Birth of a Shinigami

"Sounds sinister," Light remarked, sounding unimpressed. "Interesting name, Ryuk-san."

"It's a screen name, actually. Who cares what my real name is? Leave off the –san, though. I'm not Japanese and it bothers me."

"Might I point out that you're in Japan? 'When in Rome…'" Ryuk waved him off flippantly, jingling a collection of chains he was wearing around his wrists.

"Fine, whatever."

"So what is the Death Note?"

"Thought you'd never ask. It's a program I've developed that lets you create a character for the game without registering, so you don't have to give the company your name or your credit card information."

"So I can play for free. Again, why would I want to do that?"

"So you can mess things up, actually. I've put years into this game and I'm sick to death of what it's becoming. They just kicked me off the development team because I had some ideas they didn't like, which is why I'm out here killing time with the beta testing team."

"Let me get this straight," Light almost laughed at the sheer absurdity of this conversation. "You're letting me join the game anonymously so I can ruin it?" Ryuk nodded, his earring swinging back and forth as he did so.

"Well, not so much ruin it as shake things up," he corrected. "I don't want to be out of a job just yet."

"Why do you want to do all this?"

"Because I'm bored, and so are you, which I imagine is why you're even contemplating this." Ryuk backed off a little and held out his hands. "Look, man, you've got nothing to lose. No money, no respect since no one knows who you are. I'm just offering an alternative to being bored."

"What's in it for you?" Nothing in this world was free, and Light was curious what the other man hoped to get out of this.

"All I ask is that you let me tag around when you join. I want to see what you do, and I'll give you pointers along the way."

"That doesn't sound that horrible." What was he getting himself into? It sounded like there were no strings attached, though, and that was almost too good to be true. The man hadn't even asked his name, so he had no interest in stalking or keeping an eye on him.

"Think about it." Ryuk took the disc back as Light was staring at it and replaced it with his card. It was a heavily embossed card with the man's name and his technical credentials as well as the title 'Developer' for Wammy House. His phone and email were listed as well, but no name other than the screen name 'Ryuk'. "You lose nothing if you join, I'll make sure of that. It's just an escape from boredom, like any game should be. Call me, and I'll get you a headset and get you started. Don't wait too long, though, or I might have to look for someone else."

"Okay." He didn't have anything more to say than that. "Thanks, I guess."

"No problem, man. My break's over by now." He turned and raised a hand in salutation, heading back to the store. "Catch ya later." He jangled as he walked away with all the chains at his waist clanging together, a discordant symphony all by himself.

"Later," Light waved back, putting the card in his back pocket. Again, he wondered what in the world he was contemplating. It might actually be worth it, though, if it kept him from being so bored this summer. After all, he had nothing else to do until college started up again in the late summer, and it wasn't as though he needed a part-time job.

Maybe it was worth doing, after all. He'd think more later about contacting Ryuk.

As it turned out, he didn't wait very long. After he got home that day, he tried watching the television, but there was only more idiocy about the game as well as news he really didn't care about that much. His mother was no help, since she only worked in the house when she wasn't shopping or watching her dramas. His sister was gone again, and his father was never there to be any cure to his crushing boredom.

Without school to study for, he really didn't have anything to do. He paged through the books he bought that day and skimmed various websites, but when night fell, he thought he would tear his hair out with sheer frustration. He had never been so bored in his life, almost as though having Ryuk tell him that made him notice it that much more.

He had never been interested in making friends in school since by and large his classmates were shallow and uninteresting people, which was why he had no one to turn to for conversation when he wasn't in school. The lack of any sort of stimulus was draining.

That was why he called Ryuk only two days later, seriously interested in anything that would break his depressing cycle of waking, reading, eating, and sleeping. He couldn't fathom spending weeks doing this without going crazy, so he turned to the only person that had been even remotely different and therefore fascinating by default.

"Wammy House, this is Ryuk speaking. How can I help you?" He sounded completely different with that almost formal tone of voice. Without giving his name, he tried to think of something only he would know to show his identity.

"Hey, Ryuk. You showed me the Death Note at—"

"—the electronics place. I forgot the name already, but I remember your voice. What's up?" Now he sounded more like he had that day. "You think about my offer?"

"Yes, I did, and I'm willing to take you up on it."

