The day following the Swapping Debacle, which Eda claims to have never happened starts off simply enough. The morning is spent going through old piles of Human junk that Eda had acquired over the years, alongside a new mound of stuff that Owlbert had managed to find on his latest trip. Alongside the junk, he also managed to pick up some more seed packets, though what kinds you'd have to wait and see what sprouted from the mystery seeds.
The quiet is shattered not long after lunch when a knock sounds at the door, waking Hooty and startling you and the others inside. You hastily apply a transformation just in time to hear the front door swing open allowing Hooty's conversation to be heard without problems. Your eyebrow raises slightly at the sight of Gus, without Willow for once. You wave him over and pass him a box filled to the brim with human junk that you have yet to go through. The moment he seems to realize that everything in the box is human in origin his eyes widen and sparkle as he enthusiastically goes through the box chattering all the while, coming up with theories about the usage for some of the items.
Most of the things go in one ear and out the other, not because you don't want to pay attention to the young witchling, but because most of what he says is so hilariously wrong that you have to bite your lip to stop from laughing, and you can't correct him either, because then he would want to know how you acquired this knowledge and you have no way to convince him other than revealing yourself and that was not something you wanted to entertain right now.
After a couple of minutes, you finally ask if he had come here for something in particular, or if he just wanted to spend some time with the local wild witches. This seems to set off the witchling, he starts what could only be described as a rant on the 'down low' as it were. He 'rants' about a new student named Mattholomule, which you think is a strange name, but it's not like you could talk, your birth name was a bloody fish cake, and your dead name in your previous life was freaking Jericho. At first, listening to him, this Mattholomule seems like your average bully in your mind. Then when you hear that he was trying to pull what was essentially a coup, well you start to plan for different scenarios knowing that Gus was quite attached to this HAS group he was in charge of, and you were nothing if not supportive... at least until blood and/or limbs were flying in random directions.
It takes a few minutes, but it does eventually hit you. You ask if would help if he brought in a 'Human Expert' to which he looks at you slightly stunned and in wonder. You sweep your hand toward yourself and, jokingly, introduce yourself, "Samantha Clawthorne, residental chaos causer and daughter of Eda Clawthorne, sole owner of Human Collectibles in the market." You flash him a grin as you see him start hyping himself up until he is almost bouncing off the walls.
You look at your foster mother from your place on the floor, to find her raising an eyebrow at your 'nice' behavior, to which you only shrug. Being needlessly mean to a child like this was like kicking a kitten in your mind. Then a thought strikes you, and you ask aloud, "What would happen if I was caught on Hexside grounds with a 'Banned' status on my being anyway?" Eda waves off your concern, mostly, "You'll be thrown into the Detention Pit and if you're still there at the end of the day I'll get a crowcall." You silently mouth the word 'crowcall' to yourself trying to make sense of it before shaking yourself back to the current situation. While mildly disturbing sounding the Detention Pit couldn't be as bad as your time on the streets when you were four, or when you were in the middle of the apocalypse in your second life.
You reassure Gus that you'll see him at Hexside tomorrow morning before sending him on his way with a toy called a Koma, which is essentially a top that was spun with a long piece of string. After you see him reach the edge of the clearing you close the door and allow your transformation to drop with a small sigh. You spin around and rejoin the others in the living room, where you find Eda raising an eyebrow at you. You sit down at her feet and ask if she would be willing to talk a bit about her school days, or just how school in general is gone about here on the Isles.
You see her wince slightly, and you go to apologize for bringing up bad memories before she waves you off before speaking. "Here on the Isles, we have three schools, Hexside School of Magics and Demonics, Glandus High, located around the left side of the Ribcage, and , located on the Knee. Parents are iencouraged/i to send their children to one of these three schools so that there are fewer 'wild witches' wandering the Isles. In most cases, students enroll around the age of four, and by eight they choose a track to study under. Most will graduate between seventeen and eighteen before going on to join their chosen coven."
You slowly nod your head as you take in this information before telling Eda about your experience with The Shinobi Academy. You were barely six when you were forcibly enrolled into it, while most would be enrolled around the age of eight but no later than ten. You talk about the lack of a proper education, and how due to their ignorance, you were always kicked out during lessons or even taught the wrong stuff. You even tell them about the age-old 'bloodletting' practice the Academy practiced. Roughly a month before graduation, around the age of twelve during peace times, the teachers would hand out little sparrows to the class and told that they would have to care for the creatures for about a week. If the student came back and had either lost the bird or if had died from anything other than natural causes the student would be kicked from the program. At the end of the week, the teachers would call the students individually into a separate room, where they would be told they had to kill the bird in front of them.
