All The Times Xavier Knew What He Was Doing (a Series)

all the times xavier knew what he was doing (a series)

—part 2

—a masterclass in being sly to get the girl you want

[ Part 1 ] [ Part 2 ]

note: sorry I took so long with part 2, real life ate me up

tender moments - warm wishes

hmmm and you just happened to be there at exactly the same time? ok seiya

if any of you have been to a festival the mood of this card just screams DATE, cause who else would you buy festival food with and split everything in half with but your SO?! we all know this. xavier knows this.

normal friends would be like “I’ll buy this, you’ll buy that, let’s meet in 15? oh maybe can share 1-2 food items” but no this man is “we’re eating everything together right?”

the intimacy of eating from the same plates… saying “no, it’s okay, you take the last piece!” laughing and saying together, “omg it’s really good right?!” blushing when he attempts to feed you… ok none of this happened but you can see the potential, I’m sure xavier saw it too

suuure you didn’t notice. but the next moment he chooses to read:

mc!!! he was reading about himself and just fishing, all you had to do was say yes

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tender moments - a captured moment

earlier in this card MC was complaining that he was too aloof, and to be fair, he did kind of brush her off when he received the cookies. I have a theory its cause he was embarrassed about remembering seeing her skin when her clothes tore a little during battle... but this is not about seiya being embarrassed, this is about him being sly

and he's definitely being sly here because why else would you take a picture of an empty cookie jar if not for proof later on to the girl you like that you ate all of her homemade cookies

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tender moments - dawn to dusk

ohhh this card, this card. seiya arrives in a backpack and later on you find out that the guide he read was a DATE GUIDE, and the first line literally says "bring a backpack so she can travel light". my man tries to brush it off when MC points it out that it's a travel guide for couples but ahem, ok seiya, nice try, we know this was on purpose. the rest of the card plays very boyfriend when he basically holds the bus ticket for her and does everything she wants

xavier likes pointing out MC is blushing (this happens in several cards, watch me point it out always) and my girl is also cute here for denying it, but as the point of this post, xavier knows what he's doing... and he knows he's baiting MC but its ok, we're not cowards!!! MC, FIGHT FLIRT RIGHT BACK!!!

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oh mc was so caught here he knows she was starin' at him...

I bet he texted Jeremiah right after and was like. "she was staring at me today :)". Jeremiah was probably like, "good 4 u :)" or "??? who?" because he's a bestie like that and besties exist to support you and piss you off at the same time

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note: as always, more to come soon

i take back everything i've ever said about love and deepspace men. they are not MC's soulmates, this was not fate, not exactly. in fact they carved their love down for her, fate not withstanding. in that tapestry of life that fate loomed, when her life was supposed to be cut short, they forcefully tied an extension to the string, because she will live. if nothing else, she must live.

Hi! I come to you with a theory regarding Zayne's Myth, specifically regarding the Creatio Protocore, because he lives in my mind rent-free and it bugs me how awkward it is to place his supplemental background stories in relation to everything else.

Specifically, my theory is that the Creatio Protocore is the core of Philos, and that it was the first Protocore (that we know of).

My main reason for suspecting that the core of Philos is a Protocore is based on the two methods we know of for creating Wanderers: sacrificing humans to the core of Philos to power it (Xavier's Myth) and long-term exposure to Protocores (Zayne's Anecdote 3).

The tangible common thread between these two is obviously humans turn into Wanderers, but while we know for one method its because of Protocore exposure, we don't know what about the core does this to humans. We also don't seem to know what the core is exactly, only certain qualities about it such as it keeps Philos together, it grants neat perks to its denizens like longevity, it's artificial, it's dead, it uses people to sustain itself, and that process somehow creates Wanderers. It's also presumably extremely powerful, given the range of stuff it does as well as holding an artificial planet together.

