Is Death an option for Death herself? [SEMI-CLOSED]

How many days had it been? How many days had she considered coming up here? The white-haired girl pondered to herself, as she looked at the setting sun in front of her. The slight breeze cause her hair to swing slightly, and it caused the linked fence to hit against the poles that held it up.  A small ‘clink’ noise was made every time. Everything seemed so peaceful.. Even the sky was painted with the same colors, but something about being up here made everything more beautiful.

This situation would have been beautiful for anyone else except for the fact that the necromancer stood on the edge of the roof. The toes of her shoes peaked off the edge of the roof. The only thing that kept her from falling was the two fingers on her left hand that kept her rooted to the fence. She had been here for a while. She started with two hands on the fence, and slowly over time, or when she felt like it she would remove a finger. No one had discovered her note yet. They probably wouldn’t until they found her body sitting on the ground.

The reason no one saw her up here was the fact that she hadn’t made a noise. And the fact that most people were in their dorms by now. It was close to night time, and the sun was just about to be under the horizon. How did she end up here? Ready to throw her life away? The teen had to recall the last moments of her life before she finally let go. Gotta be all cliche and what not.

The past couple of weeks or so the girl found herself becoming more distant from everyone. Even Brant, the boy she loved oh so much.. Though they didn’t notice.. not even one of them.. Anytime the someone seemed like they were about to notice, she would put up a barrier, and act like everything was fine. That's usually how it went with people right? Everyone put a mask on for people, acting like everything was fine.. but it all started Monday a couple weeks ago.. A new soul appeared.. an old man’s soul. She talked to it like she normally would but after doing so instead of being happy she felt sad.. the next day another soul appeared.. a young boy’s soul.. he died.. so young.. he had been killed by his father.. And was drawn her because of Destiny’s power.. after a while of talking to the boy’s soul she put him with the old man’s soul to be happy. While it did end the day off well Destiny was extremely disheartened.

How long was she going to have to deal with seeing a new soul everyday? She thought she was used to it but now… She wasn’t to sure. The week carried on and the girl kept thinking about the young boy and how he died. Then she started thinking about all of the other souls she saw… and all of their stories. How many of them had died at a young age? How many of them had such a bright future ahead? The more she thought about it the more depressed she got..

One day the girl was out on in Rosebury where she came across Jane. The conversation went well.. well until the girl asked her to try and tear her soul from her body.. and kill her for good. She agreed to it, even though she was completely unsure about the whole thing.. She agreed to killing her friend, first assuming it was just helping someone, but now.. it just seemed like murder to the necromancer.

The girl spent more time in her room.. she started skipping classes and anyone that talked to her at the dorm, or outside the dorm she faked a smile for. Everyday she wondered about being able to see souls and Jane. How many of them were trapped here? How many of them came here drawn to her power instead of moving on? How many of them had she trapped here? How could she say yes to killing her friend? It was taking a toll on the necromancer. Many of her days she spent curled up on her bed. Her once bright red eyes were dull. Every time the sun set she thought about going up to the roof and jumping off.

The one time Juan came to life on his own she immediately sucked his life-force from him, making his bones clatter to the floor once again. She had kept him here too.. Why did she do such a thing? Why couldn’t she let him rest in peace? Tears started coming out of the girls eyes, and she soon broke into a sob. Why did she have to trap them here? Why did she have to see these stupid souls? Why did she have to have the ability to mess with souls? Why did she have to have the ability to bring the dead back? She hated her power..

It continued on like this for a while everyday it was the same. The necromancer didn’t eat at all. Eventually her body started eating on the little fat she had. With dark, dull, unwavering eyes, she watched as her life force depleted everyday. It slowly went down since she was just ignoring eating and not ignoring drinking water. She only drank it every other day though. No one noticed that she was slowly dying. She faked it all for them. They didn’t need to know. They didn’t need to worry about her.. because if they did then they would have been trapped there as well when they died..

Finally we are caught up.. The girl was down to one finger now. Only one finger keeping her between life and death. Funny.. seeing how she was the thing the represented death for so long. Someone who could kill anyone on a whim.. Tears started running down the girl’s face as she laughed for one last time at her own joke.. A weak smile was held on her face. One finger barely ever holding on.. one foot off the roof ready to take the plunge to the hard ground below..

