Genkai

Digital or Real?

Sorry to hear about the post man. :/

Word Doc or PM it to yourself usually works best but then again you may not always have the Doc on other computers.

I was thinking we could wrap up them up soon, put them online in the next 2-3 posts?

Corrected and Connected

I've been trying to write the C&C story down for years but starting was always so tricky, like when do I start, where, with what characters? I'm so happy I can finally flesh this world out properly and I'm also able to put it into the RP and give it some new life and layers. I've had so many ideas and details and I hope that I can continue to move them along since the ball is finally rolling.

I hope you do well with moving, I'm still trying to adjust from our move which was less than a month ago. Crazy times, so many boxes and so little will to do anything haha. I am sure you'll have something for me when it works out for you, I know you're the kind of person who may vanish but who often pops back up when I light the Bat Signal. :3

Corrected and Connected

Tokyo, Japan
Saturday December 17'th 2022
11:39 AM

Chapter_One//Unauthorized.Download.Undetected

Winter had just closed its grasp upon the busy city of Tokyo and people were scurrying to secure themselves safely indoors where the icy winds would be unable to pester the hard working folks. These days shopping hardly occurred on the streets or in the mall, instead the buildings were converted into apartments to help house people. With poverty and other plights abolished, the world had finally corrected its lens and had finally focused on the well being of society, as opposed to the selfish wants of the few in power. Over the past couple of years, mankind has made wonderful discoveries in medicine, technology and space exploration. And rather than fight wars, Gvns banned together to combat the glaring gap between the rich and poor. Now, there was peace in the world and resources could now be spent on worthwhile endeavors. Now people's lives had been converted to digital data and energy, prompting age expectancy to skyrocket thanks to the invention of the MChip.

Among the new and astonishing inventions, was the DgtWld. Unlike the Internet from say, 2011, people are now able to fully lose themselves in the online life. To be safe however, people have security precautions which prevented them from being hurt inside by viruses and hackers. Of course people can find a way around such petty tricks. There is a danger lurking inside the DgtWld and as such, Gvns have had to enlist the help of secret helpers. These helpers would be compensated generously for their time and effort to defend everyone else from the fallacious dangers. These helpers are known, or unknown, as Correctors. Hired not for their intelligence in computers, but for their high moral standing and ability to multitask with carrying two lives, these people are humanity's final line of defense between criminals and people who want to enjoy the prefect life that has finally been crafted after centuries of strife.

And rather than find herself outside on the windy rainy streets, Natazume Meadows was safe inside one of the numerous internet cafes.

She wasn't alone either, her fellow Correctors were all with her, except they weren't.

Their morning had started off ordinary as ever, Natazume rallied the group together to grab some breakfast. For the past two days, no notifications had torn them away from their normal day-to-day lives and it was a little strange. So much so, that the leader of the TKY Sector insisted everyone meet up for brunch to catch up and see how things were with everyone. It was easy to stay in touch due to constantly being on-call for work but it being nearly 50 hours of dead silence, the leader still wanted everyone to touch base. Just as their orders had been placed however, their phones went off with various noises and degrees of urgent vibration. It seemed Hackers could tell when they were most comfortable since the Gvn had just alerted them to trouble online that needed to be dealt with immediately.

The group had to cancel their orders and hurry to the nearest cafe to sync up with their mobile application. Once they rented a private room for four hours, to be safe and give themselves plenty of time just in case, they settled down and logged in. Natazume had picked a neon blue beanbag chair and had gotten comfortable before she connected to the DgtWld. When she and the others materialized in the dark lifeless grid, they were greeted by someone. Another odd bright red flag. Usually as Correctors, they were given a brief overview of their mission through their Cnnt application but nothing had been given and now a man in a black suit stood before them with sunglasses covering his eyes as he looked over their hired help. Gvn officials all looked the same, dressed the same and as far as the public was concerned, acted the same: in the best interests of the country, even if that entailed keeping secrets and hiring help to fight in an online world of numbers and letters.

"This mission is very different." The man began to speak, his gold colored shades preventing any trace of recognition for the group of five.

Just as he did, static surrounded the area, blurring the images of everyone for a brief moment.

