Jackie: Hey all, we have more
spicy topics this week,

Different from last week. This
is just spicy in the fact that

drone season is about swapping
smut fix, swapping erotica,

swapping homestuck erotica with
each other. So that is going to

be the topic of the episode. So
it might get like HBO levels of

spicy up in here. So if that's
not your thing, feel free to

skip or listen And learn about a
really fun big swap that sign

up start this Sunday. As of
releasing the episode not if

you're listening to the future,
i mean eventually, maybe one day

again, it will be open on
Sunday in the future, but

unlikely. Anyway, just wanted to
give you a warning because I

forgot to do that in the actual
episode. Thank you to my editor

for pointing that out. Ok, bye,
enjoy the show. Hello and

welcome back to Live Laugh Stuck
. I am Jackie, aka Jax, and I am

here to talk about drone season
, and here to help me talk about

it is Bean.

Bean: Hi, I am Bean, short for
Beanelenease, I use he him

pronouns And I am the current, I
guess, head person, head

moderator of drone season.

Jackie: OK yeah, And do you want
to tell me a little bit of what

drone season is about?

Bean: Sure, It is essentially an
annual homestuck. I think we

call it a content swap. It is
hosted on Archive of our own,

but while obviously a lot of
that composes fan fiction, it is

basically a secret Santa
exchange sans the Christmas part

for homestuck art writing I
think we've had gifts and things

like that basically any
theoretically any type of

content, but specifically porn,
Yeah.

Jackie: Yeah, that is the name
of the game, because drone

season comes from the homestuck
alternative concept of the

drones coming around to collect
your spunk, exactly, or puke,

depending on which theory you go
for.

Bean: I think most people go
with the spunk, but you know, to

each their own.

Jackie: Yeah, I mean there are
some metafiles out there. Oh

sure, so you say you're the
current kind of head of the

project. How long have you been
on this project? Give me kind of

a background. How did this all
start? as far as you know, sure.

Bean: I think I got involved
around I think it was 2018 or so

And I started as a participant.
It has been running since 2014.

Oh, wow, Yeah, Oh yeah. It's
been in there, but it was

founded by Laylah I think I've
only read it on screens LAYLAH

or Cyphercat, and so they
founded it. They were, and I

guess still are, a really big
name in the homestuck fandom.

They, i believe, stepped down
and then it was restarted in

2018 by Lizardlicks and
thescyfychannel, and I

participated that first year. I
may have participated an

additional year And then I
hopped on to the mod team And

here we are in 2023.

Jackie: Yeah, That's super
exciting. It's neat because we I

said off the call, but we just
did the HollySwap episode before

and that'll definitely be out
by now. So you know

thescyfychannel is the one who
runs that one. So just making

sure all the swaps happen, yeah.

Bean: Oh yeah, They're an
incredibly wonderful person also

and phenomenally hardworking
person, So I am very impressed

with all of their their prowess.

Jackie: How is running drone
season for you? I mean, I

imagine it's a lot. It seems
like a pretty big event.

Bean: It's interesting because
it is a pretty decently large

event, especially as these
things go. in recent years we've

been getting probably around
like 60 to 80-ish signups, which

is obviously not you know
nothing to sneeze at, but

previously it had been like
upwards of a hundred, i think,

every year. So it's been
interesting as both a

participant and a moderator to
see it kind of I wouldn't say

dwindle. Yeah, i think that's
maybe a mean word, but you know

it kind of has settled that down
as Homestuck, you know, is

settling into a less current
fandom, i guess. But no, i love

it. I obviously I love the event
, i love the things that it

creates, but no, i am really
glad and really proud to be part

of this event. That you know
was something that I loved, you

know, in my formative years as a
Homestuck fan and now can kind

of help orchestrate for other
people as well.

Jackie: If that answers your
question, What's your experience

with a fandom? How long have
you been into Homestuck?

Bean: A golly. Thank you. If I'm
remembering correctly, i would

have gotten involved in 2011, i
think is when I started reading

it for the first time. And I
started reading it kind of fell

off on it and then got Really
into it, and so I have been, I

would say, an active and
consistent Homestuck fans since

about 2015 or so.

Jackie: Oh yeah, so before the
Before the comic in comic ended

in 2016,. Right?

Bean: Yes, yeah, i was like it's
kind of towards the tail end of

that year, if I remember
correctly.

