Scene #7845:

Owner	Pose
Persephone Kore	Of course the diamond viewing platform doesn't just go away. After Hiromi's been congratulated and Lilian's been fussed over, after Kale's done his homework and Phony's finished her mug of hot cocoa, she stares him down with an unnervingly affectionate expression and her hands cupped on her cheeks. "So, are you ready? Ahaha. No, don't answer! I can tell. Lilian said I should give you 'my worst', right? But this really isn't a good place for that!! I'll get us situated." Then, the moment Kale agrees, something happens.
Persephone Kore	The G-forces ought to crush him into pulp. The friction ought to burn him to ashes. But there is no acceleration-shock, and there is no launch-heat. Instead, as a column of hard vacuum opens above him for frictionless acceleration and Kale is gently flung at 90% the speed of light towards the moon, the only sensation he feels is one of weightless vertigo. The Earth(?) recedes away below him, shrinking to a dizzyingly-distant pale blue dot. He touches down on soft gray moondust. For a moment it seems like Persephone might have just left him here, dismissively flung him skyward and left him to find his own way home. That's a dangerous proposition, because there is no air. Ahaha. But I wouldn't do that to you! Both of those absences are solved momentarily. The Queen in Veils, a white plastic mecha made in the image of a fanciful goddess, teleport-shimmers in maybe fifty feet away from him. Then it shimmers back out, leaving Persephone behind to levitate in the air where its chest-cockpit was. From her spreads a terraforming shift in the environment. Gray moondust, gulchy craters, and jagged rocks are washed over and replaced with a fanciful green wildflower-meadow, which does (thankfully) contain air. The terraforming reaches its limit about a hundred feet away from her in all directions, forming a circular domain with a sharp cutoff. Beyond that is still the barren moonscape. In other words, within a hundred feet of Persephone is breathable air, but no cover. Outside of that is cover, but no air. She cups her cheek in one hand, smiling beatifically as her clothes flutter slightly from the levitation-force. "There! You need to breathe, don't you? Ahaha, but don't worry. I'd never deny you the chance to show off!" "Even if I'm no good at fighting, you'll show me your best, won't you?"
Lilian Rook	Lilian ploughs through the water and then one of Kale's beers, not even bothering to comment on the taste, if she does indeed even taste it. The faint blood-smell around her is indeed easy to smell for people who aren't Hiromi by now, but fades quickly. "Seriously? You're going to go at it right now? Did my performance motivate you that much? Or are you just feel nervous now~?" she says. "Well, there's no backing out now. You've been exposed~" And then even the diamond platform ends up on the moon. Kale doesn't get to hear what Lilian says after Persephone throws him first, but he does hear after: "Christ. I shouldn't be surprised at anything you do anymore. You're really gonna do him like this, huh?" She calls down to Kale. "Be glad she's using the Queen in Veils. That means she's being nice."
Kale Hearthward	Kale decides he should at least skim the report on Persephone, during the couple minutes he has between Lilian's fight wrapping up and the fight with Persephone starting. So he gets out his phone and logs on to the Paladins network (conveniently, he has a password manager, so no shoulder-surfing mentally is possible. Also he's forgotten the password to the password manager itself and is relying on it recursively, which will cause him problems later) and pulls down the report. "..." He reads, with increasing concern. "... Sixty... seconds?" He needs to come up with a plan. Though - wait, no, would Persephone read that plan right off the top of his head? IDEAS: 1. Come up with a good plan, put it in motion, then forget it. - Not enough time. 2. Have no plan and just attack. - Maybe. 3. Do something that can't be predicted...? "Yeah, okay. Hmm? Yes, I'm ready," he says. This turns out to be immediately demonstrably untrue - Kale is not ready. "!!!" The lack of air is very concerning. Being stranded on the moon is possibly something he could deal with, if incredibly inconvenient and dangerous, but without any air he's practically powerless. Oh, and also probably dead from suffocation, but that's true for most people. When the air comes back on he takes a deep, gasping lungful (despite not really being without it for that long) and breathes heavily. "That's... very hard to believe," he says, once he's situated again. And then he breathes in. And in. And in, taking in more air than is strictly necessary, swelling up slightly (but not cartoonishly) with the long breath. He holds it, for a long moment, and then exhales. And as he exhales, he catches it in his hands - the exhaled breath, as though it's now a solid thing, and his hands start shaping it as if it were nothing more than a particularly airy and invisible form of clay. He spins it out into a string - and spins the string into