Northern Skies

Debbie sighs.

DEBBIE: Mm... so this is how it feels to be weakened so much...
DEBBIE: No matter. It seems we failed to deter them.
DEBBIE: Perhaps we were too soft on them...

She calls to Bass, also noting the Iti approaching nearby.

DEBBIE: Bass, was it? Do you mind chasing that harpy off Ms. Chi?
DEBBIE: Oh, and, maybe move a little? I'm about to do a thing. Thank you!

After R8 and Kalis and Lepidodendron and Sakura

Bass: Flirt Harpy1 away from Chi, Move to (T7), Illusory Trap (T6)

Debbie floats to (T12). The ground where Bass was once standing begins to rumble, a bit of rock and dirt directed outward towards the Arkwinds. Aftershock cast on (W5)! Fluidsand appears on more tiles, specifically (R10) and (T10). She retreats back to (U15).

Leaf
Spawn at at T20.
Move to T14.
Soaring Rush to T10.
Attack Reverie2.

//Pardon will Bonus Action Shields, Move to P22, Basic Attack the Aello 2 which will also down the Harpy 3 via Weapon Passive and than retreat back one space.

Pardon glances around the room and lands his eyes on the Utility Console, with quick press of a few buttons, the Stratoshield is up for the turn with his Bonus Action.

Pardon: Ah yes. Science.

He quickly makes his way to P22 and raises his Strange Flute. He blows a mysterious melody that wounds Aello2 and resonates...disruptively with Harpy 3, downing the later.

He than takes a step back to P23

/ploco

---

LEPIDODENDRON AND FRIENDS
- Act after Sakura and Ilex, before Bsas.
- Fire at the Scuttletongue after it's been moved (Empowered6 from Shared Design means 42-47, apply armorbreak, piercing resist)
- Bonus Action: Use Weapon Console to fire two shots into the Bizark.
- Zombie: Move to (Q15), attack the Breaker.
- Top Left Skeleton: Snipe Breaker2.
- Top Right Skeleton: Shoot... the Fence next to Bass. No, really.
- Bottom Right Skeleton: Snipe Breaker2.

R-8
- Act after Lepidodendron, before Bass
- Move to High Ground on R23.
- Tumbling Walls: (Q11- Reverie1 and Harpy1 hit) (W17 - Harpy5, Aello3) (O17: Breaker1, Aello2)

CHI
- At some point, use Trait to turn Warryn's Burning into Mending.

(The turn order for the Scuttletongues end should end up as about: Ilex -> Lepido -> Railcannon -> Kalis -> Bass. None of these actions overlap with another's turns.)

/wip
Before any other Scuttletongue shenanigans, Ilex moves to T23, uses the Telenode to teleport to T11, and casts Guiding Hand on the Scuttletongue, moving it to R9. He then uses First Law on Leaf.

Roleplay -

QUOTE (King_Fuffy @ Mar 8 2023, 09:53 AM)

Paige Meanwhile, Paige notices Warryn's stare. She wanders over to him, absentmindedly tapping away on her cell phone. PAIGE: Yo. PAIGE: What's up? Need anything? :)

Warryn, not totally expecting a response from them, slightly startles before quickly regaining their composure. Turning to the more humanoid of the pair of Iti, the vessel ponders a bit before responding...
* No, not in particular. You and Skylar just seem intriguing.
* The "probability" that you two seem to have about you reminds me of where I came from.
* I won't say it makes sense, but it is interesting.

QUOTE (Dedomeni @ Mar 11 2023, 07:38 PM)

Warryn acknowledges R-8’s salute, asking if he has any questions. R-8 glances at Warryn’s tactical vest. R-8733: I just thought you looked interesting, new friend! R-8733: And I was curious about your vest. Are you a soldier? R-8733: Lots of people here look like civvies. But it’s hard to tell with some of the aliens. R-8733: You look like a soldier, though. Like that Daskter fellow. Or me, kind of.

Warryn looks curiously at R8 before he responds, seeming to just realize the color of the vest amidst his otherwise monochrome look. It occurs to anyone paying attention that the blade and shield, seal he wears, vest, and a strange amber card are the only things that do have color on the otherwise grayscaled figure. Perhaps they weren't originally his?
* A soldier? I suppose you could say that.
* To be frank, I am unsure what role to play in this place. I'm... well, new here.
* That being said, I can fight and believe I can hold my weight in what comes next.
* I hope that will be enough.