Jackie: We have one more big
ten-year anniversary coming on,

then we're done, that's it.

Bean: That's no more, that's it.

Jackie: What is your favorite
and least favorite part about

running drone season?

Bean: That is a tough one
because there are so many parts

of so many flavors. Yeah,
honestly, i think My favorite

part is well, okay, i'll say a
few because I can't choose for

sure. I love seeing all the just
really incredible things that

people have created, and just
like Seeing what people do so,

and so I kind of neglected to
explain it. But so, basically,

how it works with drone season
is you hop on archive of our own

, you write up some prompts for
things that you would like to

see. So it may be like Oh, you
know this character and that

character doing Sex with this
sort of kink involved, or it

might be you know this character
and that character You know

just doing whatever, i don't
care. Or it might be like oh, i

have this really cool a you. I
have all this world building

planned out. I would love to see
something in that setting. So,

essentially, whatever you want
prompt, wise, ideally erotic.

And then you also write hey, i
am willing to create content

Involving these characters. I
can do art, i can do writing.

Please do not match me with
things with these kinks in them.

I will happily write these
other kinks. And then All of

that well, first it goes into a
o3's. It has like a system to

match people. Essentially it'll
say okay, this person said

they'll write John and Dave and
this person wants John and Dave

in one of their prompts. So boom
, they are now matched as a pair

. But that does not usually work
super well, so we then have to

go in by hand and basically hand
match everybody you know to to

the best degree possible. And
then on Prompt release day you

get an email saying hey, here's
your, your, you know, secret

Santa giftee. Basically, you get
all their prompts, you get to

see them, you get to pick one to
either write for, draw for

whatever, and then that thing
that you create gets gifted to

the person secretly and
anonymously at first, and it's

great and it's fun and everybody
has a good time, while the

matchmaking process is Stressful
and obnoxious. It is really fun

too, because you get to kind of
put all the puzzle pieces

together and say, okay, this
person doesn't like that

character, but this person yeah,
so it's. It's a whole big

process. We have this massive
Excel spreadsheet that we use

every year. So that is both my
favorite and least favorite part

, i guess. But no, i do. I mean
people have written like I don't

know if it's gotten to novel
point yet. But it is. we've

literally had some novellas
written in the space of a month

for transseason. I And that kind
of stuff, just beautiful art

and just like really creative,
heartfelt things of all types

that people create for no, i
mean for no reason. It's

literally just like hey, you
know, there's this person on the

other end of the internet who
wants something and I'm going to

custom make them present
because I want to Like that's a

really beautiful thing, even if
it is about, like you know,

penises and vaginas.

Jackie: Or yeah, tentabulges
whatever things.

Bean: Various appendages.

Jackie: Yeah, no, that's, that's
fair. I love it that people

treat it. You know, with writing
novellas It's like who needs

nano-ri-mo when you have drone
season, literally exactly. I

love it because I'm friends with
LP Sunny Bunny And so I just

like I think it was last year
that they ended up making a

bunch of treats. So, just like,
whenever all the authors got

revealed, i just got like six
notifications in my inbox

because I'm subscribed to her.

Bean: It's fantastic. Yeah and
that. Oh, that's another fun

part where it's like the
anonymity and trying to guess

who wrote your thing And like in
both drone season because I

also participate in drone season
every year where I tried to was

in both that and PolySwap. I
have gotten matched with I

pronounce it ozonges but oxanges
. If you have not checked other

stuff, you should. They are a
fucking phenomenal writer. I've

gotten matched with them I think
six times And I have not

guessed correctly once.

Jackie: That is so good. Yeah,
the guessing is a really fun

part of it. I am not as fluent
in all the writers as I should

be or as I would like to be, i
should say But like people also

aren't fluent in my writing,
especially because I did the

paranoid make and all AO3
account a couple of years ago

And so now I just have to deal
with having two AO3 accounts So

I don't have nearly as much
writing on the one I use for

drone season. So it's just like
yeah, try to guess me bitch.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you said
this was like way. Earlier I

think you said like preferably
erotic to people. Try to submit

prompts or fix that. Don't
follow the drone season sort of

like theme.

