The Ludus Magus's foreign class (IC/Closed)

[Ameriganastan]

"All right then. Get well soon i guess."

He exited her room, shutting the door behind him. He yawned and shuffled back to his room.

"Damn. Less than a day here, and I've seen giant hot aliens chicks, a he/she thing, an assassination attempt, and freaky magic healing...i need a nap."

He passed out on his bed, snoring like he hadn't slept in days.

[The Overlordy]

"Well, looks like there's no reason to stay here..." Reidi spoke aloud, looking over to Gilga and Gabriel. He was quite thankful that there was no need to operate on Sofya, imagine how bad the real medical experts would react if two of the students, even if they were grown mean, were operating on her. Though as he thought about it, he really did feel as though him reattaching his hand so soon was an utter waste now, and just added more unneeded pain. Sighing heavily, he waved goodbye to Gilga and Gabriel, throwing out the mask, grabbing the materials he had come here to get, and returning to his room. He sat down onto the floor and quickly removed his hand, having to admit that, as much as it had hurt, feeling the same pain twice today didn't hurt as much as the first. Once that was done, he washed any blood that was on his arm, cleaned the stain on the floor, than going to his tool box he returned to tuning it. This time he wasn't as loud as he had been with his heater, mostly because the tune ups only required some tweaking here and there. To make certain functions react quickly, get a greater range, or produce a stronger hit. It took a while, but soon he was able to get it done. Though he waited a minute before reattaching. After the amount of pain his arm had to go through, he could feel it utterly aching and begging for a minute to relax.

[Wolfenium]

As Shane departed the room, Sofya could only help but whisper.

"Perhaps it is better you don't know..." she spoke softly, far from the young man's earshot. She already had a feeling who was behind this, but there was no need to involve innocent people in this. Sofya believe that only she could only deal with this alone. She and Midori...

---

"Shit!!!!!" Midori cursed, sprinting through the hallways in breakneck speed, "I have to get to Sophie... and fast..."

As she skidded around the corner to reach for the infirmary door, a dull pain hit her side as she cut across a trio of schoolgirls passing by.

"Ow!!!" went the brunette, carrying a guitar case, as she was knocked over to the floor face first. Another, a black-haired girl wearing a twintail and carrying a guitar case of her own, carefully hauled the dazed girl up. The third, carrying a backpack, grabbed the dashing girl, barking, "hey, watch it, will you!"

Frustrated, Midori yanked her arm away and yelled, "can't you see I'm busy!? I got a friend in need here!" Sprinting into the infirmary, she slammed open the door and howled.

"SOFYA!!! WHERE ARE YOU!?"

---

As the girls picked up their counterpart on the floor, the brunette could not help but utter, eyes flurried on impact, "I need sick leave, doctor..."

"This is no time to be going on sick leave, Yui..." the dirty-blonde haired girl whispered, "we need to move, now."

"You sure this is the right thing, Ritsu-senpai?" the twintail haired girl asked, dragging the dazed girl into a corner, "this is murder, plain and simple. Should we just run or something? We could always ask Miss Katsuga for-"

Placing a finger on the girl's lip, her friend could only sigh. "Azu-nyan," she justified, unzipping her backpack as she stared at the contents in bitterness, "we can't run... You know what will happen if we do, right? Besides... where can we go? We don't exist. Not anymore." Pulling out a case from her backpack, she unclipped the locks on the sides and opened up the case. Inside contained various metal parts and tubes, all of which are meant to be assembled. As she began to put the pieces together, she requested, "Azusa... You go look for the girl. We'll be right behind once I wake this ditz up. If you get the chance... kill her..."

"But-"

"Don't forget, Azusa," she affirmed, her hands tightening into fists as she tried to hold back her anguish, "she's the enemy, just like all the rest... they killed them... they killed them all..." Azusa could only watch in vain as her senior broke apart. Opening her guitar case, she put aside the Fender Mustang electric guitar inside and pried open the false bottom on the case, revealing were dual Mini-Uzi machine pistols. As she tucked the guns inside her blouse, she could not help but feel unnerved. Still, there was no turning back. They had no other option.

"O-Ok... I'll do it..."

