At midnight, just hours after storming parliament and forcing their prime minister to resign, thousands of Nepal's gen Z protesters logged onto Discord.
There, the same movement that had toppled a government by day began voting to build a new one by night.
"Within six months, a national election will be held, alongside the essential amendments needed to safeguard the future of our youth and generations to come," the post by Hami Nepal, one of the organisations behind the protests, read.
"A step necessary to prevent an inevitable power vacuum."
The plan? Select a representative to present their agenda to President Ramchandra Paudel, followed by an election in six months and a promise that every citizen will have the right to cast their vote freely and choose their candidate.
This week's uprising was sparked by a sudden social media ban. But it pulled together a combustible mix of frustrations: entrenched corruption, the gaping wealth divide between political elites and ordinary citizens, and the lack of economic opportunities for young people.
After just two days of protests, the Himalayan nation's three pillars of democracy — Parliament House, the Supreme Court and the historic Singha Darbar government secretariat — lay in ruins.
The prime minister had stepped down. Senior ministers had fled. Politicians' private homes, hotels and even media offices perceived as pro-government were set ablaze.
Fighting corruption and finding a leader
Among those leading the movement is 24-year-old Yujan Rajbhandari, who says his job was to unify different student groups in one place — online.
"The movement was not controlled by an institution or political parties, it was an open protest," he told the ABC.
"We want all the institutions to be corruption-free … we have lost time, development and political stability".
In the hours after the government fell, the only institution left standing was the Nepali Army.
Soldiers rolled into the streets and imposed a curfew.
That same night, army officers sat down with protest leaders and began to discuss a way forward.
Across Discord servers, activists have been debating who could credibly represent them as an interim leader.
Kathmandu's rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah has been floated, but former chief justice Sushila Karki has emerged as a frontrunner.
"She was the one who led the anti-corruption movement at the time through the court and her verdicts," Yujan says.
"She knows how the country should function and what frameworks should stand to save this constitution."
On Discord, which helped organise the protests, she received the most votes in a poll on who was to lead the country.
Ms Karki was Nepal's first woman chief justice and served between 2016 and 2017.
The eldest of seven children, Ms Karki was born in 1952 to a farming family in the village of Shankarpur and completed a master's in law from India's Banaras Hindu University.
As a young student, she was associated with the Nepali Congress party that then dominated politics. By the 90s she was marching in the streets against the panchayat system, a centralised form of government that consolidated the king's power, which landed her briefly in jail.
When news broke of Ms Karki's appointment, social media pages began buzzing with excitement.
"A historic day for Nepal," read a post by community group Project Abhaya.
"Our first woman prime Minister Honorable Sushila Karki takes office — a victory built on courage, integrity, and the sacrifices of our martyrs."
Concerns for the future
But not everyone is convinced Nepal's youth can steer the country forward.
Govinda Raj Pokharel, a senior politician with the opposition Nepali Congress, admits the protests were born from legitimate anger after decades of failed leadership.
For the past 10 years, three aging leaders — KP Sharma Oli, Sher Bahadur Deuba and Pushpa Kamal Dahal — have rotated through power 12 times.
In the weeks leading up to the protests, activists had highlighted the lavish lifestyles of "nepo babies" — politicians' children, flaunted online against a backdrop of Nepal's $1,400 per capita income, and youth unemployment sitting at 20 per cent.
One viral post purported to show the son of a minister posing with boxes from luxury brands. Another claimed to show the son of a former judge posing beside a Mercedes car.
The government had also faced criticism for letting a string of major corruption scandals, including cases of public land grabbing and gold smuggling, slide.
"I accept that because of the failure of past governments, this chaos came," Mr Pokharel says.
But the destruction left him alarmed.
"They managed to show their strength; they replaced the corrupt government … [but they] could not control that revolution."
It took four days after the prime minister's resignation for the protesters, army and president to reach consensus to pick Ms Karki as interim leader.
It's expected that the first cabinet meeting will recommend dissolving the House as demanded by the agitating groups.
Mr Pokahrel fears the movement, while idealistic, lacks the maturity to lead a fragile country.
"After the earthquake, we mobilised $4 billion. Now, nobody is going to give you $4 billion. It's not an earthquake. You burned it yourself," he says.
"I know they are talented people, educated people. But politically, there is immaturity.
"Nepal needs a stable democracy, mature politicians to negotiate with."
Keeping the movement alive
But protesters like Yujan are not dismayed.
"Some groups are disagreeing but, in a democracy, we must listen to all views," he says.
He says the stakes are too high for the movement to fail.
Over two days of unrest, more than 50 people died and more than 1,000 were injured.
Nineteen protesters between the ages of 12 and 24 were killed after police used tear gas, water cannons and live ammunition against crowds largely consisting of young people and children.
In Kathmandu Civil Hospital, Saraswati Mahara sits beside her 24-year-old son Nishesh, his right arm wrapped in bandages, steel rods holding shattered bone in place.
"He entered into the parliament building along with other protesters and was shot at," she says.
Nishesh had just finished his business degree. He wanted to go to Japan and explore a career in sketching and animation. Now, his mother says his dominant hand may never fully recover.
"He did not participate in the first day of the gen Z movement, he decided to take part in the movement after police killed students," Saraswati says
Even as her son recovers, Saraswati stays proud of him.
"We should fight against injustice. If we do not raise voice, then who will?"
While hopeful for what comes next, Yujan says he carries the trauma and the responsibility to keep the protests alive.
"We'll make all the sacrifices justifiable."