“Goodbye..” She uttered just about to release her slipping finger off the fence.

“STOP!” Someone shouted just in time for the girl to re-grip the fence with a hand. Destiny turned around with a surprised look on her face. Even so the tears wouldn’t stop flowing. Why did someone have to find her? Why did someone have to save her?

Knock, knock, knock.

It had seemed like forever since Brant had seen Destiny. They had started to grow distance once more, and he hated it. He hated it so much. The way Destiny had been acted for almost weeks, it reminded him of how she had reacted to her lost in the tournament...But yet something about it seemed so wrong. He wanted to make her feel better, find out what was bugging her but once again she had set a wall between the two of them and...He couldn’t say for sure what made him want to bother her tonight of all nights, but yet here he was. And yet the door stayed close.

Was Destiny even in there? Was her roommates there? Because if they were, then it was kinda rude to not answer the door. He leaned against the door frame, his eyes flicking down to the doorknob as if waiting for it to jiggle showing that somebody was opening up the door yet nothing happened. God, he couldn’t just stand out here. His reached out, grabbing ahold of the doorknob and turned it - and to his surprise it opened. It wasn’t even locked? Weird. While it knew it was rude to just walk in, he couldn’t help but push the door open and peek inside. It was empty, not a soul...Destiny’s door was shut, but he couldn’t be surprised by that - she had been hiding away.

“Destiny?” he called out as he took a careful step into Dorm 203, leaving the door behind him open as his green gaze flickered around. “Juan?” The skeleton was always so helpful, so he thought even if Destiny was hiding away from Juan would open up the door or something...But there was silence. The kind of silence that was deafening as Brant headed toward Destiny’s room. He gripped the handle, taking a deep breath as he opened the door as well. “Destiny, I’m sorry if you are in here but I wanted to…” Nothing.

The lights were off, but yet he could see that her bed was empty. There was something on it, a piece of paper it looked like. Confusement flashed in her emerald eyes as he pushed his way into the room, taking a few steps forward toward the bed and the letter. “What th-” he suddenly cut off when his foot hit something, causing a clattering noise as something rolled across the carpet. His eyes flickered down as he let out a soft breath of fire to send out a light, revealing at his feet a pile of bones. “Juan?” he said, his breath tight. He had barely ever seen Juan not in his normal self...So why had Destiny left him here? His eyes flickered back up to the paper as he hopped over the pile of bones and snatched the paper from her bed, letting his eyes quickly scan it.

As he read it, his body grew stiff as his face paled, fear rising in his stomach as his green eyes narrowing in shock. It was a suicide note. It fluttered from his hand as Brant turned, leaping over Juan once more and bolted from Destiny’s room and out of Dorm 203. Why? Why was she going to...What had happened to her? His mind raced with these questions as he darted toward the stairs to the roof. It would take a while to get there...God he had to hope he was fast enough. Tears threatened to stream down his face at the simple thought of losing her like this, and so he simply asked the question to himself again. Why?

She had always been so cheery, happy...Why was she planning...This! He had noticed she had been acting more...Sad the last few weeks but he couldn’t have imaged it would have spiraled into something as horrible as this. Taking a sharp turn in the hallway of the academy, he slide slightly before he took off once more, his eyes landing on the door that led to the stairway to the roof. She had always said she was alright whenever he had asked her, and while he knew it was a lie...he had thought it would be better to leave it alone. It was clear that it had been a grave mistake on his part. Slamming the door to the stairwell open, he darted up the stairs attempting to take two at a time in a frenzy attempt to get up there before Destiny threw her from the top of the building.

Reaching the top of the stairs, his hands grabbed onto the doorknob as he pushed the door open with all of his straight as his eyes darted across the rooftop. There she stood, facing away from him. A foot off the roof, only one finger holding on...And yet she seemed so beautiful in the way that the fading sun reflecting off her white hair… "Goodbye..” She started to let go with her single finger...Did she even realize what he was there? “STOP!” he shouted, tears suddenly racing down his face.

When she turned to face him, the fact that she seemed so surprised to see him and the tears that ran down her face as well...His whole body shook upon seeing her dull eyes, his eyes flashing with so many emotions as he stared at her. “Destiny…” he finally whispered, flames following it as his power reacted to the overflow of emotions that he felt at that single point. Rage that she would even think about doing this, despair that he had let her get to such a point, relief that he had gotten here in time, happiness to simply see her again, grief that he had almost lost her...So many emotions flooded over him, but no doubt grief was the one that was the greatest of all of those. “Why...Why would you even…” Flames followed each word, but he cared nothing about that. His only focus was to make sure he didn’t lost Destiny like this.

