Girl

CAN WE GET A LITTLE WEIRD WITH IT ALSO

Alright @lore pings, #pannonica-oko-starboard is open and takes four reacts! Please try to keep jamming to #lore-general-a for now, and remember that everyone is reacting to the incin in different ways, so remain respectful !

* slams both hands down on desk* FAT GIRL

she speaks in rhymes she speaks in riddles she makes fun of you and you don't even realize it's happening

So so, yeah there's a Thesolonius Monk song called Pannonica I like a lot, and their pregame is Reciting Poetry

i have nothing to contribute to this jam, i would just like to give a gentle reminder that the IRM exists and we haven't used it in a while okay bye

it's my first taco jam and I get to bring (an IRM) slams down an elk costume

Banned in most other formats, Oko clearly has turned to Blaseball!

JAZZ FAIRY

she acts like a stuck up indie celeb but shes a jazz musician and everyone else is CONFUSED

jazzfluencer

JAZZ FAIRY

ohhh i think nica could be like. maybe an indie la celeb?? celeb poet?? indie?? girl??

GIVE OKO ANTLERS

she could be a bird with antlers

pannonica is the name of an afluent jazz patron who came from money - most famously supported thelonius monk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pannonica_de_Koenigswarter

I'm just here to suggest elk or deer horns

re: antlers. tramnsgender

Oko is trying to make Jazz a top 40 genre again, is very stubborn about it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peryton A LEGENDARY BIRD ELK

i am envisioning afro-asian underground artist/poet looking for a new gig she/her nica oko

for the record here are her relevant stats

ALSO: fun D&D lore: their shadow shape is of the last thing they ate

LET'S KEEP IT WEIRD she is a jazz fairy who appears in your nightmares. one day she decided to go sicko mode and crawled out of goobie ballson's nightmares into LA and we cannot get rid of her

she is the murderer that did goobie's crimes

How bout Goobie's literal shadow?

personally, i don't want her to have a connection to goobie because it feels like people are gonna be like "goobie faked his death and is going by pannonica now" and i don't like that and it rubs me the wrong way, personally.

oh yeah i want to be clear i really do not want goobie to be pannonica. pls

Oko's been kicked out of most Jazz clubs in LA, due to a contract, we can't kick her out of the team.

Im busy and can't backread/stick around but my gut reaction was a wannabe superhero/vigilante that heard the rumors about Goobie's alleged crimes and came to confront him, and when she found out he was dead Al Pastor tricked her into taking his place as a way of finding out what happened. Okay thats all gotta run bye

what if she wrote her own wiki article? or takes over halfway through writing it

i do like "Mean Peryton Jazz Poet" tho

I kinda the IRM to just be various origins of how OKO got here.

SHE SHOWS UP IN YOUR NIGHTMARES N CHASES YOU DOWN AND KILLS YOU AND EVERYONE WAKES UP REMEMBERING GOOBIE DOING IT

she plays horrible evil jazz that hurts to listen to. it's so avant garde though. Yummy says it's awesome and keeps trying to get people to listen to it

shes the kinda superhero that sucks to be around

Oko, uses Jazz to cast her magic, like a DnD bard.

ohhhhhh what if guitar strings between her antlers

maybe a rich heiress who Al Pastor is trying to swindle with some sort of "I'll give you a great deal on the stadium if you sign up for the team for a few seasons"

a whole-ass harp up there dude

OH MAN, ANTLERS STRUNG UP LIKE A HARP!

as she runs the wind plays it

the only Taco besides Basil to have good fashion sense, and unfortunately, she and Basil despise each other

she's the most intimidating otherworldly taco no one has asked her if she's done murder but that's because everyone either assumes or is too scared to ask

oh here's a thought: Pannonica Oko was a Bird Player and a Stag Player Shadow before the Grand Unslam and got Smashed Together into a Peryton

she is the only Taco in history to not just want to play blaseball, but absolutely refuse to leave the team for any reason. Al Pastor offers her a trade and cut every month and she wedgies him

ARIEL FROM THE TEMPEST

i want this to lead to multiple versions and an IRM but i want all the versions to have antlers

rumors about which LAi crime family she belongs to/came from are constantly circulating and none of them are right

Oko's backstory is Joker-esque where it's different every time

a dirtbag human digital musician with tons of tattoos and piercings who is rude to everyone and wears a hat with fake antlers as a gag

maybe she has Blackmail on Al Pastor

She plants backstories about herself intentionally so no one can ever learn the real one

also Oko's wife is a vampire lord who has a castle in the fractal hollywood hills

Someone mentioned maybe being a bit overweight so I'm imagining like, just... super into the most decadent obscenely artistic food LA has to offer. She can taste the tears of the chef

As with most Fairies, She's not even using her real name. If we were to know her real name we'd have some measure of power over her.

