Stones and Scales- Closed RPG

The windowless temple smells like the sweat of a thousand worshippers, dried and absorbed across several millennia and closed for centuries. The flames of the candles weaken as they lick the air, a circle. The Silent Knight sits int he center his hands crossed on his knees, eyes closed and perfectly still, contrasted more so by the anxious flames.

*ftftft* An echo of foot steps fills the great room as the breeze shifts the direction of the flames, skirting and depleting the tips into plumes of silenced smoke, replaced by darkness.

His eyes, like cloves frozen in ice, finally open in the pitch blackness and take in the surroundings, his night vision already in effect thanks to the hour long deep meditation.

*Tftftftf*

*...SHLINK!*

He ducks, just barely in time, rolling forward to grab his blade off of the rack and unsheath it, a soft brown patch of hair the size of a brillo pad bouncing on the floor behind him. He turns on one knee and holds the katana across his head, just in time to block the attack of his assailant. The sparks from the blades fly so viciously they relight several candles, and Emeralds cheetah eyes flash into focus, her face still, bronze perfection, yet her eyes smiled with a menacing grin.

About a year ago, the man who is now the president forced the estranged Knightfall to undergo a painful and invasive surgery, that took him apart and only left a small portion of the man he once was. The rest was a finely tuned machine made for war, a bullet aimed at Newcastle's targets.

The bond between Max and Ashley...it was something that a sociopath like Animus couldn't account and therefore counter for. With her help, and his own natural healing factor, Max slowly but surely shed his metal frame, though some parts still lined his physique, scars of circuitry and iron that could never be completely healed without paralyzing him.

Since his body was not his own for so long Max needed retraining to do the simplest things, eventually finally reaching the hieght of his former natural abilities with the help, again, from his devoted fiance.

Standing with his blade at the pelvis Max spins it across his palm, "Come at me. "

Through a wall runs the black skin tight suited Emerald rushing at him with a blade. He ducks and rolls to the left, slicing at her torso as she phases through it. Her power came in handy when it was time to train, he didn't have to hold back, knowing that she couldn't be touched had it's advantage.

She runs through him, leaving a superficial slice on his back before phasing into the floor. "Sss" He hisses at the pain.

Max takes a deep breath, and refocuses with his eyes closed. Listening.

Thump thump

Her heart beats like a soft tap on marble

Thump thump

Thump thump thump thump

Spinning with mercurial speed he grabs her wrist, his blade hovering near her throat as he holds himself inches from her face, breathing heavily.

He kisses her, sharing a long silent stare, then smacking her ass as he walks towards the exit. "I think we're ready. "

“Of course we’re ready” She replied, allowing her hand to rest upon the curve of her slender waist. Many moons past since anyone last seen the Melanin Queen, shortly after her aiding Catalina and Retrofire in Columbia, Emerald fell off the grid. For some time now, she’d been engaged in the rehabilitation of her fiance, Maximus Newcastle—whose last name was cause more trouble than his willingness to search for adventure.

Emerald was no stranger to adventure herself, the 5’7 Braveheart General, found herself on multiple ends of assassination attempts, full blown gang wars with her former best friend, Ziccarra Liafador’s Red Cardinals, and a key activist in bringing down Thomas Animus’ presidency. For now, the last braveheart general was perfectly content conditioning Maximus back to his former performance.

“This training regimen is something serious, your reaction times, strength and even your endurance has increased exponentially. We'll have to test your stamina later” her soothing voice bounced off the hollow temple walls as she replied with a naughty grin. Pushing her frail frame just a few paces behind Max, she fix her caramel brown eyes on his frame; before releasing a serene smirk.

The sun hit his body in a way that everything from her perspective was cast in a shadow; she could only make out the detailed contour lines of his definite muscle structure. It was a pleasing sight, considering all he’d been through.

“I find it surprising that with everything they did to you, you still remembered me” She stated coyly folding her arms across her breast. “The last time I saw you before you were captured, we were set to get married. Then nothing.” She continued, this time she moved into the incandescent sun, allowing her body to become a shadow as well.

“I kept faith that I’d see you again, which I suppose is a good thing. With all that’s happened to me up to now. I don’t know if I would’ve had the strength to push forward anymore.” She admitted, taking a moment to look away.