Battle -
Cutting forward to the present, Warryn judges their current situation. Their "MP" - an unfamiliar construct, but it seems to have melded with what he's used to - is only at 15% right now. That isn't great, and to top it all off, their shield is on fire, and there seems to be a strange blight on his tension from that Cinderwing. Said Cinderwing is also out of range. Time to change up their plans.

Not hesitating any further and keeping the on-fire shield equipped despite the risk, the vessel rushes through U15 to T14. Using his momentum, they launch out a careful strike at Harpy2 across the hallway, sending a silvery blade of force from their vertical slash towards it before putting up their shield to once again defend from incoming attacks. Additionally, they shout out towards that same Harpy...
* You are now permanently banned from Free Ham Sandwich Day!
Harpy2, naturally, is infuriated by this taunt, and will likely attempt to attack Warryn for it. Everyone else is just kinda confused.

Before ending off their turn, Warryn looks over to Chi, who though struggling with their own Harpy, probably has at least something for their shield (which is still burning.)
* Chi, if you have a moment, could you lend me a hand?
* Specifically with the shield being on fire?

TL;DR:
- Move to T14.
- Guard Strike Harpy2 before Taunting it using Orderly Diversion.
- Ask Chi for assistance with the Burning effect.

The Iti have, perhaps unsurprisingly, not ceased their assault. Sakura channels another pulse of electricity into her weapon. Thank god this popsicle tastes awful- wasting food like this would otherwise be absolutely abhorrent to her.

SAKURA: Wow, great job, guys!
SAKURA: By showing mercy to the abhorrent murder beasts, we caused them to try to MURDER US.
SAKURA: Like, anyone could tell you that they'd try and kill us, right? Right, Lentinula? RIGHT?
SAKURA: Helix...

After a quick session of warping around the ship (and developing a bit of motion sickness), Sakura stares down the Rose Cultist aboard the ship.

SAKURA: HEY! CULTIST!
SAKURA: ...Not you, Bass. Other cultist. Lepi... depi... liopleurodon?
SAKURA: Whatever.
SAKURA: Look. Whatever you are. Whoever you are.
SAKURA: I'm giving you the privilege of serving me.
SAKURA: ...Why am I telling you? It's not like you get a choice in the matter, anyway. I am your superior, after all.

Zap! She unleashes an overcharged pulsar into the body of the Vesperia. Though the energy passes through the main beast rather harmlessly (or as harmlessly as it can, anyway), it electrocutes and fries the hordes of B E E S within its body, slaughtering the whole lot. That should prevent it from rejuvenating its shields... hopefully!

...She also takes a look around the deck of the ship. It is awfully crowded around here. So many people- peasants. Isn't there anyone else who deserves to stand by her, besides Maria? Well, there's that other queenly looking woman- Debbie, right? Perhaps she can make an acquaintance later. But there's a few more pressing matters at hand, anyway.

---

Orders:
- Act before Lepido.
- Move to (S23), Warp to (V16), then finish your movement to (U16).
- Designate Lepido as your other servant.
- Cast Disruption Break (15 MP) on the Vesperia, applying (Shieldjam, 3) and (Healblock, 3) to them.

Vent smiles, seemingly proud of R-8’s glowing review of his golem city.

VENT: Indeed! As one of the great Golem Cities of Auten, Ria is home to some of the greatest feats of engineering in the world, just behind Scahilim and the center of the world itself, Irocoles.
VENT: I’m not so sure about our population size, especially relative to a Tabletopian city. Probably somewhere around… 500, 600 thousand people? Big place for sure.
VENT: Nothing can really compare to the four million people that live in Irocoles, really. At least as far as I know!

Vent pauses for a moment at the mention of the wonkiness of time travel.

VENT: W-well, I’m not too sure about how that’d work. I’m not exactly an expert on that…
VENT: No one I know is, r-really, time travel isn’t something that’s possible with magic, no kind of crystal can produce the power to do such a thing.
VENT: The only being that I’d know to be capable of such a thing is the Emperor of Time himself. Lord Chrono could probably whisk you back to the “correct” time, y-you know? Even if time passes differently between realms like that, He’s definitely strong enough to get you back to where you were as soon as you go, in a time sense.
VENT: M-maybe you could ask Eroa about that, instead. As a goddess, I’m sure she would know infinitely more about that.

