It has already been established that Naru's dreams are Not Good. Various degres of not terribly good, but it's a good bet that it has solidly gone past bad dreams and solidly into nightmares and likely Nightmares.
Tonight, the same crew who have already experienced Naru's dreams before have been asked to face them again. Naru's anxious enough about opening her dreams up again, adding extra people isn't high on her list.
The dream scape tonight is, at least on the surface, fairly neutral. School, it would seem by the feel of it. Not any specific school, but it has that feel in the way that dreams have a sense of certainty. The hallway that Naru stands in connects one part of the school to another, with windows looking out into a park or garden. Where the school seems normal enough, the greenery outside clings to the walls and windows, heavy and dense and somehow ominous and looming, as if it is pressing against the building and the glass, trying to force its way in.
Back into Naru's dreams. Though Ariel had to make a stopoff first, to bring an extra hand along. A trip to LAcrima's dreams came first; for the explicit reason of bringing her along, once again. She had offered last time, to help out, after the foray into the deadly hedge maze.
Though when Ariel arrives now, and finds that Naru's dream has turned from a maze of leaves and greens to a more familiar maze of halls and classes, the armored unicorn-girl doesn't miss much of a beat. Malleable and protean as dreams are, a seemingly new one, on a new night is kind of normal. Still, after the events of the hedges, she is somewhat skittish, warily eying the creepers and ivy clinging to the walls and windows.
"Hello, Naru."
Lacrima did agree to help out. She meant it too. Her dream was the same as it'd had been when Ariel visited her before-- a small garden, on a small terrace, seemingly floating in nowhere- that looks like it belongs a few centuries in the past based on the decor of pillars and overhanging trellis.
Back into Naru's dream.
This is not the hedge maze of before, is it? This appears to be a school. A school of some sort. She doesn't recognize this school as being any particular one.
She's pretty sure that she's played a horror game to this effect when she was still human, about people trapped in some dream school and they get killed off one by one by some vengeful ghost.
"This is different than last time." she says matter of factly. "But there's still some sort of vegetation on the 'outside'." she says glancing to one of the windows.
"Is that a constant? The vegetation?" she asks, curiously.
She leans forward towards a window as she purses her lips while Ariel looks wearily at it.
By the time they reach the school corridors of Naru's dream, there is no horse. Hard to say when it disappeared exactly - possibly at the point at which the rider would've had to duck to keep from bashing her head into the ceiling.
Maybe.
"...just because it's not something messing with your dreams doesn't make it okay," Akashimaru is saying quietly as she makes her way down the hall to where the others are gathering. Whatever prompted this line of conversation, finding Naru and the other two seems to table it, because the samurai girl stops looking askance toward Kunzite and turns her attention ahead, hand falling to the tessen where it's tucked into her belt. "Hey," she says. "How've you been holding up?"
It is not unthinkable that the reason that capes were incorporated into the Shitennou's uniform is that they look cool when their wearers shrug. Kunzite demonstrates this to Akashimaru, though granted, that's also probably not the reason for the gesture. "There's a limit to the number of repairs we can undertake at once. I'd rather worry about the ones that deteriorate if not tended to."
Her attention shifting means that his does, as well, and he bows toward the three women. That sword he sometimes bears is in evidence, this time, sheathed at his side. An axe might be more helpful. Or Naru's flamethrower.
"Thansk for coming back, Ariel." Naru looks faintly relieved when Ariel /does/ come back, the last dream was a little on the intense side, and Naru wouldn't have blamed Ariel for running and screaming.
"Er." Naru pauses at Lacrima's query and then nods. "It's different, but familiar to me. There's.. nearly always plants. Yes. Not in every single nightmare, but it's a pretty common theme." She pauses a moment and then adds. "I'm not sure which flavour of school dream this is, but if it manages to crack the glass, you should run."
Advice given with the voice of experience.
"I.. well.. I haven't done a lot this week." Naru admits with a rueful expression to Seishi at her question, quirking her brow at the commentary that she just barely overhead, but doesn't ask. "Outside of dreams that is. Last night's dream was also a school one, so I'm a little surprised to be back here tonight. I don't hear music, so I suspect it's not the same one."
