#grineerios operator

[grineerios]

Properly introducing to y'all: Kaine and Callan! (And their 'frames)

These boys have lived rent-free in my head since I made that lore dump post a bit ago. But! I've put some effort and thought into them and I'm finally happy with them. I'm so happy with how this ref sheet turned out. Now I can show them off with pride!

Kaine is roughly 16-17, while Callan is in his mid-30s. Both are Aromantic Asexual, potentially Agender or Demiboys. They're both shorter, with Kaine at 5'4" and Callan at 5'9"-ish.

[chronicler-of-narrative]

Rising Tide for Operator Samuel, Vor's Prize for Wukong, and Natah for Drifter Samuel!

-grineerios

Ok, so @grineerios and for anyone else reading, a small disclaimer: Drifter Samuel and Wukong don't really exist as seperate characters, as Wukong is not conscious at all, and Drifter Samuel doesn't yet exist as a character (though I have made some very early explorations). So ill answer the prompts for Operagor Samuel but using the questions for the other two:

Rising tide (What do they remember from the Old War?)-

I would say Samuel would remember quite a good deal from his time in the War, but most memories would probably be of his outlandish ways of dealing with the Sentients (like crushing a whole platoon of sentient troopers by dropping an unstable slab of Moon-rock right on top of them), though I do believe Samuel to be the type to have also had plenty of his signature 'pranks' along the way on his fellos and potentially even a few superiors (he doesn't take authority all that seriously)

Vor's prize (originally How did the Warframe feel about being connected to a Tenno? But I will go for the opposite, aka Samuel's first time piloting a frame)-

His powers being much stronger and ironically much easier to control I would say allowed Samuel to grasp Transference rather quickly. But the second he did it was like a whole new world of movement and freedom had opened up to him. He definitely spent the first few weeks just parkouring everywhere instead of walking because it was just that much more exilirating to be able to bullet jump and glide. Much to the chagrin of his brother, who saw this as an irresponsible use of what was clearly supposed to be a weapon.

Natah (Do they have any dark or embarassing secrets?)- Samuel wears most of his sins firmly on his sleeves. In fact, he would be very much inclined to tell you, in great detail, how satisfying of an ordeal setting a Corpus Treasurer on fire and just watching them flail around as they're scorched to ash is. However, there is one prank that, while on the surface not as dark as most others, that even Samuel himself considered so repulsive so as to forget. However, that is explored more in the fic of mine about him.

Should anyone else wish to use this ask game for their own purposes or to give me a few more asks, I'll find a link to Grineerios' original post and link it as an edit.

Edit: here's the original post

[gaogaigar-the-king]

The Second Dream for your Tenno!

-grineerios

The Second Dream: For Tenno: How did they react to awakening from the Second Dream? Did they remember that they were themselves, or did they think that they were their warframe?

Beanie: Being well documented to have suffered some very, very severe anmesia from the events of the Zariman and the Second Dream, their only memories were of being their Warframe(s). After seeing (and being) themself, gradually, they began to remember scarce bits and pieces.

Khrys: Being half Infested themself, Khrys' experience with the dream was an odd one, and they remained vaguely aware that their body was not their own but never able to place exactly where theirs was. They wondered if perhaps they had been completely amalgamated to the Infestation or Hive Mind, but it turned out neither was the case.

For Warframes: How did their Tenno awakening from the Second Dream affect them? Was it a good experience, or a bad one?

For Beanie's Warframes, it meant being able to directly interact with their Operator, such as Smolt being able to learn sign language directly from them and finally being able to speak for himself using that. Though the initial experience of losing Transference on Lua had been a shock (heh) and left him dazed for quite a bit afterwards, he recovered just fine.

For Khrys' Nidus, he was just more than happy to have his kin close to him.

[ophidian-bite]

Chains of Harrow for Lavos, Patient Zero for Operator Valadis, and Sands of Inaros for Drifter Valadis! :3

- grineerios

Chains of The Harrow- For Warframes: What keeps them loyal to their Tenno? Does their Infested nature ever surface?