Hieta wasn't blind. He had seen it coming. It progressed slowly, like a seed sprouting into a sapling to a grand tree and soon it enough, it was out - flourishing madly in a daze as it tried to protect itself behind a thorny barrier that would block everyone out. Of course, except any supernatural creature would break in, and a ghost was no exception. He had managed to go through with intangibility, both literally and metaphorically. He wasn't blind to notice that the necromancer wasn't acting normally; he'd been through death and back to know that people would try and put on a brave act, only to fail in the end miserably.

It would've been any use if he tried to talk her right from the start. She wouldn't have listened and it would've inconvenienced them both, where she wouldn't learn anything from this and there would be nothing to fix. So he watched in the distance, occasionally passing through the walls between their dorms to see how she was doing. The school never bothered to acknowledge his existence until he became prefect - miraculously -, but even then, he never had the need to attend class as he did self-studies in his dorm. He was literally a ghost that nobody bothered to look at, a specter that was scarcely a thread from the after-life. Her behavior started off normally, as to anyone who would fall into depression.

Trying to close off to everyone so she wouldn't have any last regrets. Trying to hide behind a mask that everyone would fall for. Trying to hide inside her room, locked away so nobody would notice how she was feeling. Was Destiny that foolish to realize that she had people who would care for her if she did anything stupid like that? Hieta had watched her grow thinner, gaunt and deathly in figure, becoming bony like the true Grim Reaper. And he had to grimace, altering from his calm disposition.

Maybe it was stalking, but he managed to stay in the corner and watch her with crimson red eyes, from writing the note to when she left for the roof.

And he followed her without a question, watching her climb over the fence and hang onto its metal wires as though they were the only string left for Fate to cut before she would end her life. Was she really willing to go that far? To bring grief to others simply because she decided not to confide in them and ask for help? Were all people that dumb and didn't realize what they would be doing when they made stupid decisions like that? Was it really necessary to go through and die before they noticed anything?

She had a sad smile etched on her features - crestfallen as though death itself had brought onto her a burden that she would never be able to deal with. Of course. She was stuck watching the souls, listening to their stories and what bitter fates befell on them. There were times where she would hear the more fortunate ones, accepting their fates in peaceful sleep. Most often, the ones drawn to her were innocent children, scared beyond belief and crying about how unfair their lives were.

One finger let go.

And then another.

Hieta's eyes narrowed. Did she not realize he was right there? Pushing himself off the wall he had been leaning on, he took a few steps closer, being cautious in the case that he did anything that managed to startle her and actually make her let go. She was being absolutely stupid. Completely, terribly, utterly stupid. One step... two step... three steps... He was so close now, hands in pockets beginning to reach out when he heard a voice from behind, shouting and in complete despair, filled with a maelstrom of emotions he would never understand. Of course. A ghost would not understand how a human felt. They were different beings.

It was Brant, the one person who loved Destiny the most. With his fiery red hair, olive green eyes staining his cheeks with tears, small breaths of fire leaving his throat with each and every breath. Is that what love did to people? To drive them to points of even possibly following the ones they were closest to, to the brink of death and beyond? A smirk crept up his face as he glanced at the other boy from the corner of his eyes, his figure diminishing and reappearing like a light that wouldn't turn on properly. He was close enough that people could see him properly, but with the disarray Destiny was in, Hieta would only assume that it was malfunctioning at the moment. "You saw the note, I would assume?"

Turning his eyes back towards the white-haired necromancer, he wasted no time in speaking up. "What are you doing? Did you believe that you could fix your situation just like that? Not all of us are blind enough to realize you have been lying to us with that smile."

OOC;; aiyooo, I have no idea how to write Hieta so have a post shorter than your guys'. :DD

Destiny didn't say anything. She couldn't speak. She couldn't justify why she had done then. She just couldn't take it any more. The girl pull her eyes away from the two boys and focused on something else on the roofttop. She didn't know how she didn't notice Hieta sooner... but then again she just pushed away souls, and didnt bother to notice them if she couldn't push them away. But now she could see him again.. how long had he been trapped here too? The necromancer but her lip to keep sobs from spilling out.

