PH: Have the second.

-- aspirantExegesist [AE] began pestering plotHooked [PH] at 14:31 --

[02:31] AE: {Arethusa!}

[02:32] AE: {Are you acquainted with a troll named Taula?}

[02:33] PH: Lamia! The sight of your lovely seagreen text is a balm to my aching eyes! It is like the first taste of cotton candy at the Dark Carnival, com?arative only to the very last in terms of sweetness!! I was meaning to troll you soon! >:) 

[02:33] PH: ...And, yes! Did she find a way to your hive for shelter? >:?

[02:34] AE: {Er.}

[02:34] AE: {Not exactly.}

[02:34] AE: {She -- found her way to Pepeir's.}

[02:34] PH: Ahahaha. Hijinks ensued?

[02:35] AE: {...Yes.}

[02:35] AE: {Quite.}

[02:35] AE: {To make an extremely long story short, she has entered the Medium instead of Pepeir.}

[02:35] AE: {Who died.}

[02:35] PH: Tee Hee. Is that a disa??roving 'Quite,' Lamia? You cannot disa??rove a?ocaly?tic distress, es?ecially when -- oh really?

[02:36] PH: Hunh. Was he dead when she arrived, or did she do the deed?

[02:36] AE: {His death was an accident that resulted from a ludicrous sequence of implausible shenanigans.}

[02:36] AE: {So about par for the course, really.}

[02:36] AE: {However, she insisted on prototyping her kernel with his corpse.}

[02:37] PH: ... Yes. I was going to say >;) that was ?robably the best way for him to go. 

[02:37] PH: ...

[02:37] PH: ...

[02:37] PH: ... WHY would she do that? D:<

[02:37] AE: {I know. I know.}

[02:37] AE: {Guilt, I imagine.}

[02:37] AE: {Although admittedly the prospect of killing weepy Pepeir-shaped imps over and over is not altogether displeasing to me at this particular moment in time.}

[02:38] PH: ...Guilt? >:? Huh.

[02:38] AE: {Let me show you what happened. I don't have time to recap just now.}

[02:39] -- aspirantExegesist [AE] shared a file with plotHooked [PH] --

[02:39] AE: {You may palm your face at your leisure.}

[02:39] PH: Bluh. Wait until you see them. They're not very fun to kill. And, recently, they've become slightly more -- disturbing. Not that they weren't already basically an exceedingly disturbing amalgam of ?oor taste and unfortunate misha?s ...

[02:39] PH: ... I can only imagine a wee?y greenblood will be the crown jewel to their charms.

[02:39] PH: If only they'd scream, you know?

[02:40] PH: But ah! This means you're ready to come in!

[02:40] AE: {Ach, don't get me started. That unbelievable twit prototyped himself with the corpse of Taula's lusus before she entered the Medium.}

[02:40] AE: {So if everything's gone a bit Owl!Parent out there that would be why.}

[02:41] AE: {...I am not certain why I put that exclamation mark there.}

[02:41] AE: {Huh.}

[02:41] AE: {But at any rate, to answer your question, yes, I am. I ... Hope it will be soon.}

[02:41] PH: ...let me just try to figure out how to run two server a??lications...

[02:41] AE: {It's gotten very warm.}

[02:41] AE: {No, Arey -- no.}

[02:41] AE: {I'm waiting for Ezreki.}

[02:42] PH: Lamia.

[02:42] PH: Ezreki.

[02:42] PH: is.

[02:42] PH: fucking.

[02:42] PH: dead.

[02:42] PH: Ugh, sorry. That sounded angrier than I'd meant for it to.

[02:43] AE: {I am sorry, Arey. Having dealt with a delusional brat who just wouldn't listen to reason quite recently, I am entirely sympathetic to anger. I know how this looks.}

[02:43] AE: {But I don't think you can run two server applications without a second disk, anyway.}

[02:43] AE: {And if the chain isn't complete, there's no point to any of this.}

[02:44] AE: {And I need to believe there is a point to this.}

[02:44] AE: {So I'm waiting for Ezreki.}

[02:45] PH: Oh my god.

[02:45] PH: This is com?letely --

[02:45] PH: Is this what it's like to actually feel res?onsibility?