knots. Solid knots of wind, straining with pressure or looping through currents, and as more breath is exhaled it's added onto the mass. His fingers work quickly, working through the movements via muscle memory. There needs not be anything fancy in this spell, just as much of it as he can manage. He may not get a second chance. What he has, when he finishes his breath and his fingers make the final motion, is a storm. A storm inside of a basketball-sized sphere of knotted air, colored with stray moon dust, which will a sequence of strong winds like a sort of rudimentary analog programming - or, perhaps, more like a firework, with showers of sparks and noises 'written' into the ignition string. Persephone can pick this up easily from Kale, if she's watching his thoughts - and if Lilian's read the book he got her, she'll understand it as well - that once he throws the ball, the storm will play out according to its 'programming'. However, and this is what Kale was counting on - he was casting quickly enough and in volume enough and randomly enough that he has no idea what exactly will happen, himself - he's forgotten what he put into it, aside from 'as much power as he can muster'. And - perhaps more importantly, even if he gets locked down fairly quickly, via whatever emotional or mental force Persephone brings to bear - the storm will continue for at least some time. "Alright then - you want my best?" He kicks off into the air, with his jet boots - and then spikes the storm-ball onto the ground between them.
Persephone Kore	There are several long moments during the wind-ball's wind-up when Persephone could do one of infinity horrible things. She could throw him back to Earth, but without the soft landing. She could create a miniature star on top of him. She could rip the air out of his lungs. He's in her space; more accurately, the space that he exists in is Persephone's, and that means he's doomed. But she doesn't. She floats, and watches, with warm and sparkly-eyed expectation. "Ahaha. That's a really clever idea!! See, I knew you were special." Sharp regolith abrades her. Pebbles and rocks strike her body. In places, they briefly show hints of red-that-is-not-blood. But in the next heartbeat, she simply dismisses the injuries: No. No, that isn't right. I don't want that to happen. It's just not allowed! Back with Hiromi, I didn't want to hog the limelight! But here, without the Archwolf's aura to defer to, her own is oppressive: an aura of warmth, of care, of ominously vast gentleness; the sense of being something fragile yet precious, held in the palm of her hand. Rather than a sense of focus like the other, Persephone's realness is emphasized through a sense of weight. She feels like a religious artifact; like an heirloom engagement ring; like your last conversation with a loved one before a long trip away. A spiral galaxy's worth of gravitas is folded into her frame. Everything else feels like a hollow plastic toy by comparison. Her dominion over the world makes sense, viscerally: what can toys do against someone real? It ought to be surprising, when she crushes air and dust into a miniature sun without even a gesture, and hurls it at Kale without even a glance. But it's not. Of course it makes sense. It's the most natural thing in the world. Its stellar flames don't burn, but exhaust and soothe: the crackling fireplace in winter robbing you of all your strain and tension. "I'll allow it once, you know! But how many more clever ideas do you have? Show me! I really, really demand it! I want to see!"
Lilian Rook	<J-IC-Scene> Persephone Kore says cheerfully, "I'm not!" <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Oh good." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "You're representing me now, so teach him what it means to try and take my spot." <J-IC-Scene> Persephone Kore says, "Awwwww." <J-IC-Scene> Persephone Kore says, "Thanks for trusting me, Lilian!" <J-IC-Scene> Persephone Kore says, "I didn't even know you liked boys." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "What?" This begins an immensely stupid conversation which I4 spends the entire time laughing through. It ends with: <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "If I can fight people like you and Hiromi then that's the bar for me to care." §You're really overestimating her, Hearthward. But underestimating her in a different way. You really didn't read my reports thoroughly, did you? Even thought they were a little mean, I did put a lot of genuine effort into them. You could try and be a little bit considerate. This would be the right approach if you were trying to stall her for the completion of a mission, but to try and take her head on?§ Lilian shivers just a tiny bit when Persephone cranks the hell out of her aura. Going from Hiromi to this, even on the sidelines, is nerve-fraying. "You say you're going to try your best one moment, and then things like that the next? You're completely impossible." she calls out to Persephone. "And next time, read the documentation, Hearthward!" she shouts next, helping herself to more of his beer.