"This anomaly has appeared out of nowhere and yet it expands for miles. We cannot run a scan for who or what is taking up space but we have reason to believe-" More static followed by small fuzzy tangents of data to somehow leak from the man speaking to them. "th-that Hackers are using this as a base to stage a large sc-scale atta-ack-k over the upcoming holidaysss-" Suddenly the man dematerialized into a million shreds of data and Crystal stepped forward to take his place. Turning on her heel, she faced the other four and pressed her lips together. The information felt more like a warning and she didn't feel right about it. Of course it was their duty to charge into danger and to not worry about themselves, but for the good of everyone else who couldn't enter such a risky area, known as the DgtWld.

"Alright, usually we'd have coordinates to help us find where to go so I think we should wait and see if he comes back." She suggested but as soon as she did a loud screeching noise filled the space around them. Cringing, Crystal took a knee and ducked her head. A sharp pain assaulted her head as she felt her upper body seize up. Her normal, cautious patient approach wouldn't work in this situation. Every alarm inside was going off, telling her to log off and regroup offline where it was safe but she couldn't access that part of their program. If she couldn't, then it was certain the others couldn't either. That sent panic throughout her veins as she struggled to break free from the static's down-force. Someone somewhere was messing with the gravity, making it impossible for her to move. As the density in the air continued to fluctuate, she found her body growing weak as she struggled to stay in place.

With another jerk, she smacked into the ground and let out a grunt of pain.

The others were struggling as well and when Crystal opened her eyes, she no longer saw the usual grid around them, but a city bathed in gold. She happened to be laid on her back, sprawled out above a baby blue sky with light music playing in the background. Something hard was under her and she moved to place a palm beside her to help push her into a sitting position. "Guys?" She asked, just amazed she could move, let alone speak. Her back was killing her and she still needed to figure out where they even were. "Something tells me that agent was just a trap to lure us here...wherever we are." Crystal spoke softly and got to her feet. Much to her surprise, her weapon wasn't far from her and she quickly grabbed it, not comfortable with the knowledge that she had been briefly defenseless.

"This is surely the cause of Hackers. It's hard to imagine they would go to such lengths to pull us here unless they wanted something." She said and looked around them. The city had running water pouring down below. At present, she was on a long golden bridge and could see lush green mixed the the lavish buildings and tapestry. In the background to her left, she noted mountains but didn't think they mattered. It then dawned on her that not everyone was present. With her, was Atomik and BreGle. But where were the others? "It seems we've been separated, most likely on purpose." She said, mostly to herself though it wasn't helpful to consider that multiple enemies were lurking in the shadows, unseen. "The sun, the breeze...it almost feels...safe." Crystal stopped herself as she outstretched her palm upwards, as if able to take a solid piece of the sun hidden behind the feathery clouds and hot air balloons, and actually feel solidarity.

Inside the DgtWld, things were cold and painful and yet this display of artwork reminded the woman that security could also be generated. They could feel injuries and battle wounds carried over offline, and yet as she tried to quell her anxiety, she also found complicated feelings of delight and wonder. How could such a world have so much artificial life and hospitality, when outside winter was getting under everyone's skin? "We need to start looking for the others but let's be careful, we have no idea what is lurking in here." She advised the other two, still determined to stay in control of the situation they were in. The armored warrior took a deep breath and tried to push all distracting thoughts out of her head. This was work to them, they needed to stay focused and alert. "We should try and find a place that will serve as higher ground, that way we can have a better vantage point. I also believe the others may do the same." She said and glanced toward the largest point in the city, the large pointed building reaching into the sparse clouds.

"That's our goal." She nodded slightly. "If you two aren't hurt, let's get moving." She encouraged and began to walk down the empty walkway. It wasn't far at all but Crystal knew that getting to the top wouldn't be a simple task whatsoever. "The others are surely close by but for now, let's try to be quiet."

Corrected and Connected

As a heads up, the intro will be coming tonight!

@vietmyke Needs to post his CS and we'll be good to good. I am sincerely hoping that with us in a small group (a trusted one, no less~) we won't hit a lot of snags with inactivity and such. :3 I want to give a big thank you for you folks for sticking with this.

As a treat, I have enclosed the prologue to my Corrected and Connected novel which I've been working on in my many workshops in college. It is set in London, as opposed to Tokyo but there will be a reason for that and I'd be more than happy to share more details of the world state and how things ended up as "utopian" as they are now. There will also be something called Unification Day, which is the day in which all hell and strife ended and we entered a new era. I've been accused of setting this all "too close" to the year we're in now but it's done on purpose so fuck em. I was also discouraged to use the abbreviations but I probably will in final edits for myself and all.

