STEAM LONDON: Realms of Aether Game Thread

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Ooooh! Bannanas eh?" She sat down beside them, peeling one for herself and taking a bite of the pale fruit.
"Well I'm sure Patrick and Emma will be thrilled to see you two! Patrick is probably very proud of you two. Cain, a writer and artist and Angel, your music should be played by orchestras all over the world. I can't wait till he sees what you've become." A maternal fondness laced her voice.

Sigmund took a small section of the omlette and placed the yellowish food into his mouth.
He followed this by taking a slightly larger segment and stuffing it into his mouth.
"I believe I enjoy this whole breakfast notion." Sigmund declared between bites.

[ClockworkLeprechaun]

"Might I make so bold as to confirm that we have a fellow scientist amongst this band of... thaumaturgists?"

Samuel looked up and then over at Leyton.

"Well I wouldn't be so bold as to claim to be a scientist...I'm an Alchemical Engineer by trade and training at the Institute, I dabble a bit in the harder sciences for fun and have some interest in thaumaturgy, though as of yet have not studied it."  He replied looking Leyton in the eyes, not yet sure what to make of the man.

[Stella Gaslight]

"I have wanted to go to their school for a long time."  She had read about school in books and was intrigued by the idea.  She had learned everything from her sisters, Cain or books.  "Are Brian and other Shai all right?"

"Well just wait until you try the sweets Angel makes.  She does wonders with sugar." Emma was pacing up her things and getting ready to go. "We had better get ready ourselves before she wanders off without us. You can ask the cooks to pack you leftovers in a lunch pail.  They always seem very happy to know their work is appreciated."

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss walked out the close again, made it to the sweets shop in record time, found that they did indeed have maple sugar candy, boiled down from syrup brought straight over from the colonies the previous tuesday, and they had Esmeralda's favorite shapes, too! stars, comets, and lightning bolts! he bought a half pea,  and then another whole pea for her, paid the Lady (the same one he had asked aboutthe dock on his first day on Tinker's row!), and hightailed it back to the Dock, where everybody was going to their respective rooms and lodgings to get fancied up.

Dreyf ducked into the St. Elmo, got his money poke and his fancy dress coat, cap, and cravat, ran a rag ove rthe hilt of his saber, came back out, and joine dteh growing collection gathering on the dock, and put his share in on the price of a trio of hansoms to take them to the school.

[Duellist]

Leyton looked to Trip and Samuel, surprised by the two responses.

"In that case, I am pleased to make both of your acquaintances.  I am Christian Leyton, a scientist by training.  I have become something of an investigator of the arcane in recent years, but I prefer to think of myself as a theoretical scientist.  That is to say that I have seen and done what many would call impossible, but I still consider that I have rediscovered the laws of science rather than seen them broken."

The 'theoretical scientist' made a note to ask Trip about his dimensional displacement technology.  No doubt it would have to be approved by Dreyfuss, but he was eager to learn if it was a location-specific effect or whether it was more like the gypsy's talent.

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Oh their just peachy. Brian's legs are healing up nicely, and the two shai's have taken to squabbling over reasons why it is that being single or having a man in your life is a better way to live. Brian has been using his white magic to good means here as well, healing up the girls left and right when they come home with everything from bruises to broken wrists. But of course their no replacements for you two, though they are essentially the same people. Mama 'Rachne still loves you, Angel." She wrapped her arms around the gentle construct. Cain turned his gaze towards his food as he began to notice her bosom press against Angel's side.

"I think I shall! I must say, the food in this reality is plenty more delicious than rations!"
The ship's cook heard the compliment and couldnt help but smirk at the wierd, watered-down compliment.

[Stella Gaslight]

"I love you too Mama."  She peeked out the windows and let out a happy noise. "We get to go in the cart things with horses."  Angel loved horses but there weren't as many in the city as their used to be what with the steam engines improvement and all.

The cooks gave Sigmund a heaping basket full of leftovers and told him to come back whenever he liked.  Mrs. Corbin kept saying he needed fattening up.  As they left it became quite obvious that he had made some friends.

