[X] Upset. Couldn't she have waited for you to explain things?! Your sisters were going to be even more unbearable now, and they might tell your parents...
Keep playing the straight man.
Edit: Which sister did she meet? If it was Tsukihi I'm amazed at the lack of violence, and if it was Karen I'm amazed at the lack of volume. Also, great to see this is still being worked on.
[X] Upset. Couldn't she have waited for you to explain things?! Your sisters were going to be even more unbearable now, and they might tell your parents...
[X] Nonchalant. Eh, your sisters overreact to every little thing. More importantly, this is a good chance to get some back with a little teasing of your own...
[X] Upset. Couldn't she have waited for you to explain things?! Your sisters were going to be even more unbearable now, and they might tell your parents...
[X] Nonchalant. Eh, your sisters overreact to every little thing. More importantly, this is a good chance to get some back with a little teasing of your own...
[X] Nonchalant. Eh, your sisters overreact to every little thing. More importantly, this is a good chance to get some back with a little teasing of your own...
[X] Upset. Couldn't she have waited for you to explain things?! Your sisters were going to be even more unbearable now, and they might tell your parents...
Upset: Nervos Belli, Bladestar123, KainDulac, and Bondo for a total of 4 votes.
Nonchalant: Veekie, CrawlingChaos74, WSR, lavanderjasmine, and Crow for a total of 5 votes.
Nonchalant is currently winning by a single vote. You know, you are allowed to argue and debate people over to your side, yeah?
Also, I added a small character sheet and Dramatis Personae below the OP. It's also in the threadmarks. This way it'll be easier to keep track of what Araragi knows IC about people.
... This can only end well.
I do not see how this could possibly backfire.
There is also a kind Nigerian Prince who wanted to give me money for helping him.
I am waiting for his email confirming the money is in my account.
... This can only end well.
I do not see how this could possibly backfire.
There is also a kind Nigerian Prince who wanted to give me money for helping him.
I am waiting for his email confirming the money is in my account.
Eheheheh. Your paranoia makes me happy~! All three options had positives and negatives. I don't think the negative for this one is quite what you are afraid of though...
[] Nonchalant. Eh, your sisters overreact to every little thing. More importantly, this is a good chance to get some back with a little teasing of your own...
13: Turnabout is fair play, right?
You nod. "Just to be clear, you introduced yourself as my girlfriend?" you ask.
You were pretty sure that was what happened, but it was important to know exactly what she claimed.
It would help later when your sisters gave you grief about it.
"Yes, are thou upset, Koyomi?" she says quietly.
You cross your arms in front of you to form an X, "No, no, I'm not upset at all. My sisters overreact to every little thing. They'll bug me about it, but in a week or two they'll have moved on to some other failing of mine."
Shinobu lets out a small breath of relief. She takes a seat, and turns the hairdryer back on.
"Do your little sisters really bother you that much?" she asks as she turns to the mirror.
You nod. "Absolutely. They're really childish and relentless too. Normal little sisters."
"I wouldn't know." Shinobu says with a shrug, as she runs a hand through her hair.
Hmm, was she an only child?
Then again, usually the only people who thought well of little sister characters didn't have any of their own.
You never understood siscons.
However, a thought just struck you.
Ever since yesterday, girls seemed to have started teasing you all of a sudden.
Wasn't this your chance to get some revenge?
Though it isn't revenge, just a little turnabout.
Yes, a little playful turnabout.
"You know, Shinobu, even though I'm not upset, there is one thing that I found interesting." you say with a grin.
She puts the hairdryer down, frowning at you in confusion. "Interesting?"
"Yes, interesting. It's quite interesting to me that the lie you chose was that you were my girlfriend," you point out.
"What else was I supposed to say?" she said, petulantly.
"You could have simply gotten me to explain. I could have easily lied our way out of it. She is my sister, after all." You point out.
You could have made up any old sob story and either one of your sisters would have bought it.
They can be really gullible, though that does worry you sometimes.
"Maybe. I did not think of that, but I fail to see your point. I do not see how that is interesting. Koyomi, just what are you trying to say?" Shinobu says with a glare.
Ah, she can really look scary. It's too late to back out now though...
"I was just thinking that you might have had an ulterior motive to calling yourself my girlfriend," you answer sheepishly.
