172

"You handled that without killing anyone…" Wakako spoke the not quite question, as I was sitting across from her, not at our usual spot.

Wakako had sent me a drop off that ended up being an old apartment complex. A few men, obviously TC, or at least with their looks helped carry Susan out of my car and into an apartment that had two other people.

One was a ripper, and the other was Wakako.

"I thought about it honestly. I could have killed them all, almost did. But they weren't Scavs, even if they tortured your contact. I uh… Figured it was cleaner this way."

"You did well." She said after a while, taking a puff on her cigarette. "Padre is already annoyed with the discovery of my agent. The lack of bodies to clean up will make our next communication more civil than it would have been." She explained casually.

"Those guys were Padres?"

"They were Valentino." She responded as if that answered the question and I guess it did.

Every Tyger Claw was probably under Wakako's thumb in a similar way at least to her mind.

"Should I call him and apologize for roughing up the guys?"

"No." She answered back simply and I nodded. "Motoko." Wakako said suddenly as I was looking over at the ripper taking care of Susan, making sure she wouldn't die.

"Yeah?"

"I don't enjoy offering surprise gigs like this, without warning and demanding it from you. It's unprofessional. You took it without complaint and did what I needed." She took another puff of her cigarette. "You've grown from the fool who walked into my office earlier this year."

"Oh, thanks." I said, a little happy despite myself. Wakako was like my strict asian Grandma… Well my Yakuza Grandma.

"You haven't done any work at the Afterlife yet." She said suddenly, and I perked up and looked over.

"No. Rogue gave me the invite, but I haven't really needed to do much work. Recently. I've been doing other things."

"I suppose you wouldn't, with Ms. Mitsunashi's jobs keeping you busy." She said and I smiled as Hiromi was acknowledged.

"The last one was pretty fun."

"I heard about it. 6th St. Were quite unhappy with your interference. Although none of them wanted to interrupt, considering the armament you brought along."

"The Minotaur is so cool." I replied back smiling because it fucking was!

"Wakako? The patient is waking up." The ripper called and Wakako turned her attention away.

"Motoko. Payment will come through soon, Just give me a few hours."

"Hey, don't worry about it. You got something else to do first." I assured her and got up, stretching a bit, and accidentally hearing a tearing noise. "Dangit, this stripper gear is shit!" I cursed earning an actual scoff from the older lady.

"That isn't stripper apparel, dear. You are far too dressed for that." She snarked at me, and I couldn't help but laugh at the older woman's words, but I also really didn't want to ask how she knew that in case I would be subjected to mental trauma so I headed out with a wave.

Wakako seemed pretty gentle with Susan…

She wasn't a relative or something… Right?

—--

"Please don't ask any questions." I sighed. I had decided to change once I was back in the apartment. Changing in the car hadn't been very comfortable the first time, but even with my normal jacket over my shoulders, and carrying my gear in my arms. I still looked like I just left my job as a stripper.

And Jun was not just home, but had been walking back to the couch with a burrito in his hand when I opened the door, no chance for me to sneak in.

"I have so many questions." He said going directly against what I had asked as he turned away from the couch towards me. "Let's start with-"

"Nope! No, questions. I need to get changed and throw this away. It's not mine, and doesn't fit."

"Well yeah, of course it doesn't fit, you had to stuff the shit out of that top." Jun snarked back and I felt my jaw drop as I brought my holsters and leotard up to my chest to hide it.

"No I didn't!"

"Motoko." Jun said in a monotone, and then added nothing else. As if saying my name would make me realize how silly I was!

But jokes on Jun! I'm capable of bringing up his weakness! The nuclear option in this situation!

"We are not talking about my tits right now." I demanded, and Jun flinched, deciding that the better part of valor was to run away.

Which I also did hurrying to my room to take off the stripper wear and get dressed in comfortable leotard.

Definitely covering more skin… I looked down. Actually when I didn't wear the jeans with it, I think I actually showed more skin…

Nope. That thought was going to be shoved into a dark corner and never thought of again.

Stepping out fully dressed I noticed Jun was still waiting for me, with a look on his face demanding answers.

"Ugh! Okay I'll say this once, and we never talk about it again! Wakako called for an emergency gig. Had to pick up a contact that got ratted out. They were holding her in a club, like a BD bar. I had to sneak in. They had a netrunner watching the cams, so I couldn't just walk in normally. I saw one of the girls leaving and… acquired her uniform. That's it. We are never speaking of this again."

