[ChicletPrime]

okay, some take aways on this now that I've thought about it overnight and re-read the hot bullet points.

whatever is going wrong with Zayne's evol, he knows exactly what it is and both Raymond and Grandma knew as well, and I will bet you dollars to doughnuts that Carter is in on it too. it isn't particularly centered in either arm (in this dreamscape it was on his left side, when he lost control earlier in the story it was on his right) so that kiboshed a small theory i had but it was small and its okay to let it go. my prediction here is that Zayne was working on something with Carter / may have collaborated with him possibly during medical school or residency. Carter goes to Xander and continues on with the project by himself for evil, whereas Zayne goes on to Akso Hospital to be good.

since we know for absolute certain now that Ever is fucking with people to make Wanderers, and that Wanderers did not show up until the Deepspace Tunnel opened, and the medical lab on top of the hotel is right under the Tunnel, it stands to reason that whatever breakthrough fused metaflux crystals into a human heart, it happened there and the result was a hole through space and time and humanity starting to fall apart. why Ever is continuing to work with this is unclear - maybe this is just the prototyping stage and the "acceptable losses" part of the experiment. if we further go back to the idea that Ever was founded or contains those from Traceback I or II, then knowledge of the future might be doing the predeterministic thing.. Philos was cracked apart but people also had immortality, therefore we better get onto the cracking of the world thing.

which would hang with that one conversation in the alley where Isaiah called Xavier a traitor and also the thing about me being the only one that could save the world. huh.

anyways, i think (obviously, because i'm the main character) that when Ever abducted me into the experiemental lab because of my evol anhausen class, they ramped me up trying to get me to be the energy dynamo they needed / make the crystals grow faster / get more powerful and i blew everything up. but that does mean that whatever corruption was put in there with or as part of the experiment, i've been carrying it all along. so when i was passed out and Zayne used his ice to lift something out of me, he took that corruption and added it to his own.

which would also mean he was experimenting on himself too? whatever was wrong with the crystal implantation, he got it as well, and he's been using his time at Akso to delve farther into the problem, while Ever and now Xander are trying to make it worse following some still murky master plan?

maybe Xavier's path has some answers or paths from the other perspective.

[ChicletPrime]

Voyage of the Outcast: 1

• excellent series title, i am settling in with popcorn.
  
• i am so sorry, i say this stuff all the time, but Xavier is so well put together. i love him in white and particularly in his hunter's outfit.  he looks like he should be in a boy band but instead he's just out there slaying monsters with his eyes (and yes, okay, the sword with the edge like diamond).
  
• so we have protocores, modified protocores and aether cores, all of which come in fragmented or whole versions.
  
• aww, Xavier won't talk about his actual secret mission, the one we suspect he's been on for a long time but won't tell us about. for a soft, sweet neighbour and work partner, he sure seems to have a lot going on under the hood.
  
• oh, now he's piqued that we're NOT asking after his secrets.  look, love, you can't have it both ways. either be more open or shut it all the way, this inbetween stuff is detrimental to my heart-health.
  
• "in your mind, am I more capable than all of the Association's hunters combined?" uh. YES. that is not even a question. you wiped out an entire field of Wanderers two minutes after I met you. admittedly with my unasked for help.
  
• finally, actual straight confirmation... many aether cores, each with their own capabilities.
  
• !
  
• "their power comes from the very core of the cosmos. if fully awakened they would spell disaster for the world."
  
• WELL NOW
  
• i was not expecting much in the way of revelation in this story, but that was delicious and its only the first chapter.
  
• "i know you're not satisifed with my answer. but there are some truths you have to see and decide for yourself."
  
• perfect. lead me, gentle lightbearing soul.
  
• okay, so betacurve protofields (and their Wanderers) are confirmed to be linked to aether cores, per Andrew on the wrist phone.
  
• oh, putting the screws as it were to Xavier. are you going to fight with me, golden boyfriend? and for how long?
  
• "i'll always be with you."  GREAT ANSWER. 
  

