#the undying drifter

[hriobzagelthewanderer]

"Hey Hriob~ Guess what~ Turns out followin' your lead wasn't the best idea, huh?"

"WILL YOU LET ME GRIEVE IN PEACE? YOU HAVE NO IDEA OF THE SACRIFICE I HAVE JUST BORNE FOR YOU."

...yeah, apparently he's a little upset still.

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #44 – The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon

This was a book I went into with no hand holding or preconceptions, and so I very much dove into the deep end of the pool. This is, frankly, a mess - but a beautiful one. There’s a lot to love, a lot of meat to chew on; but Candon’s reach really does exceed her grasp in ways that show, and I cannot blame anyone in the slightest for finding the narrative alienating or hard to follow. But shoot for the moon and you still end up among the stars, right?

The book follows Sunai, a deeply traumatized drifter and guide, who absolutely never got over the apocalyptic collapse of the AI-governed city he grew up in – quite literally, as he was interfaced with the AI-god at the time, and has spent the decades since hiding his nature as a Relic despite his stubborn refusal to age and tendency to heal from all injuries in a matter of minutes. Should his nature be known, he would be conscripted as the pilot and adhesive for a towering killer mech, and used to protect and oppress the new city now growing in the ruins of the old. Instead he fled half-way across the world and spends his days helping salvagers and refugees and his nights on drunken benders. After receiving a letter from his past he goes on a particularly intense one of those, and wakes up having both slept with and accepted a job from Veyadi, a former Archivist of the same AI who he’s clearly already told too much. Despite his heroic efforts to avoid honest conversations or emotional connections, from there he’s dragged straight back into the world of dead gods and killer science.

This is a book that hits the ground running and never stops, without much in the way of care about whether you’re able to keep up. The setting has both history and politics that are clearly important but are never explained beyond the bits that are directly relevant, with the expectation that you’ll figure the rest out through context clues (or not). There’s all manner of words being used as technical terms and basically none of them are ever actually defined. Sunai spends half the book explicitly trying to head off or avoid revelation-heavy or important conversations and, while he might know what topic he’s evading by turning the conversation into a quickie, I at least did not. Which is something I enjoy, honestly – I felt I had a solid grasp on most things by the end, and the world was fascinating (if occasionally absurd) – but I really cannot hold it against anyone who checks out.

The narration doesn’t help, either. Technically speaking, the entire book is told from Sunai’s POV. He merely has an unusually porous consciousness, and so spends a large fraction of the book being directly spoken at by one of a couple different voices in his head, or else semi-conscious and seeing the world through one of several different people’s eyes. When he’s not just outright hallucinating or trapped in a VR simulation, or spiraling into flashbacks (some of which are even his). This I found harder to adapt to and more frustrating, and in many cases felt like Candon was trying to show off and not quite managing it, but when it worked it really did work (the playing with the narrative voice in the second act, especially).

The book’s most saliently about trauma and (failing to) deal with it. It is not especially subtle about how Sunai’s relic nature is just a literalization of how he latches on to the plans and hopes of others to avoid even considering the idea of what his own might look like, and makes no bones about making him the whole thing’s beating heart. The book, then, depends a great deal on how compelling you find him. Personally I found the broken wreck of a man endlessly endearing, even when he was also deeply frustrating to be stuck in the head of.

The book’s other characters fare less well, sadly. The other major characters, despite (or maybe because of) all the time spent looking through their eyes and ruminating on their motives, still end up feeling opaque and a bit arbitrary. There’s only so many world-shaking revelations you can layer on top of each other before they stop having much impact and you stop being that invested in the characters. Ruhi and Imaru especially suffered here, the former for having so many story beats stuffed into him he ended up feeling more like a plot device than a real character, the latter because she felt like the story highlighted her importance to Sunai and general significance and then didn’t really know what to do with her past a certain point. In both cases (and like, this is clearly intentional) you end up knowing quite a lot of what Sunai think of them and not that much about the characters themselves.

