Foreword: I've been especially active in the r/DestinyJournals subreddit as of late, and began writing a number of different shorts. I'm going to start re-posting them here.
TYPE: Transcription
DESCRIPTION: Conversation between persons of interest
PARTIES: Two [2]. One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter [u.1]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Wahei Ohr [WO] (POI #0247)
ASSOCIATIONS: Darkness; Hive; Mahal, Aunor; Malphur, Shin; Ohr, Wahei; Praxic Archives; Praxic Order; Thorn; Traitor's Die; Umbranomicon; WoS; Yor, Dredgen; Yor, Shadows of
//AUDIO UNAVAILABLE//
//TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS...//
[sounds of pages turning, scratching on paper]
[WO] I'm so close. I must be. I MUST be. [pause] I have to be.
[sound of waxen clattering]
[WO] [grunts] Not so encouraging.
[sound of footsteps approaching, creaking of leather]
[u.1] I thought I might find you out here.
[sound of scratching on paper]
[WO] How did you find me?
[u.1] Hunter. People seem to forget what that word means.
[WO] I took pains to keep my trail obscured.
[u.1] You did. But hunting people like you is what I do.
[WO] Then how come I am still alive?
[u.1] I don't shoot people in the back.
[WO] I see. And you still haven't answered my question.
[pause]
[u.1] You know why I'm here.
[WO] No. I don't.
[u.1] No?
[WO] We've all heard the stories. You stalk your prey. You confront them. There's a heated exchange. And then you walk away, and there is one less Light in the universe.
[u.1] Calling the people I've hunted "Lights" is stretching the definition.
[WO] Don't misunderstand me. I agree they needed to be stopped.
[u.1] DO you understand? You know what caused the people I've hunted to become my prey. You're walking down that same path.
[WO] Ah, well, there we must disagree. I am not walking the same path.
[u.1] Aren't you?
[WO] I am not crafting Weapons of Sorrow.
[u.1] You built that rifle with Eris Morn.
[WO] A necessary thing. The ravenous heart of a dead king, left unchecked, could have allowed the Hive to be reborn. Shackled now to the frame of a gun, it cannot feed if it is not wielded.
[u.1] And now that gun is missing.
[WO] Not all that is missing is lost.
[u.1] Then where is it?
[WO] Safe.
[u.1] Tell me where it is.
[WO] I never tell secrets.
[u.1] Keeping secrets makes it hard for people to trust you.
[WO] Indeed. And how many secrets do you have, Shin Malphur?
[pause]
[u.1] This is not about me.
[WO] Pardon my Ulurant, but that's a load of [EXPLETIVE DELETED].
[u.1] Excuse me?
[pause]
[WO] Will you permit me a moment of reflection?
[u.1] Making your peace, Warlock?
[WO] Oh, I'm not reflecting about myself. I'm reflecting about you.
[u.1] Me?
[WO] You. The Hunter of Shadows. The lone gunman who holds himself above all other Lightbearers. Do you know, the only reason the Praxic Order doesn't come after you is because the only Guardians you kill are ones that have gone to the Dark?
[u.1] I've dealt with their Order before. We know where we stand.
[WO] Do you? You're almost as bad as Aunor Mahal when it comes to hunting Dark-delvers.
[u.1] You know nothing of my calling.
[WO] Perhaps I am curious. Perhaps not. I think you've walked on the sword's edge a little too long. Darkness conceals more than we suspect. The Light can blind us just as much.
[u.1] That's dangerous thinking. I've seen where it leads.
[WO] Yes, yes, we've all heard the story of the "Showdown at Dwindler's Ridge." Anyone who bears the name of Dredgen walks the worlds while looking over their shoulder, worried that the Man with the Golden Gun is on their trail.
[u.1] Don't get so flippant, Warlock.
[WO] I'm just talking. You and I are more alike than you know. No, listen-- we both want to protect the people. Whether they're in the City or not. Am I wrong?
[u.1] [pause] You're not wrong.
[WO] Like the Praxics, you want to do it by protecting people from the Dark and those who would delve into it. Watching for signs of corruption and taking action where necessary.
[u.1] The Praxics tend to put too much trust in their ability to rehabilitate people. I've seen what a taste of the Dark's power can do to a person. If someone develops a cancer, sometimes you have to cut it out, rather than treat it and hope it doesn't metastasize.
