[ChicletPrime]

screenshots you say?

what screenshots?



okay, i need to vibrate for awhile over this, that was a jam packed ten minutes of exposition and cutscenes that felt like four hours.

i wrote my very first fanfiction, age 12.5. and get this, i wrote it for an anime i didn't understand. there was a "cartoon" showing on the french channel called "Albator" that i watched religiously the summer i was 12, but the thing is - i don't speak french. i understood nothing. i just watched it like a religious experience and made up my own story about what was going on. i found out much later (after the advent of the internet and being able to look stuff up) that it was a dub from a japanese anime called "My Youth In Arcadia" that was dubbed in english as "Captain Harlock" (the titular character). But I watched the french version and to this day, I can sing the theme song only in french and i still have no idea what it was REALLY about.

and my fanfiction was torrid, for 12.5 years old. i was a dread pirate captain space queen with an armada under my command and we'd had an ill advised liaison aboard his spaceship and i got pregnant and had to hide from him and he chased me across the galaxy and... yeah. oh boy, yeah. i was a precocious youth? i still have that "story" in an orange duotang of loose leaf paper somewhere in a box in the storeroom.

fandom never dies!

because, Inuyasha? i currently, as of right now, am sporting an over the shoulder satchel that carries my lunch to and from work that has my boy Sesshōmaru plastered on the side. fandom really never dies.

[ChicletPrime]

okay, i think i have some thoughts on this last chapter before moving on to the conclusion and whatever comes next.

in the moment of the first kiss underwater, there is a very strong impression that Rafayel either called up a Lemurian skin for us, or invoked it. He gave us breath underweater with only his mouth on ours, touched then the skin around our eyes deliberately... what for, if not to caress scales? then to ask if we would cry to see if we would give pearls to the water. that the elemental fire guide would only have come close if our scent was familiar. in my mind, that kind of clinches it.

the commentary about the sea's borrowed power and betrayal, that the sea is also cruel and that he remembers and will reclaim it... it could be either a commentary on the vagaries of human allegiances or it could be very specific to the main character, or even both all at once. i don't know how Lemuria actually fell, other than a mention in one story that it was ransacked while Rafayel was not there, and he returned to loss and a ship sailing away.

but if its meant as commentary on his personal story with us, then the few words he says are pretty damned poignant.. and pointed. that he remembers and will reclaim a forgotten power. that only one bonded to the Sea God can raise it again.

did Rafayel seal his power away? did he write it in golden letters onto the palace walls and put himself into a kind of hibernation? did we promise on that beach and he gave us the key to his heart and a true hold on all that the ocean is - and when we did not return, he fell into grief or even fear and sealed it all away, out of reach?

at the end, we remembered *something* - enough to say the words to call the man out of the god, the invoking of whatever that bond was or is.

i note a note in there about lyrics, which was to remind me to bring up something i think appropriate, a song called The Ocean aptly enough by Dar Williams. about being drawn away from the living and the land, to yearn instead for something that cannot ever care back - and how tenuous the hold is to keep turning away from the void.

I went back to the ocean today / With my books and my papers / I went to the rocks by the ocean
But the weather changed quickly / Oh, the ocean said, "What are you trying to find / I don't care, I'm not kind
I've bludgeoned your sailors / I've spat out their keepsakes / Oh, it's ashes to ashes, but always the ocean."

And the ones that can know you so well / Are the ones that can swallow you whole
I have a good and I have an evil / I thought the ocean / the ocean thought nothing
You are the welcoming back from the ocean.

"I... have no need... for traitors!"

the worst part is, did I betray him and his people? did I say something that sent the ships to Lemuria somehow? He was so very angry. but whatever hold he gave us over him, to call him back or even just to call his name, it's still there and that must burn on all levels. that he made a mistake and it's on him forever and ever.

some of the visuals in this whole scene, with the lightning crashing constantly and the howl of the winds and waves and the sheer spillage of uncontainable power wreathing him in water like flames... /chef's fucking *kiss*. it was really frightening, for a little game you should be able to play on your phone. he looked.. so otherwordly. so far above and away even with his hand holding us down, as though he was thinking about ripping our heart right out of our chest.

anyways. FEELINGS.

