The Paper Crane

Prev:	Dark Academia; Turophile; The Man Out of Time
Next:	Forensic Horology; Declassification; Skylines; Sacred Emergence; Transfer of Power
The Paper Crane
Game:	Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate
Reward(s):	3X Fated Ciphers ; AION Renewal Suit piece/Kepler weapon

The Paper Crane is a side quest in The Edge of Fate expansion unlocked after completing the Quarantine story mission. In it, The Guardian and Orin investigate pools of Radiolaria tainted with Dark matter.

Steps[edit]

"And my vanquisher will read that book, seeking the weapon, and they will come to understand me, where I have been and where I was going."The following is a verbatim transcription of an official document for archival reasons. As the original content is transcribed word-for-word, any possible discrepancies and/or errors are included.

Step 1[edit]

A nearby radiolaria pool contains strange dark matter signatures. Investigate it and see what knowledge can be gleaned.

Radiolaria pool investigated

"The Vex hold the key to the unravelling and the atoms betwixt matter." —Orin

Orin: Ikora, Guardian… Drifter and I had something to show you, to better varnish your understanding. Kepler is part of the Oort Cloud, a sea cliff of Sol jutting over the abyss of space. If you want to understand what summoned you, you need to understand dark matter. Find a pool of radiolaria. Drifter will explain first.
Ikora: I familiarized myself with the most recent studies from the Tower. Dark matter is well documented.
Orin: Sure. In papers.
Ikora: Peer-reviewed data is our strongest place of knowledge. Though I imagine, Orin, you have a different angle on the subject.

Step 2[edit]

A Vex ambush protects the pool. Destroy the attackers and find what secrets they're guarding.

Vex defeated

"Time-hopping amoebas give me the creeps." —The Drifter

Drifter: I've had my eyes on some of these Vex going haywire, and seems like the dark matter of this place is sourin' the milk, so to say. Once the stuff gets near Vex milk, the Vex become disconnected from the collective, and then go nuts before they slowly die off.

Step 3[edit]

Ikora suspects there is a life form, maybe a plant, that may be actively feeding off of the dark matter. She surmises that we might be able to find a specimen in the Caldera.

Caldera searched

"A hole-punch in our paper crane." —Orin

Ikora: The Vex becoming disconnected due to dark matter influence implies some part of their biology is aware of its presence.
Orin: It is, even when limited to three dimensions.
Ikora: Forgive me for only considering three.
Orin: We are dealing with two separated problems connected by the Nine. Dark matter, which is what they are, and time, which is what they shift. Dark matter can usually only be experienced, not observed. Think of wind, or scent: invisible, but detectable. Shifts in time, though, are harder to sense. We are drawings on a piece of paper, and without us knowing, that paper is being folded into a crane. We can seek their hands all we want, but we can’t fold the paper. It is easy to feel adrift… powerless.
Ikora: Adrift is a good way to put it. If we can see the unseeable here, maybe we'll see what shaped our path, too. We’re facing this together, Orin.

Step 4[edit]

Ghost is tracking a concentration of dark matter traces. They converge in the Stacks, near where you landed.

The Stacks searched

"Dark matter infuses and effuses all here." —Orin

Ikora: Guardian, there's a growth in the Aionian settlement that the plant life is responding to. This interaction is… arresting.
Orin: Cattleya rex… um… beautiful.
Ikora: We'll have to send additional researchers for further study of the interaction between trans-dimensional matter and material flora.
Orin: Once I can wrangle my proprioception out of the sixth dimension and stop my skin from shifting squares on the periodic table… Maybe I'll write you a paper on it.

Step 5[edit]

The Aionians have a Shrine to Failure nearby. Perhaps it holds a clue to the Aionian's history.

Shrine found

"Just like the Aionians to highlight, especially the things that didn't work." —Lodi

Ikora: Dark matter doesn't explain the timelost artifacts we've seen.
Orin: It does, in a way. The Nine exist outside of time. When one intervenes in our dimension, it can cause tears in spacetime—pull things through. A hole punch in our paper crane.
Ikora: You have a talent for explaining complex concepts. Have you thought about how you could share what you've learned?
Orin: N-No. I have not been able to cloud through what is next for me.
Ikora: "Knowledge decays if it is not shared," as the Aionians say. What do you miss most, Orin, now that you're not the emissary?
Orin: My media file collection. I put so much though into curating it before all of this. I loved to magpie. Maybe I still do.
Ikora: Lodi mentioned a collection of pressed music recordings he left behind. I bet he'd enjoy someone guiding him through a few hundred years of what he missed. The timelost objects we've seen… all of them are obviously from the past. We haven't seen anything yet that appears to be from the future. Orin… can the Nine only pull objects forward in time?
Orin: Only forward, never backward. When I was Emissary, I knew this truth as I knew my own pulse. The rule of chronal flow is the Nine's oldest, and their cruelest.

The Guardian locates a Monument To Failure.

" This monument signifies first contact with the cosmos, though the language used is more poetic than scientific. "

Orin: The Nine on the other side of the Altar is connected to the singularity, but they aren't one and the same. I don't see why they would seek to create a black hole, but their goals are different from ours. We have no sway over them.
Ikora: Can you blame me for wanting to try?
Orin: Of course not. We've both been fortunate; to learn about the world from the safety of the Tower, and to learn about it from underneath our skin.
Ikora: Then share that knowledge. There's a place and a future for you, Orin. Teach humanity what we cannot learn from study.
Orin: A future. I… I would like that.