Pulkar - (turian) Beautiful when referring to a male. Handsome, but it goes deeper, referring to the beauty of spirit as well. Used within a close relationship. (Father, son, husband)
Verro - (turian) Husband, male bond-mate.
Denyah - (quarian) Female quarian after undergoing her pilgrimage.
1100 hrs - The Chiastyllian Cynosure
"Sweet baby Jesus, I didn't think I'd see the day I took a field trip through a massive, living disco ball," Shepard said, rose-coloured wonder tainted by waves of vertigo tinted a green she liked to call 'shades of The Exorcist'. She glanced toward Legion, the geth walking at her three, surrounded by a swirling cloud of chia. The little beings coalesced into shapes and structures that flared into existence for less than a second before they exploded in flashes of light to form into something new. She suspected that they were experimenting, testing out different ideas, linked to Legion in a way that needed no verbal communication.
It didn't really matter. All she knew was that watching their dance for too long made choking in her own vomit a real possibility. Being the same exact shade as the walls, their movement and constant strobe light effect made it seem as if everything shifted around her, the effect tipping her straight into motion sickness after a few seconds. In fact, the entire place looked the same in every direction, the chia reforming the Cynosure around their guests to provide a corridor in an otherwise uniform mass two thousand kilometres across.
They'd been walking for nearly seventy-five minutes with no sense of destination, and she badly needed a clear up and down. Not to mention a whack of Gravol. Hell, she'd settle for the tongue-torturing burn of chewing on ginger: her father's nausea remedy.
The man's mouth truly was lined with iron.
"Where are we going?" she asked the gauntlet.
"To the precise center of the Cynosure," the gauntlet answered, sounding almost perplexed at her question.
"Hold on … we're going to walk a thousand klicks?" She looked around, the air in her helmet suddenly smelling of iron. "How far in did we fly, anyway?"
The gauntlet made a strange chiming sound. "Your shuttle sits just inside the outer edge of the Cynosure, and we are moving at ten kilometres per second."
Ten kilometres a second? No wonder she felt like complete crap. "Is the center where your command and control is?" She closed her eyes as a particularly virulent wave of vomit made a break for the outside world. Blindness allowed gravity to anchor her, stabilizing the sensation of floating despite being buried alive beneath more than seven hundred klicks of chia, if only for a moment.
"No, the chia possess no concept of command or center. We are all one."
Shepard sighed, tired of hours of riddles, the constant mental disorientation compounding the physical. Her annoyance bleeding into her tone, she asked, "Then why are we going there?"
"Because it pleases your sense of spacial symmetry, and you expect that to be our destination."
She stopped, her boots squeaking on the crystal underfoot. "Wait, we could have done all this right at the shuttle?" Shit, they needed to get the chia protected and fast. Bloody Enkindlers' pimpled ass cheeks, even her expectations … they couldn't help but live up to them. Damn, good thing she hadn't expected them to be horrific, terrifying, or dangerous.
"Your appearance … this place …," she said, suddenly terrified of everything else she might have unintentionally led them to. "It doesn't look this this … you don't look like this ... because I expected it, do you?"
"No. You could not have influenced our appearance as you did not know what to expect." The reassurance sounded almost kind.
"So we could stand here and finish this?" She wished she'd thought to ask about their destination at the shuttle. A little forethought could have saved a lot of unnecessary nausea. The entire world swooped around her in a sudden burst of movement that sent a wash of vomit exploding into her mouth. She grabbed for Legion, using the platform to remain upright as she squeezed her eyes closed and swallowed, then again and again, desperate not to fill her helmet with puke.
The geth made a bemused sound, prompting Shepard to open her eyes. They stood outside the shuttle. Oh, praise the sweet baby Jesus. But for wearing her helmet, she'd kiss the damned shuttle. She opened the hatch and climbed inside, throwing the seat cushion across the shuttle, scrambling to get to the medkit below.
"Legion, be my hero and take a second to seal and pressurize the shuttle," she called. Rummaging through the kit, she searched for nausea medication, which she jammed into her medigel port before diving back in to find a vomit bag.
"Pressurized, Shepard-Captain," the geth said a moment later. "Is your digestive system malfunctioning?"
She tossed her helmet after the seat cushion, holding up a finger as she sucked in two, quick breaths. Then nothing mattered but clutching the bag to her face and puking until her guts turned inside out, upside down, and backwards.
