Pan!Drift & Inconsistency - A Sleep-Deprived Frightened Ramble
CONTEXT: This was written having seen only Drift's, Cleo's, Apo's, and Abolish's episode 1's of Pantheon SMP, and will contain references to moments in them. I am deliberately avoiding as much information as I can from the other POVs to ground my perspective. If you've got evidence from those others to add please feel more than free but I'll be avoiding looking at them. I did not have the time to comb through rewatching the episodes in full so there's definitely a bunch of stuff I missed and/or forgot to mention.
The reason Drift specifically frightens me so much in particular... Well, with unreliable narrators, there tend to be variations. I'm coming from the Life Series here, so I'm gonna use some examples from there. You've got people whose edits deliberately mold the narrative in their favor (Jimmy and Scott are both fond of this). You've got people who like to edit entirely within their characters' headspace but their characters can't be relied on to have the best understanding of what's going on (Scar is *very* fond of this). You've got people like Pan!Abolish who are just incredibly secretive in general, and can only be trusted to reveal "just the things you're comfortable with saying" to the audience. Once you realize you're dealing with an unreliable narrator, you can usually just adjust your expectations accordingly. Similarly, Pearl is intimidating in a very consistent way - she likes stabbing people and is really damn good at it. Some of these characters intimidate me at times, but none of them frighten me. So why is Drift any different?
Drift frightens me because she's a rogue element of inconsistencies. She's inconsistent even in her inconsistencies. You cannot fit her into one box. You can't just say all of the cheer and "everything is fine" ray of sunshine energy is a facade because there's such a genuine care about others in all of her actions, even in her veiled threats she does not *want* to resort to violence.
But at the same time you definitely can't say it's all genuine, because of her constant mantras of "look on the bright side!" and "everything will go great" and especially "don't worry about that right now". Like. That's so thinly veiled it's almosy seethrough.
But you also can't say that all of the facade is just that, because SHE IS A LIAR, both to her audience and to others. Well before she'd (seemingly?) started accepting the murderousness of the situation, when she (seemingly?) tried to heal her allies* Cleo asked if she had any more songs. Drift specifically said "that's all I've got, just healing." Drift then asked if Cleo had more "pretty useful tunes" and sounded delighted (in a CHUCKLING way) with Cleo's vaguely positive responses. You should note that Drift cut this out, and when Cleo later said that she seems more capable than she's let on, Drift's episode takes this just as a compliment. Closer to the end, Drift tells her audience that she can "inflict pain" as well as heal people, but SHE phrases it as "I haven't really mentioned to the others yet" and "I'm sure they'll figure it out in due time", which implies lying by omission, which is much more innocent and understandable for the persona she's maintaining. FUNNY HOW SHE'S LYING BY OMISSION BY SAYING THIS WHEN SHE KNOWS FULL WELL THAT SHE DIRECTLY CONFIRMED TO OTHERS THAT SHE SPECIFICALLY COULDN'T DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN HEALING, WHICH WAS ALSO A LIE.
Something Drift also cut out is her silently cursed Cleo and Pyro to rapidly grow hungry whenever they looked at her by accident, and for all she seemingly doesn't understand her powers and claims she doesn't know what she did, she sure did seem to immediately know what she did when she told them not to look at her. Additionally, I've seen people have noted how she kept jokingly bringing up the group resorting to cannibalism in the caves when low on food and Drift cutting that out, but she didn't say cannibalism. She said "Does anybody have any spare food? Because the only other way I c-... I don't want to resort to... Certain things." "Certain things?" "Don't worry about it." She said, "I'll hang in there. I just really don't wanna resort to... The thing that I've gotta do." That doesn't sound to me like a cannibalism joke. That sounds like she has some sort of lifedrain ability that she's able to use on others, which... wow if that isn't a terrifying ability in any combat scenario in general.
Her evidently very strong abilities are kept close to her chest. She's not just friendly with everyone. When she doesn't want to say something, she tells people not to worry about it. She's playing Abolish's game.
Consider - a plague is more deadly the more people you can spread it to. And she's very insistent on friendship.
Near the end of her first episode, she poses that plants and medicine can be deadly "if you're not careful. Or ... if you know what you're doing."
She is dangerous because she is both. She's boisterous and foolhardy and stubborn, and is evidently not as careful with her evidently very deadly abilities as she'd like to be. She's blunders frequently. But she is also cunning, and clever, and knows very well how to use her charm to get what she wants - and what she wants is victory. She's not just looking on the bright side - she's making the best of every situation, and her eyes are fixed squarely on the horizon.
Every moment I watch her from her own POV or another, even with moments of internal dialogue, I have to ask myself if her intentions are sincere. And no matter which answer I land on, safety is far from guranteed. It feels impossible for me to understand what her true machinations are.
Drift terrifies me, and the more she tells me not to worry about it, the more I will continue to Worry About Everything. Rooting for and betting on her victory.
*Side tangent - it didn't do anything for Cleo, gave Drift 2 golden hearts, and Pyro didn't report anything until Cleo had also played a tune. I suspect her music is more self-centered than Cleo's, which makes for a nice parallel considering Cleo's whole "put yourself first, I don't understand giving to other people first" instinct, which is an especially fun comment considering that Drift had full health and hunger at the time, got herself stuff immediately, and kept more than she gave the others individually. See also her constant affirmations that "don't worry guys, I'm gonna win" which is. A little bit concerning. Of a bright side affirmation to be making so constantly. When you're the one trying to make friends with everyone. Especially when you're cutting out most of these declarations in your episode. SPEAKING OF WHICH, WHO ARE HER ALLIES? She's *kind of* allied with Shelby, *kind of* allied with Cleo, *kind of* allied with Pyro, all of whom from what I can tell seem to be in bigger alliances? She's not just playing Abolish's game, playing the 3rd Life Impulse game here and that's going to get real tangled real damn quick in a series like this.
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