Judging from her reaction to the last trip, Naru's dreams had shaken Ariel a bit. But she would not be a good friend if she just up and tucked tail, and bailed when needed. So here she is, hands folded bahind her back, once Lacrima is brought in tow. "Mn... It could be a theme?" She does murmur when Lacrima points out the overgrowth, looking to Naru when pressed for more detail.
But. There's Akashimaru and Kunzite; more than welcome sights by this point. Pale lips tug into a thin smile as they arrive, and Ariel scuffs at the ground with a boot. That's everyone. Which means there's not going to be much waiting around beyond this point. So the little unicorn takes a breath and steel herself.
"Of course." She does reply to Naru, "And hello, Akashimaru, Kunzite." Still polite as ever. But then she purses her lips.
Nearly always plants.
"Music? There was music, last time?"
Lacrima purses her lips softly, before she frowns. She wishes she could bring some of her Dusk Zone exploration equipment in here. But alas. Dreams are dreams and besides- Naru would probably not appreciate her putting up a small outpost in her head. That'd be really weird if it's even possible.
She turns back to look at Kunzite and Akashimaru. "Hello." she says flatly as she walks back towards the group.
She purses her lips. "If it's out there. Then what's the danger in here." she asks curiously as she bites her bottom lip a moment, tiny teeth pressing against said lip.
"Why was the music important?" she asks curiously.
Akashimaru just kind of sighs a little as she stops to take a look around, near enough to Ariel that she can reach out and ruffle the smaller girl's hair a little. Then she's pulling out her tessen, giving it a casual little flip before it settles securely into her grasp. "Right," she says, to no one in particular.
Those dark eyes settle on Naru, very serious, and she dips her head in a slight nod. "Have you ever tried taking control of the dream?" Akashimaru asks. "It is your mind, after all."
Kunzite tilts his head one way and another, considering the points raised in turn. Plants. Music. The danger in here. Taking control of the dream. They weave together, in a way. "It might be trying to keep you from doing that," he says quietly. "Keep you threatened and afraid, not just for the fear's sake, but to keep you distracted. To keep you running."
"Last night's dream included a dance in the auditorium." Naru gestures down the hall towards where she just expects the auditorium to be. "It was .. interesting."
Which is probably not actually /good/.
Naru takes a deep breath and then starts moving down the hallway, apparently just /knowing/ where she's expected to go. "Well, lets see. In the school I've had demonic monsters chase me, the vegetation crush the school to grab me, and generally at some point the hallway will vanish behind us and force us down towards a door. If I'm not dead already by then."
Naru pauses at Akashimaru's question and she nods. "After that first time that I met you and Mamoru in dreams by accident, I've tried. Generally to fairly limited success, I have to admit. I seem to get as far as mostly knowing what is coming, but I can't seem to affect it much. Like spoilers for a movie, I know the big twist so it's not as scary, but I can't change what's on the screen."
Naru nods towards Kunzite. "My dreams are always very active, I'm usually always moving."
Ariel's brow furrows. A dance? An interesting dance.
"Was the auditorium part of..." She pauses, waving her hands in a spreading motion, "This school, or?" All the important questions here, but she's following along. The shadows cast by the ivy on the windows make her keep... Very close to whoever she can in the moment. That hedge maze left a lasting impression it seems, and Akashimari giving her a good ruffling seems to steady the unicorn's nerves a bit.
Also get glitter all over Akashimaru in the process.
If Naru is not dead by the time they reach the door.
How comforting. That might not be good for Ariel to see.
"Maybe we should get to that door fast." She suggests. Especially when mention comes of crushing vegetation.
Wow look at her picking up speed.
Lacrima purses her lips. She head tilts and listens to Naru as she looks back down the corridor of this school. She looks up ahead and then back to Ariel. She frowns just a bit.
"That sounds mostly like a good idea." she says. She looks over to Naru. "I know what it's like to not have control over your dreams." she says quietly. "Usually. I dream of a garden. I'm not sure if it exists anywhere." she says as she stares back down the hallway. "But other times... I dream of another time and place. Of events that happened I can't interact with or change." she says. "Always... drawn. To where I need to be in them. A call that's hard to ignore." she says.
"Do you feel something like that Naru?" she asks. "That you 'need' to be going somewhere?" she asks. "In these dreams?" she wonders as she glances by the window again. She's looking for cracks-- or the sound of cracking or breaking glass.