"Motoko."

"What?"

"You looked like a stripper."

"Jun."

"Yeah?"

"You look like a two bit yakuza." I offered back and Jun actually flinched looking down at his clothes.

"What part of me is two bit? Motoko! Hey don't walk away, what part of me is two bit!?"

—--

Tachikoma was doing well. I had spent the night after the gig working on building a personality kernel. The small seed wasn't anything big yet, still far too early to really do much, but of course I wanted my Tachikoma to be cute when it was done!

I couldn't run it yet. I didn't have the processing power on my hardware on hand. But I had a plan for that.

Long before the sun was rising, I was heading out. Driving across the city to the netrunner cave!

There I plugged not just my laptop into the server, but the Tachikoma as well.

The server synced in just a moment, and I edited my lobby to allow the Tachikoma access. With a bit of work it was ready, and I went and plugged into my netrunner chair. Making sure to fully hook in. I wasn't doing a deep dive, but I was going to do a lot of work.

A moment later I was in a digital landscape.

There was a… Well it was more like a mess of squiggles than any specific shape. The Tachikoma didn't have a sense of self, or even a digital avatar. It wasn't even at the level of a Daemon yet.

It was probably about 70% on its way to having enough data to be considered an IMP. Of course unlike an IMP it would be capable of improving.

I was going to speed that up. First thing I did was bring in the dimensions for the Tachikoma and sync up the digital connection.

The digital mess buzzed for a second as it shifted into the form of a Tachikoma.

It took a second, but the learning module activated as it took a step. And then another, and then it was walking around.

It wasn't quite right to call it exploring, there was no impetus in the motion yet.

That was what I was here for. Personality was actually really easy. Anything digital had some personality now after all. The thought made me think of Brendan the SCSM capable of so accurately pretending to be alive people thought it was a full AI.

There were even personality systems for Agents, to let them talk to their users.

I didn't have one, myself, or at least I had never activated one. I didn't need a second voice in my head.

Anyway, with the Tachikoma settled I pulled up a digital screen.

There were plenty of personality matrices out there. I could go to any shop and buy one that would let my agent, or my clock, or whatever talk to me in some famous actor's voice.

But that was crap. I wasn't making some dirt tier program.

I was raising a Tachikoma! Settling into the lounge chairs I started working. Mentally running multiple keyboards as I used my new cyberdeck to modify the personality kernel.

It was actually pretty easy. It was just a seed. The beginnings of how the Tachikoma would develop its personality. It was easy to start, but it would take a long time to grow.

But I stopped as I was just starting to get going.

A long time.

I don't think I wanted to wait a long time. The longer it took the longer I would be without my backup Tachikoma squad.

I looked at the little digital avatar wandering around. Completely without awareness, completely without a ghost.

I knew how to make an AI grow faster. I just couldn't do it yet.

Lack of equipment, lack of skill. The fact was, I couldn't think like a digital entity. I had started moving towards that with Intelligence, over 10. That was basically what Intelligence did once it went past the human limit. It let me act as if the digital was my native space.

It's how I was able to run multiple keyboards at once despite how difficult that was.

I pulled up my stat screen.

One Stat point.

Sighing, I shook it off. Decisions decisions. Make myself stronger, or make myself mentally safer? I didn't exactly want another episode. Burning my cyberdeck out for nothing wasn't a fun experience.

I hummed as I settled back, letting myself just think.

My neck didn't get tense on the web. My body was far enough away that sort of thing wouldn't be noticed. It hadn't been as bad since I dropped a stat point into my neural link, but I really wanted to get stronger too.

Cyberware, or advancement? It was a choice I was coming across more and more, and once all my stats were over ten…

Yeah that was going to be tough to choose. I really needed to figure this out.

So I decided like all important choices.

"One for you. One for me." I said. Unless something crazy was happening I would spend my stat points like that. Last point had gone into Adaptation, and I was feeling better with that. So the next point was for stats.

Nodding, I dropped the point into Intelligence. Bringing that up to twelve!

But that was only the stat. It was time to level the skills, I was about to dump points into stuff before stopping.

"Dumbass, remember what happened last time?" I cursed myself. No more leveling stats more than one at a time with long rests in between.

