- 3 -
Route x AA
"If you're lonely…"
[Citadel, unknown location]
To the boy, the world was frozen in place — never changing, never moving, nothing; it was complete stillness.
Everyday he would see the same two hoodlums jump over an old fence that stood stationary in the middle of an empty field as he exited his school building. The duo would always look up at him in acknowledgement, but they would never interact.
Such was their daily routine.
The boy's entire day — his entire life — was set on repeat.
He would wake up exactly as his clock read six-thirty — no later and no less — every single day, and he would fumble out of his house, tripping over the same bump in the curve at exactly six-forty-five. He would then run to school at his usual pace and enter the school building, always as the clock struck seven. Right when the clock struck three, he'd exit the school building, watch the duo jump over the fence, and trot on back to his home.
Always; always; always; everything was always the same.
Perhaps, the boy had supposed once, if he interacted more with the people around him, his life would change a bit. But the people of the boy's town — at least those who rode on the surface — were perfectly content with their world that was set on an endless repeat.
Maybe that was the reason why the boy was practically ecstatic instead of fearful when that group of six rolled out of his closet door.
[Schaffer Port]
The tea leaves of the evening had told the girl that she was to meet an old and familiar soul that day. They had also told her that if she stayed any longer in the seaside town in which she was currently residing — Schaffer Port — she would be in danger.
The girl was now sitting by the seashore contemplating her possible actions.
The soft saline breeze that drifted across the sandy canopy fought off the blaring sun that rose above her faded silvery, blonde hair; the thick, wafting sea tickled at her toes. And as she shifted her small hands through the grainy sand, the tips of her fingers brushed up against a smooth surface.
The girl dug deeper.
A seashell — one to add to her collection.
Above her the seagulls cawed; and the girl briefly wondered if she could ever be that free.
Picking herself up off the ground and placing the found seashell in her black satchel in one, fluid, and graceful motion, the girl turned towards the small town and walked.
[Unknown Location]
"Uhm," the redhead peered at the glowing door curiously, "how is this supposed to work exactly?"
The door which she was currently eyeing had, only a few moments ago, been just a regular, old, wooden door that had happened to lead to any empty black hole. Now the door was coated in a green, glass-like substance that gave off an ethereal glow.
"We go out this door," came the sassy reply of the green-haired delinquent who currently happened to be shoving several sharp looking items into a sack, "and we walk into Citadel. Poof. Magic!"
Zoey eyed the door again, before she glanced back at her shorter friend. The boy simply shrugged in turn:
"It has to do with dimensional physics, but there's not a lot information about it yet."
"Oh!" another taller girl, Sierra namely, interjected on a completely different note with a bright smile as she slung a small knapsack over her shoulder. "Are you guys subscribed to the Mana-former's Weekly? They have a bunch of info about—
"Mana-related sciences!" Cameron finished, eyes brightening. "You've read about them?"
"I have an entire article about it in my newspaper!" Sierra replied, jumping up and down ecstatically.
"Haha… Woah, that's pretty cool. Didn't they do a review about that new mana-fueled gaming platform?"
This remark came from another adolescent — the brown-haired one — who so happened to be shoving several strange-looking books, each of them appearing to have what appeared to be a different colored dragons on their covers.
"Oh, yeah!" Sierra replied; she nodded her head vigorously up and down. "I totes wrote an article about that one too!"
"I've actually never heard about Mana-former's Weekly before." Zoey informed them with a shy, embarrassed kind of laugh. "The only newspaper that circulated in my town were just about the things going on in our community..."
"Aw," Cameron frowned sympathetically, "you could always borrow some of my issues; they're really cool!"
"Yeah! You can borrow some of mine too, Zoey! I have, like, a thousand copies of each magazine article with me!"
"That's great, nerds." Duncan interrupted as he brushed right in-between their conversing group.
The four new recruits watched as the delinquent approached Gwen who had been sitting cross-legged on the leather sofa, one hand extended towards the glowing door and the other pinching the bridge of her nose.
"How's it going, Gwen?"
"Evidently not so good." She grimaced, glancing up at his face from the corner of her eyes. "The portal I opened up at Citadel must've been moved or tampered with or something; I'm not sure if the portal actually leads to Citadel anymore!"
