"So, like, the only question I totally have right now is, how am I going to kill you?" said Taubitha with a giggle and a terrible grin.

Kahli - and indeed Froufrou as well, for she was prepped to level up subsequent to Kahli - could only watch as Taubitha danced around in the space around her, getting right up in her face and then reeling back, faking punches to her face, and giggling all the while. Kahli had been mid-level, right about to select a [skill] slot in fact, and somehow Taubitha had been able to not only recognize this despite it all happening within a split second but indeed somehow intrude herself upon this experience and throw everything out of whack.

"This sure is cool," said Taubitha as she looked around at everyone else - G'athoong, Sahdi, birds in the sky - all frozen in time. "I mean, I see something similar when I level up, sure, but like, this is totally different being able to move around while it happens! Imagine being able to control time. Wouldn't that be, like, totally crazy? I, like, totally wonder what I would do if I could, like, totally control time.

"I think the first thing I would do is, like, totally erase any semblance of our friendship. Well, like, I'd either do that, or I'd go back in time and I'd like, totally find out what you and Frahnk did back behind the old gymnastics building! I'd go there, and I'd, like, I'd totally watch you."

Kahli felt a little uncomfortable, and indeed also a little confused on hearing this. It seemed like Taubitha almost thought that Kahli had somehow... had some sort of relations with her ex-boyfriend, Frahnk? But Kahli had never been interested in Frahnk, she'd always just seen him as a friend. Not even really a friend, per se, as much as an acquaintance that she was tertiary accustomed to due to their joint interaction with Taubitha. But she was unable to say any of this, because indeed she was frozen in time due to her system leveling prompt.

"Yes, I'd like, I'd watch you and figure out just, like, what the fuck you were doing with my ex-boyfriend! My, like, my ex-best friend and my ex-boyfriend, sitting in, like, a fucking tree or some shit! Do you know, like, how totally mega fucked up that shit is, Kahli? I feel fucking disgusted just fucking thinking about it for even half a fucking second. Makes me get all flustered and nauseated, makes me want to, like, fucking hurl all over the place. It's fucking sick is what it is. And, like, you don't even care. You don't even, like, care about what Frahnk and I had, Kahli!" Suddenly, Taubitha started sobbing. Genuinely sobbing. Tears were streaming down her face. Her copious mascara was running in an extreme, racoon-esque fashion. "It's, like, totally like you didn't even care what we had, Kahli! What about, like, what you and I had? We were, like, totally besties and now we, like, totally hate each other! It's so, like, totally uncool!" Taubitha was almost wailing. She actually scrambled to her feet - for she'd been crouched on her knees on G'athoong's scaly hide moments before - and clambered over to Kahli, hugging her frozen body tightly. Kahli's face was indeed right up to Taubitha's chest, and it was a little uncomfortable both physically and mentally for her to experience. "How, like, could you totally do this to me, Kahli? How am I, like, supposed to function as a tauman being without my bestie?! And yet, like, oh my gods! Now you're off, like, running around with this, this gross thing with like tendrils that gave you a system, and you hang out with robots and dragons and, and, this strange woman with really nice hair! It's just, like, you're a totally different person now! It's, like, totally not fair! You, like, totally betrayed me, Kahli. It's like I totally don't know you at all!"

Kahli didn't know how to feel about all this, but she was glad when Taubitha took a break from feeling sorry from herself and stopped hugging her so tightly. As Kahli was released from the sweaty, odorous embrace of Taubitha's chest, she tried to mentally unpack everything her ex-best friend was saying. It seemed like, possibly, there was some chance of a reconciliation. Which would, of course, have been quite ideal from Kahli's perspective. She did, despite all odds, somewhat feel bad that her relationship with Taubitha - one that had at once been a net positive in her life - had degraded in such a way.

"And don't you, like, think for even a second that there's any way forward that involves a reconciliation!" said Taubitha with spite in her voice as she wiped fresh tears and more running mascara off her cheeks. "I have stewed and suffered over this long enough to know that it will never, ever, ever, be okay at all! It will never, ever, ever be okay, Kahli! Like, do you totally know what I did? Do you know how I, like, totally got to the point where I could invade your leveling prompt in this way? See, like, I was totally having a dream where I was just, like, totally minding my own business when this mega strange entity, like, totally invaded my mind an d gave me a [class]! A totally special [class], a class he said was at least as powerful as yours! Like, if only I had some idea what your [class] was, I'm sure I'd have just already destroyed you! Regardless, Klikli, I'm gonna, like, totally end you in due time!"