One point went into Breach Protocol. Bringing me up to 11, and another in Programming keeping me at my max of 12.

The influx was intense, and I felt the way I programmed change irrevocably.

It was one thing to still use a physical system as preference. It was another to know that you didn't need them.

I had programming on my mind.

—--

"Motoko!" Hiromi cheered as I opened the door, earning an arm full of my bestie as she hugged me.

"I'm free!" She cried out and I nodded.

Friday afternoon. No more school.

"I have good news as well." She offered as she raced over to the couch and leapt onto it flopping down and sighing in relief.

"Hello to you Hiromi. I'm glad you had a good day at school. Oh you had that for lunch? That's nice." I teased as I joined Hiromi who just grumbled at me.

"Business Motoko! Business! We have a meeting tomorrow, to finalize the sale of your song." She explained and I nodded remembering that was a thing, yes.

"Okay? You need me?"

"You have to sign it over. We haven't entered any official paperwork on the books to make me your manager." She explained and then rolled over to look at me with a firm look.

"So I have to go?"

"So you have to go!" She demanded pointing at me. "And to make sure you do, I'm spending the night and hanging out with you all day! Hiromi time!" She demanded and I acquiesced easily. Hiromi had it hard with school and all the responsibilities that I heaped on her.

"Hiromi time." I agreed, and the bright smile told me I had made the right call. "So, shall we go out, get a bunch of food, hang out on the couch?"

"Oooh that does sound nice!" She sighed, raising her hands. "Help me up?"

I grabbed her upraised arms and easily hauled her to her feet. Hiromi was so light.

"C'mon I'll drive." I offered, and Hiromi whined.

"But you drive slooooow."

"I drive safe." instantly replied back.

—--

"So you need better data storage?"

"At least for the Tachikoma." I admitted. Hiromi was playing with my Tachikoma as it walked around in her lap, interested in my drone experiment.

"Hmm. That's tough, not as easy to get off the back of a truck as weapons." She explained and I nodded.

"It's not a rush, but I can't really make them smart and autonomous at the moment. I can basically just do one or the other."

"Can't you do a remote connection and control them that way?"

"Yeeees?" I offered. Technically that was the Militech solution to their Flathead. Just remote connect it, and don't worry about needing an on board AI.

But I didn't want a Flathead, I wanted a Tachikoma.

"I can do that for a stop gap, might even be a good idea to do it, so I can help teach it what I need it to do, but I'm looking for an autonomous system."

"I'll keep an eye out. Maybe we'll hit a storage yard, or just knock over a transport?"

"Pfft!" I giggled at Hiromi's words. "Just knock over stuff huh? Steal it? You're so bad!"

"What? That's literally what we do!"

"I know! But it sounds funny coming from you and saying it like that!" I giggled as I turned to my noodles and kept eating. The TV show currently playing was honestly being ignored by both of us.

Me because I didn't like it, and Hiromi, because she was showing that corpo personality. Always wanting to push more.

"Hmph! Maybe I will make sure when I find the chips you need, the gig requires a transport truck heist! Just to show you!"

"That would be cool. Ichi could be the driver in the Behemoth, and Malcolm could use his Nomad car, the one with the rockets. I could do a cool jump from Ichi's truck onto the transport and take it over."

"Or just make them pull over so you don't get yourself killed!" Hiromi shrieked at me, and I just laughed.

This was nice, the stress from the week disappeared off my shoulders as Hiromi and I hung out making fun of bad TV and eating ourselves sick.

Hiromi the next day marched me down to City Center. Practically buzzing with excitement, as she guided me towards a specific building into its garage, using an access code she supplied, to enter into the building's garage.

"Must be exciting. To be doing like a real business deal." I offered to her, as we slipped into the elevator.

"I've done business deals before." She replied semi distracted, but I could see her cheeks flushing.

"Yeah but that was on the street, this is like the real deal. Bet no one in your class has ever gotten even close to this sort of thing." I whispered teasingly at the end.

"Definitely not. Those losers and over inflated egotists!" She chirped, pleased, and then focused up as the elevator ride ended, the doors opened onto a fancy upscale reception, carpeted and warmly lit. At the end of the hallway was a woman with tasteful cyberware, elegant and attractive sitting behind a desk.

The big company icon above her head was rather telling.