Veyadi does better, if not always consistently. His romance with Sunai (osculating between unhealthy coping mechanism FWBs and all-consuming devotion as the story progresses) is another of the book’s main throughlines and it largely worked for me – Sunai’s wilful refusal to accept either of their obvious feelings was well-done and didn’t last quite long enough to be frustrating, and it was always entertainingly unhealthy in one way or another. ‘adi’s character outside the romance is significantly more opaque. Partly for reasons of plot and preserving tension, but still – I ended the book caring that Sunai cared about it, but not really about him for his own sake.

I admit I feel personally let down by the ending less for what it does than what it teases at then fails to do. All that buildup and ominous foreshadowing about losing your identity and being subsumed and synthesized into a greater hole as the walls come down and in the end they and the remnant AI just end up being able to DM each other’s brains. My expectations of a perfect lyctorhood or even some original examination of codependent relationship realized as the literal synthesis of identities, entirely dashed.

The ending in general was also just, well, messy. Too many plates in the air, too much ambiguity and nuance that then needed to be forcefully resolved to tie things off, too much sublime technology and miraculous agency in conflict for the final result not to just feel arbitrary – especially since the neat resolution arrived at makes absolutely no sense at all unless the ‘AI’ in question was actually just some kind of incorporeal demon the whole time. The emotional beats do work, but the result feels like a bit less than the sum of its parts. But then I may need to accept that my standards for a good ending are just impossible for 99 books in 100 to hope meeting.

Still, mess aside a thoroughly enjoyable read and one I’m deeply sad doesn’t seem to have gotten more attention. Though it also definitely doesn’t need to be the first in a series (many such cases, these days).

[alteredsilicone]

I've probably talked about this already but

Acrithis calls Drifter "the undying Vagabond"

Wally's official Duviri title is "the Vagabond"

[roughlytwentytwofrogs]

Sometimes i think about how i Love the oppositions of the Traveler and the Witness.

Like you got the usual Light vs Dark to signify good vs bad like in soooo many fictional works. In both the names of the powers and the ambience and concept of the game itself. How when you go deep into Hive territory, sometimes the only light to help you see is your little ghost. Or how the path in dungeons or raids is often marked by lights. Or how solar is warm colors and arc is bright and sharp and even Void is a neon purple light that sparkles, vs Stasis which looks more tangible and duller/darker even with the status effects on the player model. Soft and round Ball vs sharp and edgy pyramids. How the traveler's shards are soft looking transparent crystals, and the pyramids are rugged looking black metal. How the shards look light and rounded and the metal looks dense and full of sharp edges.

But you also got the God of Life vs God of Death trope, with the Traveler giving "life", allowing societies to prosper, live longer, etc etc and the Witness destroying those societies. How the Traveler's more about the success of a group as a whole and the Witness is more about the perfection of an individual. How even in the way they fight they have that opposition, how ghosts choose and rez their guardian versus how the Witness gets Disciples, fragile but undying vs powerful but mortal (rhulk doesn't die regularly to the architects).

And you also got the opposition of choice. How ghosts choose their guardians. They're most likely free to do so, and whether or not the lightbearer turns out to be an ass is a coin toss. There's antagonists lightbearers (warlords), there's heroic lightbearers (Sloane, Zavala, arguably the PC), there's lightbearers that are more neutral or selfish (Drifter). But the Traveler doesn't intervene itself, it doesn't give guidance or tell guardians what to do, it leaves everyone the choice to do good. Meanwhile the Witness doesn't give this choice. Xivu Arath is the hive god of war, so she doesn't have a choice, she must wage war to live. Savathun had to deceive and lie to live. Oryx had to conquer. Eramis as well! The moment she strayed from what the Witness wanted her to do, she got frozen, thawed, and her whole ass crew got zombified. The Traveler lets people decide, the Witness give them direct orders.

