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Kevin was more than just a bit lost. Everytime he thought he found the answer to something, it simply raised more questions. This cycle of questions and answers which simply led to more questions was quickly growing into too much of a mess for one lost Audio to figure out. That, and it made his head hurt...when his head hurt blood dripped out of whatever that was on his forehead. Overall, it was quite an unpleasant experience.

Honestly, at this point, he wasn't sure what he wanted. That nice scientist fellow had tried to help him out, but there was a darker part of him that wondered if it really was all that bad to be under control. After all, it was only after things started malfunctioning that he remembered awful, painful things. Things he didn't like to talk about at all. If going back under control meant those things went away...was this Strexcorp really something to avoid?

Kevin wandered the streets of the town he had come across. This wasn't...-his- town. His town was in the desert, and he found himself deeply missing it. No matter what state it was currently in, at least it'd be something familiar. None of this here was familiar. Not one single bit of it. He wandered along until he made his way to the outskirts, and only then did Kevin Free sink to a seated position on the ground, and simply wait for whatever it was that was going to happen to him.

He was a broken Audio...surely someone would eventually come along and put the pieces back together for him.

UGH! First it was a gun and then it was a radio host! Diego just had to have them and now one was missing. Was a radio host really that irreplaceable? The one here in Night Vale even had a nicer voice. Surely he would do. But no, instead Diego had her traipsing around this dark little town searching down alleyways for that annoying little--. Lauren took a deep breath, calming herself. Keeping calm and collected was the only way she was going to put this highly inefficient and hardly productive search to an end.

She had done her best to get some research done on Night Vale while she was out wandering the streets. No sense in making a complete waste of the day after all. In fact, maybe she should go back and inspect that Arby’s with the mysterious and strangely appealing lights. She was just turning around when a huddled form caught her eye. Likely some unproductive vagrant, she told herself disgustedly, but moved closer none the less. She stepped to within a foot of the huddled figure, looming over him as he sat on the ground with a defeated and lost expression. Well he certainly did look like the missing radio host, however he was missing his Strex Corp smile…hmm.

Maybe it was coincidence, or maybe Diego had been calling Lauren every five minutes (still not worried dammit), but seemingly, as if he knew, Diego called Lauren at the same time she found Kevin. "Lauren? Lauren! Have you found him? Are you looking at him right now!?!?" He coughed, realizing he sounded...desperate, ugh. "Kevin is a vital piece of Strexcorp property , we cannot afford to have lost him permanently as you know. So, is he there?" Maybe Diego should step back, or take a break from the caffeine diet he had been on.

He was still sorting through his feelings on the matter (so many feelings...did he always have this many feelings?!), when one certain word brought everything back at once.

"DON'T CALL ME KEV!"

Just like that he was back on his feet, fur bristling at the horrible rendition of his name. No one called him Kev. NO ONE. Not even Diego.

.....Crud. If Lauren was here, Diego would soon follow. Why, he was probably on the phone right now! And though something internally was still screaming at him to run for the hills...

"My name is Kevin. Call me that! Not Kev! Not anything else! Just Kevin. Being called anything else does not make me want to work hard, smile, or sing happy songs Lauren~"
Towards the end his speech had taken on a very sickly sweet tone...with something dangerous hidden underneath. The headphones on his head sparked a bit, a vital clue to the odd behavior or the usually quite pleasant radio host.

Fantastic. Getting yelled at in both ears and no mention of a reward. Lauren had such a difficult job sometimes. Strex Corp was so lucky to have a vice president who stayed calm and collected under pressure, she told herself in a cheery voice in her mind. Externally, her ever-present smile seemed to have developed a slight twitch. She covered the phone briefly as she replied to the angered host. "You don't appear to have been working very hard anyway, Kevin~ Here. The CEO wants to talk to you about your attendance issues." She held out the phone, glad she wouldn't be able to hear Diego cooing into Kevin's ear once he had direct communication with him.

Ahhhhhh! There Kevin was! His sweet, panicked voice music to Diegos ears.

Wait...panicked? Well, Diego would quickly fix that, and was infinitely pleased when Kevin requested just that. "Of course, what sort of CEO would I be if i didn't take care of my most valuable employee, that is not Lauren." He purred, not hearing the phone be dropped in the radio hosts frightened state. " We'll just go right in and n** those silly feelings away, and you'll be good as new, okay Kevin?" He paused, frowning when he didn't respond. "Kevin?" After hearing nothing on the other end, he turned his attention to Lauren, knowing she would hear. "Lauren, for your sake, I hope Kevin has either merely passed out, is too filled with nasty emotions to speak, or is anything other than given a friendly, but a little too tight, hug." He said, still frowning, but now it was a little more menacing, the hand holding his gun balling up that much tighter.

Kevin ran with no real destination in mind. He wasn't sure what he was doing, or why he was doing it, but at this very moment the only thing he could think was RUN. And run he did, down the darkened streets of the strange little town he had found himself in.

His choice of path soon brought him right to the one he was running away from. Or...was it running towards? He still truly had no idea. But as he skidded to a halt there was Diego, standing before him with gun in hand. Behind him would be Lauren soon enough, gimping along with her broken shoe. He could run another direction...but where? And why? Could he truly outrun Strexcorp?

No...no he really couldn't, could he?

Kevin's odd length of a tail curled in between his legs. Panicked eyes looked towards Diego, then back to the path he had just run from, before the radio host finally just sunk to the ground with one last whimper of protest.

Lauren had pulled off what remained of her heel to keep it from impeding her movement. Now she held it like a club, hoping to knock Kevin senseless as soon as she saw him so they could get out of this horrible little town. As she rounded the corner, however, she found he'd already been "captured" by the CEO. She hesitated a long moment before lowering the heel. Diego would probably not appreciate her knocking Kevin out now, although she wished she could knock them both out just so she didn't have to watch Diego fawn over his lost little host. UGH. Maybe she could ride in a separate helicopter on the way back.