Voyage of the Outcast: 2

• students being kidnapped by a (singular) Wanderer, only to show up a few days later remembering nothing. Ever, what the hell are you up to now? what are you looking for?
  
• muahahah! Xavier in student clothes. this is... so wrong. he instantly looks 400% less able to deal with anything more complicated than a revision syllabus.
  
• Xavier suspects a trap. good thought. lets all remember that later when things go south in a hurry.
  
• "how about we use this opportunity to relive our student days for a bit?"  like, my most recent student days that I probably actually remember, or your student days on a different world as the guarded and cloistered noble son who excelled at everything and barely spoke until my fragile but bright soul burst into your life?
  
• aww, he gave me his glasses. they didn't suit him anyways.
  
• muahaha! he's being recruited to star as the lead role in the film club's latest project. he IS pretty, isn't he? i do not blame you in the slightest, miss budding film director.
  
• okay, the "student vice president" VA is pretty good! gold star, you are a head and shoulders above your other sidepiece brethren.
  

Voyage of the Outcast: 3

• so we are trying to interview the returned students about their experiences. the first one to start answering apparently has a blank look in his eyes as he starts to talk. coached? mind controlled? implanted suggestions?
  
• aaaaand we skip over aaaaaalll of that and now its the next day and we're attending a lecture to make it look like we're actual students
  
• okay, the background lecturer says (and this sounds important): "this is what we call a white hole. a theoretical region of spacetime. if we reverse all the symbols in the equation representing the geometry of spacetime then in this very space objects are no longer unable to escape from it, or rather, they can only escape from it."
  
• okay, we're attending this lecture in specific because one of the 'napped student was on his way to meet with this professor and we're looking for more clues. this is a very thin idea - so thin, its transparent.
  
• all the students were bagged at night and they're all new students to the university
  
• "so this Wanderer has access to the student enrollment system."  i am suddenly picturing a crystalline monster with bear paws for hands hunkered over an office terminal, straining its eyes in the blue light to tap out somebody's last name to find out when their next class is so they can intercept on the way.
  
• oops. busted for whispering too much.
  
• oh maaaan. now i have to go to the computer blackboard and demonstrate a thing. i am doomed.
  

[ChicletPrime]

Voyage of the Outcast: 4

• oh, thank god. Xavier will do it instead. save us, Obi-ier, you're our only hope.
  
• "in theory, a morris-thorne wormhole is a traversable wormhole. spherically symmetrical featuring a 'throat' that bridges two black holes. the 'throat' is a finite spherical region containing negative energy density matter to counteract gravitational forces inside the wormhole"
  
• "for a moment i wonder... was Xavier like this back in college?"  /facepalm!
  
• "time travel becomes possible with this model. for example, the deepspace tunnel above us might very well be a giant wormhole."
  
• okay, they are REALLY just spelling it out here at this point.
  
• "the mysterious deepspace signals could then make their way to our distant earth."
  
• "were you REALLY an astronomy graduate?"  yeah, i think he pretty much had to be, girlfriend.
  
• how many diplomas do you have, Xavier, if you can't remember??
  
• oooh, Dr Ulysses knows who Xavier is! and me too, i guess, at least as another Hunter.
  
• Xavier: "he's an old friend of mine.."  hello, one of Methuselah's Children! pleased to make your acquaintance.
  
• even Prof Ulysses knows that Xavier doesn't show up for just any old mission.  "Should I be expecting a... major incidence to take place?"  rephrased: what's about to go down or blow up, Xav? i just got my senior professorship here and i wasn't intending on moving for a couple of decades. i'm gonna be pissed if i have to pack up all my books again.
  
• muahahah!  (looks like I'm not the only one who has a certain impression about Xavier). excellent. i love it when i am right on the vibe.
  
• oh interesting. the lab's flux stabilizer didn't have any reaction to the Wanderer that showed up and grabbed the student, who was apparently close enough by that the prof heard them scream.
  
