[ChicletPrime]

- i am deleting NOTHING. I have two terabyte hard drives plus a terabyte external, you will pry these audio and video files from my cold dead corpse.

- oh yes, i DO remember the crow from way back that was spying on me and Xavier at the time. It was more that in that particular cut scene, it was flying straight into the camera and i was not expecting it and kinda flinched

- since I know that Caleb's evol is gravity based, that can't be it. I would guess.. blood-based? visually its red and black. he's shown telekineses, possibly telepathy, both of which could be explained by acting in living things, aka anything with a heartbeat. well, he did pull the gun out of the guy's hand? i'm trying to think if i've seen him do anything yet to an inanimate object and not remember anything, so i'm going to guess his evol has to do with manipulation of living matter. (EDIT: no, he pulled a gun to him in the last chapter, so its not specific to living things. nuts. hmm.)

- its just weird to me (i didn't write this story, okay?)  that out of what feels like nowhere, I take a knife to his face. the MC has NOT been obsessing on camera about Grandma and Caleb, beyond the first quest or two after they died and I know that a decent time has definitely passed since that event. And at no point does the MC come across as unhinged in the murder department; that's ever so slightly more Rafayel's thing. It seems very much out of nowhere at least to me -- its not like the MC was muttering to herself in The Nest about how as soon as she baits the leader of Onychinus, she's going to rip out something tender in vengeance. I grant the idea, sure, but if that's the motivation it was awkwardly executed.

- hah! i dunno "daddy", although i bet more than half the fandom's latched onto that (magic eight ball says: 90%) so i'm with you there. i was originally attracted to Zayne over the other two because he was, in fact, a grown up man; job, responsibilities, potentially bad choices he can't backtrack on.. you know, having that kind of weight that you just accumulate after living awhile. Which, you gotta be fair, neither of the other two guys present up front. Xavier is very innocent and sweet, Rafayel is flighty and kinda annoying kid brother-ish with his constant demands for attention.

But Sylus here - his voice is definitely VERY male, much lower than the others and less smooth. he presents a confidence in the first five seconds where he just takes control without hesitation and that's very attractive in a fictional guy and in the last cutscene i watched, he was still in hard control of the situation. he is indeed walking the walk and talking the talk and i'm over here clapping my ghost hands going "yippee!" in the background :D

(EDIT By the way, this thing Sylus has with MC where he sees her as not just an equal, but literally a mirror reflection is so good because it creates a partners-in-crime dynamic that she doesn't really have with the others in this flavor.  If that's the situation here, I am VERY much into it. That is right up my alley in the absolute best way - I, too, want to be bad ass and have a Clyde to my Bonnie. While MC is very .. ditzy? .. at times in the side stories, I like to envision her as slightly more intent and focused in the "real" world, capable of actually getting things done. She IS a Hunter, after all. If Sylus is just waiting for us/her to remember our full potential so we can tear off into the distance, chewing landscape as we go, I am ALL IN)

- re/resonating and motivations thereof:  no, i agree. whatever he's got going on, he's obviously on top of his pile and i very much doubt he's in any sort of struggle that he suddenly needs a living aether core as an ace in the hole or anything. but since resonance itself hasn't been explained well, other than what i do makes other people stronger and that makes me valuable, i am stumped on what else could be going on here. if my current power level is pitiful and he knows it should be much stronger, that kind of implies that at one point it WAS much stronger and further impllies he was there to see it, so maybe he wants me return to who i ought to be? and if he can get me to resonate with him in particular with his power oozing five ways from Sunday everywhere, maybe that's a shortcut to jump some levels without a ton of time and hard work.

-- aaaand your next point is exactly what i just expanded on above! i gotta start reading things all the way through before replying, instead of doing it point by point (although i find it very amusing that we're being level 1 drift compatible here).

- goddamn pieces of relevance hiding inside cards that one may or may not have.

thank the lord it's nearly the weekend.