[Genevieve Ozuna]

Ah, so he already had a lady, such a pity. His congenial behavior though, did relieve quite a bit of her initial terror, and the ensuing argument with the delivery boy allowed her to release any remaining tension in the form of laughter. Dreyfuss was a surprisingly good man, she’d known many in her day that would abandon their very wives for a romp between the sheets with a pretty girl, and his nigh-blatant decline of her advances impressed her immensely.

Still, her shock at his lack of shock regarding her odd little talent was evident plainly upon her face for several seconds. She pushed it back though, for further consideration, for now she would focus on the matter of retrieving Madame. So, sweeping her leather satchel back over her shoulder, she attempted to try something she’d only ever considered in theory, laying her hand over Mister Dreyfuss’ arm and willing the pair of them back to the bordello.

In a flash they were back in the room she had originally been treated in, and not a moment later their host herself burst joyously in to the room. Spotting Nadya dressed and bag in hand, she automatically jumped to the conclusion that Dreyfuss was moving her back to the St. Elmo— not all that farfetched considering where Nadya had originally found herself that morning.

The woman’s reaction, her tone half-serious and half-mocking, warmed Nadya greatly, and made it quite apparent that the World Walker had already been adopted as one of Madame Arachne’s girls. Dreyfuss then attempted to backtrack, giving excuses for their appearance, one tumbling out after the other so quickly that both women could not help but chuckle. All was resolved though, as things often did with this group, as far as Nadya had been able to tell, and soon she was asked by Dreyfuss to exhibit her talent yet again.

She hesitated though, not wishing to expose herself any more than she already had, and just long enough for the stiff gentleman from the night before to find them, and address her by name. His apology, verging slightly on narcissistic with it’s focus on his need to apologize, as he had not been in the right mind and his decent rest had allowed him to come out a changed man or whatnot. But, an apology was an apology, and she nodded curtly. She noticed him taking in her newly covered state of dressed though, and fought the instinct to roll her eyes. Goodness, there were such prudes in this realm. For his viewing pleasure, she made a slightly show of bending down to retrieve the blanket which had slipped from where she had laid it on her satchel. He certainly would be fun to tease in the future, she noted while straightening up and shaking the fabric to remove the dust.

Just as they were about to start on their way to the St. Elmo, a courier ran up to deliver a note to Madame Arachne, who grinned and shared it’s contents with Dreyfuss. Before long the four had relocated— by physically walking this time— up Tinker’s Row to the Commissary.

Breakfast was filled with conversation, though none from Nadya, who was deep in thought. Things were quickly getting out of hand. Before long, she was certain everyone on the ship would know about her interdimensional displacement abilities, and how would they treat her for sneaking around so soon after meeting them. Yes, they were going to welcome the lying combat specialist whore with open arms. Of course they would. Oh come off it, she wasn’t stupid. Perhaps it would be best to prepare herself for another dimensional jump.

The sudden announcement of tea at what appeared to be another former crewmember’s abode pulled her from her quiet state. Apparently she was invited as well, though it would appear she needed to dress up, from the way the rest of the group was reacting. She noted as she stood with the rest of the group and walked back to their respective ships, that Dreyfuss had disappeared at some point. Disappointment flashed through her a moment, as his presence was a comfort, but she batted it away as soon as she reached the St. Elmo.

A crew member led both Nadya and Madame Arachne to their respective rooms— Nadya’s the same from that morning. Unless, of course, all the rooms looked the same. Once alone, she retrieved a small oval mirror from her bag and set it on a nail jutting from beside the door. Tossing the blanket over the bed, she surveyed her appearance and decided to change a bit, if only to seem like she had put effort in to her appearance. Whatever time she had left amongst these people, she wanted to at least make a good impression. And if dressing up for their friend was what it took, she would do so. Besides, she was a twenty-year-old young woman, she didn’t really need much of an excuse to dress up.

When she rejoined the group, she had re-outfitted herself in a charcoal black skirt edged in brown lace, another black lace blouse— though this with much lower neckline and sleeves that only covered three quarter’s of her arm, an outer corset of the same chocolate brown as the lace, with black pinstripes running vertically along it. Her clockwork choker was now visible, no longer hidden behind the high collar, and a string of cream pearls draped across her bosom. Her goggles had been replaced with a cream coloured rose pinned to her dreads’ knot, gypsy bangles of cream, black, and brown lined both of her wrists, and her guns remained firmly in their holsters. With her skin colour— several shades darker than most of the group— she seemed almost like a wild exotic pet they had adopted on their travels. As she watched the large horses who were apparently going to pull their carriage, she realized that even if she were to stay, she would serve no greater function that that of those horses. A pet of sorts. It was a sobering thought.