As you explain the process you can tell that Eda is getting more upset with what you had to contend with at the Academy. You go on to explain despite steadfastly refusing to kill the bird, even going as far as trying to release the thing out the window one of the teachers (Bloody Mizuki) decided to take matters into his own hands and killed the bird before your eyes after kicking you in the gut. And then despite 'failing' the test, you were forced to sit the graduation exam, on the Leader's Orders, which is when you finally realized that despite what you wanted or thought as long as you were under their thumb, you would have to dance to the beat of their drum, not yours, which sowed the seeds of dissent within you.
You only stop telling them about your past when you realize that Eda is quickly gaining feathers along her arms causing you to dash upstairs for one of her potions. After that near fiasco, you decide that that was enough trauma dumping for the day and instead start on dinner. For the main course you use your Human Realm ingredients and make fried rice using rice, griffin eggs, shiitake mushrooms, bell peppers, and daikon radish alongside various Demon Realm meats. For dessert, you end up making a peach cobbler with candied orange slices. Thankfully both dishes seem to go over well with the rest of the house. Before heading to bed you tussle with King and his stuffies before Eda chases the two of you off to bed.
The next morning you put together orange scones before the others wake up along with some scrambled griffin eggs. Your housemates shuffle into the room just as you realize that you have to head out now if you want any chance of getting to Hexside on time (you are many things, but being late is not one). You summon Senna just after you apply your transformation and you both race toward Hexside. When you get there you find Gus and Willow waiting just outside the school grounds. You raise a hand in greeting and offer the two witchlings two scones that you liberated from the batch you had made before Eda and King got their hands on their brethren. You see their eyes light up at the flavor of the scones and Willow even asks about the fruit in question.
Before the conversation can go further the school bell screams signally the start of the day for the students there. You make a promise to her that you'll get her some seeds for her own garden before Gus pulls you away. As the two of you enter the school Gus pulls a dusty old shawl over your head and through you let out a sneeze, you don't do much more than that, assuming that he had a plan/reason for doing this. Gus leads you throughout the school, and this time since you have a tour guide, especially since this one can be punished in your stead, you try to keep your nose clean.
As you walk you notice a bit of bullying going on, but before you could insert yourself the two bullies were quite literally being dragged away by a being using a shepherd's hook. You look at Gus and ask what that was about. With a sheepish smile, he tells you that they had shown up after your visit last week and that they can smell trouble, literally. You nod your head, on one hand, this would make your infiltration harder, but on the other, it seemed like the Principle...(Limp?Simp?Dimp?Dum-) Bump at least cared for his students, which was a lot more than you could ever say about your past teachers. (One tried to trip you and your classmates to save himself, four tried to straight-up murder you, one accidentally almost killed you, one was so creepy he made look sane, and the last (who thankfully was a college professor and not just a high school teacher(not that it made it any better)) wouldn't accept 'No' for an answer from several of his students.)
Closer to lunch you and Gus run into this Mattholomule character. You stay silent during the exchange and only wave your fingers at him when he finally notices you. You casually pull out a kid's toy called a kendama. this toy was a difficult one to be sure, the main purpose was to get the ball on a string to land in one of the carved-out cups on either side. You had no idea if the Boiling Isles had a ball and cup game but if they did you had no doubt that it would somehow involve eyeballs. You swing the ball to the best of your abilities while Gus winds down the conversation before he pulls you to follow him. Behind the two of you, you can just faintly hear Mattholomule... Matty his name was now Matty, freaking out, though you're soon out of range to hear the complete meltdown that was sure to come.
Eventually, the two of you are walking past a few classrooms that are currently in session. In one, you see Willow dealing with Audrey 2.0 with a classmate of hers, and then in another, you see the Blight Twins and one of their classmates doing classwork by the look of things. Further down the hall through an open door, you catch sight of Gus. You stare at the double before peering at the one next to you and then back at the one in the classroom. "Is that a?" the word clone is about to escape your lips before Gus interjects with an "Illusion?" and you nod your head.