[The Overlordy]

It wasn't long before Reidi returned the hand to its rightful place, pain shooting through the already throbbing stub. He sighed after a minute of waiting for the pain to lighten up a little, cleaning up his mess at last and carefully picking up his stuff. He looked to the few medical supplies he brought along from the infirmary, he might as well return them. It would be a bad sight if the nurses and school doctors found some supplies missing. Just about to go, Ejji slid his way over to Reidi's feet, lightly bobbing up and down as if asking to be picked up. Shaking his head, Reidi bent down and carefully picked up the little land shark, carrying Ejji on top of the materials. As he walked off, slowly heading towards the infirmary, he slowed when he spotted a few girls conversing in the halls. Usually he'd walk past, but it seemed one of them was dazed and looked a little out of it.

"Um... is she alright?" he inquired, staring at the girl carefully. She didn't look hurt, just stunned. But it was good to check... maybe they were trying to find the infirmary?

[Wolfenium]

"Wait," Ritsu whispered to Azusa as she picked up footsteps ahead, "hide the weapons." She quickly slipped the half-assembled weapon in Azusa's guitar case, sealed the false bottom and placed the guitar in.

As the foreigner came by, Ritsu's eyes turned to Yui, still babbling like an idiot - mostly about sweets and desserts - and replied as calmly as she could, "thanks... Someone knocked into her a moment ago... Let's just say she's acting a little more silly than usual. She'll be fine."

Azusa kept her silence, her hand quivering slightly as she clutched her chest. With haste, she stuttered, "e-excuse me... But I-I heard a shot earlier... w-what happened?" She knew perfectly well who was responsible, but a direct question may arouse suspicion. She had seen enough of the Kommandant to know some of his basic deception tactics.

[The Overlordy]

Reidi stood there and looked to the babbling girl, his certainty that likely she was fine diminishing a little. He nodded his head when one of the girls spoke to him, saying that the other was just knocked down and would be fine.

"She must have been knocked down hard." he spoke, looking at the girl. Ejji stared at the three intently, his little nose twitching as he used this chance to smell them. After a minute or two, the little creature proceeded to hiss at them angrily, tensing at them. Reidi looked at his pet curiously, usually Ejji hissed at everyone but this seemed a tad aggressive. He guessed this was because Ejji was new to being around non-Overlordians, thus likely he was especially tense. Or that was what Reidi thought. "Sorry, he has a tendency to smell things on people... all the time. So he gets... murrd." he said, stroking Ejji's head, though he still continued to hiss.

When the girl asked about the sounds of gun shots earlier, Reidi frowned a little, feeling a tad unnerved again at the reminder.

"Ah, we may have an assassin, or assassins, on our hands here." he told them for a moment. "Someone tried to kill one of the new students." he added in. "I don't know if they were killed or not, but most of us are on guard." he added in, eying them a moment. "Ah, can I ask you a question?" he inquired, not really waiting for a reply. "Are you from here?" he asked. "I mean, you don't look like any of the citizens here..." he mused, "and I haven't seen you in class either, if you are foreign." he added in, a tad curious and a pinch suspicious as to who they were.

[Wolfenium]

Azusa bit her lip. She found it extremely difficult to answer that question. The growling shark for one was additionally unnerving. Luckily for her, Ritsu managed to take the initiative.

"Umm..." she said, scratching her head 'innocently', "we're from a light music club back in our home country of Wolfenium, you see... One of those extracurricular activities in our school. We just got transferred here and... OK I admit, we just skipped class since Yui wanted to look around some more."

"I didn't skip class," blustered Yui, still furry-eyed and waving her arms like a loon as she slumped back into sleep.

"Uhh... don't mind her... she's like that..."

"Then..." Azusa stammered, "do you know if she's... fine? Where is sh-"

"How'dyoudo..." Yui cut in, reaching for Reidi like a baby before collapsing again. Ritsu was starting to feel freaked out. She knew how much of a ditz Yui is, but she could not help but feel if that girl knocked out Yui's brain...

[The Overlordy]

Reidi stood there and listened to their replies, his calm demeanor disappearing for a second before he calmed once again. At first just assuming these girls were walking about the school, Reidi started to feel a large wave of mistrust. He did not mistrust them because of the stunned girl's statement of not skipping class, it sounded like a valid answer. He didn't trust them because of two reasons; one being that it was odd these girls wanted to know about where Sofya was. But also because they said they were from Wolfenium, and he recognized the first six letters of their nation. The perpetrators are likely to be foreign, perhaps a Wolfen or a Vinchian. No wonder Ejji is hissing at them... always thought that shark had a good sense about people, he thought to himself. Now Reidi could have been entirely wrong, but this felt more than just some odd coincidence.

