba, he snapped out of a moment that had gone on for eternity and pulled off his helmet, turning to survey the battlefield with wildness in the brilliant gold of his eyes.

They weren’t as impossible as Mac thought.

“VEX!” he shouted, voice flanged and resonant, something a normal human throat would have never formed. He ordered their attention, not the Guardians’, and all across the battlefield the mechlike creatures staggered and froze, red eyes all turning his way.

Sitting targets for Declan and Mac to be sure, not one reacting even if the Guardians continued to mow them down, but Aoba was absolutely not about to be content with that.

“YOU DO NOT FIT THE PATTERN,” he told them. “BE REMOVED FROM IT AND BE DESTROYED.”

And then what happened to the one Vex happened to them all. In chaotic synchronicity they screamed in their myriad voices, collapsing in on themselves, the white lights of their liquid minds going dark and leaving their metal shells empty as they fell to the Venusian soil.

By the end of it, only the Guardians, and Aoba, still stood.

It was going to be a hard won battle, they might be wounded, there might be casualties, they needed to call for back-u--

It was over.

Like a snap of the fingers, Vex fell all at once, Declan and Mac and Aoba all back to back to back, the two Guardians working easily in tandem from years of serving together, knowing instinctively that they each needed to use themselves to shield Aoba...and then silence. A few crackles, pops and hisses, electric life ebbing away from metal corpses. All of the previous rage in the Titan started seeping out far faster than usual, like he was hemorrhaging anger from a wound caused by confusion. Mac was just as confused - moreso for having less warning and not being fully aware of Aoba's secret weapon - and turned slowly, looking over his shoulder at their peculiar addition.

"Well...shit."

Declan looked over at Mac, then turned to Aoba, looming there as the Warlock sidled off for a moment to make sure everything was dead, occasionally whistling with a mixture of awe and fear. What the hell had he just witness? Nothing he wanted to be on the wrong end of, that was for sure.

The Titan was less mystified, still more concerned with Aoba's presence, a big hand reaching out and gripping a badly singed part of the man's cloak, silently pointing out how dangerous it had been by drawing attention there.

"Are you alright?" was all he said, though. No anger or accusation, no complaining, no fighting. He understood why Aoba was there, even if he didn't like it. He did, at least, appreciate that the man sought him out and was determined to fight, too, when before he'd been so adamantly against it.

"Gatelord head?" Mac asked from a few yards away, prodding a dead Vex with his foot.

"Yes. I still need it...but at least we don't have to go through all these troops," Declan answered, looking across the clearing at a sparking gate.

"I'll take care of it. You two uh...sit tight..." Mac mumbled, feeling a bit awkward as he jogged off towards the gate, his Ghost materializing at his side.

"I'm sorry, Aoba. I just wanted you safe."

Exhilaration. That was the word. Aoba’s coy little twists of his voice were nothing compared to such wide-scale, wanton destruction. Part of him was stricken and shocked, afraid that this was what he had meant when he said he’d killed before, but the rest of him said, no, never like this. Never so much.

But also never to keep safe something so important.

There was still something crazed in his golden eyes when Declan touched him, but it reeled him back in. So his cloak needed mending. The Titan, on the other hand, would not.

But for heavy breathing, slowly calming, he was quiet while the Guardians exchange words. When he was addressed again, he was still gold, but also closer to tame again.

“Same, big guy,” he agreed, reaching up to pat his gloved hand against his armored ‘home’ a couple times. “That, and I’ve had enough of you fighting all my battles for me. I want to be your partner, not your burden.”

"I...don't know how to be anything else," Declan sighed softly, reaching up and laying a hadn over the one on his chest.

"I protect. I'm a protector. I feel it in ever fiber of my being. It isn't just being a Guardian - Mac is a Guardian and he'll run if he thinks it's what needs to happen - it's just who I am. It's even more with you. For you," he mused, looking off at the far gate, the Warlock blazing through piles of lesser Vex, luring the Gatelord out. He felt he ought to go help, but he knew Mac could solo the situation as well as himself. He could...wait. Stay with Aoba for a moment. If Mac needed help, he'd ask.

"You've never been a burden. It makes me feel complete, doing things for you, instead of just for everyone. Hm...It...doesn't matter." Because his feelings didn't matter, his affections didn't matter, his motivations. He needed to stop talking and thinking about it so much. Focus on getting Aoba home.