[Coldsaturn]

"oh, this is so beautiful in my mind's eye"
Cinematic masterpiece in my head. 

"because you have a familiar scent"
And not just because we were kissed. Put a pin on it!

"how did we know that random trivia fact?"
It's not directly state in the main story, it's actually implied in an option that turns up in text messages after Ebb and Flow, but basically we start as MC being mostly ignorant about Lemurians because she regarded it as mythology, but after learning Raf is one she starts studying them to understand him better.
OR we picked it up from Raf's thoughts through our bond

"out of all times, now is ...  because you need it? because i'm here now?"
This is an important question because there are fans who believe Raf doesn't remember his past life and read his actions+words in this chapter as someone who didn't know where he was going or what he was doing, especially because he waited until that moment.
I disagree.
He needed MC to awaken the Tome, but in order to do that she needed to know who he really was, and that was a very risky info to give out. He needed to trust her first.
Second, he couldn't just go happily and merrily because he's been hunted. The anniversary event was the perfect justification for him being there under a false identity, getting him closer to his objective while keeping plausible deniability.
Why NOW now rather than in the future: yes, things are getting worse and Raf needs to act.

- When MC bleeds on the tome and it starts awakening, she narrates "The distant roar of a tsunami echoes in my mind"
Lemuria resurfaced from the deep sea after a tsunami caused by the chronorift.

"is this my memory? or .. his?"
As Sylus warned us, having a whole aether core would kickstart the hallucinated memories.

"but i never came back, did i?"
Yup. Just like he said in Nightly Stroll. After that, the deepsea became a prison for him because he wanted to be with her.
There's also an interesting thought around his "you awakened me" and young Raf talking about their bond. It's unclear whether he didn't know he had a bond with her until he met her (she awakened him and all the memories), or if he always knew he was bound to someone on the surface (reason why he got close enough to be swept by the waves in the first place) and "awaken" refers to something more general about feelings and life meaning etc.

"are you okay?!"  "No."
We're so not prepared for Raf when he's honest lmao

- THIS SCENE 
Legendary. Iconic. 

"A follower? Or just a lowly sacrifice?"
Put a pin on both titles! They both come with a very specific set of rules and expectations

"Rafayel, was this your power all along"
That's an interesting question! There's a fan theory that tracks the weather in his cards, and it seems like it follows Raf's emotions one too many times to be coincidental.

- "with the authority granted to me by the ocean's covenant, I order you to..."
And as she says this, the symbol on his chest starts glowing, exactly like when we believed we were drowning and we said "Don't go"

"Do you know who I am, Rafayel?"
"Of course"
But we're assuming he was not recognizing us before. Are we sure, though?

- "Do you need to be a sacrifice...or a Sea God?"
Put a pin on both titles! They both come with a very specific set of rules and expectations

"and since i accepted its power, I must answer its call"
This is a very important insight into Raf's godhood because it doesn't look like he IS the sea. The Deep Sea is an entity of nature all in itself, and the Sea God is like the conduit for its power, a way to easily govern and take care of it, but the Deep Sea and the Sea God can clash in terms of power hierarchy.

"Even if certain futures have a predetermined end, I can't refuse..."
Put the biggest pin on it!!!

"i HATE having forboding, ominous feelings that i'm going to be left behind."
Very relevant to a Raf's analysis video I'll put in your playlist


- Captain Harlock FF
That is amazing. No cognition, just pure vibes lmao
Also, that is another anime pillar of my childhood. Luckily I got to watch it dubbed in my mother tongue lol
And high five for Sesshomaru the greatest. I don't know if you were there a few years ago when the spin-off sequel came out and all us shippers were vindicated 15 years later

- "at the end, we remembered *something*"
It's interesting that MC never stops to think about that. She put out a full string of very specific words, yet doesn't dwell on it even a second. If it was a conscious memory, I believe she would have narrated about it, instead I think it was just pure instinct drawing from the depths of her brain.

- Those lyrics! They're perfect.
Ocean mythology and imagery is one of my absolute favorite, and it probably plays a not small part of why I main Raf. The writers are doing a great job with it.

"but whatever hold he gave us over him, to call him back or even just to call his name, it's still there and that must burn on all levels."
All of this. Whatever happened (both what you'll find out and what we still don't know), he's stuck in a lose-lose situation.

