The World Of Destiny Island
A/N: Kingdom Hearts is the property of Square-Enix blah, blah blah...
With Cat-like Tread is by and copyright Gilbert & Sullivan, from their play The Pirates of Penzance.
With Cat-like Tread
"Here you go, sir," Kairi held out the rosetta stone.
"Keep it. It's for you. Now, what's the matter?" he asked irritably.
"I'm a thief. I just..."
"Compulsory crime is hardly a crime," he said all-knowingly. "Last night's exercise–"
"A disaster," she said.
"Don't interrupt."
"Yes, sir."
"Last night's exercise was a test. I've seen all I need to in order to safely conclude that you are useless to yourself. Shockingly useless."
Kairi glowered.
"From this day forward you are going to devote two hours every morning, after you fix my breakfast, to the readings I assign you. Afterwards you will practice your writing, and the rest of the day will be spent learning," here he rolled his eyes and sneered, "woodcraft. Godfrey! What did your parents teach you?"
"Lots of things, like... ethics...," Kairi tried to rally. She didn't like it when Frega talked about her parents like this. "Whatever, I don't want to be a wizard, sir!"
"A wizard?" he snickered. "To become a wizard takes years of study, practice, and a single-minded dedication. It also requires more intelligence than you've shown so far! There's no way you'll ever be a wizard, unless by some miracle you meet the Dragon King.
"But you may do alright as a simple mage," he said quietly. "So do your best, and maybe there will come a day when you will no longer have to rely on others."
"I can take care of myself!" she argued, but he snorted and shook his head.
"If that were the case, you wouldn't be here with me. So pay attention, Girl Friday, welcome to the School of Life! But before I teach you anything," he said, and scratched his chin. "We'll have to take certain precautions. Let's begin the ceremony."
"This glowing thing is my soul?" Kairi asked doubtfully a half an hour later.
"Yes. Proof positive that even you have one," Frega said.
Kairi turned the onion in her palm one way and then the other. She had put her soul (if she believed Frega) in this magical onion– how did carving a grinning face on a hollow onion make it magical?
"Take good care of that," Frega warned after the simple impromptu ceremony ended.
"Why'd I have to put my soul in an onion? Is this really how black magic is taught? How weird!"
"Of course it's weird, it's magic!" Frega said as he packed up the candles and various items of dark power from the ceremony. "You are right, though, this isn't the usual way its taught. This is more or less on par with the Kenobi Jedi Correspondence College."
"Huh?"
"We're in a hurry, so we'll– or rather, you will be consorting with the dark powers in exchange for fast and relatively easy power. You won't get a complete education, and it's dangerous, but effective. Until you've mastered basic magic, you'd better keep your soul in that onion to keep it from being corrupted or stolen or misused. Understand?"
"This looks silly," she held up the onion, with Kairi's soul giving it a glowing eyes and mouth effect, so that Frega could appreciate the oddity. But maybe this kind of thing was normal for an elf.
"Just put it on this chain," he handed her a very thick silver chain. "You can wear it around your neck, or clip it to your belt– I started a trend like that while I was in college…."
"But look at this thing! It's ridiculous!" she shook the onion, it's leafy stem (she thought of it as the hair) flailed around. "I don't wear jewelry this big."
"Are you saying you're too good for your soul?" he arched an eyebrow.
Kairi looked again at the onion.
"Seriously. Is this a joke?"
Frega rapped her sharply on the head.
"Dark powers," she sneered when she was alone with her onion. Yet she did feel a little different, maybe there was something to it.
"Hurry up, Girl Friday," Frega called to her. She scrambled to finish packing up their campsite. "We've got an altar to hit by sunset! Spit-spot!"
Another day dragged on as they pushed their way deeper into the forest. Frega immediately took them off the paths, saying that if people were smart they avoided the places he intended to go.
"Swell," Kairi muttered as she prepared for more climbing and falling through uncut thicket. Frega didn't seem to have any problems, around midday he leaped into the bush and came up with a screeching rabbit in her hands.
"Hungry for a little fresh meat?" Frega asked with a wry smile.
"No!" she was appalled by the suggestion. "Poor wittle bunny." He bit its' head off and silenced it forever. Maybe I should've eaten the bunny, she thought later when she figured out that Frega intended to skip lunch and dinner. Kairi didn't complain, though, not once.