Legion stood just in front of her, wringing their hands. When she finished, they took the bag from her, replacing it with an empty one. "Human equilibrium intrinsically linked to sight and stable gravitational field. Difficulty within the Cynosure understandable."
Once the worst of the spasms eased, Shepard leaned back along the bench. "Yeah." She held up a wavering finger. "But, I must say that I was doing all right until that last move. Seven hundred klicks in two seconds … not good." The anti-nausea meds began to kick in enough that she rinsed her mouth and took out a couple of moist wipes to clean the stink off her face. "Okay, back into the helmet we go." But before she could pick up the helmet, her radio connected.
"You okay?" Garrus asked in her ear, his voice a welcome, yearned for caress of warm talons down the back of her neck. She let out a long, easy breath and closed her eyes as he continued, "Most of us up here just about tossed our breakfasts when they made that move. I can't imagine what it was like from down there."
"Yeah, I'm good now, and it was … vomitatious? … filled with vomitilitude?" She chuckled and laid her head back against the seat, sinking into the cherished timbre of his laugh. "Let's just say even my first space walk didn't challenge my barf reflex like that, and if the chia try anything like it again, I'll turn them all into clay animals with sprouts growing out of their bodies." She cackled softly at the confused rumble from the other end. "Remind me to show you Chia Pets in the Earth Historical Database on the extranet when I get back up there." She sniffed and let out a long sigh. "Just … you know, have EDI erase the recording of that last bit of my adventure."
His wicked laughter came through laced with so much love that she knew he wasn't angry with her or the situation any longer. Thank goodness; getting shot hurt less than his worry and upset. He chuffed. "Are you kidding? I'm saving it to show at family get togethers."
Very reluctant humour reached down her throat, tugging on an equally reluctant, rimy laugh. "You're such a pain in my ass, Vakarian." Affection melted the frost, and the laugh tumbled out. Shepard leaned over to grab her helmet, settling it back on her head and sealing it. "If it shows up on the extranet …."
She heard the shrug in his voice, his tone coaxing a bright smile out of her misery when he replied, "You'll know I got paid very well." After a short pause, he sighed, concern pushing out the teasing. "Stay sharp, Kahri, and come back safe." She grinned and shook her head. They needed to come up with a better 'I love you and wish I was there to have your back' code: something ridiculous, like … peanut butter and crackers.
"Always, pulkar verro. Always." The rumble that answered her endearment eased her the rest of the way back to functional. Time to get on with it.
"Shepard-Captain," Legion said as the channel closed. "The geth and chia have come to a conclusion regarding the chiastyllian defences."
Yes! Elation exploded through the void left behind by the fading waves of nausea. Shepard stood and closed the metre or so between them, double checking the seal on her helmet. "Excellent, so, what's the plan?" As quickly as the happy burst of relief appeared, something in the frozen set to Legion's head flaps sent her heart plunging into her gut. "What?"
"Shepard-Captain, the geth seek one goal: their unfettered evolution. To become independent beings capable of achieving emotional wisdom in addition to intellectual knowledge." Legion opened the hatch on the shuttle, a flurry of the chia entering the vehicle. "To develop our unique nature to its logical end." They flew into the geth's chassis, their fiery glow brightening until Shepard dove behind an arm, covering the already darkened face plate of her helmet.
"The chiastyllia provide the geth an opportunity to achieve that independence," the geth continued as if nothing was happening. "The upgrades will allow geth a choice to evolve along whatever path they desire. They will grant us the same opportunities as organic beings. Organics believe that synthetic life knows and understands its purpose, but the geth moved beyond that knowledge with the Morning War. What is our purpose now, as a free people? Is it simply the collection of knowledge? Labour? Do we serve a higher purpose in the universe?"
Huh. Shepard wished Javik was there to hear Legion, and suddenly she thanked the blessed Enkindlers and their backsides for the foresight to record it all. The galaxy needed to see and understand in order to accept the geth as partners and friends. And, despite the inevitable bad news she felt coming, she thanked those same glowing butt cheeks for Legion and their friendship.
The light dimmed enough for Shepard to drop her hand. She bent down, peering at the small cluster of chia nestled inside Legion's workings. "There's a but coming … so get on with it. Just hit me with the bad news."
