who: thom and kaysen
where: the treehouse
when: morning

Kaysen was not in a good mood. She hadn't slept well, she'd had a bad night, and generally speaking, she was of the opinion that Everything Sucked. So when dawn had hit, she'd left, being very quiet about it, but she did in fact take off. she'd considered going inside her house, back up to her room to sleep or something, but in the end decided she probably wouldn't do that anyways. So she'd climbed up into the treehouse, and sat up there, curled up with her hoodie pulled over her knees, arms hugging them, even her hood up as she sort of glared out at the dreary world. She could see little lines of smoke in between the leaves, and tried to resist the urge to push the branches back to see them better.

That she managed...she probably wouldn't see the source anyways, she'd probably just see more smoke, and have it pounded home even better that the world had gone to hell. She was really heavily down in her own mind, not paying attention to most of her surroundings as she brooded.

Thom had missed Kaysen leaving - once dawn had come, his guard had dropped somewhat and with the texts from Leija and generally being dead on his feet, he'd headed up out of the basement to brew some really, really strong coffee. It was only when he'd down his first cup and poured himself another that he realised that she was missing. So, he went looking for her, carrying a couple of mugs of coffee and some granola bars that would pass for breakfast. In actual fact, the tree house was one of the first places he looked - mostly because he doubted she'd hang around his house and he didn't particularly want to face her parents, so down the garden seemed like a plan. And he was rewarded by the sight of Kaysen-feet, though obviously drawn well back. "Can I come up?" he called. "I have coffee and, er, breakfast," he offered, suddenly realising that he didn't actually know whether she drank coffee or not. Oh well.

Kaysen sort of frowned at that, then leaned slightly over to see Thom down there. "...it's your treehouse." she said. Not that that was particularly inviting of her, but it wasn't a flat no. She wouldn't actually have felt right about saying no. In her head somewhere, it still was that boy built, no girls allowed place. Intellectually she knew that was ridiculous, but hey. When did she ever make sense? She was an irrational fire elemental, after all, now wasn't she. Yes, yes she was. One who like, yelled at her boyfriend and fucked everything up and got ignored by her brother's squeeze. Oh yeah, that was why she had been hiding.

"Yeah, but you came out here on your own, I'm not gonna just... Look, can I come up, or should I go away and leave you to it?" he asked, wanting to give her options, aware that she hadn't had many of them over the last couple of days and a large amount of that was actually his fault. And though he stood by his decisions wholeheartedly, he couldn't ignore the fact that he'd been pushing people around - if not always directly.

Kaysen took a moment to consider that. "If you want." she mumbled, sighing and she looked back out at nothing, steadfastly ignoring him. However, then she paused. "How're you going to climb with coffee?" she asked. Because the logic there was failing, she thought. It also had her looking back down at him.

Thom eyed her, then looked down at the coffee, and then back up at her, frowning slightly, his lips pressed together in thought. "Goooood question," he agreed, thinking about that one. He took a step back and set one of the mugs on the ground, then considered the tree again. Taking a breath, he began to climb, slowly and carefully, one board at a time, resting the mug of coffee on each board as he heaved himself up using his other available limbs and lots of leaning against the trunk. As soon as the treehouse floor was in reach, he lifted the mug and placed it on the edge, hoping that he had it balanced before letting go, scrambling back down and repeating the move, managing to get both mugs up with only minor spillages - luckily the liquid had cooled enough not to give him third degree burns as it sloshed over his hand and wet the sleeve of his shirt. That done, Thom pulled himself up onto the platform and tried not to look like that had taken far too much effort.

She watched that, head titlted to the side as she regarded him, and she took the first mug, wrapping her fingers around it. The day wasn't overly warm, so it was nice to have the heat seep into her fingers. She also moved back out of his way when he got there. "Not bad." she said, because that had been kinda cool of him. He got points for effort, at the very least. She wasn't sure why he'd gone through the trouble, but eh. Whatever. It wasn't like she claimed to understand Thom--especially not in the past month or so.

"It's my hidden talent - really, I'm a monkey," Thom deadpanned, but he couldn't hide the twitch of a smile. "I have prehensile toes and everything. So - how you holding up?" he asked, which was the real reason he was out here - to find out how she was doing.