"Great. I'm working today, so I don't have a headset on me. Want to meet tomorrow after noon? I'll bring all you need." This man wasted no time getting to the point now, Light noticed.

"Sure. Anywhere in particular?"

"I'm looking across the street at something called 'The Dancing Goat'. You know where that coffeeshop is?"

"I'll find it." With a name like that, it was probably an independent and would be one-of-a-kind, therefore easier to find.

"One o'clock, be there… or be bored. Just kidding. I'll see you then." He hung up before Light could say anything in response. Ryuk talked strangely and acted socially retarded, which wasn't surprising given what he imagined being a software developer was like. The man probably seldom saw the light of day with a job like that.

At least tomorrow he would have something new to amuse himself with. Things had to start looking up after this.

"This is it?" Light turned the device over in his hands, examining the completely opaque visor and the noise-isolating earphones that dangled from it. It looked too simple. He and Ryuk were sitting inside The Dancing Goat and taking sips of ridiculously strong espresso. He was almost jittery with the caffeine.

"No, it plugs into this," Ryuk held up a box with a standard plug for a wall outlet. "We tried to make it all one unit, but we don't have that kind of processing power, and it made the headset too bulky." He was taking the pieces one by one out of a canvas satchel that he had said he would give to Light to carry everything in.

"You're supposed to lie down while wearing it, since you'll be unconscious, essentially. It's like going to sleep to start using it, or waking up when you log off. It sort of taps into your sensory receptors, so it puts you to sleep to keep you from getting 'overstimulated'."

"What if someone needs to wake me up for something?" This sounded so strange, but if people were already using it to test it out, it shouldn't be dangerous, right?

"Trust me, if they hit you, you'll wake up. You can set an alarm to log you off after a certain amount of time too, so you're not on all night without realizing it."

"Okay. Anything else I need to know right away?"

"Believe it or not, no. The Death Note will get you started and explain things when you first log in, and then it will ping me so I can find you in-game and explain everything else. Just pop the disk in before you put on the headset, since I already installed the basic game software into it."

"So it doesn't know who I am? No one can find out?" Ryuk chuckled and put everything back in the bag.

"Nope. Technology isn't advanced enough to read minds. All we're doing with this is tapping into your senses so you feel like you're in the game. We can't read your thoughts, just feed you information." Ryuk leaned forward slightly on the table. "I don't work in the biotech department or anything, so I can't tell you exactly what it's doing, but it won't harm you. It's just another way to amuse yourself."

"If you say so." Could he really trust some random stranger? If nothing else, he could probably contact the company if he had problems, since he knew exactly who Ryuk worked for and they weren't exactly a small company. He had done his research, and Wammy House was a multi-million-dollar operation, if they hadn't gone into the billions yet.

"Hey, I've been 'logged in' for years, and it hasn't changed me!" Light raised an eyebrow at the man's laugh, his manner of dress, his eccentric behavior.

"Really, now."

"I've always been this strange. You should see the rest of the team." Another rasping laugh as he finished off his coffee. "Well, you enjoy this. Try to come up with a screen name or something that I can call you when you log in. I don't like calling you nothing, and I don't want your real name or anything."

"I'll think of something. Thanks again, Ryuk."

"No problem. I'm off for the next two days, so I should be on if you log in. Have fun!" He stood to his gargantuan height and headed off, his outfit today not much different than it had been before. Light watched him go before looking into the satchel again. He felt a smile pulling itself across his features as he hoped that herein lay his salvation, the solution to his ever-present boredom.

Ryuk almost skipped as he went through the halls of the hotel that Wammy House, Incorporated, had put them up in while they were in Japan. The corporation's headquarters were in Winchester, England, but that wasn't that well-known. It wasn't necessary with a company that took care of most of its business online.

Things should get more interesting soon, if he'd picked out the right person for the job, per se. He knocked on one of the doors and waited, knowing that the paranoid occupant would want to see who he was before he was allowed inside. Finally the door clicked open and his dark-haired friend was barely visible heading back to his seat through the small opening.

"Hey, man, how's the testing going?" The young man who was every bit as pale as he was turned black, shadowed eyes toward him, the eyes nearly hidden beneath that shaggy hair. He was crouched on the floor in front of a computer with three screens, which looked like it had vomited cables all over the carpet. There was a headset lying on the floor near him, but he was using the two keyboards in front of him instead.