"Sorry, I cannot divulge where she is, privacy and stuff." he spoke. "And I really think you should check in with our teacher, if you skipped." he added in. "I can take you to him, I know where he is." he spoke, doing all of this just to get them away from Sofya's room. Nion, I'm likely being paranoid again... he thought to himself, a tinge of doubt hitting him when he realized he was planning to try and both get them away. It has to be a coincidence... but I can't take a chance...

[Wolfenium]

"Wh-Oh... OK..." Azusa replied, hearing his answer intently. She was sure they could not keep up the act for long.

"Oh dear..." Ritsu remarked, turning her eyes away in embarrassment, "guess we're busted, huh..."

"IDIDN'TSKIPCLASS!!!" Yui blasted in her sleep as she sent her hands flailing at Reidi. As Ritsu tried to hold her back in the confusion, Azusa took her chance. Taking a silent step back with Reidi's back facing her, her body rapidly dissolved into the air, as if she was sand blown into the wind. This was the Wind Walk, one of the many spells used by Aeromancers who walk down the path of assassins and rangers. The ethnic Fuso insurgents, for one, were infamous for its use against Wolfen security forces during the Fuso uprising^[1]. Within a split second, she was gone.

'Thank god,' thought Ritsu as she glanced at her friend 'disappearing', 'and here I thought we're going to be caught-wait... now what... Oh shit... now I have to answer for this!'

---

1. The Fuso Uprising is a low-level insurgency fought between the Wolfen Imperial Defence Force and ethnic Ilyushian rebels in remote areas across the empire during the late period of Kaiser Franz Josef Sommer's rule (194 - 269 I.C./ 1904-1979 A.D). The conflict arose from an increasingly apartheid-style rule enacted by the ruling ethnic Ruberian (Caucasian)-dominated government. The native Ruberians forms the vast majority of Wolfenium's population and while the Ilyushians, mainly the Fuso, who had descended from colonial-era labourers, form the largest minority. The conflict ended in a peace settlement granting all minority groups equal rights and guaranteed Heinrich von Wolfenstein (the current emperor's grandfather) the succession to the throne for his hand at both subduing the rebel threat and his work in diplomacy. (More info here)

[The Overlordy]

Reidi quickly dropped everything the moment Ritsu spoke about "being busted". Guess he wasn't being paranoid, or paranoia was his friend and only helped him figure it out. Either way, Reidi jumped back the moment Yui started to scream about "skipping class", Ritsu thankfully grabbing her. However before he could do anything, he noticed the other girl was gone before he could consider doing anything. He didn't know where, but he didn't like the idea of her escaping. Well, there still were these two, and he had no plans to let them get away. He prepared his metallic hand in the case of a fight, Ejji at his side, flustered by everything and just waiting for Reidi to say the word.

"Who are you?" he demanded, his accent becoming thicker as he stood here. Now he was hoping that this was a mistake, and perhaps that these people were here to HELP but be undercover at the same time... though Reidi utterly doubted that. "And why are you here?"

[Ameriganastan]

Shane angrily kicked his door open, holding Fuzzy in his right hand.

"Who is screaming out here?! Some of us are trying to take a nap around this place! Geez, no respect for the sleepy. Loudmouth jerks! Damn it, I'm awake. Might as well go do something."

He tossed fuzzy back on his bed and started walking around, not sure where he was going.

[Wolfenium]

"Woah, calm down!" Ritsu exclaimed, panicking over Reidi's increasing hostile tone, "we didn't mean to skip class! It was Yui's fault! She wanted to sightsee, not us! We're just students! Honest! If you want, we'll see the teacher! Do what you want with Yui! Just please don't hurt me!"

At that instance, Shane kicked opened the door bellowing. Thinking quickly, Ritsu grabbed Yui and their stuff and enacted the same Wind Walk spell, disappearing into the wind as well. It was far more difficult with additional stuff to carry, but they just managed to slip away.

---

Azusa had little time to waste. With every second ticking since Mio's shot, the noose tightened around the quintet. As she dashed across the corridors, her ears continued to detect for any sound. Any movement.

