What A Mess
"Tenchi Muyô!" and all characters here in are the property of Pioneer and AIC, save those created by the author. This is a fanfic, and is for fun, not for profit.
One Day…
-by-
William 'Thundergod' Nichols
It all began on a seemingly normal day in the hills of the Okayama Prefecture…
"What a mess," Ayeka yawned as she descended the stairs from her second floor bedroom. The open commons of the den and dining area were scattered with a litter of items from the past revelry. Even, uncharacteristically, she noted soiled dishes lay where they were last eaten from and piled all piecemeal in the twin basins of the kitchen sink. Daintily sidestepping a mound of empty beer cans at the foot of the stairs, Ayeka sighed deeply. Her first instinct was to chastise Ryoko for causing such a shoddy state of affairs, but the princess knew she was as much to blame for the current shape of things. 'I have been drinking rather heavily as of late,' she thought, spying several empty bottles of her favorite plum wine.
A low moan from the sofa drew her attention. A slender set of fingers attached to an alabaster arm reached up and groped about the top of the sofa, before its master was assured of its solidity and pulled her self upright. A sympathetic smile crossed Ayeka's face as Ryoko blinked her way back to reality.
A peculiar look somewhat akin to a half-frown, half-snarl twisted onto Ryoko's face as the form of Ayeka solidified through the haze of her vision.
"Good morning to you too," Ayeka returned somewhat sarcastically to the look of greeting proffered to her.
"I was having the most pleasant dream," Ryoko said, giving her mouth a few good smacks, trying to rid herself of the taste of hours old sake and beer.
"I do not want to hear of your imagined debauchery with Lord Tenchi," Ayeka sighed as she seated herself across from Ryoko on the sofa, finding the one uncluttered spot.
"Not this time," Ryoko said with a stretch and a smile, remembering some of her prior 'imagined debaucheries.' "I dreamed I was swimming in a sea of sake," she said. "And by the smell of things," she added after catching a whiff of her rumpled red tank-top, "I was."
"We all were," Ayeka confirmed, rubbing her temples.
"Talk about a real bender," Ryoko added, seeing the scope of the mess their borrowed home was in.
"Indeed," Ayeka seconded.
"And Tenchi's coming home with the old man from their retreat this afternoon," Ryoko deadpanned.
"And Sasami will be back from her class trip today as well," Ayeka added.
"Oh! Wow! Talk about a mess!" Mihoshi chirped as she bounced down the stairs, dressed in her duty uniform. The blonde and bronze police officer showed no ill affects from the sizeable quantities of alcohol she had consumed the night before, a fact that elicited a pair of dirty glances from Ayeka and Ryoko. "Well, I've to be going," she added in a chipper tone. Popping her powder-puff pompom from her hip, Mihoshi formed it into her control cube, gave it a few seemingly random twists, and blinked from sight. Ayeka and Ryoko sat dumbfounded as the roar of Yukinojo's engines echoed overhead.
"No one should be that cheerful in the morning," Ryoko growled, "especially after drinking all that she did last night."
"I concur," Ayeka said, wondering just how Mihoshi did it. "That leaves just the two of us," she continued.
"I didn't know you were into the kinky stuff, Princes," Ryoko jabbed with a wry grin. "I'm game if you are."
"How droll," Ayeka deadpanned. "You very well know what I mean."
"Yeah," Ryoko sighed. "It's up to us to straighten up this mess."
"I guess I will begin with the dishes," Ayeka said forlornly.
"And I'll tackle this mess," Ryoko said, eyeing the enormity of the task at hand. Spent sake bottles, beer cans, and wine carafes were strewn about in a haphazard shrine to Bacchus. "We could get Washu to help us," Ryoko said, thinking of the time saving gadgetry that the genius surely had on hand.
Ayeka stopped gathering her first armful of plates and considered Ryoko's proposal. 'That could be dangerous,' she thought. "You do that," she said, balancing a stack of plates in the crook of her elbow.
"Ok," Ryoko replied, bypassing a half full bottle of sake on her way to the foyer broom cupboard. 'I'll save that one for later,' she thought, knocking on the cupboard's door.
"Whaddya want?" asked Little Washu, her face appearing in the dark glass.