You are sure you messed up the delivery.
She was going to hate you forever.
Why is it when you try teasing, you're still the one that ends up bothered?
"Ulterior...motive?" Shinobu says, looking puzzled for a long moment before her eyes widen in shock.
"W-what? You mean...I..." she loses her composure for a moment, before she turns furiously away from you with a "tch"
"Who would want to be your girlfriend? The very idea makes me sick, idiot!" she says while she slowly and deliberately begins putting her hair up in a side ponytail.
You would have thought your teasing attempt was a complete failure, except you could still see Shinobu's face in the mirror.
Her deep red blush and cute troubled expression belies that idea.
She doesn't even look angry, now that you think about it.
She then catches your gaze in the mirror.
"Close the door and get dressed!" She says with a snarl, tossing a hairbrush at you.
Fortunately it misses you, because it continues on until it smashes into splinters on the far wall in the bathroom.
Ah, scary...but get dressed?
It's only now that you realize all you're wearing is the towel that you had been drying yourself with.
Still, hadn't Shinobu been wearing the same thing when she came out?
You grab your clothes, and Shinobu makes it a point not to look at you.
Well, it can't be helped it seems.
You close the door.
...
A few uneventful minutes later, you and Episode had finished getting dressed, and had made it to your room. You let Shinobu have the bed, since she still seemed a bit annoyed at you...and was refusing to speak to you.
Episode had only laughed at you when you had explained why she had thrown something at you.
Apparently, it was considered your own fault for making her mad, and you had gotten off easy.
You found you didn't really disagree.
Episode had taken your yellow rocking chair. You had used to like it a lot until your sister Tsukihi had pointed out it looked like a banana.
The only reason you had kept it was because you were too stubborn to admit you had bought it without noticing it's banananess.
So you were left with some extra blankets and the floor. Fortunately you were so tired it probably wouldn't make any difference.
You make yourself comfortable and...
Pick One
[] Talk to Shinobu
-[] About?
[] Talk to Episode
-[] About?
[] Talk to Hachikuji
-[]About?
[] Text Hanekawa
-[] About?
[] Just go to sleep (Pick an interlude)
-[] Deal or no deal?
-[] Yojimbo
-[] Witch Hunter Robin
[X] Just go to sleep (Pick an interlude)
-[X] Witch Hunter Robin
I think this interlude may help us more in gathering information/etc, so I'm going with it.
[X] Just go to sleep (Pick an interlude)
-[X] Witch Hunter Robin
I think this interlude may help us more in gathering information/etc, so I'm going with it.
I'm a kind QM, so I'll let you know that the purposes of interludes are to give characterization to people who otherwise wouldn't get any and wider world building. If you want to gather information that is personally relevant to you, I'd suggest trying to talk to people about it.
A single drop of water hangs precariously from the beam, slowly but steadily increasing in size. It hangs lower, ever lower, surface tension straining until suddenly, all at once, the drop is free. It falls unerringly, straight down into the waiting bucket below. A small plip sounding out as the drop joins the water already in the half filled bucket, echoed by the half-dozen other buckets spread throughout the pews.
"He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous."
A lone priest sits, head bowed, in one of the aisles. His head is not bowed in reverence, nor in prayer, but in defeat. His church was not a large one, nor was it particularly wealthy, but it had always been enough. The usual faces, the old families still came, though he counted himself lucky if even a tenth of their children were there, he was resolved to leave the future in the hands of the Lord.
Once upon a time, he'd have rallied the community, brought them together to raise money to fix the roof through bake sales, events, and the solicitation of the more materially blessed members of the congregation. That was impossible now of course.
The mass he had held earlier today had only a single, old woman who had given up on this world long ago. There was no community left to rally. They had all left, for the promises of The Church Everlasting.
Miron Albescu, successful businessman and patriarch of a wide, extended family, had miraculously returned, from his deathbed, to the peak of health. Not only had he recovered, he now appeared as a man in the prime of life instead of his 90 years. A "miracle" due to reaching holy enlightenment. It was...absurd. There was no greater sinner in his congregation than Miron Albescu. He had gained his wealth by lying, cheating, and even in a few cases stealing. His family included both his lawful children, as well as those of his various mistresses. On his deathbed he had even confessed to ties to organized crime, and having arranged the murder of his original business partner, some 60 or 70 years ago.