"We almost have enough subjects. Hopefully we'll be able to start next week once we narrow it down to 20 people for this site, a fitting sample representing each demographic that we are aiming at."

"You as tired of it all as I am?" Ryuk stretched, stifling a yawn as he changed subjects.

"I don't know what you mean," the boy said mechanically. "I love my job. I love working for Mr. Wammy. I love what I do."

"Like hell you do," Ryuk pulled a pack of cloves out of his back pocket and lit one up, savoring the sweet and spicy aroma. "Just because you're his son doesn't mean you have to do this."

"I don't have a choice. Put that shit out, this isn't a smoking room." Ryuk raised his eyebrows at the unusual display of temper but knocked the cherry off with the underside of his boot. He didn't want to waste the cigarette, so he stuck the stub back in his pocket, grinding the measly ashes into the carpet under his toe.

"What's got you so angry? The old man say something to you again?" The younger man let out a short, barking laugh.

"Ryuk, you know it's what he doesn't say that bothers me. Did you come here for anything in particular, or are you just wasting my time too?"

"I'm just letting you know that things might get more interesting." Ryuk grinned, and a faint smile lit up the boy's face as well. "I can't tell you all the details, but I'm hoping a little project of mine pans out."

"Well, you'll have to keep me informed." Those dead black eyes went back to the monitors. "This testing certainly isn't worth wasting my genius on, after all. Let me know if you want anything else, okay? I'm already working on a new glitch to put into your Death Note, and I'm calling it The Eyes."

"Sounds cool. What's it do?" Now the boy grinned genuinely, turning to look at him and looking slightly like a Goth pixie with that childish smile in a ghost-white face.

"Not telling. You'll have to wait until it's done."

"Sure thing. I'm off again, but take it easy, ok? Don't let the old man get you down."

"Yeah, whatever." At the mention of his father, the boy's amusement dwindled until he looked as lifeless as he had when Ryuk first entered the room. He opened the door and left him staring at the monitors without even acknowledging his departure.

Ryuk should have felt more guilty using Mr. Wammy's own son just to kill his boredom, but the kid had more than enough reasons to work against his unconcerned foster father. If Ryuk actually cared about anyone, he might not have approached that random auburn-haired Japanese boy either, but they were all just pawns to him. He liked moving them around and playing them off each other to see what happened.

Life was just a game, after all.

L rifled through the dessert tray that had just shown up at his room, trying to decide what he wanted for dinner. Like everyone else at Wammy House, he was busy tweaking things in the game and trying to iron out wrinkles before it went live, hopefully in only a few months.

Surprisingly, Wammy hadn't even announced the name of this virtual reality nightmare yet, and the advertising department was going crazy. If he knew his foster father, the man just hadn't decided on one of the many that had been offered.

Sighing, he decided that since there was no strawberry cheesecake available, a chocolate one would have to do. He picked it off and sent the rest of the tray away with the maid who had brought it.

Turning back to the computer, he glanced over the growing list of things to add to the Frequently Asked Questions file, which he had taken on with some irritation. It was something suited to someone far less intelligent than he was, but Wammy House was growing short-handed now that they were establishing field sites all over the world to start testing the game. He had accepted the new task, and the accompanying pay raise, with his usual level of decorum, which is to say, none at all.

At least it was keeping him busy, though. His part in the game wasn't even available until it went live, since he was the head of the "law enforcement" for the game, the 'Watchers'. It should be fun, at least for a while. Well, it should keep the boredom away for a few years. He slumped a little more in front of his computer, wondering when keeping away boredom had become the defining characteristic of his life.

Light could barely contain his excitement, which was incredibly rare for him. He was never more than pleased with anything, so to have something that made him even slightly giddy was out of the ordinary. He headed home with the satchel, slipping into the house and up the stairs before his mother could try to tell him about her day.

Dumping out all of the contents on his bed, he assembled it all in the order that Ryuk had shown him, plugging it into his Internet relay and the wall outlet before putting in the Death Note disk. A little light blinked on the box as it loaded, but he ignored it and lay down on his bed, trying to get comfortable before holding the visor up to his face. He had noticed the glittering nodes positioned about where his temples would be inside the visor while he was in the coffee shop with Ryuk, and he assumed that this was how the information would get into his head. Before he could get nervous about allowing something access to his mind, he slipped it on.