[Nigel Wetherby]

"You aren't just a pet." Sigmund seemed to materialise at Nadya's side, dressed in a pressed black jacket with a wine-colored cravat. "I know it feels like that, it was my notion at first as well with Mister O'Landry. But everyone has their purpouses, and everything is happening for a reason."
He clutched a lunch pail of breakfast leftovers in his gloved hand.
"I am sorry for listening in on your thoughts. My mind is a bit more sensetive to things like that. If you want to leave, it is your choice, I will not stop you, but think about this. Have you ever looked at your world and wondered if you could have done something to change the world for the better? Think of these trips as a way you can do that for some other dimension's version of you, or someone like you..."

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss, Trip, Leyton, and Samuel helped the ladies into the two front hansoms, and while the Other gentlemen sorted themselve soout through the seats that were left, he belatedly took thboat gun and the Paterson off, and put them into the Possibles bag. Oddly enough, ever since Abe had mentioned, on that chill day in St. Petersburg, that the bag had an absolutely astounding cpacity, he had kept going back to considering its several properties.

He had recently come to realize that, even though he had left the Bowie on the floor of a warehouse in Shanghai, as something of a meaningless gesture, when he reacherd into the bag for a knife to cut off the head of a basilisk that had somehow gotten into the steering room when he was returning home with Irene, he had pulled out ... the bowie!

He had no need to learn Leytons trick, as long as he kept the possibles bag. So, he concentrated on putting the boat gun deep down in the bag, and the same with the Paterson and teh hip rig with the bowie,and found that the bag not ony accepted them, but they left almost no bulge on the outside of the bag! now, he was left with the S&W in the shoulder holster, and the dagger from Mahon hanging, almost ceremonially, on his right hip, opposite the saber.

Then the others were calling for him to board one of the hansoms so that they could depart for teh School of Technomancy. He swung up into th eMiddle one, there being one seat left across from the ladies, and he found himself knee to knee with Miss Nadya and Madame Arachne. Nadya seemed somewhat depressed, and Dreyfuss did his best to be cheerful to cheer her up, as Arachne also seemed to be doing.

Perhaps the Young woman was homesick, ands needed something to tak eher mind off of her loneliness. "Miss Nadya, do you shoot well? Dreyfuss asked, and do you fight well with a sword? I have been wanting someone to spar with for an eternity; perhaps we,  Mr. Leyton, and a few others could start practicing and sparring together; I promised the last time Iwas on the Boheme to teach Miss Emma, and Miss Ella, how to use a cutlass... but evenst got in the way of it. Perhaps Miss Emma coul djoin us as well, when she has time.

[Genevieve Ozuna]

Nadya's eyes doubled in size as she spun around to see a young gentleman come up beside her. "Read my—" she stumbled over her words, astonished at the very thought. Why exactly she was so surprised over someone having powers despite her own obvious abilities is likely beyond knowing, but it certainly caught her off guard. Regaining control though, she picked at her black lace gloves and opened her parasol while she responded.

"Indeed I'm familiar with the feeling. And I don't plan on leaving unless I'm forced to. You lot are good people, it doesn't take a genius to tell, a tad more trusting that is usually safe, but good, decent folks," she paused, noting his reference to her abilities, and peered back up at him as she continued. "How is it that so many of you know what I can do? I certainly don't remember telling anyone explicitly... And actually, just how many of you do know Mister..." she trailed off, realizing she didn't know his name.

There was little time to get his answer though, as she was ushered inside the hansom. Still somewhat somber in appearance, she didn't really feel like talking, but Madame Arachne and Mister Dreyfuss seemed to have other plans. "Miss Nadya, do you shoot well?" Dreyfuss asked, attempting to initiate conversation.

She gave an involuntary smirk, and replied, "Señor, I'm the best shot around back home. I've won many a battle, though I've never been quite myself while doing so. In fact, people tend to think I'm far more on the masculine side." She chuckled, envisioning herself taking part in duel and competitions dressed as a man back home. Those were the days. "I'm far more talented with daggers though, and merely passable with longer blades."

