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“You're welcomed into Attro City.” Wyra the constable pats Chip gently on the back, driving a hand into his skin.
“Ha, you too Wyra!”
He steps through the velvety draw rope into the bustling city of Attro. In just a few short hours the town parade would start, and maybe just maybe if Chip was lucky he’d catch sight of his missing wife Carol.
He turns around, to ask Wyra and the other guard if they’d seen the tiefling woman around anywhere, but the guards are preoccupied. They speak low and serious in a scorched tone full of malice.
“Where are your papers?”
His eyebrows raise across the bridge of his face. Papers? Since when did you need papers to get into attro?
He looks down at the girl. A small half elf, with wavy golden blond hair. A stout round face with a chin like a pinched round of dough.
Chip had always had a soft spot for children. He’d only taken out a few of them in his days.
“I don't have papers! I'm a citizen! I have been since I was small. I'm only 11.”
Shoot dangit. She's young. What's she doing here all alone?
“Well we’ll have to go through your bag.” The slender moon elf guard- the one opposite of Wyra seizes her bookbag and starts to search through it. She removes a vial from her pack.
“Whats this?”
THe girl's pale blue eyes (or the one eye not covered by soft hair) widens. “That- that is my medicine! I have social anxiety! Big crowds startle me.” Her accent rolls thick as she sits on her tip toes.
“We're going to have to take it. You can buy it back inside of the city.’
THe girls cheeks puff red in indignation. “Thats- thats illegal!”
“We don't take too kindly to your kind here.”
Chips blood freezes solid. How many times had he heard that in his life? As a child?
They charge her a silver. Rob a little girl for something about her- something he notes as her fangs. A vampire from the Vanian area.
Chip swallows. And definitely to everything he's been taught , reaches to the belt of the moon elf behind him. With deft fingers he loops his digits across the smooth glass of the vial and pinches at the silver in the seam line of the bag until he secures both. He moves back and saunters away from the guards.
Wyra touches his back, and he jumps. He expects to be caught, failure to sneak having got him, but instead he gets a warm breath on the nape of his neck.
“Look after that girl, we think she's trouble.”
He swallows hard in the back of his throat. “Uhuh.” he doesn't nod, or agree in any way, just pulling away from the touch. “How bout you get back to work, bud?”
He walks forward more to the girl and bends down on slightly achy knees. “Hey- uh, kiddo.” His tone is somber and reflective.
“You uh- those people up there, I saw they weren't very nice ta ya. I stole your medicine back, so uh- you have a great time here at this parade then!” He hands the vile back with a forced cheer. Her eyes go wide and raw with joy. Her head tilts up.
“Oh- i- thank you.” Its clear shes forcing her voice a bit deeper- to sound more sturdy. Her four foot statue doesn't help much with it, though. “Nobodys- ever done this kind of thing for me before.”
“No probma” He waves a hand dismissivly. “Chip Haney. Pleasure to meet ya.”
“Im ellga. Ellga Von Brath.”
He offers a well meaning smile.
“Well, ellga. What's a young lady like you doing all alone in a place like this?”
~~~
“You know, Mon Ami” Ellga tilts her head up as Mathilde starts talking. They’ve been walking for hours now, into the borders of Maschetten- the region of Abominations. The city is nice- if not a bit ash covered from some stranger geologic events.
Ellga stretches her legs, sore from the long train ride from Attro. Barney hums- the old man's weak hands gripping on his walker.
“I could go for a bite to eat, you know.” He interrupts Mathilde's half formed thought. THe arrokoras feathered brow drops low.
“Well, Yes, I suppose you could but we ‘have to be.. Brief here. Maschetten may be technologically advanced but- its not very open to outsiders.”
Mathilde shoots a glance at Chip's way. The tiefling straightens his back. He reaches into his pack.
“Mathilde is right , barns. I’ve got a ration pack on me, just have some of that.” The young man extends a wrapped cloth with some sort of food in it. Barney squints. “Why thank you, Chip.”
Chip gives a wide smile. “Anytime , old timer.”
They keep a generally fast pace as they walk through the city, carrying through with their mission of freedom from an accusation. Ellga had done crimes in her life, but being accused of assassinry was something else entirely. Especially on someone so influential as the wulfman.
