#I only have one from teshin

[edgygayguy]

I hope that I will have a chance to get an umbra forma before sevagoth prime drops.

[agoddamn]

@cardinalgoldenbrow not quite. Something else fell into Duviri.

Not a whole person, but a piece so significant and meaningful that it kicked off the entire paradox meltdown sequence.

The Lotus's hand.

The Lotus had enough conceptual weight to her to give the Drifter the power of the Void, a power the Lotus herself never even had. She is so strongly connected to the Tenno that she connects the Drifter to them by way of her own hand.

Why, then, wouldn't that be conceptually powerful enough to birth a denizen of Duviri?

Gender? Means nothing. Thrax is male and can be spawned from a female Drifter all the same.

Timeline? Duviri experiences time in a way that isn't linear to the Origin System. We already know this thanks to Teshin having been living in Duviri a long time by the time the Lotus's hand lands even though they fell at about the same time.

Let's look at the major beats here.

First, why is Ballas the Warden to Kullervo? "Because he's an Orokin, he's a ruler, the Drifter saw his portraits as a child!" Yeah, plausible, but by that logic Tuvul should be the Warden. Tuvul drove much of the Zariman project. His statues are all over it. The Commons are even named for him. If the Drifter were unconsciously reaching for any authority figure, it should have been Tuvul.

Speaking of authority figures, Executors don't rule Duviri. A king does. Kullervo's texts talk explicitly about Executors and other things about the Origin System in a way that doesn't match Duviri's canon. Why import Ballas as an authority figure and then demote him to Warden all while acknowledging that he ought to be an Executor?

Let's read Kullervo's story.

Hated Kullervo, did you truly believe he could love you? 

Oh, huh. Kullervo was in love with an Executor. One of the Seven. That's--rare. Who would love one of those assholes?

Kullervo's criminal trajectory is most strange. He was in love with an Executor, killed an Orokin to prove it, obeyed a direct Orokin order (why does an authority figure call this a crime?), killed someone like a mother to him--an Archimedean he was trying to rescue from Orokin custody, odd detail there--then attacked the Orokin again, then orchestrated the Night of the Naga Drums.

Man's got loyalties like a ping-pong ball, huh? Why?

The children's rhymes tell a rather different story.

An enslaved warrior torn from his mother. He was born to fight, eventually learned a truth of his birth, saw his home lost. He bursts into a rage, murders, and then kills himself.

This is much much much more straightforward. You'll notice that the children's rhymes don't mention Origin System concepts like Executors, either. Nothing about love.

Why all the complication?

Two distinct narratives, both tossing in details that beg for more elaboration. Why do this, as a writer? Why spend the voice actors' time like this?

I can only think it was done on purpose.

Two different stories, two different readings on the same person. One from Ballas, one from children.

(Huh. They say Kullervo is a friend to children, don't they?)

The Lotus lived very different lives from the perspectives of Ballas versus her Tenno.

Natah was born to war, a mimic spy with a purpose. She left her family--not by choice--and killed her fellow Sentients as the Lotus; a betrayer. She then orchestrated the Night of the Naga Drums; a betrayer twice over, the mother of a bloodbath.

Ballas sees her as a betrayer, someone who loved him and threw him away.

We see beats of Margulis's story here, too--an Archimedean that was like a mother, killed in a struggle that wouldn't have existed if not for the choice of resistance.

Kullervo isn't literally the Lotus, but I believe that he was conceptually born from her.

His stories contain the major beats of her life, only slightly twisted by perspective. Those details are so specific--in love with an Executor? Betrayed their own kind, and then their 'ruler'? A mother figure (so specific! Why not just have her as his mother?) who was an Archimedean, killed because of resisting the authority that ruled them both?

Kullervo is made up of her pieces, like a collage.

I believe that Ballas's presence and the sudden mention of Executors when that doesn't match the rest of Duviri are supposed to be clues to us that something from the Origin System has leaked in to birth Kullervo, that he is not simply an independent figure that existed in the past. When Teshin and Albrecht rolled into Duviri, they did simply that--they entered Duviri and adopted its ways while they lived there. They didn't come with an entire chapter of a story that isn't from the Duviri Tales.

Another point to Kullervo being born from Duviri is that he is treated like he exists in Duviri. Nobody says that he suddenly appeared like Albrecht or Teshin. Acrithis talks about him as if he's a part of the story. They all know his history. It's only the Warden who relates such a different history.

I think that the name Kullervo probably did exist as some minor character in the original Duviri Tales. The Drifter's subconscious applied this to the tangle of trauma that the Lotus conceptually exists as.

tl;dr Kullervotus

[alteredsilicone]

Reddit once again delivers a really nice write-up about lore.

The Man in the Wall is Weak to Love

"The opposite of love is not hate; it is indifference."

- Elie Wiesel

The Man in the Wall is defeated, unironically, by the power of love. His goons are called "The Indifference", which is neither love nor hate, but rather a lack of feeling altogether. Let me break down the theory.

Albrecht was afraid of telling Loid how much he loved him, but this was more a symptom of his rigid Orokin upbringing than him being aware of the Man's weakness. Loid also was bitter over never hearing Albrecht say "I love you" ("I could never say to him the words he so needed to hear"). When the Man uses Albrecht's vessel to attack the Lab, only an act of love, a gentle caress of the face, repels him. This caress is the very same one Albrecht performed to Loid before he left; this makes Loid remember and understand just how much Albrecht loved him.

The Grimoire's final page is a love letter from Albrecht to Loid, and it is poison to the Man. He tries to get the page from the Tenno so that the Grimoire can't be completed because he knows that it is the one thing right now that can hinder his efforts. During Netracell missions, destroying the Man's minibosses (like the Mocking Whisper) will trap them within the Grimoire. Tagfer says that the Grimoire is a "predator", which could mean many things:

Love is depicted as not exactly positive in many mediums. In the Green Lantern series, Love is represented by an animalistic dragon entity called "The Predator". The Greeks depicted Eros using a bow and arrow as his weapon because they felt that love was "violent, all-consuming, it strikes you suddenly and drives you mad". In fact "Eros", or romantic love, was seen as a sickness or madness that plays a major part in Greek stories (and we know Warframe loves Greek roots, looking at Duviri). The Void itself is also a madness; perhaps Love is the counter-madness?

Additionally, Tagfer is currently suffering the loss of his mate Minn, who he loved very much. Albrecht was perhaps starting to realize that love is the cure for the Man in the Wall, and sent in Minn as an experiment to see if Tagfer's love would protect her or have some kind of effect. It could also be that Minn was targeted specifically by the Void because Tagfer loved her so much.

Albrecht never told his daughter Euleria (a.k.a Mother) how much he loved her, and they both suffered for it. His lack of outwardly-expressed love made him very vulnerable to the Void, so much so that he swore off of Kuva entirely because he was afraid that the Man had replaced him completely without him knowing.

In Duviri, it is love that cures the Void madness. The Drifter expresses empathy and kindness to Thrax, and this calms him down enough to stabilize the time loop and allow them to escape. Thrax is the Drifter themselves; by forgiving themselves and accepting what happened and loving themselves anyway, they are able to dissolve the Void trap keeping them in Duviri.

The Lotus' love shields the Tenno from the Man's escape at the end of The New War, despite the Void being literal poison to her Sentient body, she survives. The Man and a form of Albrecht are plucking the petals off of a lotus flower at the end of Whispers in the Walls, implying that they are going to target the Lotus herself and remove her love-protection from the Tenno.

Teshin loves the Tenno like they are his own children, just like the Lotus, and it is this love that enables him to survive and continue to assist the Tenno across The War Within, The Sacrifice, and The Duviri Paradox.

In the Zariman Incident, the parents of the children are driven mad by the Void and turned against their own offspring. Who loves more than a parent loves their child? The Void/the Man is aware of how powerful love is, especially when used against him, and seeks to turn it against people at any given opportunity before they wisen up and start to weaponize it.

In conclusion, love is the opposing force to Void energy.

[silence-of-autumn42]

The relationships between the Duviri Courtiers and other major characters are really funny to me.