Kale Hearthward	> Your last conversation with a loved one before a long trip away Well, a year away, or - possibly only a week. And then - in the middle of the vacation where you're supposed to be making up lost time, you get yanked away, to one of the toughest fights of your life, without even time to leave a note- Kale is not well. A lot of his strength, his prowess, is based on knowing who he is. Confidence. It's why he gave Hiromi the answer that he did, why he's in this mess trying to get Lilian to fight him. And he's... off balance, emotionally. It'd be hard for him to put into words. He may be fine in the physical sense, but Persephone's mere presence is finding hooks within him, already. The conversation on the radio does not help, either. The storm continues. That, at least, is going well (retroactively-reality-breaking well, even?), even if Kale's struggling to find his momentum and rhythm in this fight already. He flies forward, trying to get out of the path of the sun (not quite succeeding) and closing in on Persephone - his One Weird Trick that he had going in is playing out already, he needs to find something else- Impulsively, and on a split-second decision, he shouts at her. Well, not quite shouts. It's a short-range blast of wind, fired off in a cone like a dragon's breath, trying to shove her further into the unpredictable storm. If he can get control of this fight, maybe he can come up with something else...
Persephone Kore	Persephone casts a glance back over her shoulder towards the diamond bleachers, and positively beams. Awwww. Shivering, little star? Just for me? "Ahaha, but can you really blame him, though? I'm sure he really did read it! But some people are just hands-on learners. And words can't do me justice!" She turns back around, clued in to Kale's lunge by her sixth sense. She looks at him. She registers the fact that he's trying to attack her. She thinks, "I don't want to be hurt." And that's enough for her not to be. All the air in her bubble is crunched down into a little black hole in her palm. The air leaves Kale's lungs. The breath attack evaporates The storm is simply gone. The black hole dissolves, and a moment later, the air returns, but his attacks haven't come to anything at all. She smiles a little ruefully, seeming vaguely startled herself. "Haha, I'm sorry! Really I am. Here, this isn't really fair. I'll bring the Queen in Veils back, okay?" That three-story-tall, white-plastic robot shimmers back into existence around her. Now that he's getting a better look at it, its body seems dress-like; a halo adorns its head almost like a crown, casting down solid vertical slats to the ground like sunbeams that give it a half-glimpsed mystique. Long black 'hair' curls and flows like wispy smoke, that and the halo-slats perpetually shrouding its face. Its hand comes up to cup its cheek, perfectly mimicking Persephone's body language. Despite its imposing stature, it feels less terrifyingly real than the girl herself, not more. "Here! I'll let you play with my toys, okay? Look out!" Regolith is squeezed together to form a proportionately-large sword of solid diamond in the mecha's hand. It elegantly slashes at him, leaving gorgeous spiralling nebulae in the blade's wake that spread out and shed dangerous tiny stars even if he dodges the lazy strike itself.
Kale Hearthward	All of the air leaves Kale's lungs, thankfully only briefly. It's a stark reminder. Is he really nothing more than a plaything here? And then the mecha comes back. Kale didn't ever think he'd be glad to see it, but it's surprisingly the less terrifying alternative... ... And... has he even managed to hurt Persephone at all? Has he even managed to touch her, with his winds? ... Is that blade diamond??? Kale kicks his feet out to the front, and the jetboots send him hurtling backwards - not quite out of the range of the cosmic shockwaves caused by the sword. Again, he's failing to sieze the momentum of the fight. And Persephone doesn't even sound like she's pushing all that hard - she's on the radio talking about wishes, as though she were playing with dolls. Playing with dolls. Wishes. ... Yeah. Alright. You've been out here for a year. You need to stop treating every fight as though it were another battle in your home world, fights of guns and ships and swords and spells. If the first fight with Lilian taught you anything - it's that you need to lean into it. Whatever it happens to be. He reaches back and pulls his left-hand sword, bringing it up to his beak to blow into the hilt and activate it, and starts advancing through the air towards the mecha again. So go on, Kale. Tell Persephone your wish. "I wish... for a world I can carve out for those I care about!" He speeds up - and the sword he's holding unfolds and spirals outward, turning into a giant drill, grasped firmly in his hands. "I wish... for the strength to protect it!" He aims it at the center of the Queen in Veils - straying from the course only to get under its guard. "And I wish - for the power to keep it safe, whatever the cost!"