[Coldsaturn]

LMAO I feel you so much. 
I might end up doing the same in the future. As of now I'm resisting off the emulators because I managed to get enough space for the update by factory resetting my ipad, but the next big thing they do might just be what breaks me and forces me to switch to computer.

- It's great that you remember the crow because that establishes canon awareness of the characters! Sylus knows about Xavier, Rafayel and Sylus know about each other (they hang out in the same shady places), Caleb and Zayne are childhood friends. Zayne might know of Xavier since he's MC's partner. I don't think we'll ever get them hanging out at the restaurant for a friendly dinner, so let's gather our crumbs where we can.

- I don't know if he's already being unlocked in the With Him menu, but if he is, you can see his bio (same submenu where you also see your bond level with the companion) and his evol will be listed there.

- Yeah I totally see where you're coming from and I agree. There is definitely a bit of detachment in terms of narrative motivation from Under Deepspace and into Long-awaited Reverly. In canon you have that voice that compels her, and we find out (together with MC) that she or a part of her has violent impulses toward Sylus. This gets overlapped with the entire mission about modified protocores and Onychinus' apparent involvement with the explosion. Out of canon I think there's always a bit of almost OOCness coming from MC between the main storyline and sections that are specific to a LI, because every time you'll get into a chapter entirely dedicated to a LI, MC will straight up become another person as the relationship with that companion is prioritized, whereas all the other chapters will stay mostly neutral in terms of flirty interactions. 
It's from this chapter and onward that we really start to get how MC matches each LI, making each individual pair unique in dynamic. The writers are obviously doing their best keeping things coherent when we're not exploring a LI-specific branch, but there's only so much that can be done.
So from what I've understood from my current experience with the story and lore, MC from Under Deepspace might have been rationally processing her grief, but Sylus' MC that we're seeing now is another thing and she might just try to stab a guy in the eye if she so fancies.

- Absolutely true on your assessment of the characters. I like how they all end up somehow subverting their surface-level trope but without actually losing their core characterization. Zayne IS the most well-adjusted one. Xavier is not just the soft sleepy guy, and Raf is not just whiny and bratty. Both have rooted reasons for presenting that way, and it makes complete sense for them with their story. Sylus could be the most well-adjusted one together with Zayne, but he's a bit too much on the chaotic neutral side of the alignment for proper tax filing.

(HA! Pacific Rim reference, noice)

The weekend is just right behind the corner, we'll see what other revelations it will bring us :D

[ChicletPrime]

the avatars the guys are presenting so far are pretty straightforward and that's not a slight against them - they absolutely need to have a firm foundation in What They Represent so that, as players, each individual can gravitate to what personally works for them. Something for everybody as it were.

Xavier is the Knight Captain - the loyal, the brave, the steadfast and true.
Rafayel is the Trickster - the knife in the dark, the smiling face in the crowd, the liar with one truth.
Zayne is the King - the decision maker, the untouchable, the one who walks alone and unbroken.
Sylus is... what, then? The Lover? maybe The Magician but that doesn't feel quite right yet.
Caleb is unknown to me, so I'd just be guessing. Warrior seems obvious, but I doubt its that.

I'll mention since I remembered I wanted to tell you, but no Abysswalker for me yet. I checked my inventory and what I have is SR crates, not SSR so that particular dream is going to have to wait a little.

Let us compare crows:



Yup, definitely the same beady eyes.

[ChicletPrime]

Sylus is not unlocked in the With Him area -- I have to complete the entire 1-8 Chapters.

Chapter 4: Into Danger

• wow. this is a very swanky crib of black and gold. how the hell did we get here now? the decor seems vaguely impersonal, but there's a crystal stellated hedron of some sort being used a a paperweight on a book, which seem apropos.
  
• and the world fall into black smoke and then a red glare.
  
• why are we feeling completely empty and hollowed out? 
  
• why are we hungry for him specifically? this game is not playing around with its implications.
  