"Ayeka and I were just wondering…just wondering if…" Ryoko began, slightly startled by the stern look of annoyance on the diminutive scientists face. With her mane of red hair and multi-tiered goggles perched atop her brow, Washu bore a striking resemblance to a tiny, perturbed lion.
"Wondering WHAT?" Washu barked, not easing her piercing glare.
"We were wondering if...if…you could he-heh…" Ryoko stammered before Washu cut in.
"Help you CLEAN?" she roared, flames dancing in her eyes and steam shooting from her nostrils.
"Yeh," Ryoko finally got out.
"Fat chance," Washu sarcastically laughed. "You two made that mess, so you two can clean it up." With that her face disappeared from the portal and a "Do Not Disturb" sign appeared in her stead.
"That was overly dramatic," Ayeka said dryly as Ryoko returned to the den and its piles of refuse.
"Washu can never just say 'no'," Ryoko grumbled, taking the garbage bags Ayeka had handed her.
"Make sure to keep the glass and cans separate," Ayeka chided as Ryoko began to heap them all together.
"Yeh, yeh," Ryoko mumbled, begrudgingly sorting the recyclables. "Huh?" she asked as her toes caught something furry. "All right there fuzz-butt," she said as Ryo-ohki began to uncurl. "You've slept enough for one day. There's work to do."
Slowly, Ryo-ohki began to stretch her rabbit-like hind legs and her cat paws in the front. As she worked out the kinks in her back, she let out a long "Mi-ya!"
"Scoot, scoot!" Ryoko shooed, grabbing the empty bottle behind Ryo-ohki.
Scampering away, Ryo-ohki hopped up onto the table to see what was going on. Ryoko was gathering things, and Ayeka had begun to wash dishes. Thinking of all the times she had helped Sasami, Ryo-ohki quickly turned into Ryo-chan. After straightening her green dress emblazoned with an orange carrot, Ryo-chan hurried to the kitchen, picking up a cup on the way.
"Thank you Ryo-chan," Ayeka said with a smile, adding the cup to the pile on the right side of the sink.
Ryo-chan smiled broadly and toddled off to gather all of the other loose dishes she could find laying about the house. Ryoko looked up from fetching a can out from under the sofa as Ryo-chan came marching past with a large plate in her hands. A trail of crumbs followed the cabbit from the den towards the kitchen.
"I'll let Ayeka get those," she said before phasing up to the rafters to collect the emptied bottles adorning the ceiling joists.
"Miya!" Ryo-chan squeaked happily as she poked Ayeka in the side with her latest find.
"Ok," Ayeka said, taking the platter from Ryo-chan. 'Oh dear,' Ayeka sighed inwardly, noticing the trail of crumbs that led out of the kitchen and into the house. 'I'll let Ryoko clean those up.' A tug at the hem of her dress returned Ayeka to reality. "Yes, Ryo-chan dear?" The little cabbit child simply hugged Ayeka's leg before marching back into the house.
"I'm taking these bags out back!" Ryoko called from the den.
"That's good," Ayeka returned. "You can vacuum next."
"Yeh, yeh," Ryoko moaned before she disappeared with a chime.
Ryo-chan looked around the living room for any dishes she may have missed. Satisfied that she had found them all, she bounded back towards the kitchen to help Ayeka some more. Stopping just inside the door, she looked around for any dishes lying about. At the end of the counter, she saw a small pile. With a nod, Ryo-chan stood on her tiptoes to reach the plate and slid it off the counter. Happily she walked behind Ayeka and placed the plate where she had seen Ayeka put the dirty dishes earlier.
"The last one," Ayeka said, relieved, as she scoured a plate and sat it in the drying rack to her left. "Now to put them away," she said, before noticing one more plate on the counter. "Hmm…I guess I missed one. Now then," she said, after washing the plate, to only find another mug waiting to be washed.
"That's odd…"Ayeka pondered to her self. "I was certain that I had washed the last one." Nevertheless, she washed the mug, only to find two more on the once empty countertop. After Ayeka was certain she had washed the last dish for the seventh time, she noticed a singsong chorus of "Miya! Mi-mi-miya! Miya-miya-miya-mi!" passing behind her. "Ryo-chan!" Ayeka exclaimed, just as the little cabbit placed a platter she had just rewashed back on the counter. "I've already washed the dishes over here," the princess said softly.
Ryo-chan held a hand to her mouth and sniffled, great tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.
