Chapter 48: In Which We Explore Snape's Element

The twenty-second of June, 2004 dawned bright and clear. Sunlight poured into the room Hermione and Severus shared. Snape wanted to be asleep. He was certainly tired, but the sunlight, the strange room, and the unfamiliar bed all conspired to keep him awake. He grumbled quietly to himself as he entered the en suite bathroom, and began to run the shower.

He stood under the spraying water and wondered about what today would bring. He hadn't tried to teach anyone anything in more than seven years. Occlumency and teenage girls might not have been his best idea ever. How many margaritas did I have last night? I'm not hung over, so it couldn't have been that many. It seemed like a good idea at the time. With any luck it will seem like a good one tonight as well.

He hung his head back and let the water rinse his hair. Water. Willow thinks I'm air and water. Well, water has always been my willing tool. But air? You like to fly. An old memory stirred. He had broken the branch and dropped it on Petunia Evans. Both of the girls had left in a huff. He was angry: angry at Petunia for ruining what was shaping up to be a lovely afternoon with Lily, angry at Lily for leaving him, angry at himself for dropping the branch on Petunia, and amid all that anger the wind started. Within minutes the leaves were whipping about, and branches were clashing against each other. He had run home, getting indoors only seconds before the storm broke. Did I cause that storm? Water and Air. A thunderstorm certainly fits.

He stepped out of the shower and dried off. A moment's rummaging through his bag found him a shirt, pants, socks, and trousers. He stepped out of the bathroom, left a note for Hermione, and decided to go explore.

He found himself walking down a rather long hallway, at the end of which sunlight poured through double doors. As he walked towards the doors, he noticed the kitchen to his right. Breakfast might not be until eight, but it appeared that coffee, tea, and snacks were served around the clock. He stepped in and grabbed a cup of coffee to tide him over until breakfast.

He took his coffee to the garden, and found that Giles really had managed to transport a bit of England to the States. He settled into a wrought iron chair and sipped his coffee. The scent of roses, dew, freshly cut grass, and summer all wove around him. To his left five girls and one boy were doing some sort of morning exercises. As he sipped his coffee, he could almost imagine he was at some sort of exclusive spa.

Almost. Two girls walked by him to enter the house, covered in some sort of foul-smelling, greenish-yellow slime talking about what an excellent job they had done killing the Graflak demon. He was half way to springing up to offer them aid, when one stopped, looked at him, smiled and said in a breezy young voice, "Hi Mr Snape. You havin' a good mornin'?"

"Yes, quite lovely. Thank you for asking. And you?"

"A little sticky, but nothin' a shower and change of duds won't fix."

"You aren't hurt?"

The Slayer looked appalled and amused at the idea. "Hurt? The day a Graflak demon can do more than slime us is the day we need to retire." The other girl gave him a smile as well, and they headed into the school.

Roses and slime. There are similar odd juxtapositions when making potions. Thinking of which, I need an easy one for the test. An anti-nausea potion for Anya would do the trick. Four ingredients, and if they can make tea, they can make the potion.

He was finished his coffee and spent more time thinking about how to teach Occlumency in a week rather than months.

The morning exercise class broke up and walked past him towards the kitchen. Most of them smiled or waved, and one stopped to invite him to join them for breakfast.

"Thank you, but I'll decline for now. I need to go see if Hermione is awake."

She was. Hermione entered the kitchens from the inside door just as he entered from the outside. He walked over to her, gave her hand a squeeze, and then the two of them grabbed some breakfast.

He had just finished buttering his toast when Willow joined them. They spent a few moments in casual chit chat before planning the day.

"Hermione's got a usual schedule when she's here: Wand work in the morning. An hour or so of wandless in the afternoon with me. Then the rest of the time between then and dinner is spent working with the girls. And today's the first part of the Defeat Voldemort Challenge, right?"

"Yes. I had two girls ask me questions as I was walking to breakfast. They really are keen this year," Hermione said while cutting her pancakes into precise pieces.

Willow smiled. "Money seems to sharpen their ability to pay attention. Plus winning has become something of a status symbol. If you're all set?" Hermione nodded. "The question is: what to do with Mr Snape?"