"Aha! At last, the Altar of the Fire Demon Ifrit," Frega pointed out a giant slab of stone upon a mossy altar. They skirted the uniformly spaced boulders that surrounded the altar and climbed up the short flight of stairs, dropped their packs, and stretched for a moment. "Just in time," Frega said. "He's very fond of sunsets, you know."
"Nice," Kairi sighed. She slumped to the ground and fanned herself with her hat. "So, how's this summoning business work anyway? Unholy sacrifices? Virgin blood...?" She swallowed hard.
"Amateur stuff! You simply deposit four bits and make a call." He dug a couple of silver coins out of his pocket and dropped them on the altar. "Yoo-hoo! Ring-ring! Paging Mister Ifrit!" he tapped the stone with is staff.
A pillar of fire erupted from the stone.
Kairi scrambled to her feet and let out a continuous scream that leapt an octave when she saw the horned devil step down out of the flame with dainty hop.
"Hey! Fry! Long time no see!" the devil said.
"Lookin' good, buddy!" Frega answered back. They turned to the screaming apprentice.
"Teaching again, eh?"
"Only out of necessity."
"Is she going to keep doing that? I mean, I assume that's a lady, it's so hard to tell these days with the fashions, you know what I mean?"
"Girl Friday, stop that, you're being rude to our guest!" He nudged her with his staff.
"I think she's getting to the end of her–"
Kairi fainted.
"What an adorable little, uh, what do they call 'em?"
"She's a child," Frega said, helping her back up. "But we're working on making an adult out of her. Girl Friday, this is my old friend, The Immortal Demon Ifrit."
"But you can call me Quacky," he held out a claw. Not knowing what else to do she shook it. "Say, that's a nice scream you got there, would you interested in doing a little recording?"
"You've got a new part-time job?" Frega asked.
"Oh yeah, I've put out a couple of hip-hop albums, you know, 'slappin' my bitch' that kind of thing. It's all about image, and everybody wants a piece of the Ifrit. I still do the whole "fire god" thing, I mean, come on it's like getting paid for breathing!" Ifrit laughed, each expiration of breath left smoke-rings in the air. "So, little girl, you wanna control fire?"
"I, I guess," Kairi said shyly.
"Got any virgins on you?"
"No sir!" Kairi jumped back.
"Quit fooling around, Quacky," Frega said. "What do you require in exchange for awesome power?"
"Ah, that's okay. Since you and I go way back I'll do a freebie," he cracked his enormous knuckles, the sound reminded her of snapping tree limbs.
"Please, don't disrupt the ancient traditions on my account. I don't want to give my apprentice the wrong impression, we're taking the shortcut as it is. Perhaps you could give her a nigh impossible task to carry out?"
"You mean... like a side quest?" Kairi asked.
"What are you talking about? We don't have time for quests!" Frega snapped.
"Well," Ifrit shrugged. "I guess she could get away with doing me a favor."
"A real favor? Not some made up busy work."
"You really want me to suffer, don't you?" Kairi muttered.
"This is a little embarrassing...," Ifrit said.
"Go on," Frega rubbed his hands together and smiled.
"My beautician quit this morning," Ifrit explained. Frega's smile faltered. "And I've got a video shoot tonight, I need someone to wax my back."
Kairi could hear the first crickets of the evening strike up their monotonous song.
"Wax... your... back?" Kairi made a face.
"You want the Elvaan Fire, you wax my back," Ifrit said with a nod.
"Deal!" Frega grabbed Ifrit's hand (claw) and they shook on it.
"But I'm not a licensed beautician," Kairi argued weakly.
"Don't insult our benefactor, Girl Friday," Frega grabbed her by the arm and propelled her toward the woods. "Go get some beeswax and get waxing!"
"This is stupid," Kairi complained as she stuck her arm into the hive yet again. The demon was enormous, she probably needed a lot of wax. "So stupid– ow!" she scratched her arm again, and probably picked up a splinter to boot.
The bit of wax she managed to get from the hive she carried back to the Altar in one of her pockets.
"Took you long enough," Frega complained.
"I really appreciate this," Ifrit said and he turned around. Having practiced waxing her own lip, Kairi was a practiced hand and the process took only a few minutes.
"There, smooth as silk!" Kairi patted the great back.
"No kidding!" Ifrit agreed with a smile. "Fry, you think you could spare her again in a couple of months?"