And that's not even it, i could nerd on about the oppositions in the Traveler/Gardener and Witness/Winnower for like an hour or two more.

[thefirstknife]

I don’t understand people who are upset we don’t have all the answers about the Veil right now because quite frankly I thought that was the point? Like if we had all the answers then we get to the issue (that a lot of these same people had) where the seasons feel disconnected and like little actually matter until the last one before the expansion. They didn’t give us everything probably because we’re supposed to discover the answers as the year goes on before we chase the Witness through whatever portal it made. Bungie is doing what they wanted and yet people still complain

Yep, pretty much. They also did explicitly say in the latest TWAB that yes, the story will continue throughout the year. Some people took that as Bungie "having to tell us that there's more story because of how shit their writing is" but what I saw was community managers trying to politely explain to tens of thousands of raging players that the story isn't over. It felt almost passive aggressive to me given that this is exactly what players wanted:

We know there are still plenty of questions left unanswered at the end of Lightfall’s Campaign that you’re all eagerly awaiting answers to. As the events of Season of Defiance get into full swing this week, know that this is just the beginning of the next year of storytelling that will connect the events of Lightfall and The Final Shape. We can’t wait for the community to learn more about The Witness’s origins, its objective, and the ways we can thwart it and its disciples throughout Season of the Deep, as well as Seasons 22 and 23 later this year.

You made a great point about that. People asked that seasons become more meaningful. I remember that initially seasons were kinda all over the place and not really connected into a full story. Like, there were very few connecting points between Undying-Dawn-Worthy-Arrivals. Nothing that couldn't be summarised in 2 sentences. Even less if you look at Black Armory-Drifter-Opulence seasons from Y2.

On one hand, it meant that you could skip any and not lose much. But on the other hand, those that weren't skipping complained that the seasons aren't very well connected between each other and the main campaign of the year. This was a serious enough complaint that it became the reason for more connected seasons and also a reason to let seasons last the whole year, as detailed in a TWAB from April 2020:

We have been making progress carrying the overarching narrative Season over Season in Destiny 2. Saint-14 and Osiris led to the Warmind which leads to… [REDACTED]

It’s not perfect yet. The bridges between Seasons can definitely be improved, and we could do a better job of recognizing prior Seasons’ narrative threads in the active Season. 

In Year 4, we are going to build a better interconnected narrative and, more importantly, let players be a part of that narrative no matter when they enter the current year.

I'm putting this here because people have notoriously bad memory, but we have tangible proof of people asking Bungie for seasons that have more meaningful and interconnected narrative. Bungie listened, but that also meant that skipping a season became harder if you wanted to stay in the loop. Obviously you can watch a playthrough online, but you know. But clearly the majority wanted seasons to be meaningful and were happy when Bungie listened.

And now suddenly we don't want the story to continue during the year? I understand the FOMO complaints and monetary complaints. If you buy an expansion, you want to NOT feel forced into buying all seasons for it in order to experience the full story. It's just strange to me that we are dropping that issue at Lightfall when BL and WQ were the same. A lot will say that they liked it before, but now just got tired of the same thing over and over, but what exactly is that thing? A good and connected narrative that links expansions and seasons? Do we now want a break year where seasonal stories are irrelevant and nothing meaningful happens?

Obviously, connected seasons benefit Bungie. I am aware that connecting the narrative like this means more people will feel compelled to buy the seasons. But if they're already making contect they want us to buy, then people want their purchase to mean something instead of getting content they easily could've skipped. It's kind of an impossible conundrum? We want the seasons to be good and narrative rich and meaningful, but we also want the seasons to be easy to skip and not necessary to play. That's kinda contradictory.

I genuinely don't know what is the solution and I welcome discussion about it. I just find most of the discussions about this kind of stuff to be very strange. Like, in most cases it just boils down to a contradiction of wanting the story to feel worth investing yourself into, but also easy to sit out. Those two things just can't both be true at once.