It blocked out all the light, which he figured was the point of it since his eyes would be closed during the game. He could feel the nodes pressing into his temples, but it wasn't painful or even uncomfortable. He slipped the earplugs into his ears, and a silent darkness blanketed him while he waited for the Death Note to prompt him to do something.

It seemed like long moments before a quiet voice counted backwards from 10 in English, and he felt like he was falling asleep.

He never heard the countdown reach zero before he opened his eyes in a dark room illuminated by a bluish light. There was a map floating in space before him, and he walked up to the source of the light. All of the words were in English. Fortunately he knew English fairly well, though Ryuk hadn't told him that the game would be entirely in that language. He wasn't a slow reader, but he could listen to it much faster than he could read it.

A disembodied woman's voice, also speaking English, made him jump.

"Welcome to the login screen of The World." He tried to quiet his racing heartbeat, then grew amazed that he could even feel it. If this was the game, then it felt like the real thing already. "You can modify your appearance with the controls to your right. Choose carefully, for you will only be allowed to choose once before the changes are made permanent to your avatar." A new window opened up to his side, and the map before him turned into a mirror. His own face stared back, but it looked slightly different, like his skin had been smoothed and his hair made less complicated, as though he was looking at a very good drawing of himself.

He glanced over the controls. He could change his eye, skin, and hair color, and there was actually an option to change his age. The controls looked like nothing but glowing lines of light, but he moved them up and down or selected different options just to see what they all did. Sliding the 'age' button put a few wrinkles on his face and grayed the hair at his temples a little, but it wasn't very convincing. He slid it the opposite way and saw his eyes grow larger and his face rounder, so he looked slightly more child-like. The game developers must have wanted people to mostly stick to their natural appearance. He put the slider back to its default position and made his hair dark red and his eyes crimson to match. The person in the mirror looked much more sinister now, especially when he made his face a little paler. He would have to ask Ryuk if he could make himself look unrecognizable later.

He touched the word 'Done' at the end and the map reappeared. It was mostly green forest with a few rivers winding through it and a lake or two. There were towns dotted all over, and straight black lines connected each town in a loose web. There were brown lines as well connecting the towns, but these were more winding and less direct. There were other symbols on the map, but he didn't know what they were for.

"Choose a starting point for your character. This will become your character's hometown. You will only be able to choose a place once, for this map is only available upon initial login. Each time you log in thereafter, you will appear in the town you last left. Since this is a beta testing stage, only three towns are available and there are no details to look up."

Without any information to read, all the towns looked the same to Light, so he touched a random one. The map winked out of existence and the room was plunged into darkness.

When he opened his eyes again, wondering when he had closed them, he was standing inside a large room. Sunlight spilled through the windows set high in the walls, but there was nothing to illuminate since the room looked bare. He took a step before the same feminine voice frightened him by appearing from nowhere.

"This is the hotel in Ravenloft, which is where you chose to have your character spawn. Each time you log back in, you will appear in a hotel like this one. Please leave the hotel and explore the town outside."

He tried to suppress a chuckle at the feigned politeness as he walked out the door. It was midday outside, and there was a cobblestone street before him winding between two-story homes that crowded the road. He could feel his feet hit the rocks beneath them, and he could hear voices from a distance. It was incredibly realistic, even if he could stare at the sun in this world without hurting his eyes.

"Hey!" A rasping voice came out of the air next to his ear, and when he turned to the side, he screamed like a girl and jumped. There was a monster there, and he tried not to run away like a coward when he knew this was all fake, all just a game. Breathing hard as his heart raced, he was surprised to see the monster start laughing. It was around eight feet tall with black, bony wings without any webbing and a body so emaciated that it looked like it was all bones beneath the black leather or vinyl that covered it. Its face was almost clown-like with that hideously large mouth full of sharp teeth and the black surrounding its eyes. When he caught sight of the dangling heart earring, though, he started to breath easier.

"R-ryuk?" he stammered, trying to stop hyperventilating, and the monster nodded.

"It's me, kid. This is how I'll look in-game, just for kicks. You got a name yet?"

"No, I didn't pick one."

"Wait a sec, I forgot to tell you," Ryuk waved an elongated hand as though to shush him. "I'm invisible to everyone else, so you will have to talk quietly since no one else can see me."