Kaysen made a face at him. "Dude, we're not talking about your feet." she informed him straight away. It may also have been a tactic to give her a second to figure out how to answer his question. In the end, she didn't actually so much answer as raise one shoulder and let it drop down in the most blase of shrugs ever. She remembered what happened last time she'd been up in the tree with the guys. And okay, Isaac wasn't there right now, but she remembered opening her mouth and talking then feeling like she'd said something way Wrong. She didn't especially feel like repeating that.

"Okay, we're not talking about my feet," Thom agreed - having actually expected her to say something along those lines anyhow. "So, instead, let's talk about how you're doing. Y'know, with actual words and something that isn't just a shrug," he told her, taking a sip of his coffee and leaning back against the tree trunk.

She shot him a sideways Look for that, clearly displeased and she didn't say anything for well over a minute. She sipped her coffee, and grabbed one of the granola bars instead, to busy herself. "What exactly do you want me to say?" she asked. "The world's ending, everything sucks, and oh yeah, I kinda figured this was gonna happen like, weeks ago and now it has. How are you?"

Thom breathed a kind of laugh at that and looked back into his coffee, figuring that he actually deserved that. But at least she'd said something about it. "Well as can be expected, I guess - tired," he admitted. He was hoping that he'd be able to get some sleep this afternoon. A few hours while the sun was riding high would just be wonderful. No matter what Isaac or anybody else said about taking turns at sleeping, last night he'd been doing no such thing. He'd spent half the night sitting on the stairs, putting himself firmly between them and any potential danger.

"Yeah...you didn't sleep." she said. Because why yes--she had noticed. "Were you for really that worried that they were gonna come crashing down the stairs?" she asked. And while the wording was a bit weird, it was a serious question. It had kind of made her worry more, really. If Thom was standing vigil, he might know more than she did. It was her standard view on the world still working. Isaac and Thom Had Things Covered. So...if he was up all night, then there was probably something major to worry about. Kaysen didn't share that though, not really thinking it was a good idea.

Thom thought about the answer to that. "Er - I guess yes and no," he admitted in the end. "Like... Rationally I know that vampires can't get in without an invite. And definitely not into my house, because it's warded against them. But..." He looked over at her out of the corner of his eyes, his head resting back against the tree trunk. "It's hard to be totally rational when you know that there's things out there that would kill you if they could," he admitted, though the phrasing there was wrong. It wasn't actually himself he was worried about.

Kaysen thought about that, then nodded, in a sort of 'yeah, point' sort of manner. "I guess. But like...you knew about this stuff before, right? Is it different just cuz you like...know they're for really out there right now? Cuz from what I understand, after looking at some of Isaac's books n shit, that stuff's out there anyways. Right? Right now we're just seeing it like more blatantly." She sort of figured that made it different.

"I knew about it in theory - and not even all of it. Some of it. Vampires, yes - even some of the different kinds, but I'm not exactly the oracle or anything," he shrugged, feeling like he should be better than he was - she deserved for him to be better than he was.

"Yeah, but even if you didn't know about everything, you still knew more than like...me. But anyways, that's not even the point. The point is like...that stuff's out there. Like, vampires, and other shit, and like the vampires, they just totally wanna kill us cuz they can. I'm sure there's shit out there that literally sits back and plots all day just how to kill random people." Then Kaysen sort of realized she was mildly fuzzy on what her point was. Since it seemed she was kind of saying that they should either be rational all the time (ha!) or flailingly fucking terrified all the time. She didn't like either option, really.

"Right," Thom agreed. "Stuff's out there. World's a dangerous place - but it's still here. Not ending," he said, trying to put a positive spin on things. They both needed it. And it was possible he didn't really know what the point was either. "Like, these vamps must have come from somewhere, and that place still exists. And they left, right? If there was a town overrun permanently by vampires, or if they were spreading and taking over, we'd know about it, right?" Wrong - not necessarily. People are stupid and they've been blind to things for hundreds of years, Thom's brain helpfully pointed out. Damn, but being positive was hard at times.

Sadly, Kaysen's brain went there too. "Um, yeah, and these things? Totally are listed under the 'fiction' section of the library, dude." she said. "So, that's bullshit. Obviously, people are just...I dunno. Really dumb, because it's not like these guys are doing a whole lot in the way of hiding their shit, y'know? But I dunno. I guess...people just totally don't know. And you don't hear about it til they're rampaging through your town, killing people. I keep trying to think about what it might be like when they're gone. If they go. Like...are people gonna forget? How can they? And if they do, will that make it worse? Cuz I kinda think so."