Persephone Kore	The Queen in Veils seems too large and heavy to effectively block or dodge, but more than that, it makes no attempt to. Its reaction to his speech is to cup its face in both hands adoringly, heedless of the sword. Attacking it is like attacking an armored vehicle, expectedly, but his drill finds purchase, digging deep into its chest and only being deflected off dead center by something. Through the wound he can make eye contact with Persephone, reclining in a cute little chest-cockpit seat with crossed legs, fondling a potted succulent's leaf contemplatively. There are no visible controls. "See? There you go," she marvels. "Ahaha, that wish sounds familiar. I knew you were special! Maybe even special enough to beat me. But I don't think that you're prepared for just how hard that will be." Unexpectedly, the white plastic is healing in much the same way Persephone's body does, but slower: not 'filling in' like biological regeneration, but as if the wounds are being photoshopped away by a weird AI image transform. Reality recognizes that 'being hurt' just isn't the way she's supposed to be. "You've shown me your wish, though. So I'll show you mine!" Even as the cockpit-wound seals up, her voice is still audible, as if the Queen in Veils itself were speaking. Its sword drops to its side, and it steps backwards to give Kale room. "Human hearts are fake," she says serenely. Of course she has time for mid-battle speeches; you can't interrupt her unless I want to be interrupted! "Wishing is fake. Stories, narratives, are fake. There's no story you can have that's so compelling, no identity you have that's so strong, that a bullet going through your head can't interrupt it. The world doesn't care." "Isn't that awful? Isn't that sad?" "But I can make the world care. My make-believe can stop a bullet. My plastic toys can stop swords! I'm more real than the world is. And I want to share that. I want to make it true for everyone, everywhere, all the time. I want everyone to be as special as I am! I want the world to be defined by everyone's wishes, so stories and identities can matter more than an ounce of metal." She doesn't gesture. She doesn't betray a moment of concentration. But there's a brief sense of overwhelming, terrifying danger- the deer in the headlights, the floor dropping out- as she wrests control of local physics. Then Kale is yanked into the Queen's empty hand by the same superluminal impulse that hurled him to the moon, and its fingers close around him. "This is a friendlier way to fight. I want to hear you and be heard! I want to feel you and be felt! Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could fight like this always, instead of the other way? This won't even kill you!" While he's held tight in the mech's hand, Persephone creates a tiny sun around him. Again, the heat that ought to vaporize his flesh instead only does the same to his energy and fighting spirit. It's pleasant. It's nice. It's getting harder and harder to muster up the will to do anything but what Phony wants.
Lilian Rook	Lilian aggressively thinks at Persephone: §Bite me. I'm exhausted and the little shot of adrenaline wore off. I'm the one who was just fighting for my life down there, so don't get any weird ideas.§ §And I've already seen you naked and covered in blood, so actually that goes double.§ The battle going on a little, Lilian takes a big breath and holds it (albeit she'd last longer without air than Kale by far, and after several space missions, can kinda make her own) until the implosive anti-vacuum moment finishes, probably reminding Kale of just what kind of edge (out of many) Lilian has, and how much she'd prepared to fight Persephone before. When the air comes back, Lilian even says it out loud: "You think you can get her with that level of effort? How lightly do you take me? If the opponents who left an impression on me could be overcome with a two minute skim and flying by the seat of your pants, how weak would I have to be? Honestly." §I want to say she's still fucking around with him, but is she? Carpathia raised her . . . perfect. The way she wants to use her power, and having that power in the first place, are so closely linked; would she have been able to attain it if she was capable of ending this right now? Would she be able to keep it if she did? How paranoid was I back then? I even had contingencies for her trying to strangle me. I alchemized cubane for fuck's sake.§ "Calling out wishes like attack names, huh? Isn't that something I did, in a way? Ah, whatever. It's sort of adorable. And oddly heroic-sounding for once." Louder, "You're starting to sound more like a Paladin and less like a fragile ego, Hearthward~" And at the giant diamond sword, back to Persephone. "Did I leave an impression on your imagination or something~?" §The Queen in Veils will be easier for him to damage, but Kale is a technical fighter. Speed and precision; striking specific vital points before his opponent can do anything. Almost like a combat assassin. Fitting for . . . some kind of hawk, I guess? His really powerful attacks are decent, but very predictable once you know the gimmick. That 'storm-programming' was impressive, in the way it's the most I've seen him really try to use his brain. But he's in deep, deep shit. Persephone doesn't really care how technical you are. Fast only matters for a moment. Precise, only a little. She doesn't know anything about swords or magic, so trying to swashbuckle her like that is pretty much out of the question. Plus she has his absolute weakness on-hand. It's tough for him in a similar way that it was tough for me, but doesn't that just prove my point?§ "Wishes are at least a tiny bit real." she says, hesitantly. "But most people's are too weak. And even those that have a measurable effect; they don't overcome power. But that's not all bad. As long as power comes from things like effort, practice, self-improvement, or even some unfair things, the world makes sense; the resistance your wish encounters is logical. And as much as anything, people crave that the world makes sense. That it's fair. Not being able to grant their own wishes is sad, but 'whose wish is stronger' is the height of illogic. It can't be solved or predicted." "But a world where I could wish someone would . . . without having to hurt them until they can't fight back . . . That wouldn't be bad."