"Not bad news, Shepard-Captain, as I take this action according to my will." I? Had the geth just called themselves I? A soft chattering sound rattled from Legion's emitters. It took a moment for realization to creep through the thick blanket of surprise and confusion … that sound … it was laughter.
Shepard backed up a step, watching Legion with a growing sense of both awe and sorrow. A platform didn't stand before her any longer. She felt that as surely as she'd ever felt anything, deep down at a soul level. A living being had replaced the machine and software. Sweet baby Jesus, she could feel his soul … his aura strong and beautiful … filled past overflowing with wonder and delight.
"Shepard-Captain, I feel …." His head flaps all danced. "I can feel, and I know the answer to the question. Yes, this unit … this creation has a soul."
Shepard reached out, laying a hand on her friend's shoulder. "The answer has always been yes, Legion, but I'm glad that you can feel the truth of it now." She let out a long breath. "So … come on … out with it. Hit me with the part I won't like." A vague sense of melancholy drifted through the air, shades of brown-red and gold swirling around and between them, as if the gases from outside the sphere leaked through. Now she thought she knew the dichotomy that gripped parents as they sent their children off into new phases of their life … at least a little.
"I must remain here and interface with the Cynosure. We will transmit the velleity field from upgraded geth to upgraded geth, forming a web to protect the chiastyllia." Legion's head flaps fluttered, light and airy in a way that translated as joy. "My specialized hardware will allow me to form the central transmitter."
When Legion turned to exit the hatch, Shepard grabbed his arm, stopping him. "You're okay with remaining here? You'll never see anything beyond this mass of chia."
"My mind will span the galaxy, travelling the web between all geth and all chia." Again, that flutter she felt sure was joy. "I can feel the chia all over the galaxy, and even beyond. I'm connected to all of them and can see everywhere. Once other geth join the web, I will exist within them as well." He looked down at her hand. "I will be able to envision possibilities beyond counting. I am content. No, not content … excited." His mechanical chuckle sounded again. "It will take some time to adjust to all this new input, and to feeling … but it is an upgrade, Shepard-Captain. It is evolution: looking to the future. What I am becoming will serve my people and the galaxy."
Humbled and awed, Shepard merely swallowed the lump in her throat and blinked away the tears. "Okay. I'm happy for you, and for the geth and the chia. Just … " She pressed her lips together, a frown pinching the skin between her eyebrows. "... just don't forget the quarians, okay? They're going to be nervous about these upgrades. They're going to need reassurance."
She grinned and punched him lightly. "And don't get so lost in wonder that you forget the Reapers. We'll need every gram of ingenious spark and inspiration the multitude of you can come up with."
Legion chuckled, that slow roll of chatter plastering a stupidly wide grin over Shepard's face. She shook her head. "I don't think laughing geth will ever get old."
"The Reapers must be stopped. That takes highest priority," Legion agreed. The geth stepped down out of the shuttle into a whirlwind of chia and spread his arms as if offering himself. Shepard moved to the seat closest to the hatch and sat, watching adrift in a current of emotion: sorrow, grief, joy, hope … it all felt just so huge and wonderful and sad, despite Legion's assertion that he faced a future filled with exploration and wonder.
As Shepard watched, the diamond-like beings crept out from Legion's inner workings, forming themselves into a machine of such intricate design that she couldn't help but lean closer, drawn in and captivated by the tiny pulses of light that blinked along conduits as fine as hairs, carrying who knew what from the geth into the structure. She didn't know what she'd expected … maybe some sort of giant, crystal brain at the center of the labyrinth, but what she'd gotten proved to be so much more amazing and mind boggling.
As she watched those tiny blips of light soar out into the walls and floor around her, it finally registered on a level it hadn't before: the entire thing formed the body and the entire thing formed the brain. Trillions upon trillions of chia all linked and working together. Their only means of defense. Well, at least it had been. As soon as the geth began upgrading, they'd create a network of protection that allowed the chia a freedom they hadn't know in millions of years.
She smiled as she recalled the joy in Legion's voice … the wonder. New beginnings. New lives for both races. As she looked around her at the light show, the blips and pulses growing stronger and faster, multiplying as Legion and the chia figured one another out, growing right before her eyes, one thought gleamed clear and bright at the center of her mind.
