Vigil 8: Try jumping

[Morty]

[Dragon Storm - Cat Chat]

"Let's just say I have personal reasons for not wanting to fight." Thariza seems unwilling to elaborate further. "I'll do what I have to, but I want to focus on learning and creating."

[5a Violista]

[CATastrophe]

Now Awen feels weird for being stared at so intently.
She's never looked at someone that closely in her entire life. Sure, that's partially because she was raised as a maid and taught to never look her betters in the eye, but it's also partially because bad things happen to people she looks at too closely. Actually, thinking back on it, it's probably likely those two facts were related.
Anyway, tangents aside, she feels weird being looked at that closely, and flinches away from the gaze.

Awen's fox is not here at the moment, as it happens.

"And you want to make sure someone else doesn't tell Miss Eun before you have the chance to tell her?" Awen asks, as if for clarification. "...Okay, yeah, I can understand that." It's the worst when that happens. "But, really, most people usually prefer trusting someone who is honest to them than someone who hides what happened." Might be a good chance to teach the kid a lesson on responsibility, too, she thinks.

"I can help you find the cat," and she won't tell anybody, too.

She stands up straight and stretches, thinking through which of her spells would be best for locating a lost cat. Maybe some kind of scrying spell? A tracking spell? Summoning something that could find it? "Any suggestions on what kind of magic would be best for finding it?" Lapis, knowing the cat, would know best.

[Rebonack]

[CATastrophe]

"It isn't my fault that the cat got away though!" Lapis objects. "There was already a hole in the wall when I came to feed them."

What if Miss Eun didn't think she was a good cat taker care of er because one of the kitties escaped before she even started!

See, since Lapis is a Seer and Seers always get blamed for all the bad things that happen even if they aren't their fault Lapis is assuming that reasoning might apply here, too.

But she doesn't say that.

Mostly she just thinks about the cat problem.

"Okay but it isn't really a kitty it's just a thing that's shaped like a kitty since it's whatever shape makes people happy since they eat happy thoughts I think and Miss Eun gets made happy by kitties so they're kitty shaped but the one that got away has maybe been making other people happy so maybe it's shaped like something else now?"

That's an explanation.

Since Lapis knows so much about how thought forms work she's certain to know what kind of magic will be most useful for finding it!

"I don't know magic things."

Or maybe not.

[Arkhosia]

[Dragon Storm - Cat Chat]

"Let's just say I have personal reasons for not wanting to fight." Thariza seems unwilling to elaborate further. "I'll do what I have to, but I want to focus on learning and creating."

Dragon Storm

"I can understand that. It looks like you have good people with you to help in those pursuits, too." Blanche knows better than to press further on this, regardless of how much she's been told about Thariza's possible traumas. She looks back towards Ambrosia, notes how she seems to have fallen asleep, and turns back to Thariza. There's the faintest trace of a smile for a few seconds. "Speaking of, I've probably kept them waiting long enough."

[Morty]

[Dragon Storm]

Thariza follows Blanche's gaze to Ambrosia... oh boy.

"Yes, and Ambrosia clearly needs more rest than she'll admit."

[5a Violista]

[CATastrophe]

"If you didn't do it," Awen says, "that's all the more reason to explain it."

She has sort-of decided a spell to start with. She activates blades coming out of her mechanical hand's fingertips. "Hiding something means when someone finds out, it'll be too late to tell them what happened." Makes sense, right?

The witch scratches gashes in her forearm. Ugh, if her fox were here then this would be easier to decide which magics to use. And, while Lapis did say some things about the cat that might be helpful, none of them really scream 'this way is the best'. Cat's likely not injured, so sniffing out injured beings won't be useful. Maybe something that can highlight magic? Or looking for evidence of thoughts that have been eaten? But, wait, those would only work if she looked somewhere the cat already is, and the whole Vigil island is fairly large.

"Okay, I've decided." She holds her bleeding hand downwards, so that the blood stops dripping off and instead falls into her palm. She opens her hand, and there's four small bloodred runestones in it now, with white runes etched on one side. She tosses the blood-stones up, and breathes in. She catches the four runestones and looks at them, trying to interpret their meaning of where the divination says they should go to find that cat.

"We should look this way."

[Ironsmith]

[CATastrophe]

Up.

