As some of you know, I play quite a lot of the video game Destiny on Playstation 4. The basic idea of the game is that there is this large, spherical technology called the Traveler that travels through space and terraforms worlds into more advanced societies, makes planets typically unlivable habitable, and brings more enlightened feelings to the society under its gaze.

It came to Mars, Venus, and Earth, making all better and for the former two, able to be colonized. This was the Golden Age of discovery and learning, humans’ lives were extended, and other races such as the Awoken and Exo came to exist beside humans.

Then a collapse occurred. The details of this collapse are poorly documented, and we are not sure what caused it, but at this time the Traveler falls silent, and sends out small pieces of “light” called Ghosts, that are apparently tasked with traveling the cosmos to find and revive individuals of great strength and perseverance. The initial people to be raised from the dead became warlords who used their power to lord over people, but then the good triumphed and those risen became Guardians – of the light, of humanity, of good.

There are 3 kinds of guardians: Titans, Warlocks, and Hunters. Titans are the defenders and those at the front lines in the face of conflict. Warlocks value knowledge and learning and want to inform their attacks with deep understanding of their enemy. Hunters desire stealth, quickness, and precision kills. These can be human, Awoken, or Exo – the three races of the game.

So we go out and we fight “the Darkness” which manifests in the motivations of the different enemy races of the game. The scavenging Fallen, the mysterious Hive, the time-manipulating Vex, and the monstrous destructive Cabal.  All four have their own pasts and their own motivations for pursuing the Traveler and being our enemies, all you need to know is that the Fallen are the easiest, the Vex are the most difficult, and they are all fun to shoot.

I love this game for so many reasons. It makes me feel like I am good at something. It allows me to be a leader and a teacher for other players that I play with online. It allows me the space to imagine that I could be a consciousness inside a robot who is immortal and exists to protect and defend and murder evil in all its forms. Some nights if I play too late I have dreams about being able to fly and form fireballs with my fists and leading a team to victory over some weirdo alien. My brain drinks up the lore, the story, the armor, the legends, all of it to combat the fucking insane dumpster fire reality that is now. It even makes me dream that I might wield some kind of weapon against it.

Books and video games for me. How do you escape and refuel?