Look forward to the intro, it is going to be very familiar to the previous one so I'm tweaking my old intro, so feel free to do the same. In the meantime, you're free to read this, as I think it may help us get back in the moooood~

Prologue

Prologue
Friday the 12’th of December, 2025
9:37 in the morning

Only a slim fraction of studious students and pestering clouds of mist occupied the lawn in front of Merton College of Oxford University. James had his back to the aged buildings and had found momentary solitude beside the River Cherwell that snaked southward away from where celebrations were undoubtedly underway in the dormitories. “Professor Cantrell, your hiding spot shouldn’t be so predictable, it defeats the purpose.” A woman’s playful voice broke the wintery silence, followed by the rustling of bushes which flung droplets of dew against the merlot colored jacket of Sasha Tyler. Her pale eyes matched the overcast sky above the pair of co-workers who now stood face to face. “Coming all the way up on the M40 to get you, gets quite stale after the ninety-third time. I was stuck behind two caravans at one point, I seriously considered ending it all. You would think people would give up such tired traditions and stop being eyesores that slow everyone else down. Although, even with Unification Day upon us, the motorways weren’t horribly congested.” She contended and gave her hood tug, it fell back to reveal her shoulder length wavy hair and a thin silver necklace with an amphora dangling against her bare collarbones. As a fashion blogger and co-owner of one of the most popular online stores, Sasha was dedicated to not only looking posh, but writing high quality content for anyone to savor and crave.

“Not everyone it seems, there are some students who’d much rather spend time studying than go down to the pub.” James pointed out as the pair made their way across the lawn towards the sparsely filled car park of sleek cars. Upon their approach, the car unlocked itself and opened its doors for the two approaching occupants. “I have tried encouraging them to take a break and enjoy themselves-“

“You?” Sasha cut him off as they got inside the vehicle, which promptly buckled them up and turned on the heater for them. “You’re the last person I’d hire to inspire tomfoolery.” She let out a dry laugh as her black BMW made its way out of the quaint scholarly cove and back onto the M40. “As much as I wanted to hit the stores in NYC today to finish my Christmas shopping, I don’t hate that we’re spending Unification Day together. The three of us hadn’t been notified by work in a few days and I was beginning to wonder if Hackers were the sort to adhere to holidays but then again, we had our hands full last New Year’s Eve.”

“Ah yes, my mother wanted to know how I got my black eye, broken nose and broken ankle.” James lamented, thinking back to that massive battle. “Someday she’s going to stop kindly stop accepting my lies and demand the truth.”

“My parents worry too, James. You’re not the only one who has to lie, keep up a fabricated double life and risk their life for an invisible cause. But what we’re doing is right, what we’re doing is justice.” Sasha said as she looked at him, her hands leaving the steering wheel as she reached over and placed her left hand on his shoulder while her right hand curled around her necklace, a graduation gift her parents had given her when she got out of high school. “Besides, our injuries aren’t as taxing as they used to be. Remember being a kid and hitting your elbow? The pain, the scar, the healing would take days but now it only takes hours. We’re lucky and I’m proud to be able to protect these people so the most they have to worry about, is a scrape and not being killed or infected with some hyper-virus created by Hackers.” The car continued to drive on its own while she swiped over her cell phone’s hologram library and uploaded a book to appear on the windshield in a semi-transparent format so she could drive and do some reading. James on the other hand, pulled out a hardcopy of a book and focused on it instead.

- - -

What would normally have been a two hour ride twenty years ago, was a mere twenty minute dash along the motorway due to the efficient engineering advances. Driving was no longer dull and grating, but intelligent, smooth and stylish. The car Sasha was piloting had been obtained thanks to the government’s early Christmas bonus and she was loving the new features like Driver Scanner which would periodically scan the driver’s retina, internal body temperature, heart rate and other neurological patterns in order to automatically adjust the car’s seat position, temperature, tint of windows, mirror positions and other intricate settings. As they neared the bakery where their third and final co-worker was frosting cakes or baking cookies, the car automatically turned the radio’s volume down and turned off the reading application in front of the passengers, having taken a cue from its driver. “Grab him, will you?” Sasha nudged James as she stopped the car in front of the bakery, having long forsaken the quest to find parking in the middle of London and instead relied upon the use of human pigeons like James or Devon.