[transalphabf]

Unbeknownst to you, my love language is acts of service. So every little adjustment you make I notice immediately. I notice the way you changed your blankets to the way I like. How my favorite soap just so happens to turn up in the bathroom. When you make my favorite meal when you know I’ve had a long day. Because we both know and appreciate that actions speak louder than words.‘I love you’ spoken a thousand times means nothing if you can’t show it.

I like to secretly listen to your music and put together a playlist of all the songs that remind me of us. Asking you to play it when we are snuggled up together.

I will spend forever trying to prove to you that I am just as attracted to you as you are to me. Both mentally, and physically. And that you are deserving of all of my love, just the way you are. Because no other Alpha has ever taken the time to understand me the way you do. I will be soft with you my sweet Alpha, because you deserve kindness, and loving affection. -🦦

I'm so lucky to have a patient Omega who understands me, who won't stop trying to show me the undying devotion I offer in return. I like to tell my Omega how much I love them, but words are sometimes ash in my mouth when I think of how easily discarded they were by Omegas in the past.

I don't trust easily, I can't always give you all of my mind, but I give as much as I can, just for your smile, my Omega.

playlist songs:

tower - avatar

darkness at the heart of my love - ghost

wir werden uns wiedersehen - selig

a secret door - avatar

my constellation - lord of the lost

the love you want - sleep token

november rain - guns n roses

finality - woods of ypres

life eternal - ghost

fall for me - sleep token

until eternity - blackbriar

enjoy the silence - depeche mode

in the land of make believe - the drifters

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

30, 50, 70?

30. How much do you edit your fics? Do you edit as you write or wait until you finish the first draft?

Lots. My first drafts come out more like free-verse poetry than fiction with lots of summary and would be very unsatisfying to read. I edit both as I write and go through the whole thing before I post. When I edit as I write, it's more of a looping edit, if that makes any sense.

I'll be filling in the gaps in the free-verse brain-spew to make it coherent, get to a point where it sure would have been cool if there was a cast-iron frying pan, go back, add in the frying pan, read through to where I was and, in doing so, realize I once again screwed up how many people the Drifter shot and have to stop, do some math, go back and increase a number, read back down and realize that Eris cannot wield a sword and a hand canon and her frozen Ahamkara bone and pick up the Drifter's rifle with only two hands, loop back up and edit that, read back through and get down to the point where they're running through a hallway and realize I said ground, like dirt, and the floor is metal, loop back up and fix that, read back down and write "she answered" only to realize she has "answered" four times in the same small chunk of text, figure out which of the four "answered"s I'm keeping and come up with different phrasing and/or actions to take in place of phrasing for the other three, realize that one of those actions, while cool, should have a reaction from someone else, loop down and add that in, read through that again only to find that we can't still be talking when we're on opposite ends of the complex and we said we were keeping the communicators set to 20 feet, highlight a chunk of text, cut it, paste it at the bottom of the page below where I'm writing, go back and rewrite my way out of the logistical corner I painted myself into, and then try to figure out how to weave what I chopped out back into the narrative without getting them more than 20 feet from each other and/or without them being able to talk back and forth across the comms that can't go beyond 20 feet… wash, rinse, repeat…

50. How would you describe your writing style?

My fanfiction output is driven by my passionate undying love of two specific characters in one videogame. I either stick them in my head and let them talk to each other, or come up with a situation that would provide them lots of opportunity to talk their way through a situation, or I come up with cool badass things they might do in a fight and figure out how to get them into that fight. This results in very dialogue-driven stories and/or plots designed to frame a particular moment of badassery in the hopes that it will be epic enough to linger in someone's brain the way it has haunted mine.

If we're talking from a technical perspective, I love subjective first person narration passionately, but I also love the 3rd person perspective we get in-game, so I try to balance that by keeping it in 3rd person semi-omniscient but allowing characters to tell their own stories verbally as much as possible, only slipping into internal thoughts when I feel like it's needed from a logistical standpoint.

