* LIGHT THE DARK! !

“Hang on, I still need to add the topping.” Hurriedly, his metal hand reaches for a plastic can beside him and passes it to his other, less clumsy hand, so he can finally finish the edible artwork Jesse considered his life’s finest work. Just spray some whipped cream here, and let it stream down, like… like a fountain. Yeah.

“Now. Now you can make yer judgment, ma’am.”

You know, she almost considered not ruining Jesse’s work of art, but the whipped cream is the literal and figurative strawberry on top. No mercy, cowboy. Not before her coffee. If the slow grin revealing all  of her teeth wasn’t a clear warning of the storm to come... 

“Interesting!”

It’s way too chaotically chipper for someone who doesn’t like to be talked to before their second cup of coffee, and the unforgiving, satisfying CHOMP that decimates almost all of Dick Mountain afterwards just reaffirms that she’s not to be fucked with.

“Good morning!” Cue Jesse sticking a strawberry into a toothpick on top of multiple packages worth of store-bought waffles, neatly stacked and styled into a castle with a tower in the middle. Definitely not shaped like a dick. Though Jesse has a wide, proud smile on his face.

“Whatcha think? It’s my masterpiece.”

God damn it, she hasn’t even had her first cup of coffee. Hotaru doesn’t hesitate to pull up a chair though, giving the masterpiece a critical once over. “Huh. Well, d’ya really wanna know what I think, Jess?” Propping up her chin so she doesn’t fall asleep at the wheel, the omniborg makes a sweeping gesture to the absolute piece of art on the breakfast table. 

“C’mon, lemme critique it! Coffee’s not even done yet, so I got time to kill.” Also, you know, time to make Jesse regret every single life choice he’s made this morning...

@omniborg | liked for ZARYA

        “ стоп. You are not permitted in this area. ”

      Ah, shit. As much as she wanted to intercept Talon...... She turns around with her hands up, complying with the ( surprisingly loud ) order. “ ----Whoa, you’re ---- you’re ZARYA ! Wait, sorry --- “ Right, this is bad ---- she’s an omniborg in anti-omnic country and she's got a job to do.

“ I know I’m not permitted in this area, but hear me out before you zap me into oblivion: Chairwoman Volskaya is being targeted by Talon, and I came here to warn her.” At least her helmet and armor will withstand getting blasted in the face, right? ( Stars, she hopes she’s right. ) 

clutches my heart....... banana thats gay.........

          “    hotaru,  huh ?    that’s a cool name !    ”    and a familiar one,  at that.    sundance seems to know something he doesn’t,  but she doesn’t say.    and she won’t say for any reason he gives    —    it’s something he’s supposed to discover on his own.    and lumax ?    just looking at the other ghost nags at something in the back of his mind,  trying to tell him…

          something.    anything.    cayde stops himself from frowning:    he swears he knows why but he can’t seem to figure it out and it bothers him.    it’s already eating at him.

          cayde feels it natural enough to twirl the hand cannon in his hand,  but he fumbles and drops the poor thing on the ground,  not used to the imbalance of the weapon.    he eyes the gun on the ground for a moment.    stares.    he then grabs it and puts it into his holster.

          now if things would work for him for once,  that would be nice.

          “    uh,  sticking together sounds like a great idea right now.    because…    apparently i can’t go two steps without screwing up.    ”    he spares a glance at sundance,  who nods at him as if to agree with this decision,  as if almost encouraging him to follow this warlock.    the hunter grins.    “    some new gear would be nice.    i mean,  have you  SEEN  what i’m wearing ?    it’s what sunny came up with but uh,  not useful in many scenarios.    ”

          he hopes she can help,  and he also hopes that he’ll remember something soon.

          sundance tells him he will.    he just has to hope.

     her face feels stupidly warm ,   the exoborg emitting a tiny ,   flustered laugh before shaking her head in response.   “ thanks.   it means firefly ,   if i remember correctly. “     whoever cayde is ,  he’s familiar and..... different ,   if that makes sense.   it’s the eyes ,    she thinks ----- maybe his voice ,   too. 

      anything to explain why the light is practically buzzing in her veins the closer she gets to him. 

      her thoughts are interrupted by cayde trying--- and failing ---to twirl the old ,   rusted hand cannon ,   the act so stupidly endearing and childish to her that she’s unable to stop herself from the initial ,   short burst of laughter that escapes her scarred lips   “sorry, sorry --- !    it’s just --- that hand cannon really isn’t built for ya ,  huh ?  “ wiping a tear from her electric blue eyes ,   she cracks a bright smile over to the kinderguardian before stepping over to pat his shoulder... 

       ..... except now ,   she has to crane her neck to make eye contact and the shoulder - touch is kinda awkward.     “ don’t worry ,   we’ll get ya squared away in no time.   first order of business is fighting our way back to the farm ,   yeah ?    it may take a few days by sparrow if we’re lucky ,   but hey  ---   it shouldn’t be that horrible....  “ 

      it  doesn’t  take  long  for  her  laughter  to  slowly  fade  ,   brows knitting together as the nagging in the back of her head gets stronger the longer she looks into those weirdly familiar eyes.   the thought of quitting while she’s ahead briefly crosses her mind as hotaru shifts to her toes ,  trying to stave off a far - too - familiar neck  ache  as she tries to get a better look at him.

