[ChicletPrime]

okay, i don't think i have as many questions as i thought - i think its more that i am completely vibrating at this wavelength. let me wax excited here for a minute.

first off, wow. just... wow. Caleb, you are both unhinged and scarily competent and your girlfriend is possibly even more unhinged and trying to catch up and i love that for both of you.

what we already know:

• the drug Cybezin is used by those with the Toring Chip implantation to help with "mood stabilization". overuse causes psychosis and (implied) violent outbreaks.
  
• exposure to the Deepspace Tunnel apparently warps or removes memories with long term exposure. this is presented as a fact and a reason for the drug.
  
• the Toring Chip forces emotional control by overwriting and/or erasing memories that contain strong emotional elements. text descriptions indicate that a "Core" is involved. this may be referencing a protocore (extracted from a defeated Wanderer, usually used as an energy source) or potentially an aether core (a very high powered "complete" protocore) that is overlaid on the human personality. the "chip" may simply be a way to interface a Wanderer's core to a human host.
  
• There are apparently three levels to this - the chip implantation to effect mood/personality, an augmentation of physical prowess that comes after the chip, and then something called "modification".
  
• per events in Abyssal Chaos, Ever was experimenting with, and succeeded at moving a human's consciousness from the biologic to the digital.
  
• Dawnbreaker's world (Zayne's future) is nearly overrun with human beings infected with crystalline growths that warp them into Wanderers.
  

what new things did we learn on this sleigh ride:

• the "Fleet" is comprised of several internal divisions, one of which is "HQ" and the rest appearing to be armadas of ships ("fleet" - lowercase) controlled by a single "Colonel" rank commander that reports to HQ. We have three named and one unnamed fleet divisions - Alpha, Bravo, Tuum and whichever fleet Caleb is controlling which remains unnamed. There is internal jockeying between the Colonels for power.
  
• Caleb's Fleet has widespread, implied to be mandatory, usage of the Toring Chip.
  
• Tuum Fleet and it's Colonel (Heath) are against the use of the Toring Chip but are assimilated into Caleb's control, forcibly in some cases.
  
• Caleb is known by at least one other Colonel ranked individual (Heath) to be an inserted plant inside the ranks of the Fleet. From previous, we know that he is working with/is under the control of Professor Lucius' group which is as yet unnamed and which appears to be at least somewhat separate from Ever. Lucius is likely to be another defected researcher from Ever. Per prior information, he does not have full access to Josephine's data.
  
• Atley Island is introduced and named, likely the place that was briefly alluded to in Homecoming Wings by a medical nurse as a place where people "are taken". It's where Heath is being sent "to recover" although no information is given as to what he is to recover from. Heath does not appear to be outwardly fighting this re-assignment.
  
• Heath alludes to a higher-ranked individual in the Fleet that is currently absent, noting that person would be in opposition to Caleb and Caleb's backers.
  
• ambushed by Heath, Caleb kills him but is then confronted by an unknown individual that is likely the aforementioned higher ranked officer. A fight happens that takes place off camera and no resolution is seen.
  
• Caleb, who has so far shown himself to be very adept at code switching his demeanor and thoughts in order to avoid directly triggering his chip implantation, does have an emotional breakdown over the girlfriend, causing his memories to be re-set in a fairly complete wipe, at least from the outside perspective.
  
• the girlfriend uses this to attempt to implant command parameters into Caleb, focusing on making sure he cannot leave her and to engage only with her. she actively avoids or hides anything that would trigger older memories that are not of her. it seems likely she is attempting to re-set his personality back to their childhood, or at least to before his Fleet involvement.
  
• Caleb takes about three days to regain most of his core memories but does not appear to broadcast that fact to the girlfriend, leaving her unaware of his returning awareness.
  
• when the girlfriend also overwhelms herself in an emotional outburst over Caleb, Caleb has her chip removed ("dissolved"). Text indicates that memories formed after chip implantation will be wiped when the chip is lost and the procedure also has the chance to remove some or all of prior memories as well as a side effect.
  
• when her outburst happens, it seems she tried again to 'escape' with Caleb, stepping off a moving transport in the air. she could have been relying on his evol to carry them, it could also have been a suicide attempt in a bid to move to their next reincarnation and abandon this one. while neither of them appear to actively aware of alternate timelines, there is some textual references to it by Caleb just prior to this.
  
• during the resulting white out, the girlfriend re-iterates the same goals as Caleb, that Caleb will not be taken from her and that she will find a place where they can not be found.
  
• Lucius and unnamed person are talking about Caleb as he floats in a zero gravity chamber - this appears to be current time, ie, not a flashback but exact timing is ambiguous. the chip is noted as linked to his bionic arm (as yet not shown and only vaguely alluded to in the main story) and the two pieces appear to work in sync with each other. Caleb's memory erasure showed physical symptoms that ran down his neck towards his arm. The arm is referenced as a 'partial modification'.
  
• the chip is checked and then confirmed as undamaged. damage will impact a 'hidden plan'.
  
• it is specifically noted that 7% of Caleb's brain is uncontrolled by the chip, in an untouchable "locked" area. It is implied that this untouched area is being actively (perhaps subconsciously) warded by Caleb himself using his evol.
  
• Lucius states that one of their goals is full modification for Caleb, which is being thwarted by their lack of complete control.
  

So. Fucking hell, even. I think I hurt myself typing all that in.

I am, in a word, delighted with this myth. The constant re-looping back to the possessive, feral bedrock of wanting only to be together, away from any one else or any interference really locked this in for me. When stripped of everything else, that's the only purpose, the only imperative that isn't taken away them. Together, or nothing. Caleb's suddenly interjection/allusion to getting away through *death* into something better caught me flatfooted.

Does he know more than he's saying in that regard? Is he trying to tell her that nothing can ever be lost because there is always the ultimate restart? Or is it meta-textual fuckery by the devs?

Ever's goal to transcend humanity and achieve immortality is nearing fruition, but how that works with Wanderer core infusion into humans, that human personalities can be digitized and uploaded, how the emotional suppression chips are part of this, the implication that humans that cannot handle a core or its fragments will turn into Wanderers themselves... its still murky in which cog is driving which wheel. We know that whatever is being done now leads to the creation of Philos where there is, at least for a time, a thriving human civilization. But we also know that that civilization falls apart because of whatever price has to be paid for that "gift", which somehow necessitates not one but two time travel missions to either start that ball rolling or to thwart it.

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Bear with me on this but something I have been toying with in the background (not at ALL textually alluded to, this is deep into headcanon space) is that each of the "boyfriends" is actually just one soulbound/soul, split into fragments and traveling through time with her. They play out in their respective paths, all trying to resolve back into a single individual, constantly looping and surrounding each iteration. No matter what path she takes, no matter what decision she makes or avoids, she will always meet "him". "He" may exists in times where she does not, but she will always find "him" everywhere, even though his story changes. This is mostly brought on by the couple of fucked up moments where an eye appears in the sky, resembling both a galaxy and an observer.