Creation began on 03-04-25
Creation ended on 04-16-25
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Welcome to your Escape: Reunion
A/N: A lot can happen after a year has passed if it doesn't involve you.
Nico wasn't sure how she was able to handle a team of four at the age of eight, but after a year with one her first Royal Cup victory, her second year at age nine…didn't bode well for the next team she established, the Spade Team, which barely made it to the finals due to their constant bickering over which member was the best out of the quartet. She had decided early on that if she was going to create future Zoid teams to compete in sanctioned matches, the first four teams she would establish would be based off the four symbols used in the French deck from Earth. Unfortunately, the Spade Team lost in the Royal Cup to a rival team that all four members had sour history with.
"One victory," Nico sighs as she sits alone in the hangar, two days after the Royal Cup ended, "and one loss."
"I guess the Spade Team couldn't follow our example, huh, Nico?" She hears the voice of Geisha as she looks outside to see the young woman to the right, looking as she had when they met the previous year.
"I won't lie, but the Spade Team could learn to play nice with each other and not try to outdo each other. I also don't believe their hearts were in the competition like the Clover Team's individual hearts were."
"Maybe it would be a good tactic to show future Zoid pilots how a previous team was able to get as far as they did by making a return to compete again," Nico hears the voice of Drake Toros as he steps out from the shadows in the hangar, surprising her.
"What?" She questions, and then sees a rope reach down from the top of the hangar's exterior, followed by someone else repelling down to the ground below. "Valerie?"
"Well, this is a reunion, isn't it?" The woman in question asks, wearing the same catsuit she wore the previous time she had been here. "I missed this place, bare bones and all."
"If this is a reunion, where's the whole set?"
"Whaaaah!" A young man gasps as he comes down the same rope as Valerie, albeit a little faster than she, and with a different landing, falling on his back, but managing to slow down his descent just seconds before hitting the ground. "Aaaugh… I forgot to secure the second line."
"Eh-heh-heh!" Nico laughs at Shinji as she comes over to help him up. "Just what exactly are you four trying to tell me?"
"Put quite simply," Shinji replies, "we want you to represent the Clover Team, Ms. Megumi."
"It is legal for you to do so," Drake reminds her, "and we're willing and able to work together."
Nico smiles at the four, grateful that they were here again. She looks over at the empty space within the hangar.
"Do y'all still have the same Zoids as last time?" She asks them, curious.
"Yes…and no," Geisha responds. "In the past year, I've acquired two additional Zoids capable of flight to go with my Storm Sworder and Fire Phoenix. A Buster Eagle and a Raynos."
"In the months I was away from Zi, some space thugs had the arrogance to pick a fight with me," Valerie reveals, "and after losing a game of poker, challenged me to an unsanctioned Zoid match where the loser had to forfeit their Zoid to the winner. Take a guess on how it ended."
"What kind of Zoid did you win?" Shinji asks her.
"Zoids," she clarified. "Three Gairyukis, a Gojulas and a Shield Liger."
"Cosmic damn!" Geisha utters, impressed that she acquired five Zoids from her adversaries. "You must've left them bitter!"
"They harassed my employer at the time, tried to jump me, got cocky, and several examples were made. Overall, they were left bitter…but in the end, I didn't boast about my victory against them. I just did my job and had their Zoids shipped back to Zi in containers to be housed in my space in a Zoid storage facility. I don't really use them, but I wouldn't consider them to be trophies. More of a…potential investment."
"You're looking at the proud owner of a G-Rex and a custom Gun Sniper," Drake tells them.
"Yeah, that's right, you were able to get the Gun Sniper back on the open market," Shinji expresses. "I still only have Liger Rogue, but she's among the best of partners."
"I still have my Gustav, the workhorse of the Clover Team," Nico states with a smile. "You four asking me if we gonna get the band back together again…or are you telling me that we gonna get the band back together again?"
"We're telling!" They all respond, and she chuckles.
"I have really missed you four," she tells them.
-x-
"…I'm not surprised that Ms. Megumi's original Zoid team got back together with her," went Misato to Ritsuko as they were meeting in the prison visitor's room after hearing of the latest updates on Zi. "The Spade Team didn't exactly do well. Even the Clover Team's members all agree that they could learn from the first team about how infighting doesn't help you win."
