#don’t panic

[clumsiestgiantess]

Chapter eleven of the Other-world Universe; Alexis fucks around and finds out.

all chapters linked here

[Deer don’t carry phones]

After both me and Erica had finished our meals on the shore of the lake, I began packing everything away.  Maybe I still managed to save this little outing after all.  Erica seems to be enjoying herself now.  I turned from my bag to watch her pace the shoreline.  Suddenly, she stopped, picked up a smooth rock, and chucked it out across the water.  The small stone skidded across the still surface of the lake, skipping four times before disappearing under its rippling face.  I'd never really been able to skip rocks like that.  On my best try I'd got a total of two whole skips. 

A smile drifted onto my face as I inhaled a breath of warm air, high hopes restored.  Though it was the height of the summer day, the breeze off the lake was cool enough that you could barely feel the heat.  "Hey," I called over to Erica, "Do you think you could teach me how to do that?  I've never really managed to get them to skip very far."  Erica grinned, glancing back at me over her shoulder. "Sure, but first we have to find a rock big enough for you.  If we do, I bet you could make it all the way across the lake!"  I nodded and headed out to the woods, looking for a suitable stone.  "Make sure it's smooth and flat or it won't skip!" Erica called after me.  "I know," I replied absentmindedly.

Stepping lightly through the woods, I scoured the ground for a good rock.  I felled a few trees in my wake, but not so many that it simply looked like they'd fallen on their own.  After a few minutes of searching, I found a flat enough stone by a river that fed into the lake.  It had been worn smooth by the rushing water flowing past.  Once I dug it from the ground, I began my trip back to the beach where Erica was waiting.  I retraced my path back, trying to destroy as few trees as possible and sparing myself the tedious chore of carefully watching every step. 

As I came within sight of the beach, I waved to Erica and called: "Found one!"  She called back to me, but her voice was too small to carry very far. Picking up my pace so I could hear her, I didn’t bother to look at the ground. I nearly tripped on a tree and felt something crunch beneath my foot, but I took no notice of it now that the beach was only a few steps ahead of me.  "What took you so long?" Erica asked as I approached the shore, "There have to be hundreds of rocks in the woods."  I stepped back onto the sandy lakeshore and shrugged, "I couldn't find a flat one like you asked."  I was about to crack a joke when I noticed Erica's face was rapidly losing color.

I was on the ground in an instant.  "Erica, what's-"  "What is that?"  She had pointed behind me, so I stood and turned back the way I'd come.  Looking down on my footprints in the sand, it was clear that one of my feet was tracking crimson red across the clearing.  I lifted one foot, then the other.  The sole of my right shoe was stained a deep red color.  I dared to take a whiff; it smelled like fresh coins.. or blood. 

Charging back through the woods, I remembered the strange crunch I'd heard while I was heading back.  Upon returning to the spot, it became clear that I'd definitely stepped on a living thing.  Judging by the carnage, I'd likely crushed more than one little creature.  I knelt down to have a closer look, but it was hard to get low enough without laying down, which would lay waste to one third of the lakefront.  Poor forest creatures.  I'd probably stepped on a small herd of deer.  

Eventually, Erica burst through the woods, panting with exhaustion after running all the way there.  "What was it?" I asked, gesturing to the bloody mess on the forest floor, "I think I crushed a few deer but I'm not sure.  It's hard to see from up here."  Erica slowly approached the awful scene below.  Scanning the mess, she picked something up off the ground and sank to her knees.  I waited for her to speak, but after a few minutes, she still hadn't gotten up.  "Erica?" I voiced my concern.  Slowly, she stood and turned to me with a horrified expression.  "You killed them," she whispered, "These..  bodies.  They were people."

I could feel the groan building in my throat, but I held it back because Erica looked so crestfallen.  “Oh, I doubt they were.  I haven't seen anyone out here before, and you can't really tell what these things were based on that mess, can you?"  I tried to convince her that it wasn’t as big a deal as she made it out to be, but she placed something small into my outstretched hand, silently letting me examine it.  It was the item she'd picked up off the ground earlier.  I brought it up to my face to have a look.  The little thing was a phone — broken and crushed, but a phone nonetheless.  I blinked in shock.  "Deer don't carry phones," Erica said simply.