Bean: Surprisingly, yes, and I
don't want to bitch And I'm not

going to. However, if you have
worked in customer service, you

know that anytime you are
dealing with large volumes of

people, there is going to be
somebody who usually just out of

, just like an honest mistake,
but like didn't read the rules,

doesn't really know what they're
doing. They're just kind of

here along for the ride.

Jackie: Yeah.

Bean: That aspect of it. I mean
it's, you know, 60 to 100 people

all trying to get their stuff
in on time and stuff. So there

is a lot of customer service to
it and stuff like that where

it's like there aren't a ton of
rules but there is a format to

be followed. You know, there's
kind of like a thing that we're

all here for. It can be hard to
address because it's it's some,

you know, excited, you know,
bright eyed, bushy tailed person

being like, hey, i'd love to
see these two people hanging out

at the beach. I mean, you have
to be like they actually need to

be having sex.

Jackie: Fucking on the beach.
Yes, the beach can be involved.

Exactly, they can be there.

Bean: So, yeah, i think it's
usually just like and also like.

Sometimes folks just aren't
necessarily that comfortable

with erotic content in general
yet and the where they may not

be sure, like, what's okay to
request, you know da, da, da. So

it's certainly not something
where I'm like, oh, fuck you,

you know you're done. Yeah, but
no that that actually has

happened more times than I can
necessarily remember, but like

enough that we had to be like
explicitly this is for porn, it

needs to have porn essentially.

Jackie: Yeah, that's fair. How
does it work? Because you say

you participate in drone season,
but you're also part of the

matching. How do you manage that
?

Bean: Yeah, so it is, and that
is a perk of being modded is you

have some input into who you're
matched with, where you might

be able to see oh okay, i saw
that person's prompts, i have

some killer ideas for them, they
are right up my alley and then

you can get matched with them
because you are part of making

that decision. But it also like,
on the flip side, it might be

oh man, this person they maybe
have like very specific

characters, they might have
kinks that not a lot of people

are comfortable with and you're
going to have to kind of or

somebody has to be like all
right, well, this isn't going to

fit any other way. I will step
up with that And I do not want

to make it out like that's some
kind of punishment or anything,

but it is. There are benefits
and responsibilities to

participating in a thing and
kind of matching yourself, if

that makes sense.

Jackie: Yeah, how does it stay
anonymous? the other way of

whoever gets matched with your
prompts.

Bean: So it can be a little
tricky because I will. what's

funny is I've had folks get
matched with me and not realize

that I was one of the mods, so
they'll pop open a mod chat and

be like Hi, i'm here to, you
know, ask being some like very

confidential questions about his
prompts, and I have to just not

look And, like you know, we
have ways of handling that. like

we will, like one of the other
months, be like Hey, don't

fucking look in there for his
hot sec. But they were like I

had answered the chat and they
were like Hi, i'm here to, i'm

here to ask questions for being,
and I'm like never heard of him

. Bye.

Jackie: Yeah, i didn't even
think about that of like looking

up who the mods were to make
sure I don't ask. I don't think

I've had a mod chat open for for
stuff yet, but like I will keep

that in mind.

Bean: Yeah, but no, like we,
because like we also want to be

surprised, we want to, you know,
keep the ethos of it. I guess

So we do, we. We go to great
lengths to keep each other's

like presence, not like
anonymous from each other, So

like obviously you'll know who's
gifting you. But I just I try

to forget And I am pleasantly
surprised, But I also have a bad

memory, so that works out for
me. Yeah, but yeah no in general

, like because you know when,
when the, the fills are finished

, every they are all hand
checked by a mod. Yeah, we make

damn sure that the person you
know does not see their fill,

that if we have questions or
concerns that we need to recheck

the person about, you know the,
the, the mod whose fill it is

does not see them. Like we, we
make sure that it's all very

secret in a fun way.

Jackie: And it is incredibly fun
both to be like on the other

side of someone going like
because you guys have a discord

that I'm in, and so you see, the
people just like posting like

quotes from a big bro go did
this. Oh my God, yes.

Bean: I literally like. I
recommended my gift or their own

pick at one point.

Jackie: Actually I think twice.
That's fantastic.

Bean: Yeah, i was like, oh my
God, you got to read this, it's

right up your alley. and they're
like, wow, that's crazy.

Jackie: So weird. It's right up
my alley. That's so surprising.