I followed along after Hiromi, who had shifted her face into a mask of confident arrogance.

Neither woman spoke up at first. Hiromi's eyes flashing, and the womans did as well, before her cement-like smile broke.

"You are right on time Ms. Mitsunashi. Keiko will guide you to the conference room." She replied and another woman dressed in the same way stepped out of a side door throwing a fake smile and bowing.

We both followed Hiromi staying confident and cool, but I could see the tension in how she walked from knowing her.

I was basically uninterested in the pageantry. I wouldn't even be here if not for Hiromi asking me to.

I just didn't need the eddies, or the fame, but if I could help out Hiromi's dream by giving her access to the rich and powerful, I wasn't going to deny her.

We were guided down the hall, Keiko smiling fakely, her voice chipper and happy as she talked up her company.

Blah blah blah. It all went in one ear and out the other.

I've heard enough corpo jargon in my life. I didn't need more.

Finally the door was held open for us, and we walked into a brightly lit conference room. An entire side of the wall were open windows showing the towers of City Central.

But I was more interested in the other end of the table. The one man sitting. Expensive suit, and more expensive smile.

But it was the two standing behind him that caught my eye.

They looked like accountants. Standing behind him with tablets, and even some actual papers in their arms.

But I recognized the stance, the way they held their arms.

They were armed. Bodyguards?

I stopped behind Hiromi as she took a seat across from the man, earning a confused look from her as there was a chair beside her for me, but I was fully in bodyguard mode myself now.

"Ms. Mitsunashi. I am Sam Henson. It is a pleasure to see you face to face. Rarely do I get such riveting back and forth for something so simple as a small music deal."

"Small or large, hardly matters. Not when it comes to who is asking for this deal." Hiromi seemingly reposted, bringing up Denny in her first line.

Ah, if Hiromi had been getting back and forth, then likely the company was trying to screw me?

Heh.

"Our contract is welcomed by many up and coming artists." He replied back, but Hiromi laughed fakely.

"Artists, am I right? They never know what they want. Or what they need." She shrugged, and I actually almost looked at her myself, because that almost sounded like a bit of a dig towards me.

I'm sorry Hiromi, I just don't like all the attention!

"Well, we've run your contract edits through legal, and they were denied of course." He offered casually. "I've taken the liberty of going through the edits you desired and altering them into something that will work for us."

Hiromi didn't frown, she didn't smile either. Simply waited, as the man's eyes went blue as he sent over a file to Hiromi.

I could practically see the file transfer over, but before Hiromi could open it I attacked.

Slipping into the network transfer to Hiromi, I popped up a small text file on her agent into her sight.

*Motoko: Give me a second. Checking the file.*

*Hiromi: Okay.*

"A moment then to look it over." She replied verbally, and I checked over the file searching through it before deciding it was clean. Yoko was right, checking file transfers first was a good idea.

Hiromi nodded, popping it open, and I pulled out of her system leaving her to check it over.

The room was quiet as Hiromi's eyes continued to glow telling everyone she was reading through a document.

I kept an eye on the other guards, but neither seemed to register me as an actual threat.

Which was kinda hilarious, but I just took it as a good thing and continued to stand guard as Hiromi browsed, finally she slapped a hand onto the table.

"Ridiculous." She said instantly. "We are selling a song to Master-Space Records. Not selling the musicians rights. You want to be able to sell the song without giving attention to its songwriter. That doesn't work for my client."

"It's a standard part of our contracts Ms. Mitsunashi, we need to be able to sell the song without any issues from a musician's public stunts. The contract will make 'Tank' a full and complete ownership to Master-Space."

"You want to have someone else 'create' the song and sell it as theirs." Hiromi argued, and I was just following along not really seeing the issue.

Wasn't that what selling the song to them meant? Hiromi, stop getting fiery!

"Correct. That is a standard in our business Ms. Mitsunashi, we understand that you are new to the music industry, and not properly licensed to deal in contract law, so we are being understanding of your limitations."

Wow, what a great way to belittle someone. I was really starting to not like this guy.

"I have enough experience to see when my client is being taken advantage of. We are here at the request of your company, as you wish to purchase my client's work. If this is the best you can offer. I can reach out to other agencies. It honestly isn't an issue for us." Hiromi states plainly.

But Sam wasn't seemingly intimidated.

