Deleted all my copies of the game, reinstalled it, and played with the starter included on the game and that seemed to fix it. Guess my save was corrupted (ironically and not in the fun way like Mezz).
I'm just relieved it's fixed. I was afraid you'd just about had it after sending it THREE TIMES without any luck and were about to reach through the internet and throttle me :D. Offer still stands though: if issues come up, always glad to dig in as long as you are.