Max was the only person on the planet to know of Ashley’s softer side and her turbulent past. Born the 2^nd child of wealthy international bankers.

Ashley’s parents were killed in what many would call political foul play. Her mother was the descendent of Cleopatra Thea, her father a belonging to a long lineage of Israeli bankers. Her sister’s whereabouts were unknown to all but hers.

“Maximus…I promise.” She started again, her voice soft and timid. “If something happens to you again, You better hope they kill you; because If not. I’ll save you, and then kill you myself” She jested throwing her slender arm around his waist. The innocuous calls of the savage land wildlife at this time of day were at its busiest.

“hmmm that’s odd…” She said, pulling away from him a bit, channeling her auditory reception abilities, an entire area of the land was “deaf” there was virtually no sound coming from the area at all, it almost as if the entire area had froze. “This better not be one of those unexpected events that we somehow have to solve to save the island…I was really hoping to get laid…” She huffed with her hands pressed against her hips.

"Ashley..." Max exhausts, turning away from the jungle, extending his own arms to rub hers, before leaning in and covering her entire body with his own, "I took you for granted. I chose the opportunity to know my father, and my past, over having a future with you and I regret...baby I regret everything that happened up to meeting him. But not one second with you. I almost, almost, feel grateful for the experience, just because it made us that much stronger." His lips press into the crook of her earlobe, the sharp diamond in her ear grazing his lips. He turns around and looks over the landscape, "But in the future, anybody shows up claiming me, let's just knee capp'em and skip the preamble." He laughs with a heavy smile. Like soldiers ought to smile, like a man who earned the right, and puts his arm out for her to join him, because she earned it just as much. In fact she owned it.

"Full disclosure...when we road the Varius here, it was in bad shape and could only get us so far. I didn't lie, so much as let you assume this was South America. But the truth is...we crashed somewhere over the arctic circle." Looking up at the blue sky, feeling the humid heat and scanning the green fuana, "This is the inside of a glacier we broke through on the way down" In the distance, there's a small hole that was almost invisible, a blackness outside of it as white flecks escape, and immediately turn into rain.

"We're inside some kind of enclosure, a self-contained eco-system either by design or by nature...and the Varius is totaled, the food is almost gone, and the water is down to the last bottle. We need to go find the missing pieces to the ship if we stand a chance of survival, and we need to check that deaf spot right away."

She nods, taking in all the information in stride, a little annoyed with his semi-dishonesty but still focused, taking a step out off the step,but Max grabs her arm, yanking her back, "Well, not right away," He says, grabbing her brown ass and throwing her in the air, catching her and cupping her thighs as she leans forward. They walk back into the shadows of the abandoned ancient ruins, and the howls of ecstacy, rising in tempo and volume with each soft smack that rippled though the air that escape sends the local wildlife cooing and scattering in the jungle around them.

Or perhaps it was something else.

Emerald combed through her tangled ebony tassels with an amorous grin on her melanin rich face. Once again they were on another seemingly theatric journey, but at this point she’d learned to expect it. Max and Emerald met each other in similar fashion, in search of Y intercept’s Green Dragon blade. “You know, this is almost sort of romantic” She said turning in his direction. “Oh how so?” He replied, placing a shape fit cotton shirt on his slightly metallic frame.

“We’re probably the only two people on the island; we pretty much have it all to ourselves.” She continued molding her long hair into a ponytail. “I’m actually excited to see what the hell is out here” She heard nothing from him, “Max?” She asked looking back in his direction. “Hold on” He replied, just below a whisper.

She stopped, she wanted to know his reasoning for the abrupt halt—he knew she didn’t like those. Emerald could hear things normal people couldn’t, as a sound manipulator she could retrofit her own auditory perception to hear the faintest of decibels.

“Let a pro handle this” She said, closing her eyes to listen to the ambient noises around them. The ruffling of the leaves temporarily through off her focus, but she was able to discriminate the sounds based off the ones she was familiar with—like a heartbeat and the subtle growl of a beast.

“Hun…something’s outside” She said, slowly shying in his direction. “Something big” Her eyes slowly dart towards the small the small temple windows. The silhouette of what she could only assume to be a dinosaur faintly pushes through the windows.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” She whispered, just before a Jurassic beast plowed through the rear end of the temple. “EM MOVE!” Max screamed, pushing the ebony beauty out of the way. Almost in perfect sync, Ashley executed a cartwheel, clearing enough distance to conjure electricity within her palms.