From inside Vicarious, an elderly women had just finished placing an order of Unification Day themed pastries with the symbolic large circle containing three smaller circles inside it, in the typical white buttercream color. Behind the counter, a man with blond hair was closing the lid of a white box, his tongue tracing the top edge of his lips as if taping it were a perilous task that only he could conquer. Beside him, a woman with thick rim glasses was tending to the next order with a smile, not needing to concentrate as hard as her friend. James stepped inside and quickly closed the door behind him to ward off the drizzly breeze outside. “Come on, mate, Sasha’s outside waiting.” Devon glanced toward Jen who waved at James and motioned for Devon to take off. Devon gave her a toothy smile and pulled off his apron, which listed him as: Devon Marlow, Head Pastry Chef, and hopped over the counter. He gave Jen an apologetic shrug and then dashed out the door and into the car with James following behind in a more orderly manner, holding the door open to the man who had just picked up the order Devon had finished.

“After knowing you two years, I still don’t get it. You can shoot waves of lightning and fire at a dozen viruses, but you can’t get your license, come on James!” Devon taunted his mate as Sasha merged back into the morning traffic. “I refuse to Log In with you until you’ve proven you’ve got the balls to get behind the wheel of a fearsome Vauxhall Corsa.” He folded his arms across his chest in personal protest. “Did you guys have any plans for Unification Day? I was going to close up early and grab a drink with Jen but it seems the Government has other plans.” He huffed, lips pouting.

“I had plans to meet up with some students who are struggling in class and use the day off to get them up to speed.” James replied and looked out the window which turned from smoky black to transparent.

Dropping his expression, Devon finally shed his bubbly exterior as they neared their place of employment. “You teach Biochemical Engineering and Compatible Life Support Syncing, I don’t blame them for falling behind.” He gave a shrug.

“Given our microchips have been mandatory for nearly a decade, people need to understand them and once they do, they can improve.” James said flatly.

- - -

The car pulled up to a curb and a man in a black suit with white opaque wraparound sunglasses opened the driver’s door, causing the twenty-four year old’s arms to unfold. “There’s never any traffic at the London Headquarters, doesn’t strike you as weird?” Devon mumbled and opened his door and got out behind James.

“What’s weird is that you never bring over any cupcakes, not even on my birthday.” Sasha said as she handed the man in the suit her keys, a routine which had developed over the past four and a half years of her working for the Government as a Corrector, under a secret organization which maintained the order of online activity. A Corrector prevented identity theft, digital larceny, murder and other criminal acts. Correctors were the invisible line of defense that the world unknowingly trusted to keep them and their personal information safe. “I would even settle for week old cupcakes.” Sasha begged as the trio headed up the steps and into their second job. Inside, there was a crescent shaped reception desk and a single hallway leading back into the bowels of London’s HQ. The only thing standing between the public and any secrets, was a thin black metallic door frame with another man in a suit with red sunglasses standing in front of it. As soon as their microchips on the back of their necks were scanned and they were let past security, Sasha’s mood shifted. “There’s no such thing as a day off boys, let’s get to work.”

The three Correctors made their way down the narrow hallway to the second door on their left and the guard outside scanned their microchips once more, before allowing admittance. Devon gave the man in the black suit with golden sunglasses a salute before the glass door slid shut behind the blond baker. In the room, there was a single round black marble table with three laptops with black large leather chairs in front of them. “The notification said we’ve got two viruses in the W-9-R coordinates.” James said as he took a seat and removed his cell phone from his slacks. “These hackers picked the wrong day to mess with us.” The other two took their usual seats and soon their procedures were finalized and they were ready to get to work. All it took to break the barrier between reality and the digital world, was a simple sync between their microchips, their government issued application and the internet.

“See you guys on the other side.” Sasha sang and with a swipe of her finger, across her oval phone, her body went limp. James and Devon’s bodies also went limp and their consciousness were carried into the digital world and locked within their government issued avatars which granted them abilities to create magic out of code, create justice out of ruthlessness.

