There’s only so many times you can be thanked by a grateful mother or see the closely held tears of joy roll down the face a father finally able to let down his guard upon reaching the walls of The City before your doubts and misgivings and anger at the sleeping god that did not help during your City’s time of great need is chipped away.

When that happens, it leaves you raw and hurting. So much more so than when you could harden your anger and shut out the world. That small sense of hope that shines out from beneath your scarred emotions is so dazzlingly brilliant in the way it can drive away the darkness in your soul, and so devastating in the way it exposes your own misjudgments and regrets to further repeated contemplation.

Staring out across the dark, nighttime water at the edge of The Farm was the best way Tesni Jarmila had yet found to soothe that hopeful pain. The lapping of the waves and gentle reflections of other nearby settlements helped remind her of her greatest accomplishment. And of her most meaningful death.

After the Red War she’d tried running away, but had found that it just was not in her nature. So, each day she helps secure the paths to The Last Safe City. And each free night, she returns to The Farm to stare out across the water as she lets it slowly smooth away the jagged edges of her spirit.

(Click To Embiggen)

My family of guardians never see each other in the light of day--at least not in the spaces visible to the public. Despite their love for each other they wouldn't have it any other way. For one, it makes things easier--there's still a bit of stigma attached to awoken-human romantic entanglements. These first four pics focus on the patriarch of the family, who is probably the most comfortable of the three being alone.

The farm is not that busy these days. He watches the young recruits scurrying about below and once in a while cracks a smile.

The lower catwalks of the Tower are always quiet, and are not a bad place to take in the vista of what you're defending.

Before the factions arrived, this was a nice spot to get away from the chatter.

But this is his favorite spot for meditation.

His wife, on the other hand, when she really wants to get away, finds a Vex portal back to the Tower of old.

At least a few more to come!

Tacy, the Warlock with no voice, spends her down time helping the civilians of the Tower mend the damage caused by the Red Legion. Her Ghost Laila is ever at her side when there is tinkering to be done.

As one of the very few Guardians found after the Red War, its toll and impact don’t have the same hold on her as on some other Guardians. The distance this has placed between herself and other Guardians is seen by Tacy as something between helpful and relieving. Like her Ghost, Tacy would rather spend time with run down Golden Age machines than emotional Guardians most any day.

I need some time with feline friends.

The first spot that captured my heart in D2

I ..uhh.. I mean my Guardian.. finds respite in sitting by the waters edge at night watching the ships fly in and out and admiring the way the moonlight reflects on the calm waters.

Another favorite hideway (or at least it was 'till Xur starting showing up in the area from time-to-time, attracting a crowd..), an area my Guardian has named "Sunset Grove" for the foliage on the trees here always holds the the fiery shades of orange and red reminiscent of the sun when it's low on the horizon.

Surrounded by trees, a beautiful view of the distant mountains and lake below, what could be more relaxing?. Small patrols of Fallen and Cabal still frequent the area, but with her Hunter's stealth she can easily get to this spot unseen if she wants to escape the fight for awhile.

The cathedral at Trostland ..a place that will always be deeply sentimental to my Hunter, for many reasons including that she came here in a dream the day her ghost found her and she became a Guardian.

Raga: I want to amend a prior suggestion I made for a theme idea, "Botanical", and update it to maybe "Flora and Fauna"? While there is a plethora of plant life on the planets to admire, I know there isn't a lot in the way of critters roaming most of the planets ..but.. there is a very skittish critter I am really curious if anyone else here has noticed.

Just chilling in the past with my friend, the Traveler.

I promised a few more, and I know last week is over, but here you go.

If you were to see my couple together in public, it would be in the shadows, but it will still be extremely rare.

A quiet in moment in breitzen's office.

My teenage rebel, the robotic adopted wild chid spies a moon.

She dreams of electric candy.

Welcome to Week 4 of Apertureing Destiny! Last week’s topic was a big success, mainly in that New Monarchy again won the Faction Rally. :p This week, we’re gonna try a guest topic! Fail to participate this time and our guest topic suggestor, Dame117, will want to have a word with you.

This week’s topic is: Hideaway. Share a photo or video of the spot your Guardian goes to get away from it all in Destiny 2.

The car is on fire, and there's no driver at the wheel.
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides,
And a dark wind blows.

The skyline was beautiful on fire.
All twisted metal stretching upwards,
Everything washed in a thin orange haze.

We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine,
And the machine is bleeding to death.

We woke up one morning and fell a little further down
For sure it's the valley of Death.
I open up my wallet
And it's full of blood.

We were inseparable since childhood. Syerren and me.