"I find it illogical for Ikari's son to consider competing in the Royal Cup after winning once already," Ritsuko claims, still upset that her appeal for early parole was denied again. "Isn't he still immensely wealthy due to living a simple life?"
"As simple as his life on Zi is after winning against his father, he is anything but simple because of what his father tried to make him do before that girl poached him. And then, his father tried to force him to come back when he refused him upon learning why he was told to come to Tokyo-3 to begin with. And when that failed, he escalated further in his anger towards his son for refusing him, leading to him becoming a pariah and prohibited from returning to Zi after losing the Royal Cup. Still, even so, the extraordinarily wealthy can still build their fortune by participating in a tournament that attracts the masses."
Ritsuko then notices a ring on Misato's left hand; the last time she visited, she didn't have a ring on her finger, which was several months ago.
"Did you and Kaji actually tie the knot recently?" She asks Misato, who then looks down at her hand at the ring.
"Three months ago," she reveals.
"Hard to believe that you married him."
"Harder to believe that he actually wanted to get married."
"I can't believe you accepted such a change."
"We're not getting any younger these days, Rits. Everyone we know is married and either building a life here, overseas or immigrating to Zi on account of better opportunities there in an unaffected climate."
"Have you heard about Ikari?"
"Yeah, it sucks to be him right now."
Gendo Ikari, due to a prison riot, got into an altercation with some men that worked for SEELE, and ended up beating three of them to death after one of them tried to shank him in the back, adding three consecutive life sentences to the time he was already serving for his involvement with NERV and the Human Instrumentality Project along with the heads of SEELE. It didn't seem like any amount of prison sentences were ever going to be enough to make him see that, in spite of all that he believed that he was doing before he was apprehended and condemned, see that he was a failure in all that he was. In addition to the piling of sentences to his already-eternal term, Gendo was thrown into solitary confinement.
"I hear that he still blames his son and the Zoidian girl that wanted him on her Zoid team," Ritsuko tells Misato.
"He can blame them all he wants," Misato replies, "but it's not going to change the fact that he brought his fate upon himself. He's the one that tried to murder his son when he refused him to the ends of his inability to tolerate his decision to reject piloting the Eva. He openly declared his intent to get rid of him, alerting the ZBC and getting himself banished from Zi. If he didn't want Shinji to win the Royal Cup, he should've kept his intentions to himself, but he made an ass of himself by telling him such, unaware that Ms. Megumi was likely eavesdropping on the conversation through the intercoms or listening devices. And then everyone on the planet here gets wind of what NERV was really tasked with doing once the Angels were all defeated, complete with a list of who was involved and who was being manipulated. Not a moral agency when it's learned that the very people that were being asked to pilot the Evas against the Angels were viewed as being no different from fodder for an old cannon and how one of them was the result of illegal genetics work. I consider myself lucky that I wasn't on anyone's list."
"It's easy to feel that way when the list only comprises less than a third of those involved."
Of course, Ritsuko would feel a sense of bitterness; her name was listed among those involved in NERV's shady business, and when word of her illicit affair with Gendo was discovered, it led to some rather unscrupulous discoveries that made certain people wonder just how far she got up the NERV employment ladder on merit rather than being a deviant of the darker sort. Among the only reasons Misato wasn't looked at with suspicion was due to being a teenager herself when she was present when Second Impact occurred and was a victim suffering from PTSI (something Misato can barely understand when people say that she wasn't driven mad by what happened to her, that she was injured, both physically and emotionally, by what happened), not something you easily recover from, even after more than a decade. But Ritsuko would like to suspect that the only reason Misato wasn't behind bars like herself or Gendo was due to her misplaced desire to want revenge against the Angels for her father's death. But they wouldn't know for sure since the investigation concluded with Fuyutsuki's claims that Misato had no awareness of the Human Instrumentality Project or what the Evangelions were going to be used for after the Angels were defeated, which was no longer possible because both Adam and Lilith were disposed of, leaving humanity at an evolutionary dead end.
"Humans evolve only at the pace of which nature allows them," she recalls a text she had received from an unknown source, which she believed to be the Zoidian girl that hired Shinji for her team. "Maybe not for a century or more, but it will happen. Humans will evolve, but not because you want them to. It took Zoidians millennia to get where they are today, and they're from an environment and climate much harsher than that of any that could be found on Earth. For now, all that should matter to individual humans is how they wish to be remembered when their time comes to a close. Do you wish to be remembered by the people you impacted with your life…or by the world as another faceless, voiceless person whose existence is only defined by the claims of other people?"
