Dancing in Crimson Snow | NDE / R |

[RayginX]

Thread Title: Dancing in Crimson Snow
Participants: Garret & Jyuria
World: Human World
Death Setting: Non Death Enabled
Rating: R
Location: Russia
Special Conditions: Osen is Active. As a result, any RPC Hollows & Arrancar Class 4 and below can invade this thread.
Circumstances: Deep within the wilderness of Russia a Rogue prepared for yet another night of battle. Another night of fighting. But this time, what comes for him is something queer.

[RayginX]

For most in the world that did not live in a third world civilization, the winter was not too much of a problem. They lived in four walled houses, each with their own interior heating systems and plenty of food to spare. They would come together, huddled on their sofas in their blankets, watching whatever entertained them on the digital picture box. Winters were not harsh for the modern man. Clothing had come a long way since the olden times, and the horseless carriages provided their own heat. Food came in preservative cans now, able to survive years in their little aluminum containers if needed now. It made things easier for the man who wandered the wilderness, able to not worry so badly about his food reserves when he had just a few days ago helped himself to a convenience store.

The crackling of the wood was a relaxing sound, splitting from the heat of the flames, able to bring peace to the shivering swordsman. His fingers felt numb, having been away from the warmth of the flames for too long. He was busy trying to tie a knot around an injury from the past night, but the shivering and numbness was making it rather difficult. Gritting his teeth he began to grow frustrated, irritated at his own inability to tie a simple damned knot. He knew that growing angry was only going to make the process worse, so he closed his eye and took a chilled breath in, exhaling slowly to calm himself down. With that issue solved, he began to flow reiatsu through his body.

It wasn't something he could do for too long, needing other sources of heat in his hopes to survive the winter, but using reiatsu to heat up his hand shouldn't be too difficult. The numbness began to fade away, replaced with a warm sensation in his fingers tips. With that he set to work, finishing the knot around the minor wound on his arm. Tightening it with his teeth, he sighed, letting his limbs rest as he leaned his back into his greatsword, stabbed into the ground to create a support for his back. Reaching into his bag beside him, he rummaged around in his bag for one of those cans, wanting something to eat to fill his reserves.

Pulling out something and turning the label towards him, he couldn't help but become just lightly irritated he couldn't read the label. "куриная лапша". Whatever it was, he was going to eat it. Squeezing with that massive hand of his around the top, the lip cracked open, letting Garret at the cold soup inside. It had a chicken taste to it, supported by the little lumps of chicken meat, he gobbled down the thick cream, sucking the can dry before tossing it aside into the snow. Wiping the grime away from his mouth, Garret pulled his cloak around him tighter.

The cold wasn't an easy thing to stand. Honestly, he wasn't sure how we was managing to endure it. He figured that when winter finally rolled around, things were going to get harder for him. Much harder than before. So far that had been true. The cold made things much more difficult for him. He was typically much more tired than he usually was, and right now was one of his first real opportunities to rest. The winds were not stinging at him, a gentle downpour of snow fell around him, as he sat in a patch of cleared earth near the edge of a white forest.

Stranded around him where the corpses of disintegrating Hollows, their blood having melted away whatever snow they had fallen upon. Normally it was not wise for him to remain so close to the battleground of a night before, Shinigami often arriving soon after the dawns rise to seek him out. But, oddly enough, Garret had noticed a distinct lack of Shinigami activity once the temperature had dropped. Maybe they believed he would simply freeze out in the wilderness? It was a poor thought for them.

Garret was not going to freeze. He simply wouldn't. The fires inside of him would keep him warm, keep him going. His hate would be the energy to keep him going. Until every single Hollow in existence was dead, Garret was not going to stop. After what they had done to him, what they had done to set him on this path, Garret was never going to stop. The mere thought of them, and the cause, brought the man to the brink of wrath. His breathing had become sudden, rough like an animal, and he was seeing red. Taking a few cold breaths, he calmed himself back down, letting his eye rest on the flames in front of him. The fires warmth, fighting against the winters cold, brought relaxation to the Rogue. Soon his eye grew heavy, his exhaustion from the night before having caught up to the relaxed swordsman, and soon he was taken into his dreams.

You were the one to kill them.

...

Nobody else. Everytime they've come you've killed every single one of them. You've let none of them live. How many has it been now?

...

