I wrote this last year around Thanksgiving for my creative writing class. This depicts six guardians trying to set up a Thanksgiving dinner, and things don't really go the way it was planned.
It was early in the morning; the sun was just barely peeking above the mountains of Russia. The plaza was empty, save for a few of the vendors, who were setting up shop for the day to come. All the Guardians were still asleep, tucked up in their dorms. Some were savoring the day off they had, while others were grumpily changing into their armor, getting ready for the day ahead of them.
The hallways of the dorms were quiet, even in the Hunter dorms. It seemed like everybody was sound asleep. One particular Guardian was sleeping hard. His body was practically as still as a mouse. The human didn't even stir when his door was pushed open.
"HEYYY! BLACKWOOD! WAKE UP!" The warlock let out a yelp at the voice that screamed in his ear. His mattress was picked up, and the human went tumbling out of his bed and onto the wooden floors. The titan groaned at the pain that shot through his body as he tried to sit up, the light burning his eyes as he tried to open them. He forced his eyes open, spotting another warlock in front of him. He was dressed, but not in his usual robes. Instead, he was wearing a plain white T-shirt, blue jeans, and some lace-up sneakers. His dirty blonde hair appeared to be freshly combed, and a bright smile decorated his face.
"Dammit, Shawn…" The man on the floor grumbled as he struggled to his feet. "It's six in the morning. And we don't have duties today. So just let me sleep in." The warlock reached to the side to grab ahold of his blanket and started to pull it over him, when the other man grabbed ahold of his wrist, stopping him.
"Nope. Because today is a special day. You know what today is?" He asked with a broad grin on his face.
"Is it the day where you leave me alone to sleep in peace?" He asked with a bitter tone in his voice.
"Nope! Today is Thanksgiving! The day when the Pilgrims from England came to America and had a grand feast to bless the harvest," he exclaimed, clapping his hands excitedly.
"Thanks-what now?" The man on the floor asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes.
"What's going on?" A robotic head poked around the corner, gazing into the dorm room with curiosity. "Is there a party that I'm missing out on here?" The Exo's yellow optics flashed brightly as he saw the two men. "Hi Kavan, Hi Shawn."
"Matt, Kavan doesn't know what Thanksgiving is! Can you believe that?" Shawn exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.
"Uh… Pardon?" Matt asked as he stepped into the room, tilting his head to the side a little. "Thanksgiving? What's that?"
Shawn looked at the two Warlocks in disbelief. "You mean to tell me that neither of you knows what Thanksgiving is?"
"Uh no," Kavan grumbled as he stood up, walking over to his closet to get dressed. "How do you remember? Last time I checked, we aren't supposed to remember anything about our past lives other than little flashes and our names."
"I don't know how I know what Thanksgiving is, but it's a big feast of food! Kinda like the Dawning, but no gift giving and more food." Shawn explained as he hopped onto the bed. "We should do it though. We should make our own Thanksgiving."
"But how?" Kavan asked as he pulled his shoes on. "We don't know anything about Thanksgiving or what to do."
"Oh don't worry! I'll teach you all! But first, we gotta wake the others." Shawn said as he skipped out of the hallway. "I'll get Valanna. Matt, you wake up Poetry and Kavan you get Nara." With that, Shawn disappeared down the hall towards the Girls Dorms.
"I'm not waking up Poetry. She'd tear out my wires." Matt said a bit bitterly.
"I'll get Nara. Then you can have her help you wake up Poetry." Kavan said, shoving his hands in his pockets and walking towards the Girls Dorms.
"Alright, soldiers! You know why you were dragged out of bed this morning! This is of utmost importance."
"What's so important that you had to wake us up at six in the morning for?" Poetry asked, her yellow optics flaring brightly as she stared at Matt.
"Ughhh… Sleep calls me…" Valanna whined, leaning up against Poetry, who shoved her off into Matt next to her. "You're a cruel person."
"Quiet soldier."
"Oh my god, Shawn just stop treating this like it's a military drill and just get on with it before I punch you."
"Alright, alright. I woke you all up today because it's Thanksgiving, and we're going to have our own little Thanksgiving ourselves and go into turkey comas!"
Silence fell over the six Guardians. The three girls standing in front of Shawn all looked at each other with confused looks. "Uhh… What's Thanksgiving?" Nara finally asked, breaking the silence
"Seriously? How come NONE of you know what Thanksgiving is?"
"Maybe because we all don't care about holidays that were around during the Golden Age." Poetry said bitterly.
