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| Home >> Anime >> Slayers >> Crossing Worlds (working title) | storyid: 574244 |
| Author: Eternal Firesinger - PG-13 - English - Sci-Fi - Reviews: 2 | |
Author: Me! The Eternal Firesinger, Mistress of Daemons, Psychopath Extrodonaire
Disclaimer: Okay, I don't own anybody in here, whatsoever. I will settle for borrowing them and totally ruining them for further use (therefore, you have to give them to me, you see?). Anyhoo, they all belong to their respective owners whom I bow to excessively for creating them. Please, all I have is a bit of kool-aid, a few packs of jello, some theme songs from various animes, and a cat. And you aren't getting the cat.
Rating: Uh…PG-13 for swearing and violence. Eventually. Amelia bashing ahead! And I really don't intend to bash Gourry and Daniel. In fact, I rather like them, so I apologize if I'm not giving them enough 'space.' Deal with it.
Series: Part 1/? (shudder in horror at the undetermined parts)
Author's Note: And if anyone is still here, read on and cower in fright ::snicker::. And, please, tell me how you felt! Eternalfiresong@aol.com. The ******** between parts switches from a Slayers point of view to a Stargate point of view or vise versa. This is the greeting, series meeting series, little action chapter. I promise, more will be happening later! If anyone is still here, that is. Each series part is (mostly) written like you know what is happening but all will be revealed, for both sides.
Sunlight streams though the misty forest, casting a shimmering, golden haze. Reaching our hesitantly, rays of pure color touch the trees bringing their splendor to new heights. Unfortunately, the only people in the vicinity to notice this beautiful phenomenon were too busy bickering to notice.
"Gourry! For the last time - no! No! No! NO!!" the irate sorceress screamed at the blonde walking next to her while giving the ground next to her an unfair beating, wild, sun-kissed red hair flying up into her face at the force of her jumps.
"But Lina," the swordsman protested innocently, "if that was the last time, why did you tell me four times?"
"ARRRGGHHH!!!" the supremely irritated sorceress screamed and proceeded to very violently and destructively pound into Gourry. As they ran off into the trees, the morning undoubtedly and irreversibly shattered, the young princess looked over at the chimera walking next to her.
"Do we even know what they were arguing about this time?" she asked softly, not wishing to disturb Lina in her bashing mode. "She seems to beat up on Gourry-san a lot lately."
"I believe," the blue-skinned youth replied, "this time it was over the same thing it was last night and the day before and the night before - whether we could travel into town and sleep in a bed for once in a good long time." Zelgadiss sighed impatiently as the other two drew farther and farther away from the group in the unknown forest, moving to catch with them.
"But Zelgadiss-san, why can't we sleep in a bed?" Amelia whined. "We are so far away from everywhere and have been traveling without hitting any towns for days and days. I don't know why we are out here anymore; there are no bandits or treasure or anything! And outdoors is - dirty! And that is unjust!"
Blue eyes peered sideways at the smaller girl skeptically, choosing to ignore the fact she had answered her own question and focusing on the incredible fact that she could label inanimate objects such as dirt as just or not. "And just how is the outdoors being dirty qualify as unjust, Amelia?"
"The dirt attempts to subvert our efforts at bringing justice to world by keeping us at night worrying about whether we are clean! For if we are not clean, how can the star of justice shine forth and prevail against evil?! Justice SHALL triumph!" Zel's eyes widened at each passing phrase, amazed at lengths this girl would go to rationalize her own logic.
"Umm… Amelia, don't you think that is a bit - extreme? Just a little?" he asked with little hope, wondering if all sanity had left his companion. Before the question could be addressed, more shouting/screaming distracted them from their conversation on the justness of dirt and the validity of sanity.
"Lina-san sounds mad, Zelgadiss-san," the princess stated unnecessarily, reverting suddenly from 'lecturing' mode to 'cowering from Lina' mode.
"Yes, she does," he agreed, sighing softly. "Come on, let's go." Quickly, he set out at a faster pace, just below running, yet not quite jogging, Amelia trotting to keep up. Upon reaching the loudly fuming Drammata, they found instead of a nearly dead burnt to a crisp Gourry, as they had expected, a large metal ring that sat in the middle of a burning clearing.
