'"Rails with pails" is a pretty good summary of it.'

===START===
[21:15]  * strikingBelladonna has begun espering abrasiveCaliginist
[21:15] <strikingBelladonna> Well hello there, my little grumpy puppy.
[21:16] <abrasiveCaliginist> Good evening, Sai. It's a pleasure to see you again, insofar as text renders us able to see one another.
[21:17] <strikingBelladonna> Hmmm, is it a pleasure?
[21:17] <strikingBelladonna> I'm left wondering if you ever did get that rest I suggested.
[21:18] <abrasiveCaliginist> It is, and I did.
[21:19] <abrasiveCaliginist> Post-surgery sleep is fine sleep indeed.
[21:19] <strikingBelladonna> Well, if this isn't a strange sensation! Someone who's actually pleased to see me!
[21:19] <strikingBelladonna> We'll need to see if I can't change that before this conversation's over, we wouldn't want you going against the grain, would we?
[21:20] <abrasiveCaliginist> Perhaps. I suppose if you don't actually enjoy the pleasantries, you are welcome to cease them in any manner you like. That said, I'd like to be someone people enjoy talking to.
[21:21] <strikingBelladonna> Really, Harken, you're not being terribly much fun.
[21:21] <strikingBelladonna> Of course I enjoy speaking with someone who's pleased to see me.
[21:22] <abrasiveCaliginist> Haha, I understand the thrill of getting a rise out of someone.
[21:23] <strikingBelladonna> Oh, no, I had plenty of that earlier, I'm not intending to earn a rise from you at all.
[21:23] <strikingBelladonna> Though, I make no promises that such a thing shan't occur, despite my most sincere efforts of course.
[21:24] <abrasiveCaliginist> All is well. I've come to the city to face my fears. I can control my emotions, and I know it.
[21:25] <abrasiveCaliginist> Well, that, and my stunning new depth perception.
[21:25] <strikingBelladonna> If you say so. So, you're recovering well from whatever occurred?
[21:27] <abrasiveCaliginist> Faster than I could have expected. That said, I still occasionally remember the sensation of the remnants of my eyeball being scraped out with a gardening implement.
[21:27] <abrasiveCaliginist> Blasted old coot of a skeleton.
[21:28] <strikingBelladonna> Ah, is that what happened?
[21:29] <abrasiveCaliginist> Innana removed the remnants. The skeleton is to blame for the injury.
[21:29] <abrasiveCaliginist> Still, his gun is *excellent.*
[21:30] <abrasiveCaliginist> So much to give, asking so little in return.
[21:31] <strikingBelladonna> Truly, he is the soul of generosity.
[21:33] <abrasiveCaliginist> Not him. The gun. It accepted my bullets in silence. I don't think it had ever been fired prior to my acquisition of it. Like the Wanderer had it made for a later time.
[21:33] <strikingBelladonna> Well, I suppose I wish you and your gun many long years of happiness together?
[21:34] <abrasiveCaliginist> Haha, perhaps. My apologies for waxing on like that. This room makes me slightly contemplative.
[21:35] <strikingBelladonna> I presume at this point I am to ask, "what room, oh great gunslinger?", to which you will respond with something only mildly less vague?
[21:36] <abrasiveCaliginist> The throne room, where the wanderer was seated. I returned, as a method of seeing what would happen if I started shooting the manebeast heads plastered all over the place.
[21:37] <abrasiveCaliginist> Disappointingly, the only thing that happens to them is the same thing that happens to everything else.
[21:38] <strikingBelladonna> It's quite the shame that none of them have come alive and tried to kill you yet.
[21:38] <strikingBelladonna> Without that, exploring a haunted city must be ever so dull for you.
[21:38] <abrasiveCaliginist> That's not to say I haven't seen other things. The candles only create a ward within a certain radius.
[21:39] <abrasiveCaliginist> Some of them were pretty interesting. Things that had no right happening anywhere else but within a Thinny.
[21:39] <abrasiveCaliginist> Like a troll and two humans wandering about.
[21:39] <strikingBelladonna> A... thinny?
[21:40] <abrasiveCaliginist> A Thinny. A place where the fabric of reality wears thin, and other realities start to overlap or intersect there.