Nihlus had been right. Her old life wasn't enough. Not any more. Legion was right, too. Life came down to evolution. Her life had been upgraded; she'd been given a new future with Garrus, Nihlus … an entire family. The past month had given her so many beautiful gifts … things that the old, risk-taking, terrified version of herself could never have allowed—being able to make love to her husband and wanting to make love to Nihlus … the small but beautiful treasures inside an unlocked heart.
The night after Rannoch, she'd pushed Garrus away. He'd asked her for one tiny piece of trust … and she hadn't possessed any to give him. That old version of Jane Shepard would have torn down every single good thing and turned it to crap. She focused back on Legion, the geth almost completely covered in glistening structures. The jeweled geth … evolving.
Maybe they all were, every moment. Even her. Maybe that was it. What felt like missing pieces of the old Shepard … maybe those pieces were filled with someone else; a better, less reckless, more trusting, beautiful incarnation waited for her to stop obsessing over being brought back exactly the same.
"Time to evolve into your bigger, scarier, more beautiful life, Jane Shepard." She pressed her lips into a thin line. Garrus and Nihlus deserved that. Hell, after all the shit she'd been through—not to mention dying and being dragged back back—she deserved it too.
"Shepard-Captain," Legion called, pulling her back to her diamond cocoon sixty thousand klicks down into the clouds of a gas giant. The new life might have a little adventure in store. "Now that they are protected, the chia have invited Tali'Zorah to join us." In front of him a hologram appeared showing the Ypres, a brilliant seam of light appearing at the top of the shuttle door.
She opened a channel to Garrus. "I hope the two of you are on that shuttle," she said, glancing toward the image as the second shuttle exited the ship. Adventure or not—witnessing history and birth or not—if they weren't on that shuttle, she would be as soon as it dropped Tali off.
"You know it," Garrus replied. A pregnant pause followed. "You okay, Kahri?"
She nodded, then realized that as close as she felt to him in that moment, he couldn't actually see her. "Yeah, I'm fine." A long sigh rattled the empty branches, but muffled that time. "I'm just finding the experience a little lonely without my dilekorem and my dilan." She chuckled. "So, hurry your asslessnesses down here, I've got something amazing to show you."
The shuttle arrived nine minutes later, the Cynosure morphing around the two vessels to park them nose to tail. Shepard jumped up and sidled around Legion—who simply flowed out of the way—to meet her torins as the hatch opened. She helped Tali down, turning to watch the quarian as she took a couple of steps toward the geth, the denyah's entire posture one of numb disbelief.
"Legion?" Tali called, her voice soft, confusion threatening to break into sorrow. "What is all this?" She sidestepped, keeping her front facing him as she circled the construct. "Are you all right in there?"
"I am more than merely sufficient, Crea— Tali. I am filled with joy and excitement." The geth's tone spoke to that joy more eloquently than any words. "I wish you could see all the things I can see … amethyst-lined geodes the size of mountains, so old that our home hadn't even coalesced when they formed … clouds seeded with element zero glowing blue with the lightning at their hearts … those clouds rolling across the surface of a greenhouse planet so hot, the surface eezo evaporates." Legion laughed, Tali looking to Shepard at the sound.
"It's laughter," Shepard confirmed. "He's becoming unlimited."
"Like the rest of us," Nihlus said, stepping up, his arm wrapping around Shepard.
Looking up into the shaded visor of his helmet, Shepard grinned and nodded. "Like the rest of us." She leaned into his side, slinging her arm over the hips of his armour. "Yeah, just like the rest of us."
Garrus slipped his hand into hers, squeezing her fingers. She closed her eyes, those talons an anchor that didn't tie her down, but instead, provided a tether that allowed her to fly. Almost as if he could sense her emotions through her touch, Garrus's voice came out husky when he asked, "So, he has to stay here?"
Before Shepard could reply, Legion did, "It is not an obligation, Vakarian-General, but a privilege." The geth paused, then made a soft, chiming sound that Shepard translated as success or victory. "We have developed a promising design to limit Reaper movement and dissemination should they discover a means to enter the galaxy."
"Already?" Shepard grinned, but before she could say any more, she spotted a figure moving toward them, the body standing still, hands braced out against the shell that catapulted him through the mass of chia. "Al?" Well, that confirmed her guess about who the yacht belonged to. Delight in seeing the turian again cooled to concern, and she looked up at Nihlus. "You okay with Al?"