"Damn fool piece of crap!" the red-eyed sorceress glowed with her battle aura. "FIREBALL!!!" The other three jumped back quickly, avoiding the radius of the blast as the large ring sat untouched while plants continued to burn.
"Gourry-san?" Amelia whispered softly. "What is she mad about this time?" They all winced as another spell was cast with similar negligible results. The clueless swordsman shrugged.
"She ran into it, I think," he thoughtlessly spoke in a normal tone of voice, attracting the still casting sorceress's attention. "Her slipper fell into the grass too," he added helpfully.
Seeing Lina's temper flare, Zelgadiss quickly and unobtrusively slinked over to a nearby tree for added protection against any magic she might throw in the general direction of Gourry. The light thrown off from the spell glinted orange, reflecting from a strange object - round mushroom- shaped console with two circles of symbols and a large red-orange button in the center. Narrowing his eyes, he moved to explore further. Unfortunately, Lina chose at that point to softly begin the power-up for the Dragon Slave as her companions' eyes widened, the magic users preparing a shield, and Zel forgot about anything strange except staying alive during the subsequent blast.
"Lina-san, do you think that you should do that?"
"Yeah, Lina, isn't that a really big spell or something?"
"Lina, I would think twice before -"
Suddenly whirling, the sorceress in question fired off the immensely powerful spell in the direction of the mysterious ring instead of Gourry. "DRAGON SLAVE!" she yelled, quickly casting a shield around herself as Amelia protected the magicless swordsman and Zelgadiss defended himself. Unbearable light bloomed from the terrain before them as a deep grumbling noise began accompanied by a light earthquake. When the smoke cleared, the ring had four characters previously unnoticed lit up along the side with more illuminating as they watched. Cautiously, the four travelers backed away, unsure as to the nature of this new phenomenon.
As Lina, wide-eyed, opened her mouth to speak, the shaking stopped while the machinery, with seven characters lit, burst into bright, silvery- blue light. Whooshing out, it destroyed the two trees in its path before settling into a shimmering disk suspended in the now nearly silent ring.
"SUGOI!" the small sorceress yelled, finally finding her voice (and conveniently forgetting that her blast had caused the phenomenon), rushed to the now quietly humming circle. Up close, it loomed above her, reaching at least six times Gourry's height. Recklessly, she stuck one arm in the liquid, waving it about harmlessly. As her three companions released their held breaths simultaneously, Zelgadiss walked around to the other side.
"It's not going through," he observed in amazement. Lina drew her arm out, moving it around to check for any damage and found none.
"Maybe Lina's too small," Gourry stated unintelligently, obliviously standing next to his friend and also poking his arm though, not noticing the murderous glint resurfacing in her eyes. "She's too small in other ways, why should this be any different?"
"No," the chimera noted, protected by the opaque blue wall, "you aren't breaking through either despite being taller. It has to lead somewhere besides the other side."
"Yes," Lina growled, beginning to glow red, "that makes sense, doesn't it. Why don't you check it out with me, Gourry?" With that, she grabbed both Amelia, who had foolishly moved forward to observe the shining disk, and the golden swordsman, racing through the liquid. Zelgadiss sighed, walking around to follow his rash friends and fish them out of trouble once again.
Violet eyes framed by impenetrable blackness watched their disappearing forms with an unknown glint.
********************
Klaxons blared loudly as the four members of SG-1 rushed into the control room, joining the commanding officers and the crew on duty. "I said, close the iris!" General Hammond shouted, gesturing wildly to the open window that showed a very similar, large, smoking ring, also completely filled by a shimmering blue liquid.
"We can't!" the panicked technician at the computer shouted. "There has been some sort of power overload or something! The iris won't close!"
"Find out why! This is a major security breach! I want to know why and I wanted to know yesterday!"
"Remember," reminded Daniel Jackson, the resident linguist and scatterbrain, "the same thing happened when the Tokra came through. And that was a good thing, right?"
Colonel Jack O'Neill glared at his companion. "That's debatable. And besides, even though those guys with the worms in their heads became our allies doesn't mean these guys will."
"I think what Daniel's saying, Sir," Major Samantha Carter joined in, "is that we shouldn't shoot first, ask questions later. It might be better to see what they want first."
"I concur," Tel'c, their Jaffa realist finally proffered his own opinion on the subject.
