#drifter rambles

In my initial doodle ref of him, I made note he is cannibalistic. But I wonder where….oh ok just thought of reason djfhhsjfh he probably ate his parents lol??? On the zariman? In the hex chat, I did make him say he killed his parents. And I mean, what else would there be food wise if the rations run out? Tons of adults. he probably reasoned in his mind it was a mercy. Better him eating them than another kid. One last way they could care for him.

anyway ok ig cannibalism works out still. He probably couldn’t do it in Duviri cuz…everyone is…like toys…basically. No fleshy stuff, except maybe the orowyrms….but he likes orowyrms…

In my initial 1999 characterization of him, I wanted him to be awkward asf to kinda playfully push back against some of the underlying assumptions in the hex chats that the drifter is remotely competent socially sjchjd but I also want him to be more,,,aggressive and aloof too. So I’m still kinda unsure what he should be like in 1999.

I’d imagine back in…main timeline, like post new war, he be more competent but significantly more withdrawn, outside of occasionally interacting with the operator. He developed a quiet fondness for the operator but operator still is really unsure of his existence and she keeps a healthy distance. So yeah they live and operate mostly apart. Each have their own separate Warframe arsenal for funzy shfhhshvjd operator let him keep a few warframes she found unwieldy or couldn’t take care of properly djhfhdhd

when he was stuck in Duviri, I see him being driven by/living off of apathy and anger. He’s very much done with everything and just wants everyone to die. He’s lost his sense of worth and life since everything he does in each loop doesn’t matter. He’s committed to killing Dominus every time but it never works out. Other than liking orowyrms and kaithes, he does seem be drawn to kullvero. After beating the warframe a couple times, the two developed a silent respect for each other that carried over in later spirals. Drifter becomes interested in setting him free and would regularly try to break him out. Even if they succeed, kullvero will always end up locked back up in the next spiral. so yeah that sucks. but they are still something like friends and maybe fu—*gets beat*

was just humoring the idea of drifter needing to rewind time every time he was critically injured. Idk if that makes sense in lore but cool vibes and I get an excuse to draw guts and blood ok.

so uhh had another really bad period pain till the point I puked at 1am. after I managed to eventually get the pain down a bit, i was lying bed in pain and didn’t want to sleep. Felt drawing something to cope. And idea came to mind!

so I like to think my drifter became a dude in Duviri due to void magic and whatnot. but what if, very infrequently, he would still get horrid cramping, maybe bleeding (idk if that’s possible his anatomy at that point but let’s pretend for this one vent piece it is lol), and yeah suffering. yay. painful and inescapable reminder of who you were. cue psychological misery

Transcript:

Operator: alt(ernative) future me is a dude??? How??

Drifter: space magic…?

(A side note pointing at the operator reads: doesn’t understand gender. And a side note pointing at drifter reads: doesnt know how to explain gender)

—-

personal thoughts:

when I started wf in 2022, I was already on a rocky relationship with my gender. secretly wanted to be a guy but was reluctantly female out of guilt/“it-was-correct”/etc baggage. Operator came along and I awkwardly made her female just because I Had To (and to avoid questions if fam saw me play). Drifter came along and made it double trouble for me djfjjsf I didn’t use transference a lot in game so it was only a minor background nuisance. But as I grew more comfortable with the idea of being a guy irl and wiggled out of my guilt bit by bit, I started entertaining the idea of reflecting that better for me in game.

and yeah, I eventually did. and I adore him, feels so much better and authentic. Kept my operator a gal for fun and historical reasons. I do still have fond feelings for her, despite the baggage. can’t be here without the past.

anyway a snippet from discord with my musings on the day(s) I transed my drifter as fun supplementary material