The runestones say go up.

In a way, that's good news. That means it's probably in one of the buildings around here, since it can't very well have just grown wings and flown off.

...Well, it could have, but that would require some weirdly specific circumstances that almost certainly didn't happen.

Yet.

If either of them care to look up, they might see said kitty walking along a window ledge several stories above them.

Or they might not. Depends on how good their eyesight is.

[Rebonack]

[CATastrophe]

"AH! Why are you hurting yourself!?" Lapis gasps when Awen stabs herself with her stabby knife fingers.

She definitely wasn't expecting her to do that!

Not even a little bit!

Though if she were more familiar with Awen and the way the witch's magic works then maybe she wouldn't have been so surprised.

Anyway!

Rune stones.

And tossing.

And Lapis looking really puzzled since this seems like nonsense to her.

And then pointing and cat!

Oh good that's easy!

"I'll go get the kitty! Thank you Miss Awen!" Lapis proclaims as she allows her wings to unfurl and then takes off to fetch the feline. "Kitty! Psspsspss! You need to come back to Miss Eun's apartment!"

[5a Violista]

[CATastrophe]

Awen chooses to not explain how she doesn't have the required runestones on her to use the magic, so she decided to use the magic qualities of her blood as a substitutes to make some.
Because explaining things leads to people thinking about how they can use or exploit it most effectively. Leave it unexplained, and people don't even consider taking advantage of it.

After pointing up, Awen starts on 'healing' the injuries.

She opens her mouth, ready to volunteer to fly up and get a better look around from up there to see if she can see the cat from up there, but.
Lapis already unfurled her wings.
"Oh, um. Okay. Good luck," she instead says.

She looks upwards to make sure the kid is going to be safe, but keeps on applying pressure to her wound to heal it.

[Ironsmith]

[CATastrophe]

"AH! Why are you hurting yourself!?" Lapis gasps when Awen stabs herself with her stabby knife fingers.

She definitely wasn't expecting her to do that!

Not even a little bit!

Though if she were more familiar with Awen and the way the witch's magic works then maybe she wouldn't have been so surprised.

Anyway!

Rune stones.

And tossing.

And Lapis looking really puzzled since this seems like nonsense to her.

And then pointing and cat!

Oh good that's easy!

"I'll go get the kitty! Thank you Miss Awen!" Lapis proclaims as she allows her wings to unfurl and then takes off to fetch the feline. "Kitty! Psspsspss! You need to come back to Miss Eun's apartment!"

[CATastrophe]

Awen chooses to not explain how she doesn't have the required runestones on her to use the magic, so she decided to use the magic qualities of her blood as a substitutes to make some.
Because explaining things leads to people thinking about how they can use or exploit it most effectively. Leave it unexplained, and people don't even consider taking advantage of it.

After pointing up, Awen starts on 'healing' the injuries.

She opens her mouth, ready to volunteer to fly up and get a better look around from up there to see if she can see the cat from up there, but.
Lapis already unfurled her wings.
"Oh, um. Okay. Good luck," she instead says.

She looks upwards to make sure the kid is going to be safe, but keeps on applying pressure to her wound to heal it.

[CATastrophe]

On hearing Lapis's voice, the kitty's gaze flicks over to look at her, staring at the little seraph with big, innocent but otherwise blank eyes. It tenses up a little bit, as it doesn't seem to be entirely sure what to make of her; a psychic blank space that nevertheless is making noise and approaching rapidly.

Well, it's not about to listen to her. It has no clue what she wants.

As soon as Lapis approaches, the cat starts bounding along the window ledges, hopping down into the nearest tree and running down to the relative safety of the ground, and toward the nearest person it can see.

Which would be Awen.

This will immediately be followed by much purring and rubbing up against her leg, as well as hiding behind it if Lapis pursues.

[Rebonack]

[CATastrophe]

Oh no!

The kitty is escaping!

Why is today so terrible!?

Lapis decides not to chase after the kitty since she knows that chasing kitties will just make the running away worse, probably.

But!

The situation is quickly resolved because Awen caught it!

"Miss Awen you caught the kitty, good job!" Lapis calls down to her. "Now we just have to bring the kitty back to Miss Eun's lab and everything will be okay!"

Definitely okay.