"What has become of Rei Ayanami?" She asks Misato, changing the subject.
"A genetics firm took her," Misato states. "There was a rumor that it was owned by Zoidians from Zi."
"Is there any truth to this?"
"She was last seen being put aboard a shuttle heading towards a neighboring planet west of Zi, so it's possible that there was some truth to it. The only question is why would Zoidians want Rei? In the court of public opinion once they found out about her, she's not a person in the literal sense; she's worse than a clone, being that someone else made her in the image of another person and gave her less than what she needed to survive. Kinda explains your claim that she's not adept at living; if I had less than she did before she was removed, made by someone who lacked good intentions, I'd be unable to live, too."
And it wasn't like anyone was concerned about her whereabouts; after certain people leave the planet, other people's curiosity or concerns just tend to stop.
Ritsuko sighs again and wonders how many months she could get off her sentence for good behavior if she volunteered for something none of the other inmates would do.
-x-
Rei Ayanami. To only a handful of people that saw her, she was just some girl they couldn't understand. To those that were responsible for her existence, she was a mere pawn in their immoral game to win what they were after. And to the people that took custody of her once NERV was disbanded and its erstwhile masters hunted down and apprehended…she was simply someone that was something and made a choice to do something different with her that left her with a different lease on life.
"…Miss Ayanami," she hears a voice call out to her. "Can you hear me, Ms. Ayanami."
"Yes…" She hears herself say, but her voice sounds different from the last time she heard it; there was an electronic tone to it, like as though she were talking through a communication system. "Where…am I?"
Her vision cleared, but it was different from before, as well. She was standing in front of the men and women that were from Zi, all of whom were not dressed as doctors or scientists, wearing plainclothes with badges on their shirts…and they were all looking up at her. She feels the need to shake her head…but hears a small rumbling when she does so.
"I'd say that you look better than you used to, Ms. Ayanami," one of the three women say to her. "How do you feel?"
"I feel…taller?" Rei states, but she is confused by it.
"Well, that's because you are taller. Sort of. You are taller, just not…well, not the way you used to be. What's the last thing you remember, Ms. Ayanami?"
The last thing Rei remembers…is being asked by this small band of scientists if she wanted to be something other than what her makers had intended for her to be. That she was being given a choice that was hers to make, because her body, due to its flawed design, was dying and their brand of science couldn't save it. Her consciousness, however, was still worth saving. With nothing left to lose and nothing to gain, really, Rei made the choice obvious when she shook her head in the positive. After that…there was only darkness for a while…before waking up and feeling like something was off with her.
Then, looking over away from the seven individuals that were present with her, Rei sees…Rei, or someone that looks exactly like her, laying on a gurney, partially decomposed, looking almost as though she were asleep.
"Who…is that?" She asks them, and they turn to see the girl on the gurney.
"That's your body that we couldn't save, Ms. Ayanami," one of the four men reveals. "We were able to transfer your consciousness into the core of a Zoid that we completed three years ago. This was…the only way to save your life."
"You…turned me into a Zoid?"
"We transferred your essence into a Zoid. You're no longer bound by whatever condition you were forced to dwell with on Earth. And nobody can exploit you, anymore, either. You're free to live however you choose now."
"What kind of Zoid?"
"A Lunar Crane. A medium-sized avian Zoid that can fly around. A rarity among Zoids."
Rei looks at a large pane of reflective glass and sees…her reflection. She was larger than any humanoid being alive, but her shape was now avian, resembling a creature she had never seen before on Earth. About the size of a small building, made of mechanical parts, but feeling more alive than she had ever felt before now, with these large wings and a long neck…and these glistening white eyes. Her color scheme was white and silver all over. As strange as it was to see her new self, Rei actually felt…comforted by this change; before now, she was a pilot for the Eva, something she didn't question one bit, but when the world found out about her and what the Eva was truly meant for, some people wanted her disposed of, and these people that met her and took her away from Earth…had a different solution that didn't involve getting rid of her.
They couldn't save her body, but they gave her a new life, and she felt more alive. Alive…but with uncertainty on what to do with it now.