[MWBailey]

"Perhaps we can change that, senorita Nadya," Dreyfuss said, deciding to converse with her in kind; he knew only the polyglot, border-speak Spanish from back home, but it oddly seemed verysimilar to her own dialect. " I am intrigued by your dialect, senorita; I can tell that you are accustomed to the espanol of the mainland of Europe, but it seems very similar to the Espanol of the Tejanos y Mexicanos of the former Espana Nuevo y Provincia de Tejas.

Please, pardon my Spanish, I know it isn't really very good, and the border-speak babytalk is about all I can truly claim to know, but you sound very much like home when you speak that way, senorita Nadya Catrina Zarate...well, listen to me, I sound almost embarrassingly Texian. 'The Vaquero Who came to London," He chuckled self-deprecatingly.
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The Hallway of the Young Ladies' Dormitory was as close to bedlam as it ever became, save for Yuletide; 'Lotta and Esmeralda were at a loss as to what was the cause of it all; as far as they knew, there were no holidays upcoming, and no one had declared a Free Day in nearly a month, so when they finished cleaning up spills in Headmistress Sheehan-O'Landry's laboratory, and re-filling the lamps and fonts and ewers and mirror-pools with their various liquids and essences, they were at a loss to see what was so exciting the Female Population.

From the windows on the quadrangle side of the dormitory, they could hear that even louder high sprits were whooping it up in the boys dormitory, as every student with a fancy-dress outfit put it on and each tried to outdo the others with their impressions of people named Jennifer, and Elanor, and Ben Hudson, and Elisha Kettel, and even somebody with a wicked huge gun and basket saber, named Dreyfuss', who was imitated by daredevils diving off the quadrangle and dormitory walls, beds, balustrades...

Dreyfuss...DREYFUSS? Uncle Jaisen was coming HERE?!

Oh, Poor Uncle Jaisen! if he saw all this, who knew what he'd do to himself, Esmeralda worried...

Esmeralda asked the usually-reserved and quiet second-year, Leila Langtry, who or what was coming to visit, thinking she already had an idea or three.

"Who? Who isn't? Its the whole crew of the BOHEME, and even the new ones from the ST. ELMO! WHEEeee...! er... Oh. my.

Sound suddenly abated as Headmistress Jennifer Sheehan-O'Landry stalked into the room in a way that revealed the supple fighter she had been on the Boheme, and still was, if only they knew it. Feathers from pillows and coverlets and fuzz from marchpanes and blankets fell out of the air like a multicolored snowfall, and girls shamefacedly and sheepishly (almost comically so) slipped down from their improbable perches and formed up by their doors on both sides of the hallway...

Similar things were happening in the Young Gentlemen's Dormitory...

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Sigmund." He responded. The name seemed to bear a load all its own, it rang deep and seemed to resonate with not only this world but a bleaker world.
"Combat specialist and Gunnery officer for the APF Boheme. Nice to meet you." He gave a surpsisingly light-hearted smile before giving her hand a firm shake. "Your stance and attitude betrays your experience. And the way your hands look at rest show that your used to wresting your palms on a gun handle or hilt of a dagger. You'd be surprised what you can learn on the feild." With that walked ahead of her.

"Passable with a sword? That is an incorrigable statement!" Madame Arachne exclaimed. "A good blade will save your life, and I speak from experience! You will need more training with close-range combat, of that I am sure. Fencing, martial arts...oh where to begin?" The Madame pondered the idea of transforming this lovely woman into something beautiful and deadly. The idea enchanted her more than any sweet fairy tale or love-laced poetry ever could.

[Stella Gaslight]

Angel using her charms had wrangled a spot with the driver so she could watch the horses up close.  She babbled happily to the driver and the horses the whole way to the school.   Helena watched her with a smile as they pulled in to the large ornate gates that separated the school from the rest of the world.  

[Nigel Wetherby]

Cain watched with entertainment as his mate chatted up the reluctant  coach. If his ears could have been talked off, they would be on the floor of the cart.
Sigmund watched the ornate gates opened, a garden of simplistic beauty greeted them. A path of white flowers greeted them and seemed to escort them to the ornate ivory-inlaid doors of the academy. The symbol of the Aether elague hung above them, engraved into the stone of the archway.