Vent pauses again, collecting all he knows about R-8. A jovial Chairian with a degree in demolitions. His odd name is a code name, which is something Chairian artists use, one that you need especially when joining a… rebellion.
Something that the ancestors of the divine performed. Intriguing, indeed. He thinks for a moment of asking about it, but decides against it, believing that it would dampen the mood. After all, such things were often violent. Opening a conversation about that would definitely be awkward.

-------------------------------

Eroa abducts Cinderwing1 to P19.

Battle: Northern Skies

Maria blinks. That was a surprisingly understandable yet incredibly petty motivation. Very fae. Ding! Wait, no ding! Her party included a fairy!

"Oh, golly, we don't mean to pollute your sky too much but we have to get through to see what's going on up north and-"

It is at this time that a Harpy tries to be opportunistic and swoop down out of the air at her. Except-Maria was always observing that particular Harpy in all of this conversation, at no point letting it out of her line of sight even as her face kept towards the Cinderwing. So when the Harpy's talons swung, Maria's half-step to her left was more a trial of finding solid footing than being surprised.

"Oh, rude! I was talking to a friendly little fairy! Naughty! Naughty!" Maria shouts, completely unheeding of her arm exploding into a ton of bladed tendrils and distorted flesh and bone, entangling the Harpy.

Now-arms exploding into bladed tendrils and distorted flesh and bone tended to be eye-catching affairs, so perhaps everyone who was looking in that direction would probably be surprised. How many of them would understand was a different matter-the former Spherebreakers probably knew about Nana's arm, or even her mutative darts, but of those present (... Disregarding how Maria didn't quite remember Nidra's stuffed Koala), only a few knew of the doses of mutative fluid that they found shortly after defeating Maxim. Venia and Echoss kept shares of the plentiful wartime loot they scavenged from the affair-whether or not either of them know Maria 'aquired' a copy of that mutative substance and maintained it for a few years is another matter.

A great trick at parties, though! Or for dealing with rude interlopers like the now-unfortunate Harpy. Nobody expects arm-eyes. Or arm-swords, scythes, maws...

"Naughtly little things like you get spanks!" Maria says, morphing one particular tendril into a bone-like paddle to 'spank' the Harpy. In the head. Several times. The instant it stopped struggling, Maria casually dumps it on the ground, whereupon its loose terrain causes it to slide off the island and to its doom, which Maria only just notices. "... Nobody deserves anything!" Maria chirps, as if this instantly solves the entire moral dilemma.

"But really now, it's rather rude to attack people you've just met, you might just get people to attack first next time! So anyways we'd all really appreciate it if you stopped trying to hurt us, or else we'll have to hurt you and we can't really make totally sure you'll be OK afterwards, right?"

Maria's eyes briefly turn towards the Airship-woah woah! That was much closer than she thought it was! But also she only just cognized she rushed off the airship without actually thinking about how she could return-whoopsie! Thankfully the airship was just close enough to reach their teleporter to head back aboard if she reached out a little.

---

Maria's Splinter Spitter friend moves to Q23 (utilizing the teleporter node to warp to the southernmost one of course) to use Web Storm on Aello4. Even one hit is enough to root the thing-and cause it to nonviolently lose track of the whole party.

Maria herself moves to P21 (using the same teleporter her spitter friend did), evolves her Strain to get some more power to her attacks, altering several of her stats, and makes a swing at Harpy3. If she hits-great, it's downed (and probably dead). If not, the evasion will likely throw it off-balance to be hit by some other attack. "I guess we are the intruders here but please, you're only bringing this on yourselves you know!" Maria says, continuing her streak of utterly perfect cheer despite fighting for her life.

An ebony door appears out of the ground on T22, and out come a pair of figures of completely differing demeanor.

ALICIA: We're late! We're late! I can't believe you held us up, Auth!
AUTH: Remind me again, who was it who insisted on repacking her clothes three times on the day we needed to leave, despite my telling her that it was fine and that we needed to leave? Repeatedly?

There's a pause, as Alicia - tall, blonde-haired and red-eyed, wearing platinum-rimmed glasses and a sapphire-blue dress with white frills - turns to her twin brother sheepishly.