[21:40] <strikingBelladonna> Of course, what else would one refer to that as, if not a Thinny?
[21:41] <abrasiveCaliginist> An absolute hellhole where none should spend any prolonged period of time, most likely.
[21:41] <abrasiveCaliginist> Still, here I am.
[21:42] <strikingBelladonna> Yes, there you are, presumably causing any with a vested interest in your continued survival no small quantity of grief.
[21:43] <abrasiveCaliginist> I'm damn dangerous and hard to kill. It'll take more than a few crummy illusions to put Harken Sirius out of commission. Not all of the illusions are bad, either.
[21:44] <abrasiveCaliginist> Like Arogg. Caught a nice nap in his shack one night. That said: I'd no intention of taking that nap.
[21:44] <abrasiveCaliginist> But I go on and on about myself. What of you, Sai?
[21:44] <strikingBelladonna> Well, nothing so interesting has occurred with me recently.
[21:45] <strikingBelladonna> Actually, that is not entirely true.
[21:45] <strikingBelladonna> I'm apparently pursuing a black romance with Winona.
[21:46] <abrasiveCaliginist> With Winona? I'd say you could pick better, but then again, maybe you've some beef with her I don't understand.
[21:46] <strikingBelladonna> Well, to say I could pick better would be to imply I picked at all.
[21:47] <abrasiveCaliginist> Ah, right. Picking's not how romance works in any universe, is it?
[21:48] <strikingBelladonna> Indeed, I simply began talking to her with the wish of antagonizing her, it was not until she mentioned it that I reread what you said on the subject and realized it was occurring.
[21:48] <abrasiveCaliginist> I suppose you'd never be a natural at it, huh?
[21:49] <strikingBelladonna> She told me I'd be a wonderful kismesis, in between telling me she was not interested in being mine.
[21:49] <abrasiveCaliginist> Getting turned down is a tough pull. I'm sorry if that upsets you.
[21:50] <strikingBelladonna> I have no idea why everyone takes everything I say so seriously, of course I have no real interest in starting an intimate relationship with an alien I have no way of reaching.
[21:52] <abrasiveCaliginist> It's okay to have that desire, Lexi. No one here will mock you for it. That said, "romantic subplots" are tricky, so it's best to take your time, not rush, and not be too disappointed if or when they don't pan out.
[21:53] <abrasiveCaliginist> So be soft; no one is going anywhere. Not for the present, at least. Maybe she'll cave one day, neh?
[21:54] <abrasiveCaliginist> I'd be jostling you with my elbow a bit if you were sitting next to me. Sadly, since I've no way of actually doing so, describing it will have to do for the present.
[21:54] <strikingBelladonna> Why you're so right, Harken! All I must do is wait for her forever! Every day, I shall sit awaiting her, with a black rose in my hand, and a rude word on my lips! One day, she'll return my hatred, I just know it!
[21:55] <strikingBelladonna> But enough about my relationship with her, I'd like to know more about yours.
[21:55] <abrasiveCaliginist> Hm? Alright: shoot.
[21:57] <strikingBelladonna> Well, it's clear that something between you two's panned out, and it's something Winona wasn't worried regarding me telling Innana about, so it can't have been red or black, which means it must be one of the other two quadrants.
[21:57] <strikingBelladonna> Which, due to all the turbulence I caused I did not have time to learn of, so, which one is it, and what does it entail?
[21:59] <abrasiveCaliginist> This is a tough question. It probably wasn't that she *wouldn't* tell you. It was probably that she *couldn't*. We don't understand it very well. Yeah, we're pale pretty hard, but something about it was, is too committed to be pale. Yeah, we're red, but something about it wasn't, isn't committed enough to be red.
[21:59] <strikingBelladonna> I... What?
[21:59] <abrasiveCaliginist> Haha, I guess I'm selling her out, aren't I?
[22:01] <strikingBelladonna> So... you're... filling two of each other's quadrants?
[22:01] <abrasiveCaliginist> Okay, maybe you humans have an equivalent? Just... Imagine being dedicated to someone in a non/sexual way, but also engaging in those activities, regardless. There are no strings attached, the redder part of the arrangement can end whenever it needs to, it's casual, relaxed.
[22:01] <abrasiveCaliginist> ((Non-sexual; it's the phone's fault I say!))