[WO] I'm not disagreeing with you. But while you protect the people from threats from within, I'm trying to protect them from without. Fallen, Hive, Cabal, Vex... they're dangers, but they pale in comparison to what's coming. And if we're to protect everyone from that, we must know what we're facing.
[u.1] So let Eris Morn camp in that cradle on Io--
[WO] Eris is just one woman! One woman trying to fathom the understandings of an entity so far beyond our scope that we couldn't begin to comprehend how outclassed we are. All that, while also trying to unravel the machinations of an eons-old trickster queen who obfuscates nearly everything she touches.
[u.1] Then why aren't you there helping her?
[WO] If you're standing next to someone, then you just end up seeing the same things they do. In order to achieve proper insight, one must see it from a different point of perspective.
[u.1] And you're doing that by studying the words of a crazed Warlock like Toland? From a book that was justifiably banned and locked away?
[WO] [sighs] Again and again, the book is the problem with everyone. Honestly.
[u.1] Yes. Toland's studies of the Hive and the Darkness drove him mad.
[WO] If madness is the price of salvation, then it is a price I am willing to pay.
[u.1] You're walking too close to the line, Warlock.
[WO] If the Light is so bright as to be blinding us from the truth--
[u.1] You can't trust what you read in that book! Toland was insane!
[WO] --but the Darkness can distort and obscure the truth by its very nature--
[u.1] I've had enough of this--
[WO] --then I will seek any knowledge I can in the hopes of saving us all from what's to come.
[u.1]
Draw your weapon. I won't shoot an unarmed woman--
[WO] I do not walk the hated path of sorrow. But my path runs parallel, along twilit roads.
[u.1] Draw your weapon!
[WO] And I will let nothing-- be they Vanguard or Praxic, Dredgen or Renegade, Light or Dark-- stop me.
[u.1] Goddammit--
[sound of leather creaking, hammer cocking]
[WO] You planning to shoot me in the back, Hunter?
[u.1] Turn around--
[a rush of static as the feed distorts from paracausal radiation]
[u.1] You--
[sound of static persists, sudden movement, Golden Gun activating, firing once]
[u.1] Hold--
[sound of static persists, sudden movement, Golden Gun firing once]
[u.1] --still--
[sound of static persists, sudden movement, Golden Gun firing again]
[u.1] --damn--
[sound of static increases to a roar, sudden movement, Golden Gun firing again, hammer cocking]
[u.1] --witch!
[WO] Say what you mean.
[u.1] No one outdraws me.
[WO] Didn't. I just wasn't standing there when you did.
[sound of static fades back to a fizzle]
[u.1] Always wondered how I'd go out...
[WO] Don't be dramatic.
[sound of hammer uncocking]
[u.1] What are you doing?
[WO] I told you. I do not walk that path. I am not a Dredgen.
[pause]
[WO] You don't trust me.
[u.1] It's hard for me to trust anyone who broke into the Praxic Archives to steal that book.
[WO] Just as well it wasn't me that broke in.
[u.1] If a Dredgen kills another Guardian dead, I blame the Dredgen, not the Thorn that fired the bullet.
[WO] Fair enough. But again, I am not a Dredgen.
[sound of movement, thump of a book closing, rustling]
[pause]
[sound of a hammer cocking]
[u.1] I could just shoot you now. Call up the fire again, leave nothing but a smear on the rocks.
[WO] You'd shoot me in the back?
[u.1] No one will know the truth.
[WO] Ah. So is this where you will cross that line, then?
[silence]
[u.1] There won't be a place in the universe you can hide from me.
[WO] I know.
[u.1] If I see you've gone too far past that line, then I will bring every mote of Light to bear on you and send you into the hereafter.
[WO] If I've gone too far past the line, then I beg you to do so.
[silence]
[the feed distorts with static from paracausal radiation]
[WO] There are other delvers for you to find that are a more immediate threat than me. I would recommend looking on the Shore, in the jetsam of Saturn.
[u.1] [grunts] Don't think this absolves you, Warlock.
[WO] I am not seeking absolution, Hunter. I seek knowledge. Insight. Salvation.
[the feed clears]
[u.1] [grunts] There are some things even Voidwalkers aren't meant to know, Wahei Ohr.
No comments:
Post a Comment