I'd be good to get this over with. But she's starting to get a little woozy. She could use blood- somewhere to refuel. They could all use some rest after the prison break in Attro.
They are busy past a small restaurant- a pop in place on the border of one of those roads, with electric wowing bulbs illuminating through the dark fog and ash. I'd be nice to stop.
She reads a sign printed in bold red letters, barely visible in the thicket.
No fail-births allowed.
“Are you making it alright, ellga?” Barney turns around, glancing at her.
“Yeah, I'm coming.” SHe nods.
“Mathilde what does that sign-”
“Hey ellga!” Her question is interrupted by Chip turning on his heel, hood pulled up over his face. His horns push up under the blue fabric, making a goofy looking tent at the top of his head. He tilts it.
“Pretty funny, No?”
She laughs just a little. Ellga has been alive for a long time, but she's not immune to laughing at things like that. So she does. And for now she doesn't bother with questioning it any farther.
~~~
bahahaha real
I started wrong i forgot what i was going to do and then i remembred
“Will that do it?” Chip gently tightens the pull on the cloth, tied against the thickest point of his forearm to stop the steady pitter of blood leaking down the off purple hue of his skin. He shakes out his hand over the cup, squeezing his hand just right so red leaks into the vessel.
It's nighttime now. I took camp somewhere quaint and quiet on the side of town. It's dark and foggy, the city of Maschetten illuminated dully in the far fog, the star that is twinkling faintly like a hung charm dashing light and swinging.
He offers the small cup to Ellga.
He doesn't like how pale she looks- and sure, she looks pale usually but particularly so now.
He knows she's a vampire. But he doesn't say anything about it. They’ve not known each other for too long , so he doesn't want to call too much attention to it.
She shifts, sitting on the rolled up ball of her cape, bringing the cup to her lips. It makes Chip feel just lightly sick, so he turns away.
They sit quietly for a minute. Those little bugs that idle in grass dig microscopic feet and teeth into the space between hairs and deep freckles on his legs , making a spot for themselves in his skin. He doesn't shift or try to stop it. He just lets it happen, watching the double moon hang low in the sky as they sit in silence.
“Thank you.” Ellga settles down her cup, wiping her face. He pats his arm right over the tie.
“No problem.” He keeps his tone quiet, neutral. He looks to the side at her, in the corner of his vision.
“Are you.. Really young like you look, ellga?”
She hums. “In a lot of ways. But also - not really.”
He hums. “Have you ever been able to get a job?”
She laughs. Not the childlike sweet thing he's already finding himself used to. Something old and sick with longevity. With a pull under it.
“No. People do not let …. My kind into those spaces. I've gotten into many fights over it.”
“...yeah, that sounds like you. Fighting over something hard to change. You're quite the barbarian.”
“Would you not? Fight if someone did that to you?”
He laughs, just a little. Matching her tone.
“I dunno what I'd do, ellga.”
~~~
“Are you going to tell one of your dumb stories again, Chip?”
Ellga gets onto her tip toes to better meet the ‘older’ man's eyes. The tieflings face pinches like a crumpled tissue, his footing loose as he steps across stones. They're in a new city now, a minor town. It's a quiet walk, for now, a slight heaviness there at their lack of progress.
Ellga wants something to break the silence that isn't a fight.
“Well if you think they're stupid why would you ask?” His tone isn't mean, or even a little bit harsh but there's a slight bubble of hurt just teeming below the surface.
“Well I like stupid. We do hang out with Barney."
Mathilde laughs loudly, cawing into their sleeve. Barney doesn't hear them laughing or Ella's comment. Chip softens.
“Aye.. fine, fine. I’ll regale ya. So whataya want to know, kiddo?”
She shrugs her shoulders.
“Tell me about that school you went to. The one you're always talking about!”
“Yamford!” he grins. “You know I'm always willing to reminisce about the good ol’ glory days.” He says to her happily. They keep walking down paths, and Chip falls into an idle chatter about old College memories. He speaks about a lot of nothing for a while , but it fills the air. After around 10 minutes of going on he does say something that draws Ellga back in.
“I was the first member in my family to ever really go to college.”
She tilts her head. “I thought your parents were teachers though. How does that work?”