There is a zero percent chance that there will be any problems or complications of any kind.

[5a Violista]

[CATastrophe]

Awen would argue that it's less she caught the cat and more the cat came to her. But sadly, both her hands are occupied (one is too busy bleeding and the other is too busy stopping the first from bleeding).
She looked at the cat momentarily, to confirm what was rubbing against her leg, but quickly looks away in order to prevent any harm from coming to the cat.

"H-hi. Good kitty," she says.

She needs to grab the cat, though, before it runs off.
Since her hands are occupied, Awen's hair extends longer and longer until it can reach the cat, and then tries to wrap around and cradle the cat. "Don't worry, I'm just picking you up."

She glances up in Lapis's general direction, then back down near the cat.

Assuming the hair managed to capture the cat, it begins shortening and bringing the cat upwards...but not short enough that the cat and her hair-snakes are in range of each other.

[Morty]

[Dragon Storm - Cat Chat]

Thariza leads Blanche back to Ambrosia and Utayo, in the easy, swinging gait of a Charr.

"Did she fall asleep?" she asks quietly. "All of this took a lot out of her."

[Ironsmith]

[CATastrophe]

The cat doesn't object to being picked up, this way or otherwise. In fact, as soon as it can, it's going to start rubbing up against Awen as best as it can, its purring intensifying as it runs its head along her side, looking directly up at her and blinking slowly. "Mow."

It still doesn't seem to really notice Lapis. If the seraph touches it, the cat won't exactly object (especially if there's any ear-scritching involved), but the majority of its attention is exclusively on the witch.

Has Awen ever wanted a companion before? Maybe not a cat, exactly, but something small and cute to love and call her own? If so, when she looks again, she's going to find the creature in her hair has a greater resemblance to her idealized pet (safety features included) than it does a small feline.

[Gullara]

[Dragon Storm - Cat Chat]

Thariza leads Blanche back to Ambrosia and Utayo, in the easy, swinging gait of a Charr.

"Did she fall asleep?" she asks quietly. "All of this took a lot out of her."

[Dragon Storm - Cat Chat]

"Ah, yes-" Utayo shifts, more uncomfortable for being observed than anything. "I suppose it has. I didn't want to disturb her."

[Morty]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Thariza shrugs. They don't need to wake Ambrosia up just yet.

"I've cleared things up with the Vigil people. It's not really over yet as such, but the immediate situation seems to be done with. What's your plan now?"

[Rebonack]

[CATastrophe]

Lapis lands nearby!

"You caught the kitty you did such a good job now we just have to take the kitty back to Miss Eun's room come on!" Lapis says as she begin starting off toward the barracks.

She isn't really bothered by the weird hair things.

Or the snakes.

Or the kitty maybe slowly being a not kitty.

None of those things really matter to Lapis.

The only thing that DOES matter is that they got Miss Eun's cat back and so now Lapis probably isn't going to get in trouble!

And ideal resolution to the problem.

She folds her wings away, too, since she doesn't really need those right now.

[Earl of Purple]

Bird Hunting

The bird is cut from the painting! It... might disappear from Geneva's view briefly as it is still only two dimensions, just now projected onto nothing and apparently drifting rather than flying. It seems very disoriented and unable to control where it's going, lacking the ability to meaningfully interact with all three dimensions it is now trapped in. It'll continue to drift until it makes contact with something, a wall or the floor or other surface, at which point it instantly realigns to that surface, and takes a moment to reorient itself and recover. If it touches a painting, patterned rug or book, it'll transfer to the cover of that; if it touches bare wall or floor, it will appear as a hoopoe stencil painted directly onto that surface, like the numbers on the walls of the corridors and directions on the floor, and after it recovers will fly over to the lab's door. If walls and ceiling are painted the same colour, it can easily transfer from one to the other, and then try slipping around the door. If it succeeds depends on how the door is sealed.

If Geneva turned off her machine, just briefly as the hoopoe drifts, it might regain its depth and mass and ability to be interacted with as a three dimensional object. Otherwise, it's going to be stuck like this until it gets far enough away from Geneva's device to use its transference ability or otherwise resume a three-dimensional form.

[Shadowcaller]

[Dragon Storm - Cat Chat]

"Ah, yes-" Utayo shifts, more uncomfortable for being observed than anything. "I suppose it has. I didn't want to disturb her."