Bombastine despises Luscinia for being Thrax's favourite entertainer, despite being the one who organised the event that resulted in her rising above him. He's also secretly in love with her, and so is acting like a toddler because he doesn't know how to express his desires in a positive way. He also sucks at riding horses and is jealous of the biceps of a bunch of skeletons. My cringe fail son.

Mathila is a judgemental mother despite her overly positive outlook. Brimon implies he's having an affair with her. She took care of Teshin, and implies they're still friends. He never mentions her. A toxically positive girl boss.

Lodun has incredible anger issues stemming from self doubt, and is constantly plotting to overthrow Thrax, but fails every time. He's desperate for approval, seeing a single supporter as a win, and cares deeply about his great-grandmother and her shrine. The Wall of his house is cracked because he keeps punching it. Another cringefail child of mine.

Luscinia hates being the King's favourite, but doesn't know how to get out of it. She's prone to drastic, dramatic bouts of melancholy. She somehow knows secrets about Duviri that Thrax is implied to either be unaware of, or deliberately ignoring. She loves revenge. She once sang at an event where she was standing on a bunch of eels, that got eaten from underneath her. A girlboss who doesn't want to be.

Sythel is paranoid, but also knows far more about Duviri than apparently nearly anyone. She's terrified of Acrithis. She stays hidden in her house to avoid facing issues which, frankly, is a mood. She also somehow left her face behind in another part of Duviri. I love her, but I hope she gets some comfort. A couple of floofs and some Tasoma Extract tea.

Brimon is a snarky, self absorbed champion racer...who we never see ride a Kaithe. He claims to be better with a sword than anyone, despite never using one that we can see. He brags about being such a good lover, that he's the reason Mathila is happy. He can't believe you beat him, even on the easiest of Kaithe races. He somehow has a copy of the Tales of Duviri with him at all times. A bastard, but a fun one.

Oh and Acrithis, my favourite of the bunch. A librarian who has her own carriage. She wants to torture people who damage books. She implies Mathila is a slut. She calls out Lodun for being too ashamed to face his issues. She thinks Sythel is a nasty little rat lady. She's the only one who remembers the old islands. She calls Teshin an "old thingy-bob in a cave". She finds us fascinating and wants to study us. She sees through every single one of the Courtiers. The true Queen of Duviri, imo.

[sharky857]

Gamer Bond

PREMISE: Long time no posting a fic in here. Yep, I wrote one, which can also be found on my AO3 (if you have an accounjt over there).

I may or may be not slightly Amir-starved since the mall has gone POOF until this coming winter, and I felt a mild mighty need to write a self-indulgent and cutesy ficcy.

Besides Ao3, you'll see it also by clicking/tapping "keep reading" in this very post. Enjoy~!

(Minor warning for explicit language -thanks, Damienne- and past bullying -thanks, Amir's brain-)

--

Lately there had been a lot of visitors in that mall.

Like… A lot lot.

Seemingly, he couldn’t really care less. None of them had seemed like a threat this whole time and his other squad mates had been overall chill as well. Besides, most of them would hang out nearby the stage, dancing and vibing to the only, forever-looped, On-Lyne’s song.

But he too had spotted them nonetheless with the corner of his eye, while sprinting non-stop from an arcade game to another. Despite the overall semi-darkness, it had been quite hard to miss them, especially the glowier ones.

Some kept on showing up with their own “warframes”, as if they’d wanted to keep their real identity a secret or something, while others were there in person; sometimes it was only an adult, some other times a lone kid. And a few had been bold enough to show up in pairs.

Like these two young ladies.

For some reason, apparently so far only Eleanor knew of the real nature of these “visitors”, given how she would reassure them that their “secret” was safe with her.

However, these two seemed not fussed by being seen together. One was a scrawny kid with her mahogany hair side shaved except for some long, straight locks to each side of her face and some kind of ponytail to match, dressed mostly in a dark olive green. The other had only a different-looking outfit, but the colours were identical, as well as the hairstyle.

They too were clearly two faces of the same coin, like any other of those “visitors”, but they also didn’t give a crap about being seen together like that. If anyone had ever tried to inquire them, the pair could’ve merely said that they were “big sis” and “lil sis”, as they would often refer to themselves also when they were on their own.

= = = =

“Psh, isn’t that guy too old for games?”

Amir had barely heard the scoffing remark an imposing redhead had just whispered to the unknown black Gyre next to them.

The technician couldn’t help but have a quick flashback of his own childhood and some bullies.

Mocked for the bouncy legs and restless hands. Teased for being a weakling with little to no stamina. Taunted for being a geeky nerdy loser. Scoffed and scolded for making “weirdass and annoying noises”. Shouted at for seemingly not paying attention in class.

Enough!

Dear brain, don’t you fuckin’ dare to go there again! Different times. Past times. Gone times.

‘Sides, both those guys and those teachers were probably one with the Techrot by now, while he was still Amir Beckett and getting the jackpot of those neat superhuman powers, which also improved his own stamina greatly.

Haha! Who’s the geeky nerdy loser now?

With his own confidence restored and without losing his focus on the ongoing games, Amir was about to scoff right back at the pair standing on the entrance, when…

“Aren’t you too young to be judgemental grumps?”

A young woman with a hairstyle to match that of a young girl next to her asked nonchalantly as she stepped into the arcade room from another entrance.

“Ugh, you two must be real unfun at parties.” The shorter kid next to her crossed her arms. “Just… kindly piss off.”

The other duo stood agape for a brief second.

“… Watch your mouth, scrub. Unless-”

“Unless what, fuckwad?” Both “Damiennes” took a single step forwards, which made the others two instinctively take a step back.

“You really wanna go?” The shorter Damienne cracked her knuckles with a feral grin. “I’ve heard that Uncle Teshin’s place is lovely to visit this time of the day.” She added, referring to the “Conclave”, where all Tenno could spar with their own peers.

The redhead was about to snap right back, when a small nudge from the black Gyre caught their attention.

The warframe brought a bent hand midway between her own collarbone and the throat, then moved it back and forth a couple times while slightly shaking her head.

Just forget about them.

The dickhead only cast one last glare at the other duo. And then, without saying another word, they stormed away with the warframe silently following suit.

“Yeah, go back to the nursing home, asshat.” Damienne scoffed, before getting a nudge from her own Drifter.

“Now don’t push it, lil sis.” The older counterpart hummed, albeit with an amused smirk.

“Ungh! This violent video game is… influencing my emotions! Societal norms… eroding! Morality… subsumed! I. MUST. KILL!”

Amir’s small ramble brought the attention of the two back inside the arcade room.

There was quite an amount of arcade machines in there, most of them functional, but two in particular seemed to be so very good to cause the technician to constantly dash back and forth between them.

Amir had figured a way to get his clues for when to go from a game to another.

Whenever he would hear his character taking damage in the fighting game, the technician would send the ball as high as possible inside the pinball and then instantly dart to deliver as many blows as he could to the AI-controlled opponent on the other arcade game, all while keeping an eye -or better: an ear- at the sounds coming from the pinball machine itself. And when he would hear the small ball hitting some specific bouncers on the pinball machine, Amir would perform a combo that could leave the opponent momentarily stunned, and then immediately dash back to the pinball.

And of course, usually all this would also require all of his focus.

“Ohh… He really needs to teach me how to multitask like this!” Damienne remarked, observing the other in action.

Not getting a response from her older counterpart, the Tenno looked around, only to find “big sis” standing in front of the free pinball machine, silently staring at it. Had she been a Kavat, her pupils would’ve been fully dilated too.

The whimsical music… The mechanical sounds… The way those smooth and big buttons felt under her gloved fingertips… The clicking noises of the flippers in motion… The light show…

Something had definitely clicked inside older Damienne’s head, something real good that had just tickled her inner gamer soul just right.

That was gonna be a blast and a half to try out!

There was only one, small catch: apparently, the machine wanted to feed off some “coin”. Which neither Damienne nor Damienne had any, for obvious reasons.

“Uhm…” The Drifter turned to Amir, trying to talk fast before he would zoom once again to the fighting game. “Is there any way to fire this baby up in an alternative way, besides coins?”

As expected, first Amir zoomed to the fighting game, dashing back to his pinball machine a moment later; without breaking eye contact with said machine, he swiftly released a tiny blue spark right into the crack that would usually accept coins.