Shuttering, I dropped the tiny thing to the forest floor below.  Hesitantly bending down, I tried to get a better look at Erica’s reaction.  It was still rather difficult to get close enough to the ground with all the large trees surrounding me, but I could already tell she was upset.  “It’s alright,” I assured her, “Really.  It’s fine, see?”  I gestured around at the empty forest surrounding us.  “No one saw, and no one will find them until we’re long gone.”  Erica blinked, her expression slowly shifting from concern to confusion.  I waved a hand dismissively, “This happened all the time before.  It’ll be fine.”  

“What?” Erica whispered hoarsely. I flinched, catching my mistake. “You.. These were people. You just killed two people.”  “I know,” I replied, trying to shrug it off, “and once I clean up the bloody footprints, no one will know the difference.  People will probably think they got mauled by a bear or something and move on.” 

Erica began to back away from me, “But you just killed two people!  Don’t you care?!”  "Sure, of course I do."  Sighing, I watched as Erica retreated further back to the edge of the clearing.  I was hoping to take her attention away from the scene before she had the chance to fully comprehend it.  Accidents like these still happened on occasion; it’s nearly impossible to avoid without controlling someone — without intangibility.  "Look, it's best to just forget about it, ok?” I told her, dropping the nonchalance act.  “You get used to it after a while.  When you're my size, people just kinda.. get in the way and-"  "How many times has this happened?" Erica asked, cutting me off.  I shuddered, her voice was suddenly violent and harsh.  "It.. It doesn't matter, I-"  "HOW MANY TIMES HAS THIS HAPPENED!?"

If looks could kill, I would've dropped dead right then and there.  Now it was my turn to back away as Erica inched threateningly closer.  "I.. Um," I gulped.  I can't tell her the truth, I mean, I've lost count of the amount of times people have spontaneously died in my presence.  "How many times?  Um, this scenario specifically, or.."  "HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE YOU KILLED!?"  "Oh, uhh.. A lot?  I don't know, maybe like 20 or so?"  And that was an understatement.  I have ultimately just sealed my fate with that sentence.  

Instinctively, I braced myself, but Erica had gone quiet.  Then she laughed.  She started laughing loudly to herself, and it was making me extremely nervous for my own sake.  “Well, no wonder you don't care about them!" she chuckled, "You don't care about anyone!  You don't give two shits whether we live or die!  But who cares about us, anyway?  It's not like we have fucking lives or anything!  Sure, just go ahead and maul anyone who gets in your way."  I grimaced, "I.. That's not what I meant!"  Erica only shook her head and kept laughing.  It had built into a kind of maniac laughter that made my hair stand on end.  Terrified, I fled back to the beach and frantically began packing up.  

This is bad, this is bad, this is VERY BAD, THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I WAS TRYING TO ACHIEVE HERE!  I was almost finished stuffing my things away when the bag tipped over and sent everything tumbling out again.  I was too slow.  Erica had returned.  Her sudden laughter had long disappeared and she was out of breath and enraged, storming down the sand towards me.  "No!  I-  Please!  It's not what you think!" I begged, scrambling away from her.

"Did you ever actually care about me?"  I froze with her question hanging in the air, looking down at Erica slightly heartbroken.  "Of course I did!  I still do!"  "Yet you just step on people like we're nothing."  Sliding my bag to the side, I carefully inched closer, lowering myself down to look at her.  “But you're different."  Erica shook her head angrily, "No I'm not!  I am literally the same thing they are!  The only 'difference' is that you know me!"  

Seething, she took a threatening step forwards, hand less than an other-world inch from my face.  I hastily retreated back upwards, subconsciously dragging my backpack in front of me to protect myself.  “But it’s-  It’s not-”  “Shut up.”  I obeyed. 

"If you dropped me…  Back when we first met at my house and you still didn't really know me and you dangled me over the cliffside and threatened my life…  If you dropped me, is this how you would've reacted?  If I'd died-"  "It was an accident!  They all were!" I cried desperately.  "I DON’T FUCKING CARE IF IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" Erica screamed.  "If you killed me, accident or not, would you have just walked off?  Waited for someone to find my dead mangled body at the bottom of the cliff like you are with these people!?  Think about it.  Honestly.  When you didn't know me, would you have cared?"  Tears welled in the corners of my eyes and my vision grew blurry.  I tried to think up another excuse, but even if I had, I was too choked up to say another word.  My silence was all the answer she needed.  I wouldn't have cared.