He hums. “Back where I come from there are- different places. “ He deliberates. “Education for wizards was the priority back home- we were known for it. So different credentials were put in place. Most people were made into wizards so the regular schooling credentials were- less important. Normal teachers were needed but in a shorter supply- my father was already a coach and my ma got through basic school fine so they had their way into it all.”
Ellga hums , listening to him intently. Chip closes his eyes.
“Why aren't you a wizard, then? Yamford sounds like an important school- why not go to one of the important ones in your city?”
HIs knuckles are white. “Ah, well. Wizarding schools are- hard to get into. Don't have the brains for that.” He laughs. “But- my parents were really proud of me anyways. My old man was a real hard head- never smiled for nothing. But you shoulda seen him megawatt at me when i got in. Oh I was just - giddy!”
“Do they know?”
He pauses. She continues. “About your job now.” I'd become aware of the party- or more so Ellga and Mathilde - of chip nature. Or more over his Ex occupation. Nobody moves the way he does and has no story to it- and assassinry is a commodity well needed in this day in age.
“Ah, well. No.”
“Why not?”
He rubs his neck, laughing. “Well I don't want them to stop being proud of me, Ellgs. I may be your elder but I still care about what my folks think.”
“Why wouldn't they be proud? It's not an uncommon job. “ Ellga's father had encountered many of them in his long life span.
“Well- they are! They- your parents should always care aboutcha, no matter what you do. It's just different for tieflings- different for me. I dunno.”
“Do you not want to be seen as violent anymore?”
He touches the back of his horns. “Yeah, something like that.”
Ellga looks down- at her perpetually small body. One that won't grow with the years.
“I get it. I think. I don't want people to think I'm only evil either.”
~~~
“Who let the blood sucker into Karkasukk?”
Chip's blood goes cold in his veins, as he half turns. They hadn’t been in karkasukk for more than an hour when the comment came flying at Ellga. She was covered in desert ready clothes, but even that couldn't protect her from the comments.
Chip braces. He's more than used to unkind words about his species, but ellga is young. Grantid, not as young as she looks, but still of a younger mind deep inside. And he doesn't know how she’ll handle this.
Against her nature, back in the city, she’d taken it quietly. Maybe she feels a deep routed sense of-
“Who do you think you're talking to?” She huffs in the face of the marketer standing at her front, face in a defiant pout. Chip swallows. The marketer repeats himself.
“You're a vampire. We don't like your kind.”
“Why not? Worried I'll bite you?” She steps forward, bearing her teeth. The man takes a scared step back, and slinks back in the walls of the desert city.
It was so easy. It was her. So defiant and so easy- and she laughs like it was nothing at all. No hesitation, to weigh her.
It's nothing like how he would’ve handled that. That's such a good thing.
He smiles. He can't help it. He takes her in by the shoulders.
“I am SO proud of you, Kiddo!” He beams. She raises an eyebrow.
“For what?”
~~~
“Look, Chip.” Nevlock- a fellow Dagger agent sighs to him, pointing at the city line.
“You're the best. Like- seriously, the best in the buisness.” He repeats with a kind smile.
“Literally my idle.”
Mathilde sighs. “We understood that after the seventh thing you had ‘im signed.”
“Sorry.” Nevlock answered apologetically. “I'm just really jazzed to meet the guy! But - look. You said you wanted to sneak into that armoury?”
Chip nods. “That's the goal, Yeah.” hes really keen on making necklock like him- or at the very least think that he's cool.
He's felt far too much shame recently to miss the chance.
“That's totally cool. And I wish I could see you on a solo stealth mission.”
He raises a brow.
“Why cantcha?”
Nevolock's face sours behind his false mummy wraps. “Ive been under deep cover a LONG time here, Haney. I know how these people are.”
Chips face sour.
“You mean?”
“I do.”
Ellga, who’d been silently drinking from a discreet cup (though the streak of red on her chin was.. Less so) pipes up.
“Mean what?”
Chip sighs. He really wants to keep her out of this. Mathilde has other ideas.
“Tiefling racism is ah- a bit bigger in these areas, Ellga. We were worried he’d get into more trouble than we would if he was caught. You understand?”
Chip hears the wheels in Ellga's mind turn. She looks over to Chip.
“So? Why not punch them in the face then? Or just be extra sneaky like you were in Attro.”
He softens. “Well it's just- it's not easy like that ellga.”
“It's plenty easy for me!”
