“Did I miss something?” This was disconcerting. I should be happy about it, and I was, but it was also nothing like what I expected.
Elliot shook his head. “Not really.”
“I’m going to change. Post a few generic comments about those photos.” Fallyn turned away. “If the two of you have managed to keep your game online, and are staying home, you can probably convince me to hang out here rather than do one more day of RinCon.”
“You can’t miss the last day.” The offense in Elliot’s voice was exaggerated.
“I thought you were moving rooms.” Why had I brought that up? Maybe I was relieved that at least she hadn’t moved her suitcases into Elliot’s bedroom.
Fallyn shrugged. “I haven’t had a chance yet. I’ll be back.”
That felt right, so my world wasn’t completely upside down.
When she was gone, Elliot turned to me. “Are you all right?”
We need to talk. The words stuck in my throat. “Just not what I expected to find.”
“I know. It’s weird, but it turns out she’s not that bad.”
“Considering she’s the same person as Kittie, who we both really enjoy talking to, of course she’s not bad at all.” Defensiveness rose inside me and I tempered it.
Elliot leaned against a nearby wall. “Don’t tell anyone I said this, but I think I was wrong.”
The conflicted feelings inside me—jealousy and adoration—were about to go to war with each other, but I had enough sense to gasp at his words. “No. I didn’t hear that.”
“You’re right, you didn’t. Are you sure you’re okay?”
I must be radiating actual visible vibes if Elliot was picking up on it. “Of course I am.” How was I supposed to bring this topic up? Especially now?Hey, I think I fell in love with you a long time ago. Also, I’m getting a lot of feels for Fallyn. Nope. That didn’t sound right. I should’ve rehearsed this before I came over.
“Okay.” Elliot kicked away from the wall. “I’m gonna change, and make breakfast.”
And I needed to occupy my mind. Maybe stop thinking mopey, lovey thoughts. Cleaning out the dog’s kennel should help with that. Gross, but an effective distraction.
I had finished and was scrubbing my hands in a downstairs bathroom, when I heard Elliot shoutfuck. His footsteps sounded heavily on the stairs. I came out to see what was going on.
He reached me about the same time Fallyn did. They were both dressed in fresh clothes. Hair damp. Faces pink and eyes narrowed with rage as they glared at each other.
This was more like what I’d expected.
“What did you do?” they both said at the same time.
“It’s on your fucking blog,” Elliot growled.
Fallyn pursed her lips. “It came from your fucking game.”
What? My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I ignored it in favor of getting the answers from them. “What happened?”
Fallyn’s nostrils flared.
Elliot clenched his jaw.
I snapped my fingers between them, but couldn’t break the staring contest. “Hello? Anyone? What’s going on?”
“The chat logs for one D3m0nK1tt13, and her conversations with Puff69 and Archer, were just published on Fallyn’s blog. There are excerpts up there. Transcriptions of the recordings. Of the text chat. And links to the core files.” The longer Elliot spoke, the more his anger grew.
Fuck me. We were required to keep logs of every single conversion in game, for legal reasons, and that included… How did someone get those? Why did they publish them? “Was anyone else impacted?”
“No. Just us.” Elliot radiated fury. “Because they were pulled using her account. You can tell by the formatting.”