The priest would know, he had taken confessional of Miron for years, and had been the one to administer last rites to him shortly before this "miracle."
Yet it could not be denied that he had been blessed with unnatural youth. And now the priest's church was dead, because everlasting life in the next life could not compete with everlasting life in this one. The "Holy One's" Church of the Everlasting had consumed his congregation, his church, as just one of many in Aiud who now threw their wealth at the man's feet for the chance, however small, to replicate his feat.
"He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous."
So what use is it to be righteous and good?
The priest rises from his seat, no longer burdened by an air of defeat. With care, he turns out the lights, extinguishes the altar lamp, and calmly leaves the dark, empty building behind. The former priest feels the rain on his skin as he exits the car for mere moments before Dramaturgie opens an umbrella over him.
He stands still, observing the near-silent streets of the village around him, the only sound arising from the sheets of rain falling from the heavens.
A small village, near the Hungarian border; an emergency call had gone out from the local police requesting backup about a week ago, followed by silence.
The police who had entered from the neighboring towns had not returned.
The army unit that had entered had not returned, nor had the helicopters sent to overfly the village.
Not even a mayday had been sent out.
So the village had been cordoned off as the government fell into a panic.
The signs of what had transpired here were all around the former priest, as he slowly makes his way through the streets. It doesn't really bother him, death never had, even though there was a big difference between someone stately laid out in a coffin and being half dismembered in the street. He didn't spare them a second glance, though he did spend a moment trying to figure out how one body had managed to end up hanging from some high tension power lines. If it had been moving fast enough to get that high, shouldn't the body have either ended up breaking up, or damaging the wires?
The death doesn't bother him, but the stench is something else. The former priest forces himself to not react to it, outside of a slight hurry in his gait as he walks, ever onward, towards the local high school.
The former priest considers himself, by this point, to be an expert on those who had gained powers, the contractors. With nothing but his wits and will he had forced his way to an important position in the Holy One's Church Everlasting, and from there had been ruthless in his pursuit of knowledge. He likely was one of the foremost experts in the entire world by this point, considering it was still a phenomenon only six months old. Which was why he had gone through great lengths to arrange access to this dead village, and why he was walking to the highschool.
After all, if he was wrong, all he risked was his death. However, if he did not take the risk, his goal, his desire would never be fulfilled. He had reached the limit of the power and influence he could gain, even with Dramaturgie in his service.
Stepping into the highschool, he noticed that there were fewer bodies here. The school served the entire local region, with many students attending from surprisingly far away. The beginning of the...event had fortunately begun a few hours after school had finished, leaving only teachers and those students attending clubs in the building. A great number of the student body had been spared.
Well, as long as they had lived outside the village.
The former priest walks slowly through the building, noting the pattern of violence in the still hallways and classrooms. He notes how many were clearly struck down from behind, how one classroom still had the door barricaded, though peaking through the large hole in the wall revealed it hadn't saved the room's inhabitants. He was just beginning to doubt his selection of the highschool when he heard the faint sound water running. Slowly but deliberately, the former priest follows until he finds himself standing in the gym, outside the women's locker room.
He's momentarily pleased, having had his suspicions confirmed, but he had bet on the most likely outcome. Contractors like Mirion and Dramaturgie were the exception, rather than the rule. Most were young, and with a heavy skew towards being female. It was almost an archetype, a girl, between the end of middle school or the beginnings of college, pushed into a corner, often both physically as well as emotionally.
And so they make a deal with the devil.
The former priest motions for Dramaturgie to wait, who only nods with a pleased look in his eye. The former priest takes a moment to focus himself and then he enters the locker room.
Walking with purpose, he ignores the rows and rows of lockers, walking directly to the showers. The sounds of water draw him ever onward, soon joined by a low, keening moan only made by someone who had long run out of tears.
He stops in the doorway to the showers, passively taking the sight before him in. He knows that to fight, to run, is impossible, so there is no use tensing up. A teenage girl is crumpled in the middle of the floor, nearly naked, covered only in whatever mere scraps that remain of her original outfit. Her blonde hair is short and roughly cut, still uneven, and she's utterly drenched by the shower she is under.