“He doesn't carry an axe the same size of his body though, little lady.” nevlock supplies very helpfully.
“Yes, right.” A faint twitch wedges under his brow. “I'm very out of shape and off my game and I'm not strong so it's a bigger deal if I get caught.” He elaborates in a quick snip. Mathilde has the decency to pretend to look guilty at irritating him. Nobody else does.
“You're not weak! You're the greatest assassin in the world!” Nevlock geers. It's untrue, but not that far from the truth. Chip sighs, feeling the old patterned sting of crimes past on his hands.
“I was. It's different now. I don't want to go down that path. We’ll just be quiet.”
We’ll just sneak. The perfect victim is a quiet one, after all.
~~~
“I - i Just don't know- I cant with you, Ellga!" Barney's voice is shrill, raised high and pointed at the little “girl” in front of him.
Barney is an older man. Chip knows this. He's got terrible memory loss, and a long complicated past, and he may or may not be dead.
Barney is complicated- and finding out your teammate is a vampire is a hard thing to do. But seeing this is breaking his heart.
Mathilde stands to the side, their feathers fluffing up anxiously as Barney yells. Ellga stammers, her usual confident demeanor shattered like broken loose glass.
“I didn't- I- Barney. I am not like- Im not-”
“VAMPIRES KILLED MY FAMILY , ELLGA!” He points a defiant finger in her face, trembling. The normal cataract haze that clouds his vision- the old feebleness in his eyes clear. His eyes remain sharp and pointed as he stares her down.
“I- I know- But not all vampires are bad!”
“But you all drink blood!”
Chip sets a heavy hand on Ellga's shoulder. “Barney.” He keeps his tone stern but not quite aggressive.
“Thats enough.”
The old man Rounds onto Chip, a real venom to his tone, sick and angry. He can't blame him, he really can't, but the fierceness in which he comes at the chip is … familiar.
“You knew, didn't you!”
Mathilde turns their head slightly at Chip. He swallows. “I- Yes, Barney I knew. I might not be the brightest but I could tell. And it's fine. If she-” He doesn't say it. He can't say it. Mathilde takes that burden themselves.
“If ellga was going to hurt any of us, she would’ve already. You don't ‘ave to like it, but we're together’ till the mission is over.”
Barney huffs, the wrinkles of his face finally softening into one uneven plain. He turns away from a lot of them.
“Just don't blood suck in front of me.” He spits.
Ellga sighs, but she doesn't keep talking. They walk in silence. Chip allows himself to fall back to her and pat her back.
“You did good back there, Kiddo.”
She doesn't reply back.
~~~
“Return to them. Find my handler.”
Those words had replayed in my mind so many times. Since on the mountain- those last sweet moments with his wife. HIs one and only.
She died. And he still hardly believes it as he thinks it- even though it's just about the only thing he's thought about in the day since.
Carol. His lover. His life in one breath.
He can remember her just how she was on that spring morning.
He's an idiot. He was hardly smart enough to get into college- his only real achievement outside of his job. He's not got a great memory anymore. So many injuries will do that, he supposes. But he remembers anyway. The exact way she’d been the last day he’d seen her truly alive.
Her skin was pink. He loved that about her. That soft near red- with slightly darker freckles across the apples of her cheeks and dark horns in a sort of bent skewer shape at the crown of her head. A slightly crooked nose from a punch in the face settled wrong, but still charming as it evened out the space between her almond ambered eyes. Thick lashes and a curved face with slight jowls in the muscle of her chin. He longed to plant a kiss there one last time.
She had long hair- when she leaned down close in a chair to focus on reading I'd brush on the bone of her hip- usually pulled up into a braid of sweet ginger strands. She’d had it sitting on the left side of her body, so it wouldn't cover where she kept her tactician gear attached to her chest banding.
She’d been wearing mission clothes the day before she’d gone missing. Clothes they swore they’d never wear again when they ran away together.
He didn't say anything. Maybe if he wasn't so preoccupied, he would've noticed. Maybe he would’ve seen that steady furrow to her brow if he only looked closer.
Chip didn't long to be a lot of things in his adult life- and it's not like he could anyways.
There wasn't much for a tiefling to dream for, and he made his peace with that a long long time ago. It wasn't anything new- an old wound that didn't sting. He never felt it seriously like a punch to the gut- just dull. A thin ache under his skin.