"I'd like to be there for the Defeat Voldemort Challenge. I may have some information to add. As for the rest of our time here, I'd like to try my hand at teaching some Occlumency, and the potions test seemed interesting. An anti-nausea potion might be exactly what Anya needs to perk her back up, and they are simple enough that anyone who can make tea should be able to make one. Add a little sparring to that, some time working with you on wandless magic, and a few of Xander's excellent tamales and that will do me."

"My morning is free, since Hermione will have my students, so how about we meet at the pool."

Snape's eyebrows furrowed. "The pool?"

"Elemental Magic 101: Water for Wizards. Wear your swim suit." Willow grinned at him.

It wasn't that Snape didn't like to swim. He did. It was that he always felt there was something supremely undignified about walking about in his bathers. Part of him, the part that was ignoring he was in a building filled with teenage girls, would have rather just gone naked. But the majority of his mind was well aware of the occupants of the building, so in a black, mid-thigh length bathing suit, he walked to the pool.

Thankfully none of the girls he passed giggled. That might have sent him looking for his cloak. Nothing like billowing, black fabric to say, "I command respect." He reached the pool a moment later and saw Willow waiting for him.

Well, if he was going to have to wear shorts, at least he'd get to learn something useful, and spend the time with a pretty girl in a violet one piece.

"Hop in. We keep the water pretty warm." Willow slid into the water elegantly.

Snape followed and found it was nicely warm. "Now what?"

"You float. I'll talk."

"I can do that." And he could. He was rather good at just laying suspended in the water, especially for someone with so little body fat.

"After her first year here, Hermione gave me a wand. I spent some time playing with it, and figured out why they work so well. All magic is elemental. It fits, broadly, into one of four categories, earth, wind, water, fire. Your wand, and all the other ones I've seen, is a construct designed to balance the energies in the manner most useful for the Wizard. Wood is water and earth bound together. What's the core of yours?"

"Dragon heartstring."

"And there's your fire and air. The wand is purposely somewhat out of balance so that it will function properly with the magic of the person wielding it. Once it and you are together, you become a perfectly balanced magical creature. That's why they never work quite right with the wrong person.

"The trick to magic without a wand is that you need the will to make it happen, and you need the balance to do it without massively awful consequences."

"Explain massively awful consequences," Snape said, lifting his head from the water.

"Say I want to light a fire. It's easy enough. I could just focus all the heat in an area into what I want to burn. That'll cause a fire and freeze everything nearby. Or if I keep my balance and move a little heat from a large number of places, I still get my fire, and I don't end up with frostbite to go with it."

Snape wanted to get up and talk to Willow properly. Half drowning as he turned his head in the water to see her was annoying. He half stood as he said, "No frostbite sounds like a good plan."

Willow gestured at the water to let him know to stay down. "We know you've got the will. If you can keep your mind shut as well as Hermione says you can, will won't be a problem. That leaves learning the elements and feeling them. Elemental magic breaks into three parts. The tool: which for you appears to be water. The personality: which I picked air for, because that's the element of the mind, but that's not certain, yet. And then the balance of all four together for more complex workings.

"Once you let go of the wand, you need to find the feel of the magic around you. Water is the easiest of the four to get a handle on because you can start like this, floating in it."

"So what do I do?"

"Lay back, float, and when you can feel the power of the water, when you can make it do what you want to with your will, then it's time to find me and talk some more."

"How do I know it's obeying me?"

"Make it let you sink and float you up again."

That was a remarkably unuseful set of instructions. Snape stood up, water dripping off of him. "Is this how you usually teach?"

Willow grinned, and he had a feeling that there was something in the back of her mind unsaid about Karma. "This is how I teach people who already know what to do, but just haven't done it yet. Go float, feel the water. If you're not out by lunch, I'll send Hermione to fetch you."

Willow slid back out of the water. Snape settled back to float. He didn't know how long had passed, but slowly the realization of there being more than just water in the pool hit him. First came the awareness of the currents, of how everything around him moved. Then came the awareness of the water within him moving in synch with the water without. Then, slowly, came the awareness of power. At one point he opened his eyes and saw the glow of the water around him. He smiled and closed his eyes.

I've got the feel of it. Now make it do what I want it to do. Sink and float back up. He imagined the feel of the water engulfing him, saw through it in his mind's eye, held his breath, and began to sink. Hold it. He settled on the floor of the pool and stayed there for a short time. A feeling akin to ecstasy washed through him. When his lungs began to burn he set his will to rising. Within seconds he was once more floating on the surface, a wide grin on his face.

