840/Forestize Warning: Noble Thoughts

Forestize Warning: Noble Thoughts
Date of Scene:	06 November 2023
Location:	Jukai
Synopsis:	Rough, clumsy, and with plenty of fear mixed in, the Hero Club, and the mighty Sayaka Miki, face off against their first Vertex, and survive! Takes place immediately after scene 717 (Forestize Warning: A Maiden's True Heart)
Cast of Characters:	Fu Inubouzaki, Itsuki Inubouzaki, Sayaka Miki, Yuna Yuki, Togo
Tinyplot:	Heroes' Chapter

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Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Fu turns to face the Enemy that approaches. And it is very much an Enemy. She puts away her fear in a box to deal with later, privately. It's time for her to be a leader. "It's coming." she says, phone gripped in her hand. Then, with the two existing magical girls preparing to fight, and an egg-shaped energy bomb BLASTING against the cliff face, throwing dust and and smoke in their faces, and making the ground shake... She raises her phone as an emblem of a flower appears on the screen.

    There is a flare of light, as she looks back at Itsuki, proud of her brave younger sister for standing with the three of them. Then yellow energy passes over Fu... The Yuusha System has been activated.

    When the light clears, Fu is changed. Her hair is a brighter shade of yellow, her clothing is that of a magical girl, with a flower aesthetic to it, and she has a frankly ridiculously large sword resting on her shoulder, given the size of its wielder. "Sayaka, Itsuki, Nanoha... Let's get away from here to draw its fire. We need to stop that Vertex before it gets any closer." With that she leaps up into the air, sailing a superhuman distance, before landing one of the gigantic branches that covers most of the terrain here in the Jukai.

Itsuki Inubouzaki has posed:
    Sayaka and Nanoha are already heroes... Or Magical Girls, at least. And aren't all Magical Girls heroes? (Oh, if only poor Itsuki knew.) With her sister leading the way, and with the back-up of veterans who Definitely Know What They're Doing, Itsuki bravely has chosen to fight as well. She doesn't blame Togo, and it's a good idea for Yuna to get the non-combatant to safety. It would be terrible if something happened...
    So, with her conviction to fight strong in her heart, Itsuki presses the button on the phone app, and activates the Yuusha System. A green light washes over her, leaving her also in a heroic henshin outfit with a flower theme! "Y-yes, Onee-chan!" Itsuki agrees as she leaps off of the cliff they're on, before any more of those energy bombs lands nearby. She is awkward as she arcs through the air, scrambling with her limbs, until landing somewhat clumsily. "Uwawawawawaaaa!" she lets out. Then she looks up at the Vertex that continues to approach. "H-how do I fight it?" she calls out.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka stares at the monstrosity who just fired that attack, its not unlike any of the Witches she fought in how strikingly alien to reality it was. She has never had a problem fighting this type of enemies. But unless these other girls figure out how to transform fast, this will be the first time she will have to fight protecting many inexperienced people.

That thought makes the Puella tense as the rushing wind makes her cape swirl. She is about to turn to Fu to set down some guidelines together when the president of the Hero Club transforms, which is a relief especially when Itsuki follows suit. She wasn't confident at the prospect of her and Nanoha alone having to both fight the Vertex and protect the others.

She too jumps high all the way to Fu and lands precisely next to her. "So, what's the plan?" The Sharpsong Puella asks.

Yuna Yuki has posed:
    Yuna is worried about her friends. Of course she is! Even little Nanoha-chan and Itsuki-chan are fighting! But she is also the only one who can keep Togo-san safe right now. She has to stay nearby, and get Togo's wheelchair as far away from the fighting as she can. Her body is shaking, but she keeps up a steady stream of reassuring chatter as she runs with the handles in her grip. "It's okay, Togo-san! Fu-senpai is leading everyone, and all of them looked really strong! They'll take care of this and then we can all go back home together!"

Togo has posed:
    Togo grits her teeth as her wheelchair goes over uneven terrain, bouncing her around. They are on a cliff that is miniscule compared to the gargatuan foliage all around them. And Togo and Yuna are even smaller. And the others... How can they possibly face that awful thing? And why is she so useless? She can't fight. She doesn't want to die. But she doesn't want anyone else to die either... "Yuna-chan..." she whispers under her breath. She flinches as another explosion goes off somewhere in the distance. She looks back over her shoulder, but can't see anything from here. Her gaze returns to her useless legs.

