[ChicletPrime]

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.

i.. guess? that is not the impression i got at all (obviously). i took at a highly blown out screenshot of that scene where you can clearly see girlfriend on the slab and I guess i can see what you're thinking.  in the non-blown-out version, the patch of whatever on her vest really reads more like blood/black.

also i did not realize until this very moment that i am a protagonist in an off-brand final fantasy game - lookit all my BELTS! i even have one underneath my clothes going to my underwear. at least i assume its going to my underwear and not ACTUALLY my underwear.

[Coldsaturn]

OK other theory: The first thing that comes to mind looking at that is blood, and Zayne is known to use his evol to slow down bleeding/infection etc. By doing that he might have overexerted himself again, thus triggering the black frost on his hand again.

But if I remember correctly there was this moment where it seemed like he was pulling a globe of ice/frost from her body and reabsorbing it into his hand? And then his hand went black? I need to look at that chapter again, I can't remember exactly now

[ChicletPrime]

no, that's exactly what happened - i just played it so memory is fresh. in the shot as it happened, it looks like the girlfriend may have the black dust on her, or maybe she's bleeding from a wound, but my first reaction was corruption. she's out cold, Zayne carries her to the slab, has a moment of steeling himself / what looks like sorrow; then he reaches out over top of her and pulls out an arc of frost/ice in a glowing ball.

there is no blackness in the energy ball - I was looking for it when it happened and again when I looked at the screenshots and its visually clean. he clenches his hand around it, pulls it to his chest/heart and (re)absorbs it. All through that, his hand and the ice ball are pure. then pulls his hand away and it darkness starts to spread almost instantly - he looks at his palm and there's ice and darkness all over it.

just before this all goes down, he does say something like "I can still make one last choice" or words to that effect.

so even though the ball was pure ice/energy, whatever he took from her made his corruption worse, which is why i went with the snap conclusion that if 1) she has crystals in her heart and 2) those crystals are likely corrupted from the initial experiment, 3) zayne has just chosen to remove it from her while she couldn't see and couldn't protest or ask questions.

EDIT: woo, bullet point notes! looked back about five posts and yes, that's exactly what he says: "But at least, I have one last choice." I could be talking through my hat (i'm likely talking through my hat) but that was my first and biggest impression - Zayne cleansed her. If it has just been some sort of normal wound, or just taking his own power back, why the "choice" line? admittedly, if he just took back whatever she took out, that would work too, but i like MY idea more because it implies Zayne is choosing to make things better for her at the expensive of pushing his fragile internal balance over some arbitrary line.

[Coldsaturn]

Which makes sense!
My question would be where the corruption is coming from. Is it because she has protocore syndrome so she was already slowly but surely getting corrupted? Or is it because she resonated with zayne and thus got his corruption in her? She faints after helping him, right? Cause and effect would lead me to think about the second option because the timing is closer, but it could also be the first

[ChicletPrime]

well, i've been calling it 'corruption' for lack of a better term simply because its black, dusty and appears to be invasive, at least in Zayne's case, but for all I know its just an intrinsic part of every protocore.

maybe every protocore is made of this stuff as part of its nature. or maybe when protocores are inserted into humans, this is the reaction it produces, like coke and mentos. maybe its something specific to Zayne, although I believe that's flat out wrong as Isaiah at least, when killed by Xavier, exploded into black particles. Hell, Sylus' evol is red and black particles and he's got a whole aether core going on that doesn't seem to be causing him any eye problems at all.

in this specific instance, in that last cutscene, i would agree with you that it appears Zayne was just taking back whatever it was that our Resonance tried to strip off his evol - it was too much, we fainted, he just reverted our efforts. it all jives right up until the one spoken line - the "one last choice". it just seems too weighty to just be reverting to status quo... that and the fact that the blackness spread instantly when he did what he did.

i dunno. i am likely wayyyy overthinking this, simply because out of all the companions so far, Zayne is the least explained so my brain is trying to put together all the puzzle pieces into any shape that could likely fit.

REMINDER TO SELF:  explain the god is playing plinko tomorrow when you're more awake.

Prologue to Tomorrow:
Chapter 3: Onward Again

• I forgot I had more of this section to do! i was so caught up in the branching stories that it completely slipped my mind that they were technically only a pitstop.
  