And then, she found a clue. Blood drips leading into a room. As she placed her ear on the door, she listened in for any occupants inside.

'Only one asleep,' she thought, ready to pull one of her Mini-Uzis out from her blouse. With split second reaction, she pulled out her dual guns, kicked open the door and aimed down at the figure sleeping on a bed of clothes. However, the figure was no vampire.

"A... blue cat? How cute," Azusa remarked as she looked over at Happy, still snoozing after all the ruckus. Lowering her weapons, she dropped her guard as she happily stroked the adorable kitten in front of her. Unfortunately, Azusa soon realized that another was in the room as she felt the cold steel of a barrel touching the back of her head.

"If I were you," responded the female behind her, in an ominous tone, "I'd look around for good measure." It was Sofya, eyes glowing red as she aimed her Makarov pistol at the Wolfen assassin. The gun glowed with violet Slavonic runes as she made her say, "those Uzis... you must be an Imperial spy. Not very good at this, are you..." As she cocked her pistol, she calmly demanded, "drop the guns, girl."

Azusa silently complied, dropping the Uzis on the floor as she raised her hands in the air. Kicking the guns aside, Sofya demanded coldly, "who sent you, Wolfener?"

"Azusa Nakano..." she responded monotonously, recalling the training she was forced to go through "rank Gefreiter... serial number-OW!" Dull pain struck the girl's skull as the vampire smacked her with her pistol. Aiming back at her head, she demanded, her stoicism wavering, "I didn't take that bullet just to hear that crap. Talk. Who sent you?"

"Azusa Nakano..." she responded again, refusing to answer. In anger, the Amythysian hit the girl again, this time with more force. As the Wolfener fell to the floor, her head bleeding slightly, Sofya shot a round to the floor, just mere inches away from Asuza's face. Enraged, she demanded one last time, "you have 3 seconds to tell me who you people are! Now spit it! Who sent you!? Tri!... Dva!..." As she motioned her finger on the trigger, Sofya was well prepared to shoot. She would stop at nothing to get the answers she needs. She had a feeling these people were connected to the assassinations. She believed that whoever was behind this was not just after her, but her father and sister as well. If she could just get the answers out. Maybe... just maybe... her family could live. If she could not, she would just have to make the Wolfener answer for it...

[The Overlordy]

Reidi stood there, glaring at the girls. Oh them lying was not going to to get him, one of them mumbled "cover blown" or such like that, so there was no way they could get out of this. However, they could if a distraction came. With Reidi on edge, he jerked his attention to the door being kicked open nearby and Shane standing there, tense as he looked back to see the other two gone. He glared angrily, realizing now that these three, dangerous women were gone.

"Nion nion nion nion nion!" he screamed, quickly turning around. He glared at Shane as he ran by. "You stupid bastard!" he snapped at him, quite angry that Shane distracted Reidi too long. Ejji quickly followed along, leading the way. At first not able to pick up what he knew of their scent, suddenly one of the girl's scents appeared and off Ejji went. He was quick to run into the room, slowing when he spotted Sofya up and one of the girls on the ground, knocked out. "Jirfy Uoq" he spoke, thankful he was not too late and that the other side to Sofya was out.

[Wolfenium]

"Who is this," Sofya remarked, glancing at Reidi behind her, "oh... it's you... Get lost. This has nothing to do with you."

"Go ahead..." Azusa said in an eerie calm, "just shoot me... I've already died once anyway... What difference does it make."

"Say what?" Sofya asked, "what does that mean?... ANSWER ME!" Hitting her pistol again, Sofya was losing her cool. She had enough of the girl. However, much as she wanted to pull the trigger, she could fell a resistance pulling back at her.

Please... don't do it...

"Silence, girl," Sofya yelled, her fangs showing as she snapped at her other, gentle half, "can't you see these dogs are here to kill you!? I'm doing you a favour here! Don't get in my way! Same with you, outsider," she snapped at Reidi, clearly annoyed at the Wolfener's persistent resistance. This was a eerie contrast even for her own alternate personality. An eerie reflection of her family's vampiric traits.

[Ameriganastan]

"Hey jerkbag!"

Shane was marching down the hall, eyes set on Reidi

"What the hell is your problem? Were you the one who was screaming? I've got half a mind to...

He looked in on Sofya, holding a gun to some girls head.

