Water's Looking For Those Limes

you get an email from Viktor telling you to come get your freaks (in all caps) because they’re destroying public property and eating people or whatever, and nobody’s at the mall so you gotta go on a special capture/assassination type mission where you hunt down whoever the hex having a bad day is and do that thing you did to umbra in the sacrifice quest to capture/subdue them or whatever. And Victor is the mission handler who’s just yelling at you to kill them the entire time. He crashes out when the drifter instead puts a blanket over their shoulders and tells them to come home and they can eat takeout and smoke weed (they are cured!!!!)

If it's about a particular member, Drifter will stand at the entrance of whatever space occupies that person's time and listens for their breathing.

Arthur catches them... standing by the arcade machine with an ear tilted in the direction of where the technician sleeps. Their whole demeanor is wrong, body ridged to an uncomfortable degree and their hand wringing at a wrist that's been rubbed raw.

It's only wrong because Drifter has always been accommodated to the environment, playing whatever role needed to assist the Hex and civilians alike.

But here? Drifter looks... wrong. With a face full of emotions he's never seen and can't name but knows if given the chance he would gladly choose to never see again.

It's after a few long minutes— exactly six minutes— before Drifter's head turns in his direction, tired eyes drifting to assess the situation.

Dear Representative [Name],

I am writing to express my strong opposition to H.R. 8250 (The "Parents Decide Act"). As your constituent and a concerned citizen, I believe this bill introduces unprecedented risks to digital privacy and security.

Specifically, I am alarmed by:

SEC. 2(a)(1)(B): Requiring age verification to even use an operating system creates a mandatory "hardware lockout" that ends anonymous computing and forces users to hand over sensitive identification data to major corporations just to power on their devices.

SEC. 2(a)(3): Mandating that OS providers create a system for all app developers to access verification data is a massive security vulnerability. This effectively creates a centralized API of user identities accessible to thousands of third-party developers, many of whom may lack adequate data protection.

This bill does not protect children; it creates a centralized surveillance infrastructure at the OS level. I urge you to protect the privacy of your constituents and vote NO on H.R. 8250.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Given that, in the wake of this mandatory identification policy, my country seems to be moving to hand over its citizens biometric data, like fingerprints, Face ID files, and identification documents, over to the USA and to ICE to maintain the visa free travel (ESTA) we have, I strongly urge any US resident to send these emails, or make calls.

But if you can’t do that, the most powerful thing you can do is spread the word. Tell your friends, family, coworkers, anyone who can help.

My reach will likely be small, and so I don’t know if this will mean very much in the grand scheme of things, but I cannot stand to see this tracking happen to another population as it did to mine.

And if you think it won’t affect you, it will. All anonymity goes out the window when your accounts can be linked via your personal ID

For game design reasons (i.e. blueprint acquisition, Helminth system, they don't want to produce unique AI and scripts for every Warframe), they must all be treated as game items, and there have been attempts to explain them in canon as inanimate, Tenno-made replicas. And I'm not saying that this shouldn't be possible at all or that you can't tell that story. It's just not the only way the game of Warframe can or should be interpreted.

The gameplay is about Warframe combat, but the thematic point is that Warframes (and their Tenno) are not mere weapons or tools. That's what the Orokin wanted, and it's why they failed. The Orokin wanted Warframes who were bodies without their own wills, mass-produced responsive war machines. They never got that. Warframes are certainly animalistic, but they are also intelligent, with mannerisms and thought patterns now alien to humans. They can spiral into Infested madness without help, and the solution is for a Tenno to meet them where they are, as the no-longer-human but still person they have become.

Transference is to connect with the person that the Warframe is, to "see inside an ugly, broken thing—and take away its pain." If every Warframe our characters use (save Umbra) is merely an echo of a dead person, they no longer involve this present compassion and care. They no longer channel the essence of what being Tenno means. You can still sprint, bullet-jump, and fire off abilities in an inanimate Warframe, yes, but thematically speaking, that's not and never has been the point.

Warframe is about the power of connection and love. Transference, on its deepest thematic level, is love. It's a Tenno stalwartly acknowledging a Warframe's personhood, communicating with them and taking their needs seriously even when it's not straightforward. It's a Warframe entrusting another with shared control, holding their Tenno close in their very body as they fight in tandem.

Group photo at the Whispering Oaks!

11 hours of drawing and I still suk when I get to the clothing folds part haha

Ellis dragged the others to a Photo Booth to make memories and maybe show it to Keith if he’s still alive. Coach found somewhat still edible 🍔 🍔 but he don’t care. Nick cracked a small smile. And Rochelle looks pretty as ever.