He swam to the side of the pool and heaved himself out. Once his legs were supporting his full weight, he realized how remarkably tired he was. The last time he had felt this kind of muscle strain, he had hiked twelve kilometres looking for a rare herb on the fen.

Snape sat next to the pool, his feet dangling in the water, collecting his strength, and looked at his wand. He touched its ebony wood: water and earth made one. He closed his eyes and let it sit in his hand. For the first time he felt the energy moving through it. He felt its perfect balance in his hand, and how right it felt there.

For some time he sat there, becoming reacquainted with his wand. Eventually he stood up, and began the long walk to Willow's office. Maybe a quick nap before lunch. He took a few more steps, his feet dragging. Maybe a long nap.

By the time he had gotten to the second floor, Snape had decided in favour of the nap. He was too tired to make it all the way to the fourth floor. With a sigh, he settled into bed, set his wand to wake him before lunch, and slipped into sleep.

Two hours later he found Willow in her office. She smiled up at him. "I was just about to send Hermione to rescue…" Then she really saw him. "You got it."

He was smiling. In fact, he noticed he was having a hard time keeping a straight face. "I think I did. It took about an hour, but afterwards I was so knackered I needed a nap."

"No wonder, that's a huge amount of progress for one hour." She continued to look at him further. "It's not just water is it?"

"I don't think so. I spent some time with my wand, feeling its energies, and how it works. And your office feels different this time, looks different." The small blackened crystal called out to him again, but this time he just watched it.

"There's something different about that stone. Something I can't characterize."

"Yes, there is. Let it rest for now. I don't want you burning yourself out with too much too fast. Take the rest of today easy: lots of food, lots of rest. You'll have some pretty intense dreams tonight. That's the second part, finding the element of your personality. The dreams will let you know." She stood, and they began to leave her office.

"Oh, you might be feeling a bit more emotional than usual. It's a side effect from the large amounts of water energy. It'll dissipate over the next few hours as you slide back toward your usual balance."

They walked down to lunch, talking about his experience in the pool. Hermione was already at a table, waiting for them. Snape ate quietly, watching the world around him more carefully than he usually did. He could see Hermione's warm brown earth energies and her light yellow air ones. He looked back at Willow. There was also the brown of earth, and something else, something like that stone, something different.

When Willow left, Hermione took his hand in hers. "Seeing the world differently?"

"Very much so. It's like yesterday I was colour-blind, and today I'm not. You really are beautiful, you know? All warm, silky browns and yellows."

She smiled at him and kissed him softly. Some of the girls sitting nearby made little ahhh sounds.

"So are you."

He held her hand to his, and raised it to his lips. Inhaling her scent before he kissed her wrist where her pulse throbbed.

"Let's go upstairs."

She smiled back at him, "Yes, let's."

Afterward, Hermione joined Willow to work on more advanced wandless magic. Severus had intended to take Willow's advice and lay about. That lasted all of ten minutes. He was still physically tired, but his mind was more alert than it had been since the war. There was so much to learn, so much to see, so much more out there than he had imagined before. He found himself walking toward Dean's workshop, bare feet caressing the grass covered earth.

Dean's shop had a whole side that opened. In that way, it put Snape in mind of a car park. Inside, Dean was placing pieces of wood on different shelves. On one wall sat a large bureau with many small drawers. Chisels of all shapes and sizes lined the opposite wall. In the centre sat a lathe.

"How do you make wands?"

Dean jumped, dropping the piece of wood he was holding. "Mr Snape, I didn't hear you come by." He saw Snape's bare feet. "Don't come in here, lots of splinters. Did you say you want to know how to make a wand?"

"Yes."

"In general, you take two halves of a piece of wood, chisel out a thin line for the core, place the core, glue it up, and then put it on the lathe to shape it."

"How about in specific?"

"Sorry, that's a trade secret."

"How do you know which wood to use with which core?"

Dean shook his head.

Snape's post-water-energy-glow was rapidly fading. "Look, I don't want to go into business for myself, I just want to know because…" He felt silly explaining himself to the boy and turned to leave.