Thrusting her hands forward, she hit the massive dinosaur with electricity, which surprisingly didn’t seem to hurt it.

“Max not working!” she screamed, flailing her arms around trying to divert the massive beast attention to her.

BOOM

The temple entrance on the front side collapsed, this time the mighty T-rex stormed into the temple to join in on the would be feast.

In the back of the room Max hears the wall come down. He can feel the air rush past his feet kicking up dust and sand from old archaic architecture, but he didn't turn. Looking back wouldn't do him any favors, and right now Ashley was staring down some kind of Crocodilian love child of Godzilla. Her zaps weren't doing much, but enough to slow it's progression. yet each blast took energy out of her, and each pause for a half second to recharge her blasts left her slightly physically drained, and gave the beast that much more of an opportunity to move in on her and get what he was working so relentlessly to eat.

The T-rex is so close to Max's back he can feel it's hot breath pushing the beads of running sweat back up his shoulders, but he doesn't look back. "Ashley..." Max yells as he closes in on the back of the scaled beast that had her boxed in, "Phase...now!"

In sync like two dancers Ashley trusts his direction and falls into the floor, the Silent Knight running at his newly acquired top speed of 50 miles per hour to dash up the Crocodilian's tail, rising up it's back, to stand on the base of it's skull just before the spine met. His enhanced strength makes it manageable to grab the monsters neck so hard it cramps to the left and turns. Max opens his wrist, one of the few major "upgrades" that Thomas made that max didn't regret.

Lucy, the first of the twin gauntlet blades he managed to get out of the temple of the Jade Dragon ejected forward with it's gold hilt and glistening ethereal silver blade shining, sinking into the dino's spinal column and forcing it to turn in agony.

Just in time to meet the t-rex face to face. Doing a gymnastic level backflip off of it's shoulder max lands behind the T-rex as the two begin howling for dominance in his wake. Grabbing his black duffle bag full of supplies Max runs out of the hole the Reptile made.

Tails flip and jaws gnash, columns falling carelessly bringing the roof down little by little until the only one left standing was the sun.

"Ashley...? Ash!" Max yells looking around, "Ash!" He yells, just before feeling a a smack on his back thigh, turning to see her smiling with a smug little grin, "Girl...come here."

______________

"Sir...? J section just had two go down. Was pretty abrupt for the types. Should we send out a unit?"

"Pull up the Holo."

In the dark room only blue light from computer screens casts a beam, accented by the odd placed multicolored buttons the walls. A seemingly orrdinary table shoots rays of light out of it's edges, conjoining in the middle to build a layout of the rubble temple.

"Hm...send out a recon unit, and tell them to be thorough. I want the whole story of what went down in front of me like it was a damn comic strip...Find out exactly what caused this. We can't afford any hiccups at this stage in the plans."

“Max…those were fcking dinosaurs” The shock in her voice was obvious, where they hell were they? While dinosaurs were the last thing she expected to see, considering what the both of them had been through before crashing here, it wasn’t too weird.

The two of them were always on some sort of wild excursion; they were almost like The Wild Thornberry’s; only they had no kids and had copious amounts of recreational sex. Ashley loved nature, more than the urban jungle truthfully. Nature while in a sense was “predictably unpredictable; whereas humans were too impulsive to predict.

Pushing through the dense fauna hand in hand; with sweat gliding down their distinct ebony features, Ashley’s eyes dart toward the soil beneath them, soil that was becoming increasingly soggy indicating some sort of nearby watershed. “I think we’ll have to remember where this trail leads; this all looks like freshwater…well relatively anyway” She said turning her upper lip at the thought of actually drinking it.

“You, drinking swamp water? Right…” he teased lightly nudging against Ashley’s shoulder. “I know, I couldn’t believe myself when I said it; really I just wanted to prove that I actually learn something when you teach”

Her eyes dart to his schoolboy grin, before turning toward a thicket covered with berries. “Oh look berries!” Ashley screamed, she made a movement toward the bush only to be held back by Max’s powerful forearm.

“We’ve already seen two of the biggest carnivore’s around, I got a feeling another is in there” He said bending toward the ground to retrieve a few stones. With a simple flick of the wrist the stones landed in front of bush only to have multiple tiny little creatures emerge from the bush to converge on the pebble.

