A Very UE Christmas [Social]

[Irina Davayte]

It was Sunday, and Sunday was usually Irina’s day off. It was also three days until Christmas, and Irina generally went home to Russia to see her family for Christmas. Unfortunately, she had chosen to stay in Japan until the last minute to wrap up getting some data for a study on the corrosivity of acid rain on some new metal alloys that were being considered for airplane exteriors. This would have been fine, but then a massive blizzard where her family lived made it impossible for her to make it home over her break as planned. So instead, she was stuck. After taking all appropriate measurements of the strips of metal in the lab at school, Irina headed over to UE. There had to be something to do, right?

Irina spun around her desk chair when she ran out of work to do with her usual job of data tracking for Hollow attacks, thinking about how nice it would be to go ice skating. Ice skating, ice hockey, a snowball fight...If they were allowing any kind of flights to land anywhere near her family, she would probably be doing all of those by now. No one from her department was in the office, so Irina video called her brother from her desk.

”Hey, sis!” he greeted cheerfully, adjusting his hat now that he saw from the screen that it was askew, while a snowdrift just taller than Demyan taunted Irina from behind him. ”How’s it going?” ”Well, so far the metals I’m testing for that company that builds airplanes are all holding up pretty well, but obviously they still had to be tested, and the Engineering Department at my school is getting paid pretty well to conduct this study, so it is what it is. It was totally weird though- the aluminum mixture is actually weathering at a much faster rate than the new materials. It was so funny!”

Although Demyan was a mechanic and thus would be the person most likely in her family to be amused by this anecdote, he did not appear to find this funny. ”Oh wow, interesting,” he said, honestly trying to feign interest. ”Well I was just getting home from picking up some butter and flour for mama. She’s baking up a storm in here! Want to tell everyone ‘hi’?” Irina agreed enthusiastically, and Demyan’s phone was passed through the room until she had greeted the whole family. After the call, Irina spun around her chair a bit more before perking up and walking down the hall to the elevator.

”Hey, I’ve had the best idea,” Irina announced, knocking but not waiting for an answer before entering Kazura’s office. ”We should have a Christmas party. I haven’t seen everyone working much in the Spiritual Department much lately, and honestly, I am really not sure what they’ve been up to lately. I think it would be a great thing for team bonding and whatever. I’ll be in charge if you want.”

[Kazura Uzaki]

Kazura heard a knock on his door. He was about to say something along the lines of "Just a minute" or "I'll get it" but he must have forgotten to lock it and Irina just walked right in before he could say anything. Well, this was going to be embarrassing. Kazura was on his hands and knees with his shirt off, looking for a button that had come loose. He had been repairing the dress shirt when the button fell on the floor and bounced out of his sight. He could probably have caught it with Soul Command, but he had been too lazy too. After all, he didn't need to use his powers for everything. Some things were better done by hand. So, as Irina walked into his office with him half naked, he quickly scooped up his shirt and put it on, even with the missing button. It was a low button anyways. He grabbed onto the attached buttons with Soul Command and pushed them all quickly through the holes, having his shirt on and buttoned before Irina could even apologize. He was quick.

"Sure, Irina, we can have a Christmas party. I'll be sure to send out the Invitation using the Spiritual Department wide Push alerts on their phones. Just let me know the details." He completely skipped over the fact that he was annoyed she hadn't waited until he responded, or the fact that he was feeling really spacey for having forgotten to lock the door. What would Zeich have said if he had been around to find out? The Vizard had been away for quite some time now and probably would not be back any time soon, if at all. Kazura would once again need a Security Expert. For now, though, he'd have to rely on what advice he'd already received from Ziech and Yoko and remember to lock that dang door next time.

Or just do his sewing at home...

[Irina Davayte]

"Uh, hi?" Irina said, on realizing that she had burst into Kazura's office without actually waiting for a reply. She addressed the situation with a joke. "Are you, like, practicing for the Shirtless UE Calendar this year? I heard it's a pretty high-grossing fundraiser." Delighted at Kazura's agreement with her plan to have a Christmas party, Irina immediately let out a deluge of her plans.