• ah. apparently that means "stealth wanderer" on the prowl. one who can make a small enough (?) field that it doesn't trigger a stabilizer.
  
• oh, there's another piece of tech that might record a field like that. off we go!
  

Voyage of the Outcast: 5

• so the fancy gadget is really meant to be analyzing the smallest variations in the Tunnel.
  
• per Xav, all the data related to the Wanderer is corrupted. nani? how did you get access to that? we only just got here!
  
• our girlfriend just skips right over the unimportant questions like "how did you know how to use that thing?" and "how did you even have access to get to use it", to cling to important stuff, like, corrupted?
  
• sabotage!
  
• we grab him by his tie... okay, in my mind's eye, we grab him by his tie and shake him down for the unimportant questions. will he answer with anything other than a deflection? stayed tuned to the next four seconds!
  
• my god, Xavier, i'll interrogate you anywhere i feel like!
  
• fine, lets go of the tie
  
• so there was a tour of the facilities for all the new students a bit ago, which means somebody technically unauthorized was in this room recently. and only new students were kidnapped. so...
  
• c'mon brain, put it together before you advance the quest. what does that mean?
  
• somebody wants to get the best marks in the freshman classes to get the best scholarship monies so they've decided to take out the competition around them using untraceable Wanderers?
  
• oh, so the tour thing was attended only by select students... who happen to be the ones that eventually took a walk on the wild and fluctuating side.
  
• oh no, they're after the student council vice president! he of the decent VA for once!
  
• oh no, maybe it IS the student council vice president, he of the decent VA for once!
  
• oooooo.  framed, yellowed picture on the wall in the lab catches my attention on the way out to find el vice presidente.
  
• Xavier, Xavier, Xavier. looking good as always - in a photograph probably taken when you should have been in your nappies. let me guess. the people in the photo didn't work on and build this fancy detector - they just ripped it out of Traceback II and huffed it into the building.
  

Voyage of the Outcast: 6

• c'mon girl, we gotta confront him on this. i know he's the nicest neighbour we ever had even if he does drop onto our balcony sometimes chasing the stuff that blew off his balcony, but we can't let this slide.
  
• yup, we're going with 'coward' for the moment.
  
• if the Wanderer can just wander around as it pleases, then we are definitely being set up for a trap.
  
• i love doublespeak in stories. Xavier: "After all, people don't write their secrets on their faces. The calmer the water's surface, the easier it is to hide dangerous undercurrents."
  
• c'mon girlfriend, call him out on it!
  
• grab him by his tie again! i know i just vividly imagined and inserted that earlier, but now would be a good time to get your serious point across by near-strangulation.
  
• (is that why Sylus does it?)
  
• uh oh. crystal-heart-attack? or is Xavier just putting out extra fireflies in agitation? i LOVE that he's always got extra sparkle going on even when nothing is going on.
  
• oh, just having montage. phew. should have given us an actual montage, damn it.
  
• we fail to ask the direct question again, and fall back to subterfuge about whether he was a good student or not. and he says he was, always facing forward which is how he kept making eye contact with someone who kept turning around in their chair.
  
• okay. fine. that's adorable.
  
• "but the parts of me you think you know and the parts you think you don't know.. they make up who i am -- all of me, right here in front of you."
  
• /le swoon
  
• (just a boy standing in front of a girl, asking her if she remembers loving him)
  
• oh, he's So Close. if i lean forward just that little bit, mebbe breathe on each other a little? mebbe... kiss?
  
• /i am always so hopeful and so far, only been kissed for actual breath
  
• /one day, my loving kiss will come to town and boy howdy, we'll all hear about it
  
• oops, back to the mission.  the interviewed student, who should be home recuperating, is walking by instead.
  

[ChicletPrime]

Voyage of the Outcast: 7

• okay the student in question just waves back at us, completely un-dodgily. not guilty, your honor?
  
• oh nice. buddy does not remember telling us he was taking the week off.
  
• peer into his eyes and check for a Wanderer looking back, stat.
  