“Yes, it does,” Aoba countered, gaze softening the moment he heard those last three words. Before that his attention had wavered, drawn to the blasts of Mac dealing with the appearance of more Vex, but the feel of a hand over his own was distracting. Those final words, in particular, were not to be dismissed.

His eyes were still gold, but some of that deeper edge went out of his voice and his gaze was direct without challenging. One aspect was still more to the forefront than the other, but they…blurred. While Desire had been thrilling in the races for the hours that they had gone on, Reason had been free to think. Overthinking, probably, as the accusation frequently went, but at least Mac’s well-meaning intervention had jostled him out of the usual ruts.

This wasn’t the place to be having the conversation that needed to happen, maybe, eventually—but something had to be said about those words. The Titan still had his helmet on so there were no expressions to read, but his body language still said plenty.

“Everything you do, say, or think, matters to me. I don’t want you to stop protecting me. I want to protect you, too.”

"I can't die, Aoba. You can. Or...at least, I'd rather not find out," the Titan sighed, head tilting slightly, a vague smile in his tone. He appreciated the sentiment and respected it, he simply couldn't risk it. It wasn't a matter of keeping Aoba from being independent, it was only that Declan could afford the greater risk and was more than willing to take them.

"If...you can fire from a distance, and watch your back, you can stay here and pick them off from behind and around us, alright?" he conceded, pulling the other man's hand away and gazing across the field before cocking his rifle and checking the clip.

"I can't let other people fight my fights, either. Stay safe," the big man said, reaching up and gently clapping a hand against the side of Aoba's helmet before turning and thundering off into the fray. Rested for a moment and feeling less worried about Aoba on the whole, the Titan's renewed vigor paid off and the two Guardians were soon wrecking a massive Vex. They utterly destroyed the thing, then pulled it's head from it's chassis and vanished it with the transmat.

"Uh...I'll head back to the Reef. You two catch up, yeah? Aoba, come get your stuff when you guys get back..." Mac coughed softly, shooting finger guns at them both. Declan looked down at his own hand a moment in confusion before shooting a finger gun in return, earning a loud laugh from the retreating Guardian.

Well, that had Aoba sighing, expression returning to its Desire’d norms as he put his helmet back on just in time to get it clapped before he pulled his hood back up. He didn’t rightly know if wearing it interfered with the powers of his voice, but it had been as impulsive as it had been deliberate, removing it when he did.

“It’s not your fight,” he muttered into the thunder of the Titan’s bootsteps, but he reloaded his rifle and hung back because it had been requested of him. If nothing else, he could experiment a bit more, too.

So, if either Mac or Declan noted singular Vex collapsing without a bullet striking, well, it was no hallucination. Perhaps, Aoba thought, he should look into trying out a sniper rifle. If he could direct his mind from even further than this, well then….

When it was all done and over with, Mac was ridiculously unsubtle—at least to Aoba, who’d been lectured and all, and was quite sure he knew perfectly well as to why he was ‘abandoning’ them so swiftly. Had to admit, though. Declan’s discovery of the ‘finger gun’ was weirdly cute.

“Well you have to admit one thing,” he said, giving the Titan’s arm a light thump. “Now you’re home in a few hours instead of a couple days. Not bad, right?”

"Very true. Spending more time with you is better than spending more time running errands for the Nine," Declan replied, stoic after a fight and still feeling a little irritable about Mac bringing Aoba precisely where he hadn't wanted the man to be.

Asshole.

"You...can go home any time now. After we deliver the things the Nine asked for, you'll have updated maps for your portal things, and a direct route to your time and home. Snap of the fingers," the Titan remarked neutrally as they walked out to where Declan's ship was.

"Hm." Not precisely neutral, on Aoba's end, but no real excitement, either. "I owe you a hell of a lot, then. Who knows where I'd be right now if I hadn't been dropped a room away from you.

"But don't think that means I'm heading home as soon as that, either," he added, slinging his rifle across his back once more as the familiar and decidedly modest shape of the Mariner came back into view. "I'm not exactly done with everything I want and need to do before I go back to the island for a while." Aoba started ticking things off on his fingers. "I need something sturdy to use as a time capsule, I need to see your favorite place on the Moon, I need to see the Queen, I need to have a good long chat with you and clear some things up... I'm not going anywhere for at least another week."

The man's chest rose and fell with a deep, calming breath. It pleased him immensely to know that Aoba was choosing to stay longer, even if he felt selfish for it. He wanted the man to go home, to see his family again, but he didn't want to run him off. It was a fine line, really.