"To be honest," Akashimaru remarks in a low murmur, "if it were my dream, I'd probably start wrecking shit about now. Not such a good idea in someone else's dream, though--"
Her voice breaks off as Ariel's pace picks up; automatically she lengthens her own strides. "Don't run too far ahead. We don't want to get separated."
Well. They're moving again, then.
Kunzite keeps pace with Naru, more or less -- they're centered on her, after all. He lifts both hands as Ariel moves further ahead -- says, "Shadows that move with us are mine," and calls on his power. Just a little of it. Not a solid shield of darkness, but enough to dim the light and drop the temperature a degree or so. The hallway confines his power; he can't summon the hemisphere that's its more efficient form. But he can draw on it enough to get a feel for the way energy moves in the dream. And possibly to be ready to react faster if they need a real shield this time.
Besides, if he keeps it this light, then it's possible still to tell if any inimical shadows turn up.
"If it's a different school, it looks the same, or feels about the same." Naru replies to Ariel as they walk, following the hallway. There's rooms on either side now, the windows gone, such that they can't actually see the vegetation outside. She pauses and reaches to open the nearest door. "Generally that's exactly it, Lacrima."
The door opens to a shadowy auditorium. No dance, no music, just a dimly lit large room, where the shadows around the edges all turn to look at the intruding light directly, attentively.
Naru stays in the doorway and looks towards Seishi and quirks her head. "This might sound stupid, but it never actually occured to me to start wrecking shit. I suppose I've always thought I could puzzle it out eventually." There's a beat of a pause and then Naru adds. "I'm open to alternates, clearly puzzling it out hasn't panned out so well."
Naru looks into the room, and then backs at Kunzite and then comments. "Those ones? Not yours."
Hearing Kunzite's reassurance about some of the moving shadows helps. Though Ariel makes a point not to get ahead. It's a weird dance of quick steps, pausing, picking up again, halting, back to pace, repeatedly. The end result is all the same, she remains close by.
Into the auditorium. This is where she slows, near stopping in the doorway, in fact, golden eyes squinting into the dim gloom. "Ah... Wrecking things is..." Well she wants to say 'not always the answer'. But property damage is different from violence, and therefore not so bad. But curiosity overrides caution and healthy paranoid fear.
Ariel shuffles a little further, footsteps carrying her in a few more steps towards the auditorium stage and...
Then she notices the shadows turning to look.
Those are not Kunzite's shadows.
"Uh."
Akashimaru warned her about going too far ahead.
"Does anyone want to buy some unicorn scout cookies?"
It's worth a shot.
The windows disappear. Lacrima looks into the auditorium. "Then you feel pulled somewhere. Does it feel... forceful? How does it feel?" she asks. "Or... it just is?" she asks.
She's about to try to cautiously try something-- at shadows that don't belong to Kunzite-- when Ariel strides into the room- towards the stage and asks.
'Does anyone want to buy some unicorn scout cookies'.
"Ariel...-chan." she says curtly. "You do realize if these are hostile, they most likely think you are the cookie." she says frankly.
"Well," Akashimaru replies briskly to Lacrima - she's already striding after Ariel, staying behind her. A quick little flick of her wrist reverses her grip on the tessen before it changes in her hand, curving outwards into the arc of a short bow.
As she raises the bow, a heavy black arrow materializes out of nowhere and settles into place against the string. "...If they try it," she says, taking aim - up, up, up, the tip of the arrowhead pointing towards the dark ceiling - "at least we'll have something to hit."
The bow flexes as she draws back the crimson string... and then the head of the arrow begins to hiss with sparks of red light just before Akashimaru lets it loose.
It traces a sparkling red arc through the dark air. At the apex of its flight, all but lost in the shadows that shroud the ceiling of the auditorium, it bursts into a firework explosion, like a cluster of fiery red spider lilies blooming in the air and showering the whole room with glittering fragments of light.
It's still an if, all the same. Conceivably there might be things in Naru's dreams that aren't hostile --
Odds seem relatively low, but it's conceivable.
Kunzite's instincts are to harden the shield in advance. But he doesn't know these shadows' nature, not yet. So he keeps with Naru, keeps an eye out behind them as Lacrima and Akashimaru focus on Ariel, and stays ready. At a visibly hostile move from the shadows -- then. He'll act then, and his own shield will darken, either to keep attacks out or, if they move to drain energy, to try to reflect energy back in to keep it within their targets. But -- waiting.