Oko's ancestry dates back to Atlantis

she knows Al Pastor's real name and that's why she gets to stay on the team

Oko isn't actually from Atlantis at all but Otten is absolutely terrified of her

do we have two players into dreams but with polar opposite vibes

"Hey oko, what should we call you?" Oko looks at goobie's ashes "Call me Goobie"

name-stealer maybe? she tells you to call her Goobie Ballson because she is awful

okay okay but i do like the idea that maybe she has some kind of imagery with the number 5. utter disrespect to goobie ballson. her jersey number is always V

"I'm goobie ballson with a fake mustache" - Oko, who just taking a glance at is verifibly lying through their teeth.

oh my god her being just absolutely disrespectful to goobie is so choice

can I highlight that the term Peryton is used for PREMATURE OPENING OF A MICROWAVE heat magnet

"I play for the Welsh Dragons" -Oko clearly wearing a LA Tacos jersey and hat.

Oko always lies

No, I think Oko only lies when it's clearly a lie

there's a new burst of graffiti in Los Angeles with a deer skull, antlers, and crow and it says "DONT BELIEVE HER"

oh ALSO another thing just occurred to me about Name Stealer Fae Oko. hey, has anyone checked ------- ---'s name recently?

she can't stand the cold

Oko wants you to know she's lying

well on the other hand, if we're going with fae Oko then she wouldn't be able to lie, in fae rules. but would be able to bend the truth. but also i like that

It's been Oko all along

she's from Elsewhere

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT I CRACKED IT I CRACKED THE CASE HOLD UP HOLD UP HOLD UP WAIT SHE IS THE ONE SCATTERING PLAYERS

She's not a monster per say, but she is a Fairy in the most shakespearian sort of way.

so what you're saying is that Otten and Batson are both ing terrified of her

Going off @Unknown s idea about being mean and signing contracts whichever they were, Oko worked at the Wlaffle House and hated it, wanting any out at all possible

also graffiti: "DON'T LET HER IN YOUR SHADOWS" same skull, same crow

Oko has been on the team for one game. ------- --- returns from Elsewhere looking a bit confused and unsure of himself. "Looking for this?" she says, holding up the words "BASILIO FIG" written on a Wlaffle House napkin.

i do think that having one of the nicknames for Pannonica be "Basilio"-- i mean, there's already two(?) players with that name, surely it's reasonable to have another one. there is already two players with that name on the team, right? basilito and... and... who was the other one again, you wonder?

faun with raptor talons

she has antlers and her body is covered in feathers

Felix will love that

in competition with macy for nastiest (it actually becomes a contest at first and mcd has to break it up in a week after it goes too far and sexton's coat gets dyed hot pink)

(both of them claim credit for it)

i can already see lots of spoilers and DO NOT TRUST HER on her wiki page

Oko won't let you have your name back unless you play games with her like a Dirtbag Yami Yugi

: "alright you can have your Name back, if we play a game" : "ugh fine what" : shuffles a Dominion deck

Oko steals names, Chell steals titles

it turns out Oko is a hipster board game enthusiast

hi this is a mess but

I used SMT's verison of Queen Mab as a base too keep the fay likeness

Unlike all other Tacos, she tricked Al Pastor into giving her a contract

ok so fae would loooove board games change my mind all the lying, all the plans getting ruined by dice, all the little stories, all the silly games humans have come up with what a delight

she skips "fool me once" because she's gone over the trick in her head already and therefore saw it coming, the victim should've too

OKO AS THE TACO'S GM FOR TTRPG GAMES

"are you really sure you want to do that"

yes, but she told Fig that they were playing Dominion so he's super unprepared

"uhh on second thought--" "too late!"