"You did nothing wrong," Ayeka soothed, stooping down to look Ryo-chan in the eyes.
"Miya?" Ryo-chan asked meekly with one last great sniffle.
"Not a thing," Ayeka added, wiping the corner of Ryo-chan's eye with a clean dish towel. "Do you want to help me dry and put these away?" Ryo-chan nodded happily, her tears long gone.
"Hey Ayeka?" Ryoko asked as she reappeared in the den. "Where's the vacuum?"
"I believe Washu put it in the back pantry," Ayeka answered, taking a damp plate from Ryo-chan and wiping it dry.
"Ok." 'Uh-oh,' Ryoko worried. 'If Washu had it last, there's no telling what's been done to it…' Ryoko disappeared from the den and instantly reappeared in front of the back pantry. Opening the door, she found a hodgepodge of potpourri. Empty carrot baskets were stacked neatly in one corner, while other bric-a-brac lay here and there. Ryoko was sure that one box had spare parts for Mihoshi's ship in it. Seeing a life-sized doll of Washu wearing a red bow made Ryoko shiver. 'That thing still gives me the creeps…and I don't even want to know why she kept it…' Finally she found the vacuum cleaner and pulled it into the den.
What passed for a vacuum cleaner in the Masaki household was something akin to a small-block Chevrolet V-8 bolted to an ordinary canister vacuum cleaner. The rear wheels probably came from a street racer, and large chromed exhaust pipes angled upward from the underbelly of the beast. A sticker bearing a chibi-Washu winking and giving a 'thumbs up' was slapped crookedly on the side.
"I guess it's safe," Ryoko said, plugging the extension cord into the wall and gave the pull start on top of the engine a stout tug. A throaty, low thrum reverberated across the den as the vacuum came to life and settled into a low idle.
"At least it sounds good," Ryoko said as she picked up the floor attachment. "Let's see," she pondered aloud, finally clicking the button on the handle past the carpet to the floor setting.
Instantly the hose began to flail around and the canister bucked wildly. "What the hell?" Ryoko exclaimed as the handle tried to pull itself out of her hand. "Dammit!" she cursed, hanging on with both hands.
"Will you keep it down in there?" Ayeka chastised in an annoyed tone. "Profanity is not needed all the time you know."
Ryoko tried to send some choice words back to the Princess, but all she got out was a mumble as the hose snaked its way around her neck and mouth, picking her up off the ground. Looking back, Ryoko saw the hose and extension cord coiled around the canister like a snake.
"Oh damn…" she managed to get out when a maw full of teeth opened on the canister. The jaws opened wide in a great sucking wheeze as it tried to draw everything in the room into it. Ryoko struggled against the hose as table lamps and small items of the interior décor began to whiz past her head and into the vacuums mouth.
"Ryoko!" Ayeka called out, more sternly than before. Ryoko only grunted in response as she struggled against the iron grip of the vacuums hose. "Keep it down in there!"
Finally managing to free her left hand, Ryoko formed a ball of energy in her palm. With a martial yell she loosed the orb into the vacuum's mouth. In an instant the monstrous machines mouth clamped shut around the energy bolt, and a second later the canister puffed out like a great party balloon before it detonated with a bone shaking thud.
"Ryoko!" Ayeka scolded as she ran into the den. A pall of dust and smoke was settling down onto the floor and furniture, leaving the den more disheveled than before. "You were supposed to clean the den, not destroy it!"
"It wasn't me!" Ryoko defended, "It was that damned vacuum of Washu's! I swear it was a monster. It tried to eat me!"
"I doubt that," Ayeka snorted. "Besides, if it ate you, it would have the worst indigestion in history!"
"Yeh, yeh, prissy-pants," Ryoko mumbled. 'Where does she get off!' Ryoko thought. "Jackass."
"I heard that," Ayeka added. "I'll fetch the brooms," she added with a sigh. "The day's getting long."
A shiver ran down Tenchi's spine that made him cringe. This was not the typical shiver one gets when you spend hours sitting under a waterfall in meditation. No, this was 'I've got a really bad feeling about this' shiver. The type of shiver Tenchi got frequently over the past several years since his home had became the home of five alien women, most of which wanted to tie him to a bed and reenact various hentai scenes with him.
