05-30-2025, 01:56 AM
too late, i figured if you didn't notice anything in your watch that i definitely shouldn't know yet, it would have stuck out like a sore thumb.
so i watched it on the way home after work! there were some very minor spoilers but nothing I hadn't mostly figured out and the one thing that was a little surprise (that Isiah had defected from Ever along with intel) wasn't a big thing overall. It definitely had a stronger dynamic with Xavier than I'm personally used to it, but overall that was a great read. I really enjoyed that girlfriend was holding Xavier to a higher standard than so far has happened in the main story, about the withholding of truth and lies of omission. even that she pointed out that when he said she could ask him anything, she wasn't going to because he will have rehearsed his answers. that was a lovely little knife twist.
i would have gone a little angstier at times, but that's just who i am. as a survivor of the world at large, nothing really comes without a bedrock of pain and hurt, no matter how sweet the result. when Xavier says "If you leave and my fever comes back in the middle of the night... what if I die? Will anyone notice?", i'd've played that HARD into what is likely a very real and bitter fear.
Xavier is doomed to just fall into stardust, under conditions that haven't yet been reached or that we don't fully understand. instead girlfriend kind of laughs it off as him pulling a Rafayel pout-stunt, which is fine as far it goes and maybe at this point in the story she doesn't have those dots connected, but I would have gone (as a writer) for just a little pathos right there and a little more underscoring.
Also that the choke collar on his neck causes him to conk out so often was so obvious, I don't know why I never actually put that together. I thought it was just for control, but apparently that control is "stop spending your evol/energy so frivolously, there is no energy bank to tap into anymore you idiot, you're going to have to replace this naturally so time to sleep, sweet prince, before you drain yourself to death!" Which implies that Xavier is constantly walking along the edge of a graveyard, considering how often he sways on his feet or is simply asleep when we look for him. I guess we could even go further and say that the longer he's disconnected from Philos proper, the smaller his personal reserve gets, shrinking and constricting, until he finally reaches a point where there's not enough to sustain any life at all and that, I suppose, is the poof-point.
I make light of it like the girlfriend did, but holy cow, that would be horrifying. In your last act, you save the girl, but expend so much to do it that all you have time for is a single smile.
Also also, the design on the loungewear looks like a man praying. tin foil hat? you decide!
Also also also, the slight flush on his cheeks is totes perfect.
so i watched it on the way home after work! there were some very minor spoilers but nothing I hadn't mostly figured out and the one thing that was a little surprise (that Isiah had defected from Ever along with intel) wasn't a big thing overall. It definitely had a stronger dynamic with Xavier than I'm personally used to it, but overall that was a great read. I really enjoyed that girlfriend was holding Xavier to a higher standard than so far has happened in the main story, about the withholding of truth and lies of omission. even that she pointed out that when he said she could ask him anything, she wasn't going to because he will have rehearsed his answers. that was a lovely little knife twist.
i would have gone a little angstier at times, but that's just who i am. as a survivor of the world at large, nothing really comes without a bedrock of pain and hurt, no matter how sweet the result. when Xavier says "If you leave and my fever comes back in the middle of the night... what if I die? Will anyone notice?", i'd've played that HARD into what is likely a very real and bitter fear.
Xavier is doomed to just fall into stardust, under conditions that haven't yet been reached or that we don't fully understand. instead girlfriend kind of laughs it off as him pulling a Rafayel pout-stunt, which is fine as far it goes and maybe at this point in the story she doesn't have those dots connected, but I would have gone (as a writer) for just a little pathos right there and a little more underscoring.
Also that the choke collar on his neck causes him to conk out so often was so obvious, I don't know why I never actually put that together. I thought it was just for control, but apparently that control is "stop spending your evol/energy so frivolously, there is no energy bank to tap into anymore you idiot, you're going to have to replace this naturally so time to sleep, sweet prince, before you drain yourself to death!" Which implies that Xavier is constantly walking along the edge of a graveyard, considering how often he sways on his feet or is simply asleep when we look for him. I guess we could even go further and say that the longer he's disconnected from Philos proper, the smaller his personal reserve gets, shrinking and constricting, until he finally reaches a point where there's not enough to sustain any life at all and that, I suppose, is the poof-point.
I make light of it like the girlfriend did, but holy cow, that would be horrifying. In your last act, you save the girl, but expend so much to do it that all you have time for is a single smile.
Also also, the design on the loungewear looks like a man praying. tin foil hat? you decide!
Also also also, the slight flush on his cheeks is totes perfect.