"he looked.. so otherwordly. so far above and away even with his hand holding us down, as though he was thinking about ripping our heart right out of our chest."
YES.

[ChicletPrime]

Land of Secret Flames: 12

• i feel like whatever happens in this chapter is going to be a little flat after the high of last episode. its fine. we can't live on the edge of transcendence at every moment.
  
• i turned the proto/aether core fragment over to the Association?
  
• like, are we even convinced the Association is * good *?
  
• what hey? somebody sent something to the Special Ops team from Jewel Reef, using my name as the sender?
  
• "drenched, palm sized metal disc" - huh.
  
• okay, that was some technobabble we're just gonna take on faith.
  
• oh HO! ".. a radio frequency chip capable of attuning to metaflux fluctuations."  so those fuckers from EVER * were * calling forth protofields/Wanderers on command. i knew it.
  
• and in case nobody was paying attention in the last 12 story chapters, let's mention EVER by name again.
  
• no remote activaction. gotta be johnny on the spot with it. noted.
  
• "dark clouds cover the sky, heavy and gray."  feeling out of sorts, beloved?
  
• oh. a bunch of people are missing from "the island", per the radio news. didn't the implied tsunami sweep a bunch of the elite and  rich off their proverbial feet?
  
• yeah, we are definitely intertwining here. whatever bond we got, we're sharing thought patterns on some level.
  
• oh, so the several people missing is just the pair from EVER.  well, i guess i'm not that distraught then.
  
• oh, so we're not supposed to ask about the forgotten promise right now, because of weather related reasons? "not in the mood for a tragedy".  oh MAN, i am a terrible person. it probably wasn't my fault but i still feel the need to pat him all over the face and swear i'll do better this time. at which he will probably look at me side-eye and say something inscrutable before shrugging it off with a quip.
  
• oh, i don't really remember that much from the boat? what is WITH my memory?
  
• oh, we're not talking about RECENT memory.. only that i had a high fever for a handful of days and woke up not remembering much. therefore i surmise that i have in, in fact, forgotten any previous meeting with Rafe and only some of it is starting to come back.
  
• please tune in to Radio F I S H, your channel for the hits of today, yesterday and tomorrow. all the classics, all the time! F I S H, the coast with the most!
  
• yes, i want to apologize but don't know how to make it not sound like i'm trying to dodge out of it with this very convenient amnesia thing.  please don't look at me like you understand.
  
• that's fucking * heartbreaking * - "did you go to the beach to wait for me?"  "are you asking about the year after that, or every year after that?"
  
• and he puts my hand over his chest (heart?) where the bond mark has to be subsumed
  
• "The power within the Tome of the Sea God will protect everything that belongs to the sea. This includes our bond. If you can't let it go, why not just order me now not to hold a grudge?"
  
• we have THAT much control over him?
  
• i am... okay, the implications of that are super heavy.  no wonder he waffles between resignation and anger and a forlorn sort of hope.
  
• oh. does he .. does he want me to take away this particular pain? oh, sweetheart.
  
• yeah, no. i am not ordering you to do anything that doesn't directly impact my continued ability to breathe. unless its for bedroom shenanigans and we've already discussed the safeword.
  
• i  WILL always come back for you. and you said you'd wait, so please ... keep waiting. 
  
• holy carp, YES THE PROMISE STILL MEANS SOMETHING TO ME. even if i don't really remember it, because now i KNOW you again and i can swear it again if you want.
  
• yes, the weather is going to storm.  and yes i came here anyways. for you.
  
• awww, lovely metaphore about rainwater and seawater finding their way back to each other.
  

stars, I have seen them fall / but when they drop and die / no star is lost at all / from all the star-sown sky. / the toil of all that be / helps not the primal fault; / it rains into the sea, / and still the sea is salt.

this game is way more emotional that i thought it was going to be. by a LOOOOONG shot.  still kinda feeling like a well-rung bell.