But also, there's the odd detail that Protocores seem to predate Wanderers considering the Protocore Xavier gets for MC in his Anecdote 3, the mere existence of the Creatio Protocore in Zayne's Myth, and Wanderers don't seem to come up on Philos until Xavier's Myth near the end of Philos. You'd think it'd be the other way around with Wanderers predating Protocores considering they drop them upon being slain, but also Protocores don't seem to be as commonplace as they are on Main Story Earth because both Xavier and MC in Anecdote 3 don't seem to know exactly what Protocore Syndrome is and it's a disease specifically caused by Protocores as per the game blurb in Deepspace Messages.

In any case, it establishes that Protocores have been around fairly early in Philos's inception, at least two centuries in.

I also find the circumstantial details for Xavier getting the unspecified Protocore for MC in his Anecdote 3 to be... sussy, to say the least. He's all cut up with that ring of light around his neck and implication he's lost whatever freedom he's had as a punishment, but like why? Sure it's obvious he stole a valuable Protocore but if it just healed MC the implications that he had to fight to get to it and he's being punished severely with the ring of light seems like overkill for that alone.

Okay, so to take this all together: immediately, application of Occam's Razor. We know exposure to Protocores turns humans into Wanderers, we know the core of Philos ALSO turns humans into Wanderers yet we don't know exactly what the core is, ergo conclusion being the core of Philos is most likely itself a Protocore. This is supported by Protocores confirmed to have been around at least as early as year 214 on Philos with high likelihood they existed even earlier and predating the known first appearances of Wanderers, so it would put them at the right time for one to be THE core. Also the implied troubles and consequences Xavier suffered to get MC the Protocore she needed in his Anecdote 3 make me think he didn't just steal a generic rare and powerful Protocore but the core of Philos for her. It also just makes sense to me from a logistical standpoint because at this point it seems the Protocore is under the royal family's guard as Xavier knew what MC needed without much specification and his injuries when he showed up, which, of course it would be if it was indeed the core of Philos since the royal family would want to keep it close and guarded.

But I digress... slightly.

Okay, so MAYBE the core of Philos is itself a Protocore. Why the Creatio Protocore specifically?

Firstly, it creates a segue between Xavier's Anecdote 3 and Zayne's Myth (assuming that's the order they come in chronologically). Xavier steals Protocore/core of Philos for MC but is too late, it's implied he's lost his freedom as a punishment for this which effectively takes him out of the running for god-knows-how-long before he can make good on his promise to track MC down again.

As for the Protocore? Well the Crown Prince was bold enough to steal it, clearly it's not safe with the royal family anymore. Maybe it's better off left in the care of a certain Foreseer in a frozen tower?

Also there's certain details about the Creatio Protocore that made me raise my eyebrows when rereading Zayne's Myth. Specifically, that MC's illness stems from her resonance with the Creatio Protocore, that it grows stronger by draining away her life (and also seems to drain her more the closer she gets to it), and that the cure to her condition is to fuse the Creatio Protocore with her heart.

Now, before I get to the other stuff: the Creatio Protocore grows stronger by draining away MC's life. Kind of... odd, that doesn't seem to be a quality of Protocores in general unless that's exactly what people turning into Wanderers via Protocore overexposure is, they're being drained slowly by the Protocores around them until they reach the Wanderer threshold. But that the Creatio Protocore grows stronger via draining MC's life implies that conversely it runs out of power over time, which sounds awfully like the dead heart of Philos which needed human sacrifices to keep itself and the planet going.

Speaking of which, what happened to those emissaries that the royal family sent to the Tower of Thorns every 100 years? Oh none of them came back? Wonder why? I highly doubt Zayne killed them considering he summoned a blizzard to deter a random group of travelers.

