Volume 2 Chapter 9: Making Progress

AN: Hey, a Sunday upload, been a while since we've had one of these. Though it seems like it's been a while since…

*checks calendar*

*ducks random objects thrown by the readers*

Let me see if I can make it up to you guys this time around. A bit of angst, a bit of Ozpin shenanigans, a bit of Bob shenanigans, a healthy dose of fluff, and more can be found in this chapter. I'll see what I can do about getting the second chapter of Into the Jungle up tomorrow, while I'm at things.

(Perspective: Kassidy)

A pair of birds flew uncomfortably close to her head – close enough to get Kassidy to duck down a bit as they sped by. As she sat back up, she decided to get another look at what she could see from a bench in Beacon's courtyard, while also tensing her arm in the sling it was in. While it was clear that the doctors were getting more than a little fed up by her yet again using the excuse of 'late night training injury', nonetheless she managed to get her stitches redone, her shoulder dressed properly, and – annoyingly as always – get her arm immobilized so it could heal in time for classes tomorrow.

None of that fixed her Sunday, though. Yang hadn't returned all night; she would've known, for she didn't get a hint of sleep last night, instead worry keeping her awake and awaiting the return of her partner. Her girlfriend was pissed at her… but this wasn't something that Kassidy could ignore, either. Left unimpeded, she was certain that the White Fang would turn Vale into Remnant's most recent ruin. She's spent the past hour sitting at this bench, trying to figure out a solution. On the one hand, her girlfriend, her team, her friends. On the other, putting an end to what has got to be an existential threat to the city. Her happiness, or her duty. Any time before Beacon, the choice would've been immediately obvious. But I don't want to give this up. This is worth fighting for, isn't it? It's not greedy of me to want both, is it?

Motion other than the courtyard's existing denizens caught the corner of her eye, and Kassidy's already sour mood worsened. At the same time she noticed him, Cardin noticed her. He sneered, puffed his chest up, and started stalking her way. Kassidy closed her eyes, sighed, and then decided she didn't want to deal with this crap today. Drawing Rogue and setting it on her lap, loading in a fresh magazine, and staring the boy down didn't get him to back off as quickly as she liked, but Cardin regardless got the hint and changed direction, doubtless looking for some other hapless victim. Kassidy slumped against the back of the bench and buried her face in her free hand, before sighing, "Why does it feel like every time I try to fix something, I just wind up making it worse?"

"That is not a situation unfamiliar with me, Miss Smith." The sudden voice to her left nearly made Kassidy leap out of her skin, before clenching her fist and mentally berating herself for letting someone sneak up on her. Cracking an eye open and tilting her head to the side, she caught sight of Professor Ozpin concealing a smirk with his omnipresent coffee mug. After taking a sip, he motioned to the unoccupied half of the bench, got permission to sit with her, and took one more sip before commenting, "Another training accident, I presume?"

"That's what the folks at the infirmary will tell you," Kassidy answered wearily. A week and a half of sneaking out at night to fight the White Fang, having an argument with her teammates last night, worrying about Yang and the situation out in Vale all day… she was spent, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

"And what would the girl who suffered the injury tell me?"

"Any recording devices near us, Bob?" After getting a negative from her computer, Kassidy replied, "The White Fang."

"Hmm, so I heard." When Kassidy shot up, banged her injured arm against the back of the bench, and gaped at him, Ozpin merely chuckled. "Bob saw fit to show me the conversation you had with your team last night. He seems to be somewhat… concerned."

"Is that so?" Kassidy again slumped bonelessly against the bench. "He's not the only one with concern. But, I guess if we're going to talk about this now… have you heard from Yang at all? Is she alright?"

Ozpin seemed to contemplate how to answer for a short moment, but the time he didn't answer seemed to drag on in Kassidy's frazzled mind. After what seemed like an age, however, he unhelpfully answered, "I can assure you that Miss Xiao Long is on campus, unharmed, and in good health."

Kassidy's brows furrowed, before deciding that she didn't want to bother asking further down that line, as it was obvious that she wasn't going to get a better answer than that. Deciding to get what she assumed to be the point of this conversation, she said, "I can't stop, Professor. You know I can't."