That second pinball machine immediately stirred to life, and a small, metal ball was released on the launching ramp, ready to be, in fact, launched.

“There you go, sister.” He hummed. “A little zap, and... infinite credit! No more insert coin!” The other explained with a mischievous grin, before pondering something.

“Not that we could insert coin. We have no coin.” He added. “Once we had coin, but now Aoi has smooshed all the coin.”

“Coinnnn.” Amir muttered to himself as he dashed yet again to the other game.

Damienne nodded her acknowledgement, not fazed in the slightest by what others would’ve described as “a weird quirk”.

Both herself and her younger counterpart -who had silently taken a note to bring “Zappy” along as well, next time- were already quite used to all sort of “peculiar habits” from their friends and acquaintances.

“Thanks, Amir. I owe you one.” The older Damienne smiled warmly.

“No biggie.” The other answered the moment he sprinted back to his own pinball machine.

There was only a brief pause where he zoomed to the fighting game and back, then he added: “How d’you know my name, anyway?”

“A lil’ lady snitched on you.” Damienne jokingly referred to Aoi, as her own Drifter -after getting more accustomed to all buttons and levers of the pinball machine- started her own game, unable to wait any longer.

As if to confirm the words of the younger Tenno, the familiar voice of Aoi reminding Amir “to hydrate” echoed all the way from the long gone music store.

“Oh… Aight.” The technician nodded as he dashed from a game back to another for the who-was-even-counting time.

“Hmh, I noticed she says so a fuck-a-ton lot of times.” Damienne hummed. “You… did remember to hydrate, right?” She took a small step forwards as she leaned slightly towards the technician, while being careful not to stand in the way of his zoomies. “Riiiight?”

“I… can’t really recall right now.” Amir replied with a hint of awkwardness.

“Bruh, how long have you even been in here?” The older Damienne inquired, barely moving her gaze from the colourful lights.

“Uhhh…”

No, he wasn’t ashamed to admit that he’d been in there for literal hours. Amir honestly had not the slightest clue how long he had been (hyper)focusing on those games.

“Good question.”

“Well… No matter. Damienne to the rescue!” The Tenno mimicked a superhero pose, then trotted to a corner of the arcade room, where she had spotted a couple of vending machines.

“Ahh… I haven’t fixed those yet!” The technician warned the kiddo.

He didn’t need to divert his gaze from his games to know what the other was intended to do, as those vending machines were the closest source of “hydration”.

“Oh, no need to wait for a fix.” The other hummed back.

“Hold up! You… fixed everything in here?” The Drifter counterpart asked as she stared at the ball bouncing between a bouncer and another. “Must’ve taken you forever!”

“Eh, not really.” Now from the fighting game, Amir shrugged lightly. “It’s all basic wiring, nothing too fancy. Even a rookie electrician could’ve done the job, if we had any around. Maybe the biggest challenge have been those speakers near the stage. Wasn’t really as easy navigating through all that techrot over there.” He went on as he dashed back to the pinball, then grinned as he kept his gaze firmly on the ball. “But hey, I did it! Although now we’re kinda forever stuck with that literal brainrot of a song. But I don’t really mind it, Aoi seems to enjoy it, and the others seem to just ignore it.”

“It-it-it~…” The technician chanted under his breath for a brief moment.

“Dunno if I can say the same for Quincy, though.” He then resumed like nothing happened. “His little target practice corner is right next to that stage… Still low-key waiting for the day he’ll snap for good and use the speakers as alternative targets.”

Amir’s small rambling was momentarily covered by the noise of a couple of hard kicks against the side of one of the vending machines, followed suit by the unmistakable noise of soda cans hitting the floor.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.” The younger Damienne hummed as she picked the cans up and trotted back to the pinball games.

Seizing the opportunity of her own ball bouncing close to the upper side of the pinball, for a brief second “big sis” Damienne simply stared at her in a quizzical manner: why didn’t “lil sis” just make use of “that Void fuckery beam”?

The answer came to the Drifter shortly after: Damienne had just wanted to grab a few cans, not to blow a vending machine sky high.

“Hmmm…” The Tenno hummed pensively, staring at the cans in her arms.

“What’s the matter?” Her Drifter inquired, resuming her game.

“Hmmmmm…” The other hummed again, until it hit her. “Ah, I knew something’s still missing!” Damienne eventually replied, then left the cans neatly on the edge of the Drifter’s pinball machine and darted outside the arcade room, while shouting “I’ll be right back!”

= = = =

Straws. That’s what was still missing. Straws to drink from the cans while keeping on gaming non-stop.

It wasn’t just any straw; “lil sis” had rushed to the Pizza Byte place and grabbed a handful of the silly-looking ones with intricate hoops.

No, the Tenno didn’t care about them looking silly.

…

Okay, she had picked them also because they were kinda cute.

But the main reason was practicality, as those were much longer than the regular straws she had first fished from behind that counter.

“Is there any flavour you may fancy, sir?” The younger Damienne held the cans of soda high enough for Amir to have a glance with the corner of his eye, while jokingly pretending to be some kind of waitress from a fancy restaurant.

“Grapes, please.” The other answered.

“I don’t like raspberry.” He then grumbled under his breath as he moved back to the fighting game. “Tried it once, and my whole body wanted to curl up in a miserable ball of pain and suffering.”

When the technician made his way back to the pinball, there was a grapes-flavoured soda can open and ready to be chugged. Silly yet practical straw included, of course, which “lil sis” had also made herself sure to match the colour to the scribbled grapes on the side.

“There you go, buddy. I now declare you out of the dehydration danger zone~”

Amir cracked a shy smile.

“Thank you.”

He then cast a very fleeting glance at the “big sis” right next to him, as her younger self opened a can of strawberry soda for her own Drifter -setting a “silly straw” in a pink colour in it-.

“And… thanks for earlier as well.” He murmured, referring to the way the two Damiennes had dealt with the other duo.

“No biggie.” The other hummed, returning his smile. “Some people just need to learn the concept of minding one’s own fuckin’ business.”

“Oh, definitely.” The other agreed.

A mild tugging recalled older Damienne’s attention, cutting the conversation short.

“Sooo… When is gonna be my turn?” The Tenno asked expectantly.

“When this big sis will lose this ball.” The Drifter answered after a brief pondering. Then smiled smugly “Which might take a while. I think I’m getting the hang of this baby.” She added teasingly.

With the corner of her eye, the Drifter caught a glimpse of a mischievous smirk on the other’s face.

“Don’t even think about it, or I’ll get back at you.”

“You know I won’t lose this easily~” The other hummed back.

“Hmmm? I don’t recall the Ludoplex has a pinball game installed.”

“The- what?” Amir asked.

“Ludoplex.” Both Drifter and Operator answered simultaneously.

“I got it a while ago from Simaris.” The latter then added. “It comes with a small handful of games. They aren’t much, but they’re good.”

“Though the Happy Zephyr one always makes me want to chunk the whole thingy straight into the Void…” The former grumbled.

“Yeahhh, that one is the bad shit.” The younger Damienne agreed. “But Wyrmius and Framefighters are the good shit. Especially Framefighters.”

Then she turned to Amir. “You know what? Next time we’ll visit, I will bring the Ludoplex!” The Tenno grinned. “If you like beating the shit outta a bunch of programmed bots,” Operator Damienne nodded briefly towards the fighting arcade game to underline her words, “you may definitely love beating the shit outta other players. Framefighters is fully PVP.”

“Is that an invitation to party?” The technician hummed with a small smirk as he dashed back from said fighting game to the pinball machine, mimicking the stereotypical manner of speech of some main character from a generic action movie.

“Yup!” Both Operator and Drifter answered simultaneously once again.

“Aight… Count me in, girls!”

[am-i-the-asshole-2]

WIBTA if I dumped all of my friend's dirty secrets in the group chat and went into hiding from him?

I (21M) am a transmasculine (I think) person (turning 22 this thursday on the 15th).  I have a friend group that I've had since we were about 12/13 back in middle school.  We met at lunch by sitting at the same table and have been friends ever since, with a couple friend group members leaving, but the group itself mostly staying intact.  They consist of Blue, Green, Bread, JJBA, and Jedi (all fake names, of course) as the core group now.