This is a very important insight into Raf's godhood because it doesn't look like he IS the sea. The Deep Sea is an entity of nature all in itself, and the Sea God is like the conduit for its power, a way to easily govern and take care of it, but the Deep Sea and the Sea God can clash in terms of power hierarchy.

ah, okay! so he's the avatar now, with the channel now wide open and unrestricted. but when he was talking about the Tome before we awakened it, he specifically said the power/runes weren't of the future, but of oblivion. an interesting detail, at least, just gonna let that sit there for a bit while my brain stirs it into soup.

now the question is -- continue on the chain down the "main story" or go back and do the other side quests in that Envelope option?

[Coldsaturn]

"so the several people missing is just the pair from EVER"
I don't remember the exact wording now, but I think there are several people missing (not just the couple we recognize from Ever), but then MC asks about them specifically. In general Raf waves it away as people deciding to jump into the ocean. Which...I would count as suspicious considering how a pattern is starting to emerge where Raf appears and a bunch of people disappear.

"F I S H, the coast with the most!"
LOL

"did you go to the beach to wait for me?" "are you asking about the year after that, or every year after that?"
I NEED to mention this even though it's a quote from his spring card event that just ended. At a certain point of the dialogue (won't say anything more to avoid spoilers in case you haven't played the Memory yet) he says something along the lines of "If I ever left you it would mean you had left me"
And it's fucking /tragic/ because if you remember him being an opera singer in Verona (that anecdote is very important), together with other points that talk about his past, he WILL at a certain point just...float on the side, sure that she has completely left him. So he leaves her, too, as much as he's able to.

"we have THAT much control over him?"
Yuuuuuuuuup.

"no wonder he waffles between resignation and anger and a forlorn sort of hope."
This! There's at least another LI that is comparable to Raf in terms of "MC is a terrible horse I might need to tell her to fuck off" backstory, and yet starts as prickly indifferent independence which then grows into a soft hope that she'll love him again and will maybe remember their past. And I wish I was that good of a person.
Instead I 100% relate to Raf. He's /angry/ angry, and rightfully so. I get it. Hold a grudge, king. Kill a man or ten. Slap a gal.

"and you said you'd wait, so please ... keep waiting."
Required reference to Nightly Stroll where he says jokingly (but is it a joke?) "It's been 800 hundred years"

- btw his voice in this last chapter is... wow. Completely dropped his bratty diva antics.

"this game is way more emotional that i thought it was going to be."
Me after I teared up as I read a random game text. I just wanted good looking dudes, dammit.

godhood:
I don't have a definite answer on that! Feel totally free to give your opinion on that once you've seen his myths. He's a God alright, but he also talks of the Deep Sea like it's not him, and like at times it goes against his own feelings.

Yes the Tome contains the prophecies concerning the Lemurians. Because of something that happened in the past, Lemurians now don't have prophecies of the future anymore because there's no Lemuria at all. So it just oblivion.


The other two routes of this section cover the other 2 original love interests, Zayne and Xavier. At least Xavier's is very heavy on giving you lore for his backstory. Zayne less, if I remember correctly. They all happen simultaneously and give you a different look into what is happening to MC following Sylus's section.
Someone who's following their main could decide to just play 1 LI's route, see what happens later, and then come back later to pick up the other two LIs. A completionist might play them first, then continue down the road.

[ChicletPrime]

completionist it is! i'll be honest, i don't really have a favorite yet - i think all the guys are fascinating in their own particular ways. but i think we'll do Zayne's branch next if you believe it has less relevance/revelations, as I need to set Rafayel's story down and let it collect a little time dust.  Xavier is so beautiful, we'll save his light for dessert.

Thorns Under The Moon: 1

• okay, this is Not Calm At All! Zayne, are you having a nightmare again?! chasing after the girl through hollow corridors, as black crystals erupt.
  
• shit shit shit why does he dream of corruption so often?
  
• oh wow. the crystal aim for her throat even as she turns around, despair and desperation.
  
• midday napping. man, this guy probably avoids sleep like he owes it money. i have got to write that fic about Dawnbreaker before i learn too much and blow right past the idea.
  
• huh. so back from Mt Eternal for two months and the boy isn't sleeping much at ALL.
  
• he's not as demonstrably/outwardly affectionate as the others, but that little quirk in the corner of his mouth after a deadpan line delivery just does it for me. 
  