"I hope everything is all right," he said silently to himself as terrible images of Ayeka and Ryoko feuding flashed across his eyes.
"How did we drink all of this?" Ryoko asked as she found yet another spent beer can tucked in the vase of a potted plant. "And why is this in here?"
"I don't know," Ayeka replied. "I did not know there was this much booze in all of Jurai much-less on Earth."
Ryoko nodded in agreement. They had been working since mid-morning and it was now mid-afternoon and they were only about half way finished. "It's gonna take a miracle to get this place cleaned before they get back this evening."
"Well we don't have a miracle," Ayeka snipped. "But we could sure use one."
"That's where I come in!" shouted Washu. Ayeka and Ryoko screamed in terror as the pint-sized super genius suddenly materialized between them with a loud crack. "Washu will save the day!"
"Don't do that!" Ayeka and Ryoko shouted in unison.
"You nearly scared the cabbit out of me!" Ryoko yelled.
"Little girls should not yell at their mommy!" Washu said calmly as a statue of the Buddha materialized above Ryoko's head, then came crashing down on top of her.
"Sorry…" Ryoko groaned as she pulled her self up from the floor.
"What you need is my latest invention!" Washu cackled with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I've been perfecting it all morning!"
"If it's as perfect as that damned vacuum," Ryoko said as she dodged another statue of the Buddha, "I'll pass."
"I don't think we have a choice," Ayeka said. The sun was getting nearer the mountain tops across the pond, and Tenchi and Katsuhito would be home at dusk.
"It's just simply marvelous!" Washu chimed. "Just watch!" Ryoko and Ayeka both swallowed hard as a touch-screen remote control materialized from thin air in front of Washu. She plucked it from the air and gave the rainbow colored runes on its surface a few quick pokes.
"Introducing!" Washu began as a portal opened in front of her, "The Maid- bot Nine Thousand!" What stepped from the portal looked less like a maid and more like a living incarnation of a manga artist's over active imagination.
"You designed this for Nobuyuki, didn't you?" asked Ayeka as she noticed the overly curvy figure of the mechanized maid. The Maid-bot was as tall as Ayeka, but had shoulder length black hair and green eyes. A ruffled cap sat perched atop her tresses and she wore a mini skirted, black and white French style maid uniform. Gartered stockings and stiletto heels rounded out the ensemble.
"She's a perfect 78F-56-78 centimeters!" Washu added. "Right down to her--"
"We get the point," Ryoko growled. "The old man is an ecchi."
"That he is," Ayeka added under her breath as Maid-bot slinked across the room. 'I hope Tenchi never sees this thing,' as the Maid-bots too short skirt rode up as she bent over to plug in another vacuum, giving Ayeka a view she would have rather not had.
"I'll have this place spotless in a jiffy!" Maid-bot said in an adolescent voice with a slight giggle. "You have been so-o-o-o messy!"
"I think I am going to puke," Ryoko said as a green pallor crept across her face.
"Now, now little Ryoko," Washu said. "Maid-bot is just a harmless fantasy. Aren't ya dearie?" Washu asked the automaton.
"I am programmed to serve,' Maid-bot chirped with a surgery smile. "See, this place will be clean in a jiffy!" With that, the Maid-bot went to work.
"Actually," Ayeka began, "she is doing a nice job." Ryoko and Washu nodded as the Maid-bot turned into a blur of black and white motion. In moments the lower level of the house began to resemble its usually tidy appearance.
"I told ya so!" Washu added. "You just need a little faith in my abilities.'
"Your ability has a knack for getting us in trouble," Ryoko said under her breath.
"What was that?" Washu said in low growl as her finger hovered above a glowing rune on her phantom keyboard.
"Nothing," Ryoko apologized as she quickly ducked behind the sofa. "Nothing at all."
"That's what I thought," Washu said as the Maid-bot blur bumped into her. "Whoa girl!" she said as the controller flew from her hands and skittered across the floor to the far side of the room. As it came to a stop, a series of beeps emitted from the handset.
"Uh-oh," Washu said as the beeping continued.
"Uh-oh?" Ayeka and Ryoko said simultaneously.
At that moment the Maid-bot stopped cleaning and stood ram-rod straight. "Processing," it said as lines of binary code streamed across its eyes. "Processing."
"This can't be good," Ryoko said.
"Uh-huh," Washu added.
