Aaliya Dhavale

“Chambers? Ignore?”  Avi repeated, as if all of this was news to him. But even amidst all the panic and drama around them, there was something that niggled the back of Avi’s heart.  That little prickle whenever the Archduke Kumara spoke of Lord Dhavale. Tersely, with certain shadowed remarks that a younger Avi didn’t understand and didn’t really care about.  

Avi denied that niggling feeling for now.   “Don’t be dramatic, you’re too old now to act like a child, Lili.  Come - we’ll go together and talk to Uncle.  I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

But when he saw tears in Aaliyah’s eyes, Avi looked completely surprised.  Only a few moments ago, she was bravely dispatching rebels without a second thought.  Now, her large brown eyes were as shining as the sea itself.

“Of course,” Avi murmured.  “Why, I’ve done all that. I’ve sailed all the oceans and met many people. I’ve been free.”  But Aaliyah hadn’t, not in all her years.  Avi shook his head, still trying to deny it all.  “Where is this all coming from, Lili?  I always thought you were timid of the sea, and preferred staying at home…whenever you visited Rajayer, you were so…”

But now, of all times, he started to recall his memories of Aaliyah through a different lens.  

“Your father only wants you to be a good ruler once he’s gone, Lili,”  Avi said, but his tone was vague and unsteady now, lost in revisionist memories.  Trying to discern what was real, and what he’d just wanted to see and believe because it suited him.  All these years, crumbling before him like Glasswater crumbled now.  

“Uncle loves you, we all do.  Come home.”

Avi appealed to her one more time; but then why did he release her from his grip?

Finally, heavily, he spoke again.  “There’s…bearing east, there is a muster point, where…people like us have gathered.  Survivors…” he shook his head, frowning.  Why was he telling her this? He needed to take her home. And yet, Avi stayed right where he was, frozen from heartbreak and shock.

Dramatic? Oh, Aaliya had been anything but dramatic. If he wanted drama she could give him drama. Her blood was boiling in her veins, but she bit her lip to hold back a retort when she noticed Avi tempered himself as well. 

She snorted when he mentioned her father. “A good ruler? Yeah, sure.” she rolled her eyes. 

“He never taught me anything, never bothered to invite me at meetings or anything. Everything I learned was with your family or any trips to the north... not at home. Father never allowed me to participate, even to share my newly required knowledge from foreign relations.” 

The sudden change of subject confused her. He wanted to take her to his ship, was pressing to take her home,  back to their family home, back to her father. Why was he suddenly talking about a camp? Of course, the survivors of the attack had gathered somewhere to treat their injuries and protect each other from any more danger. She felt a strong urge to go to the place and help the people with whatever she could, but she was suspicious at Avi’s sudden mention of the place.

Riza had been helping out the rebels with whatever they needed once her own tasks had been done. She’d been playing her part of helpful mage simply volunteering as well as tying up loose ends for the rebels. She’d been asked to help kidnapping a suspected dragon. Her skillset of getting people to easily trust her were needed for the operation. She’d also agreed to let her fellow rebels rough her up in the process to sell this one. She’d spotted the woman. She’d been running around for quite some time, helping where she could. She must have been exhausted. Riza thought she’d be an easy target.

“Hello, my apologies for bothering you, but I do need help there are people, fellow refugees, looking for safe haven and needing their injuries tended, but they are afraid to attempt to come to camp. I’m planning to lead them here. But it would be a fools errand to go alone. I was hoping perhaps you could help?” she asked. “They aren’t terribly far, they’re in hiding, but getting to them, assuring them that they are safe is something that I don’t want to do alone. There’s strength in numbers,” she added, hoping that Aaliya would agree.

The woman looked like she’d had a rough time. Her hair was disheveled. Her clothes were torn in a few places. Her fair skin was bruised and scratched here and there. She didn’t look terribly injured and was clearly more concerned about the other refugees, so Aaliya didn’t bother to ask whether she needed help or care first. 

“They are afraid? “The camp is one of the safest spots to be right now, I think,” she frowned. The surroundings of the camp were carefully watched by Kirian and the others, the safety of the camp quite secure. She could understand they were afraid to leave the safety of their current hiding spot, but not why they would be afraid to come to the camp. 

