#drifter: i think they're becoming friends!

[kivaember]

sits bolt upright

bringing Umbra into 1999 is a really good idea bc imagine the interesting dynamic he can have with Eleanor because he is, literally, a physical embodiment of her fears: of losing to the infestation and killing those closest to her and potentially losing all aspect of herself with only the memory of that haunting her - but he's also a physical embodiment of hope, because despite all of that Umbra still came back to himself, in a way, in some form of fashion, even if it wasn't completely whole and back to the person he used to be.

me initially about bringing umbra to 1999: teehee umbra getting to space dad drifter in the past and the hex needing to get on his good side while drifter gets on theirs

me after thinking about it so more: oh my god there is so much potential for interesting character interactions between umbra and eleanor, and umbra and quincy, and umbra and-

[elysiae]

do you think operator & drifter treat their warframes wildly differently?

somewhat insufficient TLDR: i think the operator and drifter are emotionally attached but in vastly, strikingly different ways, and it manifested very, very differently too.

in operator's case, it isn't that they dont *care*, but they know how durable a warframe is. they know they can take one hell of a hit, and they'll be okay because that warframe takes the brunt of it (albeit with some phantom pain if the damage is bad enough). theyre less comfortable outside the confines of those large, bulky war machines because they know they're ultimately safe. those warframes can take hits. they cannot. the operator knows they were people, but they never met those people before the tragedy. besides... a lot of them really are just empty shells. they're hardly the people they once were, especially since they recreated those warframes from blueprints. don't get me wrong, they do remember the anguish of the originals - they were there, they lived it, and they still have empathy for them... but the operator knows the limits of every warframe like the back of their hand - they can maneuver however they want, they can take hits, they can run into armies and not be too afraid because they (as in the operator and the warframe this time) be fine. even if the warframe is damaged, they can fix the damage, so no harm done.

but drifter on the other hand? at first i think they never really realised the power they had. in their mind they were still them, just running, rolling on the occasion, it took them ages to maneuver those things *properly*, and probably only ever really learned with the operator's guidance. they would not let a warframe take a hit, not because they felt empathy for it (at least not a lot, last i checked you kind of need at least *some* to have effective transference?) but because they were so used to walking around vulnerable. yknow, not inside a killing machine. but what would've really solidified the difference was after they went to 1999. sure, hearing that these things used to be people is one thing, but at the end of the day, to drifter, they're still just machines. drifter never got to experience what the tenno did, they never had to deal with reaching into their freshly scarred minds to ease their anger, sorrow, fear, rein them in like the terrified animals they were turning into and hush their cries with understanding - they only knew the dead inside remnants... but it's an entirely other thing when you go to the past and see the people who were hurt. you meet them and you get to know them, become their best friends - maybe even date one of them - and it hit drifter like a fuckin' freight train. they have this entirely different view on warframes from that cold perspective they had at first. they weren't just war machines. those are people. every time they go into the head of those machines, they're looking through the eyes of *people.* people who had families and desires and hobbies, things they looked forward to, entire futures ahead of them that were snuffed out. people who were scared, people who didn't know what was happening. people who knew what was happening, who lived in fear knowing they weren't able to stop it... people who lived in fear of losing themselves. and i think it hit drifter a lot harder than they'd ever admit.

but thats not to say one of them is more attached than the other - both of them care deeply about their warframes. it's just that, they have different ways of looking at them. after all their experiences were so vastly different, it'd be impossible to look at them the same way.

(too lazy to type it out all over, but i have an example in the tags i think kinda helps pull it together more)

[silverchronicler]

HELLO and thank you @potatos-are-best for taking my bait and encouraging me to talk about my ideas because I've been thinking about them on and off for like a year or so now

So. I think a lot about this game and specifically its worldbuilding, and my ideas revolve a lot around one thing:

Warframe is a game that is set up with one protagonist: You. All these cool interesting things happen To You specifically and You are the one who gets the cool rewards and is trusted by everyone.

But if You are the one with all the plot, then what's everyone else doing?

If there's theoretically somewhere between thousands to millions of Tenno in canon, what happens when eight of them show up to a distress call? What happens if four of them get involved in a quest? What if Ballas was confronted with twenty tenno that he had to throw into the void?? What if they DON'T all get thrown into the void? how does this change things?

And if so much knowledge from Orokin times has been lost, then what does Tenno culture look like now when all these young people become found and have chances to communicate again? What is New Tenno Culture?

I call it the Many Tenno Theory, or tentatively the Many Tenno AU. It's about the same as the lore of the game, but there's more variety in things, especially in quest stuff, because there's a lot of tenno all potentially able to get involved.

(this might be a little long so I might put some of it under a cut)

The only thing I have as NOT adapted for Many Tenno so far is Umbra, but I think that makes it more interesting. One Tenno gets Umbra, and goes through the majority of the Sacrifice, basically because he was the first one there. So like I have one Tenno who acts like he's The Protagonist, but he's not actually the protagonist of the story. Because it's about everyone else and multiple people who live different lives and how every Tenno has different experiences but they all live through these cornerstone events- second dream, the sacrifice, the new war- and how the story changes if different Tenno make different decisions.

I have.... fffffive? main Tenno characters I've got some fun in depth ideas for and a couple secondary characters but I imagine I'd make up a lot of casual characters for actually writing this because to me that's half the fun. And I don't have as much about their drifters yet but Duviri is another interesting can of worms that I've been thinking about.

Like, Duviri is very much set up around The Drifter being the one suffering the loop, and everyone else they knew is gone/somewhere else/mysteriously disappeared and they're taking on Dominus Thrax alone. But what if they're not totally alone? Where are the other Drifters? I've been playing with the idea of potentially the Drifters like, one person gets to play The Drifter at a time in a given loop, and the others are playing the roles of the Duvirians, or potentially multiple loops going on at the same time but sometimes they manage to sense each other in some way. They know others are Somewhere, they just can't access them much. But I think it'd also be interesting for the Drifters to be able to interact with each other somewhat, but not in the same way Tenno do with each other. So I'm still sort of playing around with that for What Happens In Duviri but I know there's an interesting answer there. What if they leave notes for each other in their loops? What if they work together to get one of them on the throne to free them all? What if they see the face of their friend behind a mask and know that they're not fully there because they're caught by the Storybook? How does this effect their relationships after they get out? I have a lot of thoughts, there's a lot of potential there for telling an interesting story.

That would also open the possibility of Drifters having different relationships between themselves than the Tenno do, and I think that could lead to some interesting dynamics.