Finally the Maid-bots eyes cleared and changed from green to red. "Controller signal interrupted," she said in a metallic voice. "Auto-defense mode activated. Processing."
"Auto-defense mode?" said Ayeka in a very concerned tone.
"She's designed to be a security system incase of home invasion," Washu said quickly as she inched towards the controller. "I have to disengage it."
"Auto-defense mode engaged!" Maid-bot said. Instantaneously four arachnid arms began to extend from opening compartments on her back. The tip of each arm was equipped with a nasty looking plasma pistol. "All systems online," Maid-bot said as the plasma coils began to glow a florescent blue.
"She doesn't look so tough," Ryoko said as she took a step towards the Maid-bot.
"Don't!" warned Washu as a bolt of blue plasma punched a smoking hole in the floor an inch from Ryoko's foot. "If Maid-bot detects the slightest movement, she auto targets it!"
"A little warning would've been nice!" Ryoko said as another plasma bolt landed on the other side of her foot. "Stop that!" she yelled, drawing her hand back to form an energy bolt. But when she did Maid-bot pointed all four of her plasma guns at her along with a few missiles that sprang out of various parts of her body.
"Don't move an angstrom," Washu warned in a whisper.
"We have to find a way to get that controller," Ayeka said. The servos on Maid-bots arms whirred as she scanned the room for movement.
"What we need is a distraction," Washu said.
"Agreed," added Ayeka.
"I don't like the sound of that," Ryoko said as Ayeka and Washu gave her an evil grin. "Not one bit."
"Don't whine little Ryoko," Washu said as she made a series of hand gestures to Ayeka.
"It won't be that bad," Ayeka added as she answered Washu's gestures with a series of her own.
"Oh bul-l-l-l-shit!" Ryoko answered as a stone Buddha whacked her upside the head from out of no where. As soon as the Maid-bot detected the movement of the falling Buddha it opened all of its weapons in a volley of plasma and missile fire towards Ryoko and the Buddha. "I'll get you for this!" she screamed at Washu and Ayeka as she dodged the barrage.
"Just keep her busy!" Washu answered as she and Ayeka made a mad dash for the controller.
"Like I have much of a choice!" Ryoko yelled as she flew past the soon to be destroyed sofa. Even with her cat-like reflexes the Maid-bot was able to keep up. Huge portions of the plaster and wooden roof trusses were behind blown apart every second.
"Don't fly this way!" Washu screamed as Ryoko hurtled into Ayeka, knocking her flat on her rump.
"Sorry!" Ryoko yelled with a slight hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"You did that on purpose," Ayeka squealed as she landed with a thump. However, she did not have time to worry about Ryoko as the Maid-bot now focused its attention on her.
"Target acquired," she droned. "Engage."
"Ry-o-ko!" Ayeka wailed as darted away from a string of fire.
"No-no-no!" Washu screamed as one of the stray shots nicked the controller. "Whew!" she sighed as the smoke cleared and the controller seemed to be ok. But no sooner than the thought had left her lips, a crack spread across the face the controller and it shattered into a score of smoking pieces.
"Crap," Washu said rather disgustedly.
The Maid-bot stopped for a second as new series of binary flashed across its eyes. "Signal not detected…" she droned. "Arbitrary attack mode activated."
"Run!" Washu yelled as the Maid-bot began to indiscriminately shoot everything around it.
"Targeting…Targeting…Targeting…" Maid-bot droned as fresh plasma bolts and missiles destroyed the interior decorations.
"I've had enough of this!" Ryoko roared.
"Don't be foolish!" Ayeka warned as Ryoko phased from sight beside her with a chime.
"I… Am… So…Pissed…Off!" Ryoko yelled as she materialized right in front of the Maid-bot.
"Threat detected," Maid-bot droned as all of its weapons targeted Ryoko.
"Detect this!" Ryoko said as she drew back and landed a solid right cross on Maid-bots head. The punch was so hard that the androids head rotated one hundred eighty degrees from the center. Instantly all of its weapon arms fell limp.
"Defense ability disabled," the Maid-bot chimed in a slow metallic drone. "Processing…Processing…Engaging self-destruct mode."
"You put a self destruct mode in that menace?" Ayeka said as Washu nodded with a sheepish grin on her face.
"You never know what you'll need," she chuckled in response.