ALICIA: I... have no idea who that could've been, Auth. Must've been... your other half-vampire sister.
AUTH: You mean the ones who Mother is taking care of? Right. You'd better get moving, it looks like trouble. You remember your low-power training, right?

Alicia skates across the wooden floor of the ship through the Telenode at T24, to appear briefly at P17, where Auth will split off to float around Maria and heal her, as the only person substantially injured right now. Alicia will dive back into teleportation and reappear at T11. From there, she casts a bolt of ice at Reverie2, and watches to see where that shoots out from.

Clearly, Alicia does remember her low-power training.

---

Action Summary:

Alicia spawns on T22, moves to P17 through the nearby Telenode, gives Author's Aid to Maria, then moves to T11 and casts Frigid Chain at Reverie2.

Alicia's Build

DES: Roll me again.

54: Overflowing Edge
41: Spawn Point
44: Illusory Trap
51: Soaring Rush

DES: That's more like it.

Des snaps, and there are now three of them surrounding Bass.

DES: Sup.

• Move to S23, TeleNode to T10.
• Soaring Rush (GDG: Intellect) to V8. Costs 11 MP. +15% damage, Armorpierce2, and Slip2 to next Basic Attack.
• Illusory Trap (GDG: Intellect), Double Illusion onto U7 and W7. 20-22 Light damage, Mobile Illusion (has 4 MOV), Super Illusion (more likely to be targeted).

Lentinula responds to Pardon because he's the only one to respond to again Lepid why won't you answer my texts:
Lentinula tilts her head, puzzled, then perks up a bit shortly after.
LENTINULA: Oh, I get it!
LENTINULA: Well, uh, welcome to existing I guess?
LENTINULA: It looks like you might not be the only one, this is a pretty strange collection of people.
LENTINULA: ...hmm...

And also to Chi:
Lentinula bounces nervously in the air a bit but her voice stays steady.
LENTINULA: Oh, no, it's a bit of stasis stuff.
LENTINULA: Supposedly it's been adapted from what's used back home for medical evacs and animal control.
Lentinula floats a bit closer so Chi can see her well enough to look at what Lentinula is trying to show her, on one of Lentinula's hands is a sleek mechanical ring with a small grey light where a gemstone would normally go. After Chi has gotten a good look, Lentinula floats back to a more comfortable distance and continues.
LENTINULA: I dunno how but it's supposedly designed to work under thymefield conditions.
LENTINULA: And as long as that holds up then anyone I put in here won't have any time pass for them at all until I take them back out!
LENTINULA: But also... yeah.
LENTINULA: People take priority over critters. I know that, I've done enough fieldwork to keep that in mind!
LENTINULA: I know I'm antsy but I promise the Collective knows better than to send you a rookie.



Battle:
Lentinula moves to U15, casts Guiding Hand on Cinderwing2 and moves them up to U16 before setting the guiding hand status effect to Crushing Grip (-2 MOV for the cinderwing). Lentinula then retreats north a tile.

If someone else posts a different battle action for me, override this action with whatever modifications they make, I'm currently in a position where making edits is difficult.

Battle - The Northern Skies

Blacklight shrugs, seeing that playing relatively nice did not deter the attacking iti at all.

"Who would have guessed. Anyway, this should suffice..."

Blacklight uses Pinning Shot on the Vesperia, since high ground should give him the reach to do it. He then just stands around because he has no retreat value or anything else of note.

Unfortunately, Basil's conversation with Skylar is cut short, at least until this imminent threat is dealt with She makes a mental note to talk to it after battle.

Basil flinches when Sakura's root strikes her. An imperceptible emotion flashes across her face. Anger? Pain? Anxiety? About-to-cry? Who knows. Who cares. Probably not Sakura.

BASIL: Ow...
BASIL: I'll help but please don't hit me...

She scans the Aello, then shuffles to S17 and casts Static Discharge on the Vesperia.

Acting after Lepidodendron, Kalis casts Siege Spire on the Scuttletongue/Bizark.

The T23 Fallen uses the Boosters to move to T18 and attacks Cinderwing2.

The T24 Fallen uses the Boosters to move to T19 and attacks Cinderwing2.

The Zombie moves to U17 and attacks Cinderwing2.

The T25 Fallen uses the Boosters to move to U19 and attacks Cinderwing2.

