( social awkwardness. it's not anything strange — there were plenty of times clarke had stumbled upon something new or alarming, a pop culture reference or a tableau of horror and suddenly it was like her brain wasn't connected to her mouth anymore. it's still a sharp contrast from how she and ruby had been talking just a few minutes ago, but serves to sever those last few threads of tension that had clarke considering violent defenses. she's pausing for a second to scoop up her empty to-go cup of coffee and pitching it into the trashcan, but makes no effort to mop up the spill soaking into the carpet. the shades would be along at some point to clean it. )
Three months? Three and a half? ( she has a calendar of tally marks somewhere on the wall, but that didn't mean the days didn't blur together — especially in peace time. ) Far as I can tell, that's when as far back as anyone here. So if you have any questions...
( a mild trail off. a mirrored vague gesture around the room. ) I didn't do all this alone though. Is it going to bother you if my friends come by often?
( being in cramped quarters and lacking any real sense of privacy didn't immediately translate to willingly sharing what little sliver of personal quiet they'd been provided. )
Three and a half months—? Oh, wow. That's... [ her brow furrows a bit ] I'm not sure if it's longer or shorter than I expected, come to think of it...
[ Maybe she'd hoped it was shorter, at the very least. That people here hadn't already been here months and there was a chance this wasn't as permanent as it was immediately made out to be. ]
Your friends coming by won't bother me though, no, don't worry. Really, I'm kinda used to having a lot of people around, sooo... [ a little shrug ] nothing new, I can keep out of your hair, too. Um, questions wise...
[ She rocks up onto the balls of her feet then back again, before stepping back to sit down on the edge of the bed. ]
The letter that was there. It said something about how we don't... stay dead? If we die? And about being the captain's plaything? I guess it'd be pretty naïve to hope that's them messing with people, right?
( while the few remaining polite bones in her body balks at the idea of kicking ruby out of her own room for secretive meetings and the like, clarke recognizes that it could very well happen at some point in the future. she likes to think they're capable of becoming one cohesive group, all fighting against the tyrannical magic of the captain and striving for freedom from this hellscape, but. it's not in her immediate nature to trust random passengers with all she's come to know about the ship. bunking in the same room didn't erase the fact that the other girl is still very much a stranger at this point.
but, you know, never discount a potential ally. ruby has questions, perches on the edge of the bed to ask them, and clarke eventually unsticks her feet to move across and lean against the edge of the desk.
the lines on her face are thin, grim, almost apologetic. on the topic of death, there's nothing pleasant to say on the matter. )
It'd be nice if it were all one big joke, but no. The Captain's main reason for bringing us here is to channel our pain and suffering into fuel for this ship. He may not care much if we die — maybe prefers if we do, so long as it isn't quick — but intends to bring us back over and over again until our souls are too broken to be of use.
[ For what it's worth, whilst Ruby's own expression turns grim and there's a flash of something like alarm in her silver eyes, she takes that objectively horrifying information with surprising grace. Either the girl has one hell of a poker face, or she's used to dealing with terrible things, or... maybe both. (It's both.) ]
So, purposeful disruption of the cycle of life and death to cause maximum suffering for his own purposes. [ she's heard that story before... ] Okay. That's... well, 'good' isn't the word I'd use for knowing that, but thank you for being frank about it.
[ She swings her legs, heels knocking against the base of the bed, thinking. She's so very tired of dealing with this kind of person, the kind of person causing all this suffering just for their own ends, but apparently that's all she gets to do anymore. ]
So... souls. This— this question might not make a lot of sense, but does that mean everyone here has aura? Or is that... still a my-world-only thing?
[ If everyone here has a soul to be broken, she has to wonder. Is she the only one here essentially walking around with her soul on her sleeve, or is that, at least, normal everywhere? ]
( a solid poker face and the solid building blocks of life experience are both useful things when perpetually facing the unknown so, while clarke may side-eye initially, it's not an unkind sort of appraisal on her features. and when ruby recaps the information she'd just shared, there's a business-like nod on clarke's end — there's really no other way to approach this other than bluntly, and it's refreshing for a newcomer not to blanch and balk at the idea.
but it's the talk of auras that really snags her attention. a flicker of surprise dances across clarke's pinched features before she can think to smooth it out. and she's suddenly looking at ruby with a newfound interest, like the other girl may have new information to offer about their situation. )
...I've heard he sees our souls in "shrimp colors". Bright, colorful blotches, but nothing special from one person to the next. Vampires, augmented humans, normal humans, gods, and even robots look the same to him.
