[ChicletPrime]

okay! i have completed Chapter 7 and am now starting Chapter 8: Galactic Sunset.  i am going to make some tea, find an apple for sustenance and then go see what's exciting and new in the DATE button from all the cards I picked up last night.

then onward it shall be!

[Coldsaturn]

!!! I want a liveblog commentary thing going on where you throw here your reactions as you go along and you get info and new leads and you get ready for Long-Awaited Revelry! So many things will happen from now on, oh my god. Under Deepspace stalls quite a few times, but from chap 7 and onward you won't find space to breathe

[ChicletPrime]

okay, i've been playing for about three hours straight and i'm taking another break for a bit. i haven't actually accomplished much in the grand sense of things and i still haven't made it back to chapter eight, but i've done all my daily stuff, traded text messages with everybody, did as much of the cute bubble garden stuff as I could stand, personalized my profile now that you pointed out the buttons for it, and then sat and started listening to the audio stories that I picked up.

i'm glad you decided to dial in on this little forum project, because now i am super scrutinizing Rafayel and honestly, his voice actor is really superb.  Zayne's voice I think is overly coached, if that's the way to describe it? there isn't that much inflection, its nearly always a fairly warm and even delivery. Rafayel's VA in contrast talks faster, with more vocal variation. and he does say some interesting things, now that i'm looking for signs of fracture.




I cannot tell if this is vaguely condescending, foreshadowing or just Rafe being a bit sassy.



bwahahah!

but this i found really very poignant. does he think we don't have a heart? or is it just that he'd like us to have a better one?

[Coldsaturn]

"I cannot tell if this is vaguely condescending, foreshadowing or just Rafe being a bit sassy."
With Raf it's usually all of them

Raf and hearts, that's important. Put a pin on it.

VAs:
omg yes, Raf's VA is everything. Out of all the characters, he's the one who emotes the most, and because of his personality he's allowed to go from silly to sassy to whiny to furious to cold to seductive to helpless. The range that he has, it's SO good /chef's kiss
Sylus is a second favorite, but in terms of what the voice actor does with him and how much leeway he's allowed is similar to Xavier. They have a baseline that they have to match (for Xavier it's soft and breathy, Raf it's that sing-song accent of his, Sylus you'll see), but it would be OOC to get them to voice something differently. Raf doesn't have that problem because he's an onion character.
Zayne I'll admit feels a bit flat to my ears, which adds to my preference for reading him rather than hearing him.

Oh and there are some Xavier cards which I think were recorded way back, because the voice is the same but it's not soft and breathy at all lol It's like they hadn't told the VA what to do yet. And I'm pretty sure I heard a couple of audios from Zayne where his voice was straight up another guy.

[ChicletPrime]

okay, moving on to Chapter 8. opening up a running list for first impressions.

1. BONFIRE

• ... is the reason Rafayel hates cats because... oh god. i can't believe i completely missed that earlier. bwahaha! 
  
• okay i take it back. Rafe is really very expressive. and he definitely styles his hair with seawater to make it clump like that
  
• "Animals that are fond of humans usually have a tragic end" - oh. man. SORRY. whatever i did, i'm SO SORRY. 
  
• crap. next line - "One moment you're cute and cuddly, the next they toss you aside. You're forgotten, left behind."  hey. hey, buddy. friend. pal. i got knocked on the head pretty bad, okay? shishkabobbed through the heart to add insult to injury. i'm lucky i remember how to put my shoes on. Zayne has to help me get dressed in the mornings. 
  
• i am taking sooo many screenshots 
  
• there's a bit of trivia, nice. mummy bandages were indeed used for paint in ye olden times when they were all the rage of victorian society. 
  
• yay. we're rescued!
  

Best screenshot by a narrow margin:

[ChicletPrime]

2. DESECRATED SOIL (you did want running commentary, didn't you? too late, i'm invested.)

• the fleet's coming back from the  tunnel? i didn't even know it was gone.
  
• something killed a planet? nani?! like, it was alive before and now it ain't? wut? maybe they just found it that way. meaning unclear.
  
• paraphrased: "isiah's super dead, but it couldn't be you dot dot dot, you'd never do anything so heinous you sweet little blond cinnamon roll" - Xavier: ...
  
• XAVIER?!
  
• Mr Accuser is apparently a monster (but a talking one?) like, what? okay, i am pegging this guy as an Ever experimental project, thinking back to Dawnbreaker's reality of what sounds like Wanderer infection that takes over humans and changes them. advanced stages of Protocore Syndrome? except he confronts Xavier about walking that same path too. the plot thickens like a rather thin soup.
  
• "ONLY SHE CAN SAVE US! YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW..."  wooo! i'm important! everybody wants to chop up my innards to sell to the highest bidder! except "..That thing is with her."  what thing? my hunter watch thing? my invisible and deadly aether pet? oh my god, it's behind me, isn't it?
  
• go Xavier! you definitely need to shut this guy up with your sexy, sexy light sword before i learn something i shouldn't.
  
• aww. i'm not to be touched. sadness.
  