70. Are you subscribed to any writers on AO3?

Yes, and you are one of them, @synnthamonsugar. <3 My subscription count is currently at 23. Not all of the subscriptions are to writers (some are to individual works I especially want to keep track of in case they are updated), but most of them are writers. I collect anyone who writes Drifter or Eris in a way that pleases me and I keep them like a treasure hoard, rushing off in glee to read when they post and delighting in their things. I am always on the lookout for more delicious stories, though, so while I do comb through the search fairly regularly looking for new shinies, if you have recommendations, I would love to hear them.

[machine908]

カバル大戦 The Red War

オシリスの呪い Curse of Osiris

ウォーマインド Warmind

孤独と影 Forsaken

錬成 Season of the Forge

放浪者 Season of the Drifter

絢爛 Season of Opulence

影の砦 Shadowkeep

不死 Season of the Undying

暁旦 Season of Dawn

名士 Season of the Worthy

到来 Season of Arrivals

光の超越 Beyond Light

斬獲 Season of the Hunt

選士 Season of the Chosen

永夜 Season of the Splicer

彷徨 Season of the Lost

漆黒の女王 Witch Queen

甦生 Season of the Risen

幻影 Season of the Haunted

宙賊 Season of Plunder

熾天使 Season of the Seraph

光の終焉 Light Fall

抗戦 Season of Defiance

深淵 Season of the Deep

魔術 Season of the Witch

望み Season of the Wish

最終形態 Final Shape

[elendsessor]

i am now morally obligated

my dumby pokemon mystery dungeon ocs based on every starter i chose! (and i guess including partners lol)

wanna also quickly say these are all the names i gave each one first time i played

kai the typhlosion:

-he/him pronouns, leader of the team (don’t wanna say it was a very stupid name i was pretty young so uh gonna have to make up a new one eventually)

-looks a lot like a normal typhlosion but has a star-like mark on his right thigh (may or may not be inspired by that one promo manga) + wears the scarf bandana thingy like an actual scarf. tying bows are for nerds.

-tries to be all big and tough but is insecure af. after the whole “you caused the end of the world!” incident he’s very wary around strangers but he’s trying to get better. wants to build the biggest rescue team possible. likes to skip rocks in wiscash’s pond

-partners with shiro

shiro the totodile:

ok so dumb story i used to be a fan of voltron legendary defender and don’t know what to name the partner pokemon so i went with the first name that came to mind and it was shiro. i regret it every day.

-he/him

-icy blue colored. it was a rare mutation or something. doesn’t want to evolve bc he thinks he looks cooler that way. wears his scarf thing fairly normally but chews on it a lot so it’s falling apart.

-of course has that undying partner loyalty. often times trusted with leading longer dungeon exploration. short but doesn’t want to admit it. ankle biter. might be slightly unhinged. rides on kai’s back when tired (his legs can only take him so far).

taren the luxray:

-he/they, leader of team hunters (another stupid team name i made when i first played since again pretty young, but i like to think that was their name due to mainly focusing on taking down outlaws)

-incredibly spiky even by luxray standards. kept that weird tuft of hair shinx/luxio have but it’s also pretty spiky. wears the scarf thing around his left front leg. he’s actually right handed.

-just fucking done. really tired all the time. sorta has this stereotypical war veteran vibe. seriously the protag in explorers has seen some shit and taren is no different. pretty cold but loves his partner to death.

-partners with edward

edward the leafeon:

-any pronouns but mainly uses they/them and she/her (but for simplicity’s sake i’m using they/them here)

-overgrown poofy bangs that cover their eyes. wears the scarf around the base of their tail.

