Horn and Ivory
Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form own the show Teen Titans, nor the various DC comics on which this fanfiction is based.
Several steps further on the path, Raven senses the gateway completely disappear from behind them.
The gate's vanishment is accentuated by a loud, echoing ring that sends the air around them humming.
The women tense, waiting for something to lunge out at them at the call of the gateway.
Their worries are, instead, answered by a vibrating sensation running beneath their feet.
Eyes going wide, both of them cast a glance backward.
Where mist violently swirls in a path moving for Raven, the bricks behind Jinx begin to rapidly crack and crumble down into the black void below.
Sudden pain rips through Raven's mind, and she curses as they take off running from the destruction of their pathway.
"If we picked the wrong gate, do you think it's messing with us?" Jinx huffs as they pick up speed.
"Possible, but do you really want to find out?"
"Could you fly me out if I did?"
Raven's gaze moves around them, taking in the slightly thinner haze around them with apprehension.
"I still can't see anything here. What if-"
"This place sucks, I get it," Jinx interrupts. "I'm guessing teleportation's out, too?"
"I need to use my soul-self for that feat," Raven growls. "If only I could see-"
Her statement is interrupted when she finds the pathway in front of her suddenly taking a sharp right curve and sloping downward.
As she takes the turn, her arm is yanked by Jinx, who is facing the opposite direction and seems to float on the air above her.
The two look at each other, both paling even more than normal.
"Different paths," Jinx groans.
The echoing crack of the disappearing ground stops, leaving them both on the beginnings of their respective grounds with an incredibly small, yet somehow infinite void between them.
They turn to look back, finding the path completely gone.
"We picked the wrong goddamn gate. Sonuvabitch!" Jinx snarls, her hand tightening on Raven's.
Raven nods in agreement to the sentiment, a grimace coloring her expression.
"Your path goes up?" she asks.
"Of course, like I'm assuming yours goes down. There's a joke in there somewhere, but I'm too annoyed to find it right now. Are you curving, too?"
Raven points in the direction of her path with a nod.
Jinx's lips press into a hard frown, and she hitches her thumb in the opposite direction.
"Am I paranoid when I think the damn place is tryin' to split us apart?" she groans.
"I'd like to say yes, but I don't think I can. If this isn't Ivory, I would be very surprised."
"The damn gate was black!" Jinx growls defensively.
"As I said, the Gate of Ivory is the gate of false dreams. It is not out of the realm of possibilities that just being in its presence could affect our perceptions. It would explain why it's the biggest threat for getting lost in this dimension."
"So now, even the damn decorations here can mess with my brain!?"
"It appears so. Clearly, I was not as informed as I thought."
Raven grows silent, sending a tentative look at the air beneath Jinx's feet.
As she stands still, a thought occurs to the meta that draws a groan from her.
"Oh, damnit! Hey, Rae, why not just do that thing you once did with bird brain? You said you could see what he saw, when he was losin' his mind. If there's anythin' that I'm okay with having in my head, it's you, and if you see everything with my eyes, then-"
"That would be… unwise… here, Jinx. We currently are our minds. What I did then was simply using my telepathy to take a small residence in his mind to see as he did. To do so here… It would likely not end well," she summarizes with a noticeable pallor to her false skin.
Jinx deflates a bit, a hard frown forming on her lips.
"I can't come up with a single good idea here! Am I always this stupid, or is it-"
"It was not a stupid idea, by any means. Were this any other plane, it would be the perfect solution to the problem we face," Raven comforts quickly. "You can't expect to immediately wrap your mind around the rules of a foreign astral plane, Jinx."
Jinx glares at her, her words meant to comfort seeming to annoy the meta, instead.
"You're figurin' shit out fast enough," she complains.
"The only reason I'm slightly better-adjusted is because of my times in Nevermore, and some slight information beforehand that was just barely enough to get us here in one piece. It is nothing to do with either of our intelligences, Jinx."
Jinx nods slightly, an embarrassed edge forming on her frown.
"I'm being a bitch. Sorry. It's just-"
"You're nothing of the sort. This place sucks. I know."
"So what's the plan?"
Raven stares at her path, glares like daggers focused on the shifting shape.
"We walk. The gates both do lead to the castle. We'll have to suck it up and head there separately."
"I don't like that plan, Rae."