Two days later, Irina furrowed her brows and gave her phone a frustrated look. "What do you mean my emergency contact has to be in the same continent?" She had nearly finished decorating her favorite conference rom in the UE building, which was really more of a ballroom. As the type of person to throw herself into making her plans pan out perfectly, Irina had scattered delicate snowflake decorations everywhere. Snowflakes dangled from the ceiling, and when she squinted just right, she could almost pretend that she was home in the snow. The tables were carefully set with fine white linens, and Irina had ordered food on Kazura's tab. She would have to remember to tell him about that later.

"...Well obviously, if there is a problem, my mama will get on the first flight over here, so I don't see what the problem is..." Her favorite product of her efforts, by far, was the ice slide she'd crafted for the occasion. The room had a winding double staircase, and she had converted half into a delightfully chilly slide. It had taken a while to construct and ensure that the power supply could handle the chilling required to keep it alive, but it was worth it. Unfortunately, she hadn't had a chance to try it out yet, and the party was scheduled to start soon.

"It only takes thirteen hours. ...Okay fine, it's fourteen. Then the time to get a cab...Anyway, I still don't see what the problem is." She pressed the Speakerphone button and set her phone down so she could straighten up the centerpieces. She arranged the branches with crystallized faux-ice until she was satisfied. "I understand, but like I said, if you don't have a valid emergency contact on file by January first, you can no longer use the gym or any other recreational facilities at our school." Irina felt her face warming despite setting the thermostat at a brisk 16 degrees Celsius. "Fine, fine. I'll call you back before then with an emergency contact." She clicked the phone off and rolled her eyes. Well, she had six days to secure an emergency contact. She could probably find someone at the party who would be willing to call her family for her if she had an emergency.

Irina wasn't exactly close with the other employees in the Spiritual Department at Uzaki Enterprises. She had decided the previous week that she was probably a bit too casual with Kazura, considering that he was her boss. This revelation had come when she had stopped by on her lunch break, put her feet up on his desk and complained about her lab partner in college while he was still attempting to work. She was fairly certain that he would agree to being her emergency contact if she asked. After all, he was the one who had taken her to the hospital both times she had gone while living in Japan. The first time, she had been attacked by a Hollow while at the zoo. The second time was during a training exercise at UE. Zeich facilitated an intense, apocalyptic survival experiment, which hadn't directly caused her to be injured. Unfortunately, while running up the stairs, Irina, who hadn't quite gotten control of her ice powers, suddenly felt as if she was running in place. With her adrenaline pumping, Irina's feet and shoes had suddenly become encased in slippery ice. The next thing she remembered, she was in the hospital with her leg in a cast. Apparently she had also hit her head, producing a concussion that caused her to refer to Kazura as "mom" until she'd recovered. Yeah, she needed to give Kazura a break, she decided.

Actually, the last time she had seen several of her coworkers was the ice-stairs incident. "Great," she thought. "What a cool reputation. I'm the girl who fell down the stairs. There was a whole emergency going on, or so we thought, and instead of fighting the threat, I fell down the stairs." Although she was a twenty-two year old college senior, as the youngest child in her family, Irina always felt like she had to prove herself. She shook her head ruefully. "This is fine. Everything is fine. This is going to be good for team bonding and whatever," Irina said to herself aloud, not realizing that the first guest had already walked in the room.

SPOILER: Click to show

{READ THIS}
For this party, we will all have a secret objective. Please roll a d10 in a spoiler, and I will message you your secret objective.

[Leon Strife]

He sighed heavily, nearly grunting with his sweat profusely leaking from his skin. There was a lot of organizing that he had to do on the job considering he was the newest addition to the team. He felt like an undergraduate to be honest, working to earn his stripes from the seniors who oversaw a lot of his progress. Of course this was natural in any new job. He was the newbie, someone who needed to be ragged on, trial through fire and all of that crap that goes along with it. And actually, he was fine with this. It served to get people out of their comfort zone and to really drive in the regulations, the everyday norm was to passed onto him. Standard hazing and the like, no more so than any other job there was. But this, this was Uzaki Enterprises. There was an expectation that was to be met if not exceeded. So, Leon was expected to exceed even that idea when the tough got going. If he was asked to file a stack of paperwork, or finish assembling components to an engine within a certain time, he was to file three stacks and finish assembly under the agreed time.