Ozpin let out a quiet sigh, and set his mug down on the armrest before answering, "I can understand why you feel that way. I can understand why you would want to make up for the atrocities committed in your past. I would tell you that you shouldn't feel guilty for anything that you may or may not have done, but I think we both know that you'd say that you don't feel guilty – regardless of whether or not you actually do – and continue on anyway. However, what I can say is that despite appearances, we are keeping a close eye on the situation."

"A close eye? That's it?" Kassidy wanted, so desperately, to be angry at that statement, but after a few seconds she sighed and decided that she couldn't muster the necessary energy.

Ozpin raised an eyebrow at her, then said, "It's important we have all the facts before we proceed, so that we can best determine how to resolve this issue. Would you prefer we didn't?"

"There's a saying where I'm from," Kassidy replied darkly, "that all that is required for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing."

"An unfortunately true statement."

"And nothing is exactly what I've been seeing from you and yours. No offense, Professor, but how is it that a girl with no Aura and an overgrown tablet has done more to delay the White Fang and recover the Paladins in a week and a half than two months of concerted effort by both the Huntsmen and the Atlesian military?"

"Perhaps in what is immediately visible, that would appear to be the case. However, if one were to look closer, not all is as it seems," Ozpin mentioned cryptically.

Kassidy raised an eyebrow. "With all due respect, if even Bob can't find a whisper of what you guys have been up to, then this is some obscure stuff we're talking about."

Ozpin hummed in thought, before asking, "Tell me, Miss Smith, how familiar are you with chess?"

Kassidy groaned, before answering, "Nobody ever believes me when I say that I suck at that game."

"I can only imagine why," Ozpin chuckled. "Still, in chess, it is important that you plan several moves ahead. The greatest of victories are often set up by the smallest of steps."

Kassidy closed her eyes as she thought for a moment – and then shot them open as she thought of something she needed to talk about. "As long as we're going with the chess analogy, there's a… piece, I guess, that I wanted to ask for your insight about."

Ozpin appeared curious, unusually so. Still, he hid it behind his mug well enough. "Oh?"

"There was a new guy whenever I busted up the warehouse raid last night," Kassidy explained. "Doesn't seem to be all that good; hell, I beat him quite handily in melee, which should tell you something. But when we got to a shooting match… I don't even know. What I do know is that he did something that should've been impossible."

"Auras and Semblances do tend to produce some extraordinary effects," Ozpin commented drily.

"One hell of a Semblance, then," Kassidy sighed. "He ducked out from behind some cover, I shot at him… and he dodged it."

"I understand that people dodging bullets is strange where you're from, but around here, in what way is that unusual?"

Kassidy groaned as she thought of the best way to put it. "My gun's bullets travel at one point three times the speed of sound. At the distance we were at, they would have taken thirty-five one-thousandths of a second to reach him. Not only is that nearly ten times faster than the average human reaction time, that's shorter than the length of time it takes for neural signals to travel from the eyes to the brain. In the time I fired my gun, the guy recognized the threat, decided upon a course of action, and dodged the attack – and he did all of that before his eyes had time to see me fire the gun in the first place."

Ozpin's eyes widened, but only just. He concealed the reaction by shifting the glasses on the bridge of his nose, and answered, "Now that is most definitely unusual. While such capabilities aren't exactly unheard of – I do believe Miss Rose, after all, has far higher than average reaction times – it's still something worth noticing. And the White Fang is willing to bring along someone like that to a robbery? Quite concerning."

Kassidy added on, "I've been hitting the White Fang pretty hard during their robberies the past little bit, and while I've been able to go toe-to-toe with someone that I'm fairly sure is a bit up there on the pecking order, they've never exactly had a proper answer to me. Without more information to go on, I'm tempted to say they brought this guy along specifically to deal with me."

A slight frown found its place on Ozpin's face, and he mumbled, "Yes, that's the theory I'm coming up with as well." He dug into his pocket for his Scroll, fiddled with the device a bit, evidently found what he was looking for, then said, "Until more is known about this mystery person, perhaps it would be best if you were to find an alternative means of slowing down the White Fang?"

"Like what?" Kassidy queried.

"Well," Ozpin began, and between the twinkle in his eye and the tone of his voice, it was evident that something either really good or really bad was about to happen, "it would seem best if you were to find more information about the White Fang's current happenings so you could better plan against them. Beyond that, it would seem that the White Fang already has access to the material they need to perpetrate their plans; therefore, if they have yet to move, it must be a question of either timing or manpower. If that was the case, you'd only be able to influence the latter."