[Stella Gaslight]

They could hear the gathered student body waiting breathlessly for their arrival.  Every now and then an awe struck face would pop up in a window and then vanish the moment one of the crew members looked up.  Emma pulled the bell cord and chimes went off deep within the building and the door opened with impressive slowness.  Emma just had to smile, Patrick had always had a flair for the dramatic.

Angel did not want to leave her new horse friends but Cain was insistent. So she waved them goodbye and promised to come back later.   

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss felt a familiar thrummm of energy in the air. Whitefire. Many, many sources, storage devices, and wielders of it. Even Lord Kelvin would have been stymied in trying to measure it. He put his hand to the pilaster of the arched doorway and felt the strongly-contained force of it all, and the geometry that contained it. A setup like this, Dreyfuss thought, and I could build a better Aetheric stack, and not have to worry about accidents! I could forge steel knives that could cut a molecule! Even the Mondragon grenades would have difficulty knocking this down! then, he looked up, and saw, or thought he saw, odd lines of solid air, high up among the rafters. Now, where have I seen that before, he wondered...

Oh, well, lets not hold up the group, boy, pick up yer jaw and lets move on. a hush descended on the group, upon the foyer, and upon the entire building. Dreyfuss suddenly felt the eyes of hundreds of young Technomants. from where? HE couldn't say, but he did glance up at the front stairs and the upper gallery, and heard what sounded like either very large rats, or many children suddenly scared out of their wits... Take yer hat off, ya bumpkin, he told himself, you're in a schoolhouse, not a barn! HE scolded himself again.

He then heard what sounded very much like an old, old memory of a warm kitchen in a giant dog-run cabin built of cypress logs, where the soup bubbled on the fire, and a young woman's voice whispering .it sounded like...like... "yes, you looby, thats my Uncle Jaisen. Now pick up your tongue and put it back in your mouth..." He frowned, and said, "no, that is not how it happened at all, she said --!" and realizedhe hadn't mis-heard his own memory, but had heard Esme's tart and sharp tongue berating a classmate.

[Stella Gaslight]

Angel liked this place right away she wanted to explore the bright sunny halls and see where the staircases led but Cain was holding her hand so she could only go so far.  Emma looked up right as Patrick was coming down the main staircase.  Even with all the changes his body went through the smile was always the same.  "Hello monkey." Emma said quietly, she used the nickname now as kind of a memorial.  The students were openly gawking now they just coulden't help themselves.  Angel waved enthusiastically up at them and some were too shocked to respond.

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Welcome, esteemed guests of honor!" Patrick declared, emerging from the ivory colored stairs, a wide O'Landry grin on his face.
"I truster me bodyguard Sigmund and me brother Cain haven't been too big of a hassle for you?"
For many students it was a sensory overload. The mysterious and ever-vigilant hall monitor, the heroes of tinkers row, the sentient constructed lovers, and two women who caused many young men's faces to go bright pink. One boy was so bold as to ask to take Madame Arachne's long, pitch-black coat. She decided to make the little boy's day and pulled it off her pale shoulders and placed it in his hands.
The young volunteer almost died then and there. "You be careful with that coat, i'll want it back when I leave." She cautioned, waving a chalky digit, every boy seemed to followe the finger like hounds did to a bone.

"Do be careful with my students! They are the hopes of the future, and I would rather not see their minds turned to mush until I have filled them with as much as they can hold!"

Cain took Angel's hand, remembering the cavernous volume of the academy. Most of the girls of the school begged to hear Angel and Cain sing or to hear their stories of love and struggle and passion. Patrick had told them plenty, and had even taken the courtesy to write a school pageant based around the events he and his comrades experienced.

[Stella Gaslight]

"It is pretty here Cain.  I bet they have a garden, a library, uniforms and all the things that the little princess book said they did only I don't Patrick makes anyone live in the attic." The sound of a piano echoing down the hall drew her like a moth to a flame.

"It is good to see you Patrick."  Emma gave him a hug. "You aren't going to believe the world we just got back from."  She noticed the eyes of the children that were fixed on her.  "Perhaps I could continue in private.  Where is Jen?"