[ It's the first time there's been any sort of recognition of a term from her world, and though what Clarke goes on to describe sounds at odds with her idea of aura, it still makes her perk up a bit. There's also a slight tilt of her head as the list of types of people here (Vampires? Fictional in her world, but sure, why not. Augmented humans, what counts as augmented? Gods, what? Robots, well, one of her best friends is a robot, but she's also the only robot with a soul in her world, so...) goes on, wow this place is... a lot. ]
In my world, our aura is a representation of our soul, but... not quite like that? They're colourful, but only one colour; mine is red, my sister's is yellow, some of my friends' are light blue, purple, green...
[ She gestures vaguely, the list goes on and on. ]
Everyone has one, but not everyone unlocks the more... practical, aspects of it. [ what's the simplest way to explain this... ] When you unlock it, it's sort of a personal shield. You have to break it to actually cause physical damage to someone.
And it means you can unlock your Semblance, but that's a whoooole other thing.
that sounds like a really heckin' cool way to manifest and utilize a soul. aura? for all her research and keen listening on the fact, clarke still hasn't parsed out all the specifics — these weren't actual, realized concepts in her world. a soul had just been another term for the grief and self loathing that weighed heavy after an atrocity, and an aura had been based around the gut instinct of trust vs fear one got immediately upon looking at a stranger. but what ruby's describing surpasses the emotional wall people tend to throw up and call a shield, this sounds like actual — )
...so you're from a world with magic?
( the term is broad and wide, it means a lot of things. it's become clarke's catchall for worlds with any features she can't directly explain or understand how they've come to be, and they fascinate her. )
Kiiiiiind of? [ she tilts her head and rubs the back ] I mean— yeah, yeah I am, but none of what I just described is... magic, exactly? Auras and semblances, they're just... normal, for us. Everyone has them, even if they don't always unlock them. Very few people have actual magic.
[ It's... complicated. Ruby isn't actually entirely sure how to define the distinction and there's a wrinkle in her brow as she thinks it over some more. There are differences, as she's been taught anyway, but she's not sure she knows the exact limitations of them. ]
Semblances can be just about anything. I sort of turn into petals and go super fast, my sister takes hits and returns them twice as strong, one of my friends used to be able to control magnetism. But magic can do... more, and do things semblances can't. Like. Uh.
[ Example, example... ] My Uncle Qrow can turn into a bird?
[ A crow, to be specific. Ozpin clearly had something of a sense of humour when he gave the Branwen's their magic... ]
( that is a very round about way to say yes, yet clarke hangs on every word with the same intensity she'd clued in to the conversations that spawned a lot of the notes plastered to the walls. but just like those chats, she doesn't understand the intricacies of everything ruby's spilling forth, barely grasps the general gist. yet still nods along, and blinks in intrigue when the other girl lists what she and her homeworld friends and family are capable of. )
...I mean, where I come from, there's nothing like that at all. I'd call all of that magic by default.
Honestly that... sounds as crazy to me as my world must sound to you. I can't imagine not having these things be just a normal part of life. If we didn't have these things... humanity and the faunus wouldn't have lasted long in my world at all.
[ Her world is just too inherently hostile for sentient life without those amongst them who've unlocked their Aura and semblance to fight for them. An agreement by the Gods: one brother could unleash life, so long as the other brother could unleash destruction to keep it in check. ]
( is there anyone here that doesn't come from an inherently doomed, hostile, bloody, or violent home reality? probably a few, but clarke tends to fall in with the perpetually traumatized crowd; honestly struggles to hold a conversation with someone without a strand of pessimistic ptsd in their bones. )
I mean, humanity didn't last forever on my world either. But it was mostly by our own design.
( man ruins the planet, man creates artificial intelligence with the directive to help, artificial intelligence destroys man. scarce few survive the apocalypse, artificial intelligence returns in an attempt to help, man (or blonde haired girl) kills artificial intelligence, then man faces down the burning oblivion artificial intelligence was trying to spare them from. )
But even before all that, the most we had were nuclear weapons and space stations.