• so he remembers the study tour thing from a few weeks back, but while he on the third floor with the fancy machine, he was overcome with a sense of fear. and afterwards the other students said they felt the same way, that something about it or the area was frightening.
  
• Xavier: "Yes, that's something the machine can do." really. really now. /boggles
  
• "To make a long story short, its like recreating a plane of existence and overlapping it with our reality. but only a few people know about this..."
  
• dear sweet moses on a pogo stick. i am going to slap you, Xavier. as soon as i stop reeling.
  
• okay, forget plot, Xavier just grabbed my hand and wrapped his arm around my waist.
  
• we're about to be sunlight, i take it. hello, Lumiere.
  
• breathe, girlfriend breathe. it'll be over quick, more's the pity.
  
• ...i bet that sweater is very soft.
  
• when i kiss this man, i am absolutely going to sink my fingers into his hair and check out how soft has to be.
  
• okay. alright, plot, let's plot.
  
• Student Vice President Soren is already in the research lab. Xavier: "I should have known the moment I saw you."
  
• KNOWN WHAT
  
• "Do you think you can still order me around, XAVIER?"   WHAT. woooo, excellent! /popcorn
  
• "You can't.. and neither can SHE."  what? what did i do? or not do. or... what?
  
• incoming! (my heart attack warning system is turning out to be very helpful)
  
• and Soren just... disappears? Go after him, sunlight boy! oh, he just flashed behind me, not out of the building.
  
• "it'll take you to the place you've always wanted to visit.." what, Xavier's bedroom?
  
• oh no, a Wanderer with an aether core! it's fine. it'll be fine.
  
• yeah, we have to get it out of the lab! 
  
• nani? -- the expected protofield doesn't materialize. instead i feel a coolness on my face as if i'm being pushed through a barrier. --
  
• hang on hang on. have these guys figured out how to literally overlap realities with tinkering with this hunka machinery? not just warp the reality so a Wanderer can exist, but pull two physical points together??
  
• the machine lights up! i grab for Xavier's hand... and i grab nothing. oh crappity crap crap crap.
  

well, this took a turn for the unexpected and cool!

[ChicletPrime]

Voyage of the Outcast: 8

• oh great. well, forest. and the white mist of terribleness again.
  
• Dr Zayne, are you here again too?!?
  
• countless waves of both strong and subtle forces swirl through my heart.  at this rate, my liver to going to turn to crystal next, then my spleen and pancreas, and before you know it, i'll jingle when i walk.
  
• i deduce that Xavier has to be here too, i just have to find him.
  
• a meteor flies through the sky, trailing fire.  oh. i remember shooting stars. Xavier, did you want to come back here again? did you want to come back here with me?
  
• feels like the meteors are guiding me apparently. well, when in rome...
  
• Xavier! I can't see you! where are you?
  
• "my heart surges, overwhelmed by the surrounding chaotic energy. energy fluctuations pull at my heart to where I struggle to breathe. meteors streak down, falling into the expanse where the lake meets the sky."
  
• oh, please don't collapse here. isn't this where you died in this lifetime?
  
• Xavier, annoyed and angry: "I am not interested in playing hide-and-seek". whoosh, lightblade arc sound. "Come out."
  
• oh, Soren. i believe that Xavier has, in fact, disposed of 'old friends' when necessary.
  
• eh? Soren: "You haven't changed even after all these years. Still afraid of Starfall Forest."
  
• so this dreamscape is from Xavier.
  
• Xavier: "As if you're any different. To you, the ends always justify the means."
  
• hang on, that's what Mr Dude said right at the very very beginning in my promotion class when I became a Hunter!
  
• Soren: "I used my life's work on you. I did everything I could to help you pass through the Deepspace Tunnel. And what did I get in return? I was abandoned, trampled on, turned into an outcast in this time and space!"
  

this is me, blinking my eyes a whole lot and squeaking where nobody can here me. gimme gimme gimme! moar! c'mon Soren, give up the secrets in your anger and pettiness.

• Xavier: "Those were the 'rewards' for your choices."
  