• i gave him the crystal fragment from the N109? why did i do that. oh, they're analyzing it for anything, including to do with Protocore Syndrome and Zayne found something but its not conclusive so he ain't talking
  
• connection error, please try again
  
• don't mind if i do
  
• oh, there's an actual hotfix going in. nice.
  
• since i'm watching the intro cinematic again, the CD that Xavier reaches for is entitled "Passing Through The Land" per google translate
  
• "are you referring to the lullaby playlist? did you forget how old i am?"  oh, that made me grin out loud
  
• that's what i need. a boyfriend with a reliable car.
  

Thorns Under The Moon: 2

• okay, Wanderer with a betacurve field on the loose, popping up everywhere, no clear visual on it though. and people with Protocore Syndrome keel over near it.
  
• aaaand the Big Bad Boy is in a location where Zayne is heading, to help treat some severe Syndrome cases. HMMMM.
  
• chicken, egg.
  
• send me in coach! 
  
• okay, aggressive flowers to the face out of nowhere. hello, Carter from Xander Sciences. i've heard of that company somewhere.
  
• sorry, no can do dinner. my 6'2" not-exactly-my-boyfriend is right there looking frosty and we don't want to poke the polar bear, do we?
  
• oh. you two are acquainted? niiice. rivals in medical school maybe?
  
• Carter is really angling for dinner here. /checks his cuff for anything blue and sparking like that guy in the N109 banquet.
  
• Zayne is such an ice king.
  
• flowers to the face AGAIN
  
• muahahah! oh, fantastic. here, buddy. have your flowers back, courtesy of Dr Zayne who is REALLY not amused by these shenanigans.
  

Thorns Under The Moon: 3

• "Xander Sciences... I feel like I've heard that name from somewhere..."  I KNOW. ME TOO.
  
• OHHHHH
  
• Raymond, you sly dead dog. you were headhunting Zayne for Xander. and this Carter guy must be your wannabe partner in biomedical crime.
  
• by the by, Zayne's shoulders are HUGE. hello, sailor!
  
• 3 DAYS LATER: AIRPORT EDITION
  
• i love that my not-boyfriend Zayne is so good in his very demanding field. i am all kinds of pride.
  
• oh, suspicious patient waiting for the medical experts. crystals ain't right for your garden variety case of you-got-too-many-crystals-in-your-heart disease.
  
• ahah! so suspicious patient actually caused a metafield fluctuation burst when he was admitted to hospital.
  
• query:  are the crystals in my heart going to end up so strong, i can metaflux my way into charging (changing?) a whole planet? asking for a friend.
  
• shoulda had a Wanderer show up with that level of burst, but nada. also weird.
  
• oops. hiii Zayne. no, i wasn't grilling your underling for information, no sir. just making idle chit chat.
  
• of COURSE he'll have the cake.  this man and his sweet tooth.
  
• oh man, he already knew i was coming along on the trip. and i wore my nice hunter boots and everything for the occasion.
  
• oh. no. i didn't actually think about who was going to have to sign off on the escort application. why do you have to be in charge of everything, Dr Zayne?
  

[ChicletPrime]

Thorns Under The Moon: 4

• patient situation dire, crystals nearly to the lungs now.
  
• the betacurve Wanderer has been shown to get from one side of the city to the other in five minutes. Chansia City must have great public transit infrastructure.
  
• but realistically, this fucker is warping through space and/or time isn't it.
  
• meanwhile, Dr Zayne is peeling crystalline scales off blood vessels with the world's least shaky hands. i bet i can make them tremble.
  
• oh! i recognize this type of crystal as the same in human/wanderers from the N109.
  
• this is really coming together fast now, in terms of story.
  
• heart palpitations out of nowhere!  incoming metaflux field! who the hell needs a hunter watch anyways, it would only slow me down.
  
• i... i don't know, my friend. i've never tried to Resonate something to be * smaller *
  
• nice! Zayne is going to keep operating while i try my best to keep him and everybody else alive.
  

Thorns Under The Moon: 5

• aww, i am not a fan when they cut out chunks of it. it worked, patient got sutured, Zayne never lost his cool and it all happened off camera and now i'm in a waiting area lounge thingie of some sort.
  
• the metaflux disappated when the surgery ended. i guess his heart was going for one last gasp of mutation before Zayne finished all the unpeeling.
  