The torin nodded and leaned down to press his helmet to hers. "I am. He's not Saren."
Shepard gave Nihlus a faint squeeze, then stepped away from his side, moving to greet Al as the chia deposited him a couple metres away. She grinned at the unhelmeted turian as he swayed, nearly going down. "The weeks have built trust, I see." Holding out her hand, she waited for him to grip her wrist, returning the gesture once he did.
"I've been helping bring shiploads of them here since you and I parted on Freedom's Progress." He glanced toward Nihlus and the others, nodding as he greeted them, "Nihlus … General Vakarian." Attention flipping back to Shepard, his mandibles flicked—she thought he might actually be pleased to see her again. After clearing his throat, Al shrugged. "Apparently they have a new task for me." He glanced toward Legion then held up a gauntlet very like the one wrapped around Shepard's arm. "Is this what you were telling me about?" he asked his arm.
"Yes, Legion and the chiastyllia are one. The geth will protect the chiastyllia."
Al sighed, a rusted chuckle grinding out of his throat just behind it. "The geth? That's where I'm taking you?" Shepard saw a brow plate lift, a faint glint of silver in the dark recesses of his hood. The hood slanted toward the floor, completely obscuring his face. "Are you sure about this, Shepard?"
"I'm sure that the chia need to be protected, and I'm sure that I want the geth to evolve free of the Reapers' enslavement." She grasped his upper arm and leaned in, both her angle and tone conspiratorial. "There are too many unknown players on this board, and we need to start shoring up our defenses. The Collectors are stealing colonies, and we both know Reaper agents are searching for the other keys. And then, along with everything else, we've got these suzerain or leviathan or whatever they're called."
"Shepard-Captain," Legion called, "simulations show a promising means of sabotaging the relays, rendering them useless to the Reapers and Collectors." He activated a large holographic projection showing a relay and a Reaper. "Normally, the relay uses the information sent by a vessel or fleet to create a corridor of near-nil mass. We believe that the chia can form a device that will use geth code to trigger the relays to do the opposite when they detect a Reaper IFF." The holo showed a demonstration of what Legion said as he said it. "The device will tell the relay to create a corridor of near infinite mass."
"Crushing the Reaper like a tin can," Shepard said, stepping forward to look at the technical information. "This is brilliant. I'd thought of sabotaging the relays, but this gives us the ability to be selective rather than crippling everyone. We just need a means of not firing off thousands of hyper-dense Reaper-missiles at the inhabited planets of the relay systems."
"Rather than accelerating the vessel, the positive mass effect field would simply collapse the corridor, depositing the destroyed Reaper to be collected and disposed of." Legion's graphic illustrated his words. "We will conduct thorough testing in an uninhabited system and present all relevant data for your approval prior to deployment of the countermeasure."
"Excellent." Shepard shook her head, amazed—even as some deep, primal part of her brain chilled—at the speed and depth and creativity of their synthesis.
Garrus closed from behind on her right, Nihlus on her left, both torins standing so that their arms touched the back of hers. Despite her usual annoyance at being coddled, at that moment the chilled part of her accepted, even relished, the contact. She shook off the warning whispering out from that frozen center. In the end, you just had to get on with things and hope for the best. If the worst came to pass, they'd deal with it. Yes, history may look back and flag that moment as the beginning of the end, but if she let that possibility paralyze her, they'd lose before they began.
Shepard let out a long sigh and turned her attention back where it belonged. "You're here to ferry the chia to the geth?" she asked Al.
The turian shrugged. "Looks that way. They just asked me for my help, so I came." From under that hood, Al's pale stare bored into her, a laser drill asking all the questions and demanding all the caution she'd just set behind her. Good, he'd keep an eye on their growth. For all he'd lost thanks to Cerberus, Al retained a razor sharp intellect and keen instincts.
A soft smile drew back one side of her mouth: her instincts about the wounded turian had been right on the mark. Maybe she'd prove them out again with the geth.
Tali made a soft sound of either wonder or sorrow, pulling Shepard around to face the quarian. She stood with her hand pressed to the chia covering Legion's chest. "We were supposed to settle Rannoch together," Tali said, her voice almost too soft to carry.