In the past couple years, I was dating Warframe (also a fake name), which didn't work out, but that's an AITA for another day.  Warframe, Jedi, and I are all poly, and we were getting along, playing Warframe back when The New War (rip Teshin, we will always miss you) and Angels of the Zariman were the newest story quests that had been released (more like I was getting carried because I wasn't able to make as much progression as I needed to deal enough damage in the open world areas and was pretty uncoordinated on my switch, lol).  During one of these calls, Jedi asked me to ask Warframe if he could join the relationship, as he wanted to date me and we had briefly dated for a couple years back but he had made me wildly uncomfortable so I broke it off.  Warframe denied his request to join the relationship as he saw Jedi as more of a brother, and after the call was over, Jedi asked me to date him anyway, stating "he doesn't need to know".  When I broke it off with Warframe, Jedi insisted we were dating, and all I was able to do was ask him not to tell anyone because I have bad experiences with telling people who I'm dating and he reluctantly agreed.

Over this time, Jedi has increasingly ignored my boundaries and demanded we tell the entire friend group.  When I express a boundary to him, he refuses to respect it unless I can provide a "valid" explanation, and has ignored boundaries in the same breath as saying he'll respect me.  He is the only way I'm able to get out of the house and escape the abusive living situation I'm in for even just a little bit.  I have expressed my discomfort with him making jokes about ripping that all away and leaving me to rot, which he promptly ignored, and he has threatened to report me for mail fraud (which was something my parents threatened to do if I ever received mail when I was a child, and I told him that, which he claimed was one of if not the most valid reason to not be comfortable with something) because I now have a working phone that I had delivered before my stepfather died last year and carefully hid so my parents couldn't take it and hide it from me.  He'll claim that he forgot because of his audhd diagnosis (I myself am also autistic) and that I cannot be upset with him for.  He proclaims himself a skilled manipulator to the point that he does it without realizing and that he can read me like an open book (I am, admittedly, not as skilled as I'd like to be about hiding my emotions), but then never realizes when I'm actually nervous and says that I'm the happiest I've ever been, and when I shake my hand like I often do when I'm bored (such as in long car rides) or when I just need sensory stimulation, he demands I tell him what's wrong and yells at me for keeping secrets from him when I tell him I'm just fine and will not stop until I'm crying, having done this as well with things I'm rather sensitive about and would rather not disclose to anyone.

When I was excitedly having a conversation with Bread while he was nearby with headphones, I was explaining a character that has to do with summoning sea creatures, and he began yelling at me for talking about the ocean when I know he has Thalassophobia.  After that, we kind of just sat quietly, with Bread changing the subject to SCP's after a moment to help cheer me up, since we were going to be at his college dorm for the weekend.  On the upside, there were peanut butter pretzels, which I absolutely decimated because I eat maybe one meal a day normally.

Jedi insists that I don't get any moments alone with the other members of the friend group, which I can kind of understand in terms of Bread, since I used to have a huge crush on him, but we had never ended up together, and Bread is in a monogamous relationship with someone else, but gets really weird when it comes to JJBA and Green, as both of them are also trans, and I actually stayed part time with JJBA during senior year of highschool due to transportation issues, and I view both Blue and Green more as siblings, as they've always been like family to me, and they go to college several states away.  Blue and Green are twins, and are actually the ones who I spent the most time with back in school, partially because they were the only ones who lived close enough to me in school for me to walk to and took the bus together, but also because they are the absolute sweetest people in the world and Blue and I also shared a cooking class (and a cursed omelette that actually turned out really well, somehow).  Jedi is very jealous, and because he doesn't want me to be alone with anyone, he also constantly stares over my shoulder at my phone screen despite me saying that I wasn't comfortable with it due to not having privacy growing up and him promising he'll back off.

Jedi also constantly is groping me whenever not being directly watched by anyone else, honking my tits and demanding sex and stating I owe him due to all the gifts he's bought me and taking me out (despite insisting and me not being allowed to deny the gifts and him stating that he wanted to see me), going as far as stating that my body belongs to him and threatening to cut me apart and sell me, even going as far as to outline a portion of my left chest to cut out and sell, which was really upsetting, as he is physically stronger than me, has taken several years of hapkido, has a large collection of knives, access to swords, and is able to get ahold of guns due to his father being a cop, as well as, obviously, knowing my address, having threatened to come over with violence once when the people I live with threw a cabinet door in my direction.  He has also stated I'm not allowed to get bottom surgery due to the dangers of it and so that I could still bear children in the future (which he insists on talking about extremely often, stating that we are going to get married, have children, and he is going to keep me on a bell collar and leash at whatever home we end up at so that I "don't get lost" and he can "always find me" at home despite the fact he has extremely sensitive hearing and I am not particularly sneaky, continuing to bring it up even after flat-out telling him no multiple times).  Whenever I am out with him, he is constantly trying to get me to drink a lot of alcohol (which I can't really do) and get me drunk, and is constantly demanding that I download the hentai games he plays and insisting that I play everything he does immediately and as soon as he asks how he wants to play so that he's satisfied.

When with his brother and a friend we'll call Ray (fake name) and I mentioned that I'm still questioning my gender, they all DEMANDED I never become a man, stating that if I did, I would never be able to get my kids in divorce proceedings because men don't get rights (which was really fucking disrespectful, as it implied that the court wouldn't immediately rule me "mentally unfit" due to being trans, and that I would not only get married to a woman which honestly sounds like a delight but would have multiple children and end up having a messy divorce and my children would be taken away from me just because I would be a man, and it felt really upsetting to be reduced to that).  They later argued, with both his brother and Ray chewing Jedi out for using his autism to excuse everything, and I had to ask to be left out of the conversation, though Jedi started in on me for not defending him later when they weren't around, even though he very often does that and acts like a kicked puppy and cries and plays the victim when anyone calls him out on his behavior regardless of the situation.

Jedi and a former member of the friend group who we'll call Scarlet (still a fake name) actually used to date in highschool, and Jedi was actually really weird about it in the group chat, constantly making sex jokes and even explaining that he controls when she's allowed to use the bathroom and holding it over her head, making the entire friend group uncomfortable.  They broke up before the end of highschool, neither one wanting to talk about it, with Jedi giving the same upset behavior I'd come to recognize.  Scarlet recently left the group after getting married (congratulations to her and I hope they treat her well with all the love she deserves, even if I'm a little bummed I'll never be able to get that sword she promised to forge for me and teach me how to use) and stopped responding to everyone else, particularly Jedi.  JJBA is pretty distant nowadays as well, though lurks in the group chat and mainly avoids Jedi, with Bread also avoiding Jedi but also being extremely busy normally and able to use that as an excuse to avoid drama.

There is more specifics, of course, but I'm a bit scatterbrained, upset, and scared right now, so I can't really remember off the top of my head. I'm sorry for being all over the place in this, too, as my thoughts are a little scattered right now. My question is, would I be the asshole if I sent all of this in the group chat, blocked him, and hoped he didn't show up? I do have my suspicions that this is the exact reason that Jedi and Scarlet broke up, and I'm scared that he will do something horrible in retaliation or that I'm just overreacting, so would I be the asshole?