"...Hey Sofya. Uh...Feeling better?"

[The Overlordy]

"Not now." he hissed at him. "Miss Near Killed over here is being hunted, and you just help me lose the people that are trying to kill her." he snarled at him a little.

Reidi stood there and glared at the woman, finding it quite rude of her to tell him to go away. He was trying to help, the least she could do is say "I can handle it" or such like that. He ignored her demand to leave, not doing anything since it seemed she had a good handle on this. Though from the looks of it, she looked very ready to kill the girl, and he didn't know if he should support this. His glare narrowed further when she suddenly snapped to herself, as if talking to the other part of Sofya that was kinder and didn't want death, much like Reidi. He took a step forwards, not going to her but certainly showing her he wasn't going to walk out. He didn't want her to kill the girl, but it seemed from the looks of it that he had no choice. The least he could do was warn her.

"There are two others here." Reidi spoke, Ejji working to try and catch the scent of the girls.

[Wolfenium]

Sofya gritted her fangs in anger. She could feel her grip slipping away as her other self tried to hold back.

Unlike her elder sister, Irina, Sofya had not yet mastered full control over her vampiric side. Usually, her other side would be cold, unfeeling and logical in a sense, but this was but a facade for a darker trait of her people. In the Old World, there exists three kinds of vampires, those that suppress their vampiric nature, those that embrace it wholely and those who managed to strike a balance, forming an entirely new personality altogether. Her father chose the former, her sister became the second. To master the latter would require immense effort. But nevertheless, Sofya had to choose at one point, whether to remain the kind, gentle girl she had always been, or to become the violent aristocrat she is as of now.

As she raised her pistol over the girl's head, she threatened one more time, "talk... who are you people..."

Finally, after a long silence, Azusa finally spoke, albeit in an eerily prophetic tone unlike her own, "we? We are the Schatten der Vergangenheit... the Shadows of the Past. The ghosts of martyrs who had died in the defence of the Fatherland. Your nation is a scourge bent on the total annihilation of the homeland and must be eliminated. You cannot stop the winds of change, Amythysian. The Commonwealth shall soon shatter under the weight of your own sins and Astol will see a new light under the Kaiser's glorious reign. You cannot win... for as long as the homeland stands on the brink of war, we'll be there... watching... This, he guarantees..." As she made her statement, her body once again dissolves into the wind.

"What the-come back here!" Sofya howled as she started opening her fire. Sadly, she was too little, too late. The bullets simply cut through the girl like smoke. Within seconds, she was gone, the Uzis laid silent on the floor.

"That bitch," Sofya cursed tossing her pistol aside in anger, "what does she mean by that..."

[Ameriganastan]

"Two others huh? I wonder if the other two are cute?...focus Shane. Uh Miss Sofya? Or whatever you call yourself when your all psycho ghost-vampire lady crazy, um...this chicks friend are probably coming, and seeing as last time someone tried to kill you...like 15 minutes ago, they did a pretty good job, maybe you should like, hide? I don't think i could chase them off again. I'm pretty sure I'd flat line myself if i go all hyper shocky like that."

[The Overlordy]

Reidi quietly watched as the girl once again disappeared. This was not a good thing, how could they do that? He sighed heavily as he looked around, wondering if for the time being they were going to stop or not? He looked to Shane a moment, glaring at him. Stupid teenager he thought to himself, finding that at the moment the last thing he should be thinking about is whether these assassins were cute or not. He looked to her, wondering if this was some sort of nations vs. nation issue. If so, Reidi was certain to keep out of it, then. The last thing their nation needed was a war, and he especially didn't want it to be caused by him interfering with issues even beyond his status. He was just about to suggest the same thing, but he stayed quiet, Shane beating him to the punch.

"Gega raia, Ejji." he told the land shark, the little creature scuttling past Ejji and into Reidi's arms once he bent down to pick him up. "What did you do to piss them off?" he asked, mostly wondering if she did something or nothing.

[Wolfenium]

Sofya looked back at the Ameriganastani, stating, "hide? Amythysians do not hide. But I doubt they'll be back anytime soon. Knowing the... other me, she'll probably plead for help from the Wolfen girl Katsuga. She has links to the Wolfen government and I'm sure the intelligent little midget would think of something."