The girl kept one hand rooted to the fence,the other still hanging of carelessly. She still wanted to jump off. She wanted to leave this world, Red eyes glanced back to the ground below, oh how she wanted to meet it face first.

While he was taken by surprise by seeing Heita flicker out and in of sight, he quickly decided to ignore him as he stared in heart-break at where Destiny stood at the edge of the roof. Why had she...Why had she even thought this was a good option? His hands clenched into fists as his eyes suddenly narrowed, the rage that he felt toward her doing this suddenly roaring much louder that not even the sea of despair that he also had inside could quell the flames. "Destiny," he suddenly spoke, his voice cold but still ragged with grief as a bigger flame as before left his mouth - a symbol of the rage that burned within him for the quick moments. "Yo-You love me, don't you? Then why the hell would you even do this!" he suddenly snapped. "I-I don't know what is going on with you but..." the flames quickly died down as he stared at her. "Did you think that I wouldn't listen to you? Help you?" His voice became soft, squeaking and cracking from the emotion that filled it. "I don't want to loose you, Destiny. Now when we finally found each other...Not like this." He grew quiet, wondering what Heita would say about this...Or Destiny. God Dam nit, he wanted to help her...Be there for her but how was he suppose to do that when she refused to tell anybody what was going on and thought throwing herself off the roof was a good idea. God...He didn't even want to think of what he would do if she...Yeah, no, he most certainty didn't want to think of that.

He was basically a third-wheel here, huh? That concept was never new; he was used to it as a ghost that nobody could see. People could do whatever they wanted and he wouldn't intervene unless it was absolutely necessary - as long as balance was kept at a decent set, he wouldn't try and force anyone to do something else. And this was why he had stopped and went out of his way to stop Destiny. A necromancer deciding to submit to suicide was nothing that would mean any good for anyone else. Of course, that was half the reason. Destiny was a friend, someone who had helped him get noticed by others, someone who actually tried to give him an ideal in living even if he was just a spirit. That was one of the many reasons why he couldn't allow this.

Hieta's eyes narrowed dangerously as he listened to each and every one of Brant's words, every breath that he took, unbidden with bitterness, poignant with raw anguish, and the way those feelings flurried inside the other boy without wanting to. As the flames fell and silence drew upon them, he let those words sink into his mind, processing them like a machine translating words to a different language. He bit onto his thumb's nail, fingers clenched starch white, trying to figure out what he should add on.

As a ghost, he didn't have those same feelings. He couldn't understand how anyone would try and do something like this, but he knew it happened. Those emotions were ripped away from him the moment he breathed in death, cold and lifeless. Was this how people felt when they felt that they had no power left? Nothing that could keep them attached to life? Or was Destiny doing this because she wanted to free the people she never meant to trap? His eyes shut close and he inhaled sharply, letting out the breath that would do nothing for him. A breath that wouldn't have any use.

It still calmed him all the same.

"Brant, snapping like that will only make things worse." were the first words he spoke out after contemplating about the whole situation at hand. One wrong phrase and everything would fall apart. Hieta didn't try to move from his spot, only leaning back on an invisible wall that didn't exist, his arms burrowing themselves further down into his pockets. "This is about those who were imprisoned here after death. Experiencing the sensation yourself will not do you any good, Destiny."

His voice was critical, harsh, and blunt: "You did not trap me here - I stayed based on my decisions. Do you think that you are the only with problems like this?"

Destiny did love him. That was for sure.. but.. this was all to much.. The girl sat down on the ledge, not coming back over the fence. She didn't want to go back over the fence.. but at the same time the ground was slightly becoming less of an option. The girl kept her eyes on the ground, they were a bit wide like she was out of it. So many voices.. Telling her to jump.. then there were some the told her to not do it.. plus two more that wasn't inside her head. She wanted to put her hands on her head but that wasn't going to do anything..

Both of them said things that kind of pissed her off.. "I never said I trapped you here!" The white haired girl said with a slight growl in her voice. Sniffles soon followed from crying so much. "I hate my gift!" She exaclaimed. "If I didn't have my gift, I wouldn't have been asked to kill my friend... I-I... I wouldn't be trapping all these souls to this world.. Preventing them from moving on.. I wouldn't have trapped Juan here either... I wouldn't have this damn hair color, or this eye color constantly reminding me of my gift!" Of all those poor helpless souls.. Why did the young girl who lead a good life have to get a gift revolved around death? Something she never truly had to deal with until she discovered her gift..