“…hmm…show how much I’ve been paying attention…” She said, watching as the mini versions of the T-rex returned to the bush.

“We better move to a better position, dusk is coming, and I’d hate to have to run into one of those things at night” Ashley said, throwing herself on Max’s back to be carried. “You lucky you don’t weigh that much, or your ass would be in this mud.” He said, pushing through the almost ankle deep mud.

“Then I would have to do your ass like that crocothing did that T-rex. Don’t make me put these paws on you” She goaded, being involuntarily bounced up and down by Max’s constant pace.

“You know out here, nature seems so pure. I can already hear the frogs moving through the tall grass. I can hear the wings of the lightning bugs slowly start to flutter. It’s almost overwhelming” She explained as he placed her feet back on the solid ground.

“That’s what weird about the whole ordeal, you were able to hear all that, but you couldn’t hear those dinosaurs approaching?”

Ashley took a moment to think, he was right. She couldn’t hear anything, nor could she hear the mini dinosaurs in the bush.

“I was having fun until you mentioned that…what’s the plan for getting out of here?”

--

“Someone was defiantly here” one of the guards deduced running his hands along the battle scarred walls. The armed units push through the temple gathering evidence to support that their little experiment was in danger of being out, but two apparent humans.

“Yep…footprints…” one of the commandos reported pointing in the direction Max and Ashley had traveled. “Maybe we could slow them down with something…raptors!”

--

"Max, what was your mother like?"

Max felt like a foreigner to love all his life; A boy raised in the dark and forged under sand in the place where a broken heart was nothing but an open point of weakness that needed to be stitched shut before the truth bled out. For a long time it was Spanish in China, unheard and useless. So he buried his emotions under two inches of steel and fabric, hid his expression under a helmet, and wore the demons on his back beneath a red cape and a sigil.

Until one day a long legged, cinnamon skinned bomb dropped across his path, and taught him those subtle prose in the language of the heart that only the natively loved and loving could ever comprehend with minute clarity. The first night they slept together was as real as it was metaphorical, slowly stripping away each others armor to stand naked and vulnerable to each other, and embrace every inch like it was their own reflection.

The fact that she had an ass like a candy apple was a bonus. "I'm beginning to think we're not the only people on this island. At first I thought this place was a fluke, an accident of nature. But the fact your powers didn't work, and the fact my upgrades did...? Seems like they were meant to be overlooked by metas, but still tracked by advanced tech, and I mean advanced babe. My attachments are based on Animus tech and cutting edge beta tech, and I still barely am reading a signature from these things. "

___________

"Releasing in 3...2...1. Green." Four cages open and release panther sized two legged lizards, dropping into an open field out of a small carrier ship of unknown origin and sniffing the air like the pack of predators they were bred to be. A clicking sound escaping their mouths as the brothers communicate, the one with the blue tint taking point and running into the tree line, kicking the smaller cousins that tried to nip their clawed heels

"They've got the scent, shouldn't be long before they drag back something fresh for us. " One helmeted soldier said looking at a tablet device with blipping markers on it's display.

Stepping down the ramp of the ship one of the soldiers, with bars that signified a level of authority took his helmet off and lowered his weapon but only slightly

"Stay on your toes boys, we know humans are deadlier than anything we've bred here. "

_________

"My mother...I never told you the story did I...?" He said, his head lowering just a little, that loss one that just could never heal over. "She was a Knightfall that went a different way. She believed in helping people, a very compassionate woman with thick skin that devoted her life to keeping strangers safe. She inspires me every time I wake up. But I never actually knew her...she was killed while I was still in the womb...I found out later it was by Thomas, my father." He hikes her up higher on his back as she slipped down, their sweaty bodies gliding against one another in the humid heat, "But Jaden, my adoptive father, told me she was as lethal with a blade as she was precise with a scalpel- She was a doctor working for the church. Her mission took her across the globe, all the way to Israel. That's where I was born. You would have liked each other I think baby. I really d-" Max stops dead in his mud caked tracks, as two soulless yellow eyes step out of the shadows, and stare at them like they were a plate of ground beef with a hotdog on top.