• Xavier is not to be touched either. okay, super special club i didn't know i joined but me and Xavier can hang out in it, no problem. hang on. wait. maybe he's saying even he shouldn't be touching me.  buddy, awww. i'm really starting to like you though! and we've been touching like crazy so far, honestly.
  
• Mr Accuser is a traitor, per my sketchy partner. ohhhhh! got it got it, gotta be Onychinus related. wait, so amigo is out there killing people, as well as Wanderers? wow. okay. maybe i knew that before but forgot.
  
• WHAT HOME DID YOU FORGET XAVIER?
  
• Ex Mr Accuser. you will not be missed. specks of light corroded by black particles. hmm.
  
• ARRIVAL: The Nest
  
• yup, the radio guy says that planet is definitely dead. seems newsworthy, i guess it WAS alive before. (Caleb? are you out there killing planets? oh shit, i bet he could. yikes. his evol would be perfect for it)
  
• side note: the side character voice actors are paid peanuts, they are not into this AT ALL
  
• oh. stock in trade at The Nest is protocores, huh. fair. blood smears on 'em par for the course, lets not be squeamish now.
  
• oops, a bar fight in the offing!
  
• queue arrival: me!
  
• nooo Xavier i just got here! for the information! that i neeeeeed. oh, fine. out into the alley i guess.
  

[ChicletPrime]

3. LUMINOUS VEIL

• sooo many fucking screenshots
  
• HANG ON. is the dead planet Xavier's planet? it died, he and his ilk escaped through the tunnel to us, wrecked our shit and they're super sorry but thems the break, they need to live too? (EDIT: the Notes say the name it was given was Philos, for love of family, because something once lived there. wow. okay. nice choice, writers.)
  
• Xavier is so boy band pretty, ye lords.
  
• "Did something happen in The Nest?" i ask innocently. well, he was working on setting up the second bounty on his head when we interrupted, so there's that. and he still looks like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.
  
• also, approving nod to the texture crew, his jacket is On Point.
  
• what now? what protocore auction? 
  
• EVEN SHE WENT NANI!? thank you digital avatar, glad we're on the same page with this and i didn't miss something obvious again. (EDIT: let me guess. the protocore of the dreadwaterwyrm that Rafayel subdued. the nice big juicy blue one.)
  
• we're running into more issues where the voice lines don't match the written text.
  
• oooh, police drone is snooping in. shush, amigo, pretend we're on a date or something - quick, hold my hand!
  
• two police drones. fancy.
  
• absolutely, lets sit here on this nice bench and Resonate like two lovesick birds. i'm touching you, Xavier.
  
• "What I see next stuns me."  ooooooh!
  
• Pinpoint accuracy at its finest. You are super good with this evol thing, bunny.
  
• Still touching you Xavier! you definitely aren't making any effort to stop me either.
  

[Coldsaturn]

This is EXACTLY the kind of commentary I wanted. I don't care how long it gets, keep them coming.

Raf and his fear of cats. On one hand, yeah, hilarious because he's a big fishie (who gets seasick, will never let that go), but on the other hand you've already noticed how his dislike for them stems from a sort of understanding of how much they get screwed over and still stupidly and hopefully wait for the next occasion where they'll again get abandoned. There's almost an odd "I'm talking about the cat but I'm talking about myself" subtext going on that completely flies over MC's head. But if he's playing the mirror game with cats, then his description of them in chapter 7 takes on a different meaning:

"Cats are malicious species who deceive everyone with their harmless appearances and play with their prey at whim"

Isn't that also a biblically accurate description of sirens?

Fleet
We have a fleet that goes inside a wormhole doing things and stuff.

"advanced stages of Protocore Syndrome?" "..That thing is with her."
Put a pin on it! 

"the side character voice actors are paid peanuts"
LMAO so true. The LIs' VAs are out there doing the most, and then you get the secondary characters and it's the most painful kind of cringe. I'm ready to send Infold my own recordings, anything is better than what we have now.

Philos
Frame any possible reference you get of it, it's as important as "Linkon" to orient yourself.

[ChicletPrime]

i remember that line about "...play with their prey at whim"! i have it screenshotted somewhere.

i really need to go back and read the story about Dawnbreaker, there was some stuff about the disease progression that i remember noting at the time, but failed to write down because why would i do something smart like that?

i know i'm not catching the time frame references very well.  you say 30k years since the seas of Lemuria vanished, the light of a dying star reached us just now from 300 million years in the past, but the Fleet has gone through the tunnel and is exploring (or just found?) the dead planet now.  Or is the exploding star light something else again, nothing to do with Philos, which is a different planet around a different star?  * head asplode *

5. PHILO

• at first i was like, did they spell the name of the star or the quest line wrong? but no, Philo is the name of a flower shop that nobody remembers when it first appeared. suspicious.
  
• the shop owner cavorts on moonless nights with starlight like fireflies. sounds like my kinda party! Xavier is definitely guest of honor if he's not the owner in question wearing a fake moustache.
  