    "Yuna-chan... You should get away from here without me. I'm just going to slow you down."

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Another energy bomb comes flying towards the magical girls as they advance. Fu blocks it with her sword, exploding ineffectively against the blade like she's smacking it away with a baseball bat. When Sayaka lands next to her, she answers, "We need to halt its movements! After that, we use the Flower Sealing Ceremony to make it expose its soul... Then, we destroy that soul. It's the only way to kill them. The longer it takes for us to kill the Vertex, the more the damage it causes here will be reflected in the real world."

    Fu made sure to make her phone appear magically so that she can convey that information to Itsuki as well. "As for fighting... Just picture a weapon in your mind, and focus on your desire to fight!" That's for Itsuki, not Sayaka, obviously. Fu's words gain additional gravity, as the foliage begins to turn gray and black and smolder away like wood turning to ashes, in various places. "We have to hurry! Sayaka, you're a swordswoman too, right? Let's get in close so we can deal the most damage!"

    Just as she says that, the monster charges up and releases a swarm of energy bombs that scatter all over. "Dammit!" Fu spits out as she lets her phone vanish in order to two-hand her sword. There's no way she can block all of those!

Itsuki Inubouzaki has posed:
    Itsuki hears what her sister says over her own phone, and says, "R-right! Envision... A weapon..." she leaps again, trying to get closer to where Sayaka and Fu are, but in mid-air the swarm of energy bombs comes flying, and Itsuki steels herself, getting her Serious Face on as she lashes out with her hand. "Hiyaaaah!" she yells. It helps, really.
    Combat wires or vines or green ribbons of some kind come flying out of a flower-shaped arm-weapon, zooming and bending all over to strike down the bombs in mid-air before they can hit their targets. "I-I did it, Onee-chan!" she yells, only to land hard on her face on one of the branches. Whumpf!
    When she gets up, it is with swirly eyes, and a puffy green whatsit in the air next to her, with a little plant sprout sticking out of its head, almost like ears. It even has little cute anime-like eyes! When she comes back to her senses, Itsuki clutches her hands together in surprise. "What's this? It's cute!"

Sayaka Miki has posed:
That things fires a second fireball while Sayaka ascends, but luckily Fu has taken care of it, effortlessly batting it away with her sword. Were it a less dangerous situation, the bluenette would have cheered her over that, but this is neither the time nor the place (wherever 'this' is).

Halting its movements... Sayaka nods at that, certain she can surely take part there. The Flower Sealing Ceremony is most likely exclusive to the Divine Tree and its heroes though. "Got it, no problem with any of that." Bashing and slowing down stuff is something she is fully equipped to deal with.

Swords materialise in the air next to Sayaka. She can do both ranged and close-fighting, but it's true being right onto her target gives her more opportunities compared to just throwing and making swords fly after her enemy. "Roger!"

She tosses a glance at the curious familiar Itsuki has summoned, but the Vertex is releasing another attack, so talking about that comes later! Any of the energy bombs that aren't taken care of by the other magicals girls get aimed onto by Sayaka's swords, as with a swirl of her cape she invokes many around her, throwing them all to those fiery orbs.

Yuna Yuki has posed:
    As more explosions go off, very audible even at this distance, and Togo tells her to just... Move on without her... Yuna stops. She comes around to the front, putting one arm on Togo's upper arm, and the other on the back of the chair. "I could never do that, Togo-san! You're my best friend! Just... Just trust the Hero Club, okay? There are four heroes over there, so we'll be going back home soon!"

Togo has posed:
    Togo has her arms wrapped around herself, and can't even meet Yuna's eyes. She wants to believe, but... She gets her phone out again, and stares at the screen. The flower symbol, a simplistic design that separates a burden from a Hero. Isn't there anything she can do? She can see Itsuki and Fu on the map. It's worrying that Nanoha and Sayaka don't show up... How can she be sure that they're okay? That matters a lot to her.

    Friends are so precious, after all.