Cameron, overhearing this, walked over to the distressing duo whilst tapping his chin thoughtfully: "Gwen, can I ask you something?"
She sent him a weak glare, but nodded.
"Do you happen to imbed your mana into actual doors when you're creating portals?"
She nodded again but this time with a curious and raised eyebrow.
"There's a high possibility that someone may have moved that door to a different location." Cameron suggested. "But, since you binded your mana to the door, I doubt that it could be moved very far."
"You sure about that, bubbleboy?" Duncan questioned with narrowed eyes; he held up a threatening fist and grabbed the boy by the color of his shirt. "'Cause if we go through that door and up in some weird desert, you're gonna pay."
Cameron gulped.
"Hey, let him go!" Zoey protested from the sidelines.
"Yeah, let Cameron go, you meanie!"
Sam nodded vigorously in agreement.
"Let him go, Duncan." Gwen muttered, crossing his arms.
"What? I was only playin'." The delinquent grinned cockily as he shamelessly released his grip on the boy and gave a simple shrug. He jerked his thumb towards the still glowing door, "So we gonna try this door out or what?"
"I dunno," Sam interjected with a half-hearted chuckle, "I mean, the door could be in a dumpster somewhere in Citadel… It'd be pretty nasty if we ended up there…"
"It would be kind of gross," Zoey agreed, lightly tapping her chin.
"Hey, newbies don't get to decide."
With that, the delinquent grabbed both Sam and Cameron by the back of their collars. kicked the glowing door open and prepared to throw the two out into the strange-looking room that had been hidden behind the door.
"Duncan, wait!" came an angry call from Gwen. The pale adolescent shot up from her seat in protest and made her way over to the open doorway.
Unfortunately, she hadn't noticed the array of magazines that had been scattered all over the floor. Due to that simple mistake, she found herself slipping forward; and out of pure instinct, she grabbed the closest thing next to her — and that thing just so happened to be a surprised looking redhead.
Zoey let out a surprised yelp as she lost her balanced; and she too out of pure instinct reached out, grabbing a hold of Duncan's longcoat in attempt to break her fall.
The delinquent's entire body was jerked back by the two girls' combined weights. The two he currently held in his grips grasped at the opposite sides of the open door frame in an attempt to keep both themselves and Duncan from falling.
"Woah! What the hell?!" Duncan shouted back. "Let go! You're practically on the ground already."
"I'm so sorry!" But the grip did not give.
The delinquent began to fall backwards even more, causing him to strengthen his grip on the two who were clinging onto the doorframe; the door-clinging duo's eyes were literally bulging out of their eyes as the fronts of their collars dug into their necks. In unison, they both pulled forward — and in a movement that defied all physics — they found themselves flying forwards out of the door with the other three tagging along behind them.
Sierra who had been nonchalantly watching them with a raised eyebrow ran forward and jumped out of the door with a wide grin, shouting: "Wait for me!"
On her way out of the door, she grabbed the doorknob and swung the entire thing to a close. Seconds later she found herself lying on top of a pile of the five other adolescents.
The five adolescents sent each other demeaning looks, before all six paused and all burst out into laughter. Their bright and lively atmosphere was sliced in half by a single squeakily-voiced question:
"Who the heck are you people?!"
The six glanced upwards and found themselves staring at a brown-haired, baby-faced adolescent who was standing on top of a stool pointing a pair of safety scissors at them.
[Schaffer Port]
The airy girl walked the practically empty town streets, holding her black knapsack loosely in her hands. The citizens who were actually wandering the streets whispered worriedly amongst themselves.
The girl could tell by looking at their spiking auras that they were intensely fearful and anxious about something. Curious, she walked up to a conversing couple with a tilted head:
"Excuse me, I couldn't help noticing that your auras are spiking unusually high today. May I ask why?"
They looked at her strangely, but the girl was used to that.
"You mean you haven't heard?" one of the questioned with a surprised blink. "One of the Generals is coming to town today!"
"Yeah," continued the other, "he's apparently hunting down the new rebel group that has popped up recently. The General is coming here first because of that incident yesterday..."
"Damn rebels. Causing all of this trouble for us… Terrorists, more like it!"
The couple then turned both of their gazes towards the petite girl and gave her a good looking over.
"Aren't you that girl that police officer was making a big deal about yesterday?"
"Yeah, the one accused of bein' a mana-user?"
