[ChicletPrime]

2. New Discovery

• okay, mission very accomplished. so accomplished we're already back at base. oh hey, an actual time marker! "One Hour Later". nice.
  
• so no aether core found, just a bunch of modified protocores. Simone is disappointed.
  
• yeah, we're definitely chasing after this mysterious third aether core as the goal of this task force of... three. plus Jenna of course.
  
• a who what now? Herte Knave. isn't that something out of Honkai Star Rail?
  
• oh. a hunting uniform wrapped around just the head of a Wanderer? although "flat, round object" was kind of misleading. Simone pushed it away with a pen so i guess whatever it is, its small.
  
• no protocore apparently. guessed to still be with the body, wherever that is.
  
• ooookay. beta-curve somethingwhatsit on the head and now a storytime
  
• Linkon Bridge's main pier disappeared for twenty minutes a month ago.
  
• did... did the bridge fall down? i think the bridge would have fallen down. apparently not worth mentioning - i guess the loss of life is really so last month.
  
• other stuff appeared where it wasn't supposed to, in different spots but all at the same time
  
• and an entire store flipped itself from top to bottom
  
• okay, so the linking thread here is all had betacurve protocore fields and the Wanderers producing them all were capable of distorting space.
  
• okay, this little mini picture of what i guess is supposed to represent the betacurve field looks a FUCK of a lot like the images we've been getting that i thought were of Philos, cracked apart. 
  
• eh?  although micro to macro isn't that big a jump.  stuff coming apart. 
  
• "An aether core is involved."  nooooo. you don't say.
  
• oh shit oh shit.. Caleb, do you have an aether core now too? still?
  
• oh crappity hell.. what was that line previously. a planet pulled out of orbit.... damn.
  

this is me, staring into space, trying to remember that particular little nugget

• found it - just like a planet that strayed away from orbit, only to be ripped apart by gravity. 
  
• that seems like a very important lego piece right now
  
• betaprotocurves are predicted to be more frequent going foward (okay?) and "that's where new aether cores might appear."
  
• they... they generate spontaneously? in the middle of fields? although come to think of it.. isn't that what a Nexus Flux thing is? a field generator, powered by an aether core(?), allowing for Wanderers to exist in a distorted reality. a distorted phase of reality. but if that's what a Flux Nexus has or creates, aether cores should be a dime a dozen. The one that Zayne helped destroy on Mt Eternal would have been huge for the field it was generating.
  
• my apartment is SO swank. not Sylus' level of heydonism but still, that's a lot of stuff i got draped everywhere.
  
• maybe Hunters make more than i thought they did. or the living standards of Linkon City are just that high.
  
• as if it wasn't hammered home enough, yes, third aether core out there, that isn't mine or Sylus'. possibly incomplete, granted.
  
• they seem to waffle in the language between aether cores being hard to find/hard to get/somewhat rare, and talking about them as if they are available at the corner bodega.
  
• maybe it just fragments are everywhere to various degrees of power but whole ones are tricksy?
  
• Flashback Jenna: "Hey, I don't know what you went through in the N109 Zone..."
  
• oh BOY, have i got a story for you! and only some of it involves trivial details i might have noticed outside of being dragged across a floor and sexily choked by a really hot mafia boss who is probably not in the least human.
  

ALSO: random aside because Xavier is sleeping on a table in the coffee shop -- why DOES Xavier have to sleep so much? although its fucking adorable and slightly heartbreaking when he mumbles  "..come home.. with me..{custom petname}"  another yet unexplained mystery no doubt buried in a card i don't have yet

SPECIAL OPERATION

• well, THIS is new! an envelope mission instead of the usual banner. let's click it and see!
  
• no jammies and tea first. THEN we click it.
  

• oh. Choose Your Own Adventure! I LIKE IT!
  1. Investigate crystal shard of the monster
  2. Investigate high profile, suspicious tycoon
  3. Pursue the Wanderer causing 'disappearances'
  
• i don't care about tycoons if they're not Sylus, i deal with Wanderers for my day job - lets to investigate crystal shards for clues
  
• oh, this opens a completely new story set. I LIKE IT!
  
• oh, these have to be themed or centered around the first three boyfriends - Land of Secret Flames and the backdrop is a big lagoon / fjord thing? gotta be Rafayel!
  
• changing my mind, if this has anything to do with Raf, we're doing that one first.
  
• i am psycho... psychic! MO ART STUDIOS my beloved third.. fourth hangout spot. hello, boyfriend #2, are you here?
  
•  i'm apparently after Maxwell, person extraordinaire yadda yadda.. exceptional jewelry appraisal skills...  hey, i got this crow brooch from somewhere that its best you don't know about. could you give me a rough number on it, particularly if i had to sell it quickly under un-ideal circumstances for fast cash? oh, no reason. just a girl trying to figure out her options.
  
• oh, he's having a wedding anniversary soon? private island. wealthy celebrities. nice. who do i know that is a wealthy celebrity who might get invited to a private island? and who leaves his gate half open all the time because who can be bothered to do anything else?
  
• in retrospect, maybe he really did need a bodyguard.
  
• in retro retrospect, ohhhhh no, i don't think so.
  
• oh god, i haven't seen Rafayel in so long! HI BOYFRIEND! i forgive you for abandoning me, it's okay.
  
• oh wow, aren't we dressed up for the ball! so many little buttons everywhere! did i come at a bad time?
  
• it would take me so many minutes to peel him out of that. so many lovely minutes.
  
• obsessing over fashion here... his cuffs are cut to expose a veritable swatch of flowing lace. superb. perfectly square knot in the collar tie. impeccable raised detailing in the fabric.
  
• you're going to throw me a concert? NOW?
  
• amado novio sirena, i am here to be your captive audience, no question.
  
• stop playing with your hair, you're perfect.
  
• ... what is he DOING? 
  
• he's... he's coached the seagulls to sing!?  bwahahahahah! oh AH-MAZING! you are the greatest, mi amigo, mi querida loca, i am in awe.
  
• i am an audacious audience, feeding the orchestra before they were finished.
  
• "the rare display of honesty and underlying assertiveness catches me off guard."  hello, glimpse of the real Rafayel, so nice to meet you, as it were.
  
• oh, that was good of me. asking him to tell me which things he's alluding to might need my attention more. direct me, sirena. give me a target.
  
• oookay. "breaking the shackles of time requires patience. haste makes waste." these last few chapters have been speedball after speedball.