"Baby...?" Max says never breaking eye contact, bending down to the ground slowly. Ashley turns her head to her back, the heat of foul smelling breath just grazing her neck, another one behind her shoulder. "Climb"

Max LAUNCHES her into the air like a rocket into the tree tops as the Raptors converge with the speed of a steel trap from all corners, covering his body and diving their heads into his back, razor sharp teeth slicing at his deltoids, revealing a thin layer of metal beneath the surface, the only thing keeping these things from his internal organs...for now.

Soon his steps became rhythmic, the incessant bounce in his steps slowly lulling the melanin beauty into a twilight-like slumber. It was too easy to allow herself to slip into a state of vulnerability. Max usually brought that out of her, Ashley’s history with the Braveheart order to this day was an enigma. The years of her extensive training, following her parents death, saw the Jade warriors personality hardened through a series of trials—most dealing with the Red Cardinals.

She could go toe to toe with top tier martial artist and hold her own, and yet here she was allowing herself to be courted by someone who long held her heart. Ashley was more than capable of handling her own, but Max didn’t want her to; he was showing her she needn’t be so independent—because they were a team.

Lifting her head from his shoulder in interest, Ashley’s ears jerked at his explanation of his mother. She sounded sweet, which wasn’t a word she’d associate with the Knightfalls. Half-way through his explanation he halted, something within the shrubbery alert his senses. Whatever it was, Ashley picked up no sound from it.

They she saw them, slowly creeping through the forest moving into tactical positions. “Crap…” Ashley murmured realizing what these were. Raptors were amongst the most intelligent breed of dinosaur, they managed to track them down.

Upon Max’s instructions Ashley’s head peered toward the massive tree above her, as he crouch down, she shift to the balls of her feet; the moment he sent her flying, Ashley through her hands forward and snagged a tree branch to brace herself on.

“MAX!” she screamed, watching as the pack of raptors scratched and clawed at her fiancé. Keeping her head cool, she almost immediately drew up and idea. “SSss OCK, OCK OCK!” She called out, using her ability to manipulate sound to emulate the calls of the Raptors.

Taking advantage of the brief confusion on the Raptors, Ashley fired a volley of pure sonic energy parting the vicious creatures, dividing them so that they were now within range for her weapons.

Opening a Weston capsule, Ashley’s Yumi appeared in her hand, a massive long bow; used during imperil japan. Pulling back on the quiver, she fired powerful arrows into the neck of one raptor, and the side of another causing those two to back off in pain.

“MAX DOWN!”

She screamed again, channeling her “Cardinal Powers” with it electricity began to cackle in her hands, and it one push. Ashley illuminated the entire area with her powerful lightning strike.

"Damn baby- nice!" Max yells with an adrenal bass helicoptering his legs into a kneeling stance. His arm opens to reveal a fleshy synthetic tissue covering a a crystal blue sonic canon. A third Raptor leaps to go for his back again. max quickly fires a shotgun like recoiling sonic blast. The lizard reels back like a skipping stone on a pond until it goes limp against the base of a tree

Staying down Max watches the lightning splay out and hit all sides, illuminating the now dark forest. It sparked with intermittent light, strobing. Each time Max saw just how bad the situation was.

Dozens of monsters were converging on them and there was no escape route to take but up, and those giant toes on their feet were meant for more than attacking. They would find their way up eventually.

"Fuck it." Standing up the oft Silent Knight decides to leave his moniker in the mud behind him. Right now it was time to be heard.

His shirt flies off in tattered remains onto the ground, his sweat coated pectorals rippling with tension. It starts in the top of his abdomen, the two sliding out and to the sides to reveal a smooth shining metal casing with internal organs just beneath them. His chest follows suit, a steam escaping the peripherals as his pecs slide to the side and open to face his back, acting as shields.

His back opens like a sunroof to reveal what looked like the back of an amplifier, his chest revealing a sonic canon that dwarfed the one in his wrist. It began to spin with a whirring rush. His heart in a plexiglassesque case beats like a jack hammer. Stamped around the rim of the canon's exit was the Animus Corporation technologies brand name and insignia, "Baby, I think it's time you blew my back out for once. Scream as hard as you can!"