Gus gains a prideful look on his face seeming quite happy that you noticed his achievement, making you assume that this type of illusion is quite difficult for others his age. He goes on to tell you that his illusionary clone takes notes for him when he isn't in class, to which you nod your head quite impressed. While it was no time tuner, and you doubt that he would gain the knowledge afterward like your shadow clones, this does give him time to do something else that he needs to do. You reach out and softly ruffle his hair, telling him this is impressive, to which he tells you that he had moved up a few grades, which makes you raise an eyebrow.
You both look over at the clone only to find that it is staring off into space, and you hear Gus huff slightly before he mutters, "they don't always do what they're told." You tell him that he'll work out the kinks to that spell eventually, and even if he never does you're sure that he would find a workaround. Before he could answer you, the two of you hear a screech alongside the sound of something biting into flesh. You look at Gus in concern as he slides up his sleeve to reveal that his watch is actually a small demon with a singular eye. You watch as he pokes it in the eye, rightening his sleeve before turning to you and telling you it is time for the HAS meeting. You give a small nod before the two of you walk out of the hall near the Illusionist classrooms.
It takes a few minutes to get to the club rooms, and as you do, you swear that you could just faintly hear the sound of Eda grumbling about not wanting to do something. It takes you slightly aback considering you know that the woman absolutely hated the very idea of school, but figure that you were just hearing things now. Eventually, you're standing in front of the club door. You wave Gus to enter the room while hanging back slightly, waiting for your cue to enter.
You smile slightly as you listen to Gus hype the seemingly small club into a frenzy. "May I introduce you all to the expert I have called in. Samantha Clawthorne, daughter of the Owl Lady, owner of Bonesborough's Human Collectibles." As that echoes through the room, you sweep into the room. Your gaze flitters from witchling to witchling. You eye the feminine-looking one whose entire face is just one eyeball, before sweeping toward the normal-looking feminine one. Then your eyes barely glance over Matty before landing on the final member, the unicorn goat-looking bi-pedal demonling. You give the three you haven't met a small smile before raising an eyebrow at Matty as he stares at you, not quite daggers but still something worrying in his eyes.
Your eyes flicker to the table where the 'Human Treasures' are and have to hold back a snort of laughter at the sight before you. A shinobi sandal made out of leaves and twigs, a skull painted onto a griffin egg, and a rock that had been carved to look similar to a CB Radio handset which you think is slightly impressive. Before Matty can react, you snatch the rock up and carefully roll it between your hands. You run your fingers and barely there nails where there would be seams in the outside of the radio casing but surprise surprise there is nothing but smooth rock there.
You eyeball the shoe for a moment before you grab a structurally needed stick and give it a quick yank, causing the rest of the shoe to collapse in on itself. Then with one final movement, you swipe a finger across the egg and a streak of paint comes with it, despite it not being wet. With your inspection complete, you turn your attention toward the others and speak, "I will readily admit that these objects are fakes to a one to one ratio. If these had been marketed as realistic looking fakes, I would have backed you Matty without much more thought about it. However, since you have tried to pass these off as genuine objects to undermine a friend of mine, I will call you a faker." You hear the rest of the club gasp at your words as you stare down Matty, watching as his face gets redder and redder with each passing moment.
You see his eyes flicker from one club member to the next for several seconds before his shoulders slump and gains a look in his eyes that you don't particularly like. Matty goes on to tell everyone in the club that he was new here at Hexside and he had only done this to fit in better, to which you narrow your eyes at him, realizing that he was only saying this to gain sympathy from the others and only because he was caught in the act, which made your blood boil slightly. You watch as the club seems to accept him at his word and you decide to keep an eye on him from there on out.
The club meeting continues for another half-hour, during which you pass around several children's books that you had found stashed away in one of Eda's closets, you also try to teach them the basics of sudoku, though it seems as if Gus was the only one truly interested in it, before you bring out your kendama and allow the club to try and get the ball in the cup to limited success. Finally, the bell screams to signal lunch and the club members get up to leave. You turn your attention toward them and try to give them personal goodbyes as Gus and Matty talk. Once the other three are gone you turn your attention toward the two boys, only to spin around in shock as the door slams open.