"You best beat it, little girl, if you're not registered; you might end up minced."
"Yeah, well we didn't see you today at all; we didn't see a thing."
"Not a thing."
With that the couple swiftly turned heel and ran, leaving the small girl standing all alone with a slender raised eyebrow.
[Citadel, unknown location]
The duo moved quickly.
In less than ten seconds, both Gwen and Duncan were on top of the scissors-wielding boy. They had snapped to their feet, rushed over to where the boy stood, pushed him off of his perch, and now had him pinned down onto his bed. The boy scissors were laying uselessly on the ground.
"If you even whimper, you're dead." Duncan threatened, as he pressed his hand harder onto the boy's mouth. "Got it?"
The boy nodded, but his attention seemed to be focused elsewhere — namely on Gwen.
The pale adolescent was currently hovering above his face, turquoise strands of her hair brushing lightly against his face; her slender fingers held his arm and his shoulder in a tight death grip, and her black fingernails dug into his skin.
"Woah, guys," Sam shouted in surprise as he walked over to the bed-occupying trio, "those were some pretty cool ninja moves, but could you give the guy a break? He looks kind of harmless."
"Yeah," Zoey agreed as she approached as well; she gave the pinned down boy a sympathetic look, "Sam's right. Anyways, if he does anything weird, we can bound and gag him then, right?"
The entrapped boy's eyes shone with slight worry, but he nodded furiously nonetheless.
Duncan and Gwen glanced at each other, before they shrugged in unison and released their grips on the boy. The boy immediately gasped for air, having been suffocated by Duncan's hand for a considerable amount of time.
Zoey was immediately by the boy's side, and gently touched his shoulder. She peered at him worriedly, then asked:
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm all good." The boy nodded in a strangely good-natured way, before he glanced at the door the six had fallen out of curiously. "How did you guys get into my closet anyways? You kind of surprised me a bit."
"We're the ones asking the questions here!" Duncan shouted in a harsh whisper; he jabbed his index finger into the boy's chest. "Got it?"
"Woah, man." the boy replied, holding his hands up in a half-hearted attempt at self-defense. "I was just curious is all." The boy's eyes wandered to Gwen's face.
"What?" she asked irritably, noticing his stare.
"Nothing!" the boy pipped quickly.
"Sierra, uhm, are you okay?" came a worried, questioning, whispering voice.
All heads turned towards Cameron and Sierra who still stood by the doorway. The shorter boy was looking up at the taller girl with a mildly concerned expression. The girl on the other hand had a dreamy look in her eyes; her said eyes were glued to the brown-haired boy's face.
The question seemed to snap the girl into action, and she rushed over to the small adolescent's side and held his hands in hers. The confused boy stared back at her with both eyebrows raised as he glanced back and forth between their held hands and her sparkling expression.
"Uhm—
"Uh, do you two dufuses know each other?"
"Oh my gosh! You're Cody Emmet Jameson Anderson! I have an entire section of my newspaper dedicated to you! You're so much cuter in person!"
Everyone watched as Sierra fawned over the boy like a happy dog.
"Wait," Gwen frowned as she jerked her thumb backwards towards the boy, "you know this guy?"
"'Know him'?!" Sierra squeaked loudly, her voice rising in volume. "He...HE'S—!"
Several hands (including the unknown boy', Cody's) shot out to cover her mouth, followed by a cacophony of shushing sounds.
"Wait," Cody drew slowly as he glanced around at the unfamiliar faces surrounding him. "Are you guys rebels?!" His blue eye sparkled then with childish happiness that surprised those surrounding him. "Oh man, that's really rad. Can I join?"
Duncan and Gwen glanced at each other once more with raised eyebrows.
"Look, Geek," Duncan iterated with a half-hearted shrug, "you don't choose to join the rebellion; you're picked."
"But I chose to join!" Sierra whined. "He should totally be allowed to join too!"
"Yeah, but that's because you wouldn't leave Harold alone until he gave you an invitation!"
Zoey, Cameron, and Sam eyed Sierra with surprise, before they focused their attention on the situation at hand. The trio were confused as to how a possibly dangerous confrontation had suddenly turned into a nonchalant conversation in less than a minute.
"That's not fair though!" Sierra wailed.