"The door is behind you Ms. Mitsunashi."

"Then I'll leave explaining the situation to Denny to you." Hiromi added, rising up, and there was a tension in the room, the two guards behind Sam shifted.

I didn't move. Better to let them think I'm nothing in case I needed to move. If either of them reached for a weapon they would be dead before their hand touched it.

"Hold on Ms. Mitsunashi." Sam demanded and Hiromi calmly finished rising to her feet.

"Do we have any further business Mr. Henson?"

"Allow me a few moments to make a call. It would be a shame to lose your client out of such a profitable enterprise." He explained with a smile that was as fake as his attempted kindness.

"I can wait a few minutes." Hiromi replied back drily, confidence in every inch of her. She had definitely won that exchange.

"Enjoy some snacks while we wait." Sam offered. Pointing to a table that had…

I guess they were snacks? I don't really get it. Hiromi nodded, and actually walked over. Grabbing a soda out of a mini fridge I hadn't even realized was a fridge and then taking some of the weird… Wafers?

Rich people food was fucking weird.

She grabbed one and bit into it, and looked to me, but I just shook my head and remained standing in place.

I still didn't like the look of the guards.

Time stretched on and eventually Hiromi got sick of standing so she retook her seat.

And then Mr. Henson's eyes finished glowing.

"We will acquiesce on the matter of copyright, Ms. Kusanagi's name will be attached to the song. In regards to your second alteration which I know you will harp on. We will allow a royalty payment into the contract. Although the gross will drop significantly." He replied with an unhappy smile.

"I will be happy to look over the contract again."

Sam nodded and instantly Hiromi received another file. After checking it again, I allowed Hiromi access to it.

She looked it over for a good five minutes. Much longer than she had the first time.

"One minor alteration to line 140b." She demanded, and the two played back and forth file sharing for a minute before Sam nodded.

"Master-Space records agrees to the alteration." And then to my surprise an actual paper document was put forward by one of the guards onto the table and Hiromi, took it, looked it over and nodded.

"Sign here." She told me, and I hesitated, looking it over for myself.

It was basically a paper sign of 'You agree to the terms of the digital agreement.' Seemed sort of extraneous to me, but I shrugged. Looking to Hiromi she nodded, looking pleased.

Alright.

I signed my name.

"Thank you ladies." Sam said as he stood. "The deposit will be made promptly, Ms. Mitsunashi, the Royalty processing system will be opened to you and your client. Master-Space Records welcomes you both to a fruitful partnership.

There was a lot of back and forth between Hiromi and Sam after. They both made snide remarks hidden in flattery thing, but Hiromi was happy, and I didn't think Denny was trying to play me.

And really in the end? If they did play me, I would either shrug and go on with my life because who cares, or decide to bomb their offices or something.

It's kinda funny how little things like being stabbed in the back hardly mattered when you knew without a doubt you could murder everyone in the room without breaking a sweat.

In the end Hiromi accepted the lack of a congratulatory party as was the norm for these types of meetings. And we left the tower the same way we came in.

Hiromi was quiet all the way down the elevator and then into the car.

Only when the doors shut did she instantly start squealing and bouncing around.

"I did it! I did it! Motoko! We just made a huge deal! Oh my god! I have to tell my parents! I have to tell the school! I did it!" She cried out bouncing around all the tension in her leaving her a mess of over excited feelings.

I grinned and gunned it. Time to get out of here, and party. Section 9 style.

—--

"Whoa." Malcolm offered, looking surprised. We were all at my apartment. Having called the boys on the way home, they were surprised at the sudden party until Hiromi had shyly explained what she had done.

"Damn." Ichi exclaimed. "That's big times for sure. Was it a lot of eddies?"

"It wasn't as much as it could have been." Hiromi responded. "But I got a royalty agreement, and they have to acknowledge Motoko as the original creator." She looked pleased at this.

Honestly I didn't care much. I still wasn't sure if I even wanted to have my name out in the music sphere.

Seemed like a good way to get the wrong sort of attention, but I shrugged, it was good for Hiromi.

"Damn." Ichi repeated, and I laughed at his shocked look.

"Here choom, have a drink, this is a party for Hiromi after all! Doing such a great job with her business deal!"

"What? No, Motoko you gonk, this is your party! You made a song and sold it to a major label! You, you!" She said, poking me in the cheek with an outstretched finger.