Hundreds? Thousands? How many souls have you damned to oblivion? How much have you tipped the scales of the balance? You don't care, do you? It doesn't matter if your revenge takes away everything.

Be quiet

After all, what else do you have to lose? Your humanity? You know, more than anyone, what you've already become.

His eye suddenly shot open, leaning forward with a gasp as the pain of a thousand knives drove themselves into the back of his neck. He groaned, reaching behind him to confirm it was simple all in his head. Why now? Why was his Bakkoto suddenly acting up? Gritting his teeth, Garret pushed himself to his feet, noticing that he was covered in a serious amount of snow. He blinked, looking to his side and noticing that the fire was barely alive. He then noticed how dark it was. He began to panic a bit, turning his head to the sky with such haste he felt it pop. High above in that black sky, the full moon shone back down on him. His mouth parted a bit, unable to believe that he had actually slept for the entire day.

He felt like screaming, unable to believe what he had allowed himself to do. Quickly collecting the spare wood he collected for the fire, he pushed it into the fire pit and stoked the flames, bringing the warmth back and more light around him. Standing and turning, he grabbed a hold of his great weapon, tearing it free of the snow covered earth and into the air. An arc of snow followed behind it, resting it against his shoulder as he awaited them. The crackling of the fire was the only sound to be heard, causing...confusion in the swordsman. Where were the Hollows? He blinked, narrowing his eye as he readjusted his grip on his sword.

A sudden snap of a twig in the woods behind him prompted him to turn, swinging his weapon just slightly so he could hold it out before him in a ready position. His single eye locked onto the direction the sound came from, Garret awaited whatever it was in the woods to show itself to him. Was it a Hollow? Something else? Where were the rest of the howls? Why was it so quiet? Garret did not like this at all, not at all. But there was no use complaining, because now he needed to fight. And fighting was something he was ready for.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Stats and Skills}
Strength - 300 Points = 450

Speed - 100 - Points

Spiritual Pressure - 350 - Points = 455

Reiatsu Strength - 50 - Points = 35

Light Aura - 20 - Points

Dark Aura - 80 - Points

Instinct - 125 - Points

Senses - 100 - Points = 75

Energy sensory - 0 - Points

Healing Expertise - 0 - Points

Total SP: 1025 Points

• [Weapons: Greatswords] {2}
  
  
• [Strength of Will] {2}
  
  
• [Pain Tolerance] {2}
  
  
• [Battle Analysis] {2}
  
  
• [Lack of Fear] {2}
  
  
• [Damage Recovery] {2}
  
  
• [Bleeding Tolerance] {2}
  

[Jyuria "Elisa" Arroj]

"You should be more confident."

Came that voice. That whisper around Garret as a foot silently stepped beside him, directly into his field of vision, walking on the air as opposed to stepping on the ground. A sudden spiritual pressure washing over him as Jyuria opened up that tear behind him, slowly spilling out of the place as she stared down at him with those three eyes of hers. A sudden rush of her spiritual pressure as her bandages gently slithered over the ground from her body, leaving runes everywhere as she absolutely peppered the battlefield with them. Those giant eyes staring down.

She could feel it. Something testing her. Prodding her. Driving itself into her mind. But so what? Suddenly she felt an enormous rush of her spiritual pressure as she stared down at him, a sudden horrendous screaming filling the air as the countless mouths along her bandages suddenly started screaming as she stared down at him. Young voices screaming for help. Women screaming for their husbands, their babies. Shouts for mercy. Shouts of pain. Shouts of horrible loss. All of them assailing Garret as she stepped out from that rip in the sky. It was a pain trying to remain stealthy. Were it not for the screaming she was actually rather quiet. And all at once those screams stopped.

Garret would probably recognize she was different. Her mask had no mouth. Smoooth, plain, and featureless except for those three holes for each of her eyes. One where her forehead was. Each of those bright yellow eyes stared down at him. And unlike normal gillian, she only had a half cloak, the entire portion of her body on the right side was exposed, her mummified form visible as she narrowed those peepers at him. And in them, there was almost hatred.

"You..... Are so very annoying." Her words were punctuated by the sounds of her bandages impaling the hollows that tried to rush at him around her, one after the other after the other, no less than seven hollows felled as she murdered them. Their corpses writhing as they were eaten from the inside out, those mouths on her bandages getting to work. Her eyes continuing to stare down at garret, a low hissing noise escaping from some of those mouths, some of them starting to whimper, as if ready to start screaming again.