[02:54] PH: Is this what it's like to actually know -- Know, not just sort of acce?t -- that it's ?robably going to be u? to you to see that the remains -- no, the DREGS -- of your race are unstable and self-destructive and, unfortunately, though you aren't much better than any of them, you're like some jackass in a horrible movie where

[02:54] PH: it's One Troll Against The Clock; The Clocks Are Not A Meta?hor, They Countdown To Literal Doom; There Are Quite A Few Debates About The Use of the Word Literal V. Figurative Because This Is An Clever Trollywood Film; Three Scenes ?andering To The Series's Fandom; Five Scenes Including Dangerous Mental Breaks And Counting; A Number Of Hilarious, But Ultimately Tragic Misunderstandings; And Certai

[02:54] PH: n Doom For Society If Communication Isn't Achieved; Five Female Romantic Leads ?rovoke Romantic Tension Of Black As Well As Scarlet Natures; Three Male Romantic Leads Are Com?letely Nutjobs But Do Their Best; And Towards The End, There Is A Giant So?or ?ie, Yes, They Eat It,

[02:54] PH: but you're the only one who actually sees that there is a ?oint so it's up to you to see that they survive? 

[02:54] PH: AR?GH???.

[02:55] PH: Even if this is an unstable time loo? and it's all going to disa??ear anyway, will I even know it's going to disa??ear, or will this cra??y timeline just continue going forever, with Ezreki dead which you know I don't like saying so why are you making me say it, and YOU, stu?id enough to say, "He's alive; I'm going to wait for him", while I just SIT here and 

[02:55] PH: I don't even know what I'm saying. Is this really a conversation I am having?

[02:55] AE: {Arey -- }

[02:57] PH: You don't know that the chain can't be com?leted. And if it can't, so what! We'll find some other survivor troll to get you in and then let them get smashed to ?ieces by meteors or glubbed to death like they're going to anyway. >:(

[02:59] AE: {Arey, Errour's dead.}

[02:59] PH: Mothergrub's Sake. Not that you can sto? me from bringing you in once I figure out how to work the code. >:\ So I don't even know why I wasted all that time ranting at you.

[02:59] PH: Oh no. What ha??ened?

[03:00] AE: {It was the smoke, I guess. She just curled up and went to sleep and won't wake up.}

[03:00] PH: >:( Oh.

[03:01] PH: Well, you can bring her back once you ?rototy?e your kernels?rite, sort of!

[03:01] AE: {I know.}

[03:01] AE: {But it won't -- I know.}

[03:01] PH: Your lusus was ?retty cool. Way cooler than mine. I wanted to meet her some day! 

[03:02] AE: {She was the best I could have hoped for.}

[03:03] AE: {I really... I miss her. I mean, she's here, but.}

[03:03] AE: {Anyway.}

[03:03] AE: {Look, I can't stop you from trying. I just don't want you to waste the effort. Kyarib probably needs your help.}

[03:04] PH: If she succumbed to the smoke ... How smoky is it where you are? Can you go to higher ground or go into a single room with the doors closed? You should do that and sto? u? the cracks, if you haven't already. Fire Hazard 101. I thought they made all tree-hive dwellers savvy u? about that kind of thing..

[03:04] PH: >:) Lamia. Why would Kyarib need my hel? es?ecially? Scammy was his server ?layer. 

[03:05] PH: S?eaking of Scammy -- 

[03:05] PH: Ugh, no.

[03:05] PH: It is not the time

[03:05] AE: {Oh, yes. Sorry. I just thought of him surrounded by all that water and -- }

[03:05] AE: {...VERY MUCH not the time.}

[03:07] PH: Hee. Don't try to cheer me u?, because it will not work, however hilarious Kyarib surrounded by all that water ha??ens to be. Did you know -- 

[03:07] PH: Ugh, no.

[03:07] PH: It is not the time.

[03:07] AE: {Anyway, I already did all that, Fire Hazard 101-wise. It's ... Pretty smoky all the same. And anyway I need to stay in a space big enough for the equipment to be deployed, since I don't think the roof will be an option for much longer.}

[03:07] PH: The server a??lication is ... Tryyyying to run now ...

[03:07] AE: {Arey...}

[03:08] PH: ... But of course it kee?s freezing over the ?icture of -- 

[03:08] PH: Blawrghh.

[03:10] AE: {Arey, I just -- I know that I should be brave because I keep saying I know how this is going to go and I DID know, in that mutant way, for that moment, how clear it was and how sure I was, but --}

[03:12] AE: {-- I just -- I know I shouldn't think that this is necessary, but I do, and I just -- want you to know, that -- }

[03:12] PH: ... Are you making a last moments s?eech?

[03:12] PH: IS THAT WHAT YOU ARE DOING?

[03:12] PH: HOLY SHIT. SHUT U?.

[03:12] AE: {-- whatever else, you were always my best friend.}

[03:12] AE: {That's all.}

THEN - SHENANIGANS. ARETHUSA'S COMMUNICATION DEVICE LOST. COMPUTER F'ED. OH NO.