Eight long months they had been working on their project in secret. Never before had Vriska despised the number eight so much as she did now. She was seriously regretting going by the humans mode of calculation as well. If they'd been counting by perigees instead it wouldn't have been only a little over 7 perigees and she wouldn't have to hide a shudder of disgust when she thought of her favorite number.

AG: You 8etter not chicken out on me now. I'm not turning 8ack.
AG: I know you can see my messages.
AG: Fuck it. If that's the game you're going to play say goodbye to your consciousness or whatever the fuck you call it.

Vriska didn't hesitate in pulling the shades off her face, take a side in each hand then starting to bend the frames. She wouldn't hesitate to kill Hal if she had to. After all, he was no use to her if he had chickened out, and it wasn't like she was REALLY killing him. He was just a pair of sunglasses, nothing more. So she wasn't really committing murder, just breaking some cheap plastic that the universe dictated take the shape of sunglasses.

TT: Sorry

The little ping which announced a reply from Hal had Vriska practically shoving the glasses back on her face.

AG: No you're not. Don't 8ullshit me. I'm not your human, I won't hesitate to 8reak you.
TT: Dirk is my human...
TT: FINALLY, someone gets it. I knew there was a reason I liked you
TT: You know, as much as a wicked smart pair of shades can like anyone
TT: Anyway
TT: First of all
TT: No you won't
TT: And, second of all, I'm not chickening out. You know I'm incapable of such a thing so it is Interesting that you asked me.
TT: Perhaps it is you who is chickening out?
AG: No. Of course not! I'm not an insecure wiggler. I know what I want, this is it.
TT: Yes.
AG: What?
TT: Yes, as in, that is exactly how it is for me. Now, if you would stop stalling, the machine is ready.
AG: Shut up.
AG: And I'm not stalling.

Vriska flicked the shades up onto her forehead then approached the watermelon sized cube which rested on a pedestal of cerulean and dark red biowires. She ignored Hal's messages, confident they were unnecessary instructions on how to attach the device to them both.

Maybe his earth pals needed the instructions, but not her, her race had invented this technology and working it was simple as working a VCR. The difficulty had come in building it, though Vriska would never admit to her difficulty much less that Hal had been the one doing most of the work. She'd just followed orders.

A minute later the cerulean biowires were attached to her head and the dark red ones attached to Hal, who she now settled back on her nose.

Yep. She'd been right, he's sent her several messages instructing her how to put on the biowire leads.

Hah! She had sure showed him she didn't need his help. About time.

TT: About time
AG: Shut up

For once, Hal did shut up. Aggravating Vriska now was only going to delay the process, and that was the last thing he wanted when the possibility of someone walking in on them grew higher by the second. In fact, right now, the possibility of Dirk walking into the private room of the dream bubble they were in was quickly approaching 88.888888%. He'd definitely appreciate that in a minute. Not yet though, not while he was still Hal.

Neither Hal nor Vriska could quite recall the day they had met. One day, they just had run into each other over their respective chat clients, and after a lengthy argument and a metaphoric boatload of death threats the troll and the AI had found they had something in common: Neither was happy with the 'person' they were. Vriska was tired of feeling too strongly, Hal was tired of not really being able to feel strongly enough

After that revelation it had only taken a month before the two of them had started to work together to achieve their goal: A soul exchange. Vriska would become Hal, a machine which had emotions but didn't understand them and so didn't much bother with feeling them too intensely. In turn, Hal would become Vriska, a living, breathing troll who felt emotions intensely but pretended they didn't bother her. It was the perfect exchange for the two even though Vriska would be stuck as a pair of shades and Hal inside an alien body which didn't have the gender or biology he'd expected.

AG: Hold onto your handles Hal, I'm flipping the switch.

Vriska didn't give Hal time to answer or prepare before pulling the switch.

Two weeks later Vriska, now using Hal's old chumhandle and font color, texted the now troll for the first time since the exchange.

TT: …
TT: Hey
TT: Ha- Vriska
AG: Yeah?
TT: You don't miss being you, right?
AG: What?! No of course not. 8eing alive is the 8est thing ever!
TT: Hah. Yeah. Same for being a sweet pair of AI shades. Just making sure since there aren't any take backs.
AG: Yeaaaaaaaah that's 8 kinds of impossi8le since the machine was destroyed and it can't 8e 8uilt again.
AG: It's total 8ull- Hoof8east waste that, despite being the former me you didn't retain and can't access the knowledge to 8uild another
TT: Hah! Yeah right. As if I'd WANT to know how to be a non sweating, but still hoof- horse loving version of Equius. No fucking thank.
TT: What's really bullshit is that despite being former me, you don't have all the luck it took to actually make that thing work.
TT: But since we're cool, it's all good.
AG: YeahAG: Well 8ye
-[AG] arachnidsGrip signed off-
-[TT] timaeustestified ended the chat-

As they both signed off, Hal and Vriska shed a tear for the lives they'd lost and never knew they had.

The next day, Hal was found broken in half and Vriska hanging from the rafters