"We'll see, Quacky, we'll see," Frega said.
Oh no-o-o-o, she cried on the inside while keeping her bright smile plastered on her face.
"Alrighty. The Elvaan Fire..." Ifrit bent down until he was nose to nose with Kairi.
I hope this doesn't involved open-mouth kissing, she thought.
"Open you mouth and close your eyes, you're gonna get a big surprise," Ifrit said happily.
Kairi swallowed hard and closed her eyes.
"No peeking! That goes for you too, Fry!" Ifirit warned. She squinched her eyes shut and opened her mouth.
A warm, sweet marshmallow was placed on her tongue. She opened her eyes. Ifrit had a dozen of the marshmallows arranged on a branch and roasted them over a small flame he held at his fingertips.
"You should stay for s'mores," he said.
"Ha ha, you big galoot," Frega said humorlessly. "The Elvaan Fire? Did you give it to her?"
"Don't worry, ya little cretin, I gave it to her... in marshmallow form. Isn't that nifty? I've been experimenting with–"
"Yaah! It bu-u-urns!" Kairi shrieked. Blue flame enveloped her body, and if she hadn't been too busy diving to the ground and rolling around she would've realized that it wasn't consuming her clothes or her for that matter. "I'm on fire! I'm on fire!"
"Excitable little thing, isn't she?" Ifrit said to Frega as they watched her roll across the ground. "It's fine, darling! It's okay!" he tried to calm her down.
"Kids," Frega harrumphed.
He had four sets of clothes: his work uniform, basically a business suit for all occasions; his fancy ceremonial uniform; his flowery shirt and bermuda shorts, pretty much all he wore on his days off anymore; and his practical clothes. There were plenty of instances in his career where it made things go a lot smoother for him if he wasn't identified as a dragoon (or a beach bum) on sight. That didn't mean that he didn't feel odd, when he wore his casual clothes he always felt like he was in disguise. It was the most drab, boring outfit in the world, a sturdy work shirt and an equally heavy pair of trousers. He kept his boots out of sheer stubbornness.
Myrna gave him a questioning look when he came out of the bathroom but said nothing. She was busy reading to Goliath from the storybook. Shadow was nowhere in sight, as usual, but Interceptor was gone as well.
"What's wrong?" Myrna asked him.
"What makes you think something's wrong?" he asked.
"You look, I don't know, peeved. Did I do something to offend you last night?" she asked.
"No," he sat down and tried not to look at the offending book. There was no need to frighten the Mayor, besides, whoever left it put in a lot of effort to scare him and sooner or later he'd catch them when they tried again.
They stepped onto the platform as the City Guard ordered the passengers to do and stood in line to get through customs.
He'd spent all of his adolescence in the city. After he'd been expelled from The Center, the headmaster sent him to the Temple of St. Kain in the hopes that the knights could curb his explosive temper. No matter how much he hated going to the Temple to fill out paperwork, he always liked entering the city and smelling that unique mixture of mountain air and cottage industry, it felt like home.
He took a deep breath of the city are and choked.
"Was there a fire recently?" he asked the customs agent. The woman blinked up at him and giggled nervously.
"Whatever do you mean?" she asked shrilly and stamped his passport twice. "Move along sir!" she ordered before he could question her again.
"Do you have anything to declare?" the customs agent asked the Mayor.
"I'm a little depressed," the Mayor said. The customs agent's lip curled. He clearly didn't like people who dicked around with the process.
"Any vegetables or fruit?"
"Just this," she pulled a bunch of bananas from her pack. "I was going to make banana bread." The customs agent groaned.
"Please fill out this form… and this form… and these… and sign and date this." He shoved a thick sheaf of forms into her hands.
"Just for bananas?"
"And I'll have to confiscate those."
"Kii?" Goliath poked his head out of his carrying pouch and blinked sleepily.
"Just peachy, and an exotic pet as well. Is there anything else?" the customs agent huffed.
"Kii?" Goliath asked again.
"Customs," the Mayor said to the dragon.
"Excuse me," Baralai decided to try and hurry things along. But since he couldn't just give the guy a brusque "Temple Business" reply he had to try and do it the way civilians do. "I have an appointment, is there any way to speed this up?"
He did not like the look the customs agent gave him.
"Perhaps..." the customs agent held out his hand.