We're not really immune to that, either; causing our own demise, I mean. There's people who are out to end the world.
[ At the will of one of two immortal beings that the Gods made after wiping out early humanity and replacing them. An immortal being who can't be destroyed and yet who Ruby and her friends have to try and stop anyway.
She's distracted from that after a moment though because, ] Space stations...? People in your world went to space? Before... before—
[ Gesturing vaguely. Before the destruction she implied. It's pretty clear that sounds insane to her; in her world, they've never even had satellites in orbit. They're not lacking in technology, but that level of technology has simply never existed. ]
Not just space. We put people on the moon before — ( yeah, she knows what you're gesturing about ruby, it's all good) — and sent crews even further in search of new resources.
( actually not clarke's first rodeo with this sort of mix of confusion and awe, and while not at all smug, she's still letting out a good natured snort. just a hard exhale through her nose, comfortable in this position now, and well practiced in her responses for it. )
I grew up thinking the only survivors of the first nuclear apocalypse were the few hundred people on board the 12 national space stations in orbit. Eventually all twelve of them banded together into one big space station, and 80-ish years later, that's where I was born.
Wow. That is... wow. We can't get even a single transmitter into the upper atmosphere, not that we aren't— trying, but the resources needed to do it are just... wow. That's crazy to me. You were born up there?
[ She's still determined to get Amity Coliseum up into the sky, re-establish global communications that have been down for months since one of the CCTS towers went down, but it's a goal that's barely achievable. The idea of getting anything into orbit, let alone establishing twelve and then one large space station... yeah, it's absolutely blowing her mind.
It's not that the horrors implied in 'first nuclear apocalypse' are lost on her, but it's very firmly overshadowed right now. ]
( you were born up there? clarke gives a stiff little nod, unbothered by the query but sour around the memories it brings up. ration pills, no medical supplies, a death sentence looming around every corner, oxygen rations... )
Uh-huh. Third generation.
( it was never as cool and fancy as it sounds. )
I miss the view. Sometimes the structure. ( any slim vestiges of childhood innocence. ) But that's it.
[ For what it's worth, this time Ruby does not somehow manage to miss the cues, there; the stiffness, the short list... and she knows she gets easily wrapped up in the fantasy of something. Like how she always thought being a Huntress would be like the fairy tales, and, well, she supposes in a way it is, but not... really in the way she imagined, and— well, that's not something she wants to dwell on, so she doesn't, just flashes a bit of an awkwardness-tinged smile. ]
The view must have been... I can't even imagine. Just the view from airships awes me still.
But I'm sure these things are never quite so glamourous as they sound to a stranger, huh. [ awkward, well-meaning little shrug ] The most interesting parts of my life probably sound better in theory, too.
[ The girl is chronically compassionate and empathetic... and also offers her own emotions up more like bargaining chips than anything else. ]
...still think I'd take dealing with those interesting parts over being stuck away from them, though.
( empathy, compassion, well-meant awkwardness... despite this entire meeting starting on the tail-end of weapons almost being drawn, ultimately ruby strikes clarke as a kind person. it's a good first impression, even if those don't always hold up on board the ship. even while she continues to chew over her own sour nostalgia for like on the ark, watching someone else marvel at the fantasy of it reminds her of being younger (like, by two years, she's still eighteen) and wistfully dreaming of what life would be like on earth. imagining flowers, and rainstorms, rivers and waterfalls, laying in the grass and looking up at the sky instead of down for once; farming and hunting, building a homestead and a brand new life on the ancient graves of humanity's ancestors, thriving instead of just surviving...
not much played out how clarke had hoped. it never does, but that didn't take away from the stunning sensation of feeling wind on her face for the first time, or smelling a bioluminescent flower, or swimming. wonderment, one of the few things people seemed to cling to, even in the darkest of times.
on the board behind the desk, there's all those sketches. most under layers of notes and rough maps, and clarke reaches out to pick through until coming to a specific doodle and pulling it down from its pushpin. it'll look roughly like this, only done entirely in black and grey pencil and missing the sliver of moonrock along the bottom. but she hands it to ruby regardless. )
Definitely not glamourous. But that doesn't mean it wasn't beautiful.
( so enjoy the earth picture. while her new roommate does that, clarke's attention is brought back to her wet shoes, which she'll go about changing before announcing: )
I'm going to get myself another coffee. I'll give you some space to settle in but later, if you'd like, I can show you a few places around here.