- - -

Four minutes later, a cyclone of glittering flames came barreling towards Sasha who dove out of the way. “Shit!” She yelled and rolled onto her back and put her hand to her left calf, fully aware the pain she felt would be even worse when she got home to her flat that night. She’d be lucky if the burns weren’t second degree, as those were still tricky to heal. Behind her, she heard her teammates urging her to hold down the two enemies who were thwarting their attacks thus far. Sasha rolled over and got to her feet and ran towards the fray, pulling her sword out as the boys moved out of the way. Letting out a grunt, she swung the white weapon, the ivory grip decorated with etching of roses and thrones, the blade a deep ruby. No longer did she wear her civilian clothes, but now had on tight grey body armor. Her ordinary brown hair was now the color of sapphire and pulled back into a long bow, as if it were a ribbon adoring a priceless gift.

“Urkwia, get back!” James’s voice called out to the female knight who had a white shield strapped to her back. There was no time for her to get it and defend herself as one of the purple globs attacked her, sending out a barrage of poisonous shards. All she could do was raise an arm to deflect whatever she could. “Hideo, try freezing them!” She called out as she felt the toxins hit her flesh, burning her like acid.

The scholar hailing from Oxford gave a nod and quickly flipped to a trusted freezing spell in his brown book and recited the spell as he extended his free hand toward the two piles of crap between their leader. “Duratus in aeternum!” With a quick motion, he froze both viruses and Sly ran over to Urkwia. He helped her up and took her back over to Hideo who was quickly trying to find a healing spell that would stop the infection from progression, as where the woman had been attacked, craters of dead skin were beginning to appear. “Um…” Healing in the Digital World was complicated and wouldn’t be as effective as Logging Off and getting medical attention but they often didn’t have that immediate luxury of stopping to lick their wounds when nefarious people were sending parades of complicated codes to kill people or rob banks. “Qualicumque dolor et curaret venenum.” With a wave of his fingers over the crouching knight, some of the holes were patched and the pain had gone from a six to a four, which meant she could still lead her team back into battle, because it wasn’t even close to being over.

“Sly, why don’t you fashion us a static, continuous maze so we can trap these things and separate them?” Urkwia suggested as she got to her feet. They could trap one while getting rid of the other so that they wouldn’t get overwhelmed again. “Clearly these things like working together, I want us to change that.” She pulled her sword back out and put on a smirk.

Oh, and as a note our groups online for now are as follows:

Genkai
TalijaKey
NeoAC

vietmyke
Krauxis

THIS is where we are now, as opposed to the town.

AND THIS is the music, piano~

Digital or Real?

That's fine. I sometimes PM myself posts or email em or save em in Google Docs.

No rush though, I don't have a lot to do here so I'm enjoying the peace of the weekend (finally not rushing around somewhere) and playing some Dragon Age. ^^

Beyond a Fire's Embers

Is it a long series? The concept looks really cool but I haven't made time to watch it. How are the books?

I'm reading Empire Falls, a book about a small town. I just finished A House of Sand and Fog and it's set in a local area about some Persian guy buying a house that was accidentally sold to him because of an accidentally foreclosure of a woman, the woman ends up hooking up with a married cop who tries to help her get her house back while the Persian man and his family want to just sell it and make a profit. It was a good read, though I think Empire Falls won a Pulitzer Prize, I cant pass judgment on it yet though, too soon.

I have give it life. XD And I'm done cat sitting which is awesome because I have had insane allergies ever since I went over there, which is weird because I've never shown an allergy to cats before (having had 2) but maybe it's that there's four of em...either way, that's been sill giving me hell these past few days.

How have you been~?

Cherry Blossoms Under the Silver Sky

Constant reassurance was helpful but she wouldn't dare rely on it like a crutch.

That would be dangerous and reckless.

Things a ninja shouldn't be.

But cooking for someone was an area which she had yet fully explored. She was pretty confident about her ninja abilities but cooking was another story since different people liked different things. And even though the gesture itself was kind enough, she would hate to make something the man didn't care for, even if she couldn't have known otherwise. Sakura didn't often go around giving people baked goods, if she did and had outside feedback, she wouldn't be so uncertain but this was meant to be a gesture of good faith and she just wanted to make sure he wasn't being polite because he didn't want to hurt her feelings or anything like that. A teacher and student had to be honest with another and learn to trust one another as well. She gave the man a nod at his words, even though she hoped her second guessing hadn't been taken too heavily.