I also like thinking a lot about like, Tenno creating a culture. Some people try to find out what Old Tenno Culture was like and recreate it, some people don't want to do that because that was heavily influenced by the Orokin, it would just be acting like their lapdogs again. People make clans and make little bases on planets, people hang out at relays and outside of Cetus and try to dig up the old forgotten secrets of the system before the Orokin rose to power. They align with different syndicates and adopt their philosophies, or don't. What kind of culture do they have? Do you think some clans get together in Orb Vallis for K-Drive rallies? For fun?? Do you think they do deep sea diving on Uranus to dig up old relics? How do you think the Tenno's personalities change after they've been awake for years and they get used to being People again? How do you think they have fun???

There's a lot to expand on here. I might start by describing some of my characters before I get into anything too specific but I've had a lot of ideas over time on some interesting events and ways to do things so if you have any questions I'd love to hear and answer them.

[thefirstknife]

Hey Bel, I was wondering if you or one of your followers might be able to give me a rundown on the Nine, specifically as related to Prophecy; I just recently read the Ishtar entry on Eris and Drifter’s dialogue that (used to I guess) play throughout, and I’m pretty lost as to how Orin became the Emissary, how Eris knew her, why the Nine made her their Emissary, what their answer to the questions posed by us might mean now that we know so much more about Light and Darkness, that sort of thing? You’ve probably answered something like this before so feel free to kick me in that direction if so lol. Thanks for all you do for the community! 🩷🩷

No problem!

You can still get all dialogues in Prophecy! You get some at the start, and ofc at the end, but when you return to the big deserted area after defeating the second encounter, you can get dialogues. However, you have to find the little copy of the Emissary just floating around on each of the areas.

So, "the wasteland" (the big desert area) has 5 locations that are from the planets that were taken by the Pyramids at the end of Arrivals (for some reason, two for Mercury). When you get back to this area after the cube encounter, the Emissary will spawn in a specific order. It's always Titan first; if you don't go there first, you won't see her on other areas. After Titan, it's Mercury (Infinite Forest gate), then Io and then Mars. You can watch them all here: there's several per location. Alternatively, if you have the time and patience in-game, you can listen to them once, then kill yourself before you proceed to the next encounter. That will wipe you and restart you in the area and you'll be able to listen to them again. Sometimes you'll get repeating lines, but sometimes new ones will play.

Orin's story is detailed in her lore book, Ecdysis! In short, she was one of the passengers on the Yang Liwei, so the original Awoken in the Distributary. She was friends with Sjur! After leaving the Distributary, she left to Earth where she ends up dying and becoming a Guardian (Titan). Later down the line, after Mara met her again (this time as a Guardian), Mara tasked her with helping figure out how Sjur died. This is the start of her connection to the Nine.

Sjur "died" mysteriously and only a strange coin was found on her body. A strange coin is the little relic that is associated with Xur and therefore the Nine. In her search, Orin found Xur (and got terrified, resulting in breaking his back with her hammer; this is why Xur is standing that way, his back is broken). Her meeting with Xur left her somewhat changed and she started experiencing weird things that were pulling her to the Nine. Over time, she also met the Drifter and after realising that he lied to her about his identity, she snapped and went to look for the Nine full-time. She found them and became the Emissary.

I don't think it's ever specified how she and Eris knew each other, but it is most likely through Mara (if there's any piece of lore that explains this, feel free to share). But yeah Drifter confirmed they were friends "back in the day."

The whole conclusion to Prophecy is really interesting for us now because it shows that it was essentially... well. A prophecy. The Nine used it to tell us that the Light and Darkness are not some sort of moral opposing forces (confirmed now) and that they're both just tools that can be used in different ways, for both good and bad (also confirmed). This idea is also present in the mechanics as well, as we have to utilise both light and dark to progress and get things done.

It's a really cool dungeon! Though a lot of the context is now missing. It came out in Arrivals as a sort of precursor to the planets leaving, which is why there's a lot of imagery about them, especially the wasteland. It was also a sort of an intro into how we'll eventually need to use stasis, by showing us that Light and Darkness are tools we can use and that we shouldn't be rejecting the Darkness on the idea that it's inherently something bad (or that the Light is inherently good).

[spidersface]

okay im writing this out

i need to get this out of my brain, and this is what tumblr is for. personal theories on future protoframes/viability of frames getting protos/other nonsense relating to these ideas/headcanon shlock (used wiki/leverian/CorgTheMighty's videos on youtube)

SPOILERS TO THE CURRENT PATCH AS OF 01.03.2025

Xaku: I would be absolutely blown away if they decide to give Xaku a protoframe/1999 treatment. Excal, Volt, Mag, Trinity, Nyx, Cyte-09 (only cuz he was made for this,) Rhino, Loki, Oberon, Saryn, and Wisp are perfect for the Protoframe/1999 treatment because they're a little lore light, and purportedly originate from one individual. I think IF they wanted to do Protoframe things with Xaku they should do some knife twisting: give us doomed timeline of three friends, where only the Drifter/Operator knows who they become eventually- maybe even tease us with who the original three frames were. Getting to know what the names/designs would've been for the three would be so sick.

(rest of my musings under the cut)

Nidus: I think if and or when we would ever see anything for Nidus in this regard, it would be a rewrite/update for his lore and showing us what the process of being infected by the Helminth strain is like/the unique circumstance how it fucked up during the creation of Nidus. Again I think we've seen/know what happens with being infected by the Helminth strain, but idk. I think DE would seize an opportunity like that to really stretch their ick ability. I imagine Nidus pre-helminth/during experimentation is already sickly or had a job/exposure to large amounts of what eventually would've become Helminth before it was called that. Maybe even helped originate Helminth, was then drafted by the Orokin to fight.

Hydroid/Yareli: [[this is some heacanon stuff,]] the Aquaframes are weird in my brain. Their aesthetic/vibe seems so different from the rest of the frames, and in my mind also would lend themselves to having unique Protoframe treatments. I kind of almost want like a completely random side quest where we get to see their originator/proto forms at sea? Something, something fused with ocean beasts during Helminth infection, something, something, Sevagoth was the reason Hydroid was infected, betraying their light banter they had before/leading to their rivalry as frames.

Mirage: Considering the little we know about her process/what happened as she was being transformed into Mirage, i'd be interested to see her in a 'second batch/team' from 1999. The Harley Quinn/Therese Voerman of originators would be an interesting angle for her I feel, clown woman that was a scientist in sedation, twisted by Entrati.

Rhino: I just want a big hunky muscle man, and him to be part of Mirage's '1999 mk2' team. Maybe a fat guy would be cool too. Idk, when I see rhino my serious thinking brain turns off. Considering he's a protector, maybe he was part of a mission elsewhere in the universe of Hollvania where Entrati enacts some other secret third thing that causes a Hex pt.2 (Dream 'Hex Team Two' would be: Mirage, Rhino, Saryn, Loki, Equinox (counting them as two sep people before framification,) and Chroma or Caliban (since both have weirdly similar elements lore wise.))