I fled before she could see my utter meltdown. Abandoning Erica and my bag on the shore, I raced through the mountain range and hid in a shallow ravine between two jagged peaks.  Then, having harbored hundreds of horrible feelings for too long, I finally snapped.  I never cared about any of them other than her! I realized, choking on a sob that manifested in my throat.  And even then, I would have just moved on if she'd died.  Not anymore, of course, but I probably wouldn’t have cared before the rainy day when we spent practically the whole day getting to know eachother.  I shouldn’t even care this much. They're just plastic figures, aren't they?  They’re all fake.  They’re all fake.  Right!?  

Nothing could console me after that.  For hours I hid and cried, realizing what a horrible person I was.  Here I thought I’d actually changed.  Yet the longer I thought through things, the more horrible decisions and wrong choices emerged.  The longer I thought about the other-world, the more certain I became that it wasn’t just a lifelike recreation of the kids table in my world.  Sure, the table and this world were similar — both generic large cities — but they weren’t the same thing.  If they were, the small-world would have an abrupt end where the table cut off, the buildings would be identical rather than vaguely similar, and there would certainly be a lot more destruction from my brother.

Even the twin buildings, which I thought were a sure sign of the worlds being connected, were likely different too.  After all, don't most cities have the same structures, such as town halls and bus stops, or even an aquarium?  And the skyline — it was different.  I knew it was different.  Instead of realizing that something might be wrong with my logic once I noticed, I found another dumb thing to base my ideas off of instead.  All because I refused to believe I was wrong.  Things wouldn’t make sense anymore if I was wrong.  But I was wrong.

Similar, but different — the other-world is real.  

The cascades of tears on my cheeks paused for a brief moment as the reality of everything dawned on me.  Of course these people aren't plastic.  In this world they’re very real people of flesh and bone.  They have families and lives.  All things considered, they’re the same as anyone else from my own world, only smaller — helpless to stop me from making mistake after mistake.  I’ve been casually ignoring their deaths like they're nothing. But Erica.. she means everything to me. She’s so real I forgot she’s one of them.

After my face had finally dried and I had seemingly run out of tears to cry, I lay in the ravine, watching the sky.  The sun had long set; I'd been hiding there for hours, neither wanting to travel back to my world, nor return to the one I was in.  I simply sat there, staring at the stars, doubting every single choice I’d ever made.  The night dragged on, yet I refused to move.  It's actually pretty comfortable down here.  Four or five depressing hours passed as I lay in the ravine, thinking about nothing and everything at the same time.  Then I remembered Erica, who had no way home besides me.  Shit.

I sat up suddenly, gazing past the cliffs to the lake beyond.  Its glassy surface was practically glowing in the otherwise dark forest, lit by the almost-full moon.  Awful as I felt, I had to go back, lest I leave Erica stranded out there in the middle of the night.  

Hauling myself up by the side of a mountain, I stood and trudged slowly back to the lake.  Being so tall, I could see the beach long before I arrived.  A small figure raced into the woods, their silhouette dissolving within inky black shadows.  Sighing, I stepped over the last of the trees in front of me and sat on the sand.  I pulled my forgotten bag over my lap and listened to the peaceful humm of creatures at night.  Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled.  Goosebumps raced down my arms.

Regrettably, I had not come prepared with an apology for Erica.  I could barely process what I’d pieced together over the last few hours, nevermind trying to go through the now impossible task of explaining it all to her.  I was only there because Erica had no way to get back home, unless she wanted to hike the half day's journey through the mountains to civilization on her own.

I'd secretly been hoping that Erica would be the first to say something, so I wouldn't have to.  However, as the cold night continued, it became apparent that she refused to speak to me.  I turned towards the woods and watched as Erica quickly scrambled back into the dark. You idiot, she’s waiting for you. Say something.

"You need a way home," I observed.  Many of the hidden creatures around us silenced when I spoke, and the shore became eerily quiet.  "What would you c-care if I died out h- here?" Erica retorted.  Her voice sounded noticeably off, and as she stepped out into the pale moonlight, I realized she was shivering.  It had gotten rather cold by then — as mountains generally get at night — and she was still wearing the sleeveless shirt and shorts to combat the summer heat from earlier that day.  