"Well...I'll give you all the time I can spare, Aoba. What do you want to do first?" the Titan asked, tilting his head slowly, undoubtedly smiling behind his helmet as he paused by the ladder ascending into the Mariner.

So easy to read. All the time he could spare, huh? Given how much he'd 'spared' on Aoba already, that was bound to be significant.

But that also begged the question: how much time could potentially be wasted if secrets were kept up to the last moment? Part of him wanted to balk, wanted to say he needed more time still... but at the same time, had to admit he was being afraid of things he had very little evidence for. Not just according to Mac, but according to the things he knew, rationally, despite the fears.

And the side of him that was not so afraid, in turn, even considered his powers, expressed and rediscovered for the first time in years, to such great effect. He thought of the idea he'd had before, of Declan speaking to both his sides at once, and wondered if that should even be necessary.

"...Well. As soon as you're up for that good long chat, we should have it. You need to make that delivery first? Rest up? Maybe get you a meal back at the Reef?"

"Ah...chat. Hm." He cleared his throat, pulling his helm off and setting it on the table when they were on the ship, Ghost idly handling take-off.

"Well...Let's jump to the Reef and eat. Then I can take a shower and get out of combat gear for a little while. Focus on us talking and get out of battle-mode. Is that timeline alright or...is this something that requires more haste?"

Edited 2018-11-25 00:18 (UTC)

"Well, Mac fed me already, but I gotta get my gear and the pup back from him, now that the sleepover's canceled. I'll take care of that while you're finding food and settling back in, how's that? Give me another good walk to finish getting some thoughts in order, too."

After a little consideration of the Guardian's hesitance, though, it was Desire that chuckled softly.

"Don't worry, big guy, it's not a bad sort of chat. Just one best not put off any longer than can be helped."

"You can sleep over with Mac!" Declan protested, holding up both hands and shaking his head. "It's important to me that you make other friends, too! I can't monopolize your time, Aoba. I won't go anywhere, I promise. You should have fun with him. He...needs friends, too." Probably true, but the more Declan talked about it, the more he felt a twinge of jealousy, wondering if maybe Mac had waht he didn't, and Aoba was more interested there. Not that he would say anything.

"I promise I'll stay put and won't go anywhere or take any assignments until we talk."

Now for that, Desire had to laugh, as he went about stripping off the bits of gear that he no longer needed with combat no longer on the horizon.

“Trust me,” he answered, amused little smirk going to an outright grin. “He’ll just kick me out and send me right back here. He gave me a very stern talking to over dinner-” His tone very much made it plain that he was only half serious, mostly about the ‘stern’ part, “-before he took me out to the races. So, later on, be sure to thank him for sitting me down and laying into me. Oh, and don’t get mad at him for taking me out to you, either. Maybe he didn’t refuse, but I just would have forced him to if he had, hm?”

With a lazy little gesture, Desire tapped his throat, just in case any reminders were necessary of the powers his voice contained. Damn, that had been a rush. All those Vex, all at once….

"The races?" Declan asked, mortified. "Those are dangerous! What was he thinking? I asked him to keep you busy and safe! Ugh!" Declan grunted, fuming mildly before puffing out a hard breath, face screwed up in a bit of a pout.

"How am I not supposed to be mad for him having two terrible ideas? Ohhh my lord," the Titan groaned, running a hand down his face and shaking his head.

"He can't be trusted. He's a menace."

Declan didn’t even bat an eye. Well, not about Aoba’s powers, anyway. Instead he was upset about Mac…?

Something new happened then. Desire burst into laughter so hard he actually had tears well up in his eyes.

“Wait, seriously? He made it sound like your idea!” he managed, somewhere between dropping sideways onto one of the bolted-down galley chairs and leaning onto his knees for support. Declan actually looking and sounding ruffled was half of it, given how unruffable he seemed to be in the day to day, while the other half of it was just straight up, holy shit, Mac was a character.

“Fucking cockatoo,” was a wheeze in there as well, as he wiped at his eyes.

"I wanted him to take you out, have a good time. See...I don't know, fun things that I might not be as fun doing it with..." He trailed off, realizing it was possibly his fault and that Mac had just misinterpreted things. Then again, he'd probably deliberately done so, the jerk. But then Aoba was laughing and Declan's rising frustration fizzled out, pale eyes warming and watching the other man with that deep, silent fondness of his.

"I'm happy you had fun. I'm...happy you showed up and helped in the field, even if it...isn't safe. I don't want to keep you from doing things that you enjoy or want, just because they aren't things I enjoy or want." And oh, how that paralleled matters of their intimacy as well. Just as Declan needed to learn to be more forgiving of Aoba's life choices, Desire needed to be more understanding of Declan's sexual ones.