Bean: Yeah, i like I think I was
literally like it was. It was

box, that person who I always
get matched with, that that, and

they're a good friend of mine.
So it's not like Oh God, that

person. But I was like, yeah
they, this person has this

headcanon about, like Bretton
and porous, like Oh my God,

you're going to love it, and
they play it off very well. And

then I say it's like they're the
only fucking person who would

write, but whatever.

Jackie: It's okay. So another
very important part of this

whole swap that I don't think
it's talked about as much or

thought about as much are the
pinch hitters. Oh yes, secret

backbone of the whole thing.
Yeah, do you want to talk about

pinch hitting a little bit Like
what, what is a pinch hitter?

Bean: So I actually started out
as a pinch hitter. Oh yeah, what

I know is crazy, because I
wanted to participate but I

didn't learn about drone season
till after the kind of the sign

ups had closed and they were
like Hey, but actually we're

still looking for pinch hitters,
so that was sweet and I hopped

in. So basically, a pinch header
is, if you know about sports

which not a lot of queers do, i
don't either A pinch header is

somebody, a kind, wonderful,
selfless soul who volunteers to

essentially create a fill for
somebody and not get anything in

return. And this becomes
necessary if and this always

happens for whatever reason
somebody's like hey, i know I

signed up for this, but you know
, like my, you know I'm having a

family emergency, or my work
has been so crazy for the past

month I have not had any time to
sit down, or I have a final

that I have to do And we do. We
try to schedule it before

college starts, just so folks
don't have to worry about that.

But either way, somebody is like
hey, i am so sorry, i'm not

going to be able to finish my
fill, i need to drop out. And

we're like okay, cool, as long
as you do it before the dropout

deadline. If not, then we will
have to put you, you, on the

list of people who dropped out
after the dropout deadline, but

normally it's fine At that point
, you know. So the person who

that person was supposed to gift
now is without a gift. So they

are like what the heck? Well,
they don't know yet Their

prompts. You know the prompts
that were supposed to be filled

by the person that get dropped
out, get sent to all of the

pinch hitters who have their own
little channel in the Discord

And we're like, hey, here are
these prompts. If even one of

them is appealing to you, you
pinch hitters hop on it and the

personal message and say, hey,
i'm happy to take this. And

essentially, yeah, they just
create a thick or an art or

something for this person just
because, just because they want

it to. And they do it all behind
the scenes. You know, the

person who got dropped out on
never has to know about it And

it's really, you know, it's a
wonderful and generous act And

also a great way to participate
if, like me, you missed the

deadline to sign up, but you
still want to kind of, you know,

dip your toe in. So the other
nice thing is it is completely

optional, in that you can sign
up for a pinch hitter and then

just look at all the prompts and
go yeah, no. And just kind of

sit in there Like it is solely
voluntary as to who takes a

pinch hit. whether a given
person takes any like it is all

up to you. So yeah, if you want
to, if you want the option of

participating like that, it is a
really good sort of low stakes

option.

Jackie: That's a good point. I
hadn't thought about that. I'm

actually I might actually sign
up as a pinch hitter. I'd

considered it before, but I
always like I don't know. It

just seems like an added stress
of like I'm not sure I'm going

to be able to. but you know, if
I could just look and see, like

oh, maybe not, then yeah, i
might actually sign up this year

depending on how this year goes
, it's been, it's been a year. I

understand, yeah, but yeah, no,
talk about not knowing sports.

I thought it was pitch hitter
because, like I knew, it was

like a sports thing, like a
baseball thing, right, yeah, but

I guess so my brain's like
baseball, you know pitch hitter.

Bean: Yeah, no, pinch There's in
.

Jackie: I don't, I read, I don't
even talk to people about this.

I read it all the time, like in
the discord servers, and just

like my, my brain was like no,
no, it's pitch.

Bean: Yeah, no, i understand.
Yeah, it's like when, when we

need someone to hit in a pinch,
that is what they are basically.

Jackie: Yeah, that makes way
more sense than whatever sports

logic my brain was trying to do.
Yeah, that's super exciting. I

was I'm always excited whenever
this season rolls around and

really everyone should be, even
if they don't know about drone

season. It's just like they come
on is like oh, suddenly the all

the homestuck smut tags are
just filled up Literally. Yeah,

yeah, it's, it's good stuff.
Some of my, some of my here are

fixed. I've definitely been made
during drone season.