(And silently admiring the beauty of the fireworks. Just for a moment, without letting it distract them. Archers seem to have so much more beauty than the rest of them, sometimes.)
"It feels more like.. one way feels right, or makes sense and other ways don't." Naru mmms to Lacrima, thoughtful for a moment. At least until Ariel is a Unicorn Scout heading right into the auditorium, and Naru hurries in after her. If Ariel is going to be a nice light snack for demonic shadows, Naru certainly isn't going to let her in there alone.
There are absolutely things in Naru's dream that are not hostile. Generally those things are inanimate and stay that way.
The shadows do not qualify.
Instead as the fireworks shatter the shadows they grow more solid, all jagged and edged, the black under toned with glowing red, as if they might be lava within and the black of their shadowy self is the burnt soot on top. They shift and morph and move like the flow of smoke, trying to envelope the group in hazy black and heat.
Naru comments as she watches this. "Oh yeah. These guys were here last night too, I ran last night, until they caught me." She reaches for her sketchbook, because of course that's with her. It's a dream, it only makes sense.
It was the best thing she could think of on short notice when stricken with sudden dawning and terrible realization.
It wasn't so much striding as it was blatantly oblivious and succumbing to curiosity, and then halting dead in the middle of circling sharks. To Ariel's credit, it was much better than bleating and cowering in terror.
When Ariel slllllooooowly turns to Lacrima, lips tugged into the most strained of forced little smiles, with a massive bead of sweat sliding down her brow, the wordless expression is enough to silently, miserably communicate one simple message.
I know.
At least give her further credit for sticking to her guns of pacifism in the face of blatant, obvious, and probably completely unquestionable threat
To her further credit, she rallies as soon as Akashimaru unleashes that arrow and the red petaled lillies, Ariel throws herself in a tumbling dive roll; pointedly away from the shadowy figures and back in the more friendly direction of her group, landing in a crouch. She opts to not leave the protective confines of Kunzite's shield, she's already made one terrible blunder for the night. She takes a breath, horn shimmering with a flickering seashell green glow as she concentrates.
An auditorium is for rehearsals and music, not terror and gloom, and it is this simple shining notion that guide's Ariel's thoughts and wishes, exhaling slowly as she rapidly tugs on the very stuff dreams are made of and starts to weave it to her needs and dreams.
It is then that an indistinct white shadow appears on the stage, flickering to form after a little more work. The outfit is familiar. Junzite should recognize Prince Endymion's formal attire, though the facial features are a hastily formed blur. It would seem Ariel chose one of the many protective figures she knows at random for the act of... Sitting down and beginning to play the piano.
Ariel can't play the piano though, so the mimicing shadow is kind of terrible, but SHOULD serve the purpose of maybe being a distraction in the event of hostility.
Hostility that proves almost inevitable when the dark shadows turn so much more menacing.
"Uh. What happened when they caught you?"
Lacrima purses her lips. Kunzite's shield seems to keep them protected. She doesn't act to attack. Not yet. She downs grow more stern face and frowny though. There was dark energy before. She assumes that base nature hasn't changed. Darkness is always dark until it isn't. This is still...obviously dark.
She frowns, and attempts to probe... these things. Purple aura glowing out from her- she attempts to reach out- not in an attempt to control, but an attempt at communication.
However, not that she's nice about it. She says something in vibrant and fluid Spanish. Then she said--- in Japanese. "What is it you want?" she asks- more curtly.
She looks over to Ariel and...
Now she's using piano music to distract these things. ugh.
She looks over to Kunzite. "Let me know when you feel as if your shield may not hold." she asks. Still frowning.
The shadows take notice, roiling menacingly in to converge upon their little group of dream-explorers. In a little flurry of red sparks the bow disintegrates in Akashimaru's hands, becoming a tessen again. She flips it back into its proper grip, watching the shadows loom closer and more solid.
And grins, sharp and anticipatory. "Yes," she says, voice gone low. Her free hand comes up to her face, fingers catching at nothing and drawing back down, pulling a mask into place: the snarling grimace of a horned oni. "I can work with this."
In the next instant she's moving, a scuff of feet on the auditorium floor and a quiet whoosh of fluttering sleeves as she charges over the boundary of Kunzite's shield and into the thick of the shadow-figures. The tessen carves arcs of red light in the air as she moves, a flurry of blows.