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Kahli couldn't tell if Taubitha was being facetious and indeed knew exactly what her [class] was, despite her powerful system obfuscation as granted by [Tale Teller], or if Taubitha was indeed just... saying something that just so happened to relate very closely to Kahli's new powers. Regardless, she was unable to respond, for she was still stuck in the system prompt. However, with that, Kahli had a sudden realization. Sure, Taubitha had somehow been able to jump into her prompting and interrupt her leveling session, but Kahli didn't see any reason why she couldn't just go on and keep leveling up. After all, it didn't completely seem like Taubitha had a full grasp of what Kahli could do yet. Right?

So Kahli went on and chose the [skill] that she'd been ruminating on before her evil ex-friend interrupted her leveling prompt. She'd decided to go with a new [skill], mainly due to intuition as granted by her [CLA] but also indeed directly due to Taubitha's apparently new ability to invade her system - Kahli had a feeling this might have something to do with the inexplicably negative vibes she'd been catching related to increasing [Seismic Sense]. Along with that, she'd decided to still stick with the [skill] she was more comfortable with in theory - that is to say, she was avoiding learning [Minor Time Warp] for now, although she was certain the time would come wherein she would indeed need to learn that [skill], too.

[Skill selected]

[Minor Time Rift (class)]

But time stayed still, for Froufrou was caught in Kahli's leveling prompt, and indeed she, too, was ready for a good old leveling.

"Ooh!" said Taubitha with yet another terrible giggle. "Like, did you totally just pick a [skill]? That's, like, so mega cool. I bet if you weren't so, like, totally powerful I'd even be able to see what it was!"

Kahli smiled inwardly - after all, she was frozen, it was the only way she could smile. So Taubitha really didn't know what Kahli's systemic abilities were, or what her [class] was. If only Kahli was skilled enough at utilizing her system to pinpoint some of those details about whatever it was that Taubitha had gained since she last encountered her. Then again, Taubitha had already managed to give away a large amount of information while Kahli was completely frozen from her system - so, with that, there was indeed the very real possibility that Taubitha might offer up that information on her own, wholly unprompted.

[Froufrou is ready to level up]

"Like, oh my gods, is your weird little creature leveling up, too?" interjected Taubitha irritatingly. "That's, like, totally crazy! I wouldn't expect something like that to happen! What, like, a crazy coincidence!"

Kahli couldn't tell whether Taubitha was being genuine or not. It was, generally, very difficult to tell with her ex-friend in cases such as this. With that, she did her best to ignore her evil ex-friend and proceed - after all, it didn't rightly seem like Kahli any harm.

[Would you like to level up Froufrou?]

Kahli, of course, thought yes. If Taubitha wasn't going to take any action but to be a bit of a nuisance, then she wasn't going to let her keep her from going ahead and leveling up her [paired] companion. It would've been cruel and, indeed, quite rude to keep her [paired] companion unleveled in such a situation, from Kahli's perspective.

[Level up]

[Froufrou]

[Level 11]

Wow! Wait, Froufrou was level 11? Had Kahli missed a level in there somewhere? She had thought that Froufrou was only level 9 moments earlier, and yet she'd only seemed to have leveled up once in this current prompt. Had Froufrou leveled up without her?

Regardless, Kahli had no time to consider these things, for indeed as soon as she saw her [paired] companion's new level time launched itself back to normalcy in a bit of a full-speed-ahead approach. With that, Taubitha almost jumped with confusion. Whatever ability she'd gained from her mysterious dream visitor, she was clearly still not accustomed to. Which was nice for Kahli to see, because Taubitha's gross overconfidence otherwise had been to her more than a bit disgusting.

"Hey, how did Taubitha get here?" asked Sahdi lackadaisically, in a manner that almost made Kahli seethe with rage at her healer.

Indeed, it took every ounce of self control for Kahli not to say something uncouth to Sahdi in that moment. How was she always so calm? Water elementals were something else, Kahli decided. "Sahdi, Taubitha came over here while I was leveling up."

"Oh, you leveled up, Kahli?" Sahdi said, seeming to barely register the other pieces of information in Kahli's sentence. "Nice."

"Not as nice as this!" said Taubitha with a cackle and a hiss as she lurched forward and grabbed Kahli by the neck. "I'm going to fucking end you, Klikli!"

Kahli tried to gasp, but she couldn't, for Taubitha's tight grasp was greatly restricting her breath. And then, she saw it - more of that dreadful purple electricity coiling up her ex-friend's arms. Heading straight towards her.