A good sense of competition between coworkers to see who can do better was there. But it came down to reality that some of the senior staff members were given a bit of leeway, pressure taken off of their shoulders thanks to the new recruits picking up a lot of the slack. It can be exhausting as much as it was fulfilling. For Leon to know that what he helps with in terms of projects will end up being used by people to better society. He saw this as a good change of pace to help take his mind off of the killing that he did in the past, including to help him reform his old ways into something better. Although, him working late nights benefited a lot when it came to helping the Bounts with what they needed.

Often, he came to smuggle a few materials that the race would end up using in their construction of the new Citadel. Nothing large like that of sheets of steel plates. Materials that wouldn't be missed such as cables, bolts, screws, some busted equipment that needed some tweaking with. Materials that were going to be scrapped down and tossed aside were what Leon sent in the direction of the Bounts so they can fix them, or strip them down for parts. Stripping down old cars, etc, was what he did a whole lot of back in the ghettos. He took radios, radiators, tires apart for the smallest components. Computer systems and wiring that spread throughout the cars were what he came to use to help stir up a bit of trouble every now and then. However, most of his gadgets happened to be explosives and IDEs.

When Leon wasn't getting his hands dirty cleaning up the mess that his Lieutenants gave him, he would be making improvised explosives. Let's just say he a lot of time to play with wires and cars. Put them together with some unstable compounds, compress them together, then light the fuse. He didn't do those anymore, not in these days. Better than before, Leon grew accustomed to living a life without having to look over his shoulder a whole lot. Being what Eris referred to as a "Bount" made it out to be something that she should cautious of. People like Uzaki and the Shinigami were individuals that he had to keep this sort of information from. All the more reason why he described himself to be Human than that of being a Bount. Because honestly, he thought he was a Human. A strong one at that which didn't fit in like the others did, but still Human nonetheless.

Signing the last of the documents, Leon was already closing down the shop as he usually did. A flick of the switch to turn the lights, locking the door, he stretched out walking down the hall wanting a bit of shut eye looking forward to the next few days off. Christmas was already, as crazy as it sounded. He'd been to focused on his work, with what he had going on with the Bounts to really pay attention to the environment around him. Crazy as to how much time that passed since he first came to Japan. Seemed so long ago looking back at it now. His fiance's ring stuck close around his neck as it was played with his finger tips. He missed her. "Hope you are resting well baby girl. Look after me, okay."

He sighed out from utter fatigue before the chirping went off in his pocket. His cellphone alerted him to an incoming message. Funny how this thing worked considering what Marcus had explained what it did. A sort of special app that was programmed into it when there was something going when it involved cases of a spiritual nature. Only certain members of staff were provided with these phones from what the man told him after seeing what Leon could make out ghosts and other beings that were like them. Though, according to Aura and Eris, it was because of his nature as a Bount that enables him to see spirits and other oddly worldly beings that had similar natures that they did. At least it did explain why he was able to see ghosts now. But this alert was concerning those who were involved with "ghost police" as Leon liked to refer to them as. A group of people who dealt with cases like these, so why would he need to rush out and handle it himself. He was only a mechanic.

Even when having that thought being brushed off to the side, he was curious. Tapping the screen lit up the device, displaying a single alert that was mentioned having to do with the special app. He checked it out. A single swipe to the side and a quick peek. Now this was interesting, and very surprising. Surprisingly enough that it didn't involve playing ghost police but rather an event going upstairs. Sigh He hoped it wasn't another one of those exercises like last time. That time he had to pry an elevator shaft door open and climb up to the roof top. An emergency simulation was what was going on at the time, but he didn't know that. And before he could get to the roof to see what was going, the exercise concluded. He felt like an utter waste of time for him. He thought that, but he couldn't dismiss it altogether either. It did serve to teach him a lesson about surviving scenarios that he might find himself involved with again here in Karakura. So best to be prepared.

The elevator was thankfully working this time around, so he didn't need to do any climbing and strain himself as much as he had already. He unzipped his black mechanic's jumpsuit, using the sleeves as a belt to tie around his waistline to help breath a little better. A white plain t-shirt was what he had under the upper half, and with a bit of cleaning up in the hallway's bathroom, he was at least presentable. Out of the bathroom and into the offices, a place that was rare for him to step foot in considering he mainly operated on the lower levels. What surprised him even further, was recognizing a young girl whom he had met before back on that horrid training night. "Hey there, long time no see." he greeted Irina. "Need some help with some of this stuff?" he brushed the black fuzz of what remained of his hair with his hand, trying to come back up with what her name was again. "Sorry. Miss.....um... Sorry, I can't remember your name, but I was there when you got your foot stuck in that ice."