• devouring him... is our power? like.. his power is ours and we want it back? or our power is to drain others?
  
• CLASS: VAMPYR UNLOCKED: Level 0: Vorpal Bunny Hop
  
• Okay, we've been out of it for at least 24 hours. Whatever happened when Sylus and I shot him, it knocked me out cold at the same time. INTERESTING.
  
• Thing One and Thing Two were going to drill my head open!? wow. so rude. i was SLEEPING, people.
  
• i am being gaslit by Thing One.
  
• Do you take me for an utter nitwit, you... nitwit?
  
• Oh my god, Thing Two can't keep it together. muahahah!
  
• FUCKING HELL, gunshot sound out of nowhere. that was startling. hello, flashback!
  
• i dunno if crazy is the word sweet thing, that seems a little too hinged for whatever is going on here. also, that is a very neat little gunhole.
  
• (headdesk. he's so good looking with blood on his face i can't stand it)
  
• "have you figured out how you'll pay me back?" uh. do you.. i have some plushie vouchers? and a 10% off coupon for a pack of juice boxes at the corner bodega.
  
• HE'S DOING THE THING AGAIN WITH THE GET RID OF THE WOUNDS AGAIN
  
• wow. i've been instructed to hold the sentiment for when i actually manage to kill him. i guess i gotta have goals?
  
• he just... reforms. like his crow. slick.
  
• meanwhile, back in the boudoir... that is a lot of black guns on the black wall.
  
• oh okay, so the hand thing that caused some light and a golden shower of sparks there WAS resonance, and it was forced. which is good to know, that we can be brutally shoved into vibrational alignment with somebody else against our will. maybe its just him in particular though?
  
• okay wut
  
• (Even though the Aether Core's other half is in Onychinus' hands, being trapped here puts me in a vulnerable position).  the Aether Core's OTHER HALF? where did THAT tidbit fall from? I do not in the least remember mention that i only have half a piece lodged in my heart, let alone that it's other half is with The Big O.  I had the distinct impression that aether cores were bloody rare but not impossible to find and that Onychinus may or may have one already, that's all.  I am missing something crucial here - was this information glossed over in a previous chapter or alluded to so vaguely that it went over my head?
  
• Thing One now has a name: Luke. hiyas Luke! have a mentioned i like you already?
  
• you do not know what i'm thinking. * i * don't know what i'm thinking most of the time. but point taken about the Nest birds being all atwitter and looking for me.
  
• And Kieran Thing Two! hiii sweetheart.
  
• oh FINE i'll stay here with your boss and be safe. i trust you both to have only my best interests at heart.
  
• hey. morality has only been a burden to me, but i like my compassion, thank you very much.
  
• take a guess..  uh. Kieran is older?
  
• wow, i have turned into a cutthroat mafia moll out of nowhere. i see what you mean about the MC taking on a whole new personality when she's dealing with a specific storyline dealing with just one of the boys. this is wildly out of character for anything she displayed during the first eight episodes. rolling with it!
  

Chapter 5: Desire

• now there's a chapter title i can get behind.
  
• this whole place is vintage black and dried blood red. aaaand all the flowers in the vases have wilted and dropped their petals. this is very Addams Family.
  
• Luke wants my pretend weapon so bad, I can tell (well, the game told me that, but I can pretend it was me reading minds)
  
• oh, these guys are too sweet. how does Luke manage to stay employed by someone like Sylus?
  
• oh, they're taking bets behind me on how far i'll make it. lovely.
  
• Kieran has no faith. I'll show him.
  
• and i pull out my Hunter's Watch from.. where exactly?
  
• aaaand there's a crow sculpture on a short pillar in the hallway. i am not fooled. MC might be, but i am really, really not.
  
• FOLLOW THE CROW: engage EAVESDROP TIME on UNKNOWN PEOPLE
  
• fuck yes, finally some actual juicy bits! "they" plan to implant protocores into humans, yes, i guessed that for sure. then insert human consciousness into Wanderers. really now? wow. huh.
  