Dean called out, "It's not that I won't tell you. It's that I can't. You just feel it. You hold a piece of wood and a unicorn tail hair, and you feel it. You know they match, or you know they don't. Same as when you pick up a wand the first time. You know when you've got the right one. When you hold the wood, you know what it wants to become. You just feel it." Snape looked at Dean and saw the strong earth energies, as well as the other three nicely playing about him.

"Thank you." He turned to leave once more. Fear began to creep up on him. The implementation of will was not a problem for him. He lived in his head and by his mind for longer than not. But this new magic was all about feeling. All about emotion and rightness: it couldn't be learned or read, only experienced. This is life and love and pain and fear and finding a balance between all of those things. Feeling all those things. It's too much. Retreat Severus! This might be another reason Willow wanted you to slow down. Maybe it's time to go to the gym and wait for the start of the Defeat Voldemort Challenge.

The Defeat Voldemort Challenge would be held in the gym. The one room everyone could easily fit into.

According to Hermione the game began with the question and answer session. The girls could ask any background question they wanted to. Each year they asked, and each year, Hermione added the answers to their questions to her folder of Voldemort facts. The next year the new girls studied the folder and got new questions ready.

As he entered the gym, pounding dance music hit his ears. Several different fights were taking place around the gym. The one in the centre caught his eye. Three of the girls were fighting Spike. The first thing he noticed was the speed. During the year he was writing, he had often been bored, sometimes to the point of watching Jet Li movies on telly. These four looked like they were in Kiss of the Dragon. He had never imagined humans being able to move like that without the aid of computers, wires, and high tech movie cameras. The second thing he noticed was how Spike kept the girls off balance, using them to block each other. He had succeeded in making sure one of them was always in the way of another one. Third, he noticed the girls weren't landing many of the hits they were aiming. Spike was just a hair faster than they were, but it was a hair that mattered.

After a moment, as if he knew Severus was watching him, Spike looked up, waved at him and neatly flipped the Asian girl over his shoulder into the brunette. They fell to the floor, tangled with each other. He spun on his left leg, and caught the standing Slayer in the shoulder with a roundhouse kick. She fell backwards. He followed through, landing on both feet facing Snape, his black leather trench coat billowing behind him. There's man who knows how to use a coat!

"That's enough for now, Luvs. Go practice with each other for a bit. Got to say hello to a friend."

He walked over to Snape, fishing a pack of cigarettes out of his coat. He offered one to Snape, who shook his head, and then lit up.

"Here to watch us fight?"

"Here to kill some time before the Defeat Voldemort Challenge."

Spike glanced at the girls. "The bits have been twittering about it all day. New ones asking the old ones about who won last year, and what tactics she used, and all that. Horrible cheater, the lot of 'em!" He said the last bit with a raised voice, and some of the girls turned to grin at him. Others just waved him off, one with a grin and a rude hand gesture.

"Teaching them bad manners?" Severus nodded at the petite blond with two fingers extended.

"Not that one. She's from Kent originally."

"Ahh... And you allow that?

"Encourage it. Don't want them being too polite and obedient."

While Spike was speaking, Snape noticed something: he wasn't sweating. "Doesn't the heat bother you? It's a great coat, but I'd think you'd rather fight without it."

"Heat doesn't bother me, and the coat helps to keep the bits focused."

"How did you learn to fight like that?"

"Lots and lots of experience." Spike inhaled on his cigarette. He exhaled, yelled to one of the girls about her form, and it was at that moment that Severus realized that Spike not only wasn't sweating, he wasn't winded. Snape looked closer. Spike wasn't breathing. A cold chill prickled at his spine.

"Define lots and lots."

"She didn't tell you did she?" Spike shook his head. "About a hundred and twenty years. Everyone around here is so used to me; they sometimes forget to mention it to newcomers. The Slayerettes find it especially disturbing at first."

Severus was sure he knew what the answer was, but he had to ask all the same, "What do they find disturbing?"

"I'm a vampire. Look, mate, it's a fairly long story, but the quick version goes something like this: I fell in love and decided to become a better man. You can understand that. The things we do to win the women we love. I joined the White Hats, got my soul back, fought the good fight, and then came back to her, and by that point she was ready for me."

Snape was quiet. Part of him wanted to scream and run away. Part of him wanted to attack. And part of him was remembering one of the best conversations about music he had had in years. Spike stood impassively in front of him, sucking on his cigarette. He waited to see how the small battle in Severus' head about what he knew about vampires, and what he knew about Spike fought its way to a conclusion. Finally Severus said, "I can understand that, I've done some things myself to get a woman to love me."