"It's cool." Cody shrugged half-heartedly, once again glancing at Gwen, "I'm actually pretty involved with a lot of things in this town anyways… cool things. People would be pretty upset if I left."
"Speaking of 'this town'," Gwen sighed in irritation, "where are we anyways?"
"Huh?" Cody raised a confused eyebrow. "We're in Citadel. Where else?" He paused in thought, before his eyes widened in realization. "Wait, did you guys use a portal to get here?"
"None of your business, Geek." Duncan replied huffily, crossing his arms and leaning against the bedpost. He glanced out of the square window that was built to his right and found himself staring at a large white moon. "Woah! It's night time already? That's impossible!"
"Seriously?" Zoey yelped in surprise, as she ran towards the window; twinkling stars smiled down at her in a sea of blackness."But it was practically morning when we left!"
"Woah, that's pretty weird." Sam added helpfully.
"Extraordinary!" Cameron whispered in awe; he turned to Gwen. "There may be more behind your dimensional magic than meets the eye, Gwen!"
"Wait," Cody started in surprise, eyes turning to rest on the pale adolescent once more, "so you're the mana user, and you can use dimensional magic too?!"
Cameron received several glares, causing him to bow his head in mild shame:
"My bad…"
"That's totally awesome!" Cody finished, eyes sparkling childishly once more. "You're one wicked chick — Gwen was it?"
"No, it's not." the witch growled irritably. "It's not cool at all." She turned her head away from the boy's shocked expression, before she walked to the door that she suspected led out of the room. "Come on. Since it's night time already, we should probably get going."
The four newbies glanced uncertainly at each other before three of them shrugged and followed suit. Sierra hung back, still holding onto Cody's hands.
"I'll never leave you, Codykins!"
The boy gave her an uncomfortable and strange look in turn.
"Come on, Sierra!" Zoey called, walking back towards the taller female and placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We have to go."
"Not without Codykins!" Sierra wailed stubbornly.
"Look, Sierra," Cameron called from Gwen's and Sam's sides, "we can't be putting him in danger by asking him to join us. We have to go on without him! Anyways, you've practically just met the guy!"
"Wait, a minute." Cody interrupted with a strangely worried look etched onto his face. "Are you guys planning to leave here without a portal?"
"Uh," Duncan rolled his eyes, "how else?"
"You can't do that!"
"And why not, Geek?"
"It's dangerous!"
"I'm pretty sure that we can take of ourselves." Gwen sighed from her stance by the door; despite her sarcastic demeanor, she did not move to open the door.
"No," Cody insisted, "my da— I mean… There's this really big underground mafia that runs this town at night! They have this underground circulation of illegal enchanted items under their belt, so their really dangerous. If they catch you..."
"Yeah!" Sierra confirmed, digging into her satchel and pulling out a filmy magazine, "there's an article about them here!"
Duncan yanked the magazine out of the girl's hand; he casually flipped through it, until he reached a section that read, "A new underground mafia has taken over Citadel; dangerous mafioso members have their hands on illegal enchanted items; government has yet to act".
"Whatever," Duncan shrugged, handing the magazine back to Sierra, "we can take 'em on."
"They have over ten thousand mafioso under them!" Cody pointed out with exasperated hand motions.
"So what do you suggest we do?" Duncan scoffed, re-crossing his arms. "Stay here?"
Cody mulled over the rhetorical question: "... Yes. At least just for the night!"
"And why should we trust you?" Gwen questioned, leaving the door's side and approaching Cody's bedpost. She placed her hands on her hips, an unhappy expression melding over her face. "What if you just go and tell the police about us?"
"I won't!" Cody insisted, before he shook his head. "It's not like you guys really have any other choice either… I'm just trying to help. I swear."
Gwen looked over the boy before her for a moment. His expression was utterly childish as was his appearance. He had a defenseless look about him that reminded her of her own…
The pale adolescent shook her dark head, clearing the old memory that began replaying in her mind away. She let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose before she eyed Duncan who eyed her back.
"It's your call this time, Gwen."
She found herself looking at Cody again, and once again found that the boy was staring at her with starry-eyed expression. She had to admit that the said expression creeped her out a bit, but it also made her rethink her situation:
"Just for the night. We'll leave immediately in the morning."
