In Hindsight

Meeting

Pearl glided into the meeting, wings fluttering as she landed gracefully just outside the circle of hermits. "I'm not late!"

"Hey, Pearl!" Grian said, waving her over. "We're still waiting for Etho and Bdubs, come take a seat!"

"In a bit, Gri, I gotta talk to Xisuma real fast." Pearl grabbed the admin's arm, physically yanking him out of a conversation with Joe. "Come on, X, let's have a chat."

"Oh!" Xisuma stumbled after her, looking over his shoulder at Joe. "Be back in a bit, Joe, sorry—"

Pearl and Xisuma walked a little ways away from the group and began talking in hushed tones, heads bent together.

"How's the work on the firewall going?" Tango asked Joe, pulling his attention away from the two.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, it's mostly patched now, just have to do a few more checks on the security." Joe scratched the back of his head. "I'm thinking if we rearrange the host layer from a Porser layout to a Manneh configuration it'll work better with the network layer and give better strength to the firewall overall."

"That might interfere with the admin webbing, though. . ." Tango mused.

"We're here, we're here, we're here!" Everyone looked up as Etho spiralled down into the circle, elytra flaring out a little as he stumbled on the landing. A split second later, a mossy green blur screeched past, smacking into the wall and exploding into a pile of items.

>[BdoubleO100 experienced kinetic energy]

The circle exploded into chaotic laughter.

"Okay, well, I'm here," Etho said, chuckling. He bent down and started gathering up Bdubs' items, and the other hermits jumped in to help, piling all his belongings into a chest.

>BdoubleO100: DANG IT

>BdoubleO100: GIMME FIVE MINUTES

>impulseSV: you good bud?

>ZombieCleo: L

>impulseSV: XD

>Rendog: dude

>Rendog: no way that just happened

>FalseSymmetry: L

>Grian: L

>BdoubleO100: SHUT UP

>EthosLab: L

>BdoubleO100: NOT OU TOO

Etho shook his head fondly as he dumped the last bit of cobblestone into the chest, then turned to Impulse. "Are we ready to start once he arrives?"

"Yeah, probably," Impulse said. "Should we do a headcount?"

"I think the only person missing now is Bdbus." Etho glanced around. "But yeah, I can do a headcount if you want."

"I'm gonna go check on Pearl and Ex-ish-zooma," Grian piped up. He hopped up from the rock he was perched on, whacking Scar with his wing in the process, and made his way over to where the two were still whispering, deep in conversation.

". . .gave you and Grian a chance, Pearl, all I ask is that you do the same," Xisuma said.

"This is different!" Pearl hissed.

"Is it?"

"Hey, fellas," Grian said, walking up to them. "Everything good here?"

Pearl and Xisuma stared at each other a moment more, then Pearl's shoulders slumped and she turned to Grian, face softening. "We're fine, Gri. Are you alright? You're not hurt anywhere?"