O'Neill threw up his hands, "I am obviously outvoted. What do you think, Sir?" he turned to his commanding officer, the entire exchange having taken place in a few breaths.
"The decision has already been made, Colonel," Hammond informed him, having calmed down. "We have decided to find out what these obviously powerful beings want before making any irreversible enemies. They could be potential allies, having heard of the threat to Earth and have come to offer their services in mutual defeat of the Goa'uld."
"Yes, Sir. Ask questions first, then shoot. Got it, Sir."
Hammond glanced over at the most sarcastic member of SG-1. "Look, Colonel, I don't want your remarks to ruin this chance for the SGC. Or, for that matter, for your attitude to cause Dr. Jackson any undue amount of work fixing what you have said in the heat of the moment. So either fix that tone of yours or you are not going to be included in the negotiations. Do I make myself clear?"
The colonel snapped to attention, responding automatically to the 'Command Voice.' "Sir, yes, Sir!"
"Good."
"Umm… I hate to be the one to point this out," Jackson raised one hand, "but how do we know that they want to negotiate?"
"We don't."
"Oh," he deflated at the harsh answer, going back to silent contemplation of the Gate room. "I'm going to head on down there," he spoke up suddenly again. "They might need a negotiator. You know, just in case they do want to talk."
"Stay behind the blast doors until it is certain that they aren't hostile," Hammond called after the errant linguist, his team giving his back fond yet exasperated looks, before the other three followed behind him.
"Um, Sir?" the technician spoke up, studying the computer screen. "There are three, no, four beings entering the gate. They will arrive in ten point six seconds."
"Understood." Hammond watched the gate, noting that all four members of SG-1 had disobeyed orders once again and stood in the Gate room, waiting for the travelers to arrive. At least they stood behind the armed men, he thought in irritated relief.
Jack O'Neill placed one hand on the gun he had 'acquired' from one of the other grunts in the room, waiting to draw it until they were sure of the threat. Besides, he mused, it wasn't like one added gun was going add do anything to the multitude of guns that the grunts always aimed at the gate, no matter whose code had been sent through and especially when no code had been given. As the first of the travelers appeared, it was almost anti-climatic. "A girl?!" he blurted.
The small redhead, pulling a much larger blonde man and a small black haired girl, turned to glare at him, as did Carter. Oops. "And what is that supposed to mean, Sir?" she asked archly, cutting the girl on the platform off.
"Er, slip of the tongue, Major, merely a slip of the tongue," he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, then started upright at the fourth traveler. A slight man with a cowl covering his head and a mask obscuring his face. The masked ones are always trouble, he reminded himself. Sharp blue eyes roved over the room as the gate shut down. He whirled, eyes widening as he did so.
" 'Che," he muttered before scanning the many objects pointed at him with no apparent alarm. O'Neill watched in amazement as the four newcomers disregarded the guns and looked about the room in curiosity.
"Well damn," the redhead stated suddenly. "No treasure." The others surrounding her all seemed to deflate a bit before recovering. She strode impetuously down the ramp, ignoring the guns cocking and pointing at various vital points on her body. Daniel quickly strode to meet her before a trigger-happy grunt could kill her.
"Hello, welcome to Earth," he stuck out his hand, clearly nervous. She blinked and automatically took it, shaking hands. "My name is Daniel Jackson and my companions are -"
"Wait, wait, wait…" she interrupted him. Rather rude of her, O'Neill observed, but he probably would have done the same. "Where the hell is Earth?" she looked around. "And what in Shabrinigdo's Kami-sama forsaken name are all these, these things around here?!" Her look turned sly as she faced Daniel again. "And are they worth much here?"
"Um…" was their supposed linguist's intelligent answer. O'Neill sighed and stepped forward.
"Earth is another planet, one that you Gated here through the Stargate," he gestured to the big ring behind them and she nodded, obviously following him although her eyes got big at the 'another planet' part. "These things," he slowed down, as if speaking to small child, for that was what she looked like to him, "are needed to use the Stargate. And, no, if you tried to sell them anywhere, you would only get laughed at." Not that we are going to let you out of the SGC to find out, he added silently.