/stares into the distance for a bit. how would THAT work?

• fuck with people and wanderers - code name: the fountain of atei
  

/heads for less-shitty google search. all results are to do with LaDS, so its a made up thing

• even muffled, Sylus is instantly recognizable. and he doesn't care about whatever is going on in the secrets labs of Ever(lasting)'s dysfunction. if you don't care Sylus, who is this guy and why is he talking to you in your house?
  
• damn it, Kieran was right. i didn't even make it 10 steps.
  
• Sylus: "And Mephisto... said you lied. You're not even telling me everything."  this VA is fantastic, that was sardonic, threatening AND bored all at the same time.
  
• unknown guy is a double agent? and Sylus is about to end the doubling?
  
• nope, just contract termination. you have become unuseful, peon. show yourself out, i have a boudoir to ruffle.
  
• or maybe he did just disperse that guy like he did Mr Kidnapper?
  
• oooh, i've been invited in? how long did you know i was standing here, my new old friend?
  
• there is a lot of wine and liquor strewn about all the places so far, I gotta say.
  
• (this feeling again.. I'm hungry all of a sudden...)  what is the pull, here?  Sylus.. uses his power for something and i get hungry for it? or we're connected somewhere and the tank drains a little and i feel compulsively like i need to replace it? or maybe Sylus is just that delicious. vampyr power couple.
  
• oh GOD we grabbed a knife again! what is WITH us?
  
• the urge to murder in this place -- i feel like somebody needs to call an exorcist, or maybe an excavating crew to check for a burial ground under the kitchen.
  
• oh boy, and he put a gun down on the table in case it need it in the N109 zone. I have a knife, a nearby gun and a glass of wine. I am woman of many talents.
  
• Sylus' hands are HUGE. noticed it before but it's really obvious in this cutscene with the way he's standing.
  
• "i'm giving you a way out. how about we make a deal?" ooookay.
  
• i'm gulping wine like water, because i'm so thirsty.
  
• i am an utter fool - chapter name. Desire, capital D. what is desire but to crave something.
  
• "as long as you have desires, there will always be deals to make." am i going to be making 'deals' with Sylus for the rest of my mortal life and possibly my immortal one?
  
• uh oh, his eye is starting to do the thing again. there have to be SOOO many fics about that and as soon as i'm through the story, i am going to track down all of them.
  

• "so many days have come and gone. you should know your own desires by now."  you might be talking about the four days i've been in under your controls (only three of which i've been partially conscious of) but i have a feeling you meant something very different.
  
• "only i can give you want you want..."  give me grandma back! and Caleb! you can't do either of those things, not at all and i will stick a knife in your heart again just because i can. "...and you will agree to my terms."  oh. oh boy. WILL i now? just because you said so? I WILL GNAW YOUR KNEECAP OFF.
  
• yeah, confront him with the resonating thing. not a great idea to get that close though. do we still have the knife?
  
• "i resonate with you and you give me the Aether Core from Onychinus' auction." oh, it is not going to be that simple is it?
  
• "even touching his hand faintly brings forth a sense of dread."  yeah, this guy is as creepy as he is hot and murderous. a veritable trifecta!
  
• "release me. you can't do that just yet."  what? but you said ... you wanted... i am so confused. and possibly drunk.
  
• how does that face manage to look that supercilious when its made out of pixels?
  
• there's a struggle in his gaze for a hot second? oh, he's tempted! he wants to! baby, i'll make it so good for you, it'll be so much better when you don't have to force me.
  
• VERY GOOD QUESTION, GIRLFRIEND.  where does the power in his eye come from and why does it feel so familiar (aside: it feels familiar? nice, noted) is it related to the aether core?
  
• hey. wow. hang on. does Sylus have an aether core as well, only he knows how to properly use his? IS HIS AETHER CORE THE OTHER HALF OF MINE?
  
• okay, sold. lets meld.
  