[lncarnon]

hello world and all who inhabit it i present spicy

just going through my list of muses;

nadia is very touch adverse and subsequently hasn't been laid in a long time, only interested in men

nekros is exempt from spicy hc's

teshin has a non-existent sex drive

stalker very, very rarely is horny and the moments where he is are typically reserved for his acolytes, so good luck

julie has definitely used her charm and looks to seduce people to their death but the only time she would actually let it get anywhere, is with frank, or frank's permission

joey is definitely still a virgin, not for lack of trying, but he is wholly unsure what to do with himself in that regard

were-elk huntress would be quite a terrifying ordeal and since she has no interest in men, might be seduced by a woman but also.. good luck with that one

krampus trapper fucks, he's a scary demon goat-man, but no one has been brave enough to even try

b-312 has no interest in seeking out sex, though there is a chance someone could try and convince her, good luck. she definitely would not be interested in casual encounters.

the warden is a giant robot, no

the servant of the flame definitely still has a sex drive and they use the same magic that made them, to manifest a dick, but sex is far from the first thing on their mind

mia is open to a very loose lifestyle and flings, but her job keeps a lot from developing

finka has a very specific type of man she is interested in and if you don't fit that category, the answer is likely no, but she will be nice about it

yellowleg also doesn't think about sex, if ever

rosebud is the opposite and likes to use sex as a means to conquer cocky guys, if you get her in bed better prepare for her being on top

thatcher likes a good fuck as much as the next guy, but his age is starting to get to him, and if you asked out of the blue or at a bar he would probably just chuckle and decline

maximilien fucks but he never initiates, though he won't go to bed with strangers

the monitor before becoming the monitor had a normal sex drive, but ever since his training, sees no purpose in it (with one exception and they know who they are)

june likes sex, how it makes her feel, and she engages in it whenever convenient

amon would definitely use sex as a means to control someone, full stop, he isn't interested in attachment

revenant has bodies with modifications both for mouth and other means, he doesn't get horny, but would absolutely capitalize on making someone feel ashamed because they wanted to fuck a murder robot

slade hasn't really thought about sex since everything that happened in star city, it isn't something he goes looking for, and will satiate himself if it comes up

jeri knows what sex is but would be unlikely to do anything with that information, that being said, if you really wanted to go to town with a xenomorph and not be killed go ahead and try i GUESS

for walter there seems to be some suggestion that trolls have private parts but they don't use them to reproduce so i have NO IDEA if they could fuck. walter is far more human adjacent so he might?? try, if someone wanted.

zachariah definitely gets horny, but is fairly picky on whether or not he is going to be asking for help from anyone

aria will frequent a few bars around the local area if she is really feeling like she needs some release, but don't expect her to stick around

theoretically you could have sex with the ahamkara but also why would you want to do that

saint-14 is very much a monogamous man and that's the end of that

rasputin is another one of those 'you could but he wouldn't understand what's going on' characters, so probably don't try, his son might also hunt you down-

araskes is in a state of being that she doesn't have physical needs to any degree, for food, or sex. i guess it would not be impossible to seduce her but you would have better luck seducing a brick wall

delilah is bisexual but lesbian leaning, so women will definitely have better chances at engaging with her

the outsider hasn't been human in centuries, but if you approach him in my au where he was freed from being a god, he would be pretty lost as to what he is feeling and what to do about it haha. oldest virgin.

daud is asexual, he'd let you think you are getting somewhere and then he would probably stab you for being so gullible

caska is a giant cat, she would only be interested in other giant cats and even then she isn't interested in starting a family yet

rindul is a vampire that knows how to have a good time, but most people are scared of him, so he often has quite a bit of alone time

elam, as an assassin, has definitely used sex to get to a target. at least he lets them finish before gutting them. not much interest outside of work

lord warden dusk is a very large, dragon-like demon, who definitely could fuck but doesn't inherently have much of a sex drive if ever and would use it against a mortal readily. but hey, if you are into size difference-

the ascendant lord is just a guy, with a high position in society on both sides of his person. he gets offers all the time so you really would have to make an impression to get that kind of attention from him

maxwell only had eyes for one girl, and she hates him, so don't bother

shay fucks when the need arises, but it's usually limited to someone he already knows

aiden would be a task and a half to seduce, he usually sticks to himself

teylan is exempt from the spicy hc's

[flamingphoenixfox]

Hello again, Tenno! Let's talk Easter Eggs! Specifically, Warframe DE Logo Easter Eggs! I just recently found the DE logo hidden in Duviri (quite by accident as I've done with all but the one hidden in the Zariman), and wanted to share screenshots of my findings!

But then it occurred to me, "gosh wouldn't it be cool and helpful if I compiled images to help people find all of the hidden DE logos?"

AND SO BELOW THE CUT ARE DIRECTIONS AND SCREENSHOTS TO DO JUST THAT!

Just to warn you: this is a long post since it's essentially a step-by-step for finding all the logos in all five areas!

Enjoy!

Welcome to Cetus! You're Landing Craft has just dropped you off onto the platform by the shore! See that cliff face off to your right? If you want to find the DE logo you need to go climb on top of that!

Yeah, in fact you need to go this far inland (to the rock I'm standing on)!

It's right here on the edge of this rock!

Next area!

Welcome to Fortuna (my favorite hub ♥)! Bask in the wonderful bisexual lighting!

When you are done basking jump on up here to this little balcony! It's the second balcony up (the third floor if you count the ground floor as the first one)!

The DE logo is hidden on side facing inward!

And onward we go!

Welcome to the Necralisk! It's a bit pustule-y and gooey but there is still some old Orokin architecture sticking out of the infested flesh-scape here and there! Like this pillar! Here - I'll throw my Xoris for you so you can see what I'm looking at!

Climb on up and - TADA! There it is! A nice and simple find! That can't really be said about the next one though.

Oh boy here we are...

The DE logo hidden in the Zariman - the one I struggled the most to find, I thought I had rubbed by face against every wall and structure, but apparently I had missed a spot. This is the only one I needed to look up to find. This is the elevator that leads out to the rest of the Zariman - where we do the Zariman missions.

I thought I had checked this area thoroughly enough but I think that disconnected wall panel always caused my angle coming out from the elevator to just miss it. See where I'm standing? Notice how it seems a little darker there? I certainly didn't.

There's an opening to - what would you call this - a maintenance port? Regardless, let's head in past the overgrown vines.

It leads into an elbow passage and into a little room.

Looks like another area one or more of the Zariman children used to hide. Of course, no area in the Zariman is complete without the ominous graffiti!

And right on the side of the box here is the logo! Even though I couldn't find this one without help I really enjoy the concept of them being a bit more hidden.

Like the last one!

I stumbled across this one by accident when I was in Captura gathering references of the mirror and portal frames for a Duviri-inspired piece I'm working on.

I happened to notice what looks like a window in the Kaithe's stable and totally expected the overgrowth to be a solid object when I jumped at it.

It wasn't. Queue shock and confusion. At first, I thought it was just a hole leading over to the plant area - a silly short cut. I walked in a little further.

No, this is an enclosed cave. A secret! A nice little den to hide in!

Wait that's-! WOAH I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THEY WOULD HAVE A HIDDEN LOGO FOR THIS AREA! That's so cool and fun! I love this hiding spot for it! The perfect amount of context clues to make you suspicious and intrigued by the area if you are looking! This one was by far my favorite to find!

Anyways,

That's all of the DE logos (that I'm aware of)! I'm looking forward to the interesting places they will think to hide the next ones! Hope you enjoyed my guide (and the silly retelling of how I found the one in Teshin's Cave)!

Thanks for reading!

[xeilon]

I was looking through the Warframe wiki and (once again) I realized that probably the most disturbing / unexplained thing here is how the hell is Teshin still alive? And it got me thinking, and with every idea it gets worse and worse? We also don't know for how long have he known the queens, and maybe it's all connected? I have a few theories, but they are a bit long, so I put them under the cut.

1. The most tame theory:

So Teshin IS a liar. He kept the queens' secret, shitting on the Lotus throughout a whole quest, telling us how we can't possibly trust her because she's been keeping secrets from us. Conveniently "forgets" to mention that he is a Dax etc.

So the guy decides to fib a little and tell the Tenno that no, of course he didn't go into stasis, HE just "searched the long path for redemption". 🙄

The queens found him a few years before the main plot started, woke him up, and he's been serving them since, also running the Conclave between his missions.

2. Slightly worse theory:

Teshin has been with the queens from the start. As in, since the fall of the Orokin empire. Some Orokin escaped with their guards, grineers, Dax. He was fighting in the same location as where the twins were, and they commanded him to come with and protect them.

Tyl Regor calls Teshin a pseudo-Tenno and is surprised to see him... alive? Why would he?

The Tenno during the game are mostly known for one thing: stirring up shit in the empire and then disappearing.

What if the queens decided to put Teshin in cryosleep for most of the time and then wake him up for missions. Find them new bodies, fight against an uprising, let Tyl Regor examine him to make more "durable" less mutated grineer using orokin technology. And then, when everything is said and done, he goes back to stasis.

Just as the Lotus thought the Queens never existed, Teshin is just a mere ghost story for the average grineer. Those who met him (like Tyl Regor) don't know he's a dax, they just think that he's some Tenno like soldier who the queens managed to capture and then was killed.

