more ramblings from your local idiot
Roathe is a tactician, through and through.
I wonder how deeply it would effect him to fall in love with Drifter, knowing full well that the Drifter is scary dog privilege. Is a literal demi-god in that they possess all the wild powers of the Tenno, and *reject* death by simply looping time to a point prior to their death. Can create an entirely new world from their imagination and desperation alone.
Like at first they're 100% a tool. And he says as much, implies it, would never deny it, because it's the Orokin way to use things. People.
But then he comes to like them. He liked some of his soldiers too. He still used them, as was his duty as a tactician. As was the necessity of the time.
And then he falls in love. And he cannot reconcile the idea of ever losing that love. It would undoubtedly hurt him in ways he refuses to think about, because he'd rather not, but in the dark of the night, or a moment of quiet, the strategist, utilitarian part of his mind is louder than his heart.
He takes solace in the fact that they cannot die. It's the only thing that would keep him sane and stop him from locking them away in a gilded cage, becoming entirely what he doesn't want to be (a captor, what he'd had) but able to be selfish in that his love is *safe* and he can keep it. Because a man so devoid of having been loved, of having felt safe, affection, friendship, and all the other wonderful things of having someone love you deeply and truly, who came from a time and place like the Orokin Empire? He may choose to do better than he had in the past, if redeemed, but that won't necessarily stop him from deciding to jealously guard his most treasured thing.
And what's more is how that would effect the greater scope of things. I doubt Roathe would want to just twiddle his thumbs, he'd want to help and plan, because it's *his thing*. He does it without thinking hard, because he just likes to mull things over in his head and optimise, strategise - it's mental stimulation he was born to feel.
So, he's in position now to come up with a plan. And his very best plans, the ones with the highest capacity for success, or perhaps the "hit the 'oh shit' button, we need the big guns" plans, involve Drifter. Of course they do, Drifter has the ripcord - punch the floor and the world is righted again. Begin again. An insurance policy. But what if they all forgot and Drifter didn't, and it was another hundred, maybe thousand, more loops of watching them all die just grating on the Drifter's psyche. Could he ask them to do that, to look his love in the eyes and tell them to suffer?
What about the discussion about Lotus and the Tenno being a problem. He UNDOUBTEDLY also has had the same thoughts about literally everyone. He's not going to just not think about it - his life up to this point has been "who has their blade to my throat THIS TIME when I next close my eyes" - of course he has thought about it.
But to see Duviri in the date, to hear Drifter whisper about the darkest parts of themselves, to think more on the nuances and details of Drfiter's power, that part of his brain would fall into it again. Particularly because, in theory, at any moment the Indifference could simply take over, or assert control, or subvert senses and make them think other things, or forget. So then what happens there?
Roathe does not believe that the Man in the Wall is a god. But he could accidentally think himself into a circle where he DOES think that Drifter is.
And THAT is something I want to see. The Protoframes all coming together to fight, and battle, and in the process come to love and adore their friend and saviour the Drifter. And as they watch just what Drifter can do, find out the wild things that have happened, and see the legendary and insane things that are possible, it's very real that they could unintentionally create a god from the Drifter, or influence Drifter's own Conceptual Embodiment of themselves.
i think Roathe would be the one to mention it. To ask a question that opens the doors up. And one of the convos that makes me think this is a conversation you have where you can tell him your feelings. He'll start a game of "let me guess" and starts throwing out suggestions, guessing wild and silly things, but one of them is "You are actually the Man in the Wall", and it had me thinking that it's not impossible for it to be the case.
Perhaps there was another universe in which Drifter was never saved, went to Duviri, and completely lost to the apathy. And the Void is a place without time, and full of infinite potential. When Duviri is lost, and there is no tether to reality, what then is the Drifter?
Perhaps Wally is the indifference of the Drifter made manifest, or an alternate version, and this is why WE specifically are interesting enough to make a deal with - to ensure that Wally DOES exist by making the reality of it possible.
It also raises the question again of how imperative Duviri is to the survival of the Drifter. Drifter's power, the time looping specifically, is because of Duviri, or so it's suggested. What if it's not really, what if Duviri is just an extension of the Drifter, allowing them access to the Void through it at all times. An anchor of sorts, a vector by which it can be done without overwhelming.
Could Drifter die if Duviri is destroyed? Just BANG, gone, drops dead immediately, as Duviri is obliterated.
Going back to the point that Roathe would bring it up though - this would possibly make Drifter think about it. And if they ponder it hard enough, they could in theory change themselves through Conceptual Embodiment to start reflecting things, maybe unlock power they didn't know they had. Or maybe step closer to becoming something else.
I need to stop because I'm never going to shut up at this rate haha