Okay, moving on to MC's illness stemming from her resonance with the Creatio Protocore and the cure being to fuse it with her heart. It has broad similarities with her condition in her life in Xavier's Anecdote 3: it's explicitly called "Protocore Syndrome" so it's caused by a Protocore, it causes a decline in her health over time until she dies, and it can only be cured by a specific Protocore. There's also the specific connections MC has with both the Creatio Protocore and the core of Philos. Creatio Protocore has an explicit connection to her seeing as her resonance with it is what's causing it to use her as a fuel cell even over long distances. The core of Philos has a more vague connection to her because she's the only one who can be sacrificed to it over and over without turning into a Wanderer. It might just be because she reincarnates and for some reason that doesn't allow the Wanderer transformation process to complete but I'm not satisfied with that answer.

Point being there's parallels between the broad strokes of MC's condition in her lives in Xavier's Anecdote 3 and Zayne's Myth and also between the Creatio Protocore and the core of Philos in that MC has a special connection to them and I'm inclined to think it's not an accident.

At this point it would mean that now the core of Philos is fused with MC's heart, which would roll over into Rafayel's Myth where her heart is what makes the people of Philos immortal.

And now I'm gonna do a line of crack for the next part of this theory because it will be heavier in speculation. It also relies heavily on the theory that Rafayel's heart is the thing that's giving the special perks to Philos like MC's ability to keep reincarnating and the immortality of the people of Philos.

I think that the Creatio Protocore was made by trying to take Rafayel's heart from MC by force, and since it was taken by force instead of given willingly, something didn't go right. Like sure, the Creatio Protocore was made and it was powerful enough to reform Earth into Philos and make everyone immortal, but it couldn't sustain itself because it wasn't fully divorced from MC. And then it gets put back by Zayne but it's still not back with Rafayel so things are still going to shit, and then maybe someone tries to take it by force again after the end of Rafayel's Myth and that's how we end up with the situation in Xavier's Myth with the end of Philos?

Some stray thoughts to finish off:

Nomenclature details - "Creatio" -> literally a letter off from "creation", and what else was created but the artificial planet of Philos?

"aether" -> According to Wikipedia page on aether (classical element), "In Greek mythology, it was thought to be the pure essence that the gods breathed, filling the space where they lived, analogous to the air breathed by mortals." Creatio Protocore is also called the Eye of Astra, who is a god. Aether Protocore is also called a "fragment" in the Main Story, so it's a fragment of the Creatio Protocore? Maybe that would explain why MC is so stable at this point in the main story despite her heart issues?

Also I think Astra is the person that made and used the Creatio Protocore to create Philos and then deified himself as a god (maybe through the power of the Creatio Protocore too?). I thought it was odd that Astra was so dead-set against MC being given the Creatio Protocore to the point of fucking with Zayne's memories, especially since things seem fine even after she gets it, but it might make slightly more sense if he's worried that either his main conduit of interacting with the world via the Creatio Protocore is in some way neutralized when MC has it or he's worried MC getting the Creatio Protocore is a step closer to Rafayel getting his heart back.

(Also Astra erasing Zayne's memories over and over again because he knew Zayne would give MC the Creatio and he seemingly wants MC to keep reincarnating and wandering up to the Tower of Thorns to give the Creatio Protocore a recharge is pretty fucked up)

Anyway, last stray thought: When initially thinking "core" of Philos, I thought a literal core like Earth, especially since that seems to be what the text implies with something holding the plates together, but then I thought does it have to be? Hence this rabbit hole.

Anyway anyway, I uh. I apologize for the long ask. It most def has mistakes from stuff I glossed over and because I can't check Xavier and Rafayel's Myths closely due to not having the cards. But this is my best guess as to how things in the Philos era fits together.

Yes yes yes! You summed up a bunch of ideas I've had floating around in my brain and made some connections I was struggling with!

I definitely think the Creatio either is the planet's core or is somehow linked to it. I also think it is somehow connected to Rafayel's heart.

I've contemplated whether it could be some form of ancient Lemurian tech. It is described as Astra's eye, and the only other god-being we've seen so far is Rafayel, so perhaps Astra is another Lemurian? Or some other ancient people with a connection to/rivalry with the Lemurians?