He clears his throat. Her head snaps up, face still ugly from crying. She begins to speak, but it takes her more effort to force words from her abused throat than she thought. On the third attempt she succeeds, her voice cracking, "G-Get away! I'm a monster!"
The former priest considers, before nodding. "Certainly," he replies. His voice carries no condemnation, nor judgement. Merely stating a fact.
The girl blinks, still trying to process his words before he continues.
"He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. You may be a monster, but that does not mean that there isn't a place for you," the former priest says as he takes his first step into the room, extending his hand. "Come with me."
He is met with wide eyes. "A place...for me?" she says, eyes darting over his face, before finally coming to rest on his own. She must see see something there, because a moment later she begins to relax and she immediately collapses, splashing back down onto the wet tiled floor.
The former priest turns the showers off, kneels, and with care wraps her in his coat. Calmly picking her up, he leaves the locker room behind. A small drizzle of rain patters against the window of the tarmac, but it's barely more than a light misting. It wont delay the flight.
Guillotinecutter stands, waiting, for boarding to begin. It had all come down to Japan.
It shouldn't have taken him this long to hunt her down, in hindsight, after she had vanished six months ago.
The boy samurai's death had been what started her...discontent after all. It had made sense for her to go there, well, as much sense as the boy being a samurai in first place.
Guillotinecutter wasn't sure what the point in going was, victory was a mere fever dream against even the smallest fraction of her power.
But what choice did he have?
He had finally learned the truth, had learned both where contractors came from and what purpose they served. He had worked long and hard, and he even found the way for his desire, to rid the world of contractors and the devils that made them both.
And then the boy had been killed, and Heart-Under-Blade had vanished. Guillotinecutter's usefulness to the Church Everlasting had diminished, and the loss of face had been met with an equal loss in influence and resources. He was so close, yet...
It seemed strange, to him, that when he turned his back on God for petty vengeance he met repeated success against impossible odds, but when he discovered the way to save them all...a random punk on the street shot one of his enforcers and everything fell apart.
Perhaps the world had truly fallen, and evil was met with good and good with evil, or...
"He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous," Guillotinecutter murmurs to himself.
"What was that?' Episode asks, sleepily, as he sits up straight in his chair.
"Nothing. We're about to board," Guillotinecutter instructs, motioning to the arrival of several attendants at the gate.
No, he still had a chance. A man's life isn't measured by how they live, but rather it's measured by what they accomplish before their death, and if he died now, having accomplished nothing, his only legacy would be failure. He was resolved. There could only be victory. He was so close everything having been worth it, so close to his day in the sun.
You wake up in a slight state of confusion. You're a little stiff, but oddly relaxed. Why, you aren't fighting to keep from having your covers taken away, or to prevent yourself from being dumped onto the floor.
So it's easy to simply drift off, back to sleep...
"Koyomi, thou needs to wake up," a soft, female voice whispers centimeters from your ear, so close that you can feel the warmth from her breath.
A nice and soft voice, not like your sister's shrill demands at all. It's so nice, you're sure you'll have a good dream...
"Koyomi, if thou does not wake up, I'll..." the voice continues, describing something fairly anatomically implausible. You know you're not the most experienced person in the world. Okay, so you have no experience, but that doesn't mean you can't tell the difference between what a human can and cannot do.
"T-that's impossible!" you find yourself sputtering in embarrassment, as you launch yourself up into a sitting position.
Shinobu simply crosses her arms and looks down on you from her seat on the edge of your bed, looking incredibly smug.
"Well, since thou woke up, I will just have to defer to thy expertise in such things," she says with a dismissive wave.
"I don't have expertise in those kind of things!" you retort.
"Oh? I will have to correct that deficiency, then. I cannot stand to have such an ignorant subordinate," she says with a wink, before blithely continuing on, "But my reinforcements are here, so we should go meet them, Koyomi."
Eh? Oh right, the national police. You rub your face to try and get rid of the last of your tiredness.
"I will be in front of the house," Shinobu says, already standing in your window, which you now realize has been open the entire time. "Do not keep us waiting too long," she says, before disappearing with a slight hop.
...
You never thought you'd complain about being woken up by a cute girl, but you're already missing the usual pummeling from your sisters.
It was at least simple.