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Itsuki deals with the swam attack, while Sayaka handles the pin-point targeting, all while closing in on the target! On the phone while she repeatedly leaps and runs, all the while evading attacks and relying on her sister and the sharp-witted (hah) Sayaka to provide cover, she answers Itsuki. "It's a fairy. They're denizens of the Jukai who have been assigned by the Shinju-sama to protect us with a Barrier! It'll reduce the damage we take!" Or that's what she was told, anyway. This is Fu's first fight too!

    Then, while she's looking at her phone and the map, to check where Yuna and Togo are, she misses the moment when an especially powerful energy bomb comes flying at her. Panicked, Fu lets the phone disappear and brings up her sword again, but--

    KABOOM BOOM BOOM.

    The Hero Club president falls through the air with smoke trailing from her body. A blue fox-like creature has appeared briefly, and then appears again to stop Fu from just full-out hitting a giant branch head-first, by nearly-stopping her fall for a moment, then disappearing again. It still hurts, but it's not lethal like it would have been otherwise.

    "This thing...!" she grits out as she struggles into a kneeling position, using her sword as a crutch. The burning destruction continues to spread before her eyes as the Shinju-sama is scoured by the Enemy. She looks up, making sure that at least Itsuki and Sayaka are okay.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Well, apparently they aren't just normal Familiars, interesting. And the fact that they are invested into their magical girls' protection helps calm Sayaka's worries a lot. Certainly Kyubey never did that for her, though Kyubey never forcibly recruited her either, so all in all it's still a mixed bag for her worries.

Her swords arrest the advance of the Vertex's fiery orbs, luckily, so the damage has been all avoided. Or so she thinks, before the monstrous enemy has the bright idea to test how efficient the protection of Fu's fairy is. Which turns out to be pretty efficient actually. Is it really all right, though? Sayaka can't really tell all the way from there.

"Are you all right, Fu?" the bluenette asks, squinting her eyes to try and locate her. At the same time, her greatsword materialises in her hand, and with a precise toss, the weapon flies at great speed and strength towards the Vertex. That will slow it down, hopefully.

Itsuki Inubouzaki has posed:
    A fairy, huh? Kawaiiii! But more important matters first!
    Itsuki does her best for her first fight too! But, ultimately, she lacks experience, and even with fire support from Nanoha, and Sayaka's skillful sword-throwing, Vertexes are... Powerful. Frighteningly so. She gets distracted by her sister getting blasted, and calls out to her, despite the distance between them, forgetting about her phone.
    "Onee-chan!" She watches as the Divine Tree burns slowly, in patches that continue to expand. What does it mean when the damage is 'reflected in the real world'? She doesn't want to find out. She uses her wire weapon to swing along a giant branch, and try to get closer to the Vertex, but she comes out from under the branch directly into a point-blank energy bomb cluster that explodes rapidly, sending her hurtling out of a smoke cloud, slamming her back into a tree trunk, though with her fairy making the impact non-fatal through the barest application of some kind of null-movement barrier.
    Then she's falling to her knees on the vine-like structure below her. "O-Onee-chan... Sayaka... Senpai..." she barely gets out. She has to... She has to get back up!

Yuna Yuki has posed:
    Yuna can see how scared Togo is. And she sees Fu, and then Itsuki, go down after being hit by energy bombs. Thankfully, Sayaka has pinned the Vertex in place temporarily, the huge monster having just been hovering forwards steadily until now. But that can't last. She stands up fully and turns around. "I won't ever leave a friend behind. I joined the Hero Club because I wanted to help people! I wanted to be a Yuusha! Now that I have the chance, and the lives of my friends are on the line, how can I back down? Stay here, Togo-san. I'll protect us all!"

    Then she starts running towards the edge of the cliff. It looked to her like the Vertex was charging up its biggest attack yet. And for some reason, it's aiming right at her and Togo! Yuna presses the screen of her phone, and the flower symbol flares with light. A pink light that washed over Yuna, starting with one of her fists, but will soon appear as armor on both of her feet, and her other hand, as she progressively transforms via the Yuusha System.

    "Don't worry, Togo-san!" she calls back. "A Hero is unbreakable!"