"Okay," Light muttered. "So you're just going to watch over my shoulder?"

"Yep. And tell you stuff, of course. I don't have a playable character in the game anymore, since I got taken out of my department, but when you use the Death Note, I can participate. Let's get started. Oh, shit."

"Welcome!" a falsely perky voice in English came from behind Light, making him jump again. He turned to see a man standing there in a black suit with wire-rimmed glasses and dark hair. He was smiling, but it looked completely forced. There were words in blue floating over his head that read "Mikami - Mod".

"Did you just get here? Has anyone explained the FAQ to you?" He kept grinning, which made him look vaguely disturbed.

"That's Teru Mikami. He's part of the legal department, but he must be doing this for the extra money," Ryuk muttered to his side. "Don't look at me, he can't see me." Light obediently looked back, trying to remember to ignore the floating apparition next to him.

"What's an FAQ?" he asked, and Mikami sighed.

"Why do I get all the newbies?" he said to himself in Japanese, his smile vanishing as he pulled a clipboard out from under his arm. He looked like he was trying to smile and be cheerful again, but it wasn't working very well as he resumed in English. "I'm Mikami, a Moderator, as you can tell from the words over my head. These will tell you where a Moderator is in-game so you can ask questions. This introduction only happens in the beta testing stage, since what I'm doing right now is fleshing out the FAQ so it will be readable for everyone else when the game is available to buy." His English was very slightly accented, but Light decided not to tell him that he could speak Japanese too. It was one more way to hide his identity.

"Follow me and I'll give you a brief tour. If you have any questions at all, please ask, for I need to know them so we can add them to the file." Mikami started off, and Light obediently followed, Ryuk floating in the air next to him as he walked.

"Which site are you at?" the man asked distractedly, looking down at his clipboard. Light glanced at Ryuk, for he had no idea what the man was asking.

"Tell him you're in Los Angeles. He wants to know where you applied to be a tester, since there are places all over the world. Don't worry, he has no way of confirming the information."

"Los Angeles," Light replied, and Mikami wrote something down while Ryuk continued.

"At the sites, the beta testers are playing in a room where they can be supervised by people like me. We're watching their vital signs and such so we know they're okay, and we log them off after a few hours and take the equipment back since we don't want it getting out. They've signed a waiver saying that they won't discuss the game either, but that won't last for long." Mikami started talking again, so Ryuk fell quiet.

"The game takes place in sixteenth century England, as you can see from the architecture and the clothes you're wearing." Light looked down, not even having thought to look. He was in a plain brown leather jerkin, loose pants made of cloth, and an off-white linen shirt. He had equally plain boots on his feet and a small dagger and a pouch hanging from a belt around his waist.

"You can upgrade and buy new clothes and armor and weapons or anything really with in-game currency, which is copper, silver, and gold. To get it, you can roleplay that you are a citizen of this town and receive a small wage at the end of the day. This is for those who are more interested in living out a new virtual lifestyle here. In addition, you can check the bulletin board in town," he waved at a wooden plaque covered in notices nailed to a tree. "On these you can find quests or bounties on creatures that live outside town that you can fulfill to earn money or items. There are a large variety of quests that will change regularly. You can also take quests from shopowners, bartenders, and other NPC's as well."

"What's an NPC?" This was a lot of information that he was completely unfamiliar with, having never played a game in his life. Mikami looked testy as he answered, but he did a better job of covering it up this time.

"A Non-Playable Character. It's an AI, Artificial Intelligence. They are characters that have no names floating over their heads. You don't have one either right now, but that's because you have a beta account and the testers haven't actually registered. When the game goes live, everyone will have their screen name floating over their heads since everyone will have had to give their registration information and credit card numbers in order to log in. There's a monthly fee to play the game." Light glanced over at Ryuk, wondering if that would be the case with him.

"Don't worry, kid. You won't have anything to identify you and you won't ever have to pay, trust me." He raised his eyebrows in disbelief since he couldn't say anything, and Ryuk chuckled.

"As I was saying, you can take quests, or you can buy in-game currency with actual money. The best items can only be gotten by questing, but that's not for everyone. There are very few people in the towns right now, but they will be much more populated later. You can also adventure outside the town and kill monsters, take quests from NPC's outside town, or just explore the dungeons for treasure and monsters." This all sounded so inane. Did people really waste their time doing this? He glanced around and saw no one; it was almost like a ghost town right now. Mikami kept rambling as he walked.