If the Cinderwing is downed before all of the Fallen finish acting, rather than continue attacking it, the remaining Fallen will instead remain in place and attack Harpy6.

The doll once again climbs up onto the top of the staircase. A tendril has replaced her right hand, which is also coated in the same viscous inky liquid from before. The liquid is dripping onto the floor, but it immediately dissipates into a dark mist upon touching anything; said mist subsequently clouds around her body. Her handbag is also missing.

Rhiannon: R-right, I guess there's no point hiding it.
Rhiannon: I'm still cute, right?

The now decidedly creepier-looking doll spawns at { T22 }, climbs up onto the High Ground on { T23 }, and whacks the Teleporter Node with her tendril-hand, which has to extend to reach it. The node is promptly showered in ink and Rhiannon herself is promptly teleported to { S11 }.

As she emerges from the teleport, she spots Des on the island just ahead of the ship.

Rhiannon: L-let me try something...

With a flourish, she extends her left hand towards the gambler, at which point a large quantity of black mist bursts out of it and coils around them, sending 13 SHP via Shield Transfusion to the probably-very-weirded-out gambler before her.

Rhiannon: O-oh, I do realize this might be quite disconcerting - I'm really, really sorry if I'm creeping you out!
Rhiannon: I-I'm just... really bad at maintaining a proper interface.
Rhiannon: But maybe I can explain more when we're not being attacked...

The doll seems to feel really embarrassed about this, and tries to cover her face with her hands. This fails as her left hand is missing and her right hand is an inky tendril, causing her to cover her own face with the ink. Although the ink dissipates on contact, she still winces, though the shock seems to calm her down a little rather than agitating her further.

Rhiannon: Y-you don't hate me, right?

---

Battle action: After Chi's action, spawn at { T22 }, move to { T23 }, TeleNode to { S11 }, Shield Transfusion 13 SHP to Des on { V8 }.

Skylar

No one talked to Skylar this round. Sad! :(

SKYLAR: BEEP BOP
SKYLAR: [ACTIVATING SLEEP MODE...]

---

Paige

PAIGE: WIP wop.

---

Battle

QUOTE (The_Nonexistent_Tazz @ Mar 16 2023, 05:48 AM)

So when the Harpy's talons swung, Maria's half-step to her left was more a trial of finding solid footing than being surprised. "Oh, rude! I was talking to a friendly little fairy! Naughty! Naughty!" Maria shouts, completely unheeding of her arm exploding into a ton of bladed tendrils and distorted flesh and bone, entangling the Harpy. Now-arms exploding into bladed tendrils and distorted flesh and bone tended to be eye-catching affairs, so perhaps everyone who was looking in that direction would probably be surprised. How many of them would understand was a different matter-the former Spherebreakers probably knew about Nana's arm, or even her mutative darts, but of those present (... Disregarding how Maria didn't quite remember Nidra's stuffed Koala), only a few knew of the doses of mutative fluid that they found shortly after defeating Maxim. Venia and Echoss kept shares of the plentiful wartime loot they scavenged from the affair-whether or not either of them know Maria 'aquired' a copy of that mutative substance and maintained it for a few years is another matter. A great trick at parties, though! Or for dealing with rude interlopers like the now-unfortunate Harpy. Nobody expects arm-eyes. Or arm-swords, scythes, maws... "Naughtly little things like you get spanks!" Maria says, morphing one particular tendril into a bone-like paddle to 'spank' the Harpy. In the head. Several times. The instant it stopped struggling, Maria casually dumps it on the ground, whereupon its loose terrain causes it to slide off the island and to its doom, which Maria only just notices. "... Nobody deserves anything!" Maria chirps, as if this instantly solves the entire moral dilemma.

As Paige leaps into the fray, she peers past the throng of people just in time to see the spectacle.

PAIGE: Damn, little miss, uh, princess... VTuber...? is cooler than I thought.
PAIGE: That arm is gnarly. (:>) I should talk to her.

---

Actual battle actions:
Skylar and Paige move to P17 and attack Breaker1 and Breaker2 separately with their basic attack. This means Squeedly-wheeyooo! procs.

<ROUND 3>

Vent discusses the cities of his home planet, and also time travel.

R-8 gasps at the population figures Vent throws out.