Togo has posed:
    The fate... Of the world, maybe even the universe... Rests on a handful of schoolgirls. Two of them are already down. It looks like only Sayaka is still active. Nanoha is doing a good job of keeping stray blasts from hitting hers and Yuna's location, but even so...! How can they possibly stop this!? When Yuna declares she is going to fight too, Togo is terrified suddenly. She reaches out and yells, "YUNA-CHAN! WAIT!" She has a terrible, terrible feeling. The pink light that solidifes into armored gauntlets and shoes seems useless against this abomination that continues to advance and advance... How long can Sayaka's swords keep it pinned down?

    Even worse... Is the awful feeling that this has happened before. Which is ridiculous, because how could it have happened before? This is her first time in the Jukai! The feeling doesn't make sense, but it makes her fear even more, seeing Yuna's back to her. Dreading not seeing her ever again.

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    Things are looking pretty hairy. If it wasn't for the more experienced magical girls, Fu might think the battle lost already. But as long as there are heroes willing and able to fight...! "I'll manage..." she replies to Sayaka. "Thank you. We're running out of time. I just didn't expect it to be this strong!"

    As if to emphasize that point, the pinned Vertex gradually breaks free of its restraint. The brightly glowing energy bomb in its spout-like tail is nearing readiness to fire it seems. Fu is confused by the predicted trajectory though. She traces the arc, and sees... Her stomach drops. It's aimed at the cliff where Yuna and Togo are. Why? Why would it be targeting them, instead of her, or Sayaka, or Nanoha?

    She gets out her phone and speaks rapidly, as she calls Yuna. "Run away, Yuna! Get Togo out of there! I..." Images of Togo and Yuna broken at the bottom of the cliff flash in her mind. "I'm sorry, girls. I dragged you all into this... If I had warned you... And Sayaka, Nanoha... You shouldn't have even been here...!" She looks pained, not by her injuries, but by the knowledge she may have killed everyone she cares about by involving them in the Hero Club.

    A flash of pink light out of the corner of her vision, doesn't quite penetrate her awareness. Not until the Vertex fires its attack...!

Itsuki Inubouzaki has posed:
    Itsuki gets up unsteadily, and tries to join her sister and Sayaka-senpai. Weakened or not, they have to stand together...! "Onee-chan! Sayaka-senpai! It's targeting the others...!" Fu has already noticed, but the defeated speech she overhears as she leaps through the air and closes in on the location of the other two heroes strikes fear into Itsuki's heart. She panics a bit. "We can't give up! Everyone is depending on us!" She moves to Fu's other side, trying to help support her sister in getting her up and on her feet. "What is this Flower Sealing Ceremony!? Maybe we can still do that--" KABOOM.
    The bomb flies. Itsuki can only watch in horror as it sails along an arc towards where the other two founding Hero Club members are.
    She can't do anything to stop it.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
What happens next makes Sayaka's blood boil. Her weapon has managed to slow down the Vertex while she was checking on Fu, but now it has gotten free, and it is retaliating, not against her or Nanoha, who have been using magic the most here, but against Yuna and Togo. To target their weak link like this...!

The Sharpsong Puella is only ever so slightly relieved when she sees Yuna transform too. That's a pretty big bomb. Should a newbie really be left to fend for herself against something like that? The Vertex is still advancing, though... She will have to trust in Nanoha to cover for Yuna. Please be all right, Nanoha, Togo, Yuna!

The Eternal Fantasia manifests in the air, 20 swords all pointed at the Vertex. The blades are all aimed at it, and by Sayaka's will they all strike, their force and speed unmatched.

Yuna Yuki has posed:
    The energy bomb comes flying like an artillery shell, and Yuna meets it part-way. With her fist. It explodes against her hand, and a cow-like creature is revealed floating along with her when the smoke clears. It was a powerful one, with a shockwave whipping outwards in all directions, probably buffeting poor Togo. But with Sayaka cutting off the source of any more such attacks, Yuna is able to finish her transformation, gaining her pink and white garments of her Yuusha outfit. Her hair also turns bright pink as well, making her look more than a little bit like Madoka.

    Unlike Madoka, Yuna seems to be all about the martial arts. "Good job, Saya-chan!" she says after landing, before immediately leaping and bouncing off of every branch and root and what-have-you along the way to build up speed, before capitalizing upon the deadly, dancing swords of the Puella, to pull back her right hand as she descends upon the injured Vertex. "Yuuushhaaaa...."