"His majesty.....would be disgraced. To see me like this.....to be.....so tempted. To be so....hungry." She could feel it. The desire to obliterate this man. To destroy every fiber of his being. To devour him. But.....as stong as his call was. There was something even more terrifyingly strong inside her. A Seed of undying loyalty to an Emperor. Planted in her so very long ago. A Quincy's Will. "Why are you doing this.....why are you tempting me.... ARe you so desperate to die? I don't...want....to kill you. Not like this.... This is not for his majesty. WHY MUST YOU TEST MY FAITH?!"

Her roar exploded from her bandages as she suddenly stomped onto the ground. With her titanic strength the ground blossomed into a spiraling flower of broken earth. As she once was, she was more than capable of obliterating a hill with her sheer strength. At this size, she could do even more. She aimed to send him away from her, to send him flying from her in hopes that gaining distance from him would somehow make it stop. Somehow save her from that horrible feeling.

"Stop it this instant. I can save you. You do not have to be whatever pathetic creature you are. You can be free. ......He.....He could have saved you...." She suddenly shuddered, and slowly she began to lower her head, shaking. "He could have doubtlessly.... But.....he is not here......he can't. So I will instead." She suddenly stated resolutely, rising to her full height of 20 feet, suddenly staring down at them an as her spiritual pressure rose, cowing the hollows that were thinking of attacking garret, but who knew how long that would last.

"Stop yourself. Keep yourself from destroying this place. And I can save you. You do not need to be this way." She hissed as her bandages resumed laying down a parameter of new runes. She'd made a good 20 meter perimeter of her surroundings. But having destroyed the ground, those runes were now scattered everywhere. "Speak.....  or I will let them wear you down first." She hissed, knowing that other hollows would be piling in soon. If SHE could barely keep herself from attacking him, then she knew the other hollows would not last long. She didn't even know how long she'd last.

SPOILER: Click to show

Strength: 170 Points x1.5 (255 points)
Speed: 150 Points x1.5 (225 points)

Spiritual Pressure: 90 Points
Reiatsu Strength: 20 points x0.5 (10 points)

Light Aura: 85
Dark Aura: 15

Instinct: 50 points
Senses: 50 points x0.5 (25 points)
Energy Sense: 80 points
Healing expertise: 0 points

Skills


Anti-Stealth: 2
Stealth: 2
Damage Recovery: 2
Pain Resist: 2

4 Class 4 hollows consumed.

[RayginX]

This one was odd. Most Gillians that Garret had seen had full body cloaks, shrouding their inner forms under a cover of darkness. This one, however, lacked that sort of modesty, and instead allowed her deformed body to be seen to the world. A form wrapped in mouthed bandages, obviously being the way she ate since her mask, oddly, lacked any form of mouth. Three glowing yellow eyes stared down at him, while his single gray one stared back up. He recognized the look those eyes were giving him, something that he could relate to, the same look he was giving back up to the Gillian, a burning hatred that no words could truly express.

The sound of the other Hollows caught his attention, grabbing his weapon and preparing himself for the rush. But, to his shock and surprise, the towering Gillian stopped the rush of the other Hollows by devouring them, claiming them to be nothing more than pests. He blinked in surprise, having not seen this behavior before. He watched as those ribbons slithered across the ground, leaving something behind that didn't give the swordsman a good feeling. Looking back up at the Hollow, he was quiet while it spoke, listening to the words it rambled off.

The mention of a royalty figure made the swordsman pause, mentally, and wonder about what she was speaking of. For some reason, a brief memory came back to his head. A day drowning in rain, a cave by a road, and a woman with limbs of metal. He remembered how she spoke, what she spoke about, and her devotion to an Emperor. Was this the same thing? Or was it something else? He began to simple believe it to be insanity, as most Hollows seemed to suffer from. So why did he feel that it was something else? Deep inside of his gut he felt that simple insanity could not be the reason.

She then began to lose it, claiming that Garret simply wanted to die. Whether or not there was truth to her words was irrelevant right now, as Garret now needed to escape the destruction she was causing around her. The earth shattered and erupted, leveling the area and kicking up the carpet of snow that had accumulated on the floor. Garret had gotten away using a Shunpo, appearing in the air where he had once been a moment ago, high enough that he basically was level with Jyurias mask, using air ground to support himself.