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss was suddenly surrounded by a horde of young boys, all of them asking questions at once. Dreyfuss swept his right index finger upward, commandingly. The boys fell silent. "Now, Lads, one at  a time, if you please.
A red-haired kid who looked like he could have been Patrick's own son, if Patrick were much older, asked the question that, apparently, was on every boy's mind: "did you bring the boat gun?'

"Well, now, let me see..." He dug around in the possibles bag.
"no way its in there"
"its not big enough!"
"ha course its not"
"well, now, what do you know," Dreyfuss said, and pulled his hand out, which was followed by a wooden stock, a huge caplock, and the longish barrel of a gun that could have been a fowling piece -- if the birds were the size of cows -- but would more properly be classified as portable artillery.
"WHOA!"
"NO WAY!"
"Wicked!"
"'s got a false bottom, ain' it?"
"Can you fire it?"
General sounds boyish of disappointment filled the hall as he told them it was against City
Law.
"Hmmm... well, we could always ask the Headmaster...

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Oh, she's getting herself freshened up. She didn't wanna face ye guys smellin' like plant goo. I have some tea on in me study, come on then lads!"

He motioned for the crew to follow him. His study was a spacious room filled practically wall to wall with thick tomes of all nature and subject matter. The smell of ink and paper hung in the air, overpowerinfg even the weak aroma of the axle grease that came from the spare parts and half-assembled deactivated constructs laying on the ground. Cain had to remind himself the machines were builg built, but they still reminded him of decayed bodies. Cain decided to follow Angel to the sound of the Piano.

[MWBailey]

They followed him into the study, and Dreyfuss  breathed a sigh of relief at not having to fire the gun in the school. such ideas gave him chills, some for reasons he couldn't quite define.

He bent slightly to examine one of the constructs. So that's what they looked like when they were being put together. looks like that vertebra there gets wired in like s-- He heard a very small throat clearing itself behind him. He turned, still bent, and said "Helloo." to the little Blonde boy behind him, who had had just enough courage to follow him in: not so little, actually, now that he actually looked at him. Short, maybe even runty, but definitely not little. he'd be about in his 13th year, Dreyfuss thought. "Hello Sir Jaisen."
"Is there something I can help ya with?"
"well, yes sir, do you have the hilt and handle of the sword you killed Cadens With? 
He Heard Patrick stop talking, and the room go silent, but ignored it.
"Yes, I have it here.,' he said, pulling it out, guard, pommel, handle and sharkskin wrapping, and putting it in the boy's hands.
the boy's gasp of wonder and pleasure made Dreyfuss feel all warm inside, and made him smile widely.
"S-Sir? Could I--" Uh, that is..I mean..."
"What is it, son?" he said, in spite of himself.
"Can..can I..re-forge..it?"
Kid after my own heart, Dreyfuss thought.
"What's your name, boy?" He asked, gently as he could.
"Robert, sir."
"Well, Robert, I'd be honored if you would,"  he replied, "as long as the Headmaster approves."

[Stella Gaslight]

Angel knew the tune, it was the Cain song only slowed down in to something resembling a waltz.  She wandered in to the sunny music room and found a small thin girl pouring white fire in to the instrument and pulling out such heavenly sounds that Angel could not help joining in.  Students flocked to the impromptu concert.


"I found George well a part of him anyway.  The world he was trapped it was nothing short of hellish and the part of it we were in was run by a twisted hateful version of myself..."  Emma went on to explain their surreal interaction with their other selves and her general misgivings about the containment device the other Emma had given her.  "I couldn't find anything wrong with it but I don't trust her in the slightest so I thought you could give it a peek before I took it in to another world.

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss frankly felt like a kid waiting in the headmasters office for a reprimand. He heard Emma asking about the containment device,and finally decided he'd just wait it out. with any luck, Patrick'd get all engrossed in the device and there'd be no time to spend helping a dotty old fart figure out if he were going insane or not. It was all probably just a hoax anyway.

Something some local wag thought up, figuring since the commodore was a Texian and Texians were supposed to be hicks, he must therefore be a hick, and therefore dumb enough to fall for something like a fake spiritual visitation and mumbo-jumbo about some kind of old unused soul, like the pair of fine boots that had sat in the back of the cobbler's shop for five years...