Heat is a relief, in its way. Heat he can deal with. Kunzite's shield goes sharply dark, though those within it can still see clearly enough; he's cautious about dealing with it, at first reflecting nearly all and absorbing just enough to get a taste of it. If it's tainted energy, he'll let it reflect, though redirecting it away from Akashimaru to keep from broiling her. If it's not ... well, then. That kind of energy he can soak in, and use.
"Yes," he says aside to Lacrima, simple enough. And: "It shouldn't interfere with you." Her magic ... that he certainly doesn't want to soak in.
Akashimaru's glee is almost contagious; certainly his lips curve, his teeth show for a moment. And, at the image of Endymion sitting down at the piano, the feral smile shows just a little more.
At least the playing is accurate.
"Turned me into one of them." Naru answers Ariel casually. "After everyone I knew was either dead, already one of them, or became one of them while I watched. It was exceptionally uncomfortable." Which is probably as much an understatement as most things Naru offers.
The who of the distraction if probably more reassuring for the people there than disconcerting for the demonic shadow creatures. Certainly the lightness of the figure at the piano and the /sense/ of lightness that comes with it makes some of the shadows nearest the stage waver and falter.
"ALL OF YOU!" The answer to Lacrima by the shadowy figures is straightfoward and basic, really. Although if they're being particular, they probably aren't actually interested in Lacrima's energy, but they'll make do as needed. Nightmarish demony shadow creatures, looking for an energy fix, basic really.
Having an Akashimaru and her tessen of arcing red slicing is not what they had in mind, whoever, and that's clear by the puff of dark energy hazy smoke that the first one she encounters ends up shredded into. The energy coming at Kunzite's shield is dark indeed, relfected back rather than absorbed as they reach out to attempt to get elongated fingers with too many spikey joints upon Akashimaru and that fan.
Naru starts to sketch in her book, and then pauses and just reaches into her pocket. Coming out wiht a flashlight, becuase of /course/ she does. "I forgot, dreams rather work liek this normally, I dont have to draw it." She moves just a little bit to the side, still near to Kunzite and his shield, to try and herd shadow creatures with the light they dont care for, towards Akasimaru's slicing and dicing.
Turned me into one of them.
That does not sound promising at all
Ariel blanches. And though she cringes at the bellowing reply to Lacrima... Topaz eyes don't miss the flicker of the figres closer to the stage and piano.
"Um. I think it's doing something." She whispers sotto voce to Lacrima and Kunzite, while Akashimaru throws herself into a whirling dance of red doom with her tessen.
A small lightbulb pops up over Ariel's head.
It clicks on.
Now she bites on her lip, knotting her brow with concentration as she works again, horn glimmering. Instruments appear. Strings, woodwind, brass, to join the piano. It takes up a lot of her concentration and energy to muster; straing visible on her features.
The playing is still kind of bad as she whips up an impromptu orchestra. But it's the heart and point that counts, right?
Lacrima doesn't think she would be especially helpful here. Her energy is like hers. She usually just ends up empowering...things like this. When she attacks. Of course. She is not regularly attacked by things like these.
...would they empower her?
She doesn't know. She's not the right kind of energy these things normally want. She forms another blade- like last time, of dark energy, extending out from a straightened palm as she sighs.
"Well they want us. Which isn't particularly surprising." she says deadpan.
"But if they want energy, they're going about it wrong." she says. "How many sources do they expect to find here." she says with a frown as she swings the blade outwards- trying to keep under Kunzite's shield as the blade strikes through it.
"Unless they want something else." she says flatly.
"That makes sense to me." she says deadpan even as she swings the sword.
Oh yes, Akashimaru can work with this. Anticipation turns to a fierce satisfaction as the shadows cleave under her weapon - moreso when Naru's flashlight lances through the gloom and helps to herd the shadows into her path, when Ariel's orchestra kicks in. She can work with this, indeed.
She's a red dervish, darting and whirling amidst the shadow-forms, laying about all around her with the Shinken. "Nightmare!" she roars, voice rising above the sounds of battle to join with the dream-orchestra. "Fouler of dreams! Come at me if you dare! You face a guardian of the gate!"
Black claws grasp for her only to be met by the tessen. Now the fan is open, a broad arc of metal for those claws to crash and scrape against, then Akashimaru whips around and with a flick of her wrist it snaps closed just in time to come smashing down in a crushing blow.