• and now Zayne wants to check me out. fair enough, who the heck knows what my crystals are doing other than having a par-tay in the hear-tay.
  
• "the aether core shouldn't be what's causing the mutations. your heart's integration with one is a perfect example."
  
• oooh, is that professional disdain I hear, Dr. Zayne?
  
• i feel like the devs are speaking directly to me. "In this world, many forces covet the Aether Core. You haven't met all of them yet."  soooo fourth wall breaking!
  
• and again, the phrasing is janked about whether there are aether cores, or The Aether Core.
  
• okay, the patient woke up. apparently that is very weird.
  

Thorns Under The Moon: 6

• more tragic NPC VA work. somebody needs to write Infold a letter in condemning crayon.
  
• Dr Carter! what are YOU doing here? and of course Zayne saved the dying patient, who did you think you were dealing with?
  
• oh really now. so you admit that Xander Sciences know something about Protocore Syndrome that they're not sharing freely with the world.
  
• hmm. so the fragment(?) of core that was inside this guy was linking to the Wanderer? so he felt like he was trapped inside it, even though he was actually just on a hospital bed?
  
• aaaand he goes into convulsions after spitting out this revelation
  
• hello, more metaflux! Wanderer probably really incoming this time
  
• yeah, this thing is drilling through space like it really shouldn't.
  
• oh no, MY HEART!
  
• is it trying to draw me in too and subsume me? i have a whole aether core though, this thing shouldn't be stronger than me. right?
  
• (its going to be hard to fight a Wanderer if i'm the Wanderer in question.)
  

Thorns Under The Moon: 7

• oh. i am.. dreaming?.. that i'm in the corridor that Zayne was having a nightmare about.
  
• the energy waves are pulling me around. good guess that i'm somehow in the Wanderer's protofield, but i am pretty sure not in my actual body.
  
• a dark figure. Zayne?  woah, hey! no ice! i'm alive in here.. somewhere. wherever here is.
  
• "within the boundless darkness, it's as if a pair of hands is gently lifting my tired soul."
  
• Zayne, why are you out of your surgical gown with a weird brooch cresty thing on your very heavy jacket?
  
• dilapidated buildings... oh WOW.  Dawnbreaker?!
  
• god, you are just like my Zayne.  "hesitating.. i reach out and touch his cheek."  hello.. boyfriend? mi novio?
  
• do i remember what happened in the ward? yes. but i seem to have lost some time between there and here.
  
• oh. we're STILL in the Wanderer's protofield? but.. this is not the hospital. this looks like what has to be your apartment.
  
• oh. the city is.. ruined? 
  
• Zayne / Dawnbreaker fidgets a LOT less than the other guys. its very noticeable.
  
• me: "This Wanderer's Protocore must possess an Aether Core's energy."  so ... its a regular core boosted to power +1000, somehow? why are we not just calling it an aether core entirely?
  
• he won't let me touch him again
  
• yeah, we're trapped in a dream, girlfriend. but this is a very solid dream, definitely. and it seems Dawnbreaker is manifesting the outer world trappings with what he knows.
  
• I AM SO SMART
  
• "even in a world as broken as this, chocolate still exists. i expected nothing less from you."  amen, sister.
  
• so IS this Dawnbreaker, or is this my Zayne's dream, who remembers being Dawnbreaker?
  
• love it, very convoluted.
  

[Coldsaturn]

Speeding through the chapters at the speed of light! I see Xavier is teaching you well.

The update you did was the one to add the new main story chapters! You'll see the new section under Homecoming Wings <3

Yes, Zayne's humor is actually top tier. He was made for deadpan british humor, I wish the writers let him loose a bit

Raymond didn't just try to recruit Zayne, he also said that Zayne and someone else were the only two able to do whatever they do in their job that is special beyond regular surgeon things. That someone else is Carter.

I'll leave it to you to discover whether this is really Dawnbreaker, but enjoy our very efficient grim reaper with a sweet tooth <3

[ChicletPrime]

Thorns Under The Moon: 8

• nice. actual background of dead city now.
  
• i agree, this dream is excessively detailed. Zayne must have dreamt it over and over and over again.
  
• a cluster of black crystals like a flower, tall as a three story building.
  
