@reefbcrn
Silence… it bit quietly at the air around her. Allied with the city or not. Her history with the fallen, the scar she carries of her failure to protect… she wasn’t a fan of them regardless of who or what they claimed to be. ‘Aviel…’ Pharaoh’s voice broke through the hard-concentrated stare she held on the Eliksni. She swallows removing her gaze from the fallen in front of her.
“I see what I want to see… regardless of the house you align yourself with… the followings… you are still fallen.” The words spoken had a bite to them, Pharaoh felt it as he nearly flinched in his shell at how her tone had changed with the sight of the fallen. Of course, he couldn’t blame her, not how it ended for her in her first life… for many.
‘Maybe… we can come back to this… at a later time.’
You are still Fallen.
It was a "greeting” they’d gotten from most of the Guardians they’d met: blatant distrust. Disbelief, that an Eliksni could be anything but a murderous scavenger. Frustration nipped at their mind every time, and it was a struggle not to blame the Guardians for it; they’d been fighting eachother for a long, long time now, hadn’t they? Personal bias or not, views weren’t going to change overnight just because a small group of Fallen claimed to support the Last City.
They met her cold stare, waited until she looked away before their own eyes narrowed for a moment.
“Later time, then. There is work to finish now,” they said. “Do you trust me enough to help you, or would you rather do this all yourself?”
1 note
·
View note
Cards - Uldren
He hated looking at them.
They were left everywhere around the Tower Wall, the Courtyard, the Bazaar, the Hangar, by the gods, especially in the Hangar.
Between the Shipwright’s station and...it was a shrine. Entering the main flight deck was akin to entering a holy space.
Which was why he always entered and departed via the upper tier of the Courtyard.
The Ace of Spades. Everywhere he turned, the playing card was, tucked into seams, slid between plating, taped to walls, in some cases even stuck with what looked to be chewing gum. A million different decks with a million different card faces and a million different design variations, all with the same theme.
A tribute to the fallen Hunter Vanguard.
The one he had murdered.
The man called Cayde.
Uldren never took his helm off. Not since Atsuko had given it to him. He was surprised when she had gifted it to him. She, who had killed him in revenge for the death of her...
Who was Cayde to her? Uldren didn’t want to put a name to it. To give it a name would be to acknowledge the pain he had caused his Exo teammate and that was something he was not yet ready to deal with.
She had given him an Exotic helm of hers, the Graviton Forfeit. He felt safe while wearing it. Not for the protection or the benefits it afforded, but for the total anonymity. No one knew who he was beneath the wall of Void energy. No one could see the face of the disgraced Prince of the Reef, the former Master of Crows, the once King of the Scorn.
The murder of Cayde-6, Hunter Vanguard.
Every card he saw in the City, outside of it, off-world, all served to remind him of the deed that he didn’t have a proper memory of, a sin that someone he used to be committed and that he was paying the penance for.
He hated looking at the playing cards. Worse, he hated what those playing cards stood for.
The weakness of the man he once was.
@reefbcrn
46 notes
·
View notes
“⇷” -sev
“No…that is not breakfast.”
“Yes it is!” The little girl, with freshly washed face and freshly brushed milk teeth, grinned at her father, holding a piece of banana bread in her chubby hands.
“Yes it is!” repeated her twin brother, mimicking her in pose and tone as his father struggled to finish washing the boy’s face.
Their father weakly laughed, a hapless sound, and made a face in the direction of the kitchen. “Carryl…” he whined, glowing blue eyes begging his wife for help.
She walked out into the small breakfast area to see her twins beaming up at her, both already having taken bites out of their slices of banana bread, crumbs on their round cheeks, their father barefoot and on one knee, practically despondent. He held the damp washcloth in one hand and looked at her with his bottom lip stuck out in a pout.
“You’re as bad as they are,” she laughed, holding her belly. Carryl was eight months pregnant and their third child was hanging low and being very active this day. “Banana bread is fine for breakfast,” she said to the children, who giggled. “Joris, Sigrid, sit at the table, please. And as for you,” she smirked at her husband, “where are your shoes?”
He stood and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her on the forehead. “They bamboozled me before I could finish getting dressed.”
“Bamboozled? Are Corsairs allowed to be bamboozled, Captain Ynn?”
“Yes, Major Ynn, but only by their children. Ouch,” he said, as he felt a kick. “Feisty today.”
“I think she wants some banana bread.”
He pulled back slightly, his eyes wide. “She?”
Carryl stared back at him, white eyebrows arching above her yellow eyes. “Or he. Or they. Don’t worry, Darys, I didn’t check, it’s still going to be a surprise, like we agreed.”
Darys sighed with relief and smiled at her. “I’m sorry, it’s just— being sent TDY so close to your due date…I mean, I know better. I know you wouldn’t…I’m sorry, Carryl.” He hugged her, careful not to do so too tightly, and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. “I’m sorry,” he said again, his voice soft.
“Eew!” came a chorus of small voices, followed by giggles.
Darys rolled his eyes at his wife and turned to stalk over to the table, creeping over in an over dramatic pantomime fashion, like he was a monster on stage. “What do you mean eew?” he said in a gruff voice, hands over his head, eyes wide.
Both toddlers erupted into peals of laughter and clapping, with their father menacing them and stealing bites of their breakfast while tickling them. Their mother sliced more pieces of banana bread for the threesome and poured milk for the children and coffee for her husband, making tea for herself.
The Ynn family sat at breakfast, the twins talking about what they were looking forward to at pre-school that day, asking their father how long he would be deployed, their mother explaining that their aunt would be staying over to help take care of them.
A ringing of the doorbell coincided with the end of breakfast. Darys was doing the washing up, so Carryl answered the door to the flat.