"I guess we'll find out - once they go," Thom told her, again trying for that upbeat, positive spin. He didn't add anything after that, because it really seemed that if he tried for positive and kept on? He'd shoot himself in the foot with realism. At least this way he'd keep it to himself.

"Yeah. I guess." Kaysen said. Then she paused, sipping coffee and thinking over things. "Does it bug you?" she asked. "Like...like having stuff that you could maybe do, but not? I dunno. Maybe I'm not making sense. But I can set shit on fire. Kinda. Maybe. And what if I could help? What if there's like...people out there that might not be dead or something, and they are right now just cuz I stayed in your basement last night?"

Thom made himself not react, though his heart started pounding like an express train and he could swear that he'd suddenly broken out into a cold sweat. He felt like he couldn't breathe - and so forced himself to take a long, slow breath in as he stared ahead, not trusting himself to look in her direction as his brain screamed out whole worlds of NO at the very thought of her going anywhere near danger, helping or not. No way, no - there was a no in there. And look, another no. A very emphatic one. Oh! Right - he should probably answer her. He just hoped he could keep his voice steady. "Bug me?" he asked, trying to sound calm and as if he had no overt interest in the conversation. "I guess... I guess that I'd prefer to make sure my friends stay safe than to risk everything for someone I don't know," he said, weighing up his words to give the truth and also something he wanted her to hear.

"...I dunno. I mean, there's definitely that." Kaysen said, not really catching anything in Thom's tone. "I guess like, I dunno. What if I could go do something, and it would save you guys too?" she asked. "Like, what if you could do something to the property...like the lawn that would make it so there's an invisible barrier the vampires can't get past, and if they walk by on the street, I could torch the motherfuckers?" she suggested, some wild lameness off the top of her head there. "Then I'd be helping...but like, wouldn't give Isaac a heart attack either." Nevermind the one she didn't know she was giving Thom around now.

Thom laughed a little at that - mostly with relief, because hello? Kaysen thinking of doing things from a place of safety? So much more acceptable than her going one on one with anything, in his opinion. "Not giving Isaac a heart attack is a plan," Thom agreed thinking that Isaac? Was proving to be a damn good excuse these days. Really he was. "So, let me get this right - you want to see if we can set something up so that you can help kill vampires, but that won't actually put you in any danger at all, because your brother would never buy it if you were?" Thom mused.

Kaysen paused for a minute, then looked over at Thom. She'd kind of just been talking out of her ass, but put like that, coming from Thom, it almost sounded sensible. "Um...yeah?" she suggested. "Could we actually...like...do that?" He had her attention better now, and she shifted, her posture changing as she faced him, into a much less closed off one.

"Let me ask you something first," Thom said, thinking things over, but not really ready to commit to anything yet. He looked across at her, and then leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees, better able to see her face. "You think you can do it?" he asked, very seriously. "Kill something, I mean. And you'd need a lot of fire to kill a vampire - you'd basically have to destroy them to the bone. There'd be screaming. And the smell - burning flesh. It wouldn't be pretty - you think you can handle it?" he asked, though there was no judgment either way in his tone.

Kaysen instinctively leaned back just a little when he leaned forward. She and Thom didn't exactly share personal space a whole lot. It wasn't that she didn't like him, it was just...weird. A second later she told herself she was being stupid and forced herself to sit exactly as she had been before. She thought about it before she answered, too. "...I think...I think that if someone doesn't, then they roll out of here, and go do this someplace else." she finally said. Which wasn't a yes or no, like Thom probably wanted, but it was as good an answer as she could give.

"Not asking about 'someone's - I'm asking about you," Thom told her, not letting that one go. "Do you think you can handle it, because I'm not going to be a party to helping you set something up that's gonna traumatise you. You've been through enough lately, Kaysen, you don't need more shit you can't handle."

"Yeah, well neither does the rest of this town." Kaysen said. "And you know what? For some insanely stupid reason, I got hit with the fire elemental stick. So...like, what the fuck good is it if I just sit back and don't do anything? That's stupid. So...I dunno. I can't tell you right now if I can handle it or not, because I'm not fucking psychic. But I would wanna try."