"Nor do I. I'd be inclined to simply float after you, but there are too many things that can so easily go wrong. What if I run out of power without any land in sight while with you? What if I fall through your path, and we both end up plummeting to whatever horror lies beneath us? We can't risk it."
"I guess we walk, then," Jinx sighs.
With a blush creeping onto her cheeks, Raven leans across the divide between their paths and quickly kisses the meta.
When a pleased noise sounds in the back of Jinx's throat, Raven pulls away to face the disappointed glare.
"You can do better," she grouses.
"Certainly, so you'll just have to meet up with me to get something better," Raven muses with a grin.
Her expression sobers, and she squeezes her lover's hand again.
"Be careful, Jinx. I don't know what this gate might have waiting for us."
"Yeah, yeah, suspect everything and hex first, questions later. Got it," Jinx sighs. "And you, too."
Reluctantly, Raven releases her hold and gives a nod before she turns and heads down her path.
Jinx watches until she disappears from her sight, some strange wall of darkness seeming to swallow her fiancé's form as she descends.
With a huff, she turns and heads her own direction…
…..
Raven begins noticing changes, the further down the path she walks.
No matter how far down they walk, it seems to continue to spiral.
Further, the mist gives way more and more to a thick, oily black smoke as she goes lower into the realm.
Strange noises begin reaching her ears, a bizarre cacophony of screeches and roaring flames.
A bad feeling roots itself firmly into her stomach as she finally comes to a stop, her pathway abruptly ending.
The feeling grows as she looks downward, and finds that, indeed, there is land below.
A large circle of what appears, even through the smoke and mist, to be solid, blackened earth.
From it, another strip of black leads off, clearly marking her path.
Something moves around the circle, black smoke obscuring all but the land.
Clearly, the gate wants her down on the circle, and she is quickly getting the impression that she isn't going to like what she finds.
As though anticipating her inner debate, the ground rumbles beneath her and she turns to watch the pathway be swallowed by mist.
With a curse, she jumps, her body shifting to pure darkness as it descends.
She reforms into her false shell on the ground, noticing as she moves down that the air gains a decidedly acrid scent that reeks of familiarity.
The air also begins to warm with her descent, and as she takes on a fully solid form once more, she's sure the heat would draw sweat from her brow instantly if she had pores to have such reactions.
The black smoke crushes in on itself above her, completely sealing off where she'd come from.
Releasing a sigh, she turns in a circle to take in her surroundings.
And her heart skips a beat when she realizes that what she'd seen moving is an ocean of bubbling and flowing lava.
The area, save for the blurry quality the heat creates in the air, is far clearer for Raven's eyes, and in the distance she sees a large obelisk of black stone.
A slightly smaller blotch of red contrasts with the darkness, and a new awareness settles on the empath as she feels her entire body tense.
Curses in several languages, some no longer remembered by humans, slip from her as she storms down the black rock towards the obelisk.
She finds her suspicion confirmed as she reaches another large disc of ground, a new path stretching around the obelisk and into the distance before a noticeable incline.
She reaches the circle and raises her eyes, finding four hellish slits of red glaring back at her.
"This gate is fairly unimaginative," she muses to the hulking mass of withered red flesh.
Trigon's body is smaller than Raven remembers.
Further, the large muscles that had made up his form during their last encounter have turned to withered, sagging flesh, as though he were a human who'd been starved.
All four of his limbs are held out and pressed to the stone of the obelisk by glowing, ethereal cuffs of black energy, the skin where they came into contact unhealthily ashen compared to the rest of his skin.
His previously white hair is now grey and withered, forming straw-like strands to frame his head.
Despite the apparent weakness to his form, he trains a confident smirk at her that is entirely offset by his glaring eyes.
"Daughter. What a… pleasant surprise. Have you come to siphon even more from me, in person now?"
Shaking her head, Raven continues to walk past the obelisk.
When she reaches the center, his eyes glow more brightly, and a beam of red light lances down at her.
It turns to red vapor before ever reaching her, the bands holding him turning darker at the same moment.
She stares back at him with an utter lack of being impressed, a brow arcing.
"You should probably not waste the energy. It seems that you don't have that much to spare," she muses as she continues walking.
"Certainly true. You've been using my powers enough recently for the both of us," he growls.
The statement gives her pause, her eyes returning to him.
