[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.