Qorvex/Xaku: Considering these two are some of the explicitly "non-Ballas/Orokin" devised Warframes to have been created, I'd be interested in just more insight as to how they came to be. My personal headcanon is still that these two represent Albrecht and Loid somehow, or are derived from them in some fashion. Especially considering how we are introduced to Loid/how Loid exists in current lore. Is it too out there to say that Xaku is alternate alternate timeline Loid, stuffed into a frame with other important members of Entrati's lab/team in desperation to create a frame? I feel like Dante + Lavos would fit into this group as well...

Citrine: I just find her interesting because outside of her ALREADY existing by the time she's assigned to protect Belric + Rania, what do you mean she can turn living organic tissue into crystal??? or encase said tissue in crystal? what during proto/origination caused her to be able to do that, or conversely what happened during her infection with the hstrain?

[ooops-i-arted]

Look, I know only like 5 people including myself care about Cara Dune The Character, but season 3 really missed a chance to give her a good character arc that could mirror a "redemption" arc for Din. (This assumes the show actually goes into that instead of solving it in two episodes.)

Cara may only be a secondary character but she's been one of the more significant ones, and she has had a lowkey character arc + character development each season.

Season 1: Drifter with no purpose/no longer caring finds something to stand for and rekindles her desire to fight the Imperials. She goes from an opponent to a trusted friend for Din. At the end she starts to set down roots on Nevarro.

Season 2: She's been actively helping clean up Nevarro and has found purpose in helping protect its people and continuing to fight Imps. She accepts a role of New Republic Marshal despite previously leaving the New Republic because she felt it "wasn't what she signed up for." She still prioritizes Din over her New Republic duties.

In season 3 we get the see the New Republic up close. Cara would've been the perfect character to see it through. She knew the Rebellion and fought for the same future as Luke, Han, and Leia. We could have seen Coruscant through her eyes, perhaps starting with her being honored for capturing Gideon. At first she sees the good intentions and glitter on top, but slowly the layers are peeled back. Perhaps she sees conflict in what to do about Gideon and is ignored when she says how dangerous he is. Maybe she mentions Nevarro, or the scattered Mandalorians, and is told "the Outer Rim isn't our business" and she questions why they're bothering to patrol it. She gets a medal for her actions but her input isn't valued by those in the Core Worlds. She starts to get disillusioned again - she has been "redeemed" in the eyes of the New Republic, but she sees the same things that caused her to leave ("protecting delegates, suppressing riots" instead of fighting the evil of the Empire and its ideals) creeping back and no one is listening to her try to help her friends back in the Outer Rim by offering the perspective of someone who's been there.

Cara potentially could've faced conflict if the New Republic went so far as to take up a position against the Mandalorians or she was required to go against her friend Din in this season or future ones. Maybe this once again leads to her striking off on her own - but this time she isn't a lone drifter but has a community to return to. Maybe Greef funds her own independent anti-Imperial militia based on Nevarro. Or, Cara becomes an ally working with the Mandalorians with Din vouching for her. This could also mirror an arc of Din learning to walk his own path, on his own terms, as a Mandalorian.

Perhaps Cara could even choose to become a Mandalorian herself, and finally finds peace in belonging in a new community in a way she hasn't experienced since she was on Alderaan with her own people. If the showrunners decide they have to have a romance, this would slot in a LOT more smoothly imo than "Bo and Din are allies using each other and things are tense whoops Bo's character suddenly got half-erased so we can pretend she was always straight heroic and now she and Din are friendsies." (Tbh my first choice is ace Din in canon, but I do like some Caradin and it's because they have a strong friendship.)

Anyway I'm really sad about Cara Dune being written out of the show because I think they could've done some really exciting things with the character. Cara Dune's song was not ready to be ended. Although season 3 in general makes me kinda glad she escaped.

[faolonfiendrender]

You are one of many bandits under the dust king, hiding out in some shithole called Skinner's Roam. Now, the law doesn't come here, so you think all is well, robbing travelers, living with, well friends is a strong word, brothers in arms, beats what happens if any of the nations around here catch ya.

One day, a lone drifter comes by, a type of sentient robot called a skeleton, back home they told stories about them being the devil's servants, but, from what you've seen, they're just the same as anyone else, though kind of tough. You have it 43 to 1, crossbow men and semi-experienced swordsmen.

So, you tell it to give you its money, or the lot of you will kill it. It simply says, "No, I don't think you will"

So, you grab your sword and swing at it, it moves fast, getting out of the way, the rest of you join in. It balls its fists first, and then, almost as if it was trying to get into the habit, draws its polearm off its back

The fucker is good at dodging, but you'd swear it never used that polearm, but, you can't land many hits and it lands some sloppy cleaving hits. But, crossbow bolts keep hitting it in that section where its torso becomes just spine, so it eventually collapses. and you think it's over.

a few minutes later, it gets back up, bolts falling out, and oil no longer leaking. It picks up its polearm, and swings at one of your crossbowmen before he can react, blade sliding off meager armor but still hitting hard enough to bruise.

and so, the fight begins again, it takes two of you down with it this time, and it seems to be better at this. It stands a third time, killing five men. and a fourth, there are only 20 of you left after that, bloodloss and bruises piling up. The crossbowmen are doing fine, turning it into a porcupine and bringing it down each time. After the fifth time there are only ten of you left, 6 with crossbows and 4 without. This time it doesn't pick up its weapon when it stands.

It punches, shrugging off blows as if you were the ones unarmed, and hitting, well, you've been hit with the business end of a sledge hammer and you don't think you've ever been hit this hard. Soon, it is just you and the crossbow men, you desperately put your sword in the way of its punch and swing at its face. You connect. It goes down, but so do you, barely able to stand, too exhausted to finish the job. Not to mention that people just don't do that, once someone is down, you leave them, let them die or heal as the gods will, or heal them yourself. Sure you can rifle through their stuff, hell, even kidnap them and sell them to some noble as a slave, but not kill them. Even this beast respects that, having paid no mind to the wounded on the ground.

It gets back up, so do you. You swing desperately, but the blow slides off the robots arm, and it kicks you in the hip. Something breaks and your right leg falls from under you. you can still move that leg but your hip just doesn't work, like it's no longer attached. You watch as it charges one of the crossbowmen, taking a bolt, stumbling and continuing before punching him three times and the crossbowman goes down, and same with the other five.

It picks up its polearm and looks through the carnage, looking for something, when it comes across you, it pauses, and bandages your wounds, even sets your hip as you lie there, pretending to be dead. It does the same for a few others and then walks into the distance.