[22:02] <strikingBelladonna> There must be more different between human's romance and troll's red romance than I thought.
[22:03] <strikingBelladonna> From how you say it, it sounds purely sexual.
[22:04] <abrasiveCaliginist> ((Un moment, si vous plait))
[22:04] <strikingBelladonna> ((aight))
[22:06] <abrasiveCaliginist> Okay, this'll take a bit, I can see. What else have you been told of troll romance?
[22:06] <strikingBelladonna> You're my only source.
[22:06] <abrasiveCaliginist> Really? Huh.
[22:06] <abrasiveCaliginist> Alright, then this requires explaining what moirallegiance is.
[22:07] <strikingBelladonna> I'd be extraordinarily grateful if you would.
[22:07] <abrasiveCaliginist> Let's say you meet someone. They're pretty cool, but they've got problems. You're pretty cool, but you've got problems, too.
[22:08] <abrasiveCaliginist> You can each recognize that in each other, and work tirelessly to help the other overcome those problems, making each other better for your presence.
[22:08] <abrasiveCaliginist> A moirail can calm down their other when they're upset, and is particularly suggestible to the advice of their own moirail if they're half-decent; a moirail has your best interests at heart.
[22:09] <abrasiveCaliginist> It's pale romance; nothing sexual comes of it.
[22:09] <abrasiveCaliginist> Make sense?
[22:10] <strikingBelladonna> Thus far, yes, I can comprehend its nature.
[22:10] <strikingBelladonna> Humans are capable of having similar relationships, though we do not label them as a form of romance.
[22:11] <abrasiveCaliginist> Other cultures classify things their own way. Other cultures express them differently too.
[22:11] <abrasiveCaliginist> With that said, what's your understanding of red, or flushed romance?
[22:14] <strikingBelladonna> Well, up to this point, I had presumed it was identical to human's only form of romance, wherein one found a person who fulfilled their needs in a sexual manner, yes, with the addition of a certain sort of ineffable attraction on an emotional level as well.
[22:15] <abrasiveCaliginist> That's about right. Think of it as an acceptance of the other's flaws. It's a nice feeling when it comes about, yeah. Though, if we're being honest, I haven't had time for this stuff in a sweep and a half.
[22:16] <abrasiveCaliginist> Nona and I fall on a line somewhere in the middle. We can jump to either quadrant as we please, and neither will resent the other for their choice to break off the red parts of it. "Rails with pails" is a pretty good summary of it.
[22:17] <abrasiveCaliginist> As I've said before: I don't want to hide anything or be someone I'm not.
[22:17] <strikingBelladonna> Ah.
[22:18] <strikingBelladonna> You'll need to forgive my lack of understanding in this situation, but by, "break off the red parts" I presume you don't mean your acceptance of each other's flaws?
[22:19] <abrasiveCaliginist> That's a tough one to answer, too, but I guess even if we break that off, we start working on the mutual improvement, yes.
[22:20] <abrasiveCaliginist> We become who we are, together if at all possible.
[22:21] <abrasiveCaliginist> Does this help?
[22:22] <strikingBelladonna> Another question then, just to satisfy my curiosity, I suppose you need not answer if you have no desire to, but, when you still believed you and I had something, was this... going on?
[22:22] <abrasiveCaliginist> I don't think so, no. It started terribly recently, when I figured you'd go out and find someone more interesting than myself.
[22:22] <abrasiveCaliginist> I think it'll end soon, too.
[22:23] <abrasiveCaliginist> Nona is with Innana, and I've no doubt they're pailing right now.
[22:23] <strikingBelladonna> But it hasn't?
[22:24] <abrasiveCaliginist> Depends on what she does. It's hard to call it "over", sure, but all is well with me if she's happy, and I highly suspect she is.
[22:25] <abrasiveCaliginist> She proclaimed her weakness for drinkers. It was quite a laugh on my part, but no, she's serious.
[22:26] <strikingBelladonna> Alright, then.
[22:26] <strikingBelladonna> Bye, Harken.
[22:26] <abrasiveCaliginist> Are you alright?
[22:26]  * strikingBelladonna has ceased espering abrasiveCaliginist
[22:27] <abrasiveCaliginist> ==END==