Aside from something of an incurable spring in his step whenever he's taken to be worked on by the ship's helminth, Lavos rarely responds without input. The thing about Lavos is that his strain wasn't an organic infection- it was a deliberate transmutation. There was no pretense of evolution or cultivation, it was *designed* for this right from the get go. Consequently, control over the frame rests entirely with the operator. Or at least, control over the main body of it. The trade-off, the equivalent exchange, is that the snakes have minds entirely of their own. While the Lavos that Valadis now uses is merely a copy of the original, Javi and the Warden still live on through the serpents on his arms and it is only with their willing cooperation that they can be made use of.

Patient Zero: How altruistic is your character? Would they go out of their way to help someone, even if they didn't deserve it?

Valadis likes to *say* that they selfishly look out for themself to the exclusion of all else, but often they're just justifying why they're helping people anyways. Like take Solaris United- they claim they're just in it because they think k-drives are sick as fuck and all these corpus checkpoints are in the way of them shredding, but really they already hated everything about Nef Anyo and finding out about brain-shelving absolutely horrified them. However, when it comes to being "deserving" their judgements are very... lets say *vibes* based. They don't tend to think much about things like "consequences" or "implications," so whether or not they're willing to help is a lot more about if they feel like it than if it's "deserved."

Sands of Inaros: How much of their childhood do they remember? Is there an event from their childhood that impacts who they are today?

In contrast to Operator Valadis, who is very much a child that has not and will not ever grow up despite having to mime and flounder their way through an assumed adulthood, Drifter Valadis is an adult who has been forced to wade through a child's world with no connection to a childhood of their own. Obviously, they did *have* a childhood- one that was very similar to the Operator's, up to a point- but they don't remember anything more than brief impressions of it. It wasn't a happy one, and they likely would have repressed a lot of it even if the void hadn't taken it from them, but it does still affect them subconsciously. It's why they share the Operator's deep-seated hate for authority, even if they express it in different ways. But, ultimately I think their perceived lack of a childhood affects them far more than the remnants of it do. Part of why they spent so long mired in the spiral of Duviri is because they couldn't make the connections to understand it, and hell- they didn't even recognize themself in the Operator initially. Even if they now know otherwise through their coexistence with the Operator, to the Drifter's own memories their life started with a hazy dream of a deal on the Zariman and then loop after loop in the islands of Duviri.

OG post link

[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.

[grineerios]

Tennotober 2024 Day 2: "Gemini"

Inspired by this captura. :)

[grineerios]

On the Hills of War and Wonder - Operator Kaine and Volt

[grineerios]

happy birthday to me :)

[grineerios]

Mind Firm in Action - The Operator

[grineerios]

WOAGH!! GLOCK INCARNON!! Artfight attack for @forbiddenraakijuice!!!! Cortana's hair was super fun to draw, and the gun was really challenging!

[grineerios]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Warframe Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Characters: Corpus (Warframe), Sevagoth (Warframe), Gauss (Warframe), Original Tenno Character(s) (Warframe), Lotus (Warframe) Summary:

When a strange- and murderous- warframe is found locked in an Isolation Vault, Operator Rufus and his Gauss are sent to investigate. What does the warframe want? Why is it on a killing spree? And most importantly, how was it found locked in a Vault locked long before the Zariman was launched?

[grineerios]

Hey kiddo >:3

Oh Void, why do these things keep happening to me

[grineerios]

finally designed some pre-zariman clothes for Kaine that I don't immediately hate! :D also toddler kaine my beloved

[grineerios]

kaine doodle from drawing time with @pennbound-drifter!

[grineerios]

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Warframe Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Original Tenno Character(s) (Warframe), Gauss (Warframe), Alad V Additional Tags: Harm to Children, Flashbacks, POV Alternating, Independent Warframe Summary:

After a near-death event catapults a young Tenno from the grasp of the Second Dream, Rufus and his Gauss warframe are forced to remember their pasts and come to terms with their current selves.

[grineerios]

Tennotober 2023 Day 4- "Crystal"

I can't begin to list how many things I learned weren't crystal.

Anyway, enjoy my new headcanon as to why argon crystals have a bite out of 'em.