"Eh." I responded with a shrug. "I think going through a contract and forcing a major label to accept the changes is more impressive." I said, meeting her eyes and smiling. "So proud of you!"

"Hiromi flushed at the praise and looked away.

"That's crazy. I mean, I know Motoko picked up the whole music thing. She's played her songs for us a few times, but wow." Malcolm added looking at me, and this time it was my turn to be a little shy. "Guess I know a future Rockerboy."

"Not." I denied crossing my arms in an X. "I just do songs sometimes. Being all famous and stuff would be awful. It would be so hard to go around and kill people for a living like that." I offered, and Ichi instantly broke into a laugh, and then louder.

"Jesus Motoko, only you would turn down a nice gig making music being famous and everything so you can keep being a merc. You know some Rockerboys still act as mercs and stuff right?"

"Rarely, and that's not what I mean… I just don't like the idea of being famous."

Ichi just shrugged. "You do you. But it's preem regardless."

"Thanks." I said, happy that Ichi at least wasn't going to keep poking.

We ended up partying all afternoon, and then Jun walked in, he came inside to the sight of us laughing hilariously at the stupid show that was on.

Well the others were laughing. I was mostly just groaning in horror at how terrible the jokes were.

"Jun!"

"What's going on… You guys have another gig?" He asked as he pulled himself slowly out of his jacket and threw it on a table.

"We are celebrating. Tired?"

"Just a bit. Sensei called me in for slacking." He replied and I nodded at that. Good. Jun needed the exercise.

"He said you should go in soon." Jun said, and I slumped.

"I guess I can go in tomorrow…"

"So what are you celebrating? Oh, pass me those?" Jun asked as he slumped onto the couch and Malcolm handed over the carton of fried rice to Jun.

Well they called it fried rice anyways.

"Motoko sold a song to a record label today."

"What?" Jun asked, looking up from the food, Rice falling from his chin in surprise.

"It's not that big Jun. Remember when I met Denny at the recording place? You already knew I sold her the song, we just finalized it today. Hiromi helped me deal with all the contracts and corpo stuff. So we are celebrating her work."

"You had to do like a contract and stuff? Why didn't you just get the eddies?" He asked and Hiromi groaned.

"Jun! Business is more than just eddies swapping hands!"

He just shrugged. "I guess."

"Don't bother trying to argue with him Hiromi. Jun is a dummy." I offered, knowing that I would get a reaction as Jun glared at me.

"Motoko."

"Yes Jun-nii?" I chirped teasing and he glared before scoffing.

"Well it's good. You going to try and write more songs to sell, or play? You should. Hiromi, get Motoko to put on a show or something."

"Jun! Stop trying to make me a Rockerboy! I'm a mercenary!"

"Got it Hiromi?" Jun asked, ignoring me. I threw a pillow at him, but he just grinned ignoring my refusal.

"I'll do my best Jun!"

"Hiromi!"

—--

The next morning as the sun rose, I changed into workout clothes and headed out for a jog. I had enjoyed the party with my chooms, but it was nice to have the whole selling the song thing not hanging over my head anymore.

Even if Hiromi refused to stop bugging me about it.

I jogged all the way down to the Sakura market, enjoying the early morning sounds of Night City. Once there I stopped for some breakfast, and then jogged back. Warmup complete. I hit the Gym area.

"Haven't seen you in a while." John found me an hour in, as I was using some free weights and squats.

"Been busy."

"I see that. New chrome."

"Yeah. Got. A. Sandy." I told him in between squats.

"Heh. The kid'll be happy to see that. Or she'll be annoyed. You talked to Hayato recently?"

"Not. For. A. Bit."

"You should call her up and set up another spar or something. She'd appreciate it."

I heard what the real words were behind John's offer.

"I'll. Text her. Now." I offered and John smiled, nodding and moving away, letting me refocus.

A spar did sound nice.

*Motoko: You want to meet up for a spar?* I sent out, and nearly instantly got a response back.

*Hayato: That would be acceptable.*

I chuffed out a laugh. Hayato and her Keren were kinda funny to deal with.

*Motoko: Working out now, but I can head to the Dojo anytime.*

*Hayato: I'm already here for my morning workout. Do not keep me waiting.*

Nodding at that, I racked the weights, rose up and stretched. TIme to go play.