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Thariza shrugs. They don't need to wake Ambrosia up just yet.

"I've cleared things up with the Vigil people. It's not really over yet as such, but the immediate situation seems to be done with. What's your plan now?"

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Their conversation causes Ambrosia to stir and with a blink she suddenly raises up from her sleeping position with a jolt. "-how long was I gone? Where-" Her eyes dart around as if looking for something unseen.

She let's out a groan and suddenly seem to come to to her senses again and hides her face in with her armored hands as she sinks down. "I apologize, but- I really need to eat. I can barely think straight." Any spirits nearby might suddenly feel a strange primal fear overtake them as they probably should get out of here.
The scholar turns to look at Utoya. "...your machines, they work through some kind of spirit magic, do they not?"

[5a Violista]

[CATastrophe]

Awen really liked it when her fox was a cute kit. Didn't tease her, didn't make fun of her, didn't talk with her. She really would like another fox companion. Which is why when the cat starts looking more like a baby fox, Awen first thinks it's really cute when she first sees it out of the corner of her eyes. Especially because it's rubbing against her.

Then she looks at it more closely. "!" she says.

"Um, wait!" she calls out to Lapis.
She lifts up the 'cat' and looks to see if there's another one that's on the ground around. She looks around. "I-I got the wrong one!" she says. "Or it got away! And did a substitute thing!"
She spins, looking at the ground, trying to find if the other actual cat ran away.

[Ironsmith]

[CATastrophe]

Lapis lands nearby!

"You caught the kitty you did such a good job now we just have to take the kitty back to Miss Eun's room come on!" Lapis says as she begin starting off toward the barracks.

She isn't really bothered by the weird hair things.

Or the snakes.

Or the kitty maybe slowly being a not kitty.

None of those things really matter to Lapis.

The only thing that DOES matter is that they got Miss Eun's cat back and so now Lapis probably isn't going to get in trouble!

And ideal resolution to the problem.

She folds her wings away, too, since she doesn't really need those right now.

[CATastrophe]

Awen really liked it when her fox was a cute kit. Didn't tease her, didn't make fun of her, didn't talk with her. She really would like another fox companion. Which is why when the cat starts looking more like a baby fox, Awen first thinks it's really cute when she first sees it out of the corner of her eyes. Especially because it's rubbing against her.

Then she looks at it more closely. "!" she says.

"Um, wait!" she calls out to Lapis.
She lifts up the 'cat' and looks to see if there's another one that's on the ground around. She looks around. "I-I got the wrong one!" she says. "Or it got away! And did a substitute thing!"
She spins, looking at the ground, trying to find if the other actual cat ran away.

[CATastrophe]

The fox pup now resting in Awen's arms presses its head against her and looks up at the witch, letting out a low, gurgling sound that she might mistake for a laugh if she couldn't see the source. Despite the change in shape, the thoughtform's posture has remained largely the same, curled up in her hair and rubbing its head against her, as though trying to encourage her to pet it.

Meanwhile, Lapis is going to have another potential problem cross her path... in a very literal sense. As she starts back toward miss Eun's room, another cat walks out in front of her from a set of nearby bushes, trotting along without a care in the world. It looks an awful lot like the one Awen just caught-

Oh, nevermind. It's actually just another fox. This one running around the witch's ankles excitedly, panting up at her.

[Gullara]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Their conversation causes Ambrosia to stir and with a blink she suddenly raises up from her sleeping position with a jolt. "-how long was I gone? Where-" Her eyes dart around as if looking for something unseen.

She let's out a groan and suddenly seem to come to to her senses again and hides her face in with her armored hands as she sinks down. "I apologize, but- I really need to eat. I can barely think straight." Any spirits nearby might suddenly feel a strange primal fear overtake them as they probably should get out of here.
The scholar turns to look at Utoya. "...your machines, they work through some kind of spirit magic, do they not?"

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Utayo clears her throat and squares her shoulders. No need to call any further attention to that for Ambrosia's sake. "Ah, yes that's correct. But how did you know?" She's certain she hadn't mentioned anything like that.

[Rebonack]

[Bird Hunting]

"Everyone keep an eye on it," Geneva says as the bird flops through the air like a bit of tissue paper on the breeze. "Lapis, if this causes it to become three dimensional again I want you to catch the bird for Felicity."

