[ChicletPrime]

okay, got a few cards leveled a bit and got through the next Challenge fight using the lighter sword for aoe damage. i am NOT good at melee - i've queued up a video that explains the claymore a bit more with some tips and i'll practice in the training room later.

CHAPTER 1: Singularity Echo

• Day 1326 target anchor lost no response from base Traceback 2 is about to pass the event horizon and enter the black hole -- we are stuck in this loop -- this never ending journey
  
• the radio DJ says "please enjoy this gift we received from Deepspace from 14 years ago. These electromagnetic signals have traversed time and space, a miracle of the ages. one day we will be able to evolve from our current limitations, transcend the boundaries of life and reach the stars. at a certain moment in the future we can pass through the Deepspace Tunnel and discover the future awaiting us."
  
• i.. don't really understand what that means, but its absolutely touching on everything revealed so far. if "Traceback 2" lost its anchor and fell into a wormhole, it went back to past that started again, a chain of events and time leading up to Traceback 2 again and a wormhole event sending it back to the past again, over and over?
  

CHAPTER 2: Close Encounter
Okay, this is Raymond's mission. Things I paid more attention to:

•  there's a large pool covered in algae outside. if he swam a lot before, he's not doing it recently.
  
• the central mer-skeleton is mentioned as resembling a girl sitting crosslegged. i have no idea how you tell gender from an articulated skeleton but they said it, i noted it.
  
• Raymond's in his "collection room". Zayne's been here before, he's given permission to just go and he doesn't ask for directions
  
  

CH2: Powder Keg

• okay, this must be the bit you were mentioning.  While I'm eavesdropping, Zayne says the remote monitor has "determined his age to be younger than what it actually is". odd phrasing. so Zayne's knows Raymond is older than the equipment says he is. Also, i didn't really think it important at the time but there's no avatar for Raymond, just a black shape.
  
• sounds like Raymond is head-hunting here. he's offering Zayne the best staff, best lab.. "even the best treatment". wow, stuff you don't clock when you start a game. and that whatever Zayne has accomplished to date, its nothing compared to what he could do (paraphrased). what he actually says is ".. just another beginning in your career".
  
• Zayne's hand has "countless faint scars". huh.
  
• oh, Raymond didn't die here, he's just unconscious. i guess some of me just really wanted him dead for some reason.
  
• description of the painting: "At the edge of the sea, the water is gradually stained crimson like something is being torn apart, swallowed, and coalescing into a blood clot."  well, there's some imagery!
  
• why am i trying to Resonate with it? am i a fool? i am a fool.
  
• and there's Rafayel's song. god, this is So Beautiful. no music, just singing and the sound of the ocean waves.
  
• there's a girl, half in the water (can't see her legs, they're in the water) - crying and laughing at the same time.
  
• it may not mean anything, but when Raymond's been airlifted to hospital with Zayne and I'm standing alone in the courtyard with the algae covered pool, i can hear whispered voices. this place is in the middle of nowhere, there shouldn't be the sound of people.
  
• so, let me guess. Raymond is one of Xavier's people, he captured one of Rafayel's people or fell in love with her or her with him, he kept her in the pool until she died and then he had her skeleton mounted for some really macabre reason.