The rest of this town didn't get trapped in some between dimensions place recently. The rest of this town isn't my responsibility, Thom thought to himself. "I... can see if I can find anything that would work," he said, slightly reluctantly. He'd much prefer to lock her in the basement until everything went away, after all. But at least this way he might be able to minimise the risk to her and she'd be with him.

She had kind of expected him to fight her on that, so she looked comically shocked for a second, then scowled, and looked away. Then, she sipped her coffee, and let her eyes slide slowly back over to him. "...Thanks." she mumbled.

"But - if I can't find anything that would work, that would make sure that you're safe and that's going to stop a host of vampires deciding that this house, that everyone in it, is suddenly target number one in town? If I can't do that, you drop this idea?" Thom told her, totally seriously. "I know you want to help, Kaysen - but Isaac would rip me a new one if I let anything at all happen to you and you know it. Him, your parents, my mom. And never mind that, y'know, you'd be hurt or killed in the meantime or something. We do this safely, or not at all."

"Okay, okay." Kaysen agreed. "Promise. I don't really like the idea of going and getting my head ripped off either, so chill. I just think it's stupid to have some crazy stupid powers and not do anything when something this bad is going on. So...whatever, I already explained anyways." She was watching him out of the corner of her eye though, mind ticking over all sorts of things. It was sort of weird. Before he'd come to talk to her, she'd been preoccupied with her more personal shit, now she was focused on the other badness, and she kinda felt better for being able to focus on that. Was that fucked up?

"Then I'll look - I've been getting better lately, so I might be able to set something up. Purely defensive though, I don't know any offensive spells," he told her. That had always been focus. He kept meaning to work on some, but when he knew that his abilities were limited, he'd always concentrated on things that would definitely be useful. Now? If things were going to be like this? Defensive wasn't going to cut it for much longer. Hell, if things kept on going this way white magic might not cut it much longer.

Kaysen watched him for a few long minutes. "What can you do?" she asked. "And...how come? You've got that big knife and stuff. And now I guess you know magic and shit, and you gave me my hoodie and that bracelet and all that. So like...what's the story?" It occurred to her that she'd never actually even thought about it, but it seemed pertinent now.

"My family has just always been involved," Thom told her, stepping as close to the line as he could without crossing it. "Some people are. My mom was raised with this stuff, her her was - it goes right back, I guess. The knife was her's, she gave it to me a while back in that kinda 'now you're old enough, you should be able to go out and kill things' way. She never tried to hide that from me. From, like, when I was a kid and everything, I've known it'd be coming. She tried to prepare me, but there was never any question - when I grew up, I'd be expected to do this shit. Which is why the magic. And why I learnt to fight. I don't have any special powers, so I had to use what was available."

"...so if you're supposed to go out and kill things, how come you're not?" Kaysen asked, picking that out of the explanation. Since he wasn't. He was like...staying up all night watching over people, but he wasn't out killing things. In fact, even if they were gonna do what she suggested, it was going to be her doing the work, wasn't it? So...

See, that was the problem with half-truths - they never properly made sense. There was always a piece of the jigsaw puzzle missing. "Mostly because these guys are beyond my ability," he told her. "Going out looking for them would be a quick way to get me dead-ed and that wouldn't help anyone." He knew it would make so much more sense if he could just say that his skills were all defensive, that he was there to protect people from what was out there, that he wasn't a hunter or anything of that type.

"So what is in your ability?" Kaysen asked curiously. "Like...do you kill other things? Have you done other stuff? What's it like like...having known all this stuff when no one else does?" she asked. Yep. It was questions time now that she'd started. They seemed to railroad and pile up.

He didn't like questions, they made him nervous, knowing that sooner or later, he wasn't going to be able to answer them. Did Kaysen know that? He couldn't remember. Shit. "I don't go out hunting, if that's what you mean. I know some people do, but that's not really me. Maybe it will be in the future, but I haven't actually been actively doing this for very long," he told her, again stepping round the whole truth. "At the moment, I'm finding out what I can and can't do - it's a judgment call thing. I handled some of the demon cats, back at the bonfire, but growing up mom had me start on defense first on the basis that attack could come later. Course, I don't think she ever expected this to happen..." Thom said, hoping that sounded viable. "And what's it like? Honestly? Kinda lonely sometimes - and keeping things from your friends is never nice. Before, it wasn't that big a deal, because it wasn't here, it was all theory. It didn't matter so much. It was just a part of me I didn't discuss with people - you get used to that. But, yeah, lonely sometimes."