Kale Hearthward	Things are not going well. That much is obvious. Yes. Kale's been grabbed by a giant robot hand, and his attacks aren't connecting in any sort of meaningful way, and he's being worn down in a way that he doesn't fully grasp. Not going well, thank you for the obvious statement there. But on a greater sense, things are not going well. This was supposed to be stop one of his proving tour, showing Lilian that yes he could take on her greatest foes, one after another, without breaking a sweat. And on all levels he's eating dirt at the first step, with Lilian watching close-up. It'd be nice, at this point, to abandon it. Cast off his desire to fight Lilian as some silly thing, like so many sour grapes, and go back to things that he'll tell himself actually matter. He can't even really explain it, why he wants to fight her, and when he tried she got the wrong idea about it. It'd be really easy to stop. Beg off or yield or attempt to escape - if it were possible to escape - or... ... give up. Kale gives up. Persephone can feel his fighting spirit dissolve away in her literal grasp. As far as fighting Kale, Persephone has effectively won. And then something else rises. It's not... entirely different. It's also Kale Hearthward, in a way. Just with the veneer taken off. With the stories and the narrative and the wishes taken off. Kale was never human. He's a bird, shaped by unseen factors into something human-shaped, and those human shapes forged themselves into a society and a civilization and put metal in their hands and clothes on their bodies and - perhaps most importantly, dressed up their desires with fancy words. It wants to fight Lilian because they are both loud. It wants to protect others it cares for and its loved one because flock and mate. And it wants to carve up the world because- - because it doesn't have words. There is the bird, and there is everything else, and only one of those things matter. And everything besides those facts are just narratives and wishes. Perhaps it too can be tamed, if Persephone continues her assault, but - at the moment all it knows is it is being held, and it doesn't like it. Earlier, Kale had shouted at Persephone, using wind directly from his lungs to try to push her back. This time, again at the top of his lungs, this is not a shout, not a calculated attack of magical wind. This is a scream.
Persephone Kore	Ahaha. You sure have, little star!! Wanna see it again? I don't think you were in a good space to appreciate it last time! The psychic sun surrounding Kale peters out; it's hard for me to wish to hurt you for too long! The Queen in Veils' cockpit opens, revealing Persephone inside. She gives a little sigh, mixed relief and disappointment. Her eyes shut and her mouth settles into a little smile. "Haha, I'm sorry. That was a little too rude, wasn't it? But Lilian-" Her eyes open again, eyebrows arching, even before Kale draws in that huge breath. The shift in his mind is palpable- visible?- to her. It's really almost cute!! You're civilized too, aren't you? You were raised and learned and inherited in just the same ways as us, even if the core is different. Culture is so beautiful, so strong. Haha, I didn't even notice that part of your heart until now. But even so: I don't want to be hurt!! Persephone's powers, acting on nothing more than that simple wish, carve out a layer of hard vacuum around Kale. He can still breathe, can still inhale and exhale and scream, but that thin layer of vacuum surrounding him like a bubble is completely impenetrable to sound and wind. Cracks appear in the plastic of the Queen's hand from the force of his scream, but not a decibel escapes to ruffle Phony's hair. "Aw. But you're just throwing a tantrum now! That's no fun at all. I was going to play a little longer, but if you're going to be that way, I think we're done." The Queen in Veils releases him, but irresistible telekinetic pressures still hold him in place. With a shockwave that rattles the moonrocks and tears up the flower petals, he is fired back towards Earth, traversing the distance in one point three seconds flat. Once again, the re-entry friction doesn't burn him or the acceleration pulp him, but when he hits the thick snow of the exact same mountain they departed from, it will sting a little.