"What now?" She asks them.
"You should try flying," a second man suggests. "You can do that now. You can do what your new body affords you."
Rei moves her left foot, an arched one, and stands up to her height of twelve meters. While not as impressive as the height of an Evangelion, it was still an impressive display of height for anyone to gaze upon. Then, with her other leg, she moves toward a large opening in the chamber they were in, stepping out onto…a beach at sunset, the most beautiful she had ever seen so far. And there was a breeze; despite her body now being comprised of metal, she could still feel the wind around her as though she were still comprised of flesh.
"It feels…good," she says.
-x-
"…This is new," went Shinji as he, Geisha, Drake and Valerie enter a room in the hangar that they never ventured into the last time they were around, seeing a large pool like the kind you would find in a public space, complete with a diving board and marked lines and lane separators. "I didn't know there was a pool here."
"I didn't know, either," they hear Nico say to them from behind as she steps into the place. "This room was always locked, so I never had a reason to come here."
Geisha walks over to the edge of the pool and dips her left hand into the water.
"This must be a self-cleaning pool," she suspects, pulling her hand back and seeing it only wet and devoid of filth.
"The pool…cleans itself?" Shinji asks; if this was one, it was the first he had laid eyes upon.
"They're rare in these palaces," Valerie reveals as she looks over towards a panel on the wall on their right and pulls a switch.
Flare! Large lights burst to life above their heads and illuminates the large room.
"Oh!" Nico and Drake gasp, covering their eyes.
Shinji covers his eyes before the lights turn on and they adjust to the brightness in the room. On the opposite side of the room was a large mural depicting detailed city scenery, buildings, trees, even vehicles that looked almost real to the perception of the viewers.
"Wow," he expresses, walking around the pool to get a closer look at the mural. "A lot of time and patience went into creating this."
The others join him, and it almost feels as though they could hear the sounds of the vehicles depicted in the mural.
"Probably makes living here in the hangar easier," Geisha suggests, "thinking there's a view in this canyon worth being here for."
"All I'm missing are my water wings and swimwear," Nico states.
"Ditto," adds Shinji.
"You should bring your girlfriend over sometimes," Drake tells him.
"You do realize that Rumiko is on the Excalibur Team, right?"
-x-
Asuka has had better days than before the discovery that NERV was in some shady business that threatened to destroy the world, most of which she was exempt from due to her former status as a pilot for Evangelion Unit-02, but that status had its drawbacks after the former commander, Gendo Ikari, was sent back to Earth after trying to murder his own son for refusing his order for him to return to pilot the Eva. Once it was learned that more than a dozen people from Germany were also involved in the Human Instrumentality Project, like her father and stepmother, it left the former pilot wondering just how messed up things were with the paramilitary agency and why its previous leader was so enraged, desperate, and insistent upon making his wayward son pilot the Eva when he had no knowledge of it or adequate training in using it. Of course, upon learning the revelation that the Third Child's parents' involvement with the Evas' creation led directly to the Human Instrumentality Project and forcing all of humanity to be forcibly evolved into a bodiless being with no sense of individuality…using their own son as the sacrificial pawn, their tool to get what they were after, the girl was further disgusted by how Shinji Ikari had been intended to be the one to be exploited to such a degree that her own existence was less than meaningful in the eyes of NERV and its financial backer, SEELE. To know that, despite her commitment to piloting the Eva, despite her conviction to see the Angels dealt with, she was seen as nothing more than a pawn in a twisted chess game where she was going to be sacrificed for a soulless bunch that aimed to become kings.
She looks at the Zoids social media platform…and sees people are talking about the return of the Clover Team after a year-long hiatus from participating in matches. The status of the team's return triggering many of the platform's users wondering how they would succeed where their successor team failed, and she checks the Zoids the team would be using this time around. The discovery that Shinji would still be using Liger Rogue and Nico Megumi would still rely on her Gustav, that little Zoid that could pull multiple truckloads of weight, like they couldn't find other Zoids that they could work with. But then again, some of the Zoid pilots have a preference and it was hard to break from a comfort zone, and she saw that the other three members on the team had acquired other Zoids.
No way, she thinks upon looking at Valerie Axiom's list of Zoids. She's got a powerhouse of Zoids that you can't buy without a special license! And three of them are in the same league as her Geno Saurer! And this one! It's a monster! A Gojulas?! Incredible! How'd she get these Zoids in a year's time?!