They needed to get those people, bring them to the safety of the camp and take care of the injured. Aaliya couldn’t just run off though. She had her tasks and duties at the camp to fulfill. If she would disappear without telling anyone, people might worry or waste time looking for her. Someone needed to know where she was... or maybe someone else needed to go and save those people. Aaliya wasn’t the strongest person at the camp, nor was she a very persuasive person who could easily convince people to follow her. Her leader skills were rather underdeveloped by the lacking trust of her father. 

“No, actually he wouldn’t. You’re right. He’d probably caution me that I’m the only child, and the Ashcraft line dies with me. It’s something I’ve heard so many times over.” He knew that his father would want him safe first, rather than risking his life for him. “I suppose if my father dies tonight, I’ll have to make decisions like this often as the new Duke of East Reach.” He didn’t want to think like that, but he had to. This was the first time he’d really entertained that it would happen so quickly. 

His stomach churned at the sight of more pieces crumbling. It was hard not to think about how his father could be suffering, or what could be happening to the man. 

He look at the woman he’d just met then, taking her hand without thought even though he knew it should have been the other way around, him offer his. “I wouldn’t feel right endangering your life in such a way. I could get you to safety before going back for him,” he suggested. “Going back for my father is my own decision. You don’t know him, I won’t ask of you to help me save him.” 

She repeated his name a few times in her head for further reference, Alek Ashcraft. Remembering royal names was a useful asset she’d been told since a very young age. Royals were just as vulnerable to a personal approach as any other human. 

“Hey, hey,” she shook his arm. “Don’t go talk about him dying.” It was a possibility they were both very aware, but she hated to hear him say it out loud. “You shouldn’t lose hope or your attempts will fail.” 

Her heart swelled when he still offered to bring her to safety even when his head and heart were with his father. 

“How about this... I will help you find a suitable entrance. And if... no... when we find one that I deem safe I will let you enter and bring myself to safety.” 

Alek - like most men - might see her as a helpless damsel in distress, but she was a little fighter. She could protect herself. And she was worried that if she didn’t keep an eye on him, he would take unnecessary risks to get to his father. 

“Where are your father’s quarters?” 

She remembered the drawings of the palace she’d studied in the Glasswater library not that long ago. The back alleys in the north could provide good access to the northern quarters. The quarters in the south wing would be a little more challenging with the scattered debris but together they would find a way. 

For a secret crush

Have you ever heard about the Pirate Queen? She is a legendary pirate captain, the leader of an all-female crew that travels the world to fight the cruelties and inequalities of this world. Misra and the entire Loqoalian region are obsessed with the Queen. She is admired for her bravery, but feared for her bluntness. Although Aaliya has never met her before, although she has no idea what the Queen looks like, she admires the legend that is the Pirate Queen.

For something bad/mischievous you did as a child or teen that your parents don’t know about

Aaliya and the Kumara children once went lizard hunting in the gardens of the Kumara palace. Having caught several of the little creatures, they smuggled them inside to keep them as pets. The lizards disagreed with their imprisonment and they escaped at night to find back their freedom of roaming in the gardens. On their way out, the reptiles broke an ugly yet extremely valuable vase in the hallway of the Kumara palace. Terrified how the adults might react if they found out the children were involved, Aaliya and her cousins pretended to be just as surprised and shocked as anyone else by the sudden lizard invasion.

Aaliya always believed her mother knew she and her cousins were involved somehow, but she never gave them away to her husband or the other adults. Aaliya never dared to ask, so we will never know whether she knew or not.    

@avitejkumara

For a secret journal/diary they keep (Bonus: Share an entry from it!)

She doesn't keep a journal nowadays. Sometimes she does write letters about her adventures across the world, which she intends to send home but she always ends up rethinking that option. Most of the letters are either thrown away or kept in the bottom of her travel trunk.

However, when she was a child she had a diary, which she would write in every day. Most of the times it were stories about her little trips with her mother to the beach or something excited she learned at school. But once in a while a great adventure would come along, like the adventure of the sea serpent.