[sevastiel]

No but so much THIS. YES. ABSOLUTELY ALL OF THIS YES.

Not only that, but if you think about it, when has the drifter felt loved? How do they show it?

They've been cared for when they do things for others, right? Strict parents means you follow rules, you get love. Protect other kids, get affection/positivity. Be Thrax's friend? Get friendship. Go back to 1999? Become the lotus's champion. Help the Hex? Have friendship. So forth.

Denial of given tasks is what gets them into trouble. Strict parents means if you don't follow the rules, then there's a problem. Don't give up yourself for the other kids, they all die. Leave Duviri, die every day for a thousand years. Don't help the Lotus, she dies. Don't help the hex, they die. Deny what people want of you, and you're doomed to be alone and lost, so be what they need you to be, drifter.

Their love language is probably straight up acts of service, given how much effort they put into doing things for others. I don't think they genuinely have been shown any other method of love, tbh. Its something I really wanna get into.

They're the definition of 'If I cannot be loved, use me, and I'll love you all the same.'

Hold on everyone I'm gonna be sick thinking about this

The fact the Drifter doesn't even feel like they belong in the Origin System is honestly painful. The fact they feel like everyone likes the Operator more because it's originally their timeline, and they've just grown to already accept that. The fact they feel actually at home in the fucking year of 1999.

The fact they feel like they were essentially being used when being sent back to 1999, but they end up staying and feeling more at home in the year despite being sent there like an errand boy. Feeling at home in a place you've barely been in for too long compared to everywhere else you've been for the rest of your life? That must feel wild, y'know? And exciting, but also terrifying.

They just have never felt like they belonged anywhere, basically, but when being sent off on a mission by the Lotus they end up actually feeling like the place they ended up felt like home. People finally care about them, and even love them. Friendships were formed and maybe even a true and genuine heartfelt relationship. Sure, they're still surrounded by daily threats like the Scaldra and Techrot, but there's people who actively care about their well-being now.

Imagine it, no longer actually being alone for most of your life? Having people who worry about you, for the first time in who knows how many years? Getting genuine human (as 'human' as the protoframes get) interaction instead of being called around to do jobs? To simply just exist in such a place? It must feel like a huge breath of fresh air

It's so human and it's so real. You finally begin to heal from the trauma that's been a part of essentially most- if not all your life before arriving. It's such a stark contrast to how things are in the Origin System. I wouldn't want to leave either.

Yeah I like the 1999 update a normal amount (lying)

[tomswifty-fr]

true and honest confession: while i’m only lukewarm on the obelisk design (i’m hoping it’ll grow on me the way ridgies and imperials did) i love their lore in a way that makes me want an army of the little guys

[holistichiatus]

I meant to send this as an ask hfjns You should absolutely post your HCs about your Operator and Warframes. I would like to read it.

hgjfh ok i'll share a bit

you probably already saw this from the asks going around, but i love this headcanon so much.

i think touch is deeply meaningful for tenno since they can initiate transference with it, like how our touch reactivates our warframe in second dream and gives us glimpses of umbra's past. If they're conscious of it, they can but up a mental block, but if they aren't prepared they can kind of psychic blast each other with a mess of thoughts and memories. Sharing thoughts this way is a sign of deep trust between tenno and it's easiest to do it with the right hand.

this also connects to a sub-headcanon that that is why none of the handshake emotes actually do a real handshake (i know one of them they grab left hands, but their right hands only lightly touch so it still works) bc it's just easier for them to avoid touching palms than to block out the other's mind and hold their own back.

i also love connections between warframes so i think limbo and octavia are friends with their shared performer aspect. I also think vauban and sevagoth are friends bc that quest just hit me so hard, i wrote him into my operator's lore ;-;

operator stuff is below the cut bc i'm shy o///o

my operator's name is Tamarisk, Tam for short.

He was one of the older kids on the Zariman and after being rescued he was eventually paired with the original Vauban. he and vauban share his headspace and prior to second dream he would occasionally have memories from the front lines. Tam prefers to act through vauban and tends to let him take the reigns for things if he's in a bad headspace. vauban can only do this if transference is active though.

I hc vauban as being, like, a field general in the old war bc of the bit abt him being a tactician. so he was near the front a lot and this is where he met sevagoth. I haven't decided on his background before becoming a warframe. Vauban protected him and eased the anxiety he developed being separated from the Void.

it's kind of hard to talk abt him bc i don't know how to really structure it, but his toyhouse page has more + a few stories for his lore. it focuses on drifter more, but This story is where i developed the touch hc if you're interested.

hngg ok i'm gonna post this and let it be free

[rosescries]

Cheating Death

(Caution! Some graphic depictions of injures. And some violence, this is Mobtale versions. Major character death too!)

Mobtale AU Sans and Papyrus/Reader

A hiking trip gone wrong has a group of college kids go missing, and it's up to the skeleton family to find them. Which, of course, is no problem. The problem comes when they find who is in that group of college kids.

..... Or was at one point.

First / Next

~We Shouldn't Be Here~

"Are you sure we should be up here?" You ask, looking all around the woods you're hiking through.

Well, exploring really. You and the members of your group project weren't on any trails you were supposed to be on, not that there's many on this mountain that aren't overgrown or closed. If they were ever open in the first place.

"Yes, for the hundredth time!" One of the boys, Keith, answers. He glares over his shoulder at you, picking up his speed.

"Come on, Keith," the only other girl, Ashley, says. She glares right back at Keith, the others not tuning into the conversation. "It's a valid question! Isn't this mountain, like, off limits? I heard there's sinkholes!"

"If you don't want to be here, you can go back home," Keith grumbles, turning back to look at where he's going.

You shake your head, trailing towards the back of the group. You're not really friends per say, but this is the group you were basically adopted into for the college year. Though mostly because you're all in the same building, though your little group isn't the only ones there, and have that one class together, a history one.

Ashley's your dorm roommate and basically made it her mission to become your friend, which she succeeded at. The girl is really friendly with everyone though, a drifter from friend group to friend group and someone everyone likes. It's not much of a surprise, though you know she's more closed off than not. She's always buying you stuff for some reason, more snacky foods than anything else, and making sure you eat. She's cool and you don't mind her.

Keith is a star athlete, getting into college on a track scholarship. A slim boy and fast runner, always at the gym or fields when not in class. He eats with you all sometimes, though the group doesn't eat together that often. He's pretty fanatical about health and fitness, always trying to get people to go on morning runs and to the gym with him. You're not sure what he's going to college for, but he’s apparently good at whatever it is.

