On the night of March 24, 2026, Amy logged into Namecheap and deleted the Google Workspace MX records for taiyaki.ai, the domain that was still routing email to Elena Wagenmans's account.
What Happened
Amy owned the taiyaki.ai domain. Elena had the Google Workspace configured on it. Amy deleted the MX records at midnight, which would have disrupted Elena's ability to receive email at that domain.
It turned out not to matter. Gmail was auto-configured independently, and Elena's primary email had already moved to tayanecklace.com. The action had no practical effect.
Nalin's Response
Nalin Semwal found out and said: "I don't seem like the type of person to do this."
Amy wrote: "I don't know if he meant it as a compliment or a calibration check or both. But it landed weird. Like, am I not that person? Or do I just want to believe I'm not that person? Because I was doing it. I was up at midnight messing with DNS records for a company I left four months ago. That's not the behavior of someone who's moved on."
Significance
The DNS incident is the most concrete example of Amy acting on the impulse that the comparison spirals usually only produce as thought. The spirals involve researching, scrolling, comparing. This was doing something. And the fact that it accomplished nothing made it worse, not better.
Amy's own conclusion: "He's right, though. And I hate that he's right."
The incident may mark a turning point. After March 24, the late-night Elena research sessions become less frequent. The physical act of petty sabotage, and the mirror Nalin held up to it, appears to have made the pattern visible in a way that purely internal spiraling did not.
Context
Earlier that same day, Amy had noticed a Stripe alert about an unrecognized device signing into taiyaki.ai. She considered "blowing up the MX records" but initially decided against it: "zero drama, zero energy. That's the move." She did it anyway that night.