[A short entry from her old diary]

Dear Dayari,

I met a dragon today! A real dragon! And he saved my life. I was following the sea turtles at the coral reef and drifted off shore without realizing. A huge wave caught me by surprise. I would have never found my way back to the shore if he didn't save me, the dragon with blue scales like the ocean and mysterious dark eyes like the fish of the deep. He didn’t have horns like the dragons from the north, but he had webbed fringes and short whiskers. His scales shimmered under the sunlight when he brought me to the shore. I know it was a dragon like the ones from the legends, like the ones from the drawings at father’s office room... but no one believes me. They say the sea dragons no longer live here, that they have left the seas of Misra long ago.  Except mom... mom says she believes me, but I can see in her eyes she just says that to please me. Maybe it's true... maybe I was just dreaming, maybe I was just so scared by the wave that my brain did that funny thing where it makes something up to make reality a little less scary.

I don't know, Dayari... Do you think I saw a sea dragon?

Location: Refugee Camp

Who: @aaliyadhavale , Aaliya Dhavale

“I’m sorry? I must have misheard you.” Xi’mia arched an eyebrow at the man who loomed over her. Slowly coming to grips with the strange altercation that the stranger was provoking. Everyone in the refugee camp was tired, exhausted and traumatized. However, inevitably, even among the victims of the rebel attack there were some people that were just pompous, prejudiced, and determined to be problems.

“You heard what I said. I said I know you stole it.” The stranger continued on, mistaking the opportunity Xi’mia offered him to amend his accusations for some kind of disrespect. He, being some lesser noble who coped with stress by becoming more unpleasant, blustered on.

“I don’t know who you think I am but I assure you, you are mistaken.” She spoke plainly and slow, eyes darting around to find who near her would be a likely ally. The elf’s eyes fixed on another woman. Making sure to lock eyes as she smiled and willed some nonverbal cue to be felt by the woman, or at least encourage the man to look back to where her attention was fixed.

She’d just finished up her cleaning shift in the kitchen and was about to head for bed when she noticed a woman with pitch black hair engaged in an argument with a light-colored hair man in the hallways. It felt like a personal argument, which Aaliya did not want to be involved with. She wanted to turn around and head the other direction, but when she met the woman’s dark eyes, they begged for help. All the non-verbal showed how uncomfortable the woman was with the proximity and threatening posture of the man. 

“Hey, girl,” she flashed the stranger woman a giant smile and hugged her shortly, as if they had been friends for a long time. As she got closer she noticed the pointy ears poking from underneath the black hair, decorated with beautiful jewels. An elf, how exciting! “I have been looking for you everywhere.” she side-eyed the man. “Is there any reason you are threatening my friend, sir?” 

All these eyes on him. All these eyes looking at him and expecting. Expecting him to keep them safe, to lead them to a better path. All these eyes on him, day and night.

(Didn’t they know? A man like him would only ever lead you to ruin.)

It was just too much. To be surrounded by people after all his solitude. He thought he’d wanted this, to be accepted again, to be among the people, but he hadn’t counted on it being so much.

He just needed to leave, just for a moment. (Who needed him anyway, when Josefin was awake when, when Keeva and Xi’mia were here? Who needed him, anyway?)

He was just about to slip out of the door when someone ran into him. He looked up, immediately tilting his face away to hide the scars. He watched her, cautiously, almost warily. There had been too many run-ins of this kind lately and they’d taught him to be cautious. (He still felt Avi’s hands on his chest, pushing him away, the venom in his voice still lingering in his veins.)

He chose to ignore her questions, instead looking at her. “What are you doing here? Are you hurt? Did anyone follow you?”

Her eyes linger on his body, on his scars - old and new, on his dark hair and his even darker eyes. 

“They told me there was a camp here,” she carefully avoided Avi’s name, knowing the two men had not separated on good terms to say the least. “Where they take care of the injured. I came to help (and to run away from my cousin).” 

She was injured. Her head was still throbbing once in a while from the heavy blast she suffered after the explosion. Her feet and legs were covered in little cuts and bruises from running through the woods bare-feet. But she didn’t care about her own injuries. They were to be neglected compared to how much others were suffering. Through the open doors she could see all the makeshift beds set up against the walls, injured people occupying the said beds and other people running back and forth between the beds. 

Followed

“No, I came alone and was not followed,” again she did not mention her cousin’s name. Just the thought annoyed her and speaking his name would frustrate her more and probably also anger the other. 