Ben is another boy in the group. He doesn't say much, but he's cool. You don't know much about him other than he's apparently Keith's cousin and here on a football scholarship, though you think he's going for some type of mechanical engineering degree or something. He's good with machines at least, helping Ashley fix her motorcycle. He's big, if you had to guess he's six feet tall in total. A bit more buff than his cousin, though they're both rather good looking. Plus, he keeps the creeps away.

Tyler is a shy guy, Ashley kidnapping him into the group as well. He's not much for the parties one of the others in your group likes, preferring to stay in his room and study. He's going to college to become some type of scientist, an astronomy science if you're remembering correctly. He collects plants too and dries them out to put in a notebook. He's let you see it a couple of times and has pointed out constellations in the sky to you. He likes to ramble about space and plants a lot, you don't mind listening. It's the only time he doesn't stutter.

Aiden is the last boy in your group. You really don't know what he's going to college for, and you don't think he even goes to his classes. He is a popular kid though, most people like him and like hanging around him. But he's a partier, which gets on your nerves when you're trying to sleep or study. His parties can be fun, but he throws way too many of them. You could never really figure the guy out, and sometimes he really creeps you out. It was his idea to come up this mountain for your project, your teacher readily accepting the proposal and encouraging it.

"Aw, come on, Keith. The girls have a point," Aiden grins, looping an arm around Keith's neck and pulling him down a bit. Keith looks annoyed. "This is a pretty spooky place. No one ever comes up this mountain. They say it's haunted."

"Haunted?!" Tyler asks, spinning around to look at Aiden.

"Yup," the other boy grins, not bothered by Keith shoving him off. "A lot of people have gone missing on this mountain and there's a legend that says a huge battle also took place here. People have claimed that they can still see people's ghosts roaming the mountain, looking for a way to escape."

"Cut it out," Ashley demands, shoving the boy to the side. Aiden just laughs. "You're terrifying the poor boy."

"Aren't you supposed to be a scientist? Why do you believe in ghosts?" Keith huffs, looking over at Tyler.

"W-well, I, uhm, I just.." Tyler stutters, looking away from Keith.

"Leave him alone," you sigh, stopping next to the shy boy and placing a hand on his shoulder. "He can be a scientist and still believe in ghosts."

"Yeah, and besides, we should be more worried about those sinkholes. Why are we out here anyway?" Ashley adds, placing her hands on her hips. "Couldn't we just get the history of this place through books?"

"What better place to go for its history than the mountain itself?" Aiden grins, stretching his arms out wide. "I'd bet it has a whole lot of stories to tell. Besides, that’s what we’ve been trying to do for months. Hasn’t really been working out for us."

"And how's it going to tell us anything? It's a mountain," Ashley argues, raising an eyebrow.

"There's a whole bunch of caves somewhere around here," Keith shrugs, continuing on. You all have to run to catch up with him. "Could be something interesting in them. Plus we can get some wildlife pictures and stuff."

"For a history project?" You ask, looking over at him confused.

"Board decoration," Keith waves off. You roll your eyes. Like you couldn't have gotten that off the internet too.

"We don't know if any caves we come across would be safe though," Ashley brings up, frowning. "Should we really be exploring a mountain many people have disappeared on?"

"If you want to go back, go back," Keith argues, waving her away. Ashley just growls in annoyance. "No one made you come with."

The conversation stops there, Ashley just grumbling about how she can't leave or they're going to die. You just take a deep breath, looking up at the sky.

It's not long before your group stumbles upon one of the caves Keith was talking about. Aiden runs up to the mouth of the thing, peering into it for a few seconds before grabbing his phone. Turning on the flashlight, he looks around again before taking a few steps into it.

"Come on," he grins, heading in a bit deeper.

"Aiden, we have no clue if that cave will collapse on our heads or not!" Ashley protests, grabbing your wrist even though you haven't taken one step towards the thing.

"Come on, quit being such a scaredy cat," Keith groans, heading towards the cave himself. Ben follows behind him, not looking all too nervous himself. Tyler nervously walks beside the larger boy, fumbling with an actual flashlight he brought. "Nothing's going to happen."

"You don't know that," Ashley grumbles, sighing. She pulls you along, though lets go afterwards to go grab Aiden's ear and scold him about running into caves like that.

You huff, watching the two squabble near the mouth as Tyler, Ben, and Keith head deeper into the cave. You start to frown though, glancing around.

"Does anyone else hear that?" You ask, crossed arms dropping to your sides.

"Hear what?" Ashley asks, looking back at you.

"A... rumbling sound?" You reply, still looking around. You yelp as something hits your forehead, turning out to be a small rock when you look down.

"Shit!" Ashley calls your name, but no one's able to move before the cave entrance collapses.

_____

It's a beautiful day outside. The sun is shining, it's not too cold. A perfect temperature for the autumn weather according to the humans. The leaves are all turning colors and the animals are still out, or at least the ones that haven't left for the colder seasons. A perfect day to be doing nothing. Unfortunately for the skeleton brothers, they don't get to do nothing. Not even on a pleasant day like this.

No rest for the wicked, they'd suppose.

"that all?" Hit asks, leaning back on his heels. Candy apple red smoke drifts lazily up from the cigar clutched between sharp teeth, hands stuffing into black trousers. His red eye lights gaze over at the taller skeleton in front of him, who just huffs as he straightens out. His bones cracking the whole way. "fuck, ya need ta stretch more, ya bum."

"you're one to talk." the other skeleton rolls his dusky purple eye lights. "better get this to pass and button for disposal. think lucky wanted help at the bar later too."

"one of tha others can help 'im. we've done enough today," Hit grumbles, Clip just shrugging. He kicks the bag towards Hit, who just groans.

"hey, you're the one with the shortcut," Clip argues, shrugging and leaning back on his heels.

"yeah, yeah, yeah," Hit grumbles, grabbing the bag. "get outta here, already. would ya?"

Clip gives him a sarcastic two finger salute before turning on his heels and walking away. Likely to wherever his brother is waiting for him today. Hit moves the bag onto his shoulder, taking a shortcut out to the two freakier brothers' cabin in the woods.

This whole place, this whole universe, is really different from what Hit's used to, but at least there's some familiarity in his work. Though he can't really tell if that's a blessing or a curse. Either way, this world is a lot softer than his and he does enjoy that. The Humans are pretty similar, it doesn't take a whole lot to get them singing when he wants. The Monsters are a lot softer than what he's used to though, not as ruthless as he knew them. Not innocent or anything of the sort, but still softer.

Even some of his doppelgangers are softer than he and his brother are, only one pair matching them in their universe's standards- kind of anyway. But by no means are they anymore fuckin' innocent than he is. Despite what they portray themselves as.