"Something I can both find out what they're up to and limit how many people they can bring in to the fold?" Kassidy pondered. "Like a recruitment drive of some kind?"

"Yes, that would be an idea I would consider," Ozpin conceded. "Unfortunately, I seem to not know the time, date, and location of their next recruitment rally – I thought I had it in my Scroll, but it seems to have been misplaced." Kassidy cocked her head, silently asking why the pause, but her unspoken question was answered with a sound in her earpiece signaling that Bob had received a new message. "Oh dear, indeed," Ozpin continued, "I can only imagine what would happen if that information landed in the wrong hands."

"Same," Kassidy answered, lips slowly splitting into a grin. "It's a shame you lost that information, but I guess I can't have everything handed to me. Still, I've got some avenues to search myself. It's wonderful to have friends, is it not?"

"Indeed, but one must also worry about enemies." The tone changed abruptly as Ozpin's frown made a reappearance, and he met her eye. "I would advise caution if you were to continue down this road, Miss Smith. The White Fang are not the only ones who have taken an interest in you. I'm afraid politics does not much appreciate a change in the status quo, and you have caused not a small amount of change since your arrival here."

Kassidy groaned, almost theatrically, and rhetorically stated, "The powers that be want to make me disappear because they can't control me and I could possibly threaten the perfect little world they've built for themselves. Stop me if you've heard this before, Bob."

Ozpin evidently found the comment amusing, if his slight chuckle was anything to go by. He excused himself and made to walk away, but Kassidy suddenly panicked, as she still hadn't asked what has been bothering her all day. "Professor… I can't stop doing this. I honestly don't think I can. But… but Yang's mad at me because I'm doing this. I'm not wrong or greedy for wanting both, right? Stopping the White Fang, and getting along with my partner? Can I… can I reasonably want both? Is there a right way?"

The man in question hummed in thought, before answering, "Many are the mysteries of the heart, and few are the answers. When it comes to seemingly conflicting desires, however, I tend to keep in mind that what appear to conflict may, at a closer glance, may not be as conflicting as they seem." And with that completely unhelpful answer, he was about to turn away, before remembering something of his own and saying, "By the way, I do recall Dr. Narud to have wanted to speak to you. If you could stop by his office sometime today, then that would probably be for the best."

After Ozpin went along his merry way through the Beacon Courtyard, Kassidy again slumped against the bench. She contemplated taking a nap in the sun before her computer got her attention. "Kassidy, we have a couple problems. You remember how he said that I brought up last night's conversation to him?"

"Yes."

"… I didn't actually bring up last night's conversation to him. In fact, I haven't communicated with him at all for several days."

"And yet he somehow knew that the girls and I talked last night?" Sitting back up more fully, Kassidy groaned, partly from the deprived rest, partly from the dawning realization of what that meant. "Alright, whenever we get back to the room, search it for recording devices. While you're at it, see if you can't scan through the team's Scrolls; maybe they got compromised somehow." Bob gave his affirmative, and Kassidy leaned back before asking, "You mentioned another problem? How big is it?"

Bob answered offhandedly, "Oh, about five seven, one hundred seventy pounds – thirty of which is hair, likes to punch things, been standing roughly twelve feet behind you for the past ten minutes. Maybe you're familiar with her?"

The description got Kassidy to find a hidden reserve of energy as she sprang out of the bench and whirled around. Sure enough, Yang was standing behind her, cheeks turning pink from having been caught. Kassidy said, "Yang, we need to –"

"Need to talk, yeah," Yang said distractedly. She lumbered over to the bench, herself not looking like she had gotten much sleep. They both leaned against each other on the bench, using each other's bodies to prop themselves up. Yang began, "Hey, sorry for bailing on you last night. There was… it was just a lot you dumped on us. I had about a dozen different things going through my head, and I needed to make sense of it all."

"Pretty much all of it caused by me, no doubt," Kassidy muttered. "Anything I can do to help?"

Yang shook her head. "Just some personal stuff I needed to think about. Maybe I'll tell you about it someday, but for now… I've had enough thinking about it. Don't exactly like to think about it, y'know?"

Kassidy hummed, before asking, "Are we good, Yang? I… I didn't mean to make you so upset. I just wanted to keep you all safe, is all."