She adds weird bets to the games that sound innocuous but when she comes calling you better run

dove's the usual dm and oko comes in and he can just FEEL the rancid vibes coming off her and is like "im gonna get pizza, dowell make sure they don't burn the place down while im gone"

ok so we all agree Oka is maximally "orders a single black coffee and leaves" right

she drives up to the window, places a complicated order, changes her mind, and drives off

I told you, she feeds off effort and suffering

i feel like oko would even go so far as to ask for everyone's orders, go inside, take 10 minutes, and then come back out with a single black coffee and drive away

--i do want to think that she is an utter heartthrob for dogs and dog-adjacents like cats and coyotes. like she would be extremely kind to hex

Oko is a custom-built nightmare customer. She knows what she wants going in but she refuses to make it clear to anyone

she definitely keeps them around for future use

She eats the napkins the names are written on This does not affect the names

... I'm sorry, but my first thought is Vito steal's Lucas's car for getting away

Oko orders a full black coffee and pours it into the tip jar

Oko is afraid of Sexton for no obvious reason

... She probably doesn't mess with Sexton on principal as a result.

Oko wears sunglasses at all times and has spread rumors that it's because her gaze can pierce your soul and drain your life. In reality she just has adorable eyes and wants to hide them

so yeah to expand on kilo there, i do think oko has a set of stuff she loves unironically and never lies about. she adores dogs. she enjoys complicated games for their own sake and would probably get along great with Chell on the competitive front. she has a complicated personal grooming routine that she's very particular about and Bmase respects the hustle. She has one brand of sunglasses she always buys extra pairs of in case one breaks.

Oko probally shares the common weaknesses of most fairyies, such a horseshoes and good luck charms

permanent eyes

sexton is the ONLY one who can get her to do anything

McD is taken by the fishing life.

I mean it's a lot easier to do it yourself when you have magic.

BMASE QUESTIONING HIS SEXUALITY WHAT also bmase has a husband oh god is Oka a homewrecker

mcd's new hat fish want me women in general feel relatively neutral about me, but pannonica oko in particular fears me

Oko stole Al Pastor's name long ago and will not give it back until she is allowed to play precisely 50 seasons of blaseball. this is her blackmail over pastor

AL PASTOR IS DEFINITELY STUPID IDIOT CRUSHING ON OKO

My partner just got home and I told him about the incin and the name Pannonica Oko and he said "DRAGON"

Oko is a modern day fae. You see, classic fae are strange and incomprehensible. But now we are as incomprehensible if not more incomprehensible than fae So to counter this modern fae have become comprehensibly incomprehensible. You kinda get what they do but you're just like "huh ok" and step away from them a bit out of general discomfort

Bmase: yeah and then goobie died but only gave us five runs which god what a waste am I right and now we have this new person from the shed. Pothos: oh yeah who? Bmase: idk Pan-something. She's a real . Pothos:.....a you say? Basil: you are a sad and predictable lesbian Pothos and I am ashamed to be your husband

Oko perhaps was kind once, but the ages have driven them to become an avatar of chaos

Things Oka hoards: experiences. instances of perfect craftsmanship in fleeting media, like music and baking. heartbreak. Compliments. rumors about her. She is eternally amused humanity has made music collectable for everyone.

okay so I'm gonna use the "name stealing" idea as a launchpad for one totally niche thing I've wanted in blaseball for a really long time and that is a character who draws from Samuel Beckett somehow? because the whole treating-words-as-actual-concepts-that-are-also-things-to-be-consumed is veeeerrrrrry much up Beckett's alley

oko is still kind, you just have to get past her rough outer peanut shell to find more rough peanut shells, it's a russian doll peanut shell set all the way down baby

: I HAVE LIVED IN THESE INFINITE CITIES FOR MILLENNIA! NOW HOW ABOUT SOME POWER GRID AND SOME CHIPS

You. also ellie????

the classic, brothers grimm style depiction of fae is not being able to tell a literal lie, but making the truth dance so you believe whatever they want anyway. love making bargains, deals and contracts etc

She thinks it's your fault for falling for her tricks

Oka writes poetry, recites it once, then burns it.

oh yes i want to add this to my brief list of things she actually likes. she enjoys poetry unironically and if she thinks something is good she will say it even if it would be fun to lie.

she leaves compliments in like, non verbal ways. There's a jewel in your tip jar. A crow returns your keys after you lose them. You get that promotion. Someone tries to fight you, but before they square off a voice in the crowd shouts an insult, the spectators laugh, and the moment is lost.