You drag yourself downstairs to wash your face and use the toilet, and after brushing your teeth, you're putting your shoes on not five minutes after having gotten up.
It might be difficult for you to wake up in the first place, but the efficiency of your morning routine should not be underestimated!
"Koyomi," a deep voice rumbled down the hall, and you feel your head turn almost against your will.
A short, stocky man stood in the doorway to the study. Aging, but not yet aged, covered in muscles that were fading into fat, but had not yet faded, well-dressed, but with an air of roughness about him. There was only one person this could be.
"Ah, father. Working from home today?" you ask. It isn't like him to, but it was even less like him to not be in the office by this hour.
"For the morning," he concedes.
"I see, well, I'll be-" you begin to say. It isn't like you're running away, you just don't want to keep Shinobu waiting. No, that sounds like you're ditching your duties as a son to chase a girl. It isn't that you don't want to keep Shinobu waitng, you don't want to keep the national police waiting!
Your father closes the distance between you in just a few steps, resting his hand on your shoulder. "Koyomi, I know you're getting to be that age, but you need to be more considerate."
Eh?
"You do have two younger sisters living here," he says, putting something in your hand. You reflexively take it, in an almost unbelieving fugue. "So try to be more discreet, alright?" he says with a nod, before turning and walking away. He pauses in the doorway to the study, and gives you a look. "And don't make a girl jump out your window," with that last piece of wisdom he closes the door.
You numbly look down at your hand to see your father had given you 25,000 yen.
You realize, much too late, that your sister has told on you. Your only solace being that this conversation had not been longer, nor had it been with your mother.
Knowing her thoroughness, she'd just be getting warmed up. Perhaps there would even be charts...
So you're left with no choice but to slip the money into your pocket and likewise slip out the door. Shinobu and Episode are waiting outside your front gate and after a short awkward silence, Shinobu simply beckons for you to follow her.
You sleepily follow along, and it isn't long before Shinobu leads you into a parking garage.
"We're meeting them here?" you find yourself asking.
"Of course! Where else would members of a secret governmental task force meet, than a dark and shady place like this?"
You want to point out that the garage is hardly dark and shady this late in the morning, but somehow you know it's futile.
The way she is grinning, you just know she was the one who chose the meeting spot.
Car doors slamming interrupt your train of thought, as you see three figures quickly approach. Two of them fan out to cover your little group from the sides, while the central figure stops and points a gun at you.
Wait, what?
"Identify yourselves!" a firm, female voice commands, while your eyes start darting around taking details in.
In front of you is a sharply dressed woman in glasses, who from her bearing and striking resemblance to your mother, is probably the person in charge. She also had a gun, firmly trained on you-no, not on you. It's pointed at Shinobu.
The other two figures are men, more what most would expect of police officers, with the slightly doughy look one often gets in their thirties. They have bigger guns trained on you and Episode, though you don't know the word for them. Small enough to hide under their jackets, but held more menacingly.
The type of gun in movies that the hero uses to mow down waves of bad guys, but when the bad guys use them never seem to hit anything.
You don't think real life is so one sided.
"It's me!" Shinobu says with exasperation, but that doesn't seem to reduce the tension.
"Identify yourself," the command is repeated, with more focus being drawn to Shinobu than before.
"I am dubbed Shinobu in this country, Captain Kirihara of the Shinobu Investigation and Support Squad," she says, suddenly brandishing her katana from nowhere, "that Shinobu."
"You may look similar, but you're clearly not the same person," One of the men interjects.
...
Shinobu blinks at him before looking down at herself.
Right. She had de-aged somewhat.
"Uh, that might be my fault..." you begin to say, at which point every gun promptly switches to pointing at you.
Perhaps that had been a mistake.
"Shut up, idiot!" Shinobu mutters at you, before biting her thumb as she begins thinking intently.
You feel a trickle of sweat fall down your back, as you're left with nothing to do but nervously look between the three police officers.
It's not that you don't trust Shinobu, but, well...
She just hasn't been giving off a very reliable air so far, and she has a very uncertain look on her face as she glances back at you and Episode.
"Fine," Shinobu huffs as she drives her katana into the pavement before her. "The passcode in my file is fake, but it is "If ever one good deed I did, I do repent it from my very soul," but my real passcode..."