“Aviel, come in!” She welcomed her warmly. “How nice of you to steal my husband,” she joked.
Aviel, Darys, and Carryl all served at the pleasure of Queen Mara Sov in the Reef’s Royal Armada. They were comrades and friends for decades. With her latest pregnancy, Carryl had taken to Reefside assignments and, as she drew closer to her due date, shifted to working from home.
“I would never think of it, sir,” Aviel replied, ever the professional. Her mentor, Paladin Abra Zire, had trained her and helped to raised her well. “I’m only here to make sure he treats you right.” She flashed her ocean blue eyes over to Darys and smirked.
The aforementioned blinked at her, the twins clambering on him. “I treat her like the princess she should be,” he declared, sticking his tongue out at her. The twins followed suit. He kissed the both of them, blowing raspberries on their cheeks. They tittered as he said, “Okay, I have to put my shoes on now.”
“Oh, for the love of Luna,” Aviel said, placing a hand to her forehead. “We’re going to be late. And I did not want to see your feet, either.”
“You should feel honored.” He rose from the table with one twin grabbing onto each leg. “Be back in a two shakes of a lamb’s tail.” He waddled off, carrying the children on his feet as he stomped off toward the master bedroom.
Carryl shook her head and turned to face Aviel. “You’re going to Amethyst, then?” she asked. It had been a while since she visited the colony.
Aviel nodded. “It should be straightforward,” she assured her friend. “I need people I can trust. Darys and his wing are experienced and I don’t have to think twice about him. I don’t have to tell you how important the Techeuns are.”
“No, you certainly don’t.” Carryl rubbed her stomach as she thought. “I hope this means that he’ll get a little more time off for volunteering for this mission? I could use the help…”
Aviel smiled gently and nodded. “Of course. He’ll get makeup time for this and more. You know we take care of our own. Besides, you’ve both worked hard for the Reef and for the Queen. Duty, devotion, and sacrifice are always rewarded.”
“Duty, devotion, and sacrifice,” Carryl echoed. “There was a time when it was believed those should be its own reward.”
“Reward? Is it payday already? I like money.” Darys was in full uniform, complete with shoes, carrying the twins in his arms now, balanced on either hip. They were again fresh faced and with their teeth once again brushed.
“When haven’t you liked money?” Aviel asked dryly.
Darys appeared to give her rhetorical question serious consideration. “Never.”
“Go before you’re late,” Carryl told him, walking over to give him a kiss. “Don’t make me order you.”
“Mmm, sir yes sir,” he grinned against her mouth, giving her a series of kisses to the twins’ chagrin. He then turned on them and gave kisses their faces before setting them down. “Be good little stars for your mother, won’t you?”
“We will!” they said in unison, hugging his legs.
“I love you,” he said to Carryl, giving her a final embrace and a tender, heartfelt kiss.
“I love you too,” she replied.
“And I love you,” he said to her belly, giving it a kiss. He walked over to Aviel and bumped her shoulder with his. “Ready to go starside, Captain?”
“Always, Captain.” She gave a nod to Carryl and told her, “We’ll be back soon. Don’t worry.”
They both walked to the front door, Darys giving a wave and a warm smile to his wife and children.
Hours later, the Silent Fang, a group belonging to the House of Wolves, attack the Awoken colony space station known as Amethyst. All inhabitants are murdered. All Corsairs, including Captain Aviel Tol, daughter of Corsair Imryll Tol and mentee of Paladin Abra Zaire, are killed in action.
Four years later, the severely battle damaged Gaillot of one Captain Darys Ynn finally makes its way to Earth after drifting through the system from the Raze of Amethyst. It crash lands in the European Dead Zone in an area near the Shard of the Traveler in the outskirts of the Dark Forest.
According to his ship’s logs Captain Ynn was alive, trapped in a barely functioning Gaillot with minimal life support for an undetermined portion of his bleak, solitary journey from the Reef.
Some centuries later a Ghost locates the body of an Awoken male and identifies it as one of the Traveler’s Chosen. Infused with the Light, the newly Risen Guardian becomes a Warlock, a Sunsinger of the Praxic Order, and takes the name Jonathan Martin Severin. And he, for reasons he and his fireteam mistakenly attribute to an accident in the Hellmouth, is absolutely terrified of being alone and in the dark.
@reefbcrn
2 notes
·
View notes
a protective hug
* hug prompts
For someone that complains about being stuck at the Tower so much, Cayde sure does get into a lot of trouble outside the City walls.
This time, he managed to sneak out into the EDZ with Aviel, who may as well be the designated Cayde smuggler at this point. It was fun, messing around out in the woods without a care in the world… until a band of Fallen found them. Naturally, Cayde saw no problem with this, but there was something different about these guys. And that’s that they were some mean sons of guns.
He drew the Ace, took out some dregs and some vandals, but they just kept coming from the trees. The captain was another story entirely. He drew a scorch cannon. A very big scorch cannon. Cayde thought to himself, well that’s not fair, and felt a bit jealous. He wanted a scorch cannon.
Now is not the time for such envy! There’s a fight going down, and it’s about to get spicy. The captain’s cannon starts to light up as it charges a shot, this gives only a split second of reaction time, but that’s somehow just enough for the Hunter Vanguard.
He lunges to the right with one broad dash of a step, practically falls against Aviel as he wraps his arms around her, and he sends them both falling aside, making sure Aviel isn’t hit by the blast.
Cayde, however, is. A sharp burning pain meets his leg, and it takes everything in him not to yell something awful. The two Guardians go tumbling into a ditch, but the Fallen don’t follow. Cayde, arms still secure around Aviel, lifts his head to look around, then back at the Titan. He whispers, “You okay?”
3 notes
·
View notes