For a secret crush

Remember that young servant boy at the Kumara palace? The son of the main cook and the  maid to the Kumara's youngest children. That boy was cute. Aaliya never admitted it, but she always looked forward to see him when she and her family travelled to the main island to visit her cousins. She never talked to him much, but she would watch him for a distance when he walked in the room to assist the Kumara family in anyway. It broke her heart when she found out he and his family had left the palace and moved out to start another life somewhere else. She never saw him again.

For a ‘weird’ habit or tic that no one knows about

When braiding her hair, Aaliya will always braid her hair in the same way. She will always go left over right, never the other way around. It's mostly an unconscious tic, but whenever she starts right over left she just feels something is wrong and will have to start over again... in the correct way.

When nervous, she will also fidget with the front locks of her hair. She will twirl them around her fingers, put them behind her ears, braid them.

For a secret journal/diary they keep (Bonus: Share an entry from it!)

As a child Aaliya kept a diary, which she would confess all her emotions to and tell her deepest secrets to. She would write down all the stories about her travels to Rayajer and her adventures with her cousins.

[A short entry from her journal]

Dear Dayari,

Mom told me we are going to Rayajer next week! Father was invited to another meeting with all the island lords, and Uncle Kumara invited me and mom to come along with father's official delegation. I cannot wait to go on another adventure! Remember when we went snorkelling at the beaches near Rayajer port? I have never seen such colourful fish before. It's like everything on and around the main island is magnified by ten. The palace, the gardens, the beaches... everything is so much more beautiful than on Misra Island.

I hope we will stay at the palace. Perhaps I will see him again. I miss his beautiful face, his shining presence, his shy smile. If I see him this time, I promise I will try to talk to him. Maybe I should ask Avi or Sijari for help. But what if they laugh at me? Mom always says we – royals – are not supposed to talk to our servants. I understand they work for us, but they are also humans, aren't they? I will overcome my fear and talk to him. 

A secret wish or desire of theirs

For anyone who knows a bit of Aaliya's background it's not a big secret... Aaliya wants to go home. Although she loves travelling the world, she misses the island life. Now she has the freedom to be the person she wants to be. She can be a helper, a carer, a person who believes strongly in a better world for everyone. However, she still feels guilty for leaving her people, who are suffering from her father's terrible ruling. One day she will return home and be the leader her people deserve.  

Something bad/mischievous you did as a child or teen that your parents don’t know about

When Aaliya was a child, she believed her father to be a good leader who cared about his people and tried his best to improve the lives of everyone on the island. She was a young teen when she discovered that wasn’t the case at all. She learned that poverty reigned the island while her family lived wealthy and safely in their palace. He cared more about his own well-being and his profits than the safety and wealth of the people on the island. 

..

Avi spun his scimitar, letting the blade balance against his forearm as he took the offensive now.  They had the advantage, and Avi was completely in the moment.  He and Aaliyah had never faced anything like this together, and yet Avi felt like they were back in time, Aaliyah visiting Rajayer and them playing and having fun with the rest of the siblings and cousins.  Traversing through the city and along the rocky outcrops, pretending at sailing, swashbuckling…pretending to be their parents and grand-parents, and the legendary tales of their pirate ancestry.

It was, for the moment, exhilarating.

Avi’s smile was wolfish, as he menaced the rebels.  He was glad these ones did not seem to wield magic or he and Lili wold be out of their depth.  But Aaliyah held her own.  And although he’d expected her to, he was nevertheless pleased at her viciousness.  Avi always knew she could fight, but he didn’t know she could also kill.

A distinct difference to note. 

“C’mon then,”  Avi taunted the rebels.  “We may be in Glasswater, but we are still Loqoalan.  And you’re nothing more than beached jellyfish.”

And when the fight was over,  Avi cleaned and sheathed his sword, breathless, spattered in blood.  “Are you alright?  You fought magnificently, bahbi.   Keep on alert for more fighting as we make our way to the docks.  It’s not far, come on.”

He cajoled her, as if she hadn’t just told him before the fight that she’d run away.  He hoped the excitement of the fight would be enough to make her just follow his lead.  “C’mon, Lili. Come bahbiji.  We can talk safely on the ship, away from all of this.”

Aaliya chuckled at Avi’s phrasings. The sprawled out, unconscious rebels did look like jellyfish, though less elegant. She fought carefully, trying to disarm the rebels without seriously injure or kill them. She was a good fighter, but never a vicious killer. 