The girl growled softly, and raised one hand, but before anything else could happen, the cowled man stepped forward suddenly. Unobtrusively peering closer, O'Neill realized his skin was blue, a lighter version of the color of his suspicious eyes. "Back up to the part about this being another planet," he instructed, his voice soft and slightly rough.
Daniel stepped forward again, obviously not trusting his friend to handle this correctly and O'Neill let him, a bit grudgingly. "You traveled from another planet to get here, Earth. The trip you took rearranged the parts of you body and took them through the stars to here. This is SGC, the Stargate Command -"
"I'm not missing anything, am I?" the blonde man suddenly spoke up, attempting to twist around to see if he had lost a part.
"No, Gourry-san," the small girl standing next to him left off staring at everything with round blue eyes and turned to reassure him. "You are fine."
"Ignore him," the blue guy gestured, as the red girl - as O'Neill called them in his mind - got a tic over her right eye. "He won't follow a word any of us say as it is."
Jackson blinked and plowed on bravely. "As I was saying, I am Dr. Daniel Jackson, the linguist of SG-1. This," he motioned back at O'Neill, "is Colonel Jack O'Neill, our leader." Again motioning, he pointed at Carter and Tel'c. "These two are Major Samantha Cater," she smiled slightly, "the expert in science and Tel'c the Jaffa that came over to our side."
"Explain 'jaffa,' " the blue eyes took in each person in calmly, clearly memorizing their names with their faces, before transferring his gaze back to Daniel.
"Um," Daniel thought for a bit. "Jaffa are -"
"The servants to the Goa'uld, the false gods." Tel'c stated calmly, drawing that gaze to him. "I served Apophis, one of the highest of the Goa'uld before realizing that he kept his people in unfair slavery for he is not a god. I am helping spur a rebellion there and where-ever there is oppression by the Goa'uld."
"OOOHH!" the small girl still up on the platform squealed as the two strangers on the floor flinched. "How full of JUSTICE! Lina-san, have you ever heard of something more courageous!?" Bouncing some more, she obviously did not hear the smaller man remark cynically, "Putting up with you qualifies." O'Neill caught his eye and grinned conspiratorially, for he too had winced when she had let out her cry and could only imagine what it was like having to deal with it day after day. Looking surprised, the suspicious blue eyes softened into what could have been a small smirk, but quickly hardened again as if the errant emotion had never occurred.
At that point, Hammond chose to speak over the loudspeaker, visibly leaning over the microphone and causing the four travelers to start at the sudden noise. "You can stand down men. SG-1, bring them up to the briefing room where I can hear their comments as well. I want an armed guard of four with you."
O'Neill saluted at the glass, then turned to the others in the room. "You heard the man," he gestured at the door. "Let's go."
*******************
Lina and Zelgadiss held back as Gourry and Amelia walked quickly forward, pointing out things and asking their guides 'what's that?' and similar questions. "What do you think?" the chimera murmured to the sorceress.
"They seem sincere," she muttered back. "But I don't know for sure. I think we are going to meet their leader now. And there's no treasure." She pouted briefly.
Zel smiled slightly, unnoticed under his mask. "I know. And did you notice the way we got here is gone? Personally, I wouldn't chose to stay here, and…."
"Yeah," her voice softened. "And I don't know about Gourry, but Amelia needs to get back. And I don't want to stay here indefinitely." They stopped talking as the older guy, O'Neel or something looked back at them and slowed his pace, letting the blonde girl lead them.
"Hey there," he greeted, matching their pace as they climbed some stairs. "Whatcha talkin about?"
"Nothing that concerns you," frowning, Zelgadiss quickly overcame the urge to say that fruitcake's famous line, wondering why he even thought it.
"Oh, come on," his smile hardened a bit as he continued to stare at them. "You can tell me."
Lina's smile hardened. "Really, can we? And why in the world - or whatever world," she added under her breath, "would we want to do that?"
The man turned his attention to her. "And what is a little girl such as yourself doing so far from home?" he asked, his voice taking on that sing-song quality that all adults have when speaking to children.
"Little. Girl." Lina began to growl, stopping at the head of the brightly-lit stairs and began to gather power in her right hand, asking herself why she even tried to be even slightly nice. Zelgadiss contemplated stepping in front of her to protect the others standing in the room, but before he could defuse the situation the older man spoke up again, increasing his chances of being fried.
