I truly did honestly think after my last two musings of my Destiny career back in June that I wouldn’t be thinking or writing about Destiny. As it turns out, when you do something for over ten thousand hours over the course of the decade, it’s absence is a presence in and of itself.

I have had no inclinations to play the game. I truly do believe my time with the franchise ran its course and I’ve filled my time with other things and other endeavors. But the void it left is vast. The phantom itch reaching across time and space.

I like being good at things. I value being good at things. I do think I’m the best at many things, but I have amassed strong foundations in enough things that to the unaware audience, I can pass for knowledgeable if not an expert. One of the things I greatly enjoyed about Destiny was that being good at several forms of expression. There were different ways to showcase and show off. There was benefit from doing the same thing over and over again to the point of mastery. There was a dopamine hit every time the random number generator bypassed the desire sensor and rolled something that would help me become even better. Partially deterministic, partially random. You need both in games honestly. Getting everything handed to you isn’t fun, but the endless hamster wheel is also a chore.

I ended my tenure with a canonical build and six carefully curated sets of gear for the quick access to the activities I would run most often. There were rules, all self imposed. No reusing pieces. Everything needed to be organized. Everything needed to be personalized and custom tuned. Minimal stats wasted. All of these things that served no other purpose than to make me mindful.

If I am not detail-oriented, I am in fact mindful. I am in fact dedicated. I am in fact one to tinker tailor (I am not one to soldier spy, but I’m not sure that was on anyone’s mind other than mine). And I’d gladly recap my machinations. And I haven’t had machinations to recap…

Well, until this month when the Pokemon Legends ZA DLC dropped. Legends ZA is a perfect game for me in that it’s a closed world with clearly delineated goals and enough options for me to mess around with a variety of things. With a limited Pokedex of 232 in the base game and 100 something in the DLC, there were just enough Pokemon to play with that I felt like I had choice, but not so much that my brain would shut down trying to mentally keep track of everything.

This is the first game in which I got the shiny charm which (for those of you who aren’t utterly invested in a game made for children) is an in-game item that increases the chances of a particular pokemon to be cosmetically different. Sometimes the recolor is subtle. Sometimes the recolor is drastic. The Pokemon sparkle when they are sent out.

There is no intrinsic reason to find the shiny version of a Pokemon. There is the extrinsic reason of wanting to show that you cared enough to grind out one thing or another. That this was something you cared enough to do, even if it is silly. It still has meaning.

Destiny introduced “shiny” weapons in their Into the Light expansion, which did have an intrinsic reason to chase outside of the cosmetics. These shiny weapons had multiple perks which made it easier to find the ideal combination which is what I cared about more.

Shiny pokemon just look different. They look cooler. They sparkle.

I don’t think I can emphasize how cool it is when something sparkles.

But with Mega Dimensions, I assembled a team. My arbitrary rules for my “cannon” team were as follows:

• Each mon in a different ball.

• One legendary.

• All the non-legendaries needed to be shiny and named.

• At least one-non mega.

• Unique typing (with the exception of Steel, since that’s my type and I would have made an all steel team had my favorite pokemon of Legends ZA not been a pure fighting type.)

Karambit the Scizor was my first introduction to the steel type in generation two and was one of my favorite pokemon Aesthetic. In this game, Karambit serves as my vanguard, collecting items and smashing crystals.

Barong the Aegislash is my favorite Kalos Pokemon. It is deeply unfortunate that Barong is utterly terrible in game due to the seventeen years it takes for Aegislash to switch forms. But it looks so incredibly cool and is my back up vanguard when Scizor faints.

Bakunawa the Baxcaliber is the most recent addition to the team. This is my fast attacker, the duelist, the avalanche (although ironically, does not pack avalanche in their kit). Baxcaliber was my favorite gen 9 mon and I was gleeful when they announced its was getting an evolution.

Volcanion does not get a nickname largely because I think legendary pokemon already have proper names. I love the design of the Kalos mythical, but more so than anything it completed by fire/water/grass core with just one mon.

Engkanto the Venusaur is proof that you never forget your first. Bulbasaur was my starter all those years ago, and I’m happy to have a new reincarnation that is just disgustingly tanky.

And finally, my general. My lil guys. Sa Punso the Falinks. They’re just great guys.

If you can’t tell, the nickname theme is Filipino myths. Sa Punso I hope actually translates to Of the Hill, since the origin myth of Nuno Sa Punso was too long for the in-game character limit.

This is my canonical team for being the expat that saved Pokemon France. And it’s nice having a game that I can sink 100 hours into, even though I probably only got about 50 more before I do everything I reasonably want to do. So while Legends ZA is only a partial patch, it is still a patch and it is still enough and I am thankful for it during this weird year and I just wanted to share a thing that has made me equal parts happy and frustrated quite honestly.