"I know you're mad, that's completely understandable, but you're going to freeze out here.  Come back to the mansion with me."  I offered her a hand, but she scoffed and brushed past it.  "H-how come every time I g-get the chance to live my own life, I just end up listening t-to you, huh?"  Erica shivered, rubbing her hands over her bare shoulders in a feeble attempt to warm herself.  "You aren't even c-controlling me anymore, but I'm still not f-free from you.  I'm st-still forced to listen to you, because if I d-don't I'll be st-stuck here."  She shuddered as a cold wind swept through the beach from the woods.  “I guess that’s my f-fault for t-trusting you.”

Bending down, I ever so carefully placed a few fingers over Erica's arm to comfort her.  She was ice cold; I could feel her shivering beneath the pads of my fingers.  Erica pulled away from my hand for the briefest moment before changing her mind and leaning very slightly against me.  She needed the warmth. "I really wish I could've saved this, but I can't,” I whispered, my voice breaking at the last word.  “I hoped you would forgive me, but I can't even forgive myself."  Erica turned to face me.  I could feel tears welling in my eyes again, but I forced them down.  "I said I would leave — you told me to leave — but I came back because I thought…  Well, it doesn't matter what I thought.  I failed.  I failed you.  You and everyone else I've hurt."  I pulled away from her, my arm falling to my side, "I'll leave.  For real this time.  Then you won't be tempted to.. to listen to me."  

Everything became silent for so long that the chirping of invisible insects started back up.  Again, I offered Erica my hand, and this time she took it.  "Don't come back here," Erica said grimly, "I don't want to see you again."  I was already so numb from self-loathing that her words barely affected me.  What's a knife to the heart when it's already been torn from your chest?

Once Erica was settled down, I lightly clasped my hands around her to give her some warmth, which she reluctantly accepted.  I returned to invisibility so Erica could see what was happening through my fingers.  I remembered that was what she'd complained about last time.  Then, at a rather somber wandering pace, I headed for home.

By the light of the moon, I was able to find my way back to the mansion on the cliffside.  I stood hesitantly for a moment, realizing this would be our final goodbye.  Silently, I returned to my visible state, slowly opening my hands to reveal Erica tucked away in my cupped fingers, fast asleep.  She must’ve been exhausted, I realized; she was at that lake almost all day and halfway through the night.  Normally, she never would have dared to close her eyes while I held her.  

I wasn’t so selfish as to wake Erica up for a last goodbye.  Instead, I pushed open the balcony doors on the second floor and peered inside.  If I remembered correctly, this would be the bedroom.  Spying her bed on the opposite wall, I slowly slid my hand through the doorway and placed Erica inside, gently nudging her limp body onto the mattress.  My eyes teared up as I watched her subconsciously shift on her bed, tucking in on herself over the sheets, knees hugged tightly to her chest.  Her breathing sped up, and I was fairly sure she’d woken but didn’t want me to know.  Gently, I slid a blanket off her beanbag chair and draped it over her, silently trying to make peace one last time.  My breath came out in a wheezing shudder as tears finally leaked from my eyes.

After placing Erica in her bed, I waited quietly at the cliff’s edge for a moment, mulling over the events of the day.  Twenty-four hours ago, we were both close friends.  At least, I thought we were.  That could never be, though.  It couldn’t happen with me — an invisible monster that hurts everyone in the end, one way or another.  After quietly closing the balcony doors, I backed away, taking in my last moments in the other-world.  I’ve said it before, but I really think this is it.  I’m never coming back here again.

[metalcatholic]

I’m trying to not be the default speaker when interacting with customer service professionals when I am out with my sister (deaf/blind/etc). Despite hanging back and letting her start the interaction off they still turn to me if they can’t understand her or whatever. I think I need to carry sign saying “talk to her not to me”

[mscrimsonpeaks]

I have 42 followers now. Sending a shout out to Douglas wherever his spirit may be in the galaxy.

[freddief4gb34r]

oh look, you made a mistake. do you hear that?… it’s the planet. it’s still spinning. it might suck now, and you may have messed up, but the earth will keep spinning and things can be fixed. your mistake isn’t the end of the world. it’ll be okay.