Turning to Reidi, she said, "as for this... it's a... long story. I'll let the other me explain the details. For now though, just let that Wolfen girl and myself know what happened... I guess..." With that, Sofya fainted again, this time out asleep on the floor

"Sofya!!!" cried Midori as she raced into the room shoving the foreigner aside. As she knelt on the floor trying to shake her awake, she questioned, eyes welling up, "what happened!? Did they... Am I... too late?"

[The Overlordy]

Nodding, Reidi jumped when Midori came into the room, screaming Sofya's name loudly and rushing past him. Careful to try and avoid being crashed into, he watched as she went down and worked to check up on Sofya, fearing the worst when the girl didn't awake. When she inquired as to if she was too late, Reidi shook his head.

"On time actually." he replied, calmer now that things weren't getting chaotic. "One of the Wolfens who want her dead came into the room, but the... other half, I think, kicked in and was able to handle the situation. She escaped though, as did two others who were with her." he said, softly stroking Ejji who as usual hissed at everyone else in the room. Though unlike earlier, this time he just hissed as he usually did.

[Cilistia Novaren]

"Well then" Professor Salnor said tiredly, "I do think that covers most of everything"

"Most of everything..." Salora said quietly while leaning back a bit in her chair, "we havent even begun to uncover all the knowledge that can be found in this place"

"Indeed" Veraso said, "you know we really should get some rest before continuing. Process all of this information"

"Agreed," Salnor said, "We can wake in a few hours from now, when you have your meeting scheduled, Salora"

The three Solarians set their internal clocks to wake at that time, and then each one of them went onto the bed and lay down, not only the wrong way on the bed and moving the pillows onto the floor- but not using blankets either, and they were laying stiff as an erect soldier, arms at their sides and feet together,and immediately they went into a state that was a sort of mixture between meditating and sleeping, nothing short of being physically shaken- and hard- would be able to wake them. This was a thing that the Solarians used to help 'cool off' their minds if you will. Working at such quick paces and doing so much more than the simple human brain, it would really help the Solarians to clear their heads- especially to help with the shock of all these new things to learn about.

Two minutes later, the shot rang out

OOC- in other words im too lazy to catch up with all this stuff for the Solarians....

[New Amerik]

Gabriel sighed slightly as he watched the three leave the world. Not this again. He had been warned that the multi-verse was full of dangerous and unhinged people, but really now! Why was it that every time New Amerik tried to integrate with the outside multi-verse some big dramatic event seemed to brew up?

He shook his head. Whatever it was, he didn't care for it. Life was already exctiing enough, and he was now slightly miffed at the vampir for implying he would try to eat her. Was involuntary cannibalism common in her nation? Taking the opportunity to think about it as he left the infirmary, the only conclusion he could come to was that it could very well be. But.....hmm....no, he had bigger plans in mind for later.

He wandered down the halls, listening to the gunfire ring out. Oh, dear. Was it really this easy for the facility to be infiltrated? That was...actually, that was a good sign. The Guard would have no trouble getting in if that were the case, and he rather felt they might be needed. NonAmerikans often had very funny ideas about New Amerik benefiting them, and resistance might be encountered. Might be.

He looked in his room. The Device watched him intently. For once, Gabriel shuddered, them stuffed it in his bag, careful not to activate it. Emperor, that thing was creepy.

[Wolfenium]

"Oh thank goodness..." Midori gasped in relief, "wait... what's this other side you're talking about? Never mind..." As her mind raced, she began to feel responsible.

"This is my fault..." Midori moaned, "I shouldn't have gone out looking for them... damn it!" Punching her fist to the floor, she asked bitterly, "those people... who were they... who did they say they're working for?"

[The Overlordy]

"Ah..." he was cut off when Midori told him she didn't care. He guessed it wasn't too important, at least he hoped it wasn't. As he watched her talk on how she felt it was her fault and how she was worried, he was just about to leave and return to his room. But before he could, it seemed she had some questions. Such as who they were or where they were from.

"I never caught their names... well, one of them." he said. "Azusa Nakano. The other two I don't know." he spoke. "And they work for a group called Schatten der Vergangenheit." he added in. "Something about her nation of a scourge, they needing to destroy them, etc, etc. Sounds like a nation vs. nation situation..." he continued, looking the two as he hoped for an answer on that. Just a yes or no, so he knew what to do in the future.