Bean: Oh yeah.

Jackie: I also like treats as a
thing where it's like Oh well,

so this isn't the prompt that I
got matched with, but I do see

the prompt open now, so I'm
going to go right for that

because that seems great. It's
just a very good creative space

to be in in general. Yeah.

Bean: No, and I like, cause they
are open forever. You know they

are open till the end of time,
so you can go back to the ones

in you know 20, i guess 2018,
cause the previous ones are no

longer with us, sadly. But yeah,
you can. You can go back and

see all the prompts and and also
, like I mean and you may

shouldn't be saying this, cause
I'm the drone season person but

you know, like it doesn't even
have to be a gift, like you can

just use it as inspiration, but
obviously the person will be

very happy if you do. But yeah,
it's, it's a really lovely way

to practice writing for someone
else, but a little easier. And I

will say also, like for myself,
i've, i've been a fanfic writer

for a hot second. I don't know
that I've written a single

fanfic that was not for someone
else easily Yeah. Like 90% of my

published fix, of which I'm
very proud, are almost all

through drone season and poly
swap. So for me it is not only a

great way to motivate me to
write, it's like the way to

motivate me to write.

Jackie: I mean that makes sense.
I I've been trying to get

myself to write lately but it
has been so hard. But oh, here's

writing with a deadline and not
like a crazy deadline. It's a

deadline that I can like. Like
you said, i can back out of it

if, like stuff happens, but it's
still a deadline which my ADHD

brain needs.

Bean: Yeah, And like you know I
I'm not all these late, but

there have been times where I
was late because it's it's the

same for me where I have ADHD. I
really struggle with that kind

of time pressure, especially
cause we, we budget for I

believe it's. We always try to
make it a full month of just

writing time, or creation time,
i guess, and for me it's like,

oh sweet, i have a month and
then I write an outline and then

forget about it for three weeks
.

Jackie: But oh, yeah, absolutely
.

Bean: But yeah, no, it is, it is
. I would say it is a pre

reasonable amount of time to get
some good stuff done And it and

again, it works great for me.

Jackie: And speaking of the
dates and everything, let me get

my handy dandy notebook. Oh,
yes, so signups open July 2nd

and close on the 18th, and let
me know if I got this wrong. I

wrote it down, oh yeah. Thank
you, thanks, and I didn't list

all the dates, just kind of the
relevant ones for signups and

stuff. So July 2nd through the
18th is regular signups.

September 2nd is the deadline to
sign up as a pinch hitter, so

that's a good two months extra
And the collection opens on

September 9th. The authors are
revealed September 16th and the

treat authors are revealed
September 19th.

Bean: Yeah, we try to make it
about two weeks or so for the

signups, then a hot second for
us to get our act together and

do all of the matching, So that
I think, yeah, this year it's

another couple weeks or so, But
then, yeah, the assignments go

out, then you've got about a
month to write. Oh, excuse me,

it's actually more than that. I
am terrible with time, So it's

more than that. That's just the
month deadline is your deadline

to default, So to quit,
basically. So if you do it

before that deadline, you're
fine, no penalty. But if you do

it last minute which again we
understand, that stuff happens.

But like we would appreciate
y'all letting us know sooner

rather than later so that we can
set up a pinch hitter and so on

and so forth. Because if we
can't get a pinch hitter

together, it means that the mods
have to bang out a fanfic about

God knows what, sometimes
literally in the wee hours of

the morning, which we have done
And we'll do it again if we have

to, but like we would prefer to
not have to do that if we can

help.

Jackie: But yeah so oh, that's
that.

Bean: And then the prompt
everything's released. You can

see all the fix and the arts and
such, and then a week later the

authors of everything are
revealed. So there is a full

week of anonymous creations for
everybody to enjoy, and then

after that it's like okay, it's,
y'all can see who did what.

Jackie: That's such like that is
one of the most exciting weeks.

Just like talking about it is
just making me relive just how

exciting those weeks are, like
on both ends of the spectrum of

trying to figure out like who. I
know we talked about this

before, but it's just like. Yeah
, it is a week of me just having

to keep a secret, even more
than I was keeping a secret

before.