[moobrvoobl-moobmoob-oobmpoobroom]

backseat serenade, purple Gatorade, oh God I’m sick of sleeping alone…

[bobbie-robron]

Don’t let him get to you. He’s not worth it. (Part 2)

Tom blasts Jimmy for not having the deal ‘in the bag’ and all the Kings then consider where the leak may have come from… maybe Katie? But they put it down to the stolen laptop more or less. At the garage, Katie airs her concerns over possibly losing her job and having talked to Robert previously about the King development. Andy asks Daz about the Christmas bash just like Cain suggested. Robert runs off to Sadie over the land deal and it’s when they are outside that Andy (and Daz) spot closeness between the two. The Robert and Andy confrontation takes place in the next episode!

09-May-2005

[thcatplant]

What is this? Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy?

[autoneurotic]

homes, places we’ve grown, all of us are done for

[karmiccarcass]

Okay so

Koogi deactivated or made private her Twitter account. We don’t need to panic! Chances are, with the way Twitter is going, she decided to step back for the time being; which isn’t a bad thing! Twitter is a dumpster fire anyways, now more than ever.

That being said, relax and keep holding space for her and we will all support her, even if it’s from our own places and hearts!

[horizontalsplash]

step 1: don’t panic

step 2: do it

[motley-cunt]

danzig coded man

[bradandchris]

“It wasn’t the most ridiculous thing out there. Far from it.”

Brad then reminded Becky so far, the plan for human survival was a cave full of seeds in Iceland and some bunkers in New Zealand built by paranoid rich people with guns. He then restruck the pose.

“Now, what exactly did Becky have to say about the ‘outfit’ again? You know what, it doesn’t matter as no one needs to compete with zero coordination.”

Brad then turned to face Becky directly. “People go to jail for not having an emergency plan. What’s really messed up is nothing exists at the top level for all of us. Why was the human species as a whole so whacked anyway?”

Becky offered to get the next round of margaritas and motioned for Brad to rejoin his place in the cabana. Chris piped in to make them doubles then asked everyone where they should take that conversation. It was a pool day, the snarky could be tabled.

Brad thought it should go to Boise. Chris thought to shuffle it off to Buffalo citing his own disappointment in it’s obviousness. Becky didn’t know where to put it but thought enough to store it in Namibia. It was dry and sparsely populated so would preserve well.

She then guessed a doomsay plan could pass through countless generations unnoticed and undisturbed like Ring Around the Rosie. The coding on that was a bit whacked as the message did not make the impact it could have given it’s significance and pertinence to current global epidemics.

“It was from the Middle Ages so certainly credit could be given there. Did we need to attach trauma to children? It is safe to say there were no guns pointed at anyone.”

Becky went on to state the plague and assumed apocalypse remained daunting. To clear the way for the rest of their pool day while the larger whole got it’s act together, she suggested a temporary placeholder in lieu of a true master plan for the survival of the human species.

“It would need to be super simple and as close to universal as possible. Maybe a song is a good idea. Could we at least say, ‘Don’t panic.’ or ‘Florida is underwater. Think Nepal, not Naples.’

Becky took a sip of a now nearly toasted margarita.

“Of course, people would freak anyway, especially after discovering there was no master plan. It may though give us a moment of clarity before the madness where one out of 8 billion of us might just come up with a resolution.”

Becky further dove in the point explaining the problem even with her suggestions around all this lies exactly where it does in general, surfacing the best idea.

“The car alarm, censor/chat bots, a war on drugs, phone trees, microbeads in soap, beef hamburgers and the electric chair were lauded as genius at one juncture. The fact is the list is infinite, and we know better now. The more hoopla made over something, the more it felt like there was reason to question it.”

Becky then mentioned all the gimmicks around AI. “We really do not know what we are stepping into or better said, already have. For some time, no regulation existed around any of it. AI also did not automatically keep records in the same capacity as with previous technological advances. This was scary.”

All three were already well aware Brad and Chris’ issues with Tumblr stemmed out of bots and a culture difficult to interpret other than hellbent on efficiency and profit ironically at any cost to its own customers.