• "a protocore cluster"
  
• okay, hold up. hang on. all this time we've been dealing with protocores and aether cores that are, like, the size of a small peach pit, MAYBE.  although in battles, they can be the size of people i guess. in this future that Zayne keeps seeing (whether he knows its a future or not), the crystals are growing to the size of BUILDINGS? what the hell are they feeding on?
  
• is this what cracks the world?
  
• and he's tried (shield)breaking these but they reform within seconds. oh my god.  right, he's been trapped in here for two days while i was knocked out.
  
• me, with brilliant thought: ".. another protocore cluster in this field, providing energy to each other".  well, that does happen in our actual battle fields sometimes, this is just.. magnitudes bigger.
  
• protocurve detection, ahoy! its that way, boss.
  
• oh no. we have to split up. i hate this idea suddenly.
  
• oh. odd emotion in Zayne's eyes? we'll be okay. just lock in and stay focused.
  
• yeah, this is my Zayne. he's just channeling his other self a little bit.
  
• oooh, what?  he calls his ice forward but "dark impurities" emerge but stop spreading just underneath the surface of white.
  
• "its as if a looming black hole threatens to consume everything pure and white. yet a thin, unwavering layer of pristine ice remains resolute in being the last line of defense."
  
• well, THAT'S something.
  
• and now the ground is changing, to cling and... slow him down? hold him back?
  
• this is a stupid dream. wake up! both of us!
  
• oh no, we're not going to conjure William forth again, are we? nooo that would suck so bad.
  
• this is terrible
  
• "bloody tears stream down from William's empty eye sockets." ewwww "An array of faces emerges from the cluster's projection."
  
• EVER just has SO MUCH to answer for. if they were trying to save the humanity from time, they've destroyed it instead.
  
• oh great, now the dead people are berating Zayne / Dawnbreaker for not being able to anything but spare them pain.
  
• after making such a point of his steady, surgeon hands, now his fingers are trembling.
  
• fight it off, its just a dream!
  
• nooo, now he thinks i'm there too. and he went to kill me like the others but ... oh no, please don't tell me he's hallucinating inside a hallucination and a big bad wanderer is going to eat him while he hesitates.
  
• even worse, i'm begging him to kill me.
  
• "black ice flowers from her chest, their petals unfurling."  oh. oh Zayne.
  
• the black cluster pulsates with blood red light, the air trembling.
  
• oh wow. again. (i say that a lot). Zayne just... called pure black ice crystals through the ground, freezing everything in the shadows.
  
• and he conjures more as a dark figure approaches, only he's the one frozen.
  
• oh no oh no.  mirror mirror on the wall, show me my true face?
  
• or worse. that sounds like fucking Carter's voice. 'don't throw yourself in danger just for her'
  
• 'his entire body becomes encased in ice. black crystals pierce his chest and spread to his fingers'.   this is the worst retelling of Snow White ever.
  
• 'seek your destiny - only then can you be redeemed'.   well, that's nicely cryptic.
  

Thorns Under The Moon: 9

• okay, i'm out at least. Zayne must be collapsed somewhere nearby.
  
• oh wow. we are in the wrong damned city!
  
• maybe we're not as out as i think we are. am i hallucinating still or what.
  
• fuck, still trapped. this is so Silent Hill.
  
• hello, white mist of terribleness! i missed you there for a moment.
  
• back at the apartment in the ruins? and Zayne collapsed on the ground.
  
• ... uh flashback?  'its too dangerous' -- "can't control it... leave".
  
• the sound design is wonderful. i can * hear * ice moving and crackling.
  
• back in the apartment, which is at least one step still inside the dream, blackened ice is on his wrists and neck.
  
• YOU ARE SO NOT FINE
  
• whatever the black stuff is, its wisp'ing like smoke.
  
• is this a fight he's going to lose at some point?
  
• eeeeee
  
• so, first things first.. suppress his evol so he can recover faster. his left arm apparently is the fulcrum?
  
• oh no, we are NOT leaving you behind as the better option. i don't care if you might actually be the most dangerous thing in here - i've met Sylus and he didn't frighten me (all that much) either.
  
• see?  there! all fixed. all the black stuff is now.. hiding somewhere inside you, probably. but its not on the surface anymore infecting the air with little black particulate spores, so we're counting  that as a win.
  