His feet buckle into the mud until they found solid earth and held firm and his ears plugged themselves

________________________________________________

"Wait! Quick, zoom in." The leading officer says jumping from his command chair and pressing his black snout into the hologram

"Zooming...zooming"

"Stop- He's got the creators mark! Oh hell, grab the gear and move out, double time! " The officer says putting a fear in his men, partial because they didn't understand how this intruder was involved with the master, and partial because they had never seen their leader so shaken

"Aw get the hell out of my way I'll do it myself. Stay here and guard the outpost incase they make their way out before I get there. I want updates by the half minute on their movements."

Hopping down from the platform the Leader transforms, his arms stretching out into something more human, his torso and other appendages growing as well. Hopping into a jeep he pushes the pedal down and rides into the forest following the tracks the raptors left in the tall grass.

Keeping tabs on Max’s condition, Ashley continued to fire swift arrow strikes at the swarming raptors. She knew they were territorial, but the tenaciousness in which they attacked made her question their true nature.

Pinned in from both sides, she could draw no escape route, her calculated lightning strikes served as nothing more than distractions; it was as if they were somehow immune to her abilities. Max fought arduously to keep the carnivores at bay, but he’d need help, help Ashley couldn’t give him perched in a tree.

Max’s body shifted to what she could only assume was a sonic amplifier, a fitting modification. As per his request, the Melanin Queen allowed copious amounts of air to fill her lungs; slightly arching her lithe frame Ashley released a disastrous sonic scream.

“SHREEEEEEE!!!!!” almost instantly her sound waves were absorbed and amplified by Maximus attachments, almost instantly the powerful sonic energy forcefully dispersed the hordes of dinosaurs, and flattened an entire 2 miles of the dense fauna.

The reverberations so powerful, they shattered the tree Ashley found solace on, executing a front flip she landed with her knuckles buried three inches in mud. “Maybe next time we lead with that” She said cautiously walking toward Max.

“Can we please just find the Varius, so we can get the fck out of here” Ashley whined, doing a complete 180 from her previous sentiment. Before she could say anything else, her eyes tilt downward, a subtle vibration within the forest floor alerted her to a fast moving vehicle.

“Shit, something’s coming!” She said, taking Max by the hand and sprinting toward east from their current location. “Something told me we weren’t the only humans on the island.” She said still sprinting to full form in front of Max, at least until they came to a massive body of water.

“You can’t be thinking…” Max started, his suspicions confirmed by Ashley’s removing of her clothes. “Babe, this land is riddle with dinosaurs, you don’t know what the fck is in there”

He said, pulling back on her small arm. “So what we don’t know what’s coming after us” She retort, trying to continue with her plan.

Within moments several muddy jean wranglers converged on their location, stepping out the vehicle armed guards aimed their weapons at the two before, the leader made his way out into the front showing interest in Max.

“What do you want?” Ashley called, ready to launch a black egg at any given time.

@black_solace:

"Sir" The pug commando says throwing his fist onto his chest over an Animus "A" insignia, giving a small bow, "We can't talk out here, please get in the jeep." He asks without asking.

Max just stares with his eyebrow raised, "Your...a dog. A walking, talking, dog." He says, his upper lip rising into his nostril.

"Yes sir, and you're a monkey. We've all got our crosses to bare don't we? In the jeep, sir. Please. If I need to ask again I'll write it on the side of a tranqu dart. Feel free to bring your bitch too." He says turning back to the cars and walking off, a curly Q tail bouncing out of his camo pants.

"What did that little pig just call me?" Ashley asks whipping her neck like a lash, "Relax baby, I think it's got a different meaning to him. I say we take the ride, if they were gonna kill us they wouldn't have gone out of their way to help us. "

She sighs, exhaling pure adrenaline trying to calm her emotions and think, standing silent. The animal man was so taboo, the hairs on the back of her neck standing at the surreal picture of these animals. She glanced back one more time, not entirely hating the idea of jumping into the mysterious lagoon. Until she saw a fin bigger than her rise and fall in the water with a raptors head bobbing just ahead of it "...Ok. But I'm not trusting these things."

"Wouldn't expect you to." He says kissing her and opening the jeep door, One pug with a jagged tooth sticking out pops his head out the passenger window, "Sit bitch."

Ashley slams the door shut, " Oh hell no! What the fck did you just call me you ugly ass pooped out cinnabon!? I'm not your dog, I'll make you MY bitch!" She was in the air kicking at the window as Max held her back, which was like trying to grip a greased python at this point.

"You- have to sit in the middle there's not enough room! ...What did I say?"

____________________________________________________________________