“Keep on coming, boys,” she ginned widely when all but two rebels were defeated and scattered on the floor. 

The two remaining rebels ran away, afraid to meet the same fate as their unconscious allies. 

“Yeah I’m okay” she smiled. Her blood was rushing through her veins. “A little woozy but nothing to worry about.”

Avi wrapped his hand around her wrist, dragging her along the streets of Glasswater, towards the docks, toward his ship, towards home. 

“No, I don’t want to go, Avi.” 

She shrugged herself free from his grip. Her voice trembled with anger and fear. She hated herself for sounding so vulnerable and emotional, but that was the effect the simple notion of going home had on her. 

“You’re gonna take me home, aren’t you? Where my dad can put me back in my chambers and ignore me for years to come.” 

Her eyes filled with tears.

“I want to be free, abiha.” A sad smile lingered on her lips. “Remember those stories about the oceans and the seas? Travelling the world, discovering places we’ve never heard before, visiting new cities and meeting people with different backgrounds and interesting stories. That’s who I want to be, not the daughter whom my father can keep in the house like a little trinket.” 

She sunk to her knees, begging Avi to understand her point of view.

“Hit your head?” Avi repeated, moving her to the side so that he could inspect it.  If anything, it was more just a fussy concerned older-cousin inspection than anything else.  It was hardly has if Avi had healing magic or any supplies on hand to help the injury.  He just needed to see; he had had enough tonight of people underestimating the gravity of their injuries.

Fortunately, the head wound bled more than the actual severity, and Avi relaxed a bit, enough to focus on Aaliyah’s next tidbit of information.  “Why on Ivar’s hairy tits would you run away?”   he asked incredulously.  “Is it a lover?  Because -”  

But even as he talked over Aaliyah, he too was interrupted by the yelling.  “Ah. They brought reinforcements,” Avi huffed in annoyance.  He stared for a moment in continued disbelief as his little cousin seemed determined to fight.  In a way, Avi couldn’t blame her; and in fact was proud of her fortitude and bravery.

Still, he couldn’t help but warn her, “No - we stick together. You’re going to get woozy and light-headed from too much exertion. So if you need to rest, let me know.  Stay close to me, alright?  Don’t let them separate us, Lili. I just found you.”

She looked ready, and Avi turned to face their opponents, scanning around quickly to make sure there were no lurking mages or strategic archers from above.  But these rebels had no intention of killing, Avi guessed.  They wanted prizes, not trophies.  His sword whistled as it sliced through the air, and by his shoulder he could hear the dangerous whirr of Aaliyah’s vicious little hair pin stilettos.

She rolled her eyes. “Stop fussing, I told you I’m fine.” She rolled her eyes even more. A lover? Seriously that’s what he thought of her? But she couldn’t reply, couldn’t tell him how ridiculous his assumptions were. The rebels closed in on them, their swords and daggers drawn. 

Her heart swelled when he spoke so fondly of her, she loved hearing her little nickname. She was glad they’d been reunited, glad to know Avi - although they often butted heads on world views - cared about her. Yet she was not sure what he would do if they got out of this mess.

Whatever his plan was, Avi was right about the dangers of separating now. So she stood back to back with her cousin as the rebels grouped around them, determined to capture some Loqoalan royals. 

She grinned with confidence as the first rebel was knocked flat out with a simple elbow jab, and Avi tackled another one to the ground. The ease which they defeated the rebels with, clearly surprised the rebels’ companions. They backed up. They didn’t retreat, however. The fight wasn’t over yet. 

Alek chuckled almost sadly. “If we make it through this, then the next dance floor we’re on, you owe me a dance,” he attempted to joke to ease the reality of the situation. To by himself time to weigh his options. He couldn’t just abandon her to go get his father. 

His eyes traveled to the ruins of the palace. “He’s all I have left. I don’t know where anyone else is at the moment, but I know where he is. I know where I left him and I have to go find him. He was…” Alek didn’t want to admit this. He didn’t want this to be some gossip piece about his father after they’d all lived through this. “He was practically passed out drunk. So I doubt if he could get up and run anywhere. I would have had to help him,” he admitted. But Alek also knew that his dad would slow him down. That maybe he would need to find a safe place before he brought his father to it. 