In an unrealized interruption, Brad interjected his shock, “I so did not associate the censorship with AI until now. That’s…. OMG. I mean… Look at the damage being done to the gay community alone. I didn’t place it. That hardly makes it any less real or hard hitting.”

Becky assured Brad in his reaction and offered some perspective as to what Brad and Chris faced. “There is not sufficient law, social construct, personal protection or compensation around AI. Overall, corporations and those of resource thus far have chosen censorship, ignorance, and to look out for themselves.”

She paused to readjust her composure into a near stand on her knees.

“That IS fear culture. Process exceeds person across the board here, and in the grand scheme everyone loses. You are literally taking the brunt here with your blog bradandchris.com.”

Seeing things materialize for the two, Becky switched gears quickly. “I say keep going. The Oregon Trail didn’t pop up out of nowhere. If you look around, you are not the only gays on the block either. Start your own thing or grind away just as the bots do to you. Eventually people pick up mirroring which is why we all do it where conversations can’t or do not happen for whatever reason.”

Becky scanned the pool looking for their server before returning her attention to Brad and Chris.

“To mirrors, why don’t you start Twittering? Musk is also weary of AI. You might find a home there. It would not hurt to try.”

Brad and Chris appreciated options and the former nodded in affirmation. The each knew they were not helpless, but not unaware any move required significant resources or losses.

As to her suggestion as to where to temporarily store the conversation of a need for master plan for a global emergency, Becky affirmed her choice in Africa. Humanity began on the very same soil, and the entire continent was bothering enough to take time for introspection.

She lived in South Africa for several years as a medical refugee from the United States Her insurance didn’t cover her condition and she needed to go somewhere cheap as well multicultural that came in English with a beach. It was that or Belize.

Chris who’d been quietly sunning at the edge of the cabana suddenly came to life. “Is that where ‘Please Belize’ came from? I’ve heard you say that and caught myself saying it. It’s mad addicting. I’ve tried to keep it to myself as I didn’t know what it meant. I forget to ask every time you are around. The last thing I need to do is offend more people out of the blue.”

Chris sat up to allow for his hands and arms to go full on Price is Right showcase. “I look really good in blue. Just look at my tiny swimmers.”

Becky nodded in affirmation took the last slip of the margarita in hand and motioned for the pool server that came into view to head their way. Satisfied they made contact and on their way over, she called Mars a ‘hellhole’ and reframed Twitter as a definite ‘maybe.’

She then mentioned she got her job assisting for Ralph Lauren after meeting him at the beach in Cape Town. That’s why she came back to the States. Her her stint abroad may also explain some oddities about her.

To bring everything full circle before the server arrived, Becky indicated her regret for using the Oregon Trail as an example. It wasn’t what she intended to say though she could not remember what that was. She pointed out while understandable as a selection, Boise left out half the population inclusive of herself, and that she didn’t know what a ‘shuffle’ was. It did not ring as something particularly evolutionary or bring much to her in terms of inspiration. It did remind her of apples for unknown reasons.

At the end of the day and to rest her case, it was fun to say Namibia.

“Namibia.”

Becky was so on her game.

[richo1915]

The Point of View gun was designed and created by the supercomputer Deep Thought before it had calculated of the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

It was a commission from the Intergalactic Consortium of Angry Housewives, who were tired of ending every argument with their husbands with the phrase "You just don't get it, do you?"

Prior to this, the Consortium had inadvertently sparked off the Great Gender War on planet Amazonia and the gun was seen as a more peaceful means to accomplish its aims.

The Consortium requested that the gun would only work on men, as they realised that the consequences could be disastrous if a man were to get ahold of it and "persuade the female population to put their feet up and forget the housework."

However, this wasn't necessary, as it was said that the gun had little effect on women, as their empathy levels were on average too high for the gun's circuitry to modify.

[marvelmusing]

Not to rub salt into everyone’s wounds after the last chapter of In Another Life but taylor swift’s anti hero….

I wake up screaming from dreaming, one day I’ll watch as you’re leaving cause you got tired of my scheming

Not gonna lie that kinda fits the reader

[leesargent]

Robot 7 of 100 - Marvin, the paranoid android from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)

Marvin is the first literary character that made me laugh out loud while reading a book (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe).

[neon-danger]

I woke up this morning thinking about starcrossed lovers and Richard and I-

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO