Well fellow Guardians, it looks like my adventure is coming to a premature close as I can no longer play Destiny with the lot of you because of unfortunate circumstances. It seems that Destiny is no longer allowed in the household.
After finally downloading the beta, setting up my exo hunter and jumping into the game for a few hours, I was met with a powerful urge to use the bathroom after sitting for so long in my room, exploring Old Russia and beating the Devil's Layer (twice!). I knew that it would just be a quick trip across the hall to the bathroom, so I left the game running and didn't think to lock my door as I left my bedroom, the first mistake in a series of terrible tragedies.
So, there I was just doing my business in the bathroom, eagerly thinking about what I was going to do next in game. Maybe I would go into the Crucible and try out some of my sharpshooting skills on my trusty sniper, or maybe I'd message one of my friends to see if he had finished the Beta download yet. The Beta had been great so far, and playing it with my friend would have made it 1000X better if my mother hadn't suddenly yelled from behind the bathroom door, "WHAT IS THIS!"
Now, to give some context to my mother's attitude towards video games, let's just say that she thought Pokemon was a morally questionable game as it had you capture "little raving monsters" into "confining prisons" only to let them out for "bloodthirsty battles that make dogfights look tame". To sum it up, she was against video games for the most part and only allowed certain ones in the house, and that was on very rare occasions. The only reason we got a PS3 was for Little Big Planet as she thought it was cute enough to not be that harmful to my development. So as you can guess, when my mother walked into my room looking for me and was greeted by the sight of a large machine gun pointed at the remains of a Fallen Dreg, you can figure out how she reacted.
"WHAT IS THIS!"
Quickly washing my hands and exiting the bathroom, I saw my mom standing in my room looking at the TV screen and then turning to me with a pretty angry look on her face. I thought about running just to escape the lecture I knew was coming, but her angry eyes held me there like a butterfly pinned under glass.
"Is [i]THIS[/i] what you've been doing in here? Playing this [b]AWFUL[/b] game for the past few hours!?"
I told her that I was and that it was the first day of Beta. I tried to explain to her that it was a really fun game with not a lot of graphic violence, and that even though it had guns in it, it really wasn't that bad. Of course body on the screen didn't help, but I had to try something to stop her from freaking out even more. I even tried calming her down by saying that it was free to download, but that certainly didn't help as she suddenly thought that thousands of horribly violent games were readily available on "that gamestation" for free and she started questioning me if I had downloaded anything else of a suspicious nature.
After her lecturing me about online pornography, how violent video games make you a violent person and how I was still young and impressionable from every form of media, she ended the talk by saying, "Just wait till your father hears about this." And wouldn't you know it before she left the room, she walked over to where my playstation was, unplugged it with a forceful jerk and walked right past me into the hallway, holding the playstation like it was an old, dirty rag in need of disposal. I don't know if I can even describe how sad and broken I felt in that moment.
When my dad came home a few hours later I wasn't sure what to expect. Whenever he talks to me, it always seems to be in a more professional manner than a fatherly manner. Maybe it's just how he was raised, but I know that I will never see my father as a close, warm friend. When he came inside the house he smiled and hugged my mom, but as soon as he saw me, his face calmed and turned into a silent stare. I knew he was angry at me, and that silent stare brought more terror into me than any yelling could ever do. He set his work things down and calmly walked into the kitchen to sit in his chair at the small wooden table we had from years before. It was his silent signal for me to come sit down and talk with him about what had happened earlier. My father sat there with his back to me, just simply reading the newspaper as I approached the table. He didn't say anything to me when I sat down next to him and he just waited a couple of minuets before speaking.
"So, how'd your day go?"
I told him it was good. That was all. I knew he wouldn't ask the question right away.
"Your mom called me earlier today, she asked how work was going, you know how she is, and if we would be able to take a trip up north later this year. I think that if scheduling goes right, and your grandparents are available, then we should be able to go sometime in mid-August. What do you think?"
I said it was fine. The trip would be fun.
"I think it will be quite enjoyable too." He paused for a moment.
"Your mother also told me that you and your friend Ashton were planning on playing a game today. Something called Destiny?"
I nodded, knowing what was coming.
"And it's a video game?"
More nodding.
"I see."
"Now you know how we feel about video games, correct? And you [i]especially[/i] know how we feel about violent ones, right?"
I don't even move my head, I just look down at the floor.
"I know you do. Now while I was at work, I took some time to research this game of yours and you know what interesting things I found out? It is indeed a violent, shooting video game. Now what made you think that it was okay for you to play that without first asking us? I know that you are growing up, but there are very concrete rules that everyone in this household must abide by, and while you are still living here, you must follow them."
My eyes are closed tight, my face still towards the floor.
"Another interesting thing I found out was that there are very specific looking monsters in this game, I believe that they were called the Fallen and the Hive, that resemble very dark beings, almost demons if you will. Is that really the type of game I want my son to play? I don't think so."
"Along those same lines, I found in the game that there's something called a Devil Walker?"
My young brain can only come up with one thought amidst the pain, "Shit."
"Now I'm not sure if you already knew about this so called Devil Walker in the game, and if you did you would definitely know the consequences, but amongst everything else that's wrong with that game called Destiny, that is the one thing that we cannot tolerate whatsoever. I believe I made it perfectly clear when you were young that anything pertaining to the Devil is not allowed in this household. [b]Nothing[/b] at all."
It was the final nail in the coffin. A warm stinging starts to fill my eyes.
"So as you can see, that game of yours violates one of the most fundamental rules I have laid down, and action must be taken to remedy this violation. You will delete any trace of that game from this house and you will have restricted access to the playstation, do you understand?"
A single grieving nod.
"Furthermore, you will start attending biblical school more often as you have obviously strayed from your teachings by disobeying your father and you mother. These are the consequences for your actions. You're dismissed."
I wiped the tears from my face and got up from the table. I could barely see through the layer of saline in my eyes as I walked down the hallway to my room. With the broken hopes and dreams of a wonderful gaming experience, I cried myself to sleep thinking about the lost game that I'll never play and the fact that I fu[i]c[/i]king hate bible school.
English
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"This account has not played destiny" ._.