-got obsessed with recording how the landscape around treasure town changes over time after the events of the main story. loves collecting rocks. tries to bring some down to earth positivity that taren doesn’t have. they both bicker often like they’re an old married couple.

axel the fraxure:

-he/him, leader of the armory. axel is not his real name. after learning he turned into an axew he made that up. his real name was avery.

-standardish appearance. i’m pretty sure pokemon can’t be shiny in pmd (not counting celebi from explorers) but he is!! right tusk is damaged. originally the tip just snapped off when falling right out of the goddamn sky but being curb stomped to near death by kyurem made him lose half of it. scarf is wrapped around the now broken tusk.

-was one of those people who thought the world sucked. had been a drifter in the human world, having cut off ties with his family. his partner hideki was the first friend he ever had. likes to battle and tries to live up to being the hero he’s made out to be, but has had one too many existential nightmares as of late especially after first returning to his old life.

-partners with hideki as previously mentioned. they’re technically married now but since pokemon don’t seem to hold weddings they don’t openly say they are.

hideki the samurott:

-they/them

-has that deeper blue body hisuian samurott has with a light grey underbelly. lacks the mustache-like whiskers and pretty much only has standard otter whiskers. wears the scarf around their neck.

-positive thinker. works a lot on the berry fields in paradise. wholesome and hates swearing. constantly asks axel about what humans are like. likes to cuddle! oh and the shell blades are just for show they have no idea how to use them.

others that i just haven’t gotten around to:

-i wanna play the rescue team remake soon but when i played the demo back when it came out i chose cubone and charmander. already have their names (maple and cherry!) and most i got with them is cherry’s butch and they’re both lesbians your honor.

-never got super far into super mystery dungeon. wasn’t my thing. i wanna give it another shot one day but i remember liking using treecko. mine’s partner was fennekin but idk if i’ll change that or not.

[jericho-12]

[goldenlaquer]

Since Naoshi's love language is wrestling, Hiro has picked it up too and now initiates it towards anyone he respect and admires. That's just how the 301st squadron rolls 🤧

[hriobzagelthewanderer]

♦️

"...there are a lot of words that come to mind with you, Solita... but for better or worse, the 'first' word I think of every time with you is 'boobs-'"

"...wait, no, I meant 'boobs-' NO I MEANT 'BOO-' VERDAMNEN THIS IS WHY I HATE BEING FAE SOMETIMES-"

[stxrmapper]

[  diary  ]  receiver  writes  a  journal  entry  about  sender  ( for sam about core >:3 )

One of the entries they have written about Coreopsis is buried in a filled journal that's been neatly organised away in their apartment by now. It seems to be from a little while ago - not their first meeting, but sometime a little after that.

-

"Now whenever I have free time, I find myself often pulled towards Coreopsis' workshop. Time with them is always pleasant, and today is no exception as I find myself here once more. It's a place away from the prying eyes of those who cannot keep their thoughts to themselves, where I can sit in peace, but still with company.

The way they are able to create something from essentially nothing is fascinating; their sculptures are all magnificent. It reminds me of myself with the Light, but I suppose that's easier. Whatever I imagine, the Light takes the form of; for them, they have to be the catalyst to turn metal and clay into the final product.

Coreopsis has been working on a bird for quite some time - it looks to be a phoenix, the more it takes form. Quite apt, they seemed to start working on it around the time I first spoke with them. I am anticipating the final result.

Dare I say, I look forward to spending time with them the more I think about it."

-

Around the writing itself there are multiple sketches of potential ideas for the sculpture in question, the notations are in a lot messier handwriting than the actual entry.

[literupture]

okay but this is ADORABLE??

[ars0nism]

what was the best destiny season so far and why isnt it season of the worthy

this is a joke i kinda liked worthy

[thefirstknife]

I'm deeply sorry, but there is a small detail in the Witness's cutscene at the end of the WQ campaign that is driving me nuts and I really want to know your opinion:

Could it be that the Witness can break the forth wall?