    Her fist glows bright pink, and then she yells out, "PAAAAAAAAAUNCHI!" as she PUNCHES STRAIGHT THROUGH the behemoth!

    She might not know anything about the Flower Sealing Ceremony, but surely the others can start it up!

    Yuna needs a moment after landing on the other side of the Vertex and looking up at it to prepare herself to target its soul.

Togo has posed:
    Togo is, indeed, barraged with a terribly powerful shockwave, clouds of dust, and force that almost gives her whiplash in her chair. "YUNA-CHAN!" she screams out, blinded by the huge explosion. Once she is able to see again, and lowers her arms from her face, she sees the pink blue that is Yuna Yuki. THe Yuusha richocets across the battlefield. Togo can't make out the details from here, but it looks like Sayaka has minced up its firing tube pretty good, making sure its deadly assaults end right freaking now. And then Yuna... Yuna punches it so hard it looks like the Enemy imploded.

    Togo is left to watch, being protected by her friends and club mates and fellow students... Having to wait and see if everyone else makes it out okay.

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    As predicted... Sayaka is a powerful Hero in her own right. The primary weapon of the Vertex is reduced to scraps, and its main body is torn apart as well. With Yuna punching the Eneemy inside-out, there's only one thing left to do. "Don't ease up! Vertexes can regenerate their injuries! The only way to stop it permanently is to extract its core!" She gives the quick version of the Flower Ceremony to everyone. There's prayers and recitations, but they don't have time for that. Everything is burning around them without any flames. Just decaying into ashes. There's no time.

    "Just chant something to command its soul to release! It can be anything, as long as you mean it!" The break she got has given Fu time to catch her breath and resort herself. She also has her morale boosted by Yuna's flashy attack. With a grin, Fu leaps quickly towards the already-regenerating eldritch creature, slamming her sword down into the ground at her feet, closing her eyes, and chanting, "Release your soul, Vertex, so that you can be purified!" Not the elaborate prayer that the Taisha told her to use, but whatever works is what works.

    A flower-designed circle not unlike a Puella's magic circles appears beneath the Otome-class, the petals gradually darkening one by one, with magic lettering spinning rapidly like a counter of some sort. "That's our magic power meter! We have to seal it before it runs out!" Then she hefts her sword up and over her shoulder. "Sayaka! Want to give it a double-tap?" she asks with a grin. Dual greatswords, carving this thing apart!

Itsuki Inubouzaki has posed:
    Y-Yuna transformed too? Thank goodness! Between Sayaka shredding the Vertex and Yuna punching the hell out of it, it looks like all that's left is to seal it! It's frightening how quickly a monster this strong is regenerating from the damage they dealt. Itsuki gets the directions from Fu, looks to Sayaka, and nods her head firmly. "I'll help with the seal! You two deal with the soul!" Then she jumps down, taking her place at one part of the circle, and performing her own chant.
    "Evil begone!" she yells. Look, she was kind of put on the spot. This isn't the situation for long-winded speeches!
    She is concerned about the mention that they have a time limit, and that they will 'run out of magic' if they don't finish in time. What does that even mean!? All Itsuki can do is use her flower weapon to wrap up the Vertex in wires and keep it from going anywhere, so the seal can be finished...!

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka realises that maybe she shouldn't have worried so much about Yuna. She clearly has a knack for it. "That was impressive, Yuna-san!" the Sharpsong Puella yells to the newly pinkette magical girl. The similarity to Madoka isn't lost on her, and that actually makes it a little jarring, especially with their differences between them coming to the foreground all the more because of the similarity.

Nonetheless, that's a great victory, and soon the Hero magical girls are executing the Flower Sealing Ceremony, which is a lot less ceremonial than she imagined with how "anything goes" it is. Ok, she finds that detail rather funny, and can't help but have a smirk show up on her face. I mean, really? Would chanting about ice cream work too?

Soon enough the Flower Sealing Ceremony is done, and Fu is inviting her to a joint strike against the Vertex, greatsword of yellow alongside greatsword of blue. "With pleasure!" Sayaka smiles widely, a new one of such blade making its appearance in her hand. Synchronising her movements with those of Fu, the Puella jumps towards the Vertex, greatsword ready to strike!