In spite of her shortcomings due to NERV's darker ambitions and her following discharge like all the other pilots so that they could return to life outside of a paramilitary organization, Asuka found she had to admit that Shinji, who managed to build a life away from Earth, from his family, from the entire nation of Japan, was quite the joyful person to have achieved such success when he was picked by Ms. Megumi to be a part of her first team.
"What's this here?" She wonders as she looks at an email alert on her tablet.
-x-
"…Because of the way you did well during the first Royal Cup tournament you participated in, Shinji, the ZBC is hoping to expand the list of potentials from Earth, sending recommendations to various teams across Zi," Geisha informs Shinji as he pumps iron, looking at her tablet while running the treadmill. "Even Nico got recommendations for her future third team, the Diamond Team."
"And what did she say to the ZBC?" Shinji asks as he struggles to bench press one-hundred-forty pounds. "I mean, she had to tell them something, right? She probably got others like me that were dead in the center between good and bad, right?"
"Actually, Shinji," he hears Nico say to him, and he looks over to his left to see the girl looking down at him, "The recommendations I got vary from your status. Three were from Japan, two were from the States, and six others were from Australia. I looked them over, but I think they're not committed to what piloting a Zoid for any team actually means. Most of these teens see a Zoid and the opportunity to pilot one as a means to grasp power without any responsibility for how it's used. One of the recommendations was this girl with ties to NERV. Asuka Langley Soryu. I shot that down in an instant. I checked her psyche profile, and her pride is her greatest weakness if she demonstrates too much arrogance."
"And I always thought it was because she has a temperament," went Geisha.
"Yeah, that, too," Nico adds. "Pride leads to temperament, temperament leads to social instability, and a lack of social stability…leads to inner suffering. While pride isn't always a bad thing if it's done in moderation, it becomes one's undoing if they think they are the only one that matters above all others."
Geisha turns off the treadmill and steps down to sit on a nearby bench, exhausted.
"Did you recommend her for some other Zoid team, then?" She asks her.
"Yeah, I did," Nico answers. "I suggested the recently established Pangea Team; its members all have issues with their sense of entitlement and arrogance. So far, the team manager is building a team of seven members…and has only managed to acquire four so far."
"Why seven members?" Shinji asks.
"The belief that seven is a powerful number. Six teammates, one manager. Seven in total."
"I don't understand how anyone can handle more than four members of a team."
"Have you ever heard of the saying of putting all your eggs in one basket?" Nico questions, earning a nod from Shinji in the negative. "Basically, you try to commit to a strategy or idea that you can't normally tolerate…and it eventually backfires. Only some people can handle more than a set number of individuals on a team, often with incentives to make each member easier to manage, and others…simply can't."
"Any suggestions if I ever meet this Asuka Langley Soryu in the future?"
"If you ever meet her, Shinji, be cautious of her. Unlike you, she spent most of her life being groomed by NERV's people to becoming a pilot for the Evangelion. For someone like her, the universal language she understands more than anything else is power, and once she gets a taste for it, she will likely do anything she can to acquire more of it for herself. Power is a double-edged sword if not treated with respect."
"Because it can corrupt the person that has it."
"Fortunately for us right now, Ms. Soryu is still on Earth. The ZBC is still processing her entry before she can even begin the process to venture out here to Zi."
"And then finding her the right Zoid fit, whichever Zoid that may be," adds Geisha. "It could be any kind of Zoid that works for her."
-x-
Misato and Kaji were surprised to hear that Asuka was being approached by the ZBC to join a Zoid team on Zi for the upcoming Royal Cup. Then again, the girl was now fourteen years of age, and the ZBC was looking for new individuals to demonstrate a degree of talent when it comes to operating Zoids. It wasn't all that different from Shinji when he was fourteen, only his participation was more to keep people like his father from exploiting him for their own ends rather than just for the sake of boosting people's entertainment or televised ratings for competitive reality games of a different extreme. But they have their reasons to be concerned about how Asuka would behave towards others if given the opportunity to join a team and pilot a Zoid for a shot at the Royal Cup and winning a path to the wealthy life if she did win; piloting a Zoid was not like piloting an Eva, and there was no fate of the world at stake, which would likely make for a difficult period for someone that was supposed to be adjusting to civilian life after being discharged from a paramilitary group like NERV.