We would play Guardians; running around on invisible floating speeders, exploring the ruins of the old church in the center of town, and always sneaking off from home to find places to hide. Of course, this was all inspired by the incredible stories of the real heroes, blessed by the Traveler's light. All the impossible odds that they thwarted, one after another, seemingly effortlessly! Syerren wanted to be a Guardian with all her heart. I wasn't entirely excited by the prospect of limitless danger, but I tagged along regardless—anything to spend more time with her, of course.

As we started to grow into our adolescent years, she studied the Light and Guardianship through all her waking hours. We were too old to play now, but we still would visit our favorite hiding places; we did so mostly to admire the scenery of the nature around us. Their quiet hidden locations were perfect to talk together, to catch up on studies, or even to just relax and drift off to a warm nap.

One afternoon, Syerren had called me excitedly and demanded I meet her in the Outskirts, past the city limits. I remember my shoes getting wet walking through the swampy area looking for her.

"Morexis! Down here!!"

Looking around, I finally noticed her, sunken down in a cavernous hole and grinning from ear to ear.

"How did you find this hole?"

"I was looking for a dead ghost so maybe I could fix it and have him make me a Guardian, and I almost slipped in here!"

I couldn't help but laugh at her attempt. "Still battling your looting addic--"

She cut me off, too hyperactive to remain interested; "Never mind that, come down here! It's incredible!"
Carefully climbing down into the cavern, Syerren escorted me into a dark corner. As we turned past the next wall, my jaw dropped.

Above us were hundreds of blue specks of some strange liquid, seemingly melded with the cave surfaces. The ceiling, the walls and even under my waterlogged boots. What was breathtaking was that all of the specks of liquid were aglow, casting a beautiful visage of millions of stars, illuminating the entire cave from the inside. We walked to a small elevated shelf above the water, and we both sat down, silently awestruck by the near-magical scene set in front of us. We both immediately agreed to nickname this place Night Sky, as the chill from the rest of the underground added even more ambience to this perfect hidden corner of the world. It remained a special place to us for months.

I was thirteen, and Syerren fifteen...when the tides of the war started changing.
The Fallen were hitting closer to home. News reports were everywhere; How a Fallen Archon and an entire army breached defenses at Bannerfall. The SIVA transformations, destroying an entire section of the Wall keeping darkness and evil out of Old Russia. Most of the adults I heard were clamoring about how it was only a matter of time before they came here. A few days later I received a shaky voiced message. From Syerren.

She told me to meet her under the Night Sky.

I don't think I ever rushed so urgently in my life. At that point, I thought I could actually outrun a Sparrow—A real one. When I got there, Syerren was sobbing uncontrollably.

When I asked her what was wrong, she shattered my world with just two words:

"We're leaving."

She stammered out how her mother was terrified that the war would come to them, and that she was taking the family somewhere far away, and that they wouldn't be coming back. I was wracked with heartbreak, and the sudden dragging feeling that this would be the last time we saw each other ever again. I hugged her, trying to stay strong, but my resolve faltered quickly.

When I pulled away, she wasn't shuddering anymore, but the tears still rolled freshly down her face.

"I don't want to go...", Syerren whispered to me.

"I don't want to lose you either!" I whimpered, loosing a few tears of my own. She took a deep wavering breath, and I stopped her. "Listen, listen--we can figure something out. Talk to your parents and I'll talk to mine. Maybe we can take you all in, change your minds, something! Something to..."

I trailed off and sniffed, the inevitability setting in. She must have known by the look in my eyes, as fresh tears emerged. I placed my hands on her shoulders and shushed, trying to calm her down. We pressed our foreheads together. I kissed the tears on each cheek away, noting the salty filmy taste. She looked up at me, and her eyes widened, a spark of realization painting her face. I knew it was that emotion, because I shared the same expression on my own.

There aren't anywhere near as many lights now as there were back then. They seemed to glow brighter, too. Or maybe it's just my tired eyes.

Syerren and her mother had packed everything up and left only a few days after. We stayed in contact with each other for weeks. I almost seemed to know before she did. I hoped and hoped that it wouldn't happened, but my wishes went unanswered. They were right; at least partially. SIVA and the Splicer cult were just a distraction. The Cabal attacked the entire planet soon after. Syerren's relocated town were hit at some point after the Tower fell, and the Traveler was drained uselessly. Thanks to a strange polka-dotted lady who fully knew the run of the land, Guardians—real Guardians flocked here, to train themselves and defend the city. She would've been thrilled. In a sense of irony, they could have stayed and would more than likely have survived.

It was her everlasting lifelong dream to become a Guardian. But things changed. And now, I have become a Guardian for her.

For you.

With all my love,

Morexis the Herald