• and he blinks to Soren, sword posed to kill
  
• oh, man. he jedi'd himself, its just a figment, not the real guy.
  
• Xavier: "Then why did you dodge?"
  

Goddamn, Xavier. You are so bad ass.

• a beam of light descends and the apparition is sliced in half.  ouch.
  
• fantastic. the apparition felt pain, which means it and his body are still connected somehow. which means ours are. we're phased into whatever this place is, but we're not lost.
  
• and we try to help and fall again.
  
• Xavier's flurry of attacks continues, and there's no room for counterattacks. Nothing is out of the ordinary in terms of his appearance, yet....
  
• YET WHAT
  
• his usually serene sparks of light scatter and fly chaotically, as if out of control - agitated or consumed by something--
  
• Soren: "you can kill me... but what about herrrr?"
  
• what.. what about me? i'm just on the ground, overwhelmed and trying to breathe. come over here through, i have a knife with your name on it somewhere.
  
• a meteor falls into the lake, casting light upwards. a silhouette with a hunter's uniform swirls upwards in glitter and flakes.
  
• yas girlfriend, dats you. the other you. the one he lost here, in this stupid forest, in the middle of this stupid lake.
  
• its a trap all right, but a trap designed very exclusively for Xavier.
  
• ..his unfocused eyes resemble a frozen lake --cold and empty."
  
• (snap out of it!)
  
• WHA?!
  
• "It can't be her. She's not a sacrifice."
  
• what the heckity heck?
  

that ... that was startling. VERY STARTLING. Xavier, why the hell are you suddenly channeling Rafayel?

• /big wide eyes
  
• Xavier: "I will... put an end.. to *everything*"
  
• and off he charges, forgetting or not even realizing that i'm right here
  
• aaaand he injures the unreal enough that it finally dissolves and the energy fluctuations calm down. maybe i can stand up now! do something useful, like walk.
  
• ooooh, maybe not. "Xavier continues to head to the center of the lake, his expression cold and his movement stiff. Its as though an invisible force is pulling him along."
  

• that, Mr Anderson, is the sound of.. inevitability.
  
• oh no Xavier, please don't do this. whatever this is going to end up being. i have a really bad feeling about this, like, real bad.
  
• "a planet that uses.... to survive... doesn't deserve to be saved."
  
• oh. oh my god. please don't tell me that the reason i died in that other life was to sustain those who needed the energy to keep their own.
  
• and Xavier walks, trailing light through the darkness. the expression on his face!
  
• (SNAP OUT OF IT!)
  
• I'm right here!
  
• and he collapses but i think he saw me.
  
• "You can't stay here.. run... otherwise you'll... as well!"
  
• [R]esonate?
  
• FUCK YES
  
• /channels everything into it. don't you dare dissipate into stardust just because you saw an illusion! if you're gonna unchain your atoms out of grief and fear, you... well, you can't!
  
• Xavier: "It's okay. Starfall Forest.. will stop once it has enough power... it will... I couldn't... I didn't protect you before. At least.. it chose me this time."
  

oh, i feel like crying.

• yeah, those were the important words. "enough power", huh? i'll show it fucking power.
  
• /smashes button called "Aether Core"
  

[ChicletPrime]

Voyage of the Outcast: 9

• yeah, no, i have to finish this. i can't wait until tomorrow to find out the denouement.
  
• i'm fine, i'm pretty sure i'm fine. how.. how are you?
  
• those are microexpressions i have never seen on Xavier's face before.
  
• "An aether core's power isn't something anyone should mess with. If you use it carelessly... the protofield would have devoured you. What then?"
  
• then i guess i return to starlight and you mourn forever?
  
• sorry, i mask fear with humor.  would anything less have saved you?
  
• "You didn't answer the *question*. What will happen then?"
  
• just.. his face.
  
• "You always have so many reasons.. but you never listen to me." i do. but maybe not as well as i ought. but i'd do it again and again, i'm not going to say sorry, Xavier.
  
