07-17-2025, 09:52 PM
-- "..presented as a fact.." -- I don't actually think it IS a fact, and I completely agree with you that "they" have given this explanation to the fleet crew that the Deepspace Tunnel is dangerous to your memories but hey, we have this great new device that will help with that and all for the low, low price of having to take this stabilization drug every so often to keep it running in good order.
-- do you think Caleb faked the whole thing? that would be... very interesting. the myth starts out with MC remembering nothing - she cannot place where she is and she does not recognize Caleb at all. at the end of the story, she is still in whiteout but she does place Caleb as somebody she knows, which indicates there is a progression to the return of memory, likely spanning about the same three days that Caleb appears to have taken. at this point, i don't think he did fake it honestly, but see next point.
-- oooh, right, yeah. the chip is, among the other things its doing, a recording device. i like that interpretation that maybe he's holding all his memory sacrosanct somehow, always ready to roll out again and re-implant on freshly ploughed ground. like kudzu vines. or clematis flowers. or fucking MINT. there is also an idea (not supported) that if Caleb wipes a lot (or did wipe a lot) that he's just gotten very good at re-establishing himself from scratch, kind of learning to speedrun the whole problem.
- so far i haven't seen anything even hinting that Caleb has an aether core. but the girlfriend does, so I'm willing to lean in the direction that while the chip records and deletes all memories formed after its implantation, the aether core is what kept her from losing those pieces, otherwise that part is a bit hand-wavy.
-- the idea of a singular entity being split into the boyfriends is also the result of a lot of thinking about aether core fragments. they function at lesser power when they are apart from each other, but they do function without apparent issue. its only when they come together into a final core (noted in canon as held together by energy bonds, they don't actually assemble into a single piece) that the true power level is revealed. so an aether core can exist as pieces or a whole which maps really nicely onto the main character and her fated lovers. and there is, as mentioned, the completely unexplained insertions of the galaxy-eye and at least one reference to the answers being "on the other side" of it.
-- do you think Caleb faked the whole thing? that would be... very interesting. the myth starts out with MC remembering nothing - she cannot place where she is and she does not recognize Caleb at all. at the end of the story, she is still in whiteout but she does place Caleb as somebody she knows, which indicates there is a progression to the return of memory, likely spanning about the same three days that Caleb appears to have taken. at this point, i don't think he did fake it honestly, but see next point.
-- oooh, right, yeah. the chip is, among the other things its doing, a recording device. i like that interpretation that maybe he's holding all his memory sacrosanct somehow, always ready to roll out again and re-implant on freshly ploughed ground. like kudzu vines. or clematis flowers. or fucking MINT. there is also an idea (not supported) that if Caleb wipes a lot (or did wipe a lot) that he's just gotten very good at re-establishing himself from scratch, kind of learning to speedrun the whole problem.
- so far i haven't seen anything even hinting that Caleb has an aether core. but the girlfriend does, so I'm willing to lean in the direction that while the chip records and deletes all memories formed after its implantation, the aether core is what kept her from losing those pieces, otherwise that part is a bit hand-wavy.
-- the idea of a singular entity being split into the boyfriends is also the result of a lot of thinking about aether core fragments. they function at lesser power when they are apart from each other, but they do function without apparent issue. its only when they come together into a final core (noted in canon as held together by energy bonds, they don't actually assemble into a single piece) that the true power level is revealed. so an aether core can exist as pieces or a whole which maps really nicely onto the main character and her fated lovers. and there is, as mentioned, the completely unexplained insertions of the galaxy-eye and at least one reference to the answers being "on the other side" of it.