There standing in the doorway stood one of the trouble-sniffing hall monitors. The two of you eye one another for a moment before the two of you are in motion. They swing their shepherd's hook toward you, but you jump over it and them with little effort. You go flying over their head and out into the hall. Before they can recover you are already booking it down the hall, only to skid to a stop as the other hall monitor comes around the corner. The other monitor comes up behind you and they both try to hook you at the same time.
The first swing easily goes over your head as you duck, but as you righten yourself out the second swing comes out of nowhere and catches you right in the gut, knocking the wind out of you, while also digging into your flesh, making you wince slightly, as they pull you forward with the hook still around your middle. Unable to withstand the movement you're forced to follow. As you're corraled down the corridor you take several swipes at the guards, trying to get free, while also not trying to cause permanent damage. Your fists only manage to clock them each once causing minimal damage
Eventually, though you are brought to a large door that fills the entire corridor. You stare up at it as the three dark circles open to reveal red and yellow snake-like eyes. You nervously swallow, mouth suddenly dry, as you remember the last time you faced off against a snake this sized. Unheaded your body starts to shake, memories that feel like they had only happened just yesterday when in reality they happened nearly four/five months ago (or even fifty-three years ago if you count the time before that). You can't do anything as the monitors send you careening into the door's mouth, and therefore the room beyond it.
Once you're past the doorway you just barely catch yourself before you fall down a giant hole in the middle of the floor. Your eyes quickly dart around the room, but there is nothing to see other than the giant maul in the floor. Then the mouth opens wider and wider and you swiftly spin around and pounce at the wall and stick there using your wall walking exercise technique, to well, stick there. You remain there for a solid ten minutes watching the mouth try to figure out where its meal had gone, when the door to the pit opens to allow two figures to be thrown in with you.
You look up, just in time to see Gus and Matty being dragged down into the maul, setting off your instincts. You push off the wall and dive toward the mouth. You tuck yourself into a rolling fall/flip to stop in a crouched position just on the pointy ledge. Your eyes land on the two witchlings and before you know it you're leaping toward them, your mind firmly on saving them and nothing else. You find yourself slightly short of the two before you, but you don't let that stop you.
You end up over-extending to grab a hold of Gus, but you do manage to hook your leg around Matty's before he is out of range. Your ear twitches slightly just in time for your eyes to jerk up and watch as a giant blue tentacle slams into your face. You can feel the transformation break under the attack as your nose breaks along with it. Your grip on the two witchlings loosens and you're set careening into the wall with a surrounding crash.
You slide down the wall, slightly dizzy, and land in a heap at the base of it. The front of your hanten starts to move and popping out their head out for the first time in hours is Senna. The moment they see the blood gushing out of your clearly broken nose, they freeze. It only takes mere seconds, but you can see the moment they realize that 'their kit' is injured and under their watch at that. They carefully crawl out of your hanten, and softly nuzzle your face before they turn their attention toward the tentacle that was still 'swimming' in the air. You feel the air around the two of you get hotter right before their form is engulfed in flames, causing two sharp cries of shock to echo around the chamber.
From the flames comes out Senna in their larger, St. Bernard-sized form. with a casual flick of their tails, Senna jumps into the fray as the flames that had surrounded them consolidate into a ball in front of their muzzle. You lean against the wall before spitting out a wad of blood that had been accumulating in the back of your throat before you start poking around your nose. The pain, while still sharp, is slowly disappearing, though you assume this is due to your high healing factor than anything else. Before you could think yourself out of it, or have your nose heal wrong, you quickly snap it back into place with a muffled yelp, that seemingly causes Senna to attack with a bit more ferocity.
You keep your fingers locked over your nose, keeping it in place as you start to flare your chakra in a, quickly becoming normal, pattern. A cloud of smoke envelopes you and before you know it your ears are back to their pointy selves. The witchlings slowly make their way toward you as Senna sends a massive ball of flames toward the mass of tentacles and worm-like creatures, which is closely followed by another blob of fire that is no less effective. Gus reaches you first and seems slightly horrified to find you with blood dripping down your face, and when Matty joins the two of you that look of horror is quickly mirrored on his face as well.