While disappointed that she didn't climb over the fence, the fact Destiny sat down was a bit of a relief to him. He did send a glare toward where Hieta was when the ghost snapped at him. Maybe...Maybe yelling was a bad idea, but he couldn't help but be a bit emotional with what was going on. But the next words that left his mouth took Brant by surprise, as it seemed Hieta knew exactly what was bothering Destiny...But goddammit why didn't he tell anybody else? His eyes flickered back toward Destiny as she snapped back at Hieta, sniffling as she explained why she hated her gift. This caused Brant to blink as he struggled to recall somethings as he attempted to force himself to stop the tears running down his face as well. The whole 'kill my best friend' thing worried him but...Maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to ask about that when she was sitting on the edge of the roof. "Do you really think you are trapping ghosts here?," he breathed, attempting to sound as solid as he could as he tried to find the words to say. "I mean...Even if you are - you can help them while nobody else can. Help them though what happened with them while the rest of us are just...Unaware." He made some weird hand movements as if trying to use them to make his point as he went on. "And besides...Do you remember what you told me on our first date? You said you wouldn't want to be normal...That you couldn't give it up because it led you to being here...To meet me."

Occ: And for the hair and eye color, its called hair-dye and color-changing contacts, Destiny. *shot*

His gaze hardened, and he couldn't help but be disappointed at Destiny's behavior. This was the same girl who was completely apathetic and had a tough front? Hieta quickly bit back, not wavering in his words, "And you blame yourself for trapping souls in the first place. Would that not mean I may as well be stuck here because of you?" Crimson eyes practically began to glow a luminescent light, shooting daggers as though they were meant to kill. "As the ruler over death, you can allow souls into the after-life. You simply have not discovered that yet." No, showing sympathy wasn't going to make this better. Trying to turn it into a sob-fest would not be any good, either. Perhaps it was his only lack of ability to feel emotions, but... no. He understood the situation perfectly. In the same way he sacrificed his own life to save Nicola, Destiny believed she would be freeing lost souls if she simply died. And that made it all the more worse.

"Have you considered the possibility of you becoming a ghost, yourself?" Hieta added softly under his breath, his fingers digging into the pockets and beginning to practically shred the fabric apart. Was this what it was like to be nervous? Trying to be cautious about his words? He forgot about all of those emotions long ago. He felt rather anxious, as though he should be feeling something here. No, that was an illusion. No emotions came to a specter that has been in such a state for so long. Everything that made him human has completely vanished.

Destiny didn't respond. Yeah she considered the possibility of becoming a ghost herself, but the chance was slim. At least as far as she knew. There would be nothing to draw her away from going to the afterlife.. unlike the other souls she saw. Her gift drew them away.. She had her gift for a long time.. How would Heita know if she could send people to the afterlife, when she hadn't even figured it out herself. She just stayed quiet. She didn't want to talk. Hieta was her before she returned from her trip.. so it would be hard to say that she trapped him here..

Like Destiny, Brant was left wordless. What was there to say? It seemed Hieta was doing all of the talking - even thought it was almost impossible to see if Destiny was even listening to the two of them. With really just worry for Destiny now lasting after the rest of his emotions started to fade, he swallowed slightly as he started to take steps toward where she was sitting. When he reached the fence, he crouched down as he titled his head to look at her, his fingers hooked on the little holes in the chain-linked fence. "Destiny?" he said in a soft voice, breathless as he rested his head on the fence as he tried to get a good look at her face as if to read what she was thinking. "Do you...Think you can come back over the fence so we can talk?" It didn't seem like jumping was on her mind, which was a relief, but he knew he would feel a great deal better if she wasn't sitting on the edge. Besides, he wanted to give her a hug - a hug like he had done when Destiny had visited him a good while after she lost the fight to Dylan in the tournament. If he wasn't going to be the one comforting her verbally like Hieta (if you wanted to call it that) then he could be the one comforting her physical via hugs, cause hugs made everything better and truthfully he could use one himself.

Occ: Sorry for being slow to respond, I didn't have the slightest idea how to.