"Woohoo! I get to sleep with my, Codykins." Sierra shouted, jumping up and down; she was quickly shushed by the others, so she had to whisper: "Sleepover!"
"Uhm, Sierra, right?"
"Yup, Codykins?"
"Could you maybe let go of my hands?"
Gwen sighed. She was surrounded by children.
[Schaffer Port]
The sky was a monochrome mix of colors — white against black and perhaps vice versa. The sandy streets seemed to glow white against the dark surrounding buildings in the starry moonlight.
Multi-colored, enchanted paper lamps floated throughout the streets, casting shades of red, blue, and green over the dark corners of the town.
The streets were practically empty, save for the small girl who wandered them aimlessly staring at the glowing lanterns. The moonlight enveloped the girl and gave her an ethereal glow causing her hair to appear to be a flowing silver and her skin a porcelain hue.
The crickets began to chirp.
Hearing the insects begin their nightly song, the girl twirled in a small and flouncy circle, her hair casting eerie and spindly shadows on the sandy ground.
"Sha-what?! How did we get here so fast? One second we're in Principle Tower and now we're here?"
"It's called a portal, you imbecile. The Empire has portals placed in every single town."
The girl felt her heart skip a beat.
She recognized that voice; it was deeper than she had remembered, but she recognized it all the same. It was a voice from her childhood and it reeled old memories into her mind like a film.
[Five children.
Four girls; one boy.
Ginger hair that curled around bright green eyes.
Black hair dyed blue at the tips. Dull, black eyes that hid underneath them.
Black hair that fell in long cascades. Shy amber eyes peering out uncertainly.
Spiked hair. Rounded black eyes. A toothy smile.
Light blonde hair. Airy blue eyes.
White clothing.
Flowers woven into a crown.
Five pinkies extending outwards in a circle, wrapping together— ]
The sound of rubber crunching against sand snapped the girl out of her reverie.
Running behind the side of the building, the girl peered out onto the empty street and saw two men appear out of the darkness. The first man she could make out was clothed in bright, white attire. The white attire was laced with silver linings that seemed to glisten in the dark.
The man himself was dark-skinned with hair shaved down to a stubble. The girl found his aura to be an erratic silvery blue; and she could tell just by that that he was an egotistical sort of man with issues ranging from internal low self-confidence to a strange fear of causing disappointment.
This was a man the girl did not recognize.
The second man to appear out of the darkness, however, she did recognize. She recognized his tanned-skin, his round eyes, and his toothy smile… But, she did not recognize his aura.
The man's aura had always been splintered — the girl remembered this. However, his aura was more splintered than she had remembered and it was suffocated in a deep redness that resembled the color of blood.
"Oh, no… Mike…What happened?"
[Citadel, Cody's Home]
The seven adolescents sat in an awkwardly shaped circle on the floor with the moonlight filtering through the window as their only source of light.
From Cody's seat, the circle went from Sierra to Cameron to Zoey to Sam to Duncan to Gwen and back to Cody again. Sierra clung to Cody's arm, despite the many times he had told her that it made him feel uncomfortable. Cameron, Zoey, and Sam were in slouching positions, leaning against each other for support; the trio all had dazed and tired looks on their faces. (Zoey in particular was fiddling with a card that had a strange triangle-shaped symbol with an infinity sign inside of it on it; it was a card that all the other three recruits and two senior members also had, and they watched her as she played with it.) Gwen and Duncan also leaned against each other, both of their eyes also clouded with sleep.
"So," drew Duncan with a soft yawn, "have you guys got any siblings?"
"Nope." Cody answered first (It was the pattern they had followed since they had initiated their question-asking conversation. Each person had asked a question — personal or formal — and every person would answer in order according to where they sat in the circle; some of the more personal questions were left unanswered by a few of the adolescents, but no one complained.). "It's just me."
"Me neither!" Sierra pipped happily. "We have so much in common, Cody!"
"I'm an only child too." Cameron replied, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to snuff out his sleepiness.
"Same here." Zoey said next to him. "It got kind of lonely sometimes."
"Yeah," Sam agreed softly, "me too. I had board games to keep me company though. I played them with some of my guy friends sometimes too."
"I made my own clothing and went to local concerts." Zoey compared. "I didn't have many friends to make clothing and go to concerts with though…"
"My mom kind of kept me locked inside most of the time," Cameron interjected, "so I didn't have many friends either… I spent my time reading a bunch of medical textbooks."