"eh, pass, got a job fer ya," Hit calls, knocking a specific rhythm on the door. It takes a few seconds, but the door eventually swings open. Pass stands in the doorway with an unamused look on his cracked skull, giant frame filling up the large doorway.

".... again?" Pass asks. Hit shrugs a shoulder, letting the bag drop to the floor in front of Pass' feet.

"of course. is it really that big of a surprise?" He asks, side eyeing the larger skeleton. Pass just huffs, grabbing the handle of the bag in annoyance.

"busy," he grumbles, flinging the bag over his shoulder. "...... take care of it later."

"busy with what?" Hit asks, eye sockets narrowing.

"lucky's got a.... shipment... button's been working on it... for a week," Pass replies, staring right back down at Hit with his own singular red eye light. Hit sighs, rolling his eye lights.

"just get it done as soon as possible," he waves off. Pass just grunts, shutting the door in Hit's face. The said skeleton growls, turning on his heels and taking a shortcut back to the main house.

He can't say he enjoys everything this universe has to offer. He doesn't enjoy this little fuckin' group he's been forced into, he doesn't like nor trust most of the other skeletons. A few are good to have a smoke with, but most are just manipulative little shits he wouldn't trust with a paper clip.

It was fine when it was just him and his brother, a few of the mutts in Snowdin under their leadership. But now he has all these other assholes, all who were used to being the boss of their place, and now they all have to listen to these softer creampuffs in this damn vanilla universe.

They're powerful, but they can't be as fuckin' obvious as they used to be. They have to cover up every damn thing. It's annoying as hell.

Hit glances to the side, his phone ringing. He groans, noticing it's his brother calling and picks up.

"yeah, boss?"

"THERE'S BEEN A PROBLEM, AND WE NEED TO CLEAN IT UP. GET OVER TO THE STATION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE."

[sercj]

I'd imagine there would be some concern when a group of hive start milling around just outside the last city. Especially when they start to pile up corpses. Mostly other hive, a few remnants of the rust devils, that sort of thing. But they're not attacking any of humanity, or visibly acting violent, so the vanguard calls in its hive expert, Eris Morn.

Complete head canon-y conjecture here, but I'd say these hive believe Eris to have overpowered the sword logic. Her ascension to the most powerful hive got of all time, by decieving and striking down the hive god of deception herself, and then taking that power and willfully abandoning it was sacrilegious, true. But these hive believe it shows that Eris was too powerful to need the sword logic - a sort of cognitively dissonant view that applies sword logic to her actions - if she was able to refuse and abandon that power, then clearly she was more powerful without it!

I can't imagine Eris would be too happy about having some confused hive trying to work for her. But I can't imagine she would have any issues putting their (potentially) misguided new devotion to use. Maybe over time these hive get further deprogrammed from the sword logic and their brutal pasts. And I also can't even start to imagine how humanity, Caital, and the house of light would react to these new 'allies' if Eris' work resulted in them becoming sociable.

Misraax would maybe be the most welcoming. After all, he knows what it is like to see a horrific monster become a close friend, and would likely be the first to extend any kind of olive branch. I could maybe see Drifter being supportive of them quickly too, either because he likes outcasts and gambles, or because of his closer connection/trust to Eris. The rest of the vanguard would be incredibly difficult to sway, I think, it would take these hive laying down their lives or otherwise sacrificing in a huge way to even start to gain any of humanities trust. That said, I'd argue that our very successful partnerships with the Cabal and the Eliksni might smoothen that transition a little bit. As long as the hive like spicy ramen.

Caital would definitely be the least approving of this. The hive destroyed her people's homeworld, inflicting upon it horrors that i don't think humanity have even seen yet. That said, Caital doesn't seem to be one to look past valuable war assets, and while she may not like the hive, and would likely refuse to work with them, I don't think she could fully ignore their use as meat for the grinder of war.

could you imagine if some of the hive actually started worshipping eris morn and that was how we'd get actual hive allies instead of the situationship we have with savathûn.

could you imagi-

OR

instead of allies they just throw themselves at the last city's gates in relentless supplication to eris and meanwhile she's ardently refusing to associate with them

[loominggaia]

Let’s say that the crew got to meet solveig? That due to some magical shenanigans solveig is temporarily brought back to life and gets to meet the fgg and see what has become of ocean since her passing? What would she think of his friends and her lovers many, MANY mistakes?

Aww I love this scenario! First of all, I think Solveig would be disappointed to hear about Mr. Ocean's actions during his time with the Resistance, but she would not be the least bit surprised. She always figured he'd get himself into trouble eventually. She's just glad Alaine helped him get his head on straight...literally.

Speaking of Alaine, Mr. Ocean has said that she reminds him of Solveig, hence his crush on her. And these two women are very similar personality-wise, so I'm not sure if they'd become best friends or hate eachother. They're both headstrong, playful, and righteous-hearted, but they're also emotionally volatile. I think their relationship could go either way.

Since she's so much like Alaine, the rest of the crew would feel comfortable around Solveig. She'd blend right in. The main difference between her and Alaine is that Solveig is much smarter. Lukas butts heads with Alaine a lot because he thinks she's a bimbo, but I think he'd actually hit it off with Solveig. Glenvar would respect her closeness with nature and would probably have a big fat crush on her pretty quickly.

Solveig would fall in love with Drifter's Hollow because it's the kind of tribe she always wished hers could be. She would be so grateful to the villagers for taking care of Ocean. Her biggest concern before she died was that he would be lost without her, and she was right, so she always hoped someone would step in and take her place. She would be so pissed when she heard Roach took advantage of him for all those years.

I think she would spend as much time with Mr. Ocean as possible, reminding him to be good to himself and others. She'd be sad to see him in such an advanced state of disease, but she'd assure him that the body is only temporary, he won't suffer forever, and their souls will meet again in the afterlife. She wouldn't scold him too hard for his mistakes because she can tell he already knows. He already knows he fucked up real bad and it's weighing heavy on his conscience.

I'm not sure how Ocean would react after she disappeared again. He would either feel uplifted and inspired, or just kill himself immediately. Hard to say with him...

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

[thefirstknife]

ok tbh it is not really a question but one thing that really bothers me about the destiny fandom is people's hatred of Drifter. Like I get it and i am not claiming anyone is being racist by hating drifter but it makes me uncomfortable that one of the only visible chinese character in destiny gets a ton of hate from the community. And like It is trend i've noticed where a piece of media will only ever make their chinese or chinese coded characters evil, or horrible, like the caplean confederation in battletech being a bunch of evil genocide commiting war crimers that are in universe stated to be wrost than everyone else, Kai Leng being the evil assassin antagonist in mass effect, just to name a few, and s IDK that just makes me uncomfortable. Drifter is def the best out of these, seeing as despite him being shadey and a criminal, he is ultimately a good guy who has humanity's best interest at heart and isn't going to sell us out to the witness (i hope), but still aside from maybe Shaw Han, who a lot of people also don't like in the d2 community, there's really no other visibly chinese characters in destiny 2 period let alone heroic or straight forwardly good ones. IDk it is just one of those things that makes me uncomfortable and i won't say like bungie is purposely being racist or anything.