"You can use the money to buy things in town. Ah, I almost forgot. You have to leave the town in order to actually kill anything. In town, you can only explore, buy goods, which includes food and drink, visit the hospital to cure wounds, talk with other characters, meet up with people, you get my point. It is supposed to simulate real life, just without the obvious political and environmental crises. The focus is on human interaction and meeting people."

"Is that all I can do?" he asked, imitating Mikami's high-handed tone of voice. This sounded so dull.

"It does sound boring, doesn't it?" Ryuk murmured, sounding disgusted with the game he had helped design.

Mikami hissed something under his breath in Japanese again, and it sounded like "Is every teen a hormonal pervert?" Then he straightened and put that forced smile back on. "If you're asking if you can copulate with other characters, the answer is no. You'll find you're as anatomically correct as a Ken doll. The game is not all about sex, sorry to disappoint. If you want to get drunk, though, we have simulated that fairly well, so go do that if you're upset." He'd pissed the man off, and it made him smile. Ryuk was guffawing off to his side, and Light was trying hard not to laugh along with him. From Mikami's rapid fire answer, he could only guess that the question had been asked many times before.

"If you're done, I'll keep going. You have to leave the town in order to actually perform any violent act, and there is no player killing in the game whatsoever." Before Light could even ask about that, Mikami continued, holding out his clipboard and his other arm as though making himself look defenseless. "What I mean is, you can't kill other players at any time in order to take their possessions. It looks fairly funny to attack another character, since you just kind of keep missing. Try it."

Light stared at the man while Ryuk started laughing. He pulled out the little dagger on his belt and looked at it. "Are you serious?"

"Like a heart attack. Take a swing. You won't hurt me. I'm just trying to prove a point." Mikami still stood there, his smug face looking into Light's. He still hesitated, since it just felt so wrong to randomly attack someone who wouldn't even fight back. "Do it, c'mon, I dare you."

"Oh, this should be good," Ryuk said lowly.

Okay, that was childish. Light scowled and took a step forward, bringing the knife back to get some extra swing room. He didn't have any experience wielding a dagger and really had no idea how to attack with one. It didn't even matter, since it was going to bounce off or something, but he didn't want to look like a complete idiot. To Mikami's credit, the man didn't even flinch when Light aimed the dagger at his throat and swung with all his might.

He did look damned surprised when the dagger went right through his neck, the blade catching midway through as Light hit his spine with the tip of the blade, but it kept sliding until there was a gaping hole all the way across the man's throat. Mikami's eyes were huge, and blood splattered across Light's chest and face as he stood, frozen. The black-haired man gurgled, blood running out of his mouth as he took a step, then fell to the side, hitting the ground like a sack of flour, lifeless.

"Holy—" Light couldn't even finish that, shocked into stupidity. "But he said…" he stammered, dumbfounded because Mikami had looked as surprised as he at that turn of events. "He said I couldn't kill him." Mikami's now dead character flickered out of existence, his clipboard vanishing with him.

"You might want to log off now," Ryuk laughed to his side. "Just think about waking up." Light nodded shakily, still feeling the blood on his face as he willed himself to wake up.

He reappeared in the dark room from before with the map before him, and the blood was all gone. Ryuk was there too, and Light turned on him.

"What just happened?" He hated the quavering note in his voice, but he had just slit a man's throat! There was no way he could be calm after that. Was that illegal? No, it was just a game. People killed each other in games all the time. They didn't know who he was, couldn't trace him…

"Calm down, kid." Ryuk grabbed him by the shoulders since Light's thoughts were running in mad circles. "You didn't do anything wrong; I'm just letting you break a few rules."

"What do you mean?" There was still that quiver in his voice, and it made him sick to hear it.

"That's the power of the Death Note. It lets you kill."

-

-

A/N - Hopefully that wasn't too dry with all the game mechanics. I played way too many games in the past. Ryuk looks in-game the way he normally does in the manga, and Light, in-game, looks like he did in the anime when he was having an inner monologue, with the red hair and eyes.

Edit - Yes, reading the game rules is boring (and Mikami sucks at the job too), but hopefully only in the same way that reading the rules of the Death Note is boring. Some of them were necessary for plot development, teehee.

See you next chapter!