"My powers, you mean. The power I used to destroy you even after you'd rescinded what you'd previously given me."
She releases an annoyed huff, her eyes moving back to the path.
"I'm arguing with a figment of imagination. Ridiculous. If this is the gate's way of trying to throw me off-balance and confuse me, it would have served better to manifested you at the top of your game, instead of that husk, and having you attack me relentlessly."
He sneers at her, the smoke fading from around his eyes.
"The Gate of Ivory does not work so simply, at least when humans aren't concerned, and I assure you that there is no such convenient trickery involved in this, daughter," he snarls.
"Ri-ight. Because of course you were sent to some hole in Morpheus's domain when I decimated you," Raven challenges.
"Dream's territory is as connected as any other to other places and times. Evidently, even the depths of your soul are not out of its reach."
"I would vomit at the thought of having you locked within my soul, if I had a stomach at the moment."
He laughs at that, the sound sending a ripple of revulsion through Raven despite her professed lack of digestive system.
"How very ladylike, daughter. So you embrace even my personality as you attempt to assimilate me into you. As you already have one of my sons."
Raven glares at him, sure her face would be red in irritation if she had blood.
"I'll have to nip that in the bud. Though ladylike has never been something you could accuse me of being."
"Certainly, though I understand that humans are far less attracted to those qualities in their women."
"A non-issue, as I have a betrothed."
"Oh, yes. Far be it from me to give fatherly advice, but I advise you rethink that decision. Just think of how many females I went through trying to sire you and my sons. Being so attached to a human, especially one incapable of granting offspring, will only damage you in the end. It wouldn't do to press such dangers on that chaotic metahuman when she betrayed you and you ended up killing everything over a petty spat," he laughs.
Raven's hands turn to fists, irrational amounts of anger bursting forth like a dam.
"First of all, giving such advice would require you to be a father, which I made abundantly clear when I was dismantling you that you are certainly not. And secondly, unlike you, I actually give a damn about beings other than myself. The reason they died is because you put no effort into really trying to not turn them to splatters on a wall."
His eyes widen a fraction at that, her own orbs pulsing with light and turning slightly more red than indigo.
"Don't tell me you're actually serious about that whelp. You can sire no offspring-"
"I would never willingly pass your genes on to another generation, even if it were a possibility. And it just goes to show that I'm not an instinct-driven beast like you. I've had enough of this. I have somewhere to be," she huffs as she again begins walking.
His laughter sends the ground trembling, his head thrown back.
"You still think yourself so different, so superior, even as you continue draining this part of me dry to get more power. Utterly ridiculous! You can act high and mighty all you want, but it will only end poorly if you continue to deny that you are my sire, in every way that's important!"
She shakes her head, an irritated glare locking onto the ground.
"I am superior to you in spite of your genetics. My power is originated in you, but it is entirely my own, and has been for a very long time."
"And yet, you don't deny that you still, even as we speak, leech my power from me. Surely you don't think that these recent times of surging back into fighting shape when on the verge of death is from mere will and some good fortune alone!"
Raven shrugs, an icy smirk curling her lips as she stares back into his glare.
"If this is the gate's work, it's irrelevant, and I've simply been indulging in its wishes. If this is reality, and I'm truly sucking you dry of the remnants of power you possess, then I see you as nothing but a talking battery. Even if I am draining some remnant of Trigon buried within my soul, that's what it amounts to, both from what you're suggesting and what I've experienced. You give me no power, you would simply be a more aware version of Jinx's amulet, giving me energy to use my own powers."
His eyes narrow to hateful slits, red smoke rising from them.
"I should rend you to ashes!"
"You can certainly try," Raven muses. "I beat you on a physical plane where you should have been stronger. Even if you are real, why do you think you can beat me in a mental plane, especially if this truly is my own soul?"
He bares his fangs in response, a throaty growl sounding.
"Exactly. If that will be all, I've wasted enough time already, and must be on my way."
She finally reaches the other side of the disc, making her way up the sloping path without another word to her father, his entire body shaking in rage…
…
Jinx shudders as the air gets cooler as she ascends, the black smoke thinning with each step she takes.
The void below suddenly turns brighter, becoming a terrifying lake of red lava.
Spouts of fire launch high into the air, though nowhere near high enough to reach her.
She grunts and quickly drops to a knee on the stone, holding on as it violently shakes back and forth.