• Okay, Special Ops is shifting its focus to Ever proper now, since the links to these modified protocores lead straight to them
  
• Andrew is calling shenanigans on how fast Ever is producing ever (hah!) more complex tech. i agree, not-my-boyfriend. but i don't think now is the time to let slip that i know more about that than i should, even if all that i know is that Xavier isn't what he appears and there's a spaceship involved.
  
• okay. Ever is advertising a new "portable" Flux Stabilizer that you can just personally carry around like a lapel pin. suspicious. is everybody going to now be a broadcast tower?
  
• okay, the three fragments we found on the three different branches appear to be part of the same aether core - now officially dubbed "Spatium Core", likely because it was welding space together.
  

THAT REMINDS ME.  i was thinking in the shower, as one does, and I realized - in two of the branches, the Wanderers phased what Xavier called realities together although he failed to explain anything more about it in his branch. but it doesn't overlap just physical spaces, it really overlapped time.  Zayne was Dawnbreaker in his distortion field, although he didn't seem to know why.  Xavier knew exactly where (and when) he was but was still caught up in it. One was a future and one was a past in their respective timelines and both were accompanied by a white fog at points during its progression.

So Spatium Core can weld pieces of time together, at least in a general sense, long enough and real enough to strand the person inside it. 

• and now we have three aether cores on the playing field, two whole and embedded into people (that nobody should know about which means that everybody knows about LOOKING AT YOU SIMONE) and one in pieces that could potentially be assembled. Jenna says that the fragments are in fact being held together currently by "some kind of gravitational pull" and the visual on the screen reflects it. it looks like it wants to come back together from its brokenness.
  
• Xavier did say something about having whole aether cores together would lead to disaster. i guess we really are collecting the infinity stones without meaning to.
  
• oh, there's at least one more piece of Spatium missing.
  

Chapter 4: No Ends

• "Ever Secret Investigation Report"  ESIR.  yeah, somebody needs to step it up on the devs side - if this was FFXIV, the acronym would have been a groan worthy pun. although backwards its RISE which could be something (see: evol is love).
  
• oh. OH BOY. something in that report has something to do with the explosion at home way back a billion years ago.
  
• i am perfectly fine with them re-using backgrounds if they're going to do color grading on them to make them a different time of day. lovely!
  
• forecast is for heavy rain. Rafayel probably stubbed his toe on a can of paint.
  
• oh, an actual storm. lightning and thunder, ahoy!
  
• what is it, lassie-heart-attack? is timothy in the well??
  
• oh shit what the fuck IS that?
  
• wow, did not expect that at all.  that was cool as hell.
  

CHALLENGE FIGHT! (level 18 required, takes level 55 Abysswalker along for an evening stroll)

[ChicletPrime]

oh, cheese louise. there's a whole section that opened up in the Notes after that about aether cores. I COULD HAVE USED THAT INFORMATION LAST WEEK, GAME!

[ChicletPrime]

Vanishing Skyward
Chapter 1: Infiltration

• 336.2mb. well, no drive exploded so we're doing okay still.
  
• shh. i am bonding with the universe. we are one with the cosmos.
  
• "it stirs fragmented memories... a pale planet appears, strange yet familiar."
  
• Philos?
  
• an overwhelming force silent as a black hole. a massive artificial eye.
  
• i am communing with the oneness, how do i know its artificial?
  
• the searing heat in my dreams is still vivid but the pain in my heart is gone.  oh rly now.
  
• ah, the oneness of a whole aether core cures all ills.
  
• oh, new chapter and a quick recap of The Story So Far
  
• oh, we're at a crime scene? what looks like a wrecked playground.
  
• okay, so for some reason the "Farspace Fleet" has take the area into lockdown and the "new Fleet Colonel" is prohibiting hunters from investigating. why is the Farspace Fleet at all interested in what's happening on the ground? i thought they were all busy working their way into the Tunnel.
  
• oh nice! i'm undercover as a "rookie" and some captain thought it was a good idea to order me to "investigate". as a rookie, i commend his foresight and bone deep certainty that i am the right greenhorn for the job.
  
• okay so whatever happened here left an energy trail similar to an aether core. that's the fourth one in as many months, i swear.
  
• okay, skip back a week so we can set this up properly. an explosion, two kids, one missing, one in hospital, parents nowhere to be found.
  
• boy this sounds SO FAMILIAR. hey, even Jenna pointed that out!
  
• "Skyhaven Branch" suspects an aether core and needs assistance. Hunter Assoc request to investigate is denied - i'm assuming by this "Farspace Fleet".
  