"Yeah, a kid like you shouldn't be traveling so far from home, especially without parental supervision, ya know? Where are you parents anyway?" He began to look around as if he had missed them when the group had come through that circle. "I don't think it could be the blonde guy, but maybe-"
"GRR! I AM NOT A KID! FIREBALL!" Lina shouted, casting the fireball with one hand, seeing Gourry and Amelia suddenly duck and cower behind the desk. She only had time to see his eyes widen in sudden surprise and a bit of fright before Zel shoved him out of the way, quickly casting a wind barrier.
"Diem Wind!" The fireball dissipated, harmlessly splashing against the walls, causing only slight singe marks. "Lina!" he shouted at her, suddenly angry. "These people neither know what to expect nor have the means to protect themselves from your anger!" he took a deep breath, calming himself. "Amelia and I have the means to make a shield and Gourry is just damn lucky, but these people are new-"
"That's right, Lina-san!" Amelia jumped up onto the large table and struck one of her infamous poses. "IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE! You shall NOT harm any of these good, innocent people!!! They are working with the STAR OF JUSTICE AND IT SHALL PREVAIL!! Fighting evil should not be prevented by a temper that you cannot control! AND FURTHER MORE-"
"Thank you, Amelia, we get the picture," Zelgadiss interrupted dryly, noticing the wide eyes of the others and Lina's twitching fists.
"Oh. Okay, Zelgadiss-san," she sat down, deflated.
Looking back at Lina, he added in a lower tone to pacify her, "Besides, these people are the only ones that know the way back to our home."
"Hai. Gomen ne," she apologized in embarrassment, glaring at Zelgadiss. Even though she could see where he was coming from and in this strange place (on another planet, she reminded herself in awe and no little fear, not like she would admit that even under torture) it would be good to stick together and not anger the natives, especially with no obvious way home. But the whole getting on her case in front of all these strangers bothered her. A lot.
"Huh?" the man that had irritated her broke into her musings and gave her a blank look. "Is that English?"
She began to grow angry again and tried vainly to suppress it. "I said, gomen ne. You know, an apology? If you don't want to accept it, that is fine with me, I didn't want to say it, you -"
"Lina," the chimera warned her, cutting her off before she could insult the guy. She transferred her glare to him.
"What!? I try to apologize and he acts like he doesn't understand! I am merely trying to defend my honor," he snorted at her and her glare intensified, obviously restraining herself from casting anything, "when I am dressed down and then insulted more by this-"
"Um… I think I can explain," the soft voice of that linguist guy came from inside the room. She whirled on him, very tired of being interrupted, but Zelgadiss strode forward, cutting her tirade short. She settled for a growl instead, chanting to herself 'don't blow anything up, don't blow anything up… we want to get home… think home…'
"Please do," his voice was soft again, having recovered from his sudden anger at Lina.
Turning towards the O'Neel guy, Jackson - Zel recalled his name - explained. " 'Gomen ne' is a slightly formal way of saying 'I'm sorry' in Japanese. Apparently their language is mostly English with a tad bit of Japanese thrown in for some of the phrases. It's a pidgin of the two languages. So when she said 'gomen ne,' she was apologizing to you, Jack," he concluded as everyone blinked at him.
"Oh, okay." the guy had followed them in, and sat next to the head of the table, the other four sitting on the same side as he. "Then why didn't she just say 'I'm sorry'?"
"I DID! You ignorant, obnoxious, balding, poor excuse for a man!" Lina slammed her hands down on the table.
"Balding?! Who the hell is BALDING, you little -"
"That is ENOUGH, Colonel!" the important-looking man at the head of the oval table barked. "If you would kindly sit down and let them introduce themselves, the guards will maybe lose the trigger finger look the have."
Zel glanced over at the pairs of nervous men standing at the only two exits he had noticed, before looking over at the original four they had met. "I should introduce us," he belated realized as Lina sat back down and glared. "I am Zelgadiss Greywers, shamanistic sorcerer. This," he pointed to Gourry, "is Gourry Gabriev, the dumb yet incredibly good swordsman. She," he gestured next to Amelia, "is Amelia Wil Telsa de Seiluun, crown princess of Seiluun and apprentice white priestess and shamanistic sorceress." Lastly he turned to Lina, "And the firehead you 'met' earlier is Lina Inverse the -"
"- Most beautiful and strongest sorceress ever!" she interrupted, regaining some semblance of a good mood and giving everyone the victory sign.