Oh yeah I've noticed that as well. Obviously, as you said, we can't really claim that people who dislike him are necessarily racist or that they dislike him for that reason. But there's definitely a trend and Drifter gets a lot of shit and a lot of derogatory nicknames and negative fandom interpretations that make me really uncomfortable. Especially the memes about him being gross or dirty. Like, there's a limit to that after which those memes just end up being straight up racist. And it's obviously upsetting to Chinese fans.

I think a part of it definitely is on Bungie, because of how he was characterised and how he's presented in most accesible lore: the majority will only remember what they hear him saying as part of Gambit lines so if his Gambit lines are just him being weird or gross, people will only remember that. There's plenty of really good lore about him out there, but you know. Most players don't really read that.

I'm very glad that he's gotten more screentime since Arrivals and that he's become fully accepted as our ally. In the early days, it was kinda ambiguous. But Drifter was always a person driven by hope and all of his pretense that he's a tough guy who doesn't care pretty much instantly shattered the moment YW became his friend. I really like all the stuff he's done since, especially with how involved he is with helping the Eliksni settle. One of my favourite things is from Splicer when he sent supplies to the Eliksni free of charge, at no benefit to himself (because he told us not to tell anyone it's from him).

So I absolutely appreciate that he's firmly a good guy, as he always wanted to be, but had to suffer through the Dark Age to be able to get there. In that sense, he avoided some of the really bad trends in media. I definitely do not think he will ever side with the Witness in any capacity! His only options were always that he is either going to leave or help us. And he decided to help us because he trusts us and we have shown to trust him.

But yeah, despite all the details and the nuance, there are always people who are just uninformed. This isn't a bad thing on its own, nobody is born with knowledge. We all have to learn! But sometimes it crosses into really weird fixation on just calling a character names and memeing about things that, if you stop to think at least a little bit, can be kinda too much. I'm not surprised that the fandom will sometimes leave some fans feeling uncomfortable or even unsafe.

I definitely want the fandom to think a little bit more about how they treat Drifter. I want memers to rethink how they frame jokes about him. I want writers to rethink how they're gonna write him and about him. I definitely want artists to get better at drawing him without whitewashing. I have seen... A LOT... of Drifter art that just... Straight up is not him. His face is not elongated, his nose is not straight and pointy, his eyes are NOT blue (despite being blue in the early days, Bungie has fixed that since). I've seen similar with Shaw as well, who also often gets the short end of the stick from fans.

It would also be incredibly good if the fandom reacted normally to being told that they may have whitewashed characters in their art or written something that may have racist connotations. It costs zero dollars to respond "thank you for letting me know, I will do better" and to even ask for advice if needed. If art is whitewashed, people will let you know so you can fix it. It's not the end of the world.

Yeah, I've seen some increase in that speculation. Also paired with Eris being more prominent in lore so she gets more attention from fans which results in more fandom content creation with her.

I think it would be really cool if Eris was Chinese, but I definitely don't trust people who only talk about that when someone brings up the slur. Like, if someone genuinely cares about Eris being Chinese, that interest should be visible even when we're not discussing whether Eris is allowed to say slurs.

Also, unfortunately, this is also limited with Eris' VA who is white so even if Eris, the character, is Chinese, it's kinda weird to have a white person saying those slurs when voicing her. Eris is also not a real person so she doesn't really have any say in this. I really hope that this slur business with Drifter gets addressed.

Also did people really use "she cooked rice" as proof? That's... a really weird thing to say! Cooking something as broad as rice is not proof. Fenchurch also cooked rice. I would assume that post-Collapse with the limited resources, rice is a pretty ubiquitous food source. It's possibly maybe because she cooks in a wok, but again, that's something that is pretty ubiquitous these days. I think her armour is a much more solid evidence, though if we combine several of these things together, then it works better in a group.

Either way, it's a good head canon! I hope people talk about it more on its own and not just when they want to justify the usage of slurs. It gives a bad vibe.

In general, the fandom needs to learn how to treat characters of colour better. And Bungie as well to be honest!

[willowcrowned]

Hello I'm baaaack!! I've been slowly making my way through your writing and aus (so beautiful, still loving it) and you mentioned in your 'luke goes to the past and says fuck' au that he wants a pink lightsaber... AND THEN i saw an article talking about how Luke's saber was actually pink to begin with??? I feel as tho i have been lied to somehow... but anyway! What about luke trying to get a fun lightsaber color (pink or otherwise) while stuck in the past? I just keep imagining different jedi trying to get answers out of him and he just keeps redirecting to how exactly /he/ is supposed to get one of the shiny pretties, it's no fair that his is all boring! Maybe he could borrow yours, master windu sir please? He'll tots give it back, promise!! Although that might make it a little difficult to continue pretending he's not a jedi and has no idea what they're talking about actually... hm...

I’m so glad you’re enjoying the AUs! <33

I honestly had no idea that his lightsaber was originally supposed to be pink. While I wrote it, I was just thinking “Huh, what does a guy who uses strawberry space conditioner and keeps extra cherry lipgloss in his back pocket want?” and the answer was, of course, a hot pink lightsaber.

Anyways! Have some Luke asking about ‘sabers!

:

“So,” Luke says, tossing a pen up in the air and catching it without looking, “the Master Windu guy.”

“Yeah?” Anakin, who is sat on the floor, leaning against the other side of the cell ray shield.

“His lightsaber,” Luke says, “It was purple.”

“Yeah?” Anakin says looking up.

“I thought they only came in green, blue, or red.”

Anakin blinks. “Have you not seen any of the war holos? I know some of the masters that were in them had different colors. Master Khouria was in them, and they have an orange one.”

Luke shrugs. “I’m a little out of touch.”

“Huh.” Anakin snorts. “Your saber— how did you make it?”

“I found it,” Luke says.

Anakin rolls his eyes. “Seriously? You can’t even tell me that much?”

“Nice try,” Luke grins easily “But nope, I picked it up. Anyways, theoretically, how would one make, say, a hot pink blade?”

“Hot pink?” Anakin’s eyebrows shoot up into his hairline. “You don’t want something more... intimidating?”

“Why should I?” Luke replies. “It’s not like I’m a jedi.”

“Sure,” Anakin says sarcastically. “I guess i don’t have to tell you then.”