• hey, hang on! On The Previous Episode, Jenna gave us a report to read at home that had some information in it not only about the Ever investigation but about the explosion at Grandma's. only not a mention of whatever it was so far. hopefully that will come back up in a flashback somewhat quickly here.
  
• okay, so the new Colonel, currently inside the Tunnel, is preventing the Hunters from getting involved because "reasons". something something confidential to the Fleet.
  
• i bravely quit the force and offer to investigate on my ... okay, i don't quit, but i swear i won't go as Hunter and not to get in trouble with anybody. hah. as if ANY of us believe that. take a knife, girlfriend. maybe pack some extra sandwiches in case you want to eat somebody out of nowhere.
  
• oh, the explosion happened IN Skyhaven, huh? oh boy, i am now on vacation! i shall be a tourist like nobody has ever touristed before.
  
• oh wow. i arrive and immediately switch places with a Farspace recruit that decided against a military career that's so wet behind the ears its probably related to Rafayel.
  
• oh. i'm wearing Caleb's necklace. awwwww. and i miss him. of COURSE i miss him, he was my brother and my best friend.
  
• wow, this Captain really expects results. not that i'm going to tell him an aether core was DEFINITELY here because my spider sense is totally tingling. that's for me to know and them never to find out if i'm lucky.
  
• ..and a suspect just turned himself in to HQ? the plot resembles thin soup so far, but okay! can i come to HQ too?
  
• oh shit, the new badass Colonel will be boots to the ground in 10 minutes. we are so fucked, "none" of "us" found "anything" but busted concrete and a swing set that has seen better days.
  
• oh hang on. the suspect just showed up at HQ? maybe its a hostile takeover!
  
• oh shit, THATs a good visual! command chair, hologram representation of the Deepspace Tunnel, delicious.
  
• this HAS to be Caleb!
  
• there was/is a traitor who almost .. took out the ship? three days ago. which i guess is why they're suddenly back to Skyhaven without warning.
  
• i recognize that jawline. hel-lo, Caleb! I thought you weren't turning up until next chapter!
  
• ah, suspected internal sabotage. old guard not pleased with change over of Colonels? i am getting the impression "Colonel" is more like 5 star general instead of a middle-rank position.
  
• ohhhh crap, that guy's got a knife!  (we've all got knives, its a real thing)
  
• oh boy oh boy oh boy Caleb crush this guy! pleeeease let me see what you can do.
  
• fan. fucking. tastic.
  
• "I won't die again."
  
• /applauds the intro.  awright!
  
• somebody out there better be cosplaying the hell out of that uniform
  

23 screenshots later....

[Coldsaturn]

Caleb's uniform is truly a work of art. So damn cool.

Also, now we get into the irritating work of mentally replacing every instance of "childhood friend" "say you'll stay with me" "we're so close" etc. with "brother" "brother dearest the only man in your life" "fuck we're like siblings should we really get horny with each other?"
I'll link to you some of the correct translations you can find online once you're done with Homecoming Wings, but in the meantime, play with the background knowledge that their entire conflict is explicitly based on the taboo nature of their relationship, and not whatever flimsy excuse they make up in English.
You already knew, but this is a reminder for myself to gather those links for you

[ChicletPrime]

I do know, and I appreciate your kind attention to keeping us both on track. i very much want to get the translations even ahead of time if you want to hook me up now? that way I can check them as I proceed without having to backtrack afterwards (depending on how they're laid out, that is).

The VA was a lighter tenor than I thought it would be, if I thought anything at all - looking forward to hearing how he plays it going forward. Caleb just crushing that guy to the ground before shooting him in the face was perfection even if that is part of the intro screen that i've been seeing forever (gosh, i am so bloodthirsty in this game, what is with that?). I am very much hoping to see more of that in the story (evol displays that is, not necessary guy crushing).

Also, it looks like Caleb was giving commands to the ship to land just by staring through the digital ocular display? If so, also very sweet, especially if he's literally guiding it with his evol. I tried to read the red text on the display on the right side of that cutscene but the center text defeated me - space ??? system is what I got out of it.

[Coldsaturn]

This legendary youtube account has direct translations from chinese if you turn on CC. It starts from Under deepspace, goes through all the trailers, and the 16th-17th videos in the playlist translate Homecoming Wings. The 23rd video covers the sequel I was mentioning.

I'll confess I'm still trying to get used to Caleb's eng VA. I definitely imagined it closer to its chinese version.