"Uh, technically Crimson Days, The Dawning and the Festival of the Lost are based on Valentines Day, Christmas and Halloween from the Golden Age." Kavan pointed out.
"My point exactly. Maybe because I don't care about holidays that were from the Golden Age. They were back in the 21st century… This is 3417. The only holiday I care about is the holiday celebrating Twilight Gap."
"Okay, moving on now. We're going to put together a Thanksgiving dinner." Shawn explained. "We're going to have turkey, potatoes, cranberries, and everything else a proper Thanksgiving dinner has!"
"No, not "moving on." I want to know exactly why this was so important for you to drag me out of my damn bed at 6 o'clock in the morning!" Poetry yelled, the yellow color of her robotic eyes slowly starting to turn a crimson red to match her body's paint job.
"Because Thanksgiving is a special holiday to all Americans!" Shawn protested. "It's got special memories for all of us."
"I don't know where you've been for the past thousand years, but there are no "Americans" anymore." Poetry argued, her robotic tail lashing around angrily. "We're all citizens of the Last City. And I don't care about your stupid Thanksgiving."
"Come on, Poetry! The memories are great, and it's a great way for us to bond as a family! I remember when my grandad and I went out to find a wild turkey and get it for Thanksgiving! I ended up misfiring and shot a hole in our water trough for the pigs, but we still killed the turkey!"
"...you want us to do this so we can bond as a family?"
"Well, fireteam, but it's the same thing," Shawn said with a grin and a shrug.
"Here's a fun family bonding activity: How about Mama Poetry throws you off the wall and see how long it takes you to break your legs and cry out for mercy?" Poetry said in a sickly sweet tone. "That should be way more fun than doing your stupid little holiday."
"Where are we going to get a turkey?" Valanna asked suddenly as if she hadn't heard anything Shawn and Poetry had been saying. She leaned back, popping her spine. "As far as I know, stores here don't sell turkey."
"We can use Cayde's chicken. It's close enough." Everybody turned to look at Poetry; pure horror crossed over their faces.
"NO!"
"Why not? Coniel doesn't do anything but walk around the hanger and peck at your feet. I'm sure Cayde wouldn't miss it." The female Exo said as she folded her arms across her chest, glancing around at the rest of her friends.
"Because Cayde would kill us," Kavan stated matter-of-factly. "Coniel is his pet and "daughter." He raised his hands up in the air, using air quotations. "He wouldn't let anybody get close enough to hold him."
"I'll find a way."
"Poetry, no," Valanna said with a dark tone to her voice. "If you do, I will throw you off the wall."
"You're blind! How are you going to do that?" Poetry taunted, a hint of a grin visible in her eyes.
"If you try me, I'll show you how I can." The Warlock hissed, cracking her knuckles.
"Alright! Enough! We're not using Cayde's chicken. Poetry, you find us a turkey in the wild instead. Feel free to massacre it or whatever you want. Just leave us the meat to eat." Shawn turned away from Poetry. The face she was making was very unsettling. "Nara, you're in charge of finding a place to hold it and table big enough to hold all of us and the food."
"Um, none of our rooms are big enough for this. And we can't use any of the common rooms." The titan pointed out. "They're being used for movie days today."
"Ugh fine. Then get one of our rooms ready. We'll just watch some crucible matches while we eat." Shawn grumbled. "Kavan, Matt. Both of you need to go to the store and buy other food for the dinner. Poetry's got the turkey. Probably." He muttered, glancing over at the Exo who was now checking her rifle.
"Okay, we're on it." Matt nodded, pulling Kavan towards him by his shoulders. "We've got this!"
"Alright, guys. Let's get to it!" Shawn exclaimed, clapping his hands loudly. "We need to have this all ready by noon."
While Shawn felt an air of excitement for this, the rest of his friends felt an air of uncertainty. This wasn't going to go right at all, and Shawn was the only one who thought it would go fine.
He was badly mistaken.
Poetry ended up trying to kill Colonel instead of finding a wild turkey. She spent the rest of the time being chased by a very angry Hunter Vanguard. Things kinda fell apart after that.
I don't think anybody's going to listen to Shawn again after this happened.
I'm still working on the third chapter for Guardians and Dragons. It's just taking me some time to edit it and work through it. Keep your eyes peeled for that. Please leave me constructive critisism on how I can improve my writing!
I'll see you all in the next chapter! (hopefully its for Guardians and Dragons)