"With the highest opinion of herself and a very large and short temper," he concluded.
"Hey!"
"Now," he turned back to the five sitting across from them. "Would you mind explaining what you do here?" Lina opted for not bashing Zel's head in as it would most likely hurt her hand and the explanation would most likely prove to be more interesting. But, if he didn't stop taking over her like this, she would no longer hold back, home or no home…
"Gladly," Jackson spoke up again. "We use the Stargate," he gestured out the window to that large ring, "to explore other planets, searching for help against the Goa'uld."
"Umm…" Amelia interrupted, "what's a 'star gate?' "
Jackson turned patiently to her, obviously accustomed to such questions. "It's that ring outside that you came through. We call it the Stargate because it transports us through the stars and is a gate to another world. The Goa'uld are a race of -" he paused, searching for a word.
"Worms? Despicable, slimy, traitorous, explosion-happy, insidious, mind-controlling -"
"I think they get the picture, Jack," Jackson gave the man next to him an exasperated look before turning back to Zelgadiss and Lina, the only two who had non-vacant looks in their eyes. "The Goa'uld have set themselves up as gods, and although they rule as such, they are false gods that rape, plunder, and pillage many innocent races on other planets. They enjoy torture and obtaining whatever is not theirs. All technology they have now stems from other sources, not from their own minds." Zelgadiss found himself feeling an almost unwilling compassion for these people. Although he took it for granted that they shouldn't be trusted, he felt that they deserved some sympathy. Throwing a glance at Lina, he saw her becoming bored with the monologue, interesting as he found it, and rolled his eyes.
"Stealing constantly, they are able to maintain their images as gods through fear and a misguided sense of loyalty. They have different types of weapons and other machines that allow them to heal themselves," Zelgadiss perked up, as did Lina, "and cause mass destruction at the same time." Daniel paused to take a breath.
"Wait," the chimera held up a hand. "What kind of healing devices?"
"Weapons?" Lina piped up.
Amelia suddenly sat up, ignoring Lina -much to her annoyance, "Yeah! Zelgadiss-san! If they have healing devices, you could rid yourself of your freakish appearance! Your cure could be found and you could discard your -"
"Arigatou, Amelia," his voice was dry, concealing the unwelcome hurt. "I think that they get the picture, still, you may stop speaking the obvious." The young girl flushed as Zelgadiss turned back to the silent group. "Please, as you have heard, I am searching for a cure. Perhaps this 'healing device' could help me?"
Jackson looked thoughtful. "I don't know… And you run the risk of being addicted…. But," he focused on the masked man, "if I could see more…"
Sighing, Zel reached up to remove his mask and pull down his hood. To his surprise, the only eyes that widened were the new man that had not met them down in the first room. The other four studied him slightly, before O'Neel remarked sarcastically, "We've definitely seen worse. In fact," the lined face tilted slightly, "you're pretty cute, for a blue guy." Zelgadiss blushed hotly, quickly pulling his hood back up as his friends laughed.
"Ahem. Colonel O'Neill. That is not proper conduct for this briefing room, and you know it. These travelers need to be seen to the infirmary. You can explain more to them later. I want to have them checked out for all unknown diseases and the like, which should have been done much sooner. The corridors between here and there have been emptied and the soldiers that met them at the gate were already decontaminated -"
"Decontaminated!" Lina rose to her full, unimpressive height as she glared at the old man. "We are not some sort of disease that needs to be irradiated!"
"Lina," Gourry spoke up suddenly, "where are we again?"
Zelgadiss put his head into his hands as the sorceress turned on the swordsman. Her eyes sparked fire and every muscle was tensed as she bit out, "We. Are. On. Another. Planet. How many times do you have to hear it?!" The chimera reached out and grabbed the back of her clothes as she leapt at the blonde man with a slipper, looking up to see the strangers blinking at them.
"Perhaps now would be a good time to take us to the," he cocked his head and considered the word, "infirmary?"
AN: This is a not completely edited part. More will come if I receive at least a FEW reviews. Right now I'm just enjoying writing it. But feedback is the substance that keeps us writing! Hint, hint.
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