• nope, there's no resonance. i suck at this so hard. bad. whatever.
  
• honestly, this dude just oozes menace just standing there.
  
• he's right, i am terrible at this. what is wrong with me? Zayne has his issues, but his Evol always responds when he wills it to.
  
• sigh. i'm a weak kitten. sopping wet. sadness.
  
• oh! dinner time! and how about that, i'm insatiably hungry, i bet.  and then a specifc threat of dissolution and a 10 minute deadline. i'd better use both hands.
  

hah! i close out of the quest, Rafayel is reminding me that i need to go to sleep and if i need help, he's happy to be there for me. then i get a text message from UKNOWN NUMBER with a status message of "Bad signal. Contact me later."  Hello, Sylus! like Xavier, i don't want to know how you got my number.

crap. Kieran is younger. le sigh.

[Coldsaturn]

I went back through Under Deepspace gathering all the info needed. I was especially looking for mentions of the Aether core, and MC's gradual connection to Onychinus.

- At the beginning of the story, during MC's first visit (that we see) with Zayne, she says "This isn't the first day I had protocore fragments in my heart."
- MC knows Onychinus is modifying protocores and Sylus is at the head. Then there's the explosion, and for the next 6 months MC barely sleeps while doing research because she believes the explosion wasn't an accident like the news is reporting.
- After Zayne gives her the letter from her grandma with all the info about the experiments with the Aether core, she says "It's about my heart. is the protocore fragment in it the same as the ones in other protocore syndrom patients?" and he says "It certainly is a strange protocore fragment"
- With Zayne she goes to Dr.Noah (who knew her grandma and treated MC before Zayne became her primary physician 6 months before the start of the story), and Noah tells her that it doesn't look like anyone put the Aether core in her because the surgery would leave traces. MC still thinks someone put it in her and says "The person responsible for this will find me sooner or later"
- Aether is at the center of the web and her grandma is just one thread of it. So MC draws a line connecting her grandma and the old experiments, her own Aether core fragment/s, and whoever wants it now. Noah also tells her that all the researchers who worked on the Aether core or know about it have either died or disappeared, but he recalls her grandma mentioning one researcher who had run away to N109 Zone, joining Onychinus. So it's another thread connecting her grandma to Sylus.
- Noah says that all the doctors involved started disappearing, just like her grandma eventually did. MC thinks that she doesn't know what her grandma was researching, implying that the content of that research might be why someone is taking out anyone who knows something.
- Zayne also tells her "If they're (info about MC's heart and its connection to the Aether core) leaked, you might become Onychinus' next target." and MC answers "But why would they kill researchers who worked with an Aether core? they want to keep its existence a secret?" and Zayne replies "Perhaps they don't want anyone else to get their hands on it as they try to obtain one for themselves. Or there are Aether cores already in their possession, and they're currently trying to keep it a secret"
During the course of the story we switched from talking about fragments to just cores, but it's still fragments. So the idea here is that people are trying to collect Aether core fragments like dragon balls. This makes sense, since Aether cores are so damn powerful, if someone had already an entire one at hand we'd definitely be hearing about it.
- This prompts MC to check the documents Noah gave her. We learn of an Aether core's energy output (MC's heart) at rest: 3021.7 eV. The modified protocore found in the no-hunt zone with Xavier (when we first learn of Onychinus) has an energy output of 3019.9 eV. Very very close. MC thinks "This can't be a coincidence. That protocore is a result of Onychinus using an Aether core to modify it"

So up until now MC has spent 6 months hardly sleeping while researching the explosion, and now that she has a lead, she's immediately working on a plan to infiltrate. 