"We all have. Well, any of us who have really loved one of them. Speaking of which…" His gaze fell across the room. Buffy, Hermione, Willow, and ten girls entered the gym.

The women joined them, and Spike looked at Hermione. "You forgot to tell your man about me. Gave him a bad shock today."

Severus shrugged. He didn't want it to sound like he had shrieked like a little girl or anything. "Not too bad. Just a moment where I wasn't sure I was seeing what I thought I was."

Hermione looked somewhat chagrined. "Sorry about that. It's pretty easy to forget." She turned to Spike. "It's not like you stalk about in a black cape, seducing young girls, sucking their blood and sleeping in a coffin. As long as no one looks too closely at what's in your coffee cup, there really aren't any tells."

"Other than the whole doesn't sweat or breathe thing," Snape said under his breath. Spike grinned, and Hermione looked somewhat off put.

"It's not like you noticed last night."

"True, but it's easy to miss that someone doesn't breathe when they're talking to you and eating. Much simpler to spot after a workout when you'd expect him to be winded."

"Hmp." Hermione quickly changed the subject, "Ready to see what they can come up with? It's deeply painful to see how bad Dumbledore was at running the Order, but if there's a next time, we'll be more than ready."

As the girls continued to file in, Spike couldn't resist one last bit: "Mate, that wasn't much of a workout. We were only sparring for eighty minutes."

"Which would be more than long enough to make my heart explode," Severus answered him.

"One of the benefits of being dead." Spike looked over the room. "I think all the birds are here. Time to be the centre of attention."

Buffy stood up. "Once again we have gathered here for the Defeat Voldemort Challenge. This time in addition to Hermione Granger, we also have Severus Snape. As this is the first part of the challenge, you are welcome to pick their brains. Tomorrow your final plans are due, and Hermione and Severus will judge them. And, although I'm sure none of you have forgotten, the winner will get the use of one of the cars, the day off, and two hundred dollars. Okay girls, have fun."

The first girl, a pretty Goth, began "Oh, Hi, I'm Abby. This is for Severus. Did you know where Voldemort was? And if you did, could you tell anyone."

"I did know where he was, and yes I could and did tell."

"The whole time?" Abby followed up.

"We knew he was in Quirrell that whole year, and I knew where he was located from the day he got his body back until the day he died."

Hermione looked at him, shocked. "You knew?"

"Yes, you can't apparate to someone's side if you don't know where they are."

Hermione still looked shocked. "Dumbledore knew where Voldemort was the whole time and just left him there? Just let him torture and kill people?"

"It would have blown my cover. At least that was the reason he gave me." Snape shrugged. "I didn't know about the Horcruxes until later, so that probably had something to do with not moving against him, as well."

The two of them were quiet. Another girl stood, this one a very tall black girl. "How many Death Eaters were there?"

Snape answered her question as well, "Thirty or so in the core group, one hundred additional supporters."

"And they took over the Ministry of Magic?"

"They were the right 130. All of them were handy with an Imperius Curse. You have to remember, there was only something like five thousand of us in the UK at any time."

A sweet faced girl with long brown hair stood up. "I'm Beth. Could you have done some sort of Marauder's map for the Horcruxes?"

Hermione answered, "I don't know. I probably could do one now. The idea never occurred to me then."

"Could Dumbledore have done one?"

Severus answered, "He probably could have. Or, since Lupin and Black were still alive, they could have. But I bet the idea never occurred to them, either."

A bookish looking girl stood up. "I'm Judy. Was Dumbledore actually trying to stop Voldemort, or was he attempting to use the chaos to institute a more just wizarding society by making your world see the dangers of Pure-Blood superiority?"

For a long time neither Snape nor Hermione spoke. They sat quietly thinking, and then after a moment, looked at each other, and thought a bit more.

Finally Snape spoke, "You might just be onto something. I didn't much like Lupin, but he could have been used much more effectively. Sending him to the werewolves as an emissary was worse that useless. Likewise there was no reason to send Hagrid to be beaten to a pulp by the Giants."

Hermione added, "That would also explain him letting the Ministry do such an abysmal job for so long."

"I don't think there was much he could have done with Fudge," Severus said, more speaking to Hermione than the crowd.