As she hangs on, a noise reaches her ears that, were she asked, she would swear was a monster bellowing in rage.
Taking a large gulp of air, she bends her head over the side of her path and looks down.
Far, far below, she spots a massive black tower on a circle of rock, though even her enhanced vision can't tell her more than this information.
As she squints, trying to figure out what she's looking at anyway, another spout of fire releases high into the air, and black smoke suddenly swirls to obscure her vision.
Shivering, she wonders if the vague dot of white she'd seen on the ground had been her imagination, or if it had really been her lover.
Shaking her head, she returns her vision to her own path, putting off wondering until she has Raven there to ask directly.
She quickly begins climbing again, the incline in her path growing steeper and steeper until she has to treat it as climbing a mountain.
The stone becomes leeched of color the higher she climbs, turning from black to a dull white.
The smoke entirely disappears into blue mist as she rises, and the stones become noticeably more slippery in her grip.
Just as she begins to worry that she'll slip and plummet to her death, she reaches the top of her climb.
Her hands clasp onto the edge and she pulls, easily vaulting herself up and onto her back on the flat ground above.
She lay there, huffing in deep breaths as her body acts as though her heart is there thudding in her chest.
As soon as she realizes she doesn't currently have said organ, the sensation vanishes, and she leaps back to her feet.
"I hate this place," she grunts.
She begins walking once more, finding herself in the obscured landscape Raven had described.
The more she walks through the obscured land, carefully testing each step in case the mist covers some landfall, the more she realizes how right Raven had been.
At least in the scary hellscape, she'd been able to see where she was going more than a few steps ahead of herself.
Something watches her as she continues down the path, the sensation creeping along her spine to draw a shudder from her.
The feeling only grows stronger the further she moves, and she soon loses all sense of her surroundings as the path continues on forever before her.
The path below her suddenly drops, and she screeches as her body falls several feet.
She grunts at the sudden impact of her face on the stone.
Except, whereas she expects pain, instead her face temporarily turns to pink static.
She quickly jerks back to her feet and she feels her shell harden again, an embarrassed tint forming on her cheeks.
A quiet chuckle sounds nearby, sending her immediately into a tensed crouch.
The mist seems to clear around her, revealing another platform underneath her feet.
Off the side of the platform is another pathway, presumably leading to the grey tower she can barely make out in the distance that still reminds her of a horror movie cliché.
And between her and the path is Raven.
She begins to relax, only to stop when she notices that the woman has four hellish red lenses focused on her, and the Mark of Skaath glows brightly where her chakra gem should be.
Something presses into her awareness, and with widening eyes, she dives forward, rolling to the middle of the platform.
She stares in shock as shadows coil up where she'd been and crush inward, decimating the stone she'd been standing on as though it were tissue paper.
Another chuckle sounds, and her eyes narrow on her lover.
"Okay, now this stupid gate's officially pissing me off," she growls.
Her eyes flash with power, and she takes aim at the creature parading as her lover only to find her gone.
A gasp escapes her as darkness suddenly coalesces around her throat, lifting her whole body off the ground and turning her to face it.
"Raven" levels an amused smirk at her, her left arm nothing but darkness as it continues to coil around the meta.
"The gate? No, as much as you wish it to be true, this isn't the gate's doing. I assure you, Nicole, this is very real."
Jinx's response is cut off as the other hand lashes forward and slams into her stomach.
Air escapes her and she retches, her body shaky from the bone-crushing impact.
With a growl, she focuses her mind, and the sensation immediately disappears.
Her body melts into pink sparks, which slip free of "Raven's" grasp before reforming into her shell.
The creature's eyes widen a bit, her amused smirk gone.
"You're finally getting it. Good girl."
Sparks of her hex magic release around her at the condescending tone, her eyes turning to solid pink.
She points at "Raven" and this time, releases a lancing bolt of the power before she teleports away.
The creature's body turns black, and the shadowy form wraps around the hexbolt before snuffing it out in a column of pink smoke.
Immediately, weakness sweeps through the meta, her knees wobbling and nausea rushing violently through her.
By the time her mind catches up with her lack of stomach, the creature is again in Raven's form, this time with a pulse of pink within its eyes.