"We definitely still need to do some talking later," Yang replied. Kassidy stiffened, which Yang apparently noticed. "But later. For now… yeah, we're good."

"Okay, I can live with that," Kassidy said. She failed to fight back a yawn, before mentioning, "Ugh, the last time I was this tired was that one time I went a couple weeks without sleeping. Who knew getting your ass kicked was so exhausting?"

She felt more than heard Yang chuckle beside her. "I'm with you on that front, partner. My bunk or yours?"

The question got Kassidy to perk up. She hadn't planned on actually taking a nap – it was, by its very nature, an incredibly wasteful use of time – but if Yang was in on it, then she supposed that she could make an exception just this once. The two girls stood up, Kassidy had Bob remind her later to go visit the good doctor, and as they began the trek to the dorms Kassidy felt her resolve weaken with each step, until finally she blurted out, "Yours. Your pillow smells good. Think it's your conditioner."

"Yours would probably smell just as nice if you bothered using conditioner," Yang pointed out. Kassidy blushed as she only just now realized that she had said that out loud, and the blush only deepened as Yang whispered, "If you ask nicely enough, I might let you borrow mine for a little bit."

Mm, this feels nice. Can't remember the last time I had a nap – actually, have I ever had a nap?

Consciousness returned slowly for Kassidy, and not entirely bidden if she were being perfectly honest. It took her a fraction of a second to decide that, for the first time in years, she didn't actually want to get up yet. Instead, she settled deeper into the bedding. Another waft of peach scent found its way to her nose as her head readjusted itself against the pillow, she reached a hand up to brush away the sheets that seemed to be tickling her face, and she snuggled further into the blanket that almost seemed like it was hugging her from behi…

Hazel eyes shot open at the myriad of strange sensations she was feeling, before she took a brief glance around and decided absolutely nothing was wrong. A few strands of Yang's hair had defied her attempts to get them out of her face, and had returned to scratching against her nose. Something tightened against her waist, and as Kassidy looked down the culprit revealed itself to be Yang's arm hugging her closer. Yang made some noise behind her, reacting to the shifting that Kassidy did as she slowly awoke. Sure enough, however, her partner's breath returned to being shallow and even on the back of her neck. Kassidy let her head fall against the pillow, and a sigh came from the back of her throat. Sure, out there, the world's a few steps from falling apart. Here, though? In this room? I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It's… it's perfect. If only this could last forever. Of course, it couldn't last forever, and in this case it was interrupted by the sound of badly muffled giggling. Groaning, Kassidy rolled over so she was facing Yang, propped herself up on her good arm, and tried to get a good look at what precisely had disturbed the moment.

Her eyes bugged out and her cheeks lit with the flame of a thousand fires when she saw Ruby and Weiss staring at them, the former barely keeping in her apparently infinite amusement and the latter rolling her eyes with a small smirk as she filed her nails. Upon being spotted, Ruby threw away any impulse to keeping quiet, as she collapsed on the ground as she started laughing. This, of course, began a chain reaction as Weiss brought her legs up on her bunk to avoid the rolling redhead while letting out a grunt of some kind, and the added noise, in combination with Kassidy's own movement, was what finally got Yang to begin the process of rousing from her slumber.

Bleary lilac eyes slowly blinked open, and in her half-awake state Yang obviously only noticed Kassidy and gave a goofy smile. "Hey partner. Sleep well?"

Despite the situation, Kassidy couldn't help but smile as well. "Best nap I've had in… probably forever. At least, until I realized we were being watched."

"Watched?" Yang looked confused for a moment, before she stiffened also – no doubt as a result of her ears finally deciding to work – and rolled over. And took away my main source of warmth, damn it. The tension in the air heightened noticeably, before Yang's shoulders relaxed and she eased the situation with, "Like what you see, girls?"

This finally got the infernal laughter to stop, as both Ruby and Weiss went red in the face and started sputtering. It was Weiss who recovered first, eventually managing to get out, "Enough of that, you bumbling oaf. At least the two of you had enough sense to be fully dressed."

Ruby had recovered at this point, and started singing, "Yang and Kassidy sittin' in a bed… and that better be all you're doing, or I'm telling!"

"Too much noise," Kassidy complained. "Make them go away, Yang."