• does Xavier travel on his light, or as light? because he just zoomed in through a door and startled the owner who sadly does not have a moustache and looks all of 16 years old. who is this kid? also, what evol can turn you into a sunbeam? this mutation seems excessive.
  
• aww, a girl peeks out behind Xavier! that better be me.
  
• oookay. Jeremiah, Shopkeeper of Floral Mystery, is frozen to see me. is there something on my face? am i glowing? we WERE just Resonating on a park bench for all and sundry to watch, maybe i'm still on slight fire.
  
• nope, specifically noted as surprised and bewildered. does Xavier not travel with girls that often? admittedly, flashing through a doorway as a wave-particle isn't the usual form of arrival.
  
• aaaand Xavier whips out a spray bottle to mist a plant. why? isn't that Jeremiah's job? and why are you travelling with a spray bottle of water of all things.
  
• Jeremiah is "not young"? dude. i just saw his avatar, he looked like he was still in Science 11 classes.
  
• okay. hang on. this whole fucking thing is weird as hell. "Long time no s... I mean, welcome to Philo."
  
• holy shit. THERE'S MORE OF THEM. the Children of Methuselah. Refugees of Philos!
  
• oh god, that makes so much sense. they all escaped, they're incredibly long lived and they all look like they should be in a boy band because they don't age. which is why the flower shop has been around for so long and nobody remembers when it got here.
  
• well.
  
• shit.
  
• LOVE IT.
  
• this theory better pan out.
  
• i must resemble somebody that Jeremiah wasn't expecting to see, or wasn't expecting to see attached to Xavier.
  
• fancy one way glass store front. nice.
  
• apparently the florist shop is a front for secret identities and disguises for same. hang on. why do i need a disguise to get into the N109 Zone again?
  
• aside:  i very much appreciate that Xavier always has little glowing points of light floating around him. quite subtle, very lovely.
  
• fancy one way PROJECTION glass! i love high tech fantasy.
  
• i'm gonna be a disgustingly rich bride under a veil! oh, be still my beating heart. i am born with a diamond spoon and the wealth of nations. i'm going to disappear into the N109 zone and live my wildest hedonistic fantasies and nobody can stop me.  oh, but the money isn't real. damn it.
  
• oh, apparently that was too ostentatious. damn it twice. mafia moll it is.
  
• tactical deployment of water spray bottle -- keep your measuring hands to yourself Jeremiah!
  

time for tea!

• okay. hang on. this whole fucking thing is weird as hell. "Long time no s... I mean, welcome to Philo." (EDIT: SUPER SUSPICIOUS on second and third read. hang the fuck on, am i from Philos too? i've got a handy case of amnesia that would dovetali right in there! and it would shed some better light on the alleyway conversation with the guy that called Xavier a traitor and the partial talk about me and stuff attached to me or following me or why i'd  be anybody's prophesied saviour at all. EEEEEEE, okay, okay, breathe.) 
  
• that has to clinch it -- ending this chapter i get the Suffix title "Lady". which Xavier called me in that other card I got yesterday when we were cuddling for warmth and blood loss replenishment in the "safe" house. not only is my heart made of solid gold, i'm* nobility too!
  
• * we. not i. this is a collaborative affair, we are legion.
  
• okay, changing our title to Xavier's Lady. there. too cute.
  

[ChicletPrime]

6. UNCONVENTIONAL ADVICE

• finally, i call Xavier out on planning a bunch of this, helping me get into N109. you are SUCH a good not-quite-my-boyfriend friend.
  
• oh yes girl, lets ask him directly about his own likely fake identity. LUMIERE.
  
• "I'm just a normal Deepspace Hunter."  oh wow. right to my FACE.
  
• i have to say, when i stepped in to threaten the guy with his own spray bottle, and he said "you're too close!" the first thing that came to mind was "that would make a great fic premise. unintentional Resonance by sheer proximity at some seriously inappropriate moment."
  
• the sheer amount of fireflies he's got going on right now - nervous, Xavier? maybe i'm just projecting and he's always this luminous.
  
• bonus point to the english translation team for putting the correct ç in façade but its the wrong font size so.. half off for terrible presentation.
  
• its amusing having Xavier, who shuffles around in soft sweaters and can't stay awake during dinner, coaching me on how to play a hard as nails boss of a crime syndicate.
  
• "I move closer, maintaining eye contact - with my chin."   /tries to figure that out, you know, spatially speaking
  
• best trope ever -- pulled in by your wrist to stand in front of a seated man.
  
• NICE. the voice line went right into my ear at close range, like he was really leaning into my face.
  
• "don't provoke people who have yet to show their hand."  WHAT ARE YOU TELLING ME? also, music now has a thumpy heartbeat in it. very nice touch.
  
• edgelord Xavier. or at least a shadow of it. very nicely done.
  
• Jeremiah walks in...aaaaand immediately walks right back out. I guess the massive numbers of generated fireflies gave us away. 
  

okay, not much in the way of plot revelation on this one, but sweet and interesting to see Xavier actually showing his other side, even a little bit.