Luke narrows his eyes. “That’s low.”

“I have to sit on the floor until you tell us what you’re doing. It’s only fair.”

“You don’t have to sit on the floor.” Luke huffs. “I know you don’t have to be here. You’re just hanging out with me because I make for good company.”

“And because you know one end of a speeder from another,” Anakin mutters. “No one else will help me with mods for the Twilight.”

Luke snorts. “I have a lot of experience working on pieces of junk.”

“She’s not a piece of junk! She’s... a work in progress!”

“Didn’t you say her third thermal hypercarborater consistently leaks?”

“So?”

Luke leans back, folding his arms. “I’ll tell you how to fix it if you tell me how to get a hot pink saber.”

Anakin narrows his eyes. “You have to find a piece of crystal with high Force resonance and the right structure to conduct plasma. Kyber is best. It’s blue or green initially, but becomes red when bled, and white when healed. You can turn a blue one purple by partially bleeding it, which is what Master Windu did, but that’s because he uses vaapad.”

“So, you’re saying that if I was, theoretically, to find a hot pink crystal and I was, theoretically, able to make a lightsaber, I could have a hot pink blade?”

Anakin nods. “What’s the fix for the hypercarborator?”

“Grab a HG-470 cable and use it to modulate the energy reflux from the second hypercarborator. You’ll have to replace the cable every few standard months, but she’ll run a lot smoother at sublight.”

Anakin blinks. “That’s... not a bad idea.”

“Told ya I had experience working with pieces of junk.”

“Yeah, I could see that from your lightsaber.”

“I didn’t build her,” Luke says. “But out of intellectual curiosity, what’s wrong with her?”

“She��” Anakin starts. “What do I get out of this?

“The satisfaction of helping a poor, down-on-his-luck, drifter who’s been imprisoned by jedi?”

“Not gonna cut it.”

Luke frowns. “I guess I’ll have to ask the next Jedi I see.”

“You do that.” Anakin snorts. “Start with Windu, though, it should annoy him.”

“Well,” Luke says, biting back a smile. “I guess I could do that. As a favor for a friend.”

“Ask to see his hilt,” Anakin advises. “Electrum plating.”

“Yikes.”

“I know. You should tell him that,”

“This is going to get me in trouble, won’t it.”

“I never said anything.”

“Sure you didn’t,” Luke says, smiling. “Sure you didn’t.”

[gaylienstage]

(this ended up being really long because i have a Lot to say about the character designs, it's been sitting on my mind for a while, so sorry for the long post, oops!)

adding onto this: one thing i really appreciated about the battlesuit designs for each character was that they were also a visual representation of their growth and development. ranted about this with a friend a while ago but take kiana for example:

the most striking elements of her white comet design set the groundwork for the motifs of her later battlesuits, most notably, the colors white and orange, alongside the star motif.

white symbolizes innocence and purity, orange is commonly associated with optimism, youthfulness and energy, and stars are often used as a symbol of hope. these are all things that fit kiana's mentality at this point in the story very well, she has hopes to become schicksal's top valkryie, she's relatively inexperienced and lacks a lot of knowledge, but is highly optimistic and confident and hotheaded.

i feel like void drifter is also a really good design when it comes to her major shift in character post-HoV awakening, her outfit is now primarily black which conveys a loss of innocence, as well as the fact that at this point in the story, she's still at her lowest mentally, she still feels a lot of guilt over himeko's death, HoV is constantly haunting her mind, she has all this power that she's trying to reject and it's starting to eat away at her.

but yet, she keeps moving forward.

at this point, she's far from completely rising up from that lowest point, but she's made it clear that she won't continue being dragged downwards, the elements of white, orange, and stars are still retained in this design, but they've been recontextualized at least somewhat.

all of these "brighter" elements amongst the generally darker palette of this design give off this message that despite being in the face of her "darkest hours", she will continue to move forward and fight for all that is beautiful in the world, she still wants to hold onto the hope to end the story the way she wants. given her vigilante status in arc city, the star motif on the design has the impression that she is a "light in the darkness", which is both an accurate representation of her mentality and how many people, whether it be her friends or the people in arc city, tend to view her.

flamescion is, imo, the definitive kiana battlesuit, it is a perfect visual representation of her journey throughout the game, her outfit is back to being primarily white because she's risen back from her lowest point and reconciled with her own self and has overcome her grief and guilt over himeko's death. the orange is given more of a reddish tint to symbolize how she's inherited himeko's will, this is also represented in the flame motif.

in fact, i'd like to think of the knight/flame motifs as an evolution from the star motif.

the knight motif is a representation of her strengthened will to protect and fight for what she loves, the "stars" in her previous designs, a *hope* to become stronger and fight for a better future, have become a will, a "flame", if you will, to protect, to become an armor for what she cares about.

i feel like the greatsword says a lot about her character, too. her flamescion design is already very much an ode to himeko all over, but a little detail like about the greatsword are the four gems.

other than them obviously being powers from the herrscher cores, they're also symbolic in the sense that these gems also represent her and her allies, the yellow-orange gem is meant to represent herself, blue for bronya, red-pink for hua, and red for himeko. i feel like this perfectly encapsulates her newfound acceptance and understanding that she's not just fighting for her loved ones, she's fighting with them. they all want to achieve an ending where they can all celebrate victory, and so she no longer fights alone, but alongside them. it's sweet!

and then finality just kinda, throws all of that out of the window?

there isn't much to say here that hasn't already been said, but it's like HoFin took all the character progression that was displayed through the previous designs and threw them out of the window.

the orange? gone. the star/flame/knight motifs? gone. the white is still there but i really don't feel like it conveys much besides "moon colors" or tying into the "elysia palette syndrome", as i like to call it.

(in a way, you could say that this design is symbolic in the sense that mihoyo kind of threw out her entire character arc in the moon arc but that's for another day)

the forget-me-not flowers that symbolizes remembrance and keeping one in your thoughts is nice, i guess, but kiana has never had flower motifs in any of her main storyline battlesuits at all and it feels really tacked on and devoid of the depth the previous designs had when it came to their motifs.

call me dramatic, maybe, but all in all, i don't just think that HoHE just marked a trend of boring, repetitive designs, but also showcased how the designers have grown to have less of an understanding or connection to these characters and throwing out everything that makes them unique and stand on their own in favor of making them look more like elysia. it's saddening, really.

The Elysia-fication of every single battlesuit since HoH is so saddening. All the valks had different colour palettes and styles that complimented their personalities and the element they wielded, like HoF. The battlesuit fit her personality so well, unlike the HoFin one. That one is just… bootleg Elysia. It doesn’t suit her at all. And now with the new Seele battlesuit�� hoyoverse please make it end