#if it's not explicitly stated in threads it's also just a safe bet that lumax is at the very least nearby.

[knghtlock]

thinking about them ( blair - takenaka hotaru , the guardian ) and how much they love lumax ( the ghost with the most, the best blorbo )

like i cannot stress how much hotaru and lumax are so inseparable that i consider them to be two halves of a whole. functionally you cannot have a guardian without their ghost, sure - a ghost is literally the prerequisite to BE a capital g Guardian, your connection to the light of the traveler , and the reason why guardians can't stay dead and are functionally immortals. and yes, the young wolf and little light ( the player character and ghost ) care for each other! there are also guardians and ghosts who hate each other . katabasis from presage comes to mind, specifically- his ghost kept rezzing him so he could die repeatedly. & to a lesser extent, the drifter and his ghost also do not get along, at all. but i'd argue that hotaru and lumax are closer than even the young wolf and little light are.

on this blog, hotaru and lumax will always be presented as two halves of the same "character" of the guardian. outside of that, you'll probably notice that lumax pops up even in non-destiny aus. she can be hotaru's human bestie, a spider that bites her & travels with her in earth-404, an A/I hotaru programs, a robot hotaru builds, or even just Hotaru's Cat. but the constant is that somehow, some way, hotaru and lumax always find each other, because they are two halves of a whole. and i think that's beautiful. you can't truly have hotaru without lumax, and you can't have lumax without hotaru. they are inseperable & they genuinely love each other & consider each other family in a way that transcends the ghost / guardian bond. hotaru protects lumax out of love and respect, and lumax would lay down her life for hotaru as much as they actively try to discourage her from doing so because hotaru fears the person she would become without her.

and on that note, fun fact: hotaru actually sleeps curled up around lumax! either that or lumax will nestle in her hair or hotaru will cradle her to their generator. it goes all the way back from hotaru's initial resurrection - the first thing lumax heard when she succeeded was hotaru's heartbeat and the whir from her generator, and the first thing she felt was being held by her guardian's hands. it also stems from the fact that hotaru and lumax are from the dark ages, a period in destiny lore thats ruled by violence and some Evil Ass Lightbearers called warlords. it's a survival instinct for hotaru to protect her smaller-than average ghost at all times as much as it is for comfort. lumax WILL cry if she's forcibly separated from her guardian and hotaru will do ANYTHING to get her ghost back, which has resulted in serious violence on hotaru's part. the quickest way to make an enemy of hotaru is to upset lumax, and the quickest way to get lumax to absolutely despise you is to upset hotaru. you cannot have one of them without the other. hotaru will not even consider being friends with you if you aren't at least civil or kind to her ghost.

just like you can't have lightning without thunder, you can't have hotaru without lumax. and i think that's neat.