Persephone Kore	The Queen in Veils disappears. Phony floats back down to the diamond bleachers, wiping her forehead a little, and grabs a beer. "He was pretty great," she says brightly. "Except for that bit at the end, you know. I can tell why you like him so much!" As for the part about wishes, she takes some sandwich-nibbling to get around to that. "But 'whose wish is the strongest' is the most logical thing. You used to read storybooks, didn't you? Did the hero knight ever lose just because the bad king had more soldiers? Or did they win because they were motivated by something stronger?" "A story where the hero just died unexcitingly because someone stabbed them in the neck is a bad and confusing story, right?" Munch, munch. "I don't get why you want to let the real world get away with being written so lazily."
Kale Hearthward	The bird, in one last act before it's thrown, attempts to bite the Queen in Veils' finger, straining against the telekinetic shell holding it in place. And then it ends face-down in the snow. "..." Absent Persephone's influence, the bird fades and Kale resumes. This is for the best. Of course, with that, comes a whole host of complicated thoughts - embarassment, primarly. "... Ow," says Kale, to himself, the hit having been taken to his pride more than his body, really.
Lilian Rook	§I could do without the covered in blood part.§ §. . .§ §Fuck. You know what I meant!§ Sadly, Lilian does not get to say anything to Kale himself, because he gets fired at the Earth and she can't actually teleport there (there was like, two months dedicated to that, remember?). Instead she has to 'merely content herself' with Phony's company on a moon meadow. "He's learning. Probably. Maybe." Lilian sighs. "I'm not sure he really knows who he is or what he wants yet. I know he thinks he does, but certainly less so now. And I also think that's a good thing." "The way he was born special, the position he got into; they've built him up relentlessly, and I'm not sure he's ever been let down like this; he never had to painstakingly put himself together bit by bit until it felt right. Maybe the perspective will help him be something better than 'inappropriately jealous of me'?" She thinks about the rest for a little while, but is quick to answer. "It only makes sense to us because we're the readers. To the knight, obviously his wish was the strongest, but the bad king probably thought his wish, his force of ego, was the bigger one, and the individual soldiers probably thought their wish to win and go home was stronger too. From the point of view of the characters, the story is impenetrable. It's just inconceivable that the knight would win like he does, and not morally gratifying to anyone but the reader and the heroes." "For that kind of thing to be real, we'd all have to agree on who the hero is. And we certainly don't. Questions like whose wish matters more are too intangible. But you can get a sense of them from how hard someone works to make them come true. And if nothing else, you can usually find a way to make it happen." Lilian thinks a moment longer. "Well, in a perfect world, anyone would be able to make a wish come true if they worked hard enough, at least."
Persephone Kore	At the unspoken communique, Persephone laughs so hard that she'd choke on her sandwich if she breathed as anything other than a polite formality. "He's not jealous," she says after a moment, staring up at the Earth in the distance. "At least, not exactly. He doesn't want to be like you. He just wants you to respect him, because you make him feel small. But I'm sure there are better ways to do that. You respect Tamamo even though she's never beat you up, right? Ahaha, at least I assume~" She pauses to soak up Lilian's criticism, and remains silent for several seconds after she stops talking. She takes a long, slow sip from her beer, too. Is this rude of me? Is it rude to throw a guy to Earth and then eat his snacks? I'll remember to thank him later, at least. "But I am a reader," she finally says. "I want everyone else to have that, too. Haven't I always told you that you're more of a hero than me? How do you think I know? Don't you remember when I told you the stories of stars? That's how I can get outside of my own head." "Everyone has a story. And stories are fake. But I'm the girl who can make fake things real. Even if I were the evil king, I'd know the knight's story." A little wink. "And how to give her the ending she really wants."