- Tara mentions that a month before a whole bunch of protocores were all cleaned out without a trace after numerous deals in the black market, which was Lumiere's doing. She meets Xavier, they defeat a wanderer, talk about Lumiere in relation to the N109 Zone and MC keeps on deflecting every time she's asked if protocores are the only reason she wants to go. Then she admits "There's something I need to do there"
- They talk a bit more, then Xavier says "The reason you want to investigate the N109 zone is because of your family. Am I wrong?" She's determined enough that she tells him he might become her enemy in the future based on what info she might learn and if he'll get in the way.
- Xavier gives her 24 hours of unrestricted access to the hunters association files and she immediately starts doing research. She quickly jumps into shady chatrooms to get insider info about a murder (of a researcher from Ever) that happened 2 years prior. It's here that we hear Sylus' voice for the first time. The insider then asks if MC is interested in the new bounty that has been just put up, and it's Rafayel.
- She meets up with Rafayel, Raf lies his entire ass off the whole time as usual, a journalist tries to get a scoop on him because Raymond is officially dead (get back to the beginning of chapter 7 if you want details on how he died, it's lore relevant for Raf and also deliciously creepy)
- The first time MC meets Sylus his eye does something and with the voices in her head giving her headache and hallucinations (she sees her hands covered in blood) she instinctively takes a knife to his eye to stop whatever is going on.
- When she wakes up 3 days later and Sylus brings her on his lap (never forgetting that), she says "My family's deaths... you're behind them, right?!" to which he doesn't say no and simply gives her an answer that almost sounds like "well, I actually did you a favor they want you dead", and THEN MC snaps and tells him that she wants to kill him herself (which is true if we trust what the voices in her head keep on saying). Then the iconic scene with the gun, but let's notice how her hands were trembling and how she reacted just after the gun went off. She really didn't want to kill him right there and then. When she says "No! You can't die yet...!" the tone of her voice almost sounds like she's almost crying. It isn't clear whether she doesn't want him to die because she needs answers for her family, or because by instinct the pull she has toward him goes from lethal violence to whatever this is.
- Notice how hungry and thirsty MC is when in front of Sylus. She talks of feeling a void that she needs to fill. Power hungry? Biologically hungry? Just plain old horny?
- Sylus eye glows when he's using his power. MC thinks "Where does the power in his right eye come from? Why does it feel so familiar to me? Is it related to the Aether core?"

Putting all this together, and working under the assumption that there's one Aether core that's being broken into fragments, we can deduce that's why she thinks she has half of it, and Sylus the other. 
That's it for now I'd say. There will be more info coming from the rest of the section. If it looks like I'm slightly stretching the text, it's because sometimes the translation is ambiguous and we have to work with the distance between one main story update and the next. There will be times when it almost sounds like certain details are being "corrected" or slightly altered. They haven't done it to the point of retconning their own lore, but it's definitely easier to guess the direction they want to take by analyzing all canon lore available.

That being said, much much love to Sylus. What a great section this is, and I enjoy MC in it immensely.

[ChicletPrime]

at this moment, my real burning question(s) are:
-- why do we suck at resonance so bad, if its part of us like a gene expression?
-- why do we NOT suck at resonance literally anywhere else other than with Sylus?

Sylus forced a resonance on us, worked okay if weakly but when we tried to actually do it under our own control, it was just awkward and flat and that seems really wrong. It's hard to say from right now in the story if this is intentional (ie, It Will Be Explained Later In A Satisfying Way) or if this is made up shenanigans that was poorly thought out at the writer level. I do hate when I don't know and can't just trust the process.

This is so fishy, I should invite Rafayel over.

[Coldsaturn]

the avatars the guys are presenting so far are pretty straightforward and that's not a slight against them - they absolutely need to have a firm foundation in What They Represent so that, as players, each individual can gravitate to what personally works for them. Something for everybody as it were.

Xavier is the Knight Captain - the loyal, the brave, the steadfast and true.
Rafayel is the Trickster - the knife in the dark, the smiling face in the crowd, the liar with one truth.
Zayne is the King - the decision maker, the untouchable, the one who walks alone and unbroken.
Sylus is... what, then? The Lover? maybe The Magician but that doesn't feel quite right yet.
Caleb is unknown to me, so I'd just be guessing. Warrior seems obvious, but I doubt its that.

