Intercepted Transmission

// VANNET // BOTZA WIDEBAND // AudCHNL-443E // ENCRYPTION ENABLED // SCRIBE ARCHIVE ALPHA-9-2C // IDENTITIES: Spider [SPI], Eido [EID]

ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPTION FOLLOWS

EID: We could have spoken in person. SPI: Am I so far beneath formality, Scribe Eido? EID: [sighs] I greet you in the Light. What do you want? SPI: Oh, so prickly! Did I interrupt your busy schedule of bedtime stories for the hatchlings? Or were you composing a new message to the Shipstealer? EID: I didn't realize my transmissions would be of interest to you. Surely others would be more informative. Do you have nothing else to occupy you, or are there no odds to fix today? SPI: We can trade barbs for hours, but our time is valuable, and you're wasting yours on Eramis. EID: No time spent reaching out to others is wasted. SPI: Hah! How naïve. Humans have a phrase for that: wearing your heart on your sleeve.* For saying things like "We will welcome you." Or "You can be forgiven."** You're speaking to dead air. EID: She is listening. SPI: She isn't. Let me give you a piece of free advice, little Scribe: put yourself first. Nobody else will. EID: That is very bleak. SPI: Perhaps. But it's served me well and kept me alive. EID: I see… Thank you, Spider. I appreciate your concern. SPI: Good. EID: And it's as I said: no time spent reaching out to others is wasted. SPI: What?***

TRANSCRIPTION ENDS

SCRIBE NOTES * Inadvisably displaying emotion to the point of vulnerability. ** Quotations were relayed in a snide tone. *** Transcript omits impolite exclamation.