"I wouldn't do that, too much, Jinx. You'll wear yourself out far faster than you'll like, and anything you lose here won't be something you want to lose. If you keep going, you might possibly even throw something like the memory of how to breathe or even think at me, and that would be quite terrible on your body and mind both."
Jinx refuses to let the terror rushing through her show, her expression locked in a stony mask as she meets the creature's gaze evenly.
The swirling mass of darkness that covers Raven's arm shifts and turns into a large claw of black smoke as the meta watches.
"I'm damn sure going to kill you, but first, I really want to know what the deal is with this stupid gate. Really, what the hell!? It couldn't do better than the person I routinely practice fighting with?"
"Raven" makes a mocking sound in the back of her throat, an amused sneer curving her lips.
"I am interested in why you're so sure I'm a figment of the gate's creation," she muses.
Jinx shrugs, her eyes not daring to leave the creature for even a second.
"Because you're trying to kill me, for one. Because you're bantering and being obnoxious also sells it for me."
"Raven" tilts her head to the side, her gaze taking on a quality not unlike a scientist fascinated by a rare specimen.
"We're in a realm of fantasies. What makes you so sure that you're not being toyed with by the gate? What if the real Raven is right here, in my body, and is actually attacking you because she, likewise, thinks that you are a fake? Everything I'm saying could be an illusion put into your head."
Jinx blanches, her eyes going wide in shock.
The creature acts on the distraction, sending a blade of black energy straight at the meta.
She dives to the side to avoid the attack, almost falling straight off the side of the platform.
Eyes wide, Jinx plants her hands into the ground and shoves backward, sending herself into a somersault back onto her feet behind Raven.
Her fist shoots at the back of the creature's head and jerks to a harsh stop.
For a moment, the way the creature's head is leaned forward after the impact makes her think she has, indeed, slammed home.
And then, she realizes darkness is slinking up her arm, coiling its way up to her shoulder.
She begins to repeat her previous escape, and the soul-self reacts as though expecting it.
Her eyes widen when the darkness explodes outwards and forms a net, trapping her from head to toe.
Memories spring forth of cloying dirt, and her heart begins beating rapidly against her chest.
In her panic, she forgets it isn't real.
Her head is released, and a blood-red Raven stands smirking at her.
"You were correct, at any rate. I am not Raven. She's already gotten free, leaving you behind to die, even though you're now both on the same level of this realm now. What I am is one of Dream's defenses, given form by the Gate of Ivory. That I took on the form of your worst nightmare, and that it takes on this form is… amusing."
"The gate must just have rust in the brain," Jinx huffs.
As she argues, though, she does notice the fact that there are now two paths where there had been one previously, and neither is where she remembered.
The soul-self crushes in on her, drawing a pained wheeze from deep in her chest and bringing her attention back.
"I do not think so. For whatever reason, the sight of your betrothed in her true form, acting true to her real nature, is enough to completely put you off-balance. She didn't even blink at what was thrown her way. Honestly, you're so lost now that I could do nothing further and still not worry about you ever reaching the castle. But while I'm a construct, I also have some autonomy based on what form I take, and it seems this form wants to kill you."
"Bullshit," Jinx snarls while struggling against the dark cage wrapping around her.
"Oh, I'm assuming the real her doesn't, at least consciously, but your nightmare seems to be that she will be powerless in the face of primal instincts which this form releases. As shown by her recent descent into acting very like stories she's told of her father. And that is what this form is, and far be it from me to disappoint expect-"
Jinx's body turns to sparks and she slips free of the crushing hold.
The creature's eyes widen when the sparks launch straight for her.
"Phansa sakatā!" Jinx's mind screams.
A flicker of pink hits the ground at the creature's feet, and suddenly stones rise to encompass "Raven."
Jinx's mind feels a pressure building as she rushes at the trapped creature, the body unable to escape her magic.
She reaches "Raven" and lashes her hand out.
The creature stares in shock as pink light encompasses her fist, just before the impact.
When her strike lands, an audible snap sounds, and her body falls back, bending at the knee.
The spine of the creature bends unnaturally as its body moves while its lower body is held inert.
Even though it should be in horrific agony, it simply stares at Jinx in shock, the meta's aura shining brilliantly around her.