His newest mission might be to get close to the Tenno and either steer them towards the grineer / orokin faction or bring them to the queens for continuity.

He searched the long path for redemption through living in a limbo of life and fake-death. Maybe after a while it just didn't work. His body was asleep and unchanging, but his mind was aware. The things he learned in this state were the skills that helped him help us during The War Within.

3. The worst of them all:

We know from Vorunas backstory that the Orokin weren't the only ones who could preform the continuity. We also know, because of the existence of Varzia that there were Dax put in stasis. So who's to say that the grineer queens haven't actually told a lot of Dax to come with them, and put them all into stasis except one. Teshin.

He does their bidding, time passes he gets older and when he can't preform well anymore in his current body, well, there are others. A bit of kuva and everything is solved.

The queens wouldn't use dax bodies for continuity, because they then would inherit the dax's weakness - being unable to defy the symbols of the orokin.

On the other hand, not preforming continuity on him is just too much work. A new dax that doesn't know/understand the structure of the grineer army? Someone who has to be taught the language and the rules? Someone who doesn't know about previous missions, who doesn't know the enemy? Continuity just saves them the trouble.

After all, Teshin did tell us that he believes the kuva is both an elixir of immortality and a corrupting poison. Maybe he knows it all too well.

[eliasdrid]

oh speaking of warframe

duviri spoilers ahead (consider I only played yesterday and may be so so wrong)

I was double checking the transcript of the quest on wiki since it'll likely be a while til its out for replay and all.

Anyway. There's this bit, right.

Teshin: You saw that ship in the sky... The Zariman. Our child king must be one of those who was abandoned there. A Tenno. Drifter: You said the Tenno are trying to help me... this paradox stuff. Now you're saying Thrax is one of them? He doesn't seem too helpful. Teshin: The history I know... that Zariman ship returned from the Void, bringing with it the extraordinary power the Tenno command. But here is a different path, I suppose. A difference in parallel. A paradox in itself.

And Dominus Thrax design shows some human skin in his left hand specifically but his legs may be partially uncovered too (or at least that is the case in the concept art). When I saw the weird metal belly thing my first thought was that it was a Fortuna sort of deal and his head/brain rests in there but it might just as well be in its rightful place and he's just trying to look like an Orokin ruler in his complicated fairy tale land (so he has that mask/helmet).

Moving on. I was checking other stuff on wiki and it said somewhere that the Drifter made everything up themself - including Dominus Thrax. This idea is supported by this dialogue but I want to explain what I interpreted which is not exactly this. Bear with me.

Teshin: You did it. You took control. Drifter: I always had it. Thrax didn't make this place- Teshin: -you did. But... you reset it. You gave it all back to him. Why?

Now, the Drifter being the original king is interesting because the first thing we hear when trying to leave is this (below) and while the first citizen does say they are not sure... the Drifter is quite different from Dominus Thrax and it struck me as odd while I was playing. Besides, it seemed to me that Dominus Thrax didn't leave the palace much.

Citizen 1: The king! The king! There goes our honored king! Citizen 2: Where? Where?! He gave me no eyes to see him!

So, like, I am absolutely wondering how long it's been since the Drifter lost control of Duviri... because clearly they are an Adult Now and clearly they were a child or teenager before Duviri, aboard the Zariman.

If Duviri happened with the "crash" and that's the point of divergence... well, our operators are teenagers to young adults (at most). And before the War Within update, on Second Dream, they were more child-like (and I personally adhere to the idea that there was a time for the operator to "grow up" at whatever slow rate void-immortality has given them out of cryo/suspension between these two events). So, the Drifter was a teen (or preteen) and they were with others of their age (or about). Of the adults of the Zariman we know little but I do not remember any of them surviving so we have a bunch of children whose parents are all dead. Of course the Tenno managed somehow and were later retrieved by the Orokin who experimented on them and made them weapons on the Sol timeline. Not the case on Duviri...

During the quest Teshin says we are not experiencing our own memories but Dominus Thrax's. This is the one thing that leads me to believe that Dominus Thrax is not a Conceptual Embodiment but a Tenno - like Teshin guesses at first. The Drifter could have also poured their memories into Dominus Thrax to rid of them too but... let me follow my line of thought to the end.

SO.

Consider: The Drifter and Thrax were taking care of each other during the events of the Zariman. The Drifter decided to read Thrax, perhaps much younger than them, this book he carried around constantly to help him calm down - he even had a doll of one of the characters, it was clear that he liked it very much.

Sidenote, the book we get has doodles on the pages, which reinforces my idea that it belonged to a child. Moving on.

It's all going terribly aboard the Zariman and it's gonna get worse. Reading the book to Thrax is almost a ritual. Escapism. The Drifter being older and capable of understanding what's going on wishes that Thrax would never have to see the horrors of this and could live in this fantastic book... Something happens (perhaps many of the others die) and this all develops into The Drifter creating Duviri and making Thrax king. The Child King. To Cope.

The Drifter plays along at first, they are no longer in danger and they have an entire amazing world to explore. The Drifter is the Drifter because they explore ever-changing Duviri and won't stop visiting places, coming back and telling tales. Years go by. Thrax being much younger and having all his needs met never grows up from his child self, it's not like they have anyone around to teach them either. Additionally the Drifter may be too trusting of the fact that he can do all the growing up on his own too, having grown up quickly themself due to the Zariman incident, or believes he understand that this is all made up and one day they'll have to leave. In any case, they eventually reach the conclusion that Duviri is nice, fairy tale land, but they should call for help or find a way out already. They can't be children forever. When they express this, it sparks a conflict between them.

[...] You keep calling this a prison, but you know what it really is? It's the only place in the entire universe that is... Actually. Safe.

Thrax doesn't want to leave this world of fantasy and doesn't want the Drifter too either, this is the only other real person he knows of. And it is safe here. Nowhere else. Maybe they play cat and mouse for a while, maybe Duviri was bigger but got reduced so the Drifter couldn't go too far. Whatever happens, Thrax ends up getting the Drifter and executes them for treason ad nauseum until The Duviri Paradox quest and here we are now.

Anyway these were my thoughts, cutting it here because I feel I might get sidetracked. Also this interpretation kinda makes it all a bit sadder that The Drifter decided to reset the day and give Thrax the throne back even though they likely had the power to change that.

[rubixpsyche]

Duviri Posting here!

Cinematic Intro

I do love how the puppeteer poses the puppet Drifter with their knees together to make em look week and pathetic

OH! THERE'S MORE TO THE INTRO LESGO???

Ugh! The colors!!! The music!!!

OH CHARACTER CREATION here we go

"DEATH! BY! METEOR!" doesn't get out of the fucking way

Ah! Hand. Wait a minute. OH FUCK HAND.

[Thrax guards reflect my shots] I. I don't like being on this side of the bullet deflection...

"Apathy" ah inchresting. Protagonist is the apathetic one dealing with the overemotional. Child. That's a change from most other things

[Presented with 3 starters] WHERE THE FUCK IS MY WARFRAME. MY COLORS!! I made loadouts for my starters for a rEASON!!

Omg Teshin with the only cute kuaka ever

"You that named her.. remember"oh so we have memory loss. Interesting interesting. So does Drifter remember anything of what happened in previous quests?

[Stranger In Black] "An Unlikely ally will occasionally appear in Teshin's Cave as a playable Warframe" oh I know yall are GUNNING for this. I however will be chasing the Riding intrinsic. Speaking of. HORSIE FLY!!!

I know we've seen it a few times before but I love the loading screen. @lgbten-0 was right though, we should be able to wiggle/tilt the Kaithes like we do with Orbiters

I'm a Excal starter i gotta pick my boi again. Oh the way they look around,,, my baby

MORE CHARACTER CREATION, and the working mirror!!

[looks at chest] Oh that's a trap. [Opens it] Boss fight. B. Boss Figh-

NIGHTMARE CREATURES FUCK FUCK SLEEP PARALYSIS DEMONS FUCK SHIT FUCK SHIT

[Figurine cutscene] Tenno? Is Thrax,,, YEAP THERE IT IS. HA

Mathilda honey you are fr going Through it huh. Drowning in denial one could say.

The music the MUSIC!!!

OH THE TENNO LIVIN ON SHIP, oh god these kids finding happiness how they can after their stranding...