Alternatively, the Creatio could be a paradox. The Wanderers follow Xavier through the Deepspace Tunnel, then it seems humans start studying/researching protocores, eventually perhaps creating or improving them to develop the core, which then later creates the Wanderers that travel through time, and so on and so forth. Essentially the Creatio/planet core creates itself somehow or other. 

Either way, there certainly seems to be a connection between the Creatio/planet's core/Rafayel's heart, whether natural or manufactured. 

Currently, we have two separate (but connected?) groups that could play into the creation of the core and/or development of it as the planet's core. 

Ever Corp appears to be researching immortality by kidnapping/studying/dissecting Lemurians. Meanwhile, Onychinus is playing around with altering protocores and their resonance. (Rafayel talks about how everything has a unique resonance that makes it distinct in the universe and teaches MC how to sense it). But Onychinus wasn't the first to play around with protocores, as they appear to have started after a researcher that Grandma worked with on the Aethor core experiments on MC defected to them. Perhaps the original research was also linked to Ever Corp.

We also know by Dawnbreaker's time that there are factories actively working on protocores in some way or other (which has the side effect of turning humans into Abominations into Wanderers). And that the effects/consequences of this are being hidden by higher powers/the government. 

I am also tremendously curious about what is frozen in Mt. Eternal. It appears to have the same pattern as the floor of some of the protofields where we fight Wanderers. Mt. Eternal also appears to be connected to the Tower of Thorns, as you can see the same peak from the balcony of the tower. Additionally, the story Foreseer Zayne tells MC talks about a Divine Mountain, likely also Mt. Eternal.

I also agree that the protocore Xavier acquires in his Anecdote and the Creatio are one and the same, and therefore it seems likely that because Xavier stole it, the Foreseer was placed as a guard on it, somewhere the royal family cannot easily access. I would love to know why Zayne was chosen to be Foreseer. Was it supposed to be a punishment or a blessing? Certainly, if it was originally intended to be a blessing, it turned into a curse by the end, though it did give him the means to save MC eventually (which is what Doctor Zayne is also studying protocores/protocore syndrome in an attempt to achieve).

It also seems likely that the protocore Xavier retrieved had to be significant, since MC somehow knew it could cure her, and Xavier somehow knew which one to find with limited details.

I like your suggestion that the emissaries that the royal family are sending to the tower are being sacrificed to the core, I could totally see that. That story Zayne tells MC talks about how she is walking over white, gleaming bones. This could be all the MCs that died before, but also likely anyone else who has been sacrificed to the core in the meanwhile.

I could see MC being once more separated from the Creatio via a forceful attempt to remove his heart at the end of Rafayel's myth. I definitely suspect that the story there ends with Rafayel falling into eternal slumber, and then MC being assassinated by either angry Lemurians or the royal family. The part I struggle with on this idea though, is why then does Xavier’s Myth MC seem to be heart-condition free? She appears to be as stable/healthy as Rafayel's MC, so how was the core separated from her yet she remained stable?

My guess is that the Creatio and the planet's core are not the same, but rather linked. So the Creatio remains fused to her heart in Rafayel’s and Xavier's myths and is linked to the planet's core via the Creatio but the Creatio is distinct from the planet's core. Maybe they are quantum entangled or linked by resonance like the heart and the Creatio.

Since we know from Xavier's Myth that there is an explicit link between hearts and protocores, it certainly seems likely that the Creatio and/or planet's core and Rafayel's heart go together, on some level or other.

Zayne's story also talks about divine beings sitting on thrones hiding daggers. This could easily apply to Astra and Rafayel (particularly interesting with Rafayel since he has to re-acquire the heart via a special dagger). I also wonder if there could be other divine beings as well, or those who have elevated themselves to divinity, manipulating and scheming in the background.

A lot of great ideas here. I need to go through and reread some stuff and see if any new details stand out with all this information in my mind.

I unlocked these messages after beating snoozer and heartbreaker with rafayel

I love his clingy ahh 😭💕

I just know that he's a great storyteller 🫶🏻

cinematic parallels