[ChicletPrime]

Chapter 3: Lurking

• Okay, so we go to the address provided the next day. and it's surrounded by white mist/clouds. isn't that what happened in Chansia, when me and the boyfriends got trapped in an overlaid betacurve reality? 
  
• Oh, okay, my bad. the little disc is a security bypass'er so over the back fence I go like a sneak thief.
  
• like, i'm using up my holiday time for this. 
  
• hey, Kevi. just.. .just checking on you, little friend. how are you? 
  
• what's with the bird in your hand, kid? 
  
• /okay, that makes me remember a poem called "Formal Application". I'll post it somewhere after this.
  
• "If I break its wings, it can stay here forever. It will die very quickly though."
  
• yup, Formal Application it is. what the hell did they do to you? It's only been days, maybe less than a week even.
  
• "The Professor says if we damage the bird's neuromuscular system it won't be able to fly. But it will believe it can. Slowly it'll get used to its life on the ground. The bird will then forget that it's supposed to fly."
  
• this is horrifying.
  
• and Kevi will have many brothers and sisters instead of his one dead one and he'll be strong.
  
• fight it, little guy! although i know you can't. hopefully whatever they did to you is removeable or reversible.
  
• oooooh, robot voice. fight, Kevi! don't let the Control Program win! 
  
• it's a bracelet! i can deal with a bracelet. 
  
• "I shouldn't forget!"  ooooh. well now. Isiah? "The chip... rereading... inputting memory..." 
  
• nuts, it IS a chip. okay, well if i smash the bracelet, i have no idea how it interacts with the chip. Zayyyyne!
  
• creeeeepy!
  
• eeek, i am about to be discovered! back over the wall, ninja style.
  
• "I see you're struggling to restrain the fragmented consciousness that isn't yours."  fucking hell. they've implanted a Wanderer into him... along with the Control Program for both? or the protocore fragment itself maybe. which would make the Spatium abilities native to Kevi if he can contain it. 
  
• oh no. wait. The Professor is trying to make it sound like he's trying to get Kevi to reject his actual memories and emotions as false?  TO THE CN TRANSLATION! that will probably make this segment clearer for intent.
  
• /hides face.  hiii caleb.
  
• at least.. at least he didn't know about Mia ahead of time. 
  
• yeah, lets not get too attached to the mundanes, shall we? they are incidental to the process.
  
• clean up is nearly complete. salvaging is ongoing but they'll pick up the pace. caleb caleb caleb you are breaking your sister's heart.
  
• "The plan will be starting again. You must ensure that she doesn't interfere with it. Otherwise I won't be able to keep this a secret for much longer."   "She won't." 
  
• i need more coffee. this is intense.
  
• ("If that day truly comes, and she discovers everything-- I'll keep her hidden. She'll be in a place where no one can find her.")
  
• yes absolutely lets immediately dial for backup. but i am still quasi convinced the upper echelon of the Hunters Association is just the Everlasting crew, part deux. or part trois, i guess.
  
• don't tell me not to extract the kid for my own safety. good gravy, are we the good guys or not? 
  
• did they.. did they just type in "mind control chips" into SkyGoogle?  /facepalm
  
• i am so sorry, girlfriend. yeah. your brother was not only aware, but likely very, very involved. what are you going to do?
  
• "They probably have goals that extend beyond obtaining Aether Core fragments."  gotta have power and power conduits for a purpose, yeah? question is, what.
  
• I'm still wearing Caleb's necklace. oh. wow, even. i forgot to give it back, i've been so distracted with work. i wonder how Caleb felt every time he saw the chain peeking out around my neck.
  
• Valour is the better part of asking for forgiveness instead of asking for permission? or words to that effect.
  
• HE SOUNDS LIKE MY GEGE STILL.
  
• oh, okay. so we are going to invite him out to spend time like we haven't been because i've been so busy, and like, we should go watch a type 1a supernova from thousands of light years away.  that is a thing you can just do in Skyhaven? stare at dead exploding stars for funsies? 
  

oh, this shit is about to get very real, methinks.