Your two companions help you to your feet, and once you're stable you wrap your arms around their waists getting twin yelps of embarrassment to echo through the chamber. With a slight smirk, you tell them to hang on tight before you tense your calves and pulse your chakra. You get twin looks of confusion before you jump before shrill screams reverberate in your ears. You shoot up past Senna and the worms, and you let out a whistle that you had taught them weeks ago to mean 'Retreat'. Thankfully, they follow your 'directions' though not without taking a bite out of one of the worms. You land on the precipice of the hole and almost tip backward back into the pit but Senna slams into you before shrinking back into their smaller form as they almost send you sprawling to the floor.
Once your feet are firmly on the ground and you're no longer in danger of falling over, you bolt toward the door, witchlings under your arms as the vast amount of worms peek over the ledge. You can see the door almost shutter the closer you get to it, and you get a dumb idea. Once you're within twenty feet of the door, you tense your muscles and jump up when you're at fifteen feet. As you fly through the air you angle your body so that when you hit the door, you'll be hitting it feet first, where you believe the mouth had been when it had opened. Your kick lands perfectly, though since you're kicking a metal door you do end up having some backlash shoot up your leg in retaliation.
The door to this room however is quickly opened and you slide through the opening as it appears. You end up almost running into Willow, who is gazing at you with a look of surprise, and a slight hint of worry. Further past her, you see a much more pressing sight, however. Looking at you from down the hall is Eda alongside Principle Bump. You give the two of them a sheepish smile before the hairs on the back of your neck prickle just before you feel the presence of something come up behind you.
You spin around after you throw the witchlings in your arms to the ground next to Willow before stepping in front of her, with a fang-filled snarl as Kuruma's chakra spreads through your system, you were finally fed up with these creatures. A growl builds in your throat, before you hiss at the worm before you. In front of you, Senna lowers themself to the floor ready to pounce on the worm alongside you, ready for a round two. The worm starts to rear back, mouth wide open ready to take a bite out of you when a loud resounding snap echoes through the hall.
Your opponent freezes, and while you don't you do hesitate waiting to see what was going to happen now. The worm looks behind you, 'stands' up straight, and mumbles, " Uh, sorry, Principal Bump. Sir." before they retreat back into the room they had come from. The door to said room, slowly closes, though it quickly becomes apparent that while it is mostly sealed, the front of the door is bulgled from where you had kicked it open, which you feel only the slightest bit guilty about.
Once you realize that the 'threat' is gone your tense form, relaxes slightly, as you spin around to address the approaching forms of the Principal and your foster mother. The moment they see your lower face is covered with drying blood Eda goes wide-eyed before getting a look in her eyes that is quickly turned onto Bump, who looks slightly pale as he looks at you. Eda is quick to ask if you are feeling okay, and you are quick to assure her that besides the initial pain from the break, you were doing just fine all things considered.
Bump then asks if you could tell him what happened here, and after a moment of just looking at him you oblige. You inform him that Gus, President of the H.A.S had asked you, as one of two human experts in the local area, to come in to give a small lecture to the club. You had, apparently wrongly, assumed that he had cleared your visit with the correct personnel, and had agreed since it wasn't often that you got to talk about humans to someone other than your family. You hadn't even realized that something was wrong until the trouble seekers had burst through the door after the club meeting had finished for the day.
When you realized that the seeker had been after you, you had decided to get out of the school before something could happen. Unfortunately, one of them had managed to hook their hook around your abdomen and had cut into it as well, which caught their attention. Eda gives Bump a glare that he has difficulty ignoring. You go on to tell them that the two boys had come to rescue you from the pit you had been tossed into. They unfortunately had been tossed into the pit and when you had gone to cushion their fall, one of the worms struck you across the face, breaking your nose, and sent you into the wall, possibly giving you a concussion in the process.
At your words, Eda turns her full attention to Bump and starts to verbally rip into him. After a minute or two, you start to see the formation of feathers appearing on her arms and you decide to 'step' in so to speak. Cautiously, you step up behind your foster mother, stick your hand into her hair, and carefully rummage through it to find one of her potions. Once you manage to find one you pop the cork out of the vial and all but shove it into her mouth. Thankfully, Eda is long used to her potions and drinks it without a thought, stopping the feathers from sprouting in larger quantities.
Once they're gone you pull your foster mother away from Bump, hoping some space would help prevent more feather outbreaks, especially since you're unaware of how many (filled) potion bottles she had stashed away. When you are far enough away she grabs ahold of your head and starts to tilt it this way and that looking at your nose before summoning a ball of light, you cringe at the sudden appearance of a bright light directly in your eyes, but since her hand is still holding your head in place you're forced to stay where you are. After a moment you allow your eyes to flicker open, and Eda starts to shine the light in your eyes, and you assume that she was checking for a concussion like you had mentioned possibly having.