I know it sounds like a Doki Doki Literature Club rip-off, but hear me out

I don't know how many people noticed this, but, after watching the cutscene a couple of times, I started to think that the choice of making the Witness speak, then turn around and face the camera to continue its monologue was very weird and almost out of place

I understand that the scene is structured so that it's clear that whatever message the Witness is sending to the Traveler is referred to us as well, but the choice of an "evil monologue" (in an empty room??) simple doesn't add up for a villain of its caliber, also considering that:

1 - they could have just shown its face in some other way that would have given the same effect

2 - it was clear it was talking/referring to the Traveler while speaking (in the scene you see a weird veil thing in front of the Witness showing it, so it's kinda obvious)

But the point is exactly that the Witness stopped talking to the Traveler and turned to speak with us: no other Destiny villain nor character ever did this once in the whole franchise, so why suddenly are we having a character facing the camera directly and make it explicit that it's talking to us as the Players?

I may just be seeing things because I really want someone else in the Destiny universe to break the fourth wall (aside from that Ahamkara piece of armor and the Emissary), but I can't unsee this now and I need answers - or a debate, both are good 0^0

It's very possible!

It wouldn't be the first time there was a 4th wall break in Destiny. Savathun in particular is known for doing it before. Truth to Power lore book is full of weird references and phrases, but one specific tab featured the following:

The letter reads "Achieve Light Level 999 and defeat Dûl Incaru in a one-person fireteam to unlock the true ending of the Dreaming City."

On top of this being 4th wall breaking by itself, it also spurned a lot of theories and people believed that following this instruction would break the curse on the Dreaming City. So one guy actually started working on it. It wasn't fully possible until they introduced artifacts in Shadowkeep.

Max power level at the time was about 930 if I remember correctly. It took an incomprehensible amount of time for him to level his artifact (during Season of Undying) to reach 999, which he did. He then went to solo Shattered Throne, as per instructions. He streamed it and had people helping him through the stream so he succeeded.

Nothing happened ofc, but devs wrote a congratulations post on the website! And it was graffiti'd by Savathun. So she directly interacted with us through the website, therefore escaping the game. This is the clearest 4th wall break we've ever had.

As you noted, the Nine are also known to be 4th wall breaking. Most notably apparent through Dares of Eternity which are directly treated like it's aware that we are players, but also the Nine tend to appear like they're speaking to us, the players.

Similarly phrased and acted out as the Witness cutscene, there's the Invitations of the Nine for the final, 9th, visit. There's a cutscene of the Emissary of the Nine talking to Drifter. He asks if there's anything else he can do for her (sarcastically, he's tired of the Nine's bullshit) and the next scene is just the Emissary looking directly at the screen, saying "Keep playing the game."

It's very much on the nose with how it's framed.

And ofc, ahamkara do this as well. For those that don't know, most notably, in Claws of Ahamkara:

Yes, we are here. We are not the photons on your screen, or the voice in your head, or the words you read.

And Skull of Dire Ahamkara:

I came to find you, only you, because you're special. You're from somewhere real. And together we can burn our way back there. Can't we, o player mine?

So, is it possible the Witness did it too? Absolutely. Especially when compared with the Emissary scene:

And ofc, both reference "the game" which can definitely be read as in-game universe thing, but also, considering all of this, could also be a reference to the fact that these entities know they're in a game.

The Witness is also talking directly to the screen in Lightfall trailer as well. Calus doesn't, not that I can see at least. When Calus is shown face-first, he seems to be looking up and away, towards the Witness off screen:

And the first time we see the Witness, it is looking back at Calus:

But then for the rest of it, it's looking at us:

So yeah, it's definitely possible! At least, it can double as a 4th wall break and it can be seen as the Witness talking to the Guardians as well as talking to the players directly. And it makes sense even! All of these examples of known 4th wall breaking were done by highly paracausal and unique entities, so it's more than likely that the being that embodies the Darkness would be able to do it as well.