"Everything worked out in the end. Maybe he's right and I'm stupid. About this sort of thing, I mean. Friendship, and all of it."

Well, to be really technical about it, Declan had already stopped Desire from doing things he wanted, but—that wasn’t a tree he was barking up any more. He heard the words, his laughter tapering off with a few more snickers and wipes of his eyes. He remembered. How had he summarized it? Blunt, patient, middle grounds, time…phew.

Okay, time for another correction, though.

“You’re not stupid, big guy,” he corrected, getting up on his feet again. “Anyone’s been stupid around here, it’s me, alright? You take your time more than a lot of people, sure, but I’ve got the monopoly on dumb decisions. Now, before I go-”

He stepped towards the Titan again, arms out and a little up, complete with beckoning little flicks of the wrist that added a level of casual to the gesture. Just in case. “-c’mon, c’mere. Hug time. Don’t be mad at Mac, and don’t put yourself down. I’m glad you’re home.”

He puffed his lips in a little pout again, looking side to side at Aoba's arms a moment. Finally, he pussed a sigh, bangs fluttering briefly, before stepping in and looping his arms around Aoba, cheek resting against his head gently. A firm squeeze, and the Titan eased up inside his armor enough that the other man could feel the tension seep out. Cuddling in any sense of the word was incredibly soothing to him.

"Seeing as how one of those dumb decisions is staying with me a little longer, I think I can protest your assessment. Perhaps...we should agree that neither of us is precisely infallible, but we're both certainly not stupid."

Aoba sighed out as Declan’s arms tightened around him, but it didn’t have anything to do with being crushed. He leaned into the embrace just as much, and didn’t even mind that the Titan’s armor put hard angles where there otherwise would have been human (well, Awoken) warmth. At least there was some of it that couldn’t be missed: the warmth of Declan’s cheek against his hair, felt just as well as he might have been able to sense it with his hand.

“Alright, alright,” he chuckled, his words and tone shifting partway though with, “I’ll compromise on that.”

Hazel were the eyes that peeked up from under Declan’s chin, then, cheeks a little flushed but not unbearably so. The hug was for, and from all of him. And by swapping out like that, he wanted his friend to know it.

Besides…it was this side of him that he was going to have to hear a lot more from, so Aoba had better get it out of hiding already.

"Hm. Compromise..." the Titan mumbled to himself, though he was so close Aoba could hear. Small wonder, really. Every time he'd been the one to use the word it'd ended poorly. He was willing to let it go, though. To compromise.

"You go ahead and get your things and Ren from Mac's ship. I'll just warm something up to eat here and start a shower after. You're coded permissions for the Mariner so you can come back when it suits you," Declan nodded, reaching up and holding onto a strut with one hand, the other steadying Aoba as they jumped space. Millions and millions of miles in mere seconds with hardly more than the same wobbling sensation one got with the subway train moved and halted. One second they were drifting away from Venus, the next they were tilting through the Reef.

The irony was not, in fact, lost on Aoba. It had been either that, or quote something ridiculous, like tell him ‘you’re aces, kid’ or make some other clumsy reference to being ‘a guy like you’.

Declan held onto him and he held onto the Titan in return, finding no reason to reach for anything else when he knew he was perfectly safe right where he was. That he wanted to…be right where he was. Mac had told him to ask Declan for a plain and clear answer, but it wasn’t like he really needed one. The only thing he really had to be afraid of at this point was—doing something new.

Telling someone that he liked them. In a…hopefully permanent sort of way.

“I won’t be long,” he said instead, adding a clumsy joke of, “Mac’s a nice guy to visit but I wouldn’t want to live with him.”

"I don't think Mac wants to live with Mac," Declan's Ghost intoned, causing the Titan to make a vague choked noise, looking up sharply.

"I'm sorry, was that unkind of me?" Ghost hummed and tilted, single ocular squinted in an obvious smile.

"More than a little," Declan snorted softly, letting Aoba go as they docked. "Alright. See you soon."

Declan did exactly as he said, heating up some food and munching along in his ship before hitting the shower, taking his time half dozing with his head against the glass and just enjoying the heat and water. Mac was laying on the floor of his open cargohold and reading one of his books when Aoba arrive. The Warlock looked up, smiling, and pointing to the other man's things all tidily stowed nearby, ready to go. He didn't figure Aoba would stick around.

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