Rip and tear her apart..

Pushing out the voice, Garret noticed that the corrupted ground her bandages had touched where now scattered around. What did those symbols mean? He couldn't figure it out, as his attention was once again pulled to the Hollow...pleading with him? " "Stop it this instant. I can save you. You do not have to be whatever pathetic creature you are. You can be free." Garret blinked, simply looking at the Hollow with a slight tilt in his head. What was she going on about? The Hollow didn't want to kill him? Yet, like every other of its kind it was drawn in by his affliction. It continued on about a majesty, and how it would save Garret. What did it mean by that? Eat him? By eating him his affliction would be cured? A smirk began to paint itself across his lips.

"Stop yourself."

"You're insane." Garret hissed back when it was his turn to speak. "And what a Hollow know about saving people? You do nothing but eat. You ruin lives, to bring death and misery with you wherever you go." Garret asked as he brandished his weapon, a sword but yet could not be called a sword. A weapon that was too large, too thick, too heavy and too rough to be called a sword. It was like a slab of raw iron. Oddly enough, the thought of fighting this Hollow made him feel...off. Uncomfortable almost. There was just something off about it. Regardless, whatever discomfort he had was being washed over by his unyielding rage. But he would give the Hollow a chance to speak before he would lop its head off.

[Jyuria "Elisa" Arroj]

Eyes narrowed, but....lifted. As Garret drew that blade, zooming in toward her face, seeking to race a bloody line across her face, he entered a much better section of her vision. The scent.....the sound of him. It was all so strangely clear. So when that swing was brought forth, she vanished, that hulking mass suddenly no longer infront of him. The very nex moment, a rune behind him glimmered faintly, almost unnoticably as she appeared behind him in a step far outpacing his own, not even turning as she swung back, not even using her bandages as she aimed to grab him just as his swing was ending.

With the very end of that swing, it would take the most force, the most time to recover. A memory from her days killing shinigami. She snagged him, and suddenly spun, twisting as she vanished once again, once more moving rapidly, this time dragging him along as she moved a good twenty feet to the side before twisting and aiming to slam him bodily into the ground, releasing him immediately after, as  she leapt back. A mistake perhaps.

If she had simply continued piling on attacks then perhaps she could have won then and there. But....she had perhaps too many memories. The man stunk of hollow, and....deep down, that slight fear of hollows still glimmered. Or at least that slight caution. She was no longer in a state where hollow reiatsu would poison her. But well.....such caution was hard to unlearn. As she backed up......she thought about it. Those mouths pausing for a brief little instant as they considered.

"Insane. Truly a presumption. Is that how you can stomach obliterating so many of my kind? By writing them off? How.....cute." She actually chuckled, and Garret would find it was not the mad, unhinged laugh of someone unstable, or even angry. It was.... a genuine laugh."Were it not for that stench I might actually like you.....whatever odd type of shinigami you are." She mused idly, acting as if she hadn't just aimed to plow him through five feet of earth.

Slowly, she looked down at the hand that had touched him, as if expecting to see a burn slowly crawling it's way along her skin. But there was nothing just yet. "Do you think we were always hollow? I have....someone very special to thank for me being like this....but.....in the end....I want to thank her. After my Emperor died....there was simply...no way I could have done something like this. No way I could have become so much... more." Eyes suddenly locked on the rogue again.

"You don't believe me....naturally....but can you believe your eyes?" She murmured, looking to one of the downed hollows. One she hadn't consumed. The others were only just now in the end stages, and their bodies were only now being completely devoured. But this one. This one she would show him. "Would you like to see...the power of Loyalty?" She asked calmly, her bandages priming over the dying hollow's form, her eyes suddenly looking over her shoulder in his direction.

3 Class 4 Hollows Consumed.
-100 Reiatsu for Bonos Emperatriz: Portal x2 (3600 Speed)
700/900 Reiatsu

[RayginX]

So the battle began. By simply lifting his sword into the air, the Hollow interpreted that as an attack, and as a result vanished from his sight. Was this an invisibility power or a Step? It was odd because Garret never saw Hollows using steps, leading him to wonder if they even had a technique capable of using it. Now was not the time to think though, as a sudden sound behind him kicked his body into action. Using yet another Shunpo, Garret decided to go down this time, speeding downwards past Jyurias swinging arm, avoiding the grapple entirely. It would have been rather nasty to have been grabbed like that, but the difference in their Strengths would have allowed Garret to absorb most of the damage.