Then?

She hits a button on her console.

The anchor array stutters, shutting off for a fraction of a second.

It causes a pretty notable effect on Lapis, given how she just jittered weirdly as her little girl shape tried to reassert itself only to get flayed apart again. Lapis really doesn't like this machine but she's trying very very hard not to complain since she understands that the machine is keeping the not-bird in the room. They don't want it to get away again!

Hopefully all goes according to plan!

Because if it does that means Lapis is going to be pouncing on that bird.


[CATastrophe]

Caught the wrong one?

Oh no.

Oh no!

"Oh no! The kitty must have made more kitties and now they're foxes because you like foxes!" Lapis gasps.

How had she figured out how the thought forms worked?

She definitely wasn't snooping around looking at notes on the matter, definitely. And she definitely didn't talk to any of the lab assistants about it, either.

...okay yeah she was doing both of those things.

"These aren't really kitties or foxes they're things that feed on love and once they get enough then there are more of them!" Lapis hurriedly explains. "I'm going to look around and see if there are more okay I'll be right back!"

Then she jaunts perpendicular to reality.

Given the way the thought forms have a chunk of their mass outways it makes them really stand out to Lapis. Hopefully she'll be able to spot more of them from here and maybe figure out if her suspicion is true!

[Earl of Purple]

Bird Hunting

"But... I can't see it!" It's edge-on to Felicity, since Geneva and probably Lapis can see it. Fortunately, when Geneva turns off her dimensional anchor the hoopoe does, in fact, return to three dimensions. There's no pop, or any other obvious sign of the flat bird projecting its third dimension, and after the machine is reactivated there's no obvious changes in the hoopoe's reading. The bird-thing is disorientated, rather severely so, and Lapis is able to capture it easily.

Felicity, who was previously positioned so the bird was edge-on to her and therefore basically nonexistent, jumps when the bird suddenly appears and falls over backwards.

[Morty]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

"Ambrosia has a way with spirits," Thariza says, but lets Ambrosia elaborate.

[Shadowcaller]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

"I eat spirits." Ambrosia clarifies, seeing no way to be subtle about it and right now she felt she couldn't afford it either. She was already feeling light headed. "But I don't mean to eat- yours." She gestures at Utoya. "I was simply going to ask if you could help me locate others." That fight had taken more energy that she liked to admit. Maintaining that size and controlling that storm, all while not feeding properly for quite a while. It had resulted in her current condition.

Normally she could simply feed off the ambient energy given off by people but that wouldn't be enough this time. She might even have passed out already if everyone at the base hadn't focused so much attention on her while she was attacking it. Any emotions directed her way, especially powerful emotions, was essentially food to her.

[Rebonack]

[Bird Hunting]

Oh.

Felicity fell over.

Because the bird startled her?

Lapis knows the best way to fix that problem!

"Don't worry Miss Felicity we have the bird now and you can do your things!"

Lapis isn't sure what those things are.

Probably science things.

But no doubt Felicity knows exactly how to do them!

Geneva, meanwhile, is watching her readouts on the bird. Is it still trying to cause any displacement effects? What's the connection between observation and the displacement? These are all very important questions.

[5a Violista]

[FOXCATastrophe]

Awen mentally apoloziges to the little kitten...pup fox? Because she can't pet it, because her hands still have too much blood on them.

Besides, if Lapis is right then that means there's probably a whole litter of them around here. And she needs to try and hold on to and keep as many in one place as possible without making the mother angry or worried, at least until Lapis can find out how many of them there are.

Her prehensile hair pulls the one it's holding closer to her, and moves it to be supported by her shoulder and chest, so that she can free up most of her hair. And she sort-of pets it by using her cheek to rub on its head, in an effort to placate it and keep it from wanting to run away. (She fears If she ignores it for too long, it's going to try to escape.)

"Okay, I'll try to kee–" Awen starts to say to Lapis, but then she notices Lapis has already left, so she doesn't finish her sentence.
Awen sighs.
There's another running around her legs...maybe? Hopefully it is another one of these 'cats' and not just a regular fox this time.