Shinobu straightens her shoulders, dramatically takes a step forward, lifts up her chin and begins singing.
"Happiness doesn't walk to me, because I'm walking to it. One day, one step. Three steps in three days. Three steps forward, two steps back, life's a one-two punch~!" she finishes with a dramatic punch at thin air.
What.
Did that really happen?
Silence envelopes the scene for a moment, and you realize the police officers have lowered their guns, and one of the men has facepalmed.
"That's hilarious! What a ridiculous passcode," Episode lets out as he begins laughing.
"Shut up! It was cool. I was going to wait a few more months, and then surprise everyone! But waiting wasn't needed!" she says triumphantly. "All of them are shocked speechless, because they thought I never learned it in the first place, but instead I knew it flawlessly!"
You overhear one of the men muttering "She didn't need to sing it..."
"Identity confirmed," Captain Kirihara cuts in, looking very put upon, "Even without the passcode, there can be no doubt it's you. Can you fill us in on what's going on?"
"Certainly, captain! I almost died and thus lost a small portion of my power, which changed how I look" she says nonchalantly before gesturing to you, "I was saved by this contractor, who I have drafted and the battle was witnessed by this perfectly ordinary school boy," she finishes, gesturing at Episode. "If thou wants the details, just ask my new subordinate. I shall be resting. It is daytime, after all," she finishes, waltzing over and sitting down with her back against a support column.
If she isn't a real vampire, why does she sleep during the day?
More importantly, why do you have to explain everything?! You barely know what's going on!
But it looks like you have no choice.
What do you leave out? (Voting by plan. Leave out as much or as little as you like~!)
[] Nothing. Leave nothing out.
[] Leave out why you were out so late at night.
[] Leave out your real identity.
[] Leave out your wish.
[] Leave out Hachikuji's existence
[] Leave out saving Episode.
[] Leave out Episode's identity.
[] Leave out that it was you who killed Guillotinecutter and Dramiturgie.
[] Write-in something else to leave out.
Well, I'd say take your time, but that can turn out being much longer than you might intend, as we clearly see.
More seriously, yeah, I expect people might need to do a little rereading. It's not like I remembered everything when I started writing again (though I did have that interlude in my head, gnawing away, relentlessly).
[X] Leave out your real identity.
[X] Leave out your wish.
[X] Leave out Hachikuji's existence
[X] Leave out saving Episode.
[X] Leave out Episode's identity.
[X] Leave out why you were out so late at night.
[X] Leave out your wish.
[X] Leave out Hachikuji's existence
[X] Leave out saving Episode.
[X] Leave out Episode's identity.
This hopefully gives them enough information to satisfy them. Leaving out our identity is pointless because they've seen our face, and from the looks of things Shinobu works with these people at least some of the time and so they'd probably figure out who we were anyway.
[X] Nothing. Leave nothing out.
[X] Leave out your real identity.
[X] Leave out your wish.
[X] Leave out Hachikuji's existence
[X] Leave out saving Episode.
[X] Leave out Episode's identity.
I'm happy to have my first vote! However, you're voting to both tell them everything, and to not tell them certain things. I'm a little confused at what you want.
This hopefully gives them enough information to satisfy them. Leaving out our identity is pointless because they've seen our face, and from the looks of things Shinobu works with these people at least some of the time and so they'd probably figure out who we were anyway.
Ah, interesting. *vague QM noises to cast doubt and arise paranoia*
Oh! Something I meant to say along with the vote, but y'all are out of the prologue. Every choice has consequences, even if they're not immediately apparent. Other characters have their own agency and ideas, like your sister needing to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and running into Shinobu and being convinced that Shinobu is your girlfriend. There's also natural consequences, like since your sisters knew you snuck a girl over, they didn't wake you up like they normally do, which means they don't realize that you also had Episode in your room, and your parents just think you're a normal terrible son instead of thinking something more serious and sinister is going on.
So what type of information is given to the national police, and from what source, and when they hear it, all matter. Remember, you've been drafted, so unless you slip away at some point, you'll have to work for the government in some capacity.
[X] Leave out why you were out so late at night.
[X] Leave out your wish.
[X] Leave out Hachikuji's existence
[X] Leave out saving Episode.
[X] Leave out Episode's identity.