She listened to his answer, and found herself looking at him a lot more closely than...probably ever. She didn't say anything for a while either, as she digested that information. One thing she understood probably better than anyone was being lonely. She'd spent most of her time on earth in that state, and even sometimes now, where she had a couple more people that weren't blood related that would talk to her, she still felt it. Like she was some alien outsider, and that was just The Way It Was. But she'd never imagined Thom would feel like that. Kinda not ever. Because he...he was Thom. In the end, she sort of forgot to say anything, keenly feeling that pang for him there, and she didn't know how to say it.

Thom caught her looking at him and suddenly felt like he'd said too much. Or shouldn't have said that at all. "But yeah," he said, talking over the silence and her examination. "That's just the way it is. Always, like, one step apart - it's no big deal. Never known any different anyhow," he told her, an attempt to brush it off.

That part made her frown a little bit. "Doesn't make it any easier." she said. Because she also knew that bit about it having always been that way, or whatever. Not knowing the difference. "I know all about that." she added, voice a little quieter. She kept her stare up, like she was trying to read deeper. "I know all about all of that."

"Yeah, I know you do squirt," he told her, and the edge of sympathy in his tone also told that he knew it was different for her. Nobody actively set out to make Thom's life hell, they were both outsiders, but the causes and effects were very different. Thom could have been accepted if he'd wanted to be, he could have been in there. To a large extent, Thom's loneliness was self-inflicted, though he would argue that there was no choice there. Thom stood apart because of what he was, it made him reserved, it worked with aspects of his personality to make him mature beyond his years. He couldn't stop being him.

"...y'know...I'm sixteen..." Kaysen said, making a little face at him. "Could you pick a new nickname?" she asked. She didn't sound truly annoyed, though. More like she didn't quite know what to do with a moment of kinship she'd felt there, and didn't want it to get uncomfortable. But she also didn't want to totally ruin it either. It was a difficult thing to balance. It made her feel...weird. But not bad-weird.

Thom looked a little take aback for a moment, then considered this. "Probably not," he told her with a half smile. "I think you're stuck with it - it comes from having known me far too damn long. Anyway, nicknames aren't things you choose they're things that... I dunno, develop over time. Or come up and stick. A nickname I actually thought out for you would just be lame. Or really, really weird."

She made another little wrinkle-nose-but-not-really-annoyed face at him. "I dunno, it could be cooler that 'squirt'. I could be...well I'd say Charlie for the Firestarter reference, but we have one of those already. So I dunno. But like...five year olds are 'squirt'." She protested, just to protest.

"I can try and stick with Kaysen, if you wanted," he offered. "Until something else presents itself - sparky," he teased, pulling a face right back at her, much preferring this conversation to the line of questions about him. Anything that meant that he didn't have to talk about himself was fine, he'd take that any day. Except for maybe questions about why he'd been around so much lately. They were harder to answer than questions about himself and he still didn't know what he'd say if anyone ever actually decided to seriously ask."

That actually made her laugh a little, and she reached out to prod him with her bare foot. "Jerk." she said. But it was kind of an affectionate sounding 'jerk'. "So...with the spellstuffs...can I help at all? Even if it's like...lookin stuff up?" she asked. She didn't say it, but she kind of wanted to avoid quiet-Peyton and Isaac stuffs. Yes, she'd actually rather hang out with Thom and look shit up than deal with that right now. Especially since she and Chance were fighting and she still didn't know what even happened there.

"Sure," Thom said, looking surprised at the offer, but Thom was never going to turn down his protected when she voluntarily wanted to spend time around him. Hell no. "You can definitely do that - if we're going to find something, there's a lot to go through, so help would be great," he told her with a smile that was more for the situation than the help. Realistically, he could get through everything himself and he was fairly sure that anything she suggested would be either out of his league, or not what they were looking for, but he wasn't going to turn her away.

"'Kay then." she said. "Should we start soon?" she asked. "I dunno like...how long stuff takes." she added, looking slightly sheepish there. It seemed like something she should know or at least find out. Maybe. Something like that.