[ Ruby accepts the picture carefully, unable to help a little, silently wide-eyed 'ohhhh' because that is beautiful. It makes her wonder what Remnant must look like from afar—sure, they have maps, on Remnant like anywhere else, but... a map is more clinical than a piece of art, and they're certainly less beautiful than the real thing must be. ]
...yeah, that really must've been one hell of a view. [ she looks up again, smiling ] I'd like that, yeah. You showing me around a bit, I mean. I tried to explore some earlier, but it's a big ship.
( she watches ruby's face as she takes in the sketchy rendering of earth as viewed from outer space until her wonderment stokes a sense of homesickness in clarke's chest — the very same she's been trying to stamp out this entire time, reminding herself that earth no longer looked green and lush, and there was no going back because she'd died — and she returns to focus on changing out her boat shoes. )
It's pretty big, but you'll get the hang of it.
( spend enough time stuck even on the expansive cruise liner, and it very quickly began to feel tiny and cramped. )
I've got the hang of worse—or, well. Bigger places. So uh. Yeah. I should.
[ Beacon and Atlas Academies are all bigger spaces, but they're also different degrees of familiar in a way a ship like this really is not. Plus arriving at the academies actually did come with a guided tour by like, default. ]
...uh, thanks, Clarke. See you in a bit, then.
[ She'll finish getting settled in, in the meantime. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Three months? Three and a half? ( she has a calendar of tally marks somewhere on the wall, but that didn't mean the days didn't blur together — especially in peace time. ) Far as I can tell, that's when as far back as anyone here. So if you have any questions...
( a mild trail off. a mirrored vague gesture around the room. ) I didn't do all this alone though. Is it going to bother you if my friends come by often?
( being in cramped quarters and lacking any real sense of privacy didn't immediately translate to willingly sharing what little sliver of personal quiet they'd been provided. )
no subject
Three and a half months—? Oh, wow. That's... [ her brow furrows a bit ] I'm not sure if it's longer or shorter than I expected, come to think of it...
[ Maybe she'd hoped it was shorter, at the very least. That people here hadn't already been here months and there was a chance this wasn't as permanent as it was immediately made out to be. ]
Your friends coming by won't bother me though, no, don't worry. Really, I'm kinda used to having a lot of people around, sooo... [ a little shrug ] nothing new, I can keep out of your hair, too. Um, questions wise...
[ She rocks up onto the balls of her feet then back again, before stepping back to sit down on the edge of the bed. ]
The letter that was there. It said something about how we don't... stay dead? If we die? And about being the captain's plaything? I guess it'd be pretty naïve to hope that's them messing with people, right?
no subject
but, you know, never discount a potential ally. ruby has questions, perches on the edge of the bed to ask them, and clarke eventually unsticks her feet to move across and lean against the edge of the desk.
the lines on her face are thin, grim, almost apologetic. on the topic of death, there's nothing pleasant to say on the matter. )
It'd be nice if it were all one big joke, but no. The Captain's main reason for bringing us here is to channel our pain and suffering into fuel for this ship. He may not care much if we die — maybe prefers if we do, so long as it isn't quick — but intends to bring us back over and over again until our souls are too broken to be of use.
no subject
[ For what it's worth, whilst Ruby's own expression turns grim and there's a flash of something like alarm in her silver eyes, she takes that objectively horrifying information with surprising grace. Either the girl has one hell of a poker face, or she's used to dealing with terrible things, or... maybe both. (It's both.) ]
So, purposeful disruption of the cycle of life and death to cause maximum suffering for his own purposes. [ she's heard that story before... ] Okay. That's... well, 'good' isn't the word I'd use for knowing that, but thank you for being frank about it.
[ She swings her legs, heels knocking against the base of the bed, thinking. She's so very tired of dealing with this kind of person, the kind of person causing all this suffering just for their own ends, but apparently that's all she gets to do anymore. ]
So... souls. This— this question might not make a lot of sense, but does that mean everyone here has aura? Or is that... still a my-world-only thing?