•  * hold his hand
  
• definitely, please don't lose this fight at some terrible moment
  
• what DO you do when you know the corruption is inside you and you can't get it out? that only your strength can hold against it and all strength fails eventually?
  
• aaaand slingshot back into our real body, white mist everywhere and my heart thumping crazy time.
  
• my heart-crystal-disease is having a field day today.
  
• OH HE PICKED ME UP IN HIS BIG STRONG ARMS
  
• god, you're gorgeous.
  
• aaaand i'm out cold.
  
• "But at least, I have one last choice."
  
• DO NOT LIKE THAT ZAYNE.
  
• what.. what are you doing?
  
• are you covering me in ice? no, you're ... what the hell are you doing?
  
• you took something out of me and put it into you?!
  
• that looks very painful. what is WITH my boyfriends? is every single thing a tragedy in the making?!
  
• Sylus, you might be my only hope for loving and well-adjusted.
  
• oh shit. his hands are going black.
  

[ChicletPrime]

Thorns Under The Moon: 10

• even i've noticed he's losing control of his evol, and i notice very little for the most part. 
  
• "he lowers his head, and his chin rests on the top of my head."  awww. ffs.
  
• "what if the Wanderer wasn't the only source of danger." Zayne. darling Zayne. i have met a man that can't die. i put a bullet through his heart. are you sure I'M all that safe to be around?
  
• ooh, good point girlfriend. Zayne *has* been acting less sure of himself than normal.
  
• "a dream remains a dream so long as you wake up from it. but when that day comes... when i can't wake up..."
  
• is that what's going on? you sleep and dream and its harder and harder to open your eyes?
  
• if that day ever comes, i will find you in your dreams.
  
• soooo glad you noticed my problem solving skills are on the straightforward and brutal side. we need to be clear on this, no question. you point out the problem, i'll kick its ass.
  
• aww, he made me more little ice seals to take home!
  
• okay, back to the more immediate problem, which is escape...
  
• "in an instant, the entire world froze into black amber."  wooo. okay. okay Zayne. feel free to hold something in reserve for later?
  
• "let's end this before the breaking dawn arrives -- "  NICE!
  

Thorns Under The Moon: 12

• SNAP BACK TO REALITY, oops, THERE GOES GRAVITY
  
• whack the Wanderer (the Myst) and i feel an intense tremor in my heart.  the resonance is unmistakeable - akin to gentle waves brimming with power.
  
• NO FUCKING WAY
  
• aaaaand we're back in the real hospital in Chansia, not the Silent Hill one.
  
• aaaand i collapse out of...stress? hold me, Dr Zayne! no matter what reality we're in, you're always willing and able to pick me up and i'm going to let you each and every time.
  
• hey, protocore fragment in my hand! even when my crystal-heart-attack is going on, i'm still on the job enough to grab the lyrium.
  
• (i envision us on one of these plump white lounge chairs, he's cradling me in his arms and i am all curled up against his chest, my muddy boots make a mess over the arm, cupping the little glowing fragment in my shivering palm.)
  
• (maybe a glitter of rime and frost in a ragged circle around us)
  
• oh, we were trapped for three days? and nobody out here could, you know, collapse the field for us? considering the hospital has in-built Stabilizers? nobody?!
  
• okay, somebody sabotaged a Stabilizer with a little metal disc. boy, does that sound super familiar.
  
• THREE DAYS LATER | LINKON CITY
  
• oh boy, Zayne's place. VERY nice.
  
• and he's asleep peacefully on the couch. awwww.
  
• okay. so Raymond dies, and Xander Sciences got bought up by EVER.  and now Xander's staff are running around with advanced protocore tech, that manipulates the flux fields, attracting Wanderers.
  
• "Ever is creating monsters." 
  
• Finally, we've arrived. The moment of truth. The bad guys revealed in all their shady glory.
  

• ..and Zayne is dreaming of sunlight and the unbroken city and the girl. he reaches out his hand and she takes it without hesitation.
  
• aaaand we're back in the shadowed corridor that doesn't end
  
• "black crystals emerge from his palm - they encroach on the girl's forearm."  nooo, it was such a nice dream for a hot second there!