He reappeared at her base, knees buckling slightly at the strain of colliding with the ground. Gripping his weapon with his other hand, Garret turned his torso towards the Hollow and swung his blade, the tip just barely slicing through the earth yet still pulled up a collection of fallen snow. He swung at Jyuria, but even with a six foot reach the weapon was not going to reach. Instead he was releasing an air blast at her, aiming to collide with her legs and cause them to buckle, so he could end her the way he typically ended Gillians, by beheading. It was much easier to do when they couldn't move. Painful for them, easy for him.

But the Hollow yet again surprised him with another Step, moving away from the oncoming air blast and appearing elsewhere. Her massive size made it impossible for her to hide, that and the bandages that made their own sounds. She began speaking to him again as he repositioned his blade to his side, holding it horizontally and letting the tip point behind him. She claimed that by simply writing them off as insane, Garret was able to stomach obliterating them. Ending their lives. Damning their souls to nothingness. She was wrong.

Garret did not do what he did because he thought they were insane. It was the unyielding rage inside of him. The burning hatred he had for these monsters. The mind numbing anger that drove him to such levels of violence. This creature could not comprehend the heat of the flames inside of his black heart, ones that had burned away many of the emotions that had once made him human. The love of a woman he had, the memory of whom could pull him back once he had stepped over the threshold of humanity and beast, was now unable to do so. Whatever love he once held was now burned away, a memory he kept like an open sore, something he could use to further his genocidal goal.

Calling him cute unsettled him though, not really fond of having conversations with Hollows, especially when they talked down to him. He didn't really care if she would have liked him, as any possibilities of him befriending a Hollow were below zero. She stated that his Osen was the reason for her dislike, something that Garret raised his eyebrow at. So badly did he just want her to stop talking that he felt he was about to lose control. The voices in his head beckoned for blood, for him to rip her apart without mercy, to find ecstasy in her demise.

But something she said caught his attention again, causing him to lower his weapon just slightly. Something that made him curious. Her attention shifting from him to a corpse of a Hollow she did not consume. She wanted to show him something. He narrowed his eye, watching as she leaned over the corpse, her bandages seemingly moving into position. The power of loyalty? Why did he feel like he was going to regret this? But his curiosity was rather high now, and this no doubt had to do with her warped idea of saving people. So, whatever, let her show her circus trick.

"Go for it."

Remaining Reiatsu: 4450 / 4550

[Jyuria "Elisa" Arroj]

She could see it. Despite her rage. Despite the desire she had to tear into him. The desire that tore into her bones and almost made her insane. But it was still nothing. Nothing compared to her memories. Enough to keep her feet firmly planted as eyes narrowed in his direction as she could see the look on his face. The look of uncaring she saw on so many hollows. How....quaint.... But she could not help but give him credit. Even with that disgusting attitude.... he was still capable of curiosity at the very least.

Go for it....

So she summoned a will from deep into her heart, as her bandages spilled down and slowly sank into the Hollow corpse biting into te flesh and slowly invading the corpse, wrapping it up, as suddenly a spiritual pressure spilled out from it, and those eyes suddenly opened up. One of the hollows HE had slain. A sudden surge of muscle movement spilled up. Naturally, the soul had been obliterated by his.....weapon. He was no shinigami. And the body, like hollow corpses always did, had begun to fade.

But it hadn't yet. It's soul was gone, but there was still it's reishi. And she poured her own in to supplement, and suddenly, a new soul opened it's eyes, and it suddenly rose up to it's feet, a sudden rippling energy gushing out from it's mouth as the adjuchas level hollow rose to it's feet, a sudden surge of spiritual pressure rushing out from it. A pressure that suddenly had an intensity to it, something deep within the hollow burst into a passionate flame so deep and intense that even Garret would feel that insane resolve.