You can be a dirtbag without lying Oko does have some honor despite common belief

ok but i really do want a player who slowly chips away at her armor and puts up with all her , her snark and name calling and sarcasm and kinda egotistical-ness and becomes like. someone she knows she can confide in. and maybe she opens up more to the rest of the team. it would take a long time though, and god knows blaseball is a tragedy waiting to happen :)

Yummy would have a fascinating relationship with her ngl

I don't know why but I think Felix manages to get along with Oko and they are ruthlesslessly competitive at complicated board games

considering that she may or may not have stolen Fig's Name, i... kinda want that person to be Fig. not sure how that dynamic would work though because they're definitely not getting along at first.

i do agree, there should be someone she's legitimately friends with, but i'm having trouble figuring out who. i kind of want to see a pair of non-romantic female friends but... actually writing this sentence i talked myself into her and yummy having a bizarre besties vibe that literally no one else can understand

all the better, enemies to frenemies to friends

Felix's theoretical math language kinda jives with Oko's fae language

omg wait what if like mcd assigns fig or whomever to oko to make sure she doesn't get into too much trouble and that's how the frenemies thing begins

yummy has weird taste! also Oka finds them funny.

and also yummy is so weird it's like really difficult to actually trick her the way oko does habitually and she finds that refreshing and fascinating

Yummy will sidestep a backhanded compliment by taking it really well and being gleeful and telling everyone

Fig and Oka 1. fig is an environmentalist, which Oka respects 2. fig has the patience of a tree, and knows when to not react or not speak, which Oka respects 3. Fig also has hidden powers i think she underestimates fig, gets surprised, and that surprise is a treasure for her

Oko is an extreme couponer.

Oko and Yummy go thrifting. They come back with four bags of clothes each. Oko asks Basilito if he wants to see what they got. She shows him her outfits which are absolutely stunning, fashion-forward, and perfectly on point for her personality. Then Yummy comes out in what she bought and Bmase runs screaming out of the room while Oko and Yummy both laugh their heads off.

Oko was born eldritch Fig has gone from a normal (ish) friendly palm tree into the most terrifying being known to this world, stripped of their name and stability until nothing is left but hatred and determination to fight

I think Oka is constantly surprised by a lot of the tacos and that's why she has come to enjoy her team and her time here.

yeah Yummy would 1000% connect with her in ways that nobody else on the team would -- at the same time though some of the kinds of things we've been talking about her doing are things Yummy would be extra vulnerable to emotionally; might be an opportunity for character development where she realizes how easy it is to hurt those closest to her :/ and that she eventually makes a deliberate decision that she doesn't want to

yeah Oko's vibes totally mesh with the chaos of the tacos. she's ogled this opportunity a looooooooong time, hence the al pastor blackmail

Otten and Ratbat are both cartoonishly terrified of Oko for previously established reasons. Pbong gets along with her in an entirely chill way. Every time they're all working together Otten and Batson grill him on how they can possibly be friends and he can't explain it to them at all

Oko can find really great deals everywhere and Vito respects that about her

She tries to explain how Elsewhere works, and the only one who can sort of understand is Felix, but even he can't entirely, especially because she uses a lot of weird music theory metaphors

Otty and Batson literally got campfire stories told to them about Oko. like Oko is a total fairytale terror in Elsewhere, she was stealing names and scattering people and these are all terrible things. they have no intention of displaying hostility they just wanna play it cool and never interact

maybe just like, dove is so self deprecating and is so used to (and sick of) everyone treating him like glass and oko comes in and calls him names and doesn't hold back and dove finally sees someone he can let out that pent up anger on and they just feed off each other and it turns into their way of communicating, their own little underhanded therapy sessions

But if anyone interrupts her and Dove she starts a fake fight

Dove and Oko play video games together and talk about whatever and it's super chill

i think that's the biggest thing for dove, is that oko doesn't pity him. and that's exactly what he needs

the thing is, Dove totally would vent to her and she would just suggest wildly brutal and disproportionate responses xD

oh totally someone comes in while they're having a moment or talking about something heavy and oko just ing slugs him in the arm

there of course comes a certain point when both of them are very self-aware of this and none of it's serious -- but nobody else would ever guess it wasn't xD

mm, that's been simmering in the back of my head ever since i mentioned the dm/pizza debacle. i love dovenpart n wanna do more with him and i think it'd be good for it not to be a player at risk y'know?