The last thing Sakura wanted to appear was insecure, as that was what she was trying to shed in the first place.

As well as get stronger.

"Thank you." She said. Kakashi then went on to say that they both needed each other in a way. That certainly wasn't something the girl was expecting to hear from him. No one really needed her, except maybe her parents. It was true though, that she and Kakashi could benefit from one another, she had just never considered such a thing to happen. It was reassuring, in a way, to know that she wasn't a burden, that he was also hoping to gain something from their renewed alliance as well. "Ah...yes, you're right. I believe we can help each other." When Kakashi Sensei put it like that, she didn't dare refute him. Looking down at her own lunch, she got comfortable and also began to eat, almost wanting to apologize for her rambling but her inner self forced her to just keep her mouth shut and move on. Her mind thankfully, wasn't too wrapped up in what had just happened, so she was already vaguely sensing something amiss...yet she couldn't figure out why.

The notion that the pups could still sneak up on her, even now, hadn't crossed her mind. She cast a glance toward Kakashi and went back to her lunch as they sat under the tree's plentiful shade. "That is true but I'd also like to figure out my weaknesses and improve those." She pointed out to him as she closed the lid of her lunch just as she heard something behind. She turned her neck just in time to see a dog coming at her. Sakura didn't vocally react, but instead aimed her chopsticks at it right before it could snap at her arm, thus biting the wooden utensil instead. That was very close. "I have something better for you to snack on..." She said and reopened her lunch and set it aside for him. She wasn't fond of her chopsticks or her arm being eaten and she wished she had picked up on the ambush sooner, still, she acted which was better than remaining fully oblivious.

The rest of the afternoon was spent training. A lot of it was dodging and performance while moving around and reacting.

At the end of the day, they parted ways and Sakura was much closer to fully perfecting the jutsu, just as Kakashi had said.

When morning came, she made the lunches, changing a few things slightly before she headed out the door, her body not as worn out as the first day. With luck, she was sure she would be used to everything at the end of the week. As she walked along, she passed Ino who was filling in at the flower shop. Ino mentioned getting more hours at the hospital alongside with more training and Sakura then had her own chance to brag about learning a cool water jutsu that was pretty amazing. Sakura promising to show Ino sometime before she continued to head for the training ground. Before she could actually arrive however, she felt someone take hold of her shoulder and she spun around. Out of habit, she was ready to smack Naruto for getting to close, but those days were behind them now. And Naruto was gone.

"Oh...good morning, are we still on for training...?" She asked when she saw the person was Kakashi. He quickly informed her that he had been speaking with Tsunade about an important mission and that he wanted her to come back and discuss it with the Hokage herself. Sakura cocked her head to the side, not sure why she was needed. Part of her hoped she could go on a mission but she knew not to get her hopes up so easily. "Sure." She replied simply and walked back with him towards the heart of the village. Another part of her worried she was in trouble or something like that. The sun was shining brightly and on their way, she kept looking around, not sure if anyone of the dogs were watching them. By now, Sakura had indeed learned the lesson to be very very vigilant. "Ino mentioned this morning, that Lee's recovery is about over and that he was sent on a mission recently with Gai, I guess that explains why it's so quiet and why I don't see them running laps as usual." It was good see life move on after the attack Orochimaru had launched on Konoha.

Since then, so much had changed.

And Sakura was determined to also change, for the better.

Digital or Real?

Haha alright, seems pretty complex but I still doubt a massively popular game would want to put people inside a game (at least for our RP) since I think it would lead to some paranoia and plenty of risks and uber protective parents. XD

Digital or Real?

So if you like thought 'move my arm' it would move it?

Cherry Blossoms Under the Silver Sky

Smut doodles are your thing, I tried I failed and laughed. Never again.

I'd like to assume whoever RPs him, let's him find some passion so he gets off that ass of his. That's like someone who RPs Sakura, makes her less of a lovelorn brat. XD Someday I'll find a Shika but they're so rare and usually require me to play Gaara or Sasuke against some awful canon like Hinata who they fail at writing as. Oh the struggle is real.

Hey Tenten/Neji/Lee is interesting, I used to be pretty into Lee/Tenten for whatever reason. Ah poor stuck up Neji...

And yes, go sleep. By the time you're off work you should have a post, possibly a majestic one lololol nah