"Wow," Duncan blinked in surprise, "dudes, that is seriously lame."
"What about you and Gwen?" Cody inquired, glancing at both Duncan and the witch. "Do you guys have any siblings?"
"I had an annoying younger brother." Gwen informed, keeping her eye on Cody as she said this. Because she did this, however, Cody caught onto a flash of remorse that crossed her face; it disappeared as quickly as it came, so he decided not to question it.
"Me?" Duncan shrugged. "I have a couple of brothers; most of them are in jail though."
"Not surprised." Gwen grinned beside him.
Duncan shrugged once more and elbowed her jokingly.
"You're turn to ask a question, Gwen." Zoey pipped with a happy kind of smile. She didn't really understand why, but talking casually like this made her feel good inside.
"Alright," the witch shrugged with a thoughtful expression, "let's see… What's your worst fear?"
"Woah," Duncan grinned beside her, "going for the most intense questions, I see."
"What can I say?"
A slamming sound from just below them cut through the light-hearted atmosphere. Everyone was jarred into awareness; Duncan and Gwen were on their feet, eyes glued to the bedroom door.
"What?" yelped a dazed and confused Zoey.
"What the hell was that?!" Duncan hissed, reaching into his pocket.
"I-I don't know!" Cody shouted back, eyes wide in alarm. "I usually live all alone—-" He stopped himself, eyes widening even further with realization. "Oh no…"
Another sound — this time a slow and continuous thump.
"'Oh no'?! 'Oh no'?!" Duncan growled; he grabbed the adolescent by the scruff. "What do you mean by 'oh no'?"
"Duncan, calm down." Gwen whispered in a alarm.
The thumping sounds became louder.
"Look," Cody said steadily, arms held up in defense; his eyes drifted over to the closed closet, "you guys need to go hide in there right now."
"In the closet?" Sam questioned, eyes still bleary from sleep.
"I ain't goin in the closet!" Duncan grimaced. "Now you tell me what's going on and I won't smash your face in."
"I'm not going in the closet either." Gwen agreed, arms crossed.
"Can you guys open another portal then?" Cody questioned, his voice becoming strained with worry.
The thumping became louder and louder, until it was clearly evident that whatever was making the thumping sound was now right behind the bedroom door.
"No! I can't!" Gwen shouted in a whisper. "I exhausted almost all of my mana opening this big portal, and it closed when Sierra shut the door!"
"Well no one told me that the portal would close if I shut the door!" came the ecstatic shout of self-defense from Sierra.
The door knob to the room began to turn. Duncan began shaking Cody up and down in a hysterical kind of panic. The door opened fully; all seven pairs of eyes turned.
"Mista' Cody, we're just here ta' check up on ya'—-
In the doorway stood a handful of men dressed in primed black and white business suits. The one who had spoken had large eyes that seemed to get all the more larger as he saw Duncan holding up Cody by the scruff.
"This isn't what it looks like, Gus." Cody said slowly.
"What?" Zoey repeated weakly.
Almost in unison, all of the men by the doorway reached into their suit pockets and pulled out identical looking objects: glocks inscribed with gold, swirling letters.
"What do you think you're doing with the heir of the Anderson Family?"
"The Anderson Family?" Duncan gawked, looking at Cody then at the conglomeration of men.
"You mean you didn't know that Codykins was the son of the head mafiosa in Citadel?" Sierra questioned, a clearly perplexed expression on her face.
Duncan started in surprise, eyed Cody, and slowly released him with a nervous laugh, "Haha, my bad?"
The suited men clicked their guns.
"... What?"
A/N: Another chappie has arrived along with a new story arc! And a new chapter cover too! The TD characters are just way too fun to draw XD. Anyways, a new episode was today!
Just to answer a few of the asked questions:
- I did see the DW google thing.. It was pretty shnazzy
- I actually don't mind yaoi or yuri pairings so fire away!
- Sorry for the grammatical errors and the error of Brick's last name in the last chapter; I'll fix it soon!
So what did you think of this chappie? ;o
Reader's Choice (two this time):
Should the rebel group…
A) attack the group of suited men
B) surrender passively
C) other
Should Dawn…
A) confront Mal
B) watch from the sidelines
C) other