DAGGR. His clan of words had found him out of college. He was poor- that much was true. An education is an expensive thing, especially out of his home. But there was no way any college in his town would accept him.
He was too Hellish. He was too stupid.
They wouldn't want him. And they didn't need him.
DAGGR did.
They saw his skill, His nature. They looked through the hand crafted facade he’d made for himself. The sweet family man looked like he was clutched close to himself. He made himself approachable , calm. A model minority. Nobody would have anything to be mad at him for.
Nobody would know that he gave in. He did what every stereotype he tried to fight said he would.
He got into crime. Not that he could help it. And he's more ashamed in the pride he took in it than the fact he did it at all. Was it really just falling on hard times if he liked the thrill of it?
Maybe he is evil.
Maybe it doesn't matter.
Carol was a hag.
He took a book from one of the libraries in karkasukk. He’d been thumbing through it. He’d seen his lover's true nature before even knowing it was important. Before even knowing she was soon to die.
A hag.
His wife was taken from her family as an infant.
His wife was eaten, consumed as a child. Transformed into a wicked creature.
But his Carol was never NEVER wicked. Even in her career- he never saw her take joy in it. SHe was groomed into the career, molded under it. Taught that everything she was is something to be completely ashamed of.
THey made her a monster. Not by blood, but by the way she must have felt. The way she saw herself was an infestation that stayed with her until she drew her last breath.
He didn't do anything to help her.
Because chip haney has never successfully helped anyone. Not even himself.
At every turn, he's made the worst choice. And that's all he's capable of.
His wife had a handler. Someone who controlled her like an animal.
The real animal is him.
He took delight in his job. No hesitation he felt was real. He didn't notice their suffering- he's sure. He couldn't have. He didn't notice carols and now shes-
He doesn't want to think about it too loudly. He's already so sick with it in his head, like cotton stuffed in every inch of his face.
He thinks about talking with Ellga. Back when he thought he still had one happy ending left in him.
He talked to her about college. Something she’d never get to reach because of her nature. He talked to her about how proud his parents were of him. Of his achievement.
Would they still be proud now?
He wanted to be a chef as a child. Use the magic he was sure he’d get to learn back home and make something special. Be someone. But most of all- above any other acclaim in his dreams or in his reality-
He’d wanted to be a good spouse.
And he failed.
He really is a Failbirth.
Just like tieflings are called.
~~~
She made up with Barney after their fight.
But it was scary for a while.
And now she doesn't know what to think.
Barney is her father. Her real one.
Her name is Caliope.
300 years ago, she’d been taken from him. By vampires.
She was a little girl once. A normal little girl. She had a father, a mother, and two brothers. Brothers that could have been in the walls of her home. That died. Barney died. He was killed trying to save her- and revived to be framed for a murder he did not commit.
She can't imagine how he feels.
Actually, he can. He feels scared. By what she is now. He's scared of his own daughter.
He knows now - he must. But with the failure of his memory- he could forget in days. He could forget in hours. Forget who she is to him. And she will never forget. Because she's forever 11.
Forever like this. Because of them. Because of vampires.
She defended herself. She always did or always tried. From those people who say horrible things about her kind. If there's one thing ellga von Brath is good at , it's picking a fight.
Von brath. What a horrible name.
One that belongs to her father. Or the one that she thought was her father.
The evil man who took her family away. And she looked up to him. Like a father. She listened to him, heeded his word for generations.
He told her to always drink her fluids. Always sharpen her axe.
Keep drinking blood. The thing that makes her the monster that doomed them all. To sharpen her axe. The one she was always hasty to raise. To fight with. She always wanted to fight ,and maybe just maybe it's because she was made to be this. To be the picture of evil.
Her father- No. The count was an evil man in every way that evil could be. And she was being made in the model of him, braced and created just as he was. A disgrace to humanity.
He ruined them. He was the source of her party's pain- her friends' suffering.
There's only one other person that Ellga would consider like a father- Chip.
And she can't even think of how that must make Barney feel. That she doesn't see him like the father he is to her- that he may still look exactly like her little girl but time destroyed any memory he had of it. That she doesn't see that in him and instead finds it in another place, and that all he can think of her is a monster.
And that he isn't wrong to think that.