[Re: Teshin in the city] Hey. You cant do that. Hey. Stop HEY

Are Bombastine and the others fellow Tenno too, then? Ah but they seem jealous of Dominus' powers so possibly not.

[Re: 'Teshin' yelling at us] Why is Teshin suddenly so. Light skinned. What goes on there

Oh mY GOD RABLIT GET THEY ASS

They wrote rabbits so good they would lunge and go for the throat

WHY CANT I PET BABY!? Why can't I pet Honse and Rablit!! Also I DEMAND we be able to pick up Rablit

HOLY FUCK I CALLED IT WORM TIME WORM TIME- WHAT DID I SAY- Months ago I said "I suspect with the giant Orowyrms being bigger versions of the wyrms in the The War Within, we could also have the capability of possessing them." and look what we got!! Aside from that, cue Sonic Frontier's "Break through it all" LES FUCKING GOOO

Oh thank god. Oh my god Teshin. Don't do that to us again.

Post Quest

[trackerkitsune]

Some Duviri lore fragment thonks:

Acrithis says that there were only two people who ever came to Duviri from elsewhere, and we know that one of them is Teshin, and the other is 99% likely to be Albrecht Entrati.

So we have the locations 'Monk's Landing' and 'Scholar's Landing' respectively mentioned in the lore fragments.

But we also have 'Watcher's Landing'. Clearly associated, from her talking about Garmi (Mathila's husband), with Harrow and Rell.

So we now have an unknown third person landing in Duviri and the questions: Who was Garmi? How was he associated with Harrow and Rell, since he said he was 'keeping It at bay'?

This fragment brings up a really good indication that our actions in the Origin System have had huge impacts on Duviri as a whole, too - the 'rain of broken chains' clearly alludes to the Operator breaking Rell and Harrow's chains.

So, following that... what happened on the island of Cornucopia? (The Bleeding Earth fragment)

We can probably guess what the Hollow Children were on Academe, considering Wally visits the Orbiter often enough.

Where did the blood come from? What kind of creature's blood is it? What event happened in the Origin System happened to cause this in Duviri? Why does the blood cause people to get black eyes and speak in 'smoky whispers'?

Who were the ghosts on Lorn? Who were the statues of, the ones Acrithis named the Scribe, the Scryer and the Shawzinist?

What's the timeline of all of this happening, too?

We know the Liminus are made from a child's nightmares, and I theorise that they're a parallel to the hunting parties of adults on the Zariman going by the similarity of their posing to the posing of the adults in the Rell webcomic.

So many questions and thoughts!!

[silence-of-autumn42]

So, Duviri has happened now, and wow there is some interesting stuff in there. I have three big questions, and three big reveals I want to discuss. Let's start with the reveals. Spoilers ahead, obviously.

First thing - we find out in the finale of the quest that Dominus Thrax is not the creator of Duviri, but rather our Drifter was, creating it based on a storybook to deal with our emotions after the calamity that was the Zariman. It seems like those with a connection to the Void have the capability to make stable spaces within it - it seems like Duviri is like a hyper advanced version of the internal realms created by the Void Angels.

Thing the second - as with the Angel realms, Duviri can be accessed through the outside. Teshin ended up in Duviri after falling into the Void portal during The New War, and Void Angels are trying to get in. The Zariman appears to be a bridge between, half in the Void and half in our reality. It's not clear if only the Drifter can pass through via the Zariman, though.

Thing three - the Man in the Wall seems to know about Duviri. Some of the npcs have dialogue about black eyed children appearing, and laughing whenever the Void was mentioned. An npc also discusses hearing the rap-tap-tap of the Man trying to get in. It appears that Wally controls the Void Angels, and so it seems like he's trying to push his way into any stable reality, be it Duviri or Origin.

Now for the questions. My first big question is how did we create this place? Is it a thing done with Void powers? If so, when did we get them? Based on what I can tell from the Angels of the Zariman quest, and Duviri, I don't think the Drifter has Void powers until New War, but rather the realm was created when our consciousness came into contact with a large amount of Void energy, manifesting the place the way the Holdfasts were manifested.

The second question I have is are there any connections between Duviri and the Requiem Words? There are some not insignificant similarities between the Requiem Glyphs and the symbols used in the Owl Enigmas in Duviri. Specifically, the Owl Glyphs look like simplified versions of the Requiem Glyphs. I theorise that the Owl glyphs are descended or adapted from the Requiem ones, possibly containing an aspect of their power, hence why the Owl and Archivist is interested in them.

My third question is pretty simple, but I think it needs asking. What's with all the animals in Duviri? Are they a part of the story? Or did we just manifest jackelopes and ceramic kavats? Because if it's the latter, big mood. I too want to surround myself in cats to avoid thinking about my emotional issues

I think this whole quest can be summed up as "don't go through puberty on a spaceship stuck in a nightmare Void realm, your mood swings will get *weird*

[feral-lore-creature]

Whats your favourite ambient Teshin line/action from the cave 👀

Omfg I thought no one would ask LOL thank you.

"I woke to the sound of the Shawzin. Was that you, or my dream?

"(humming Smiles from Juran)"

"(softly sighs) Valeria..."

Ngl, It was pretty hard to find the top few I enjoyed the most, since I just like to hear him talk. (He needs more development PLEASE DE also pls let him live he's bbg)

Jokes and stuff aside, I love the first two because I just wanna see him happy for once. He's old, retired, and isn't nearly as distant as he once was. He's so sweet, I want to cry.

The third line is because this is the second time we've heard Valeria being mentioned in the game's history, (from what I am aware) so it confirms that she's not only still a part of the story, but that Teshin just hasn't let her go yet... :(

Still gotta have some angst with my fluff.

[technorot]

alright, quick duviri review/opinion from yours truly;

!!!!!obviously spoilers for the duviri paradox!!!!!

Positive Stuff

I genuinly enjoyed the story of it

-> granted it was mostly implied stuff I still understood all of it and what it means for us.

As a long time teshin stan who was really sad about his open ending in the new war I was so happy to see him. [and his rabbit ofc! <3]

also the option to have new players start either with this quest or the "traditional" beginning is very cool!

I am so in love with duviri's design! I bet I could hang out for hours there.

[slightly] Negative Stuff

I am not sure how many people are gonna stick around and play the missions.

at least for now there a ton of bugs in it [enemies stop spawning in making the mission fail; stuck in drifter after using last grasp; spiral ending after stage 3 (not intended) - basically all the bugs we've been getting since many expansion launches ago]

I have double resource booster on and even I feel like we barely get any resources. that sucks massive ass.

the whole orowyrm fight. we are basically given no instructions. no damage numbers, no visable weakpoints, no nothing.

as with the new war we see nothing that has happened to us reflected in the rest of the game. [I get it a little - its only happening to us, yeah. but a little something would be nice.]

its getting only grindier with every expansion. 5x regular orowyrm for one weapon. [if you can get a blueprint idk where - the game also fails to tell me that. usually a hint or something was left in the market on the respective weapon. not this time.]

so basically; I loved the story and I'm pretty sure most of the warframe community does it. but its getting way to grindy and I'm not sure if I want to do that with all bugs still in game. AGAIN: THE STORY IS AWESOME.

[grineerios]

Insomnia won and I got around to writing things down about my Operator and Drifter instead of just letting my thoughts do laps of my brain. So uh. Long-ass backstories, I guess?

I do have memory loss so I'm not entirely sure how canon-compliant this is, but I guess there's no harm with a few tweaks if I had fun doing it lmao

New War/Duviri Paradox/Main Story quests spoilers(?)

(I do not have names for these nerds, but I'll update whenever I figure that bit out. I've debated calling them Sigma (O) and Lavan (D) after railjack parts, but it just doesn't suit them. I guess only time will tell)

Both Operator and Drifter are He/They, and AroAce. I haven't figured out their gender(s) yet, because gender is hard.

THE DRIFTER

Drifter is a very different man when interacting with Duviri and the Operator, versus everyone else. To most of the world, he's a stubborn individual with a streak of having a short temper. His seemingly obsessive need to have some kind of control can easily get on folks' nerves, making him a hard person to work with. Occasionally, though, one can see a small glimmer of the man behind the persona.