SPOILER: Click to show

{Dice Roll}

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[Akira Hinosai]

When Luca saw the text about a Christmas party, he was certain it was the dumbest thing he'd ever heard. It was so...pedestrian. Totally uncool. From the safety of his room, he looked down on the lowly idiots who walked the streets. It made him feel like some godly sorcerer-king looking down on ants. As cool a feeling as it was, it did little to soothe his nerves.  He paces around his room grinding his teeth. "Gather us all in one place, that's smart! Especially if it's just for useless prattle!" He laughed harshly. Completely stupid, and beneath him and anyone with two brain cells to rub together. Yet if that were the case, why did some part of him want to check it out? 

He'd spent his life being the only spiritually aware person he knew. Would it be so bad to meet more? Not at all. Luca would have loved to show them all how cool he was, but going to something as ordinary as a party felt dirty and wrong. Ok, just breathe, you idiot, breathe. There was an undeniable benefit to going. He could meet potential allies in his fight against evil.  Will Amare be there? What am I saying? He's an idiot, he'll fall for this guaranteed. Luca considered texting him to see if he wanted to go together, but Luca stopped himself before he clicked send. It wouldn't do for people to get the wrong idea. I can just check it out and bail if I don't like it. He wasn't scared or anything. That was the farthest from the truth. Sure, they were probably loyal followers of Uzaki, but if they were spiritual, they couldn't be complete boring morons, right? Right?

If Luca was going to go, he would have to look as amazing as he could manage. He'd have to make a good first impression, and he supposed he was due for a shower anyway. His hair was beginning to go from mildly unwashed to an amalgamation of oily tendrils. After the shower, he dressed into a form-fitting black shirt under a maroon peacoat, suitably untorn jeans, and brown leather boots. Luca didn't often care about his appearance, but be really liked how this outfit made him look like some dark prince from a fantasy novel. He struck a few poses before realizing he was starting to act like Amare and quickly stopped.

As he walked a feeling of uncertainty lingered. It wasn't that he was scared of talking to new people. He had lost that many years ago. He wasn't timid or socially awkward, but this an environment he knew little of. If he wanted to be the rising star of UE, he supposed he'd have to make a few allies. Yet he hadn't the slightest idea how to do that. Poorly lit streets and alleyways were comfortable to him because he knew what to expect, and what to do. Parties? Luca tried to think back if he'd ever been to one, but nothing came to mind. He'd seen movies and TV shows, but who knew how accurate those were? Luca certainly didn't. 

When he reached the building he slowed his approach to make sure he wasn't being watched. No one else was in the vicinity, so he figured he was either late, or early. Yet the cold air ensured he had little choice but to go in anyway. He could go unseen if he wanted. Assess the situation, get knowledge, kick ass and win. Luca figured the last part would have to be different for this outing, though. Starting a fight at a Christmas party might not be the best for his reputation. Luca was the only one riding the elevator, which was good. He could plan in peace. Ok, what if it's like prison rules, but with talking instead of fighting?  Luca figured that was a reasonable suggestion. If nothing else, no one would call him a socially awkward idiot. Although he'd never been to the offices, he found his way easily. As soon as he saw people who he could sense power on he made himself known without delay, stutter, or hesitation. "Sup, bitches!"

SPOILER: Click to show

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[Luke Clyburn]

<sub>Alone and in the dark. That’s how Luke was spending his time. Like the anti-social bat he was, he opted to hang out in his office, in his department's wing of the building, by himself. With his feet up on his desk and his eyes closed, Luke took a rare moment to let himself relax and unwind. The only light in his space was the rest screen computer monitor, and a little bit of sunlight peeking through the cracks of the blind. The rest of the department was out right now. The few employees he had were out on patrol or responding to minor disturbances that didn’t require Luke’s attention. A fire here, a Hollow there, a Hollow causing a fire. This and that and more. He still wasn’t entirely used to this being a Manager thing. Telling other people to do wasn’t something Luke was accustomed to. In fact, it was so out of his realm of normalcy that he was often seen as cold and demanding.

