012615natesami

 -- arcaneArtisan [AA] began pestering acquiredCarne [AC] at 21:19 --

 [09:19] AA: Hi Nate.

 [09:20] AC: hmm, what do you want?

 [09:21] AA: Well, after talking to some of the new kids I've realized how far apart I've grown from all my old friends. And I couldn't really figure out a way to mend the fences between you and me, but it really made me start wondering...

 [09:22] AA: ...see, the reason you and I never got along was because I'm sort of "in your face" about the whole friend thing and I know that's not really your thing...

 [09:22] AA: ...but you're dating Doir. And I guess I'm just wondering....how does that work?

 [09:23] AC: well

 [09:23] AC: that's personal

 [09:23] AA: Yeah. I guess it is.

 [09:25] AC: why does it matter anyways? you of all people should know how badly serious relationships can go when death is always sitting on your shoulder

 [09:25] AA: I guess I was just hoping I could get some insight into how we could be friends again.

 [09:30] AC: friends? I dunno, it's not like we have anything other than this damn game in common

 [09:31] AA: Well, we're one of less than a dozen humans left in existence.

 [09:33] AC: and? unless you're looking to reproduce with me, we don't exactly need to be closer than teammates

 [09:37] AA: I guess not. I just remember back when we all used to be friends, and kind of missed those days.

 [09:38] AA: I know you and I weren't the closest even back then, but at least we trusted one another. And neither of us thought shooting the other was the best thing they could do to make the team safer. =P

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:39] AC: I hesitated, that's all

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:39] AC: I'm beginning to regret it

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:41] AA: How....reassuring.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:41] AA: I don't need to start watching my back, do I?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:42] AC: I'm kidding, the only thing I regret is Jack

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:42] AC: but you probably should, but not from me

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:42] AA: Oh, well yeah, of course I watch my back for Jack.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:42] AC: and Herald

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:43] AA: Herald? Really? Why him? Did he finally go "DARK VENGEANCE" with his Justice schtick?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:44] AC: nope, working with Jack

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:45] AA: Flipping great.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:45] AA: Why would he work with Jack?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:45] AA: I thought those two sort of hated each other.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:46] AC: dunno, he just came out of nowhere and started attacking my team, bastard caught me across the face before I knew he was trying to kill us

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:46] AC: Jack showed up and stopped him, but not before he brought down a damn mountain

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:47] AA: Jiminy cricket!

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:48] AA: You're all okay then?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:48] AA: You survived a meeting with Jack *and* the Herald?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:48] AC: by some miracle

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:49] AA: I really cannot figure out what Jack's up to this time.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:49] AA: I know there's no way he's reformed, but he's at least gotten subtler in the last five years.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:49] AC: I don't think he's gotten subtler

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:50] AC: I just think he's stopped underestimating us

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:50] AA: That sort of terrifies me.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:50] AA: Him underestimating us was the only reason we survived last time, I think.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:57] AC: then let's hope whatever his plans are don't involve mass-murder

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:58] AA: I find it hard to imagine they don't.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:58] AA: But maybe he's waiting until he can wipe us all out at once.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:59] AA: Or maybe he's just planning to wipe everything into oblivion like last time and will just let the death of Paradox Space take us with it.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:00] AC: hmm, you think we did the right thing? choosing to escape, I mean, think if we'd have prevented the twinks from fucking everything up for this game too

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:02] AA: I don't know. We couldn't have stopped Scarlet from taking the Ark out of the old session even if we had had a mind to. And chances are the Horrorterrors wouldn't have left Libby to oblivion.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:02] AA: Heck, they might not have even let me go so easily.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:03] AC: you forget, I had bombs up the wazoo, if I had wanted, I could've sent the ark and everyone aboard to hell

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:05] AA: Man, Nate, I know there's this tendency to think of Scarlet as not being in the same league as Jack and Libby and the Herald, but don't make the mistake of underestimating her.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:06] AA: If we found out tomorrow that everything that's happened from the time we entered the game to now was all according to Scarlet's plans, I wouldn't be surprised at all.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:06] AA: Who's to say that if you had bombed the ark, it wouldn't have been all according to plan there, too?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:07] AA: Anyway....I know I'm not going to be able to convince any of the rest of you to go along with me on this. But I trust Libby.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:08] AA: And maybe that's just because I've started to realize that she and I are the same in a lot of ways. Plus or minus a few zillion lifetimes of bullcrap to harden our hearts.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:11] AC: so she made similar mistakes and didn't warn you, sounds like exactly like the sort of person you trust

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:13] AA: I think she did warn me, actually. I just didn't understand what she was saying.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:14] AA: And....lately I'm not certain what's a mistake and what's just a choice between two awful outcomes.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:15] AC: things can be both

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:15] AC: usually the mistake is what leads to only having bad choices

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:19] AA: It sounds like you think surviving the end of the world was a mistake, in that case. =P

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:21] AC: we survived, but did we not end up in even worse torture than if we hadn't

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:21] AC: I mean, we've died anyways

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:21] AC: and gone through hell before that

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:22] AA: I'm just saying I'm not sure if any of the choices we've had to make since we entered the game have been "good" choices.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:22] AA: It's always been Scylla on one side and Charybdis on the other.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:24] AA: Maybe I'm just being melodramatic though. I guess some of the decisions I've made since entering the game haven't been bad ones. Like dating Beau. Or trusting the trolls.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:29] AC: doesn't mean they won't be mistakes down the road

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:33] AA: It's always so uplifting to talk with you, Nate. =P

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:38] AC: hey, someone has to be the realist

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:40] AC: why not have it be the person who can make their beliefs real?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:42] AA: It's weird how you and Null, two of the people with the least hopeful attitudes I've met, were the ones who got assigned Hope.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:42] AA: Sometimes I wonder how powerful you two would've been if you let yourselves dream big.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:44] AC: it makes complete sense, someone like you would've overloaded their powers had they been assigned hope, someone like me would actually be able to comtrol their powers

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:52] AA: I guess maybe you're right.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:56] AC: oh please, don't act like it's so hard for me to be right for once

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:05] AA: Fair enough.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:06] AA: Okay, well I guess that's that then.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:06] AC: cool, have I succeeded in reminding you why we don't talk that often?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:07] AA: Or at least made me decide to hold off for a little while longer before trying again.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:07] AA: But you know, I think you're wrong about us having nothing in common.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:07] AC: oh?

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:08] AA: Maybe it's only because of the game, but we've both been through a lot of the same crap. We've both been betrayed by friends and teammates, we've both been screwed around with by twinks and other "higher powers," and we've both felt the pain of losing everything we ever knew, and most of what we loved.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:09] AA: We may not have shared interests or anything, but we've got a lot of shared memories.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:09] AC: but not the good kind

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:09] AA: No. Not the good kind at all.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:10] AA: But sometimes the bad memories are the most important ones to share. To get them out so they don't fester.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:10] AC: and people wonder why I kept to myself on the ark

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:10] AA: =P

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:10] AA: Fine, I'll leave you alone for now.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:11] AA: Later, Nate.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:12] AC: bye