talk to me abt your drift hcs cuz idk what stpd means and I would like to learn
STPD stands for Schizotypal Personality Disorder, I mainly headcanon Drift has this because we have it lmao. Also she's heavily implied to have it in our time loop AU* (which later will be confirmed!!)
Canon basis for this are mainly her flashbacks and the obvious rejection of intimacy she's reminded of throughout them (notice my use of rejection of intimacy vs. fear of intimacy).
Her flashbacks I mostly interpret as quasi-psychosis, AKA delusions that are facts of life you're aware aren't real, but also just... are. Of course the people from her flashbacks aren't in Oakhurst, but I think she led a life in the spotlight enough to feel.... surveilled (The Orchid Killer certainly didn't help either lol, with the knowing her address and all). Plus, all of the people in the flashback— and Drift's overall reoccurring motif— bring up how she left when she was needed, or, in its most basic norm, fled when things got too close.
All those people we see had to have had a reason to address her directly with their grievances. You don't go after a detective you barely know for vanishing on a case. I seriously doubt Drift left the city only because of The Orchid Killer personally threatening her. She's a detective, and a damn good one at that if my previous analysis was to be believed— murderers don't scare her. I think she left because she realized she was getting too close to people, and the notion made her uncomfortable, plus the risk of endangering them if The Orchid Killer was directly after her.
If you wanna ask me about other Drift HCs feel free!! :3
*Under a cut for spoilers for the fic:
In Chapter 3: de bar em bar o mundo gira, Drift is heavily implied to have STPD from the brief hallucination scenes and the magical thinking, being: “She whips around (feeling the orchids tangle by her feet, roots and leaves and blood staining her legsNo, no, no stop. Just stop) and meets... Pyro’s eyes,” and: “Drift lets herself believe, for a moment, that the orchids by her feet are real, if only to symbolize the death they’d always promised. / Fulfilled once again.” Mainly because the hallucinations don’t directly cause her much distress while she’s experiencing them, which doesn’t happen to people with (non quasi-)psychosis.
Magical thinking in STPD refers to believing you have a hand in the outcome of an event because of something hyperspecific (and unrelated) you did. In that chapter, the "trigger" for the orchids is death in general (involving Drift in some way, of course).
Also, Martyn and co. "ignoring" her in Chapter 1: me desculpe a minha ausência could be interpreted as accidentally setting off a paranoid spiral influenced by magical thinking, and her mysteriously honing in on Owen in Chapter 2: durmo com medo e acordo cansado could also be magical thinking influenced by her catching him staring.
[ID: a painting of Flametail (ginger tabby with blue eyes) from the neck up. He has blue flowers in his mouth, and snow is falling around him. /ID end]