A fresh round of laughter sounded through the room, and soon enough Yang rolled back over and tapped Kassidy's shoulder. "Hey, much as I enjoyed this too, I think we've been beaten. Time to get up, partner."

"Noooo," Kassidy whined, still in the mindset of a petulant child who didn't want to wake up early on a Saturday morning.

"Actually, in all seriousness," Bob informed, "The dining hall will be close to ending dinner soon, and you still need to meet with Doctor Narud this evening."

The joviality left the room immediately, and Weiss voiced what the other two were thinking. "Is there something wrong with your shoulder, Kassidy? What do you need to meet with him for?"

Finally giving up on getting more sleep, Kassidy sat up, being careful not to crack her head on the ceiling. "Not sure," she answered. "Ozpin just told me that the doctor wanted to talk about something, wouldn't say what."

"Seven thirty?" Yang said, taking a look at the clock in the room. "Might not want to keep him waiting."

"Yeah, good idea," Kassidy said.

It only took a few minutes for the four girls to enter the infirmary, and as they stepped into the back office they found Narud frantically going through his Scroll. It didn't take long for him to look up and notice them, however. "Ah, Miss Smith? Excellent, excellent. I've got some good news for you."

"My arm or other?" Kassidy cautiously asked.

"Other," Narud said. "Please, come with me to the laboratory. Now, you remember how the data in that hard drive of yours had all the data on your modifications?" Without bothering to wait for a response, he swung the doors open, where the four girls were introduced to a quite impressive chemical setup, before continuing. "It took me a while, but I finally managed to decode and translate through the chemical formulae. Not only have I figured out exactly how they managed to attack your soul, but – if my experimentation is correct – I've even managed to develop an antitoxin."

The last statement made Kassidy halt in her tracks, her mind reeling from what was implied in those seven words. "You what? You can… cure me? Give me an Aura?"

"I think I can restore your soul to a healthy state," Narud corrected. "Now, as it happens, doing that would do the other things you said, so… yes. Of course, test subjects are hard to come by, and now that I've done what I can on mice…"

"Nothing left to do but do it for real?" Ruby guessed.

Narud nodded. "Obviously, there's still a lot of unknowns, not to mention the things that could go wrong – the antitoxin is itself poisonous if handled improperly. To be on the safe side, I'm only going to be administering the smallest dose possible that would still cause a reaction, and then I'll use my Semblance to monitor how your body responds to it. Now, are you ready?"

"Wait, hold on, Doc," Yang said, obviously still needing to catch up with the information bomb that had just been dropped on the team. "You're saying that you can fix what's wrong with K's soul?" Narud nodded, and Yang's face split into a smile. "Well, how about it, partner? Want to see what you've been missing out on?"

Kassidy eyed the syringe filled with the mysterious orange liquid warily, but after gulping – and ensuring that Bob had double-checked the doctor's work to ensure that nothing hilariously wrong existed in the work done – she nodded and screwed her eyes shut. Narud wasted no time in shoving the needle in, emptying the contents, and laying his hand on her forehead to monitor the changes in her body. Not knowing what to expect but assuming that something as grand as revitalizing her soul would be something not minor, she braced for… something. Which left her incredibly confused when absolutely nothing seemed to happen. After thirty seconds, she managed to open her eye, opening the other when it did indeed look like nothing had happened.

Narud mumbled under his breath, nodded, and removed his hand. "Disappointing… but also not unexpected."

"What happened?" Ruby blurted. "Did it work?"

The doctor shook his head. "It managed to permeate her bloodstream for a few seconds, enough for my Aura to guide it fully throughout her body, but as I suspected her body's immune system destroyed the compound before it could truly take effect. The small dose I had given her wouldn't have done the full job regardless. Still, however – oh."

"Is something wrong?" Kassidy asked.

"Nothing at a- oh? Oh. Peculiar." Finally removing his palm from Kassidy's head, Narud was met with four blank stares, and he explained himself. "It seems I may have misjudged the lack of work the antitoxin did, as it apparently lasted long enough to perform some slight amount of work. And… an interesting interaction."

"Is it anything to be concerned with?" Weiss asked.

"Not at all. The interaction seemed to be with her muscles. I can't quite tell for sure, but I think they've been reinforced. You might find that you have a bit more speed and strength now, Miss Smith."