How long until Chip starts to think ill of her too? It was the pressure of her father and another that caused his wife to die.
She saw the way he was after that, the scars literally and mentally that scattered across him.
SHe wouldnt forgive her, Barney wouldn't either.
Nobody would.
And they're all right.
There's no fighting left for Ellga von brath.
The only person who needs her directed rage is herself.
~~~
“We’ve got to be careful in this area.” Mathilde sounds cautiously through their beak. “Faunalock is a very… religious area. They won't take kindly to us.”
Chip looks to the side at ellga , staring at her defeated frame. The sick sad way she holds herself. She looks exhausted. Chip is sure he doesn't look much better. He absently rubs at the new scars in the meat of his thigh.
“When have they?” He breaths, passive aggressive. Passive aggressive because the regular kind is unwanted with the type of person he is- with the shape of his horns and the point of his tail.
Ellga is the only one who laughs. Even then, it's that sad laugh.
He's getting used to it.
He wishes he wouldn't.
They get into town. Within ten minutes the first comment comes to him, a scoff under the breath about a hellspawn. He doesn't bother with drawing up his eyes.
In the next moment, perhaps because she uncovered her face as she glanced up at the crowds and the bustling city, Ellga is revealed. A haughty uptight woman passing by scoffs, hand to her heart like there's something threatening.
“I can't believe we let blood suckers in our walls.”
Chip looks. And he waits expectantly for… something. For a reaction. For her normal spite and back talk.
Nothing comes.
Nothing changes in the way ellga looks , except a sadness to the eyes. The same one that clouds her laugh.
She looks her age now. He hates it.
He moves a hand down to hold her own, squeezing. Cold undead hands meeting infernally warm. He whispers.
“You're alright, Kiddo. I'm here.”
Ellga glances up to him, her face dirty with tracks of old tears. He can imagine he looks just like her then.
“People will stare.”
He closes his eyes.
He's been a rogue almost his entire life. Someone designed to hide in the shadows. Molded by the dark spaces where people like him supposedly belong.
He's supposed to hide away from people. He isn't bold like ellga is.
She always stood in defence of herself. In the light when her very biology dictated her forever to the darkness.
She was always defying her nature. Both being exactly how she is and yet denying what's seen so bad about vampires.
She won't now,
And he can't help but think he led her there.
He never wanted people to be right about him. A two sided personality. Existing in two extremes. He didn't want what he was to ever rule what people thought of him , so he didn't. He could both exist in public and in the shade.
But he’d rejected that. He’d rejected crime- rejected the assumption that people like him were made for bad things. He’d done it for love.
Would the love of his life want him defying her wishes like this? Would she want him to continue sitting and waiting?
He’ll always wait for her, but she wouldn’t want him to just stop.
She was her first love. But he can't deny the fact that he loves his party.
He loves Ellga like a child.
He can't fail his love twice.
“It's disgusting that they let people like that into here.”
THe comment would normally fly around him. Touch down in his brain and splatter to the side like blood. He wouldn't let it get to him.
But right now, Ellga would.
She needs his help. And he's going to.
“Well ellga.” he addresses what he said- about people staring with finality.
“Fuck those people.”
He doesn't cuss. Or he makes a stand at trying not to. She's shocked by it.
She’ll be shocked by him standing up for himself, standing up for her. And he hates that, but he can at least make it better now while he still has the time to.
He squeezes her hand, and then draws it away, unsheathing the blade on his arm.
“Wheres your axe kid?”
“I had mathilde hang onto it for me.” She answers curtly.
“Grab it, and get it sharpened. I'm gonna teach you how to carol and I would intimidate our targets. I'm not going to let anybody tell you where you can and can't be.”
Her face turns down into a frown.
“It's so late into our mission- we don't want to cause attention.”
“We deserve attention. Were a vampire, a ghost , an old man and a damned tiefling walking around in the conservative centre of the world, Ellga! We were accused of taking out the biggest political figure in all of Grothe! And were- were still here.”
“We're still here.”
“You’ve been here a long time, legs. Don't stop enjoying it for my sake. You’ve got all the time in the world.”
“You don't.”
“No. But this is exactly how I want to spend it. THis isn't where were supposed to be. This isn't what we're supposed to do.”
“The people of faunalock don't want us here.”
Ellga smiles.
“So that's why we’ve got to stay.”