[ChicletPrime]

8. Hesitation

• oh! wow, okay not going well. i only THOUGHT we won in the battle but apparently i'm going to take an energy cannon to the face.
  
• oh. oh my.
  
• okay. heightened stress, fear, panic.. and now he wants to link.
  
• the hand thing again oh boy.
  
• i can handle it!
  
• yes boss! if i handle it good enough, can i get a bird beak mask and a cool feather tassel too?
  
• he is really, really intent.
  
• okay, some actual information here. my special evol works with the waves of a human brain's magnetic field. reeeally.
  
• ... Sylus isn't human, i betcha.
  
• our brains are clashing. and not in the sexy way.
  
• ooooh. Mr Project Man, you are saying some very dangerous words to a guy that controls the area you live in. "on a subconsious level, she's either rejecting you, scared of you, or... "
  
• OR WHAT 
  
• please please please be "competing with you".
  
• nuts. disgusted with you. COP OUT.
  
• so even if i do the "alteration", we can't resonate if I'm hostile towards Sylus. that has to stick in his craw somewhere. i promise, baby, i am not in the least disgusted, although i'll allow for scared.
  
• i guess Sylus really does like his truth hard and unvarnished. this guy just laid it out and didn't even flinch.
  
• oh, now THAT'S a great look of disappointment.  i'm sorry! you're scary! really, if you think about it, its your fault. if you'd lead with flowers and sunshine, maybe we wouldn't be in this predicament.
  
• woah woah woah back up. if the alteration fails, i'll be completely ruined? we need to address "the cause" first?
  
• ... what are the chances the "cause" is my loss of memory?
  
• (how did Mr Project Man get all that from the blood pressure cuff? admittedly, the chair was pretty high tech. maybe it was sequencing my RNA while I rested during the manicure)
  
• "Which means there's something wrong with.. her."  excuse YOU.
  
• they're going .. excuse me, Mr Project Man is going to stab me with an "evol stabilizer". thanks i think. that sounds kinda helpful to be honest.
  
• okay, the storeroom's second floor has a massive, and i do mean massive telecope and a glass observatory ceiling? this guy must get paid really well for his shady services.
  
• confirmed. i have "part of an aether core" and staying with Sylus is apparently my safest option.
  
• Sylus seems to encourage loyalty in his underlings and criminal contacts, it must be said.
  
• I KNOW THIS GUY! okay, i know OF this guy. he has to be the one that defected from the unethical medical lab and disappeared into the N-Zone so long ago. He recognizes the protocurve signature i'm putting out - he used to monitor aether cores as his job.  i will point out he specifically said "Aether CoreS" - more than one and that's implied they were intact cores, not fragments.  Sylus may still have the other part of mine, but its not the one and only.
  
• huh. "The aether core's other half is one of the items at the auction."  so, we actually know that for sure? not just a random aether core or fragment of one, but the half of mine in specific?
  
• okay, not a bad thought. use my inner core to resonate and find the other.
  
• yeah, lets go make a deal with the dev... i mean, Sylus.
  
• and the bastard abandoned me here?
  
• i didn't reject youuuuuuu. come baaaaaack.
  
• * cough *
  
• okay, ominous thud from the alley off the empty streets. gee, i wonder what that was.
  
• SUSPICIOUS LITTLE GIRL IN THE EMPTY STREET IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT SELLING FLOWERS.
  
• those are probably weapon grade flowers. be warned, me. i saw Men In Black, we need to shoot Tiffany stat.
  
• oh sure, lets follow the suspicious little girl in the dead of night on the empty street with her basket full of contraband.
  
• flapping wings in the distance! CROW, COME GET ME!
  
• "a few bloodstained tufts of gray fur peek out from under its metal claws." gray... fur? wolves? in the streets of N109? eh?
  
• oh, a MOUSE. silly me.
  
• hang on, why does a metal crow familiar want to hunt living mice?
  
• muahah! thank you game for restoring my faith in you! the rats were rigged with spy cams
  

i hope the little girl doesn't eat me.