Kassidy's jaw dropped. "Seriously? Like, you just gave me steroids that don't come with horrific side effects?"

"Not in the slightest. I think what happened is that your Aura pulsed – it was only very briefly, but still enough to get a bit of work done. And also… yes, as I feared. The more exotic and chemically expensive compounds your body produces have become diluted."

"Which means…?" Yang prompted.

Narud sighed, before taking a seat on a stool. "The way an Aura works is that it tries to keep a body at what it considers its natural state; that's how it heals us. Given the damage to her soul to begin with, it stands to reason that an Aura would consider the vast majority of Miss Smith's biology to be unnatural."

"So, what?" Kassidy asked. "You're saying that it made me stronger, but it also made me weaker?"

Narud shook his head. "More specific than that. I believe I've got the correct formula for the large part, but it still needs a fair bit of work. But once we're ready for this… it's going to fully activate your Aura, and your Aura in turn will try to remove unnatural effects from your body. In short, when the time comes, you'll need to choose between having an Aura, and having your augmentations. As far as I can tell, the two are mutually exclusive."

Team RWKY settled down for a moment as the gravity of the words sank into them. Eventually, Kassidy spoke up, "But you said that it'll still take a while? I… I guess I have some thinking to do. Is that all, Doctor?"

"Yes, I think so. I'll let you know when I've made more progress. Oh, and Kassidy?" Narud winked, before appending, "I'd be more careful in the training ring, if I were you."

The five said their farewells, and the four girls quickly made their way out of the infirmary. Once outside the door, Kassidy flexed her good arm and stretched her legs. Even now, there was a certain lightness to her step, a small amount of extra flexibility she hadn't had before. Putting it to the side for now, she asked, "So, what now?"

"Food," Yang immediately answered. In response, her stomach did its best Beowolf impression, and the other three laughed at her misfortune.

"After that, however," Weiss interrupted, shoving a finger in Kassidy's direction, "you're coming with me to the sparring arenas. He said that you're probably faster and stronger, and we need to find out if that's true. If you're better than you have been, then we need to put it to work and make sure you're comfortable with your new limits."

"Ooh! How about dodgeball!" Ruby exclaimed. Weiss' eyebrows furrowed and was about to argue against it, but Yang quite enthusiastically gave her support in favor of it. "We could invite Jaune! And Sun! And Neptune!" As Ruby took a breath, Weiss suddenly looked significantly less opposed at the mention of Neptune, something which Yang and Kassidy both definitely took notice of. "Oh, and Penny!" Ruby finished.

Kassidy blinked at the final remark. Dodgeball with an android? Either this was going to be hilarious, or incredibly painful. And definitely not something she wanted to miss.

AN 2: Well, same drill as usual. Proofread, Reviewer Responses, and publish. May or may not necessarily be in that order.

I'll try to get the next chapter done in time for next Monday. No promises, though – this has been the month from Hell, and I'm not quite out of the woods yet.

AgentDraakis: Yeah, these past two months have been a real pain. I'll definitely try to get better about uploads… but with my class schedule, I don't get no break just because it's summer.

DIYEyal: Glad you enjoyed it, here's to hoping I can continue to please.

Dreiundzwanzig: Have some more drama. Oh, and some fluff. I'll definitely try and make sure the quality is still up for these chapters, even if I can't put them up as often as I did.

Tykene: Well… more to be had eventually. Not yet, though. Finals went as well as I could hope for, so there's that. Now it's time for more work and more classes.

whitepriest27: Well, yeah, there's that. Honestly, there's enough fringe cases at this point where it's fair to say that not every weapon is a gun, but I'm still going to be using that as a descriptive phrase, because it still kinda is.

FloriteFlower: Hopefully nowhere near our current future.

Mama Wolf Pack: 46 chapters in one day? That's quite a bit of reading, I'm glad I entertained you so much. Hope your finals and assignments went well, and here's to hoping I can keep entertaining you.

AndJrew76: Well, the semester started second week of January. Good thing about college: it's less about the year, more about the semester.

serioushugsies: Kass and Matt were augmented… yeah, pretty much "because they could". While yes, I do have a bit of a story in my head as to why, it has literally no impact/bearing on the story and thus I don't see much reason to try and shoehorn it in anywhere. Here's to hoping I can keep entertaining.