• but.. your fireflies are coming back.  and i am so glad to see them. and you.  don't scare me like that again, i have a weak heart you know.
  
• yeah, gotta get outta here, find Soren and..  I am not even sure what after that. break the machine?
  
• good point, girlfriend. since when do Wanderers invade your mind and make dreamworlds based on memories anyways? something to do with the aether core it has?
  
• ... are all aether cores linked? sort of like assembling the infinity stones? is that why Sylus says we're kindred spirits, each possessing a power that longs to be whole again?
  
• so Soren was your friend, but then your enemy who hid himself and his evol while he hunted you? oh. from right at the beginning? and then again, in the square with the police robots?
  
• sings softly: .. and the ones that can know you so well... are the ones that can swallow you whole...
  
• yes, this forest trap is carefully cultivated just for you, boyfriend. he knows just where you hurt.
  
• "Rather than what's already happened, I'm more afraid of what might come in the future. But right now, you terrify me the most. You used the power of the aether core this time. I'm worried about what you'll do next."
  
• i... don't know what more you think i'm capable of. two aether cores? three? i eat my boyfriends hearts and ascend the throne of the world?
  
• Girlfriend: "Why don't you tell me what you did in the past?"
  
• Xaver:  oh look, we're here.
  
• FINE
  

Voyage of the Outcast: 10

• I KNOW THIS BACKGROUND.
  
• that's the smashed up looking machine that was in the cutscene at the end of the first main story chunk. only it was overgrown in a forest, in ruins, with Xavier operating a terminal or something in his fancy hunter outfit.
  
• is this the other end of the Deepspace Tunnel? the machine that opened this side of it?
  
• oh, its a spaceship? it looks too small to be a spaceship. but what do i know. i watched Dune, if its not as big as half a planet, can you really call it anything?
  
• the spaceship before it crashed on the other side, i guess.
  
• apparently we ARE planning to use this dreamscape spaceship to take us out of the protofield, since it was designed to break through the most chaotic gravitational energy fluxes. a protofield should be peanuts.
  
• "Traceback II, Philos 1101-PLS is now online..."
  
• LOVE IT
  
• "Philos.. that name sounds so familiar..."  We really did get knocked on our head as a child. So Hard.
  
• the name resounds in my heart. my reverberating echo chamber of a heart.
  
• oh, Xavier was the captain of the ship? i don't even know why i'm surprised.
  
• we're saving the questions for later. we are so nice about this.
  
• hah! "once we're out of this mess, you're going to tell me everything. slowly. and in. great. detail."
  
• oops i hit a button by mistake.
  
• PERSONAL LOG: STARDATE 157-01: Commence Poetry Reading:
  
• O celestial body of mine, slumbering adrift in darkness, which never heeds the whispers of life.. Xavier, get your hands off my ears!
  
• RED ALERT RED ALERT
  
• oh... we can't "launch" because the energy reserves are too low and it needs... protocores.
  
• aaaand my heart flinches hard.
  
• this is a very accomodating ship. on the captain's say so, we're launching without energy in the reserve cells.
  
• what ELSE are we going to fuel it with, captain? does it.. does it drink blood?
  
• don't like this, boyfriend. what did you just tie to yourself? and you need my hand on your chest for whyyyy?
  
• you're going to feed it your evol? can you even DO that???
  
• its not a big deal MY ASS
  
• "Trust me."  argh. "Your power will keep me safe."  ARGH.
  
• something is suppressing his evol, preventing a complete resonance. oh, i don't THINK so.
  

CHALLENGE FIGHT!

Voyage of the Outcast: 12

• i am not.. not struggling to find you. i wasn't worried at all.
  
• a bright red light at his neck flickers a few times before settling down. oh crap, choke collar. what IS that damn thing anyways?
  
• oh. he took the aether core fragment from the Wanderer. good job, partner!
  
• we need to... apparently, we need to sit down against the wall. and.. listen to music for a bit?
  
• oh, man. jeez. "there's just enough time for one song. then we'll be in a hurry again."
  