“What kind of son would I be if I just left him? To find a safe place and then come back in hopes that it’s not worse than it was before.” But he also knew that there was a possibility someone had helped him out, had gotten him out and into safety. “I don’t think there’s a right answer on what I should do here. Normally, I’m more decisive, but he’s all I have.” He didn’t know why he was confiding in a stranger, but at the moment, talking out the options was nice. Rather much better than talking this out alone. 

She flashed him a genuine smile. “The pleasure would be all mine.” 

Now she understood why Alek didn’t believe his father could have made it out on his own. Alek was probably the last person who had seen his father before the attack, perhaps was the only one who knew exactly where his father was. A drunk royalty was not something to brag about, so much Aaliya knew. 

“He wouldn’t want you to risk your life, would he?” Aaliya sat back down on the bench she’d been sitting on before the blast. The bleeding on her head seemed to have stopped. She folded the bloodied fabric and put it on the side. “No one would make such a decision easily. You don’t have to be so hard on yourself.” 

As if to stress her words, parts of the damaged wall crumbled and came tumbling down. 

“We’re not safe here. We need to go further away from the building.” she could see the hurt in his blue eyes. “Even if you want to go back inside, I think the garden doors are completely smashed and blocked.” she got up and offered him a hand, a gesture that she would been shunned for in a normal situation but this wasn’t a normal situation after all. “Perhaps we can search for a better, safer entry somewhere else.” 

“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” - Stephen King

Timeline: After Refugee Camp with Xi’mia 

Being given the task to look after the wounded of the camp had calmed Aaliya down. Her hands were no longer shaking. Her heart was no longer beating as if it was going to jump out of her chest. No longer did she flinch at every loud noise, nor did she look up terrified whenever a loud footstep neared. It wasn’t so much the attack that had scared her, it was the encounter afterwards with her cousin that had made her tremble like a leaf. The reality of being dragged back home had terrified her more than the shocking blast and the red hot flames. 

Kirian had assured her that he would keep her safe. If she did not desire to return home with Avi, he promised her he would make sure her cousin would leave her alone. And Kirian once was a man of his word. She was worried Avi might show up and drag her home. But it’s been a few days and she didn’t see her cousin. Kirian guessed Avi had returned to his ship by now, most likely left Glasswater in search for the safety of the ocean. 

Aaliya gathered all the bloodied linen, the torn clothes and hurried to the back of the lakehouse, where a large fire was burning. She threw everything in the fire and watched as the flames rose in the dark sky. She slumped against the house, closing her eyes for a second. She had been running non-stop, helping the injured, serving food to the hungry. She had forgotten how tired she actually was. She took a deep breath, trying to forget the screams and howls of pain, hte red-tinted images of blood and gaping wounds. 

She was startled by a rustling sound and opened her eyes to find a woman - she guessed late thirties, early forties - with dark hair coming up to her, a soft smile lingering on her lips. 

“Hey,” Aaliya smiled back, pushing herself up from the wall ready to start working again. “Can I help you with something?” 

@dragcnburned

Timeline: At least a day after Family Reunion with Avi

The night was dark and silent in the woods. Very different from the city, where the sky was colored with flames and sirens were blaring across the entire city. Barefoot and clad in a torn gown, Aaliya was running through the woods, looking for that camp she had heard whispers about. She had no idea how long she had been running for. She was on high alert for the slightest noise, a little crack of a branch, a small hoot from a bird up in the trees. 

I’ll take you home.

The words of her cousin played in her head on repeat. She loved her cousin dearly, but he had not understand a single thing of what she had been telling him. She did not believe him when he told her her father would change, that he would listen to her when she returned. Her father would never change, her father would never listen to her. 

She hated her cousin for wanting to take her back home against her will.  She had run away. She did not want to go back home, if home was but a house where she was put in a room without being listened to. She wanted to travel the world and better the world bit by bit.

After running for another few minutes, she spotted light shimmering through the woods. Soft whispers filled the sky. As she stepped through the thick foliage, a house rose up in front of her eyes. A lake spread behind it, its dark surface reflecting the moonlight. She rushed downhill, to the light that shone through the open doors. She ran through the open doors and turned around the corner, hitting her head against something as strong as solid wall. She looked up, through her tear-filled eyes, into a pair of dark eyes she thought would never see again.

“Kirian? I thought you were...” she shakes her head. “Doesn’t matter. It’s been so long. What are you doing here?”