really latching onto this now, oko starts spending a lot of time at dove's and he teaches her how to cook and she starts helping him make things for the team for their practices and after-game wins and people are like "oko did you help with this" and she gets SO scandalized and swears up and down she would never, come on what kinda person do you think i am?

and like. maybe they believe her at first but at some point they all know even though she constantly denies it (she has a reputation to protect)

dove tells oko about someone that like cut them off in traffic or something oko: why didn't you turn their car into a loaf of bread?

yes this is exactly what im talking about—oko not treating him like he's fragile and even teasing him about it and dove loves it

oh she actually does a lot of things around the stadium and the clubhouse and stuff to help out but never lets most people see her doing it or admits it

the nightmare isn't a facade or anything, it's just as much who she is. but she also is a good person. she contains multitudes. maybe literally.

I think she's really loyal, but also a pain in the , especially to "her" people

and for whatever reason, she's decided that the Tacos are her people.

imagining her and dove having like late night talks on the roof stargazing ("if you tell anyone about this i'll kill you and dump your body off a bridge" "yeah, yeah, your secret's safe with me you overgrown raven" "i mean it!" "mhm")

I am imagining a blurred photo of Oko cleaning the stadium at 3 am with her eyes glowing white like some sort of cryptid

"oko's a great person to have in your corner," sexton says in an interview, "but jesus CHRIST-"

Sexton is the only person Oko does not mess with and also the only person who goes to bat for her in literally any official capacity "I dealt with actual magical beasts in Yellowstone and people saying she "stole their name" should grow up a little"

macy interrupting like "she's a !" "macy we're live you can't-" "and we LOVE HER"

okay so there's something that's sticking in the back of my brain that might eventually be a problem -- and that is that it would 100% be in her character to beat the living out of a rogue umpire that even tries to, let alone succeeds in, killing one of her teammates -- and yet of course mechanically this is not going to happen I think a way to reconcile that is that she has a very different perspective on life and death, that death to her is not as emotionally charged a thing as it is to us, it's just kind of . . . a thing that eventually happens, like aging, it just so happens that someone brought it a little sooner than it would have arrived otherwise

i mean, she'd totally run out there, and it'd take half the team to hold her back

I think the most unexpected one would be Wyatt Dovenpart

Interviewer "Oko, how do you prepare for an opponent?" "First I steal a lock of the pitcher's hair, then I write their name in glyphs in my book of records, then paste their hair to the page with my saliva and write it over with curses so that when I strike the ball over the fence, their name will be mine forever."

she might also wait until after the game and then stealth attack the rogue ump

I actually think the Pbong-Oko relationship would be a very bizarre one -- Pbong takes absolutely nothing seriously (on the surface, anyway), while Oko is extremely hardcore in almost every way . . . on paper it should fail so spectacularly that I kind of really want to see them be friends just to watch how they make it work xD xD xD

Ota has broken Al Pastor's ribs

dove: "she looks in the mirror for an hour before leaving, giving it faces and saying vaguely threatening stuff like-" oko: "finish that sentence and i'll break your knees" dove: *just gestures to her deadpan without looking away from the camera*

and if she did get fire protector, it would be as a "I don't know why what you're doing makes my friends feel terrible -- but you're making them feel terrible so we have a problem now" sort of deal xD

I interpreted this as her reflection is sapient and she argues with it a lot

Oh man does oko indirectly help dove remember how to improve his family relationship with yummy lol

what really sucks is that she ruined a really well-prepared plate of ribs Al finds this extremely distressing, far more so than he would have if she had just broken his body's bones.

it becomes a game to like embarrass each other live on air, oko getting interviewed after a game-winning play or whatever and dove saunters up like "hey you coming to the locker rooms or what, i thought you wanted me to buff your antlers" or "hey dorko you left your sweatshirt in the car" and hands over the most atrocious thing and oko's just like "that's not mine."