He was used to either being an employee or being on his own. Having responsibility over other people was different for him. He could certainly stand to work on how he treated the people he was managing. Though he wasn’t cruel, by any means, his personality just had a habit of making him… probably one of those bosses he’d have hated. His train of thoughts were interrupted, though, when his cellphone went off. Opening his eyes to look at the small, glowing, screen on his desk, the Bount made a groan as he reached forward to grab a hold of it. What do they want? he thought to himself. It wasn’t the usual notification that signaled a high alert or anything. Rather it was a low alert signal. But what caused the Bount to raise an eyebrow was what the ping was about. A party? Was he reading that right?

Pass. Luke thought to himself. He wasn’t a party guy by any stretch of the imagination. He was grouchy, irritable, lonesome, and had a tendency to keep himself at a distance from other people. Parties were the last place someone as assholish as him would be. But before Luke could delete the message he heard a voice in the back of his head. ”You’re never going to get better unless you try.” why did he have to be awake? ”I don’t see the problem. You say hi, get some drinks, eat a cookie. The alternative is you sit here, in the dark, like the weirdo you are while everyone's out having fun.” oh great the other one was awake as well. Just to get them off his back, fine, he replied that he’d be there.

When the time came for the get together, Luke found himself being the last to arrive. He had to make sure he wasn’t going to be needed for however long this was going to take. Though if an alert came through he’d have no choice but to take care of. Hero work never ended, only took breaks, y’know? As he approached the room holding the get together, Luke heard someone shouting and frowned from the outside of the door. Was someone already drunk? Were there drinks? Was there beer? Pushing the door open and stepping inside, Luke entered as cooly and calmly as he could. ”Yo.” the Bount greeted, shutting the door behind him and looking at who all had arrived so far. Kazura, Irina, and two people he didn’t quite recognize right away. Of course what Luke was actually looking for was a place he could sit himself down and play on his phone without having to actually talk to anyone.</sub>

SPOILER: Click to show

{The roll}
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[Kazura Uzaki]

Kazura was running late to the party Irina had planned. She had put him in charge of party games, of course, and the Corporate Party BINGO he had printed off the internet had been far too lewd for to be appropriate. Good thing he had read it before blindly grabbing it off the printer and taking it to the conference room downstairs. Items on the list such as "moon out the window" and "kiss a girl" were definitely not work appropriate and could get more than one sexual harassment lawsuit started. So, Kazura grabbed his favorite party game, Snake Oil, and headed downstairs. Why he had that game in his office? Plot reasons... Anyways, it was his favorite party game and it would be perfect for Christmas. When he got to the conference room, he found that he was much later than intended. Luke, Leon, Luca, and Irina were all present already. Well, of course Irina was there, this was all her idea. But to see the three L-named men was a surprise. He hadn't pegged Luke as a party type, and Luca and Leon were pretty new to the company and hadn't gotten fully settled in yet.

Kazura held up his box of a party game and announced to the room that he had arrived and the party had now started. Whether or not that was true in real life, it was true in Kazura's mind. "Greetings! I brought the game for today's party! Come over to the table and we'll begin. If anyone else shows up they can just be dealt in, super easy." He put a hand on Luca and Leon's shoulders and pushed them towards the table. He wasn't taking no for an answer. He shot Irina and Luke a look that said "Over here now please" and moved over to the table. He pulled the game out of the box and immediately started shuffling cards and dealing them out. "Everybody will have a hand of six noun cards. The goal is to create a product with two of your noun cards and sell it to the Customer, who changes each round. I will start by being the... cheerleader. Make a product that you would sell to a cheerleader using two of those noun cards and pitch it to me. You've gotta be convincing or you won't get the point for the round!"

Everybody got a set of random noun cards and were expected to play. Christmas party, UE Style, had begun.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Kazura's Roll}

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[Raphael Laurent]

Not long, it hadn’t been long since he’d lost consciousness and still it plagued him, even as he drove the truck on his new job to one of the last deliveries of the night and it was a doozy. He didn’t even know what the hell they’d ordered, just that it was a few different parcels in the back of his truck. It had been a hell of a day: gifts to expecting parents, children, aunts, brothers, sisters, mothers. Some of those people had deserved it, some of them had not but he delivered each gift, regardless of the manners of those accepting it. It was his job, after all.