"Sooner would probably be better than later," he agreed, finishing off his coffee and feeling much more awake now - as he would until the caffeine wore off. "And how long depends on the spell - but usually a long time. White magic generally does. That's the downside of it, but it doesn't have the negative effects of the other types of magic, so as long as you're prepared to put in the work, it's safer and generally better. But it's not quick, and it is work," he said, falling into teaching mode a little.

She gave him a half smirk at that. "Kay, thanks, dad. I'll remember." she teased, then started down the ladder, to get out of his reach just in case he wanted to retaliate for that. She was laughing though, which was a huge improvement over the state her mood had been when he'd first found her.

He didn't - want to, or even try to. Instead he cleared up the empty coffee cups, draining the dregs out over the back drop of the treehouse, well away from Kaysen, before hooking a finger through the handles and following her down - climbing was easier when they were empty, but he still dropped the last few feet to the floor anyhow, landing by her side. "Sorry, I go on, don't I?" he asked, realising that he'd been on the edge of lecturing again.

She nodded. "Just a little." she said, holding up her fingers a tiny smidge apart. "But that's okay, I guess. I don't know, and now I do, right?" She shrugged. "Guess it can't hurt if you decide to give me the rundown on stuff." Even if he did kinda sound like a professor or something when he did it.

"And now you do," Thom confirmed. "And if I ever get on your nerves, doing that - feel free to tell me to shut up. Or I'll just fill your head full of things you probably don't need to know," he told her. Which was something that Isaac had know for years - if Thom's going on and you're not interested, tell him and he'll shut up. Except now Thom was beginning to get the feeling that, when it came to magic at least, Isaac was interested. Which was... kinda cool. Especially since Thom had been afraid that it would be a barrier for their friendship.

"I've never had a problem telling you to shut up." Kaysen pointed out. Since she hadn't. In fact, it might have been the two most common words she'd ever said to him. Though it had happened a hell of a lot less lately. "But I don't mind. I'm kinda...used to people like, not saying shit to me about anything so maybe it'd be cool for that to not be happening anymore." she added honestly.

"Yeah, well maybe I'll start listening to you when you do," Thom gave her. Since in years past he'd totally ignored her in that. And in most things, actually. Or some things at least - if they went back far enough Thom hadn't ignored her - he'd just teased her and poked fun. But that was when they'd been much younger. Then Thom had grown up enough to stop that and lapsed into ignoring her. And now - now they were here. With some kind of truce, potentially. He wasn't sure he could put any other name on it. He considered asking her how Chance was, because it was a good change of subject, but he didn't want to go anywhere near what had happened the other night, so he didn't. He did wonder though. He figured the guy would be fine - from what little he'd been able to find out about fades, there was a definite suggestion that he'd be fine.

"I dunno. You never have before. But you could always give it a shot." Kaysen said, teasing just a little as she walked up the back porch steps and headed inside. It was weird for her. She felt like she shouldn't be in the house, but kinda didn't really feel like she didn't belong, either. It was kind of a messy emotional response in her head and she didn't know how to describe it.

"Yeah, well, I never pulled a vigil against vampires before, or started making warding bracelets for my friends. Or planning attack strategies with a fire element - I'm hitting a lot of firsts this week," he teased right back, following her inside and walking them down toward the basement, where most of his books were.

"Well, sounds good then. I'll try that right out, and we'll see if you're man enough to pipe down when told to." Kaysen said, taking the steps down into the basement two at a time as she did so. "So...long research and shit...anything I shoud like...specifically be looking for? Words or phrases or anything or is this all shot in the dark, see what I can find type of research?"

"Hmm," Thom said, ignoring her first comment and latching onto the other. "Warding spells, anything that talks about large areas, or buildings. Anything specifically geared towards vampires - but, yeah, mostly it's just a 'let's see what's out there' hunt. I haven't tried anything like this before, so... yeah. Let's see what we find." He headed over to the couch - all the books were piled up by one side of it, out of the way. "Here," he said, handing her over a book at random.

Kaysen took the book then flopped down onto the opposite side of the couch as Thom, and cracked it open, prepared to be spending a long, insanely dull day probably not finding anything. But then Kaysen wasn't exactly known for being optimistic. Generally, she was known for being insanely pessimistic. But hey. She'd try. Maybe they'd find something neat in the interim or something. It was worth a shot, and it was better than sitting around angsting all day.