"I ain't afraid of Rae losing her shit, and I definitely ain't afraid of an imaginary monster trying to screw with me by imitating her. Like I said, the gate screwed up. And now, you've insulted both of us, because the gate's probing around in my skull and thought it'd be a good idea for distracting me. Well, it worked, but it's going to backfire, big-time. I didn't get the chance to kill Brother Blood, or Psimon, or even Wrath, and I'm just pissed off enough now to use you in place of them to take out a lot of baggage."
As she speaks, she approaches the limp form, her fists both clenched in spheres of hex magic.
"Tell me which path gets me to Raven, now."
"Or what?" the creature challenges with a mocking laugh.
Jinx sneers at her, anger overriding her senses as she stares at the embodiment of her mind being toyed with.
She goes to a knee next to the creature, a hand fisting in rough strands of oily purple hair.
"Physical pain to intimidate won't work on me," it mocks.
In response, Jinx places her hand on the creature's cheek, and the pink glow quickly expands from her palm onto the rough, almost bone-feeling flesh.
Its eyes narrow as its skin begins breaking down, revealing swirling darkness underneath, the flesh turning black around her touch.
"If you were Raven, I don't think something like this would do much, honestly, but we've established that you aren't even close. I wonder what it feels like, to have chaos magic put directly into your aura when you aren't conditioned to handle it," she muses.
Her hand begins pressing through the crack in the creature's shell, pink sparks zipping inside.
"Either you'll do it or you won't. Any sane person wouldn't willingly leave themselves vulnerable enough as to directly attack a soul with their own mind while here," it reasons with a smug smirk.
"And a sane person wouldn't have come with no preparation to a dimension where death is a bad step away, on a recommendation from the devil," Jinx retorts. "Five seconds. You tell me where I'm going and disappear, or I throw a hex bolt and we both take our chances on how it turns out."
"The left path," the creature winces.
Jinx's hand pulls back and her hex magic recedes, a migraine building behind her eyes while it slowly returns back to her.
The creature doesn't hesitate, its entire body turning black and vanishing into the cracks of the stone.
Without a thought, Jinx heads down the opposite path…
…..
Raven turns at the sound of footsteps, seeing vibrant pink light through the mist.
Jinx soon resolves from the obscuring vapors, her eyes narrowed as they focus on her.
The look persists until she's at Raven's side, the empath's brow rising at her.
A thought occurring to her, she quickly pulls the meta in for a kiss.
With no lungs, they don't break apart until their auras begin merging.
Both of them are pleasantly flushed when they do break apart.
"You got here safely. I did promise better, I believe," Raven offers with a grin.
Jinx's glare is gone, her arms wrapping tightly around her.
"I'll say. You, uh, didn't happen to see anything kinda' screwed up here, did you?"
Raven frowns at her.
"Screwed up is relative… What did you see? For a point of comparison," she inquires.
Jinx sends a glare over her shoulder, a pulse of pink light flaring up around her entire body for a moment.
"The gate was messing with me. Somethin' took on your shape and tried to kill me. And you?"
Raven blanches, her eyes widening in surprise.
Her hold on the meta tightens, hands pressing into the small of her back.
"I wasn't aware that it could do something like that."
"We aren't aware of a ton of shit," Jinx grouses. "But it's fine. I scared it off, after threatening to break its soul. Didn't come close to bein' the real thing, once I was too pissed to put much thought into my body being real. And you?"
"Apparently I have Trigon inside my soul," Raven muses with a shrug. "Or the gate was trying to send me into a breakdown, or something, by suggesting such a thing, at any rate."
Jinx tenses, her eyes narrowing slightly before she quickly wipes the expression away.
"Yeah, screw this gate, and this stupid, misty hellhole. Let's warn Morpheus, tell him to work on his decor, and get the hell out of here," Jinx growls.
Her anger surprises Raven, though she doesn't voice the concern as Jinx storms off ahead of her…
*******************************
Author's Notes:
Phansa sakatā- Hindi: "Be trapped"
Bit of a longer chapter this time around. I have mixed, but mostly good, feelings about this chapter after the three re-writes it went through. I hope you're all enjoying, as much as I am writing it.
Also, just giving fair advanced notice. This story's good for when I need a distraction from my final projects, an animation I'm working on especially, but it's also still a distraction, so there may be a delayed chapter or two somewhere in the next few weeks while the semester's finishing up.
As always, be sure to give me your thoughts, be they positive or negative! I greatly enjoy getting feedback to know what is and isn't working as intended for the audience. See you all next time!