This last one, though, was a bit of a different story. It was to a place that he’d heard of, a place that he’d been partially warned about, but had never gone into nor even specifically thought about going into. And yet, as he stood outside of it, he couldn’t help but begin to ponder what exactly went on within the walls of such a place. Uzaki Enterprises…what kind of devious things were they up to? How many Shinigami, if any, did they allow within their premises? Altruistic as he’d been told they were, he wasn’t entirely certain that he could fully believe it all. Though, in all stories were grains of truth, and so he tried to keep that in mind as he neared his destination.



Once he’d parked the truck in a place where he didn’t think it would be in the way of any other traffic trying to pull in, though there wasn’t much due to it being Christmas. Getting to his feet and going to the back, he pulled out a small trolley with about seven different packages of varying sizes, from small to fairly large. As he started pushing them inside he noticed that there weren’t many people at the building. Immediately thanking his luck, he reached up and pulled his hat down a bit more over his face, trying to hide himself a bit more from any cameras as he approached the counter with a smile.



“Here are your packages, and thank you for using our services!” He watched the man sitting at the counter, who seemed far more preoccupied in a computer system, or a game, than paying attention to people visiting. “Uhm, I’m here with your orders, sir?” The man looked up at him with rather dreary, almost annoyed eyes, looking him up and down, as if examining Raphael, and in a way that he didn’t much appreciate.



Suddenly the man’s eyes lit up, like he was just realizing that Raph was there for the first time and began to nod. “Oh! Yes, you’re finally here! The party is going to get started soon, and we were beginning to be afraid that you weren’t going to make it on time! But wait, where’s your hat?” Quickly, the front desk worker walked around the counter with a large Santa Clause hat and put it on Raph’s head, over his normal hat. “You’ll need this, if you’re going to the party. Now just take those elevators to the top floor, and make sure that you deliver the presents. We greatly appreciate this, thank you!” Before Raph had even been within the building for very long, he had already been pushed into an elevator heading to the top floor.



He tapped his foot to the song, being only slightly annoyed with the song chosen for the elevator ride, until finally he heard the ding and stepped slowly out. A bunch of people sitting around playing cards was the sight that greeted him and he couldn’t help but stare at them for a few seconds, a bit confused. Deliver the presents to these people? It just seemed so strange, to him. “Hohoho. It’s just me, here to deliver your presents today.” He hoped that he didn’t look as awkward as he felt. “Hope…I’m not interrupting anything.”

[Irina Davayte]

Naturally, Leon remembered Irina from the fell-down-the-stairs incident that had frankly mortified Irina. "Oh hey, yeah, good to see you again," she said, forcing herself to smile despite the memory. "How are the motorcycles going?" she asked, racking her brains to remember anything else she knew about him. To be fair, Leon seemed like a good guy, and Irina was eager to get to know him and the rest of the team in a less stressful context. In response to Luca's greeting, Irina blinked once before dryly saying "Hello, I'm Irina. I do not appreciate being addressed that way." Luke ducked out due to an "emergency", and they were down to two guys whose names started with L.

Kazura, in a very Kazura-like fashion, announced that they would be playing a game. This was the job Irina had given him, after all. Irina looked at her cards. "Trophy, massage, trampoline, victory, jar, smile". She contemplated a moment, then said "Victory Smile. This is a product that gives you a smile that always makes your team win. It works by mind control." "Does that make me sound like a sociopath?" she wondered. "Wait, we're not really making this stuff, are we? Because I wouldn't do that, because I'm not a sociopath."

When the delivery driver in a large santa hat entered, Irina greeted him warmly. "Hey, welcome, want to hang out? I ordered way too much food." Then she turned to Kazura and whispered, "Oh, by the way, I put that on your tab. You'll get a bill in the mail." She hadn't ordered too much food, but there was plenty for a few extra people, given that half the spiritual department hadn't shown up yet. Noticing that Amare wasn't around yet, she texted him Hey, didn't know if you forgot about the Christmas party, you're still welcome to join us.