R-8733: Wow! That’s enormous.
R-8733: Even in the Citadel itself, we don’t have nearly that many people.
R-8733: Although, I’ve heard that we Chairians once had great cities like that, before the End War…
R-8733: But that was a long time ago. Tabletopia has been growing faster than us for hundreds of years.
R-8733: It’s only thanks to our elite mages that we managed to hold them off. But now, with the new interest in science and all of the outsiders helping us, maybe we can catch up!

---

Alicia and Auth arrive on the scene.

Chi seems immensely relieved to see the Eternal Author, although she’s a little busy trying not to get kidnapped by Harpies to comment on it at the moment.

---

Lentinula clarifies some things.

CHI: It freezes time for them… indefinitely?
CHI: I… That’s actually a little bit scary. But very impressive!
CHI: That must use an incalculable amount of energy… And yet it’s so small!
CHI: Is it magical, or technology?

Chi’s (past) musings are quickly interrupted by the Iti attack. Maybe Lentinula will get a chance to show how it works.

---

Rhiannon turns into black goop, partially.

The nearby Chairians do seem a little bit disconcerted, but likewise, no one really has time to question her on this. And besides, there’s already one eldritch horror in the party; what’s another one, really?

(Don’t answer that.)

---

<PRELUDE: THE NORTHERN SKIES, ROUND 3>

A Cinderwing has been eaten, some fairy lore™ has been revealed, and an Amphi looms on the horizon. I believe in your power to deal with all of these things.

Pardon surveys the scene and notices the group of injured Allies nearby of Sakura, Doc and Lentinula

He moves to P23 than S16 via telenode and then Basic Attacks the Harpy 2.

A vibration through the skein of the world...

Pardon: There, all better now.

If his Trait activates, he passes a Magic Pouch to Sakura’s tile, trusting she will pick it up for herself. He then retreats back with a flick of his tail via teleport retreat to P23 and than Bonus Action the Utility Console for continued Stratoshield


THEN:
Pardon nods back at Lentinula and than moves as Chi calls for the summons...

DEBBIE: ...zzz...

Debbie was put to sleep. A peaceful sleep, to be sure, but now is not the time to sleep.

At least, a skeleton thought so. It wakes her up.

DEBBIE: ...Eh?
DEBBIE: ...Oh.

She looks at the skeleton. Interestingly enough, she's not phased by the obvious necromancy. Instead, she's... excited?

DEBBIE: Oh my, a skeleton!
DEBBIE: I was wondering about that actually. Whether the creatures on this planet would have fossils to dig up.
DEBBIE: Ooh, I wonder what sorts of things I'll find here!

With that little tidbit of excitement passed, wasn't she forgetting something in her waking moments here...?

DEBBIE: ...O-oh, right. The ship.

---

She ponders Lepidodendron's words. Odd fellow, with their mannerisms. But still, not bothered by their blatant necromancy at all.

DEBBIE: ...Ah, so that's how it happened...
DEBBIE: W-well, at least I'll have less chance of accidentally defiling some ancient burial ground, so it... works out, I guess?

She sighs. Avoid wood that's underground. Easy enough to do. Though, her conversation partner had mentioned it being a sort of art form for them...

DEBBIE: B-But yeah, I'm... a fossil collector!
DEBBIE: It's a side thingy I like to do when royal duties can wait.
DEBBIE: They can tell us a lot about the world's past by what flora and fauna existed back then!
DEBBIE: So... y-you'll need to excuse my excitement about potentially finding new fossils native to this planet.

---

Debbie just so happens to hear the tiniest shriek right next to her. Turning her head, she notices Lentinula freaking out. She was awake just long enough to know what exactly caused it. Debbie immediately gets worried for her ally's health.

DEBBIE: Ma'am, are you okay?
DEBBIE: I'm a little worried about you, a-after hearing that..

ACTION

After waking up via skeleton, Debbie moves down to (R18) and uses Terrain Survey on High Ground.

This transforms a lot of tiles into High Ground: (O17), (P17), (Q17) (should be a fluidsand tile on (P17) as they only disappear when leaving), (P13), (O12), (Q12), (O11), (P11), (Q11), (O10), (Q10). No Fluidsand appears.

Debbie retreats to (Q17).

DEBBIE: I... have no idea how I'm doing this... I-I hope I'm not accidentally damaging ship internals...
DEBBIE: This isn't exactly... s-solid earth...