Bean: Yeah and no and like. The
other thing I love about that

chunk of time is you get to
discover so many lovely works of

fiction that you might not have
checked out otherwise. Because

you know, for me, like I know
you know the authors that I like

and I always want to see their
stuff. But if I don't know which

is their stuff, i'm just going
to look at the stuff that you

know intrigues me, the chips
that I like, and I've come

across some some really lovely
stuff from people that I, you

know, maybe had no idea existed
or oh my God, i didn't know they

drew. That's so crazy. So, yeah
, it's a very what's the word

like, i guess a very like sort
of free for all kind of like

unbiased way to enjoy stuff.

Jackie: Absolutely, And, like I
said in the PolySwap episode,

there's just this if you ever
need validation for your writing

, joining one of these swaps is
so good. There are a couple of

people who tend to try to go
through and comment on every fic

that gets out or at least
that's what I'm remembering from

last year, I'm pretty sure. And
it is just so nice, like, if

you just need like. obviously we
don't write for the validation,

but sometimes we write for the
validation.

Bean: Oh yeah.

Jackie: And it's just such a
good way to get it, because

there will be at least one
person incredibly excited about

what they got.

Bean: Exactly, and that's where
it's like. You know if you're

wanting to write for people but
aren't sure how. This is a great

way to guarantee that, like, no
matter what you produce, no

matter what your other person's
tastes are like, they are at

least gonna like the premise,
because they told you what the

premise is. Yeah, absolutely.

Jackie: And then on the other
side it's great for me of

sometimes I want to ask people
to write a quick for me, like a

commission them or something,
but I just have a hard time

putting together how to write a
prompt and what.

Bean: what putting in a prompt
is going to get out the other

end type stuff And it's it's,
it's great, yeah, no, and that's

like that actually sort of
reminds me of an important point

, which is the line that we try
to help people walk as far as

prompts not being and we phrase
it like not being a commission,

where you are encouraged to be
vague or specific, but if it's

to the point where you're saying
, okay, i want you know rows to

have this length hair, this
color hair, this body type, i

want them to do this, that and
the other thing in exactly this

way. That's not super cool
because it may be that your,

your filler really doesn't like
you know that particular act or

body type, you know whatever
people have references. But it's

also kind of a dick move
because they. The other thing is

, like you know you might be
getting writing art, music, like

you have no idea what the
format's going to be, so being

like okay, so this has to happen
and that has to happen. It's

like and I'm drawing one image,
i can't fit all that in there.

So, yeah, we try to help people,
you know, be as specific as

they need to be for it to be,
you know, comfortable and

enjoyable, but also not just
fucking going in there and being

like, okay, so somebody's going
to be making me something for

free, i'm going to take full
advantage that, like no, you

need to allow some room for
creativity as well.

Jackie: Absolutely, and I mean
you should trust, trust the

authors, honestly. they're,
they're so good, yeah, yeah. Is

there anything else you wanted
to add about drone season?

Bean: Oh golly. I mean I think
we covered all the bases, or not

? maybe all the bases? No, I
mean, i think it's a really fun

experience. I think it's a
lovely community. It's really

nice to see the same people like
coming back year after year.

It's getting rarer to see swaps
like this and really events like

this in general, as the
internet is becoming a little

less friendly to erotic content.
So, as a person who enjoys that

and also cares about it, like,
it makes me happy that this is

still going strong and, you know
, has so many people who you

know really do enjoy it and get
something out of it.

Jackie: Yeah, absolutely It's.
It's a good time. Definitely,

definitely check it out. Do you
have anything to promo of your

own? Like, we'll have all the
links to drone season and

everything in the the show notes
, but do you have, like, a

Twitter or anything you want to
promote? Honestly, not really. I

mean, my tumbler is just memes.

Bean: Yeah, i mean I will
happily promote, you know, the

drone season tumbler. We have
the discord server as well,

which I highly encourage folks
to join, because that's kind of

where we post the news and stuff
for the first time. We do also

have a Twitter, but we don't
really update it that much.

Jackie: Yeah, this day of Elon
Musk Twitter.

Bean: Oh God, literally That's.
That's a huge chunk of the

reason, But yeah, I think that
that should suffice.

Jackie: Okay, awesome. Well,
thank you so much for joining.

Like I said, all the links to
drone season and probably the

dates are going to be in this
show notes, so go check it out,

sign up, then enjoy reading And
with that I will see you guys in

like two weeks or whatever.