[ChicletPrime]

• you know, i haven't said it yet, but Zayne's hair is ah-mazing. i am so impressed with how they've animated it and the choice to put in rainbow tinsel was inspired. it looks soooo good on him.
  
• so we're busy protecting Niava, we meet another "god" named Zayne who declines our offer to carve his named upon my "Destiny Stone". is that another name for the Aengru Spire, that holds all the universe realms inside it? the fact that everything has about four names at once is very confusing.
  
• aaaaand when he refused, we pull our blade and attack him, only the blade's light fails before it even reaches him. by which we infer that he's really very strong, and somehow doesn't belong here (?) and he's 'like a sun that belongs to another world'.
  
• "If you don't carve your name upon the Destiny Stone, you'll disappear like sand." So, okay, more sand mentions. this seems to imply that Zayne stands outside Destiny? which tracks. but we're worried that means his existence isn't protected in some way?
  
• ... next sentence: "Once my name is carved into it, the trajectory of our fates will be inseparable."
  
• so I'm trying to get this guy to bind himself to fate, so that he'll stay and help me protect this fragile mortal world. one of an infinite number, i suppose. why is this one so special? And Zayne's kinda angry about it, which also tracks.
  
• Zayne: "You've always been like this. You never change."
  
• a-HA. so even as Niava's goddess, this isn't my first time on this merry-go-round and Zayne is a lot older than his pretty hair makes him look.
  
• wow, shades of meimei here. just because Zayne is here, apparently i claim dibs.
  
• and fighting (the black mist stuff?) damages me and now i realize i won't live forever, even if i'm a goddess. so i guess this is why we're pressuring the guy to commit to this world and to me, because he can heal me and i'm greedy.
  
• infold, wow. okay. while not on camera, i've draped myself over his lap and i'm busy kissing his eyelids to... uh. sweeten the deal?
  
• Zayne's intimating that "us" being together could lead to eternal separation or obliteration. hypothetically speaking. so. if I have Creatio and he has whatever is the opposite of that (Annhilo?) then if we're together and lose our collective heads with universe-spanning sex, we could literally explode all existence? is that the core problem here?
  
• we, reckless fools that we are, promise god-marriage and that we'll be super nice to him always. d'aww. and we promise to forever remain by his side. aaaaand we resonate! so much gold, very spangly.
  
• so back in the present on Niava, I am reminiscing on old promises and that our names are carved intertwined on the Destiny Stone (still thinking that's the Aengru Spire).
  
• oh. the "black mist" is where the "Vastraen" appeared. so... corruption/Wanderers? that would make sense actually because they're corrupting my goddesslike body when i fight them, which is always something that's happening in the modern timeline. and its why Zayne and I god-broke-up? oh, Zayne didn't help fight these things, he just let them eat people. well, mortals you know. always 50,000,000 more where that came from.
  
• and one of Zayne's birds just pecked my palm so hard it drew blood and then dived into the Spire. where... it looks like i followed them into it? then it plummets into 'the void' and dies in ash and smoke and a pain strikes my heart. the bloody marks on my palm solidify into a crack and a golden thread entwined in my hair snaps.
  
• and now one of the rivers of Niava has ceased to flow. well, now. i am me and i am the world and what affects me affects the world.
  
• ... i wanted to 'break into the Vastraen' at one point which is why Zayne and I stopped talking. so the black mist is a barrier / portal thing? the previously mentioned 'thorny barrier' where crossing is a one way journey.
  
• and Zayne has stolen the Aengru Spire from the Tower, taking it when i wasn't there.
  
• the to the top of the river to see why it stopped flowing and all we can feel is Zayne's power. whatcha doing, boyfriend?
  
• A pile of golden birds show up (hi Zayne!) and fly towards the headwaters as a violent wind arises out of nowhere to create towering waves.
  
• nice! a monster covered entirely in crystal (now where have i see that before? oh, yeah. EVERYWHERE.) is entrenched, chaotic light swirling around its body, stopping the flow of the river waters. its 'unlike the ones in the Vastraen'. Zayne shows up to kill it with his golden arrows, his face cold and ruthless.
  
• i try to leave but the Aenzus grab my dress hem and refuse to let go. If the Aengru Spire and the Aenzu birds follow Zayne's will, then that must mean Zayne doesn't actually want me to leave.
  
• /stares off into the distance and thinks about red shackles chaining another wrist.
  
• AND THERE'S THE EYE OF THE UNIVERSE AGAIN.
  
• oh crap. as we're floating in the limbo between the universe and time, Zayne covers my eyes with his hand (again) and tell me to sleep for a long time (again). That is straight from Snow's Embrace! "There will be a day when we meet again."
  
• oh no, he's hurt! Zayne: "If you had woken up any later, you would've been swallowed by the sea of sand."
  
• so Sand = Time?
  
• he'd sitting against a black stone, half cradling me in his arms as white sand rises and falls around us like waves, a golden barrier keeping this odd sea at bay.
  
• We've been swallowed up the monster's protocore.
  
• "What's a protocore?" QUESTION OF THE DECADE. oh. i can think of it as its heart. that's.. vague and completely unhelpful.
  
• i point out that this place is weird - my body which always needs to be healed is unharmed, but he is covered in wounds when he's normally all-powerful and invincible. which means this 'heart' wants to devour him more than i wants to devour me.
  
• so i try and destroy this place without waiting for Zayne to recover strength, transforming (again) in a golden arrow, only i fall back to where he is and he just covers me with his outer robe, before concentrating on restoring his own power.
  

we are now at 28:44 in the video. just over an hour still to go!

i find it really funny that even when i tell myself to take only Important and Brief Notes, it all seems super important and i write down, like, everything.