     “ --- sorry ,  my neck’s actually starting to hurt.   um -----”     flustered ,   the exoborg finally has to duck her head ,   cheeks glowing a bright pink as star-studded freckles threaten to give away how needlessly stupid she feels.    “ ---- sorry again ---- i think that psion may have blasted somethin’ loose ,   t’have me acting like i have no manners an’ all !  ”   another far too nervous laugh ,   before she buries her glowing face in her too-big cloak.  ( it hurts to think about how cayde had it made for her birthday sometimes... other times , it’s like he’s still with her. )

    “ ... it’s just..... y’seem kinda familiar ,  and.. an’ i don’t know why. ” 

    shaking her head as if to get rid of whatever childish ,  hopeful fantasy was running rampant through her head ,    hotaru turns to lumax and gets her sparrow transmatted.   “ anyways ,   ah---- let’s get you to th’farm ,   yeah  ? ” the warlock wastes no time in hopping on, before gesturing to the space behind her.    

   “  well ?   what are ya waitin’ for ?   any guardian worth their light should learn how t’shoot off the back of a sparrow  ! ”    she beams at the kinderguardian briefly ,   before her helmet obscures her face once more. 

          ah,  dammit !    he was talking,  and then she halted,  and then that psion shot her and he didn’t have enough time to react before—    he watches the psion fall to the ground and the exo turn,  only to show she…    wasn’t actually an exo ?

          there’s something so familiar about that,  the whole  “    pretending to be an exo while actually hiding the true identity    ”.    but it makes no sense !    he was just rezzed,  he didn’t know about anyone since he got here,  so to think he may have some understanding of who this really was…    it was absurd.    but…    well,  he can keep a secret.

          he’s good at that,  he feels.

          “    guess that’s where my owed one goes to then !    deal.    ”    he grins.    he finds he is being oddly charismatic,  but he has a feeling that he’s always been that way,  and has always been a bit of a charmer to those he finds good and nice.    he soon extends a hand in hopes of a handshake from the not - exo.    “    name’s cayde !    and this is my ghost,  sundance,  who…    well,  she’s pretty mysterious for a ghost.    ha,  guess that’s why they call ‘em that !    ”

          the hand cannon in his other hand feels…    comfortable,  mostly,  but it was too weighted on one end,  and the grip is almost worn right down to the point it feels like the gun will slip from his hand in an instant.    he feels like he should have something a bit lighter,  something that compliments him with that little extra…    flare ?    no,  flair.

          though,  if the bullets could set people on fire,  that would be cool too.

          “    and what’s your name ?    ”

   she regards his hand with a certain degree of suspicion,      squinting at him first, then his ghost ----     sundance.      cayde.    once is a coincidence,     but twice.....      twice is a pattern.     but the traveler is a far cry from the benevolent  light   -   mother  she believed it to be....

  despite that ,    she allows herself to hope ,    a smile slowly creeping on her face despite her best intentions as she extends a worn ,   more robotic hand for a good shake .    “   well, usually it’d be polaris-1 ,    but that cat’s out of the bag, so...   ”    a tiny laugh,   and  she’s  already  allowing herself to feel a little more at ease than normal.   something about this kinderguardian was strangely familiar,   but she couldn’t let herself chase that particular rabbit right now.

   “    you can call me hotaru.   most people don’t know i exist ,    though ,   so  ----    keep that to yourself ,   ‘kay ?     oh  ----   an’ this is my ghost, lumax  !  “      lumax pops out from underneath her hood, a sleepy chirp escaping the little ghost.    < nice t’meet ya both !   can i go back to my nap now ?   >

   why is she still smiling ?     maybe because this all feels horribly familiar,   or maybe because she hasn’t let go of the kinderguardian  ---  cayde’s   --- hand yet.    flustered,    the exoborg finally lets go,   blowing a pale lavender strand of hair from her eyes as her hood slips off the back of her head. 

   “     cayde, right  ?   how about we stick together,    and i’ll help you find some gear,   okay ?   ”     lumax blinks, seemingly awake now and running intensive calculations...  before she sees sundance.    hotaru doesn’t seem to notice ,   patting lumax to get her attention before smiling with all of her teeth at cayde.   he’s not the same cayde.  she’s not that lucky.   the light isn’t that kind----

                             “ well ?    are ya coming or what ?   “

“Anyone else stare at the security camera like they’re in that one show– whatsitcalled– The Office?”

alright guys, i’m turning myself into the protest fairy right now because let’s be honest: this new update is bullshit and also endangering the lives of sex workers on the international day to end violence AGAINST sex workers. real funny how coincidental that is, huh.

luckily, some beautiful humans came up with the best idea to hit this hellsite where it hurts, so we’re gonna protest by hitting tumblr in their wallets. by logging out of the app and the website and NOT ACCESSING EITHER, this causes a dip in ad revenue, aka how this garbage barge stays afloat.

“but shelly,” many of my non american followers might say, “how do I know what time to log off! i’m not in the garbage fire formerly known as america, and tumblr is!”

well sit back and hold onto your butts, because that’s why this post is here. to be safe, i propose we log off and stop our queues on 12am EST, also known as UTC/GMT -5 hours. tumblr HQ is in new york, and since we don’t know when their bad decision is going to be made a reality, log off before 12am EST. that’s midnight, 00:00 hours, what have you. don’t know when that is for you? i got you!  here’s a time converter i googled! all you gotta do is plug in your city or time zone  and boom, you got your time to log off.

feel free to reblog this --- but remember, you need to make noise on other platforms. bother tumblr staff on twitter! make their bad decision trend! go on any social media site tumblr is and annoy the fuck out of them. 

here’s their facebook. here’s their twitter. here’s their instagram. here’s their snapchat ( that i have no idea WHY they have ). here’s their linkedin ( just to cover my bases. ) here’s their youtube.