"Self destruct in ten seconds…nine…eight...seven…six…"
"Washu!" Ryoko yelled as smoke and sparks began to leap from Maid-bots head.
"Five…four…three…"
"Do something Washu!" Ayeka begged.
"Two…"
"I'm working on it!" Washu replied as her fingers were a blur over her phantom keyboard.
"One…System paused," Maid-bot droned.
"I'm the greatest!" Washu cackled as Ryoko and Ayeka shook their heads. "Just be careful."
"Oh?"
"The slightest bump could set off the charge," Washu explained. "I stopped the sequence, but I can't deactivate the bomb just yet. I'm working on that."
"So what do we do?" Ayeka asked.
"Stay put for one," Washu replied. "And don't bug me for second."
"What's that?" Ryoko asked.
"What's what?" Ayeka and Washu asked together.
"That vibration," Ryoko clarified. "I can feel it through the floor."
"I don't feel a vibration," Ayeka stated flatly. "You're just paranoid."
"I'm not paranoid!" Ryoko growled. "And it's getting closer."
"What time is it?" Washu asked looking up from her phantom keyboard. The look on her face was one of sheer horror.
"About five-o-clock…" Ayeka said, checking her wrist watch, realizing the implications of that specific time.
"Mihoshi…" the three said in one voice.
Five-o-clock: the universal time of terror in the Masaki house. It was not a witching hour or the time the sake and beer usually ran out, nor was it the time of the latest Ryoko/Ayeka free-for-all. It was the time Mihoshi returned from her patrol to catch her favorite cartoons. Now, nine out of ten times, she managed to land in the lake with little to no damage to the house or to Yukinojo. It was that occasional tenth time that kept the family on pins and needles at five-o-clock. It was that tenth time when Mihoshi could come crashing into the living room. It was only through Washu's careful maintenance of the house integrity field that any real harm from befalling the family.
The three women held their collective breathe and waited anxiously as the vibration turned into a low thrum of light drive engines. The thing that worried them was the dust and bits of plaster and wood that began to rain down upon them from the blasted ceiling. Beads of sweat rolled down Ayeka's neck as the low thrum grew into a roar as Yukinojo glided over head.
"Oh dear…" she muttered.
This was not the dreaded tenth time though. Mihoshi expertly, if the term can be used to describe Mihoshi, piloted Yukinojo down on to the lake and brought the ship around to the dock. She cut the engines and gently the star cruiser sailed to the pier, giving it a slight bump as it came to a stop.
The only person beside Mihoshi to feel that flight bump was Ryoko. Her heightened senses felt the tremor reverberate through the wood of the pier into the ground of the yard. From the yard she felt the tremor race into the concrete foundations of the house. Once in the foundations of the house, the tremor radiated up and outward, till it finally reached the piece of plaster and wood work dangling above the head of Maid-bot.
The time it took the vibration to travel from the bump to that Damoclean piece of ceiling plaster transpired in less than a second. It was less time than it took Ayeka to form a sigh of relief. It was less time than it took Washu to return to disarming the bomb. It was less time than it took Ryoko to say "Oh shit!" as that piece of plaster and wood work gave way and fell at terminal velocity onto Maid-bots head.
If you had been in orbit that day, you would have for briefest of moments seen a bright pin-prick of white light erupting from the southeast corner of Japan. It would have been hardly worth noticing at all.
When Tenchi and Katsuhito arrived home a short while later, all he could do was gape at the site that greeted him. Ryoko, Ayeka, and Washu sat rather despondently in the smoking ruins of his house. They looked as worse for the wear as the charred remnants of the house did.
Sasami and Ryo-chan were trying to comfort a hysterical Mihoshi, who sat on the dock crying great waterfalls of tears. After a moment it dawned on him that between her breathy sobs Mihoshi was saying over and over again: "I didn't do it…I didn't do it…I didn't do it…"
And all Tenchi could say was "I was only gone for a day…"
-End-
Authors note: Wow. It's been a while since I wrote one of these things. Actually, this one was started about five years ago. Oh well. So much for being punctual. For continuity notes: this fic is set in some form of the OVA/Manga universe after OVA2 and before OVA3. I hope you enjoyed this funny little short story. Feel free to comment as you see fit. Please reach me by email or PM. I am always open to conversation.
Take it easy, and I'll se you again shortly.