"You will not darken this dream any longer!" Fabric rends as spiky shadow-fingers catch at her sleeve; Akashimaru kicks at one dark shape, driving her heel into it, then as another looms up nearly on top of her she rears her head back and slams it into the thing with an audible crunch.
The oni mask cracks and falls away from her face as the Shinken slices through the mass of smoldering blackness, opening a little space for her for a moment. "This Akashimaru... will break your hold!" Disheveled, bright-eyed and breathless, she raises the tessen over her head as it blazes with the red light of dawn.
"NIGHTMARE BREAKER!"
The light of Akashimaru's tessen. The light of the figure in white, and the glints off the brass and the woodwinds. The flashlight and the lightbulb. Things that make the situation uncomfortable for the shadows.
And blades that make the situation much, much more so.
Kunzite keeps his attention on the shield, on keeping Lacrima's blade unhampered, on keeping Things away from Naru. "One," he says flatly. "They expect to find one." Unspoken: the group of them is confusing them --
He trusts Akashimaru to hold. He trusts Ariel to back her. He trusts, in a sense, even Lacrima not to stab them in the back. That leaves him free to watch their backs, and the floor underneath, and to keep control of his own darkness against anything that might try to twist it away from him. Between him and Lacrima, there's enough power over shadow here to come close to matching the others' power over dreams --
And then Akashimaru gives that call, and that feral smile shows itself again.
A few of the shadow creatures tried for stealth, to come around the group to hide themselves in wisps of Lacrima and Kunzite's shadows, to blend in and get nearer to Naru that way. That tactic is short lived. Lacrima's blade strikes away unfamiliar shadows, any that might remain are prime for Kunzite's control.
Rarely is the theme music for the big fight actually LITERALLY theme music for a big fight. Orchestral accompaniment, rising in crescendo with the dramatic red and black of the glowing creatures, the sooty haze, the red light that joins the white light of music and flashlight, the flashing brilliance that undermines any attempt to cling to their own darkness.
The shadows explode in a poof of acrid smoke, cut to ribbons by light and sound and the flash of dawn breaking over the room.
The dream around them starts to shimmer, the vanishing smokey of the shadows starting to shift the very fabric of the dream around them.
Dramatic epic music it is not, but by golly it serves the purpose well enough.
Ariel even gets a little bit more of the hang of guiding the spectral orchestra, 'skill' replaced by 'imagination' resulting in much bette quality to the music and making it just a bit more suitable for Akashimaru becomes a force of nature in her own right.
Ariel is taxed though, sweat rolling down her forehead, she eventually crumples to knees, the music fading as the accursed auditorium fades with it.
"I think that did it..." She murmurs. Before her ears prick up, a sour lemon look crossing her face.
She hates having to say: "... For now."
The dark haze of the nightmare clears, begins to shimmer. It leaves Akashimaru standing in the midst of an otherwise mostly empty floor. Her breathing is quick, a trace of that sharp-edged smile still lingering on her face like the traces of dawn's light that cling to the edges of her tessen.
Feels like a job well done.
Ariel's words bring a more serious look to Akashimaru's face as her dark eyes turn in the unicorn's direction. There'll be questions, but maybe not right this moment. "We've won ground," she says. "That's enough for now."
Lacrima is helpfully staying behind Kunzite's shield. Which is good when that bright red light cuts through the shadowiness and causes them to explode-- she has no idea if that was purifying or not and she would not wanna find out the hard way. The last thing she needs to do--- freak out in Naru's head and add another problem.
She frowns a bit, and drops the blade. "That seems to have pushed them back." she says flatly.
"It'd be nice to know why they want you so bad." she says in a deadpan manner.
Then she haphazardly smooths out her elegant dress.
In the wake of Lacrima's comment, Kunzite glances down and aside, toward the flashlight in Naru's hand. "Yes," he says. "It would."
Then he turns to offer Ariel a hand up, without pursuing the matter further.
"I'm tasty?" Naru offers, but it's a casual off handed sort of remark, that comes on the heels of that tense moment of relief, waiting to ensure that it truly is safe to relax, just for a moment.
"Thank you." Naru directs that to all of them. "For coming back to my mess, and helping me regain a bit of ground. My sleep and I, and my energy levels all appreciate it very much."