"No, but he knew Voldemort would be back, and he turned down the position as Minister of Magic. He could have been in charge when Voldemort returned."

"I hadn't thought of that…" They both continued to look thoughtful.

After a minute, a girl with short blue and black hair stood up. "I'm Cindy. This question is for Severus: did anyone in the Order know your loyalties after Dumbledore was killed?"

"No. Well, Dumbledore's portrait, but he wasn't exactly an Order member. No one useful."

"So what did you actually do during that last year? I mean, how did you being cut off from the Order benefit anyone?"

"I made sure that Hogwarts wasn't as bad as it could have been. I kept a lot of the DA alive, and set it up so they got out before things got too bad. I also made sure Harry got the tools he needed to destroy the Horcruxes and face Voldemort. I don't think my being cut off from the Order benefited anyone, with the possible exception of me. If anyone who knew my true alliance was captured, that would have been the end of me.

"In retrospect the whole last year was a debacle. Most of what I did in regards to Harry and the Horcrux hunt could have been done by any other member of the Order and more easily. But figuring a better way to have done it is your job."

Beth stood up again. "Was the Prophecy true? Could only Harry have killed Voldemort?"

Hermione took that one. "No. Anyone who could have landed a killing curse would have killed Voldemort, but as long as that bit of his soul was in Harry, then he'd just keep coming back. As I understand it, the whole point of the Prophecy was to draw Voldemort out into the open where he could be fought."

Cindy asked another question, "How many Order members were there?"

Hermione cast a questioning glance at Severus, and then said, "I knew of about twenty-five."

"Sixty-three at the beginning of the war, eighteen by the end," Severus added.

Judy stood. "Can Dementors be killed?"

Once more Snape and Hermione looked at each other, he spoke first, "Probably, anything that breeds dies, but I don't know how you'd go about doing it."

"Did they have actual bodies?" Hermione asked Severus.

"Yes. Maybe if you got close enough to one you could stab it or something. I've never heard of anyone who could stay sane long enough to do anything if one got close enough to stab."

Abbey rose again. "Why didn't you guys just kill Quirrell?"

Snape answered, "Dumbledore did."

Hermione looked at him in shock. "Dumbledore killed Quirrell?"

"We had been hoping to get Voldemort out of Quirrell. We had hoped to save him. However, he had been fatally wounded fighting Harry, and Dumbledore saw it as his chance to take out Voldemort. It didn't work. That's why Voldemort tried possessing Harry at the Ministry; he was hoping that Dumbledore would try the same trick twice. Obviously Dumbledore was better at learning from his mistakes than Voldemort gave him credit for."

"Why didn't it work?" Abby asked.

"This was Dumbledore's conjecture: Voldemort was not attached to Quirrell's body in any meaningful way. He was like a tick, if you kill the person the tick is on, it just hops back off and finds a new person. It doesn't die. But because Quirrell had been drinking the Unicorn blood to help keep Voldemort alive, Dumbledore had hoped he was more attached to the physical body of Quirrell than he actually was."

No one stood. "Is that everything?" Buffy asked. A murmur of assent came from the girls. "So, this time tomorrow, get your ideas to Hermione." The gathering broke up as the girls moved onto their regularly scheduled activities.

Spike joined Snape and Hermione. "Buffy and I were planning on going out tonight. Would you like to join us?"

"When and where?" Hermione answered.

"After sunset, and how about the Warehouse district? There's good food and a club we like. Do you eat Brazillian food?"

"Not yet, but I like pretty much everything," Hermione replied.

"See you then. I've got a poetry class that's starting without me. Oh, no jeans or trainers." Spike turned to leave, his coat flaring behind him.

Severus was standing behind her, smiling. As Spike walked away Severus bent to whisper in her ear, "Should I be jealous?"

Hermione blushed slightly. "Well, he is rather pretty." She grinned at him. "Or were you talking about his coat?"

"The coat. Definitely the coat."

"It is a good coat. Do I see a potential Christmas present?"

"You just might."

"You and leather, who'd have thought?"

"Five points from Gryffindor, Ms Granger. You obviously weren't paying enough attention when we went dancing."

She raised an eyebrow at him, "And I thought it was what was under those leather trousers that had you so entranced…"

"There was that." They walked out of the gym snarking gently at each other.