Basilito: Hey Oko, what do you think about my new dress? Oko: Meh, kinda tacky oko: .lisaB taerg kool uoY Oko: >:U

and it's like. weird for the rest of the team to see this side dove they've only really caught glimpses of before, hell, to just see him out of the house more, hanging out at practice instead of just driving home after he dropped them off

dorko is totally a nickname dove uses for oko, and is like. his go-to, hardly ever calls her by her actual name anymore

vito tries to call her it once and she breaks his ribs (which really, is no big deal, but it's the principle)

basilio mason tries and all of his outfits now have new, extremely clashing colors

dove complains about a very normal daily inconvenience Oko: "have you considered shattering reality and overwriting it with a new and incomprehensibly huge version of itself? Oh wait."

Help I can't stop imagining Oko sipping on boba tea with big ol' sunglasses on and driving through Los Angeli

backread the oko board and. i have predictable thoughts. spoilered because I am being predictable once again it’s really cool that dove is friends with oko, who steals names, especially considering that dove is also friends with NaN, someone who had their name kinda stolen

...NaN starts their journey back up after mending their relationship with dove, moves to KC, and then dove befriends someone that NaN absolutely does not trust but who also manages to get dove to come out of his shell and start being a semi-functional person again and i wonder if some of NaN's resentment would be because they couldnt do that?

Oko is giving me Hecate vibes

i definitely think “taking names” or something along those lines should be a cheer

seven. feet.

i think feather also mentioned oko, as fae, stealing ephemeral things, like fleeting bits of perfect media like music or food, and i'd just like to reiterate that her name (or well, the one she's using anyway) comes from a rich, well-to-do patron of jazz

as in height. don't get any ideas

lmao i love the idea of oko being tall but still shorter than otten bc the idea of this giant otter being afraid of this smaller dainty looking fae is funny to me

Oko is a fan of improvved music during live acts

yeah! this aspect is very important to me! collector of names and fleeting moments of expression which high amounts of effort, time, care, and stress were put into

so i wanna offer up on the question of quadrupedal or bipedal: both. she's bipedal for function most of the time but walks around quadrupedal because it confuses people when she "stands up". how does this work proportionally? fae magic don't worry about it.

OH MY GOD OKO KEEPS STEALING BATSON"S PHOTOS BEFORE THEY CAN GET THROUGH TWITTER

I was actually thinking Oko collects moments of artistic expression Batson collects moments of splortsy expression

Oko recites poetry while playing her antlers, it's incredibly enthralling. you can't remember anything about it the next day, and when a friend asks you how your night went you burst into tears

NaN was with the tacos for two years. during those two years, dove kept putting as much space between him and them as possible-- even when NaN was shadowed, he definitely still kept trying to dodge them while the entire time NaN just wanted to restart their friendship and it takes a while, but they do mend that bridge finally. it's not the same as NaN remembers, because dove isn't the same as NaN remembers, but they're friends again. ..but dove's also still a mess. he's doin bad, folks. and NaN feels guilty about it, but nothing they try really helped, and then they go on an odyssey and leave LA-- and dove-- behind enter oko. oko, who is a --ing brat (affectionate). oko, who has no qualms about getting up in dove's face and calling him out. oko, who builds a rapport with dove over being the one person who doesnt treat him like he's breakable. oko pushes dove to actually be a functional person again, or at least to start confronting his issues, and is very.. direct about it. and it works. NaN doesn't trust oko. she gives them a bad feeling from the get-go, even before they learn she stole fig ---'s name. there's something off about her that gets under their skin, and it's really rare for NaN to actively dislike somebody to the extent they dislike oko. but oko is dove's friend. dove is happier now. dove looks more alive now. dove still stays out of the way, but he's not a shut-in. when NaN calls the tacos to tell everybody how theyre doing, dove comes up in conversation more and more often as he gets more involved in the team dynamic again. oko's involved in most of those stories. and there's this gross feeling twisted up inside them that they don't know how to define. their dislike of oko goes from understandable distrust to them finding flaws on purpose, to getting snippy when she's brought up, to being.. kinda rude. NaN's jealous. their childhood friend-slash-older sibling figure has a Better Friend that did everything they couldn't.

and NaN's wondering what they did wrong. why they, someone who's known dove for like, just about most of their life, wasn't able to get through to dove but this complete newcomer, who is shady as hell but everyone seems to overlook that, can just.. enter his life and immediately make herself at home in the space they left. (it's not really the space they left, but NaN catches themself thinking about it in that context anyway. the timing's too close for them to feel comfortable.)