When it comes to Duviri, as well as with The Operator and other children, a laid-back, almost jovial man emerges. He has a very strong "what happens, happens" philosophy. When faced with adversity, he mocks it. When faced with hardship, he pushes through with a stiff upper lip. When faced with loss, he waves his hand dismissively.

But this isn't the full truth either.

In reality, The Drifter is an extremely anxious person with a desperate need to protect The Operator, especially after the events of The New War. This manifests as him flip-flopping between letting the Operator do what they want, and needing to control and have a say in everything the Operator does.

When in Duviri, this anxiety manifested slowly over time, starting with the Void's subconscious influence on Duviri. The landscape's shape was the first to change, next the sky turned to Void-like clouds, followed by the fracturing point- the Zariman itself appearing in the sky.

Up until this point, the Drifter was a mere side character in Duviri's story, a manifestation of an unimportant and uneventful life far away from the horrors of 10-0. Primarily, he was a Tammherd, moving flocks across Duviri's verdant islands, even as the Void's influence poked and prodded at the memories he'd repressed.

After the 10-0 appeared in the sky, however...

Everything changed. No longer could he pretend that things were well, that the Void-spirals didn't poke at his mind, that the Void-forsaken ship wasn't real, that Duviri was all he'd ever known.

As his anxiety grew, Dominus Thrax became more and more maniacal, pushing new laws and standards that began crushing at Drifter's soul and personality, hardening him into apathy after being hunted again and again for seemingly infinity.

Long forgotten were the days of falling asleep under the stars, having nothing but a Tamm for a pillow- no, now his days were split between the void-contaminated Zariman and being hunted and executed by Thrax. The songs of Void Angels and the scream of arrows and blades set the soundtrack for his life, replacing the shawzin music he'd formerly enjoyed playing.

No matter how Thrax decided to execute him that day, he'd always wake up, lost in the world foreign to him of the Zariman, a horrifying feeling tugging at his mind as he wandered the halls, confused and lost. But.. he'd always find his way back to Duviri. Through a vent, a door, a mirror, or a broken screen- it didn't matter. He always found his way back into his personal hell away from hell, doomed to live in his damned loop forever.

On one of these loops, before Teshin beats into their thick skull that yes, you can just leave this situation dumbass, while stuck in the Zariman, he was injured by either a void-touched item or a Void Angel. Throughout subsequent spirals, void crystals began to grow from the wound. And it hurt like a bitch. If he'd ever let you look at the wound- or the scar, as it presents itself in the Origin System, you might faintly see the curled spikes, if you squinted, as they're mysteriously mostly invisible when exposed to direct and indirect sunlight. Under artificial light, they're slightly more visible, but the Drifter intentionally wears clothes with baggy sleeves so as not to worry The Operator. Regardless of where he is, undercroft or origin system alike, the crystals feel like it buries itself deeper and deeper into his flesh when he uses transference.

We all know how the story ends. With the help of Teshin, the Drifter finally Gets A Fucking Grip On Things and is able to voluntarily exit and enter Duviri at their leisure. The only real difference is that instead of Lotus' hand granting the Drifter Transference, it's his void injury that allows for weak Transference within the Undercroft. He must make physical contact with a Warframe to transfer into it, even after his Void abilities are strengthened in the New War.

THE BEFORE

Before the void-jump incident, and before Eternalism made the Operator and the Drifter, there was the Before.

The Before was an isolated and distractable child. He didn't do well at school, often losing himself in thought and awe over whatever was outside the nearest window. His parents were botanists and agricultural specialists who helped to tend to and monitor the Zariman's agricultural biomes. Sometimes, much to his parents' frustration, he'd skip school to watch them work. They often would joke that they wished he'd pick a normal activity to skip school over, like Lunaro.

Although he did eventually pick up Lunaro and tried to learn shawzin, he never was far from the agri-zones if he could help it. There was something that pushed away his fears. Besides, if these plants could grow here, then who was to say he couldn't thrive cultivating life in Tau?

Aaaaand then the void jump incident happened.

Of course he wasn't paying attention when it happened. He was wayy too distracted by all the amazing colors in Saturn's rings. Melica's words all sounded like the same stuff he'd hear her say after day. Blah blah blah Entrati this Golden Masters that and who could forget the Seven? Drivel. Meaningless drivel. It mattered a lot to the adults but not to him at all.

The jump hit him like a truck, when the force knocked him out of his seat, and when beautiful Saturn was replaced with the eerie, wispy void. That's when he felt fear nag at him.

In the time before Wally made their deal with him, he somehow managed to get a grip on his emotions and channeled that fear into taking control of the situation, despite shaking the entire time he was checking in on folks. He buried his emotions, focusing on the new drive in his heart, to protect the others. Even if he was a little... Blunt. Or rude. Or aggressive about the whole thing. No matter how hard you try to hide intense emotions, they'll bubble out somehow, and I doubt the Void helped with that very much. But, his practical and stubborn mind kept most of the kids he was with safe- until the Orokin dubbed them Tenno for the Operator, or until he decided to go search for more survivors alone in the Zariman, wandering the vents while the others were found and taken away; Left behind, becoming the Drifter.

I don't think the Drifter ever forgave himself for letting that happen. Even if it was because Wally twisted words.

THE OPERATOR

In the present, the Operator is less angry, and less socially isolated than the Drifter. What they lack in comparison to the Drifter's temper and isolationist tendencies, they make up for in flippancy and spite.

He took well to transference, and his training as a Tenno under the Orokin empire gave him a sense of purpose. He'd protected his kind on board the Zariman, and he'd continue to protect them even now. With the help of his warframe, a Volt, he'd stand by their sides, and ensure everyone made it out alive. They were his Tenno fellows. His Clan.

As time went on though, his faith in the Orokin evaporated, as he saw how little they actually cared about his friends and himself. Vowing to never trust Orokin word again, he relished the Night of Naga Drums, when he finally got to strike back at the Orokin for their foul play.

His distrust of the Orokin carried over from Margulis to the Lotus, instead, looking up to the Dax remaining after the fall of the Orokin empire, knowing that they too had likely been manipulated and used by their Golden Masters.

Even knowing he'd been hurt and exploited by the Orokin, he had (and still has) a hard time seeing himself as anything but an Orokin weapon, the confusion and intensity of which only became more overwhelming after awakening from the Second Dream.

Things only got worse from there, really. His distrust of Lotus burned into outright hatred and he isolated himself from his fellow Tenno, occasionally doing mercenary work for syndicates like the Arbiters of Hexis and Steel Meridian. What purpose the Lotus had offered, he rejected, leaving him with a void in his life. Depression set in, and all he could do was wait for purpose to find him.

THE PRESENT

(My memory is fuzzy on details of The New War, so I'll need to replay it before getting into specifics about what Drifter and Operator were doing at the time. but.)

In the aftermath of the New War, the Operator has brought himself to understand that Lotus too was manipulated by Orokin power. This doesn't completely nullify his feelings, but does certainly mellow them out a bit more, to the point that he willingly participates in Tenno culture once more.

Drifter and Operator are working together, although Drifter insists on doing most Tenno missions, saying that the Operator should "catch up on being a kid" while they have the chance. This of course, does not help the Operator who desperately needs to get out and do things, as they're prone to going stir-crazy if they can't do anything for even short periods of time.

Despite having the transference circuits damaged in the Old War, the Operator almost exclusively uses his Volt, who's probably the closest thing he has to a best friend post-New War.

In the times when he chooses to, or is forced to use transference, the Drifter uses primarily an Oberon, followed closely by a Kullervo and Excalibur Umbra, the latter being an ideal choice as he doesn't require transference to be useful.

TL;DR

My Drifter is typically stoic with a hotheaded streak and a tendency for intimidation as the solution to problems. This, of course, is all fueled by a desperate need to protect people, and keep the Operator above all, safe. He's kind at heart, but it's a side rarely seen by anyone other than children or animals.

My Operator is an immature ball of spite, nigh-dependent on other people for his purpose in life. He shares Drifter's anger and aggression, but it's tempered with a strong sense of justice. He's deeply bonded to his Warframe, and the two are nigh-inseparable. Has an insatiable thirst for action, and is high-energy.

Both of them desperately need therapy and ADHD meds.