It's body shuddered, and slowly it turned in Garret's direction, it's one, single white eye focusing on him for only a moment, looking at him with that burning intensity, until a bandage curled behind him, and suddenly he went rigid. He was upright, suddenly spinning about, seeming to immediately lose his interest in Garret, and dropping to one knee, kneeling before Jyuria. Before his Empress. Before his everything. And from deep within that ragged throat of his, he but uttered a single phrase that would ring in Garret's ears, as something absolute conflicted with Garret's. An inability to deny Jyuria's order.

"My Empress...."

And at that moment, despite the agony it was to resist it, Jyuri continued to restrain herself from attacking Garret held, as it gained one more reason: To see the look on his face. Not caring wether he was impressed, not caring if he thought she was cool or powerful. What she cared about, was what he would say. What he would think. She was so very different a hollow, and she confessed..... she had....ulterior motives to reviving this one. It was strong......strong enough physically to restrain her from attacking him. Enough to drag her into a garganta if this fight went south and she could not bring herself to disegage.

She could not fall here. She had too much to survive for...

[RayginX]

What was she planning to do? Loyalty? What did a Hollow know about loyalty? Hollows were monsters, no different from starving hounds in search of their next meal. They would turn on one another given the opportunity, a race that cared only about their next meal. Loyalty was not something he believed a Hollow could possess, as each and every one he met had been nothing more than mindless monsters. This thing was still looking at him, seemingly studying his face. He glared back, eye narrowing as his patience began to wane, contemplating simply attacking her during her little show here. But a part of him was curious as to what it was she meant, and what it was she was doing. So he waited, he watched, and he learned.

Her bandages dropped down onto the corpse and began to eat their way inside it, causing Garret to scoff. She was just eating it. Garrets curiosity simply showed him what he already knew, that Hollows were just walking stomachs. But then something happened that made him blink. A feeling, a sensation, something that even he, with no Energy Sensory, could feel. His gray eye narrowed, fingers tightening around the grip of his mighty sword, as he got the feeling that something was coming. He watched the corpse suddenly spasm, before it began to get to his feet. A shocked look on his face, Garret watched as a Hollow he had slain got back on its two feet.

Its gaze turned to Garret, and the swordsman quickly moved his sword to his waist, preparing to either move or swing for when it came charging at him like it had before. But then something happened. A simply touch by the Gillians bandaged limb caused it to lose all interest in Garret, as if his...as if his Osen did not matter to it. He lost control over his jaw slightly, as he felt it hanging open loosely. The Adjucha dropped down onto one knee as if in worship, an Adjucha bowing to a Gillian. It made no sense. Then it spoke, only adding more to Garrets own confusion.

"My Empress."

Garret simply watched, staring at the two in a moment of disbelief. A Hollow that could resurrect the dead and another that was not bothered by his Curse. He was struck with disbelief, unable to accept the reality that was presented to him. "What...the hell did you just do...?" He questioned, staring at the Adjucha then back at the Gillian. He wasn't sure how to take this. A mixture of emotions running through him; fear, hate, confusion, anger, disgust, surprise. He wasn't sure which one was going to take the reigns and guide his actions, but he was able to hold himself back just as Jyuria was.

But the more he thought about it the more he despised it. The thought of tampering with the dead to create...whatever the hell that Adjucha was disturbed him. If that power didn't require some sort of consent, no wait, it didn't. He had just seen her resurrect a Hollow that she did not know, nor even spoke to. What was stopping her from creating an army? Rampaging through some town or city and converting the entire population? The more he thought about it the worse his ideas got and eventually he came to one conclusion; that this creature had to die.

[Kyomei Kuchiki]

27 Paragraphs Garret = 270 TP
19 Paragraphs Jyuria = 95 TP

I will count only 1 of Jyuria's "Meals" as CTP. Here's my reasoning. In Garret's intro, there are no hollows at all. In your intro, you summon 7 faceless hollows that instantly die to your bandages. They aren't given any description but "There are 7 of them attacking him and they all die by my attack." That is an abuse of the consumption system. Your second post, in which the second half of them are consumed, has but a single vague sentence about them. I wouldn't have accepted the consumption of 7 of them that easily if they had been Class 8, yet you place them at Class 4. There is no way that you killed 7 Adjuchas with a single attack. That's God Modding. So, you get only 50 CTP for that. Which is generous, given that you devote barely a paragraph and a half to them. Not to mention this thread barely got started before it was aborted. I should halve the TP gain for that, but this time I'll let it slide.