"I just hope that she doesn't get to pilot a Zoid like the Death Stinger or those Zoids the Clover Team has," Misato tells Kaji during dinner.
"Yeah, those Zoids require discipline and restraint to use," he agrees with her, "and Asuka would likely want access to weapons that would be more for her than for her opponents. But she'd probably settle for a Gun Sniper if it were customized to her specifications."
"Please, do not go there. Just because that Zoid model went back into production, it doesn't mean that Asuka will likely be able to operate one."
-x-
"So far, these are the known Zoid teams that will be competing this time around," Nico informs the Clover Team as she shows them a list of their opposing obstacles for the Royal Cup. "Memorize them as much as you can. Especially these three."
"The Salamandra Team," Drake utters one of them.
"The Linkage Team," adds Geisha on another team.
"And the Street Demon Team," Shinji finishes with the last team. "Why these three?"
"My Spade Team went up against all three last year, and there's some animosity between them," Nico explains to them. "And they may end up expanding their numbers, as well."
"New recruits or veterans?" Valerie asks her as she looks down at her tablet to evaluate each member of the three teams.
"Likely both."
"And we're up against the Yeagerist Team in three days," Geisha reminds them of their first match of the new season, not as moody as she had been the first time they went up against that particular team. "Spinel's been looking for revenge against us for more than a year."
"Is he still using the Gungyalado?" Shinji asks her.
"Yep."
"Anything we should know before the matchup?" Drake wants to know.
"Four against four this time," Nico reveals, and smiles.
"It's all a matter of which Zoids we're going to use this time around," Valerie says.
"I'll use my Buster Eagle. I'm the only one here with air superiority."
"Well, it looks like I'm going with my Gun Sniper."
"My baby's ready to play anytime."
"You know me and Rogue," Shinji tells them. "It looks like we're imagining the victory before we even get started."
"Ain't nothing wrong with thinking about the success before the work gets thrown in," Nico says. "I'm looking forward to it."
-x-
Solitary confinement was different with the way things were now in Japan, and Gendo was among those in solitaire that was afforded a television display to show him a periodic update of the world beyond him. But all he got were the crappy channels of mediocre news and soap operas…until a broadcast from Zi replaced the current soap opera he was forced to watch in his cell, depicting an aerial view of a battlefield.
What in the world? He wonders as he sees a Judge.
"This battle is set," the Judge declares. "The Yeagerist Team versus the Clover Team. Battle Mode Zero-Nine-Eight-Two. Ready? Fight!"
All outside his cell, Gendo hears the cheers of other inmates in their cells, likely watching the same broadcast as he. On the screen, he sees the familiar Zoids associated with the team his son spurned him for…and frowns.
"Aaaaaauurgh!" He yells. "Damn you! Damn you!"
-x-
As the Yeagerist Team's four Zoids spread out across the battlefield, comprised of its heavy hitter, the Gungyalado, its two König Wolves, and a Gravity Wolf, the Clover Team, comprised of its Liger Rogue, modified Geno Saurer, Gunner Rex, and its newest member, a red and blue-colored Buster Eagle, spread out against who their chosen opponents were. With Valerie's Geno Saurer, it was the Gungyalado, and for Drake's Gunner Rex, it was the Gravity Wolf. For Geisha's Buster Eagle and Shinji's Liger Rogue, they were going after the König Wolves. They know how to work as a team and not step on each other's toes, and this was their first match the new season, and this was to show the whole of Zi that the Clover Team was back for another shot at showing they could win.
Outside the battlefield, in her Gustav, Nico watches the four begin the match, smiling at their confidence. Maybe if the Clover Team could show the Spade Team how to work together, it would make its members learn from their mistakes and inspire them to do better in the future, and then motivate those that would join her future Diamond and Heart Teams.
"Don't you four forget to have fun!" She decides to tell them.
"Oh, I'm having fun right now!" Shinji replies, and Liger Rogue tackles a König Wolf. "This is the best way to have fun!"
To be continued…
A/N: The Clover Team has made their comeback, and it affects everyone in one way or another. Not sure if the next chapter will be the last one, but time will tell. But tell me what you think so far with this chapter. I like the part where they find the swimming pool in the hangar. What did you enjoy?