She crouches down to get closer to it and to keep it from running under her dress more, while worried it might try to get away if she catches it exactly like she caught the other. "How many of there are you?" she nebulously asks, while her newly-freed hair lengthens to the ground and waits for the other fox to run past her leg and get trapped and cradled by her hair in a similar way to the first one.

[Ironsmith]

[CATastrophe]

Caught the wrong one?

Oh no.

Oh no!

"Oh no! The kitty must have made more kitties and now they're foxes because you like foxes!" Lapis gasps.

How had she figured out how the thought forms worked?

She definitely wasn't snooping around looking at notes on the matter, definitely. And she definitely didn't talk to any of the lab assistants about it, either.

...okay yeah she was doing both of those things.

"These aren't really kitties or foxes they're things that feed on love and once they get enough then there are more of them!" Lapis hurriedly explains. "I'm going to look around and see if there are more okay I'll be right back!"

Then she jaunts perpendicular to reality.

Given the way the thought forms have a chunk of their mass outways it makes them really stand out to Lapis. Hopefully she'll be able to spot more of them from here and maybe figure out if her suspicion is true!

[FOXCATastrophe]

Awen mentally apoloziges to the little kitten...pup fox? Because she can't pet it, because her hands still have too much blood on them.

Besides, if Lapis is right then that means there's probably a whole litter of them around here. And she needs to try and hold on to and keep as many in one place as possible without making the mother angry or worried, at least until Lapis can find out how many of them there are.

Her prehensile hair pulls the one it's holding closer to her, and moves it to be supported by her shoulder and chest, so that she can free up most of her hair. And she sort-of pets it by using her cheek to rub on its head, in an effort to placate it and keep it from wanting to run away. (She fears If she ignores it for too long, it's going to try to escape.)

"Okay, I'll try to kee–" Awen starts to say to Lapis, but then she notices Lapis has already left, so she doesn't finish her sentence.
Awen sighs.
There's another running around her legs...maybe? Hopefully it is another one of these 'cats' and not just a regular fox this time.

She crouches down to get closer to it and to keep it from running under her dress more, while worried it might try to get away if she catches it exactly like she caught the other. "How many of there are you?" she nebulously asks, while her newly-freed hair lengthens to the ground and waits for the other fox to run past her leg and get trapped and cradled by her hair in a similar way to the first one.

[CATastrophe]

When Lapis jaunts, she's going to immediately notice the outwards parts of the one-two-three foxes in Awen's immediate vicinity, but looking past them shouldn't be too hard. Off in the distance, she can see five more thoughtforms patiently waiting for her to come back home, and a few floors away, six more languishing in their enclosure.

Fortunately, there's only one other creature like that anywhere on VIGIL's grounds, and Lapis will be able to spot her curled up in an abandoned bird's nest a few meters away. Poor thing must be exhausted.

Awen, meanwhile, is going to have the pleasure of more vulpine company. The one she rubs her head on chutters contentedly, pressing up against her cheek and giggling like a small child. Its counterpart jumps into her hair, playfully batting at it as it gets snared, rolling around in a bit of rough-housing with the fox stand-in. Meanwhile, a third fox (that definitely wasn't there a minute ago) drapes itself across the witch's shoulders, settling in for a brief nap and making her look fabulous in the meantime.

[Gullara]

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

"Ambrosia has a way with spirits," Thariza says, but lets Ambrosia elaborate.

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

"I eat spirits." Ambrosia clarifies, seeing no way to be subtle about it and right now she felt she couldn't afford it either. She was already feeling light headed. "But I don't mean to eat- yours." She gestures at Utoya. "I was simply going to ask if you could help me locate others." That fight had taken more energy that she liked to admit. Maintaining that size and controlling that storm, all while not feeding properly for quite a while. It had resulted in her current condition.

Normally she could simply feed off the ambient energy given off by people but that wouldn't be enough this time. She might even have passed out already if everyone at the base hadn't focused so much attention on her while she was attacking it. Any emotions directed her way, especially powerful emotions, was essentially food to her.

[Dragon Storm - An Aside]

Utayo looks quite perturbed at that statement, and the follow up question. She has to remind herself that this is a different plane and their relationship with spirits is almost certainly quite different. "It's... possible. I actually have tools for such purposes, but they'd almost certainly need to be calibrated and I've had no opportunity to do so."