Yuna Yuki has posed:
    It looks like the sword experts have it covered, so while Yuna is shocked by how the Vertex is back to being as though they'd never damaged it at all in a matter of seconds, she jumps over to her part of the circle, and tries to figure out a prayer. "Shinju-sama! Please exorcise this evil!" she settles on. Suitably dramatic for a Hero! She focuses, and the circle might gain a few extra petals, buying more time. But she's leaving the finishing blow to Sayaka and Fu!

    "Strike true!" she yells out as encouragement, pumping her fist in the air! >_<

Fu Inubouzaki has posed:
    The Vertex seems to be bound somehow in a column of divine light, shining up from the circle below and trapping it in a column. Indeed, Yuna adds more time to the ceremony... But it doesn't look like they're going to need it. Fu leaps up, sword in both hands, causes it to grow to an even more ridiculous size in an instant, and together with Sayaka, the two magical girls descend, slashing with all their strength... And cleaving through the upside-down pyramid structure that emerged from the monster.

    It shatters into pieces that drift for a moment before crumbling into motes of light that stream upwards. The rest of the Vertex follows suit, crumbling and fading away. "We did it!" Fu calls out, only when she's sure they've won. Before she can celebrate further, however, a storm of petals blows over them, and the next moment... All of them, including Togo and Nanoha, find themselves on the school roof of Radiant Heart Academy. It looks like barely any time has passed out here, relative to what they spent in the Jukai.

    Fu is also back to her civilian student attire. How thoughtful! The Shinju-sama even de-henshined them to save them the trouble!

    "Good job, girls! We really showed that Vertex who's boss!" she says with a huuuuge grin, and a raised fist! She also hurries over to scoop up Itsuki in hug and spin around with her, laughing at the sheer relief of everyone making it out alive.

Itsuki Inubouzaki has posed:
    Itsuki doesn't quite believe it's over either... Not until they're back in the 'real world'. Then she puts a hand to her chest and lets out a shuddering sigh, shaking like a leaf from the adrenaline coursing through her body. "Thank goodness...! Is everyone oka--?" She is muffled by big sister hug and spinning around. Oh, please, Fu. Not right now. Her stomach isn't feeling the greatest...!
    She does 'pwah!' when she manages to get her face out of her sister's chest and get a breath of air, and then smiles at Sayaka and Nanoha. "Sayaka-senpai... Nanoha-chan... Thank you so much! We couldn't have done it without you!"
    Probably not actually true, but... Would all of them have made it out without strong, experienced magical girls at their side?

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka goes back to normal on her own, looking around at the familiar rooftop of the school. Huh, so they aren't back to the classroom. Well, they won, despite that jarring feeling it all started with. At least, she will know what's happening next time if her Soul Gem reacts like that while people stand still.

Though that is a worry of its own: what happens if the Vertexes strike and no Hero of the Divine Tree is around to execute the Flower Sealing Ceremony? Let's hope that scenario never comes to pass. Now, it's time for celebrations!

"Congratulations, everyone!" Sayaka yells, moving to give Fu and then the others a high five. "I am glad I was of assistance", the bluenette replies smilingly to Itsuki.

Yuna Yuki has posed:
    Yuna, though happy for their victory, and to be back in her own plane of existence, is quick to rush over to Togo, and make sure her best friend is okay. "Are you alright, Togo-san? That was pretty scary, but we made it home!" She also turns to give Sayaka a high-five! XD

    "That was so cool! We were like real Yuusha! Heheheh... Now let's hope we don't face another one of these for a long time." She is hugging on Togo. The two are clearly very close. It would probably destroy either one of them if the other hadn't made it back alive.

Togo has posed:
    Togo leans into the hug, her face a mix of relieved and also still distraught. That... It was more than just scary. She thought Yuna had died at one point. She was afraid for all of them, and... And she could do nothing. She buries her face in the crook of Yuna's arm, gritting her teeth and closing her eyes against the tears that begin to stream out.

    'Let's hope we don't face another one of these for a long time.'

    Togo's eyes open again, and she can only stare in horror when she pulls her head back and looks up at Yuna...

    'You mean,' she thinks. '...I might have to go through this again?' Togo is left speechless, and with a lot to think about.