• "you should've offered me wired earbuds. that way, we'd be close enough that we couldn't drift apart."  wow, i am smoooth with the lines. i am proud of me.
  
• "i'm too tired to drift into a place that's far away from you. and i wouldn't, even if i could."  oh, my poor little heart crystals are all shimmering against each other.
  
• and Xavier crashes at his place, i fill out the reports and do the debriefing like a good partner, i bring him some food.
  
• "how do you know i haven't been waiting long... it felt like forever."
  
• Soren's missing. kinda figured that. he probably scuttled back to Xander or Ever or whoever is currently funding his bills.
  
• ah, they found one of those resonance chips in the lab, the one we also found on the other two side quests. nicely woven in, devs.
  
• so the button can't overlap realities, but the knowledge of how rests with the people of Philos, so... that's a thing that's going to start happening more.
  
• it always goes back to Ever.
  

the burning question i have right now is... what was Traceback II for? and when they (crashed?) here on their journey and for some reason couldn't leave again, why did the crew split apart into factions?

[Coldsaturn]

I survived my deadline and will properly go back to comment some pivotal moments, but I'm so happy you cleared this section too!
Homecoming Wings is like suddenly switching movie genre, it will be fun <3

[ChicletPrime]

woo! i've always really liked spaghetti westerns! and gratulations on the survival skills, i was pretty sure you could do it.

[Coldsaturn]

ZAYNE
protocore cluster:
in my head, the idea is that protocores will take the shape of the vessel they're in, and based on how much energy it is fed, it will grow larger or stay small

"bloody tears stream down from William's empty eye sockets." ewwww "An array of faces emerges from the cluster's projection."
Honestly Dawnbreaker's sections would be cool AF as a cinematic video

"oh great, now the dead people are berating Zayne / Dawnbreaker for not being able to anything but spare them pain."
That always hits me so hard ;__;

"i'm begging him to kill me."
put a pin on it!

"... uh flashback? 'its too dangerous' -- "can't control it... leave"
Put a pin on this too!

Your theories regarding zayne's problems with his evol are half right, but I won't tell you which half is correct
what I understood from his actions when MC was passed out after trying to put his evol under control is that he took back the frost that had settled on her, so whatever help she was trying to offer he nullified it by reabsorbing the black frost.



XAVIER
he really does look like he should be in a boyband. k/j/c-pop edits are pretty common for the LADS boys, unsurprisingly

"their power comes from the very core of the cosmos."
You know it... I know it... put a pin on it.

"i am suddenly picturing a crystalline monster with bear paws for hands hunkered over an office terminal, straining its eyes in the blue light to tap out somebody's last name to find out when their next class is so they can intercept on the way."
I am once again deeply mourning my inability to draw ffs

"how many diplomas do you have, Xavier, if you can't remember??"
Edward Cullen moment lol

- Can we also talk about the symbolism behind the name Ulysses? A lost voyager trying to go back home.

"he was, always facing forward which is how he kept making eye contact with someone who kept turning around in their chair."
Anecdote reference! Awww.

"You can't.. and neither can SHE."
Put a pin on this!

"It can't be her. She's not a sacrifice."
And this!

"a planet that uses.... to survive... doesn't deserve to be saved."
PIN!

"its a spaceship?"
If you look at its overall shape, the big circular arcs above, you might recall the spaceship of the prologue when we have the voice over talking about traceback II entering the black hole.

"something is suppressing his evol"
idk something that might look like a collar that activates every time he uses too much power

"what was Traceback II for?"
We know half of this answer. We know that traceback II had Backtrackers on board. and backtrackers backtrack. what we need to find out is their goal.

[ChicletPrime]

picture me holding my head in pain. good pain. the nice pain.

i have figured out half of everything but no spoilers on which half will turn out to be wild tangents and which turn out to be on target, so i guess at the end i'll be half patting myself in congratulations and half drowning my proverbial sorrows in strong drink.

with this many pins, we're halfway to a horror movie!