[ If everyone here has a soul to be broken, she has to wonder. Is she the only one here essentially walking around with her soul on her sleeve, or is that, at least, normal everywhere? ]
no subject
but it's the talk of auras that really snags her attention. a flicker of surprise dances across clarke's pinched features before she can think to smooth it out. and she's suddenly looking at ruby with a newfound interest, like the other girl may have new information to offer about their situation. )
...I've heard he sees our souls in "shrimp colors". Bright, colorful blotches, but nothing special from one person to the next. Vampires, augmented humans, normal humans, gods, and even robots look the same to him.
Why? How does it work in your world?
no subject
[ It's the first time there's been any sort of recognition of a term from her world, and though what Clarke goes on to describe sounds at odds with her idea of aura, it still makes her perk up a bit. There's also a slight tilt of her head as the list of types of people here (Vampires? Fictional in her world, but sure, why not. Augmented humans, what counts as augmented? Gods, what? Robots, well, one of her best friends is a robot, but she's also the only robot with a soul in her world, so...) goes on, wow this place is... a lot. ]
In my world, our aura is a representation of our soul, but... not quite like that? They're colourful, but only one colour; mine is red, my sister's is yellow, some of my friends' are light blue, purple, green...
[ She gestures vaguely, the list goes on and on. ]
Everyone has one, but not everyone unlocks the more... practical, aspects of it. [ what's the simplest way to explain this... ] When you unlock it, it's sort of a personal shield. You have to break it to actually cause physical damage to someone.
And it means you can unlock your Semblance, but that's a whoooole other thing.
no subject
that sounds like a really heckin' cool way to manifest and utilize a soul. aura? for all her research and keen listening on the fact, clarke still hasn't parsed out all the specifics — these weren't actual, realized concepts in her world. a soul had just been another term for the grief and self loathing that weighed heavy after an atrocity, and an aura had been based around the gut instinct of trust vs fear one got immediately upon looking at a stranger. but what ruby's describing surpasses the emotional wall people tend to throw up and call a shield, this sounds like actual — )
...so you're from a world with magic?
( the term is broad and wide, it means a lot of things. it's become clarke's catchall for worlds with any features she can't directly explain or understand how they've come to be, and they fascinate her. )
no subject
Kiiiiiind of? [ she tilts her head and rubs the back ] I mean— yeah, yeah I am, but none of what I just described is... magic, exactly? Auras and semblances, they're just... normal, for us. Everyone has them, even if they don't always unlock them. Very few people have actual magic.
[ It's... complicated. Ruby isn't actually entirely sure how to define the distinction and there's a wrinkle in her brow as she thinks it over some more. There are differences, as she's been taught anyway, but she's not sure she knows the exact limitations of them. ]
Semblances can be just about anything. I sort of turn into petals and go super fast, my sister takes hits and returns them twice as strong, one of my friends used to be able to control magnetism. But magic can do... more, and do things semblances can't. Like. Uh.
[ Example, example... ] My Uncle Qrow can turn into a bird?
[ A crow, to be specific. Ozpin clearly had something of a sense of humour when he gave the Branwen's their magic... ]
Which is... a super long way to say yes, I guess.
no subject
...I mean, where I come from, there's nothing like that at all. I'd call all of that magic by default.
no subject
Honestly that... sounds as crazy to me as my world must sound to you. I can't imagine not having these things be just a normal part of life. If we didn't have these things... humanity and the faunus wouldn't have lasted long in my world at all.
[ Her world is just too inherently hostile for sentient life without those amongst them who've unlocked their Aura and semblance to fight for them. An agreement by the Gods: one brother could unleash life, so long as the other brother could unleash destruction to keep it in check. ]
We need our hunters and huntresses to survive.
no subject
I mean, humanity didn't last forever on my world either. But it was mostly by our own design.
( man ruins the planet, man creates artificial intelligence with the directive to help, artificial intelligence destroys man. scarce few survive the apocalypse, artificial intelligence returns in an attempt to help, man (or blonde haired girl) kills artificial intelligence, then man faces down the burning oblivion artificial intelligence was trying to spare them from. )
But even before all that, the most we had were nuclear weapons and space stations.
no subject
We're not really immune to that, either; causing our own demise, I mean. There's people who are out to end the world.
[ At the will of one of two immortal beings that the Gods made after wiping out early humanity and replacing them. An immortal being who can't be destroyed and yet who Ruby and her friends have to try and stop anyway.