No, whatever should've happened, Brant should've been the one to try and talk it out with Destiny. Hieta didn't know the first thing about telling someone everything would be okay and that life would continue on and they could keep living without a care in the world; he had those kinds of sentiments, but whatever clue that was being given to him to vocalize it, they were being too vague and blurry for him to figure it out. This was utterly pathetic. To watch the same girl who was always acting like she would be perfectly alright and tried to come off as powerful crumble down like a wall that got completely demolished and wrecked into ashes. Rubbing his temples, his eyes narrowed at Brant's words, and then they traveled back to the white-haired necromancer. A small frown deepened across his features, and his nails dug further into his pockets. Did what they say even have any effect on her right now? Was it too early to try and confront her about this? Maybe he just mistimed everything... No. If he had come any later, he would've been too late and his fellow prefect would've kissed the ground and left the earth without a care in the world, as though it had been an accident to try and test if gravity was working or not. "If you do not listen to him, I will go over there and get you myself."

... What was he doing? Trying to threaten her? God, that sounded better in his head than out loud. Now, it was just stupid and he might as well had tempted her to jump off the roof with those words.

Destiny sat in silence. She didn't want to go back over the fence.. Brant sounded like he was begging her.. Something told her to go back over but at the same time something told her not too.. What should she do? What should she do? Tears started falling again.. She didn't know what to do.. Why did she never know what to do? She was so sure about dying, but when she got up here, and came so close.. she hesitated at the end.. if she didn't she would have been on the ground, and Brant, and Hieta would have been too late..

The girl dug the butt of her palms into her eyes trying to rub away the tears, but it wasn't working. Sniffling and breathes escaped her. She tried to keep herself from turning her crying into full out sobs. She wasn't going to be able to climb back over like this.. She just wanted to sit there for a while, and not do anything..

A soft frown appeared on his face when Hieta decided to pretty much threaten Destiny, causing him to give him a hard look as he glanced over his shoulder. "Hieta, snapping like that will only make things worse," he retorted, deciding to throw the ghost's words back at him before he glanced back at Destiny who was now seeming to cry once more. A frown etched its way onto his face as he looked at her. Maybe trying to get her to climb back over the fence when she was on the edge of tears was a bad idea, so he decided not to push that anymore.

He paused as he messed with his fingers that was hooked onto the fence, trying to come up with words to say before words he had spoken in the past came to his mind. "The red eyes and white hair combo looks kinda pretty on you," he found himself saying. They were words he had said to her when they had first really talked, and he found true to this day. He loved her white hair, and striking red eyes. But the way her eyes seem dull when she had first looked at him when he was first on the rooftop.

"But I say a simple smile from you makes you beautiful...And pretty adorable." A soft smile worked his way onto his face as he leaned his face on the fence once more. "Say, are you still refusing the fact you are adorable?" Really, there was a single reason that Brant was going off like this - he figured the best way to deal with what was going on was not to yell at her, tell her that she was making a mistake...But simple try to make her feel better. Cause if she felt better, then maybe she would be more willing to talk when she wasn't sobbing and on the edge of the roof.

Hieta let out a deep sigh, clearing his throat with a small cough. Crimson eyes turned lukewarm, and he wanted to shoot back - Apologies. Did you hear me snapping in my tone? -, but he immediately bit back those words. He wasn't necessarily the most tactful person, but he definitely wasn't tactless. A hand was suddenly out of his pockets, rubbing his temples as he tried to figure out what to say next. It wasn't that he was frustrated; that's impossible. It was more like... he didn't know what to say and it somewhat bothered him. "Apologies then." Those were the only words that managed to escape him, and he looked away, back towards the open door still left there. What would happen if a staff member came and saw the Spring prefect sitting on the other side of the fence? Actually... What if someone her from down below?

Quietly, he went to go shut the gate closed, listening as best as he could and trying to catch whatever Brant and Destiny were saying. Maybe it was because he couldn't understand human emotions anymore, but Hieta doubted that flattery and complimenting her would work right now. Does it have anything to do with nostalgia? Would it be worse to bring up the past? In the end, he probably just lacked some common sense. He stood off to the side, knowing full well it would be better not to intervene unless necessary.

Right... whenever necessary. Brant could probably handle it just fine without him. Hopefully, anyway.