I'll mention since I remembered I wanted to tell you, but no Abysswalker for me yet. I checked my inventory and what I have is SR crates, not SSR so that particular dream is going to have to wait a little.

Oh how I love this. Countdown for the required tarot cards alignment.

Xavier - I love the Knight Captain. He also starts as The Innocent, then becomes The Sage
Rafayel - definitely The Trickster/Fool as both outer layer and a lost childhood that is being reclaimed now, but also The Lover. 
Zayne - I like The King/Ruler, and the Magician would also match his myths I believe
Sylus - the Destroyer, he's flirting with The Creator but he's not there yet
Caleb - the Warrior and the Caregiver (especially in their negative sides)

---

at this moment, my real burning question(s) are:
-- why do we suck at resonance so bad, if its part of us like a gene expression?
-- why do we NOT suck at resonance literally anywhere else other than with Sylus?

Sylus forced a resonance on us, worked okay if weakly but when we tried to actually do it under our own control, it was just awkward and flat and that seems really wrong. It's hard to say from right now in the story if this is intentional (ie, It Will Be Explained Later In A Satisfying Way) or if this is made up shenanigans that was poorly thought out at the writer level. I do hate when I don't know and can't just trust the process.

This is so fishy, I should invite Rafayel over.

It will be addressed! 
But yes, we learn that she's not exactly an expert at her evol. Not only it's been suppressed compared to when she was a child, but there's even that point when she's on the island with Raf where he literally guides her through the process like she needs to be taught how to do it. In that occasion he tells her that she needs to open her heart in order to resonate, or she won't be able to do it properly.
I believe there are parts of her evol that are more natural and intuitive to her (sense energy fluctuations, resonate with objects that don't present a particular challenge, like the flux nexus when she was with Xavier or Raf's painting), and others that are kinda blurry, and this usually involves other people who have to resonate with her. Most notably, she can immediately resonate with Xavier despite not knowing him and also not trusting him really, but Xavier knows what he's doing.
With Sylus we're being told and shown that she can't, and it's the first time in the entire story that it happens. We've never seen her straight up fail at using her evol.

[ChicletPrime]

that FURTHER begs the question, if her evol is patchy and unreliable in a combat situation or where she needs to react quickly, why the hell she got accepted into the Hunter Academy in the first place. did they just want her to fall down on a battlefield and get eaten, thereby ridding them of an embarrassing spawned-in-a-lab biomedical failure?

i am trusting the process, i swear i am, but its stuff like this that makes me squint.

also several grains of salt - i'm treating this like its a novel, not a plinko machine for money extraction :P

and just because I'm on a roll and feel like not-working for a hot minute:

---

Oh how I love this. Countdown for the required tarot cards alignment.

Xavier - I love the Knight Captain. He also starts as The Innocent, then becomes The Sage
Rafayel - definitely The Trickster/Fool as both outer layer and a lost childhood that is being reclaimed now, but also The Lover. 
Zayne - I like The King/Ruler, and the Magician would also match his myths I believe
Sylus - the Destroyer, he's flirting with The Creator but he's not there yet
Caleb - the Warrior and the Caregiver (especially in their negative sides)

Technically speaking, they're ALL lovers (lowercase " l ") but I personally wouldn't fit any of them into the Lover archetype or tarot card (I'm familar with Rider-Waite only though). Since the Lovers in a tarot card indicates choices and temptation to one side or another, usually to do with relationships, none of the boys really embody that in an overarching sense.

I kind of would immediately want to peg Xavier into The Fool because the visuals are perfect, but I don't think that's really correct? Maybe? The Fool makes his choice(s) without thinking or even realizing the reality around him, a blind decision and I don't think that's Xavier at any point. His choices may not have been what he started out with, but other than the innocent part, I'm not sure the rest fits. Judgement, maybe? A herald of change.