She's distracted from that after a moment though because, ] Space stations...? People in your world went to space? Before... before—
[ Gesturing vaguely. Before the destruction she implied. It's pretty clear that sounds insane to her; in her world, they've never even had satellites in orbit. They're not lacking in technology, but that level of technology has simply never existed. ]
no subject
( actually not clarke's first rodeo with this sort of mix of confusion and awe, and while not at all smug, she's still letting out a good natured snort. just a hard exhale through her nose, comfortable in this position now, and well practiced in her responses for it. )
I grew up thinking the only survivors of the first nuclear apocalypse were the few hundred people on board the 12 national space stations in orbit. Eventually all twelve of them banded together into one big space station, and 80-ish years later, that's where I was born.
no subject
Wow. That is... wow. We can't get even a single transmitter into the upper atmosphere, not that we aren't— trying, but the resources needed to do it are just... wow. That's crazy to me. You were born up there?
[ She's still determined to get Amity Coliseum up into the sky, re-establish global communications that have been down for months since one of the CCTS towers went down, but it's a goal that's barely achievable. The idea of getting anything into orbit, let alone establishing twelve and then one large space station... yeah, it's absolutely blowing her mind.
It's not that the horrors implied in 'first nuclear apocalypse' are lost on her, but it's very firmly overshadowed right now. ]
no subject
Uh-huh. Third generation.
( it was never as cool and fancy as it sounds. )
I miss the view. Sometimes the structure. ( any slim vestiges of childhood innocence. ) But that's it.
no subject
[ For what it's worth, this time Ruby does not somehow manage to miss the cues, there; the stiffness, the short list... and she knows she gets easily wrapped up in the fantasy of something. Like how she always thought being a Huntress would be like the fairy tales, and, well, she supposes in a way it is, but not... really in the way she imagined, and— well, that's not something she wants to dwell on, so she doesn't, just flashes a bit of an awkwardness-tinged smile. ]
The view must have been... I can't even imagine. Just the view from airships awes me still.
But I'm sure these things are never quite so glamourous as they sound to a stranger, huh. [ awkward, well-meaning little shrug ] The most interesting parts of my life probably sound better in theory, too.
[ The girl is chronically compassionate and empathetic... and also offers her own emotions up more like bargaining chips than anything else. ]
...still think I'd take dealing with those interesting parts over being stuck away from them, though.
no subject
not much played out how clarke had hoped. it never does, but that didn't take away from the stunning sensation of feeling wind on her face for the first time, or smelling a bioluminescent flower, or swimming. wonderment, one of the few things people seemed to cling to, even in the darkest of times.
on the board behind the desk, there's all those sketches. most under layers of notes and rough maps, and clarke reaches out to pick through until coming to a specific doodle and pulling it down from its pushpin. it'll look roughly like this, only done entirely in black and grey pencil and missing the sliver of moonrock along the bottom. but she hands it to ruby regardless. )
Definitely not glamourous. But that doesn't mean it wasn't beautiful.
( so enjoy the earth picture. while her new roommate does that, clarke's attention is brought back to her wet shoes, which she'll go about changing before announcing: )
I'm going to get myself another coffee. I'll give you some space to settle in but later, if you'd like, I can show you a few places around here.
no subject
[ Ruby accepts the picture carefully, unable to help a little, silently wide-eyed 'ohhhh' because that is beautiful. It makes her wonder what Remnant must look like from afar—sure, they have maps, on Remnant like anywhere else, but... a map is more clinical than a piece of art, and they're certainly less beautiful than the real thing must be. ]
...yeah, that really must've been one hell of a view. [ she looks up again, smiling ] I'd like that, yeah. You showing me around a bit, I mean. I tried to explore some earlier, but it's a big ship.
no subject
It's pretty big, but you'll get the hang of it.
( spend enough time stuck even on the expansive cruise liner, and it very quickly began to feel tiny and cramped. )
Alright then, I'll be back in a bit.
no subject
I've got the hang of worse—or, well. Bigger places. So uh. Yeah. I should.
[ Beacon and Atlas Academies are all bigger spaces, but they're also different degrees of familiar in a way a ship like this really is not. Plus arriving at the academies actually did come with a guided tour by like, default. ]
...uh, thanks, Clarke. See you in a bit, then.
[ She'll finish getting settled in, in the meantime. ]