Thankfully, she gives you the all-clear with a sigh of relief. While the two of you are separated you decide to ask her what she was even doing here, since she had mentioned hating school, and everything to do with it. With half a grimace, she smiles at you and cheerfully exclaims, "Guess who got you into Hexside?!" You stare at her for a moment, before looking back at Principal Bump with an incredulous look on your face, before looking back at Eda and exclaiming, "Is this to make up for my less then conventual childhood!?" catching the attention of others. Eda however answers with a nonchalant 'yep' while popping the 'P'.
You stare at one another for a few moments, before you break. You mutter, "I have the right to stop going at any time I wish" and turn back to Bump and the witchlings. You turn around just in time to watch Bump take Gus's paper crown off his head and drop it on Matty's. You can't help but cringe slightly as you realize that since you made it appear that you had no idea that the ban hadn't been lifted, your 'crime' seems to have transferred to Gus. Gus however doesn't seem angry, more resigned more than anything else, and when you see Willow, you realize that she mostly likely told Gus that something like this could have happened and that dealing with this was now his problem to deal with.
After dealing with Gus Bump turns his attention toward you, and tells you that he'll be seeing you on the 12th in the auditorium for your exam, before telling Eda that they still had some things to go over, causing her to whine, seemingly displeased that she had more work to do. Before she leaves with him however she looks at you and with a sly grin she winks at you before heading off with Bump. Once they have disappeared down the hall, you turn your attention back toward the witchlings, to find that Matty has snuck off while you were distracted, and Willow and Gus are looking at you with a happy gleam in their eyes.
You give them the slight hint of a raised eyebrow, and they rush to hug you. You seize up in a slight panic, sudden physical touch that you yourself hadn't initiated would always be a slight trigger for you, but you try to tap down the severity of your panic and hug the two back. The hug doesn't last long, ten seconds at the most, but when you're released you have to stop yourself from taking massive gulps of air. They then ask if you want to finish your tour, and you agree.
This time, the three of you branch out to different coven classrooms. The two have to physically drag you away from the Bard classroom after you see that they have a drum kit ready to be played. Then when you come across carbuncle kits, small green and white rabbit-like creatures that had been mixed with either a fennec fox or an Eevee, at the beast-keeping barns, you all but throw yourself into the pen with the kits that are nearly of age. Willow ends up having to wrap you up in vines and yeets you from the pen. On your way out of the building at the end of the day, you run into Bosha outside the potions classroom.
You don't pay her any attention as your eyes sweep around the room she just exited, you're quite grateful that this potions classroom isn't in the basement and you notice that the room is nicely ventilated so the potion fumes wouldn't interfere with the student's health. Once your curiosity has been satisfied you turn back around and accidentally on purpose bump into Bosha, and say 'Oops" in a tone that immediately tells the people around you that it wasn't an accident. As she splutters in apparent rage behind you, you don't bother to wait for her to come up with something witty and exit through the front doors with Willow and Gus close behind.
Before the three of you part ways for the day the two invite you to something called a Grudby game the day after tomorrow against Hexside's rival Glandus. While you have never been a sports person, despite one sport, in particular, being shoved down your throat in your third life, you agree, mostly because you're interested in what a Boiling Isles sport could look like, and showing some school pride wouldn't hurt in the long run right. You make plans to join them in front of Hexside to take the dragon bus to Glandus that morning before you jog over to where Eda was floating on Owlbert.
After double-checking that Senna was tucked away in your hanten, you swing your leg over the staff. Immediately the two of you are lifting off high into the air towards hom- house... towards the Owl House. That night as you prepare dinner, Spanish Rice with Fried Cockatrice, Eda tells you the stories of her days attending Hexside using her incident reports. For dessert you serve up chocolate-covered oranges and strawberries, hoping to counteract the heaviness of your dinner. You even manage to save a few of the orange seeds to pass on to Willow when you see her next.
That evening you manage to sink in a few more hours of reading, taking out another decent chunk of the pages. However, Eda does have to tell you to quit it after she catches you reading well past midnight... again.