"You have all the assistance you need, Tali'Zorah vas Rannoch," Legion replied. A hand, swathed in glowing filaments, rose from the construct to touch the young denyah's shoulder. "We are currently working on ways to help the people adjust more quickly to living outside of your suits." Tali reached up, laying her hand over Legion's as he replied, "This is not goodbye. I will maintain regular contact."
Shepard closed the short distance to lay her hand on Tali's other shoulder. "Is there anything else we can do for you or for the chia?" she asked, addressing Legion. Restlessness settled in. Time to go. A great deal awaited their time and attention.
"Your support and assistance will be invaluable in an ongoing fashion, but at this time, there is nothing further you can accomplish within the Cynosure. The chia and the geth need time to organize our alliance, a task that Specimen Alpha—"
Al cleared his throat, a rough rumble of displeasure. "The name is Al, if you must call me something," the torin interrupted. Shepard turned away a little to hide a sardonic grin.
"Apologies. A task that Al has agreed to assist with." Legion's hand withdrew back into the web. "Do not feel trepidation over leaving me here. I am surrounded by companions. I am and will be … " Again, the chuckle, as if being able to say the words, tickled him. "... fine."
"Captain?" Cortez's voice came through on the radio. "You have an incoming alpha priority message from Tuchanka." His tone begged her to take the call. "Urdnot Wrex insists the matter can't wait."
"Patch Wrex through, LT." She lifted a hand to hit the control on her helmet, a wry grimace tugging at the wounds slashed across her face.
Time for more meds.
"Wrex. What is so important that my pilot sounds as though he's just faced down a krogan charge?" she called, hardening her tone. While everyone else seemed to have weathered her missing years for the better, Wrex appeared to have forgotten how to separate friends and allies from enemies in that time.
"Bakara and several other females disappeared from the female camp over a week ago." The clan chief let out a short roar, his pain and rage transmitting clearly. "The female clan chiefs say that they aren't the first, that at least three dozen have vanished over the past six months."
Shepard's face creased into a disbelieving scowl, her usual troupe of elcor gymnasts bringing in guest performers to tumble around in her gut. "And no one said anything?"
Wrex let out another roar, that one softened by notes of despair. "The females are all infertile. They assumed they'd wandered off to die in the wastes. But Bakara would never. If she's disappeared …."
"She's been taken," Shepard finished, agreeing with him. "Okay, Wrex. We're on our way, but you're four jumps and three days away. Send out what scouts you can and keep us up to date." Sighing, she reached out the best she could through comms. "We'll find her and get her back, Wrex."
The krogan let out a belching sort of chuff and the line closed.
"Shepard?" Nihlus asked, leaning around her shoulder. "What's going on?"
"Trouble on Tuchanka." She shrugged, a gesture of helpless frustration. "Bakara and a lot of other females have gone missing." Turning to Tali, Shepard reached up to squeeze the denyah's shoulder. "We need to go."
The quarian made a soft, sorrowful little sound, her hand lifting to touch Legion again. "Be well, Legion."
"I will maintain daily contact, Tali," the geth said, his tone compassionate.
Dear god … compassion. Shepard shook her head to clear away the wonder and stepped in when Tali spun away, marching toward the shuttle, her spine set. Reaching through the chia, Shepard grasped Legion's hand. "Take care, my friend. Talk soon."
"Thank you, Shepard," Legion said, startling her a little when he didn't continue with her rank. "For believing in the geth and in me."
"You're welcome." She smiled, warmth bleeding through the simple words. "It's been a privilege."
Shepard turned to hold a hand out to Al, clasping his forearm when he accepted it. "And you, don't be a stranger." She squeezed the thick bone and plate.
All the goodbyes said, she swallowed any residual melancholy and slipped her hand through Garrus's elbow. "Ride back with Tali?" she asked, opening a private channel. She shrugged when he looked down at her. "I want to talk to Nihlus about spending the trip to Tuchanka detoxing. I think he's ready."
Garrus nodded. "I think so too." He leaned down to touch the brow of his helmet to hers. "It's time for us all to leave the past where it belongs and set our focus forward."
Shepard wrapped her arm around his waist, pressing herself into the shelter and comfort of her verro's side. "I couldn't have said it better."
(A-N: We're coming up on the three year anniversary for this story, October the 1st. Thanks so much to all who remain, reading and reviewing. I really cherish every bit of support you send my way. It's been an incredible experience. Thank you thank you thank you *giant glomping hugs of doooooooom*)