I could see Zayne as The Magician, the man in control of his surroundings in the gross sense, but maybe not where I am right in the story of course. I assume he gets there! I mean, reversed reading of a man not in control or a loss of control in translating spirit into reality... I'm stretching here.

Perfect, yes. Sylus as Destroyer, which I guess would translate to the Tower, a violent change.  Although now that I actually sit down and think about it - King of Pentacles? A man of wealth and power, able to provide answers to the material world and on the reverse a man that is not to be crossed.

/happily fucks around with rusty memories of card readings

When do we get our Two of Cups again?

[Coldsaturn]

that FURTHER begs the question, if her evol is patchy and unreliable in a combat situation or where she needs to react quickly, why the hell she got accepted into the Hunter Academy in the first place. did they just want her to fall down on a battlefield and get eaten, thereby ridding them of an embarrassing spawned-in-a-lab biomedical failure?

i am trusting the process, i swear i am, but its stuff like this that makes me squint.

also several grains of salt - i'm treating this like its a novel, not a plinko machine for money extraction :P

and just because I'm on a roll and feel like not-working for a hot minute:



Technically speaking, they're ALL lovers (lowercase " l ") but I personally wouldn't fit any of them into the Lover archetype or tarot card (I'm familar with Rider-Waite only though). Since the Lovers in a tarot card indicates choices and temptation to one side or another, usually to do with relationships, none of the boys really embody that in an overarching sense.

I kind of would immediately want to peg Xavier into The Fool because the visuals are perfect, but I don't think that's really correct? Maybe? The Fool makes his choice(s) without thinking or even realizing the reality around him, a blind decision and I don't think that's Xavier at any point. His choices may not have been what he started out with, but other than the innocent part, I'm not sure the rest fits. Judgement, maybe? A herald of change.

I could see Zayne as The Magician, the man in control of his surroundings in the gross sense, but maybe not where I am right in the story of course. I assume he gets there! I mean, reversed reading of a man not in control or a loss of control in translating spirit into reality... I'm stretching here.

Perfect, yes. Sylus as Destroyer, which I guess would translate to the Tower, a violent change.  Although now that I actually sit down and think about it - King of Pentacles? A man of wealth and power, able to provide answers to the material world and on the reverse a man that is not to be crossed.

/happily fucks around with rusty memories of card readings

When do we get our Two of Cups again?

When she goes to get her Hunter badge the monitor fails to get her evol level and she explains that it's because of a wanderer attack during the chronorift, and the dude tells her that it's not a problem because her level is not the only parameter they use to evaluate hunters. After all, yes you can use your evol if you want but it's not required. You have combat training to become a hunter. You have to know how to operate the technology, shoot some guns, follow missions of all sorts (including investigation and infiltration), etc. Most of all, I think to be an operative hunter you have to be okay with the possibility of dying out in the field. Not everyone has the evol gene, and while it's easy to see why the Hunters Association is almost overrun by people with evols, there are also "normal" people. 
On top of it, MC's evol is quite rare, so even with all the limitations in place, it also makes sense that they're keeping her as future investment if she underperforms now (which she's not).

alignments:
Currently chewing nails, I can't properly reply to you because I'd risk spoilering you stuff! Let's put a pin on several of the points you touched here, we'll be revisiting them after you've gone through the main story and dove into the LIs backstories (which is something you don't necessarily need to do if you just want to follow your main/s, but is definitely the only way to get the wider sense of what is happening in that world). I was using this as easy point of reference by the way.
I'm just waiting (no pressure though) and you'll get bombarded by so many videos you need to watch. Prepare popcorns and movie nights I guess.

(two of cups just calls for Xavier in my head)

[ChicletPrime]

as far as I'm concerned, i'm married to all of them, including the one i haven't met yet so be prepared to lay it on me once I've finished the main story and as much of the extra reading materials that i'll have access to at that point. 

popcorn is God's Perfect Food!

i ask questions because i love.