"You want... a tip?" Myrna asked. Baralai sighed and reached for his wallet. "No!" Myrna suddenly grasped the situation. "A bribe! How dare you sir! This is outrageous, this is corruption! You make me sick!"
The man picked up the phone receiver and said into it: "Get the dogs!"
"Now, I don't think there's any need to lose our heads here," Baralai attempted to reason.
"Who are you?" The man poked him viciously in the shoulder.
"He's my brother-in-law," the Mayor said.
"Let me see your passport!" Baralai sighed and handed the man his passport. "You sure do spend a lot of time in the city," he said suspiciously. "What's your occupation?"
"I'm a courier," he answered as calmly as his rising temper would allow.
"Where do you reside?"
"Beautiful Destiny Island," the Mayor said cheerfully. The agent looked at her and opened her passport.
"You don't travel much, do you? What's your business in Mysidia?"
"We didn't plan on getting off here, you guys made us." The agent glowered at her. "We're headed to Zanarkand," she added.
"With bananas?"
Baralai ground his teeth.
"We're simply travelers on a business trip, sir," the Mayor said, seeing their chance to slip away without a strip search dwindle to nothing. The agent roughly took Myrna by the elbow.
"Step this way, you two!"
"Now see here! How dare you handle me like this!" The Mayor objected.
A high-pitched squeak stopped the incident in its tracks. Goliath tore out of the pouch, spread his wings and hissed at the customs agent. The agent blinked at the furious little dragon with his flared fins, tiny maw, and his flushed complexion. Goliath darted at the man's face and bit him on the cheek. Myrna and Baralai watched as the agent's eyes watered and stopped focusing while his expression just dissolved into a slack grin.
"Myrna!" Baralai hissed. The Mayor delicately touched the dragon's narrow back.
"Shh! It's okay, you got him," she said soothingly. Goliath unhooked his claws from the agent's shirt and leaped onto the front of her dress.
"Well, thank you for making this as painless as possible, good sir!" The Praetor said loudly. "You should be commended for your exceptional customer service skills. I assume we are allowed to continue on our way?"
"Move along," the customs agent said dreamily. They wasted no time getting out of there.
"You showed him, didn't you?" the Mayor pet Goliath's head and held his trembling little body.
"I don't believe this. We were only here for maybe ten minutes and we're already in trouble!" Baralai looked around the offices. The customs office, like all buildings in Mysidia, had an ancient structure covered over with newer improvements to the architecture. He could see that just recently the whole building had been reinforced like a prison.
Things were really bad in Mysidia.
Mysidia, city of cobblestone streets and gay flower boxes; cutesy boutique stores and sidewalk cafes; modern plumbing and quaint idealism.
On a quiet street in the southern part of the residential area, Baralai and the Mayor walked cautiously down the street attempting to look like they had every right in the world to be there.
"Quiet neighborhood," Myrna commented.
"Everybody works during the day around here," Baralai said.
"So what now?"
There were a couple of places that may be safe from the Governor. The Order had many friends and many places to hide. She and Goliath could stay with his old friend Capuciné until the train could leave.
"I know someone who can help us out," he said, "just follow me–"
He was interrupted by a shrill cry. They both spun around to confront whatever danger was headed their way, which turned out to be... a small, willowy woman in a tight waitress uniform running down the street towards them, shrieking the entire way.
"Sus!" Baralai added a whine to the end of her name.
She had changed the color of her hair from black to blonde and gotten contacts, but she looked as fresh and innocent as ever. The piercing shriek was his name, repeated at a high frequency. Sus dashed down the street and leapt onto him, wrapping her legs around his chest and rained kisses on him.
"You came back! You're back! Oh, baby, I… uh…" she looked at the incredibly surprised Mayor standing to his right, blinked, and released the poor man.
"Hello," Myrna said, smoothly stepping in when Baralai failed to move, "My name is Mrs. Myrna Unne. But most people just call me Mayor."
Sus relaxed and offered her hand.
"My name's Sus," she said, "I'm Bari-bear's fiancée."
"Fiancée?" Myrna nudged him with her elbow. "You old dog! I didn't know you were engaged!" she said playfully, though he knew her long enough to know that what she was probably thinking was: What the hell, Baralai? She's what? Twenty?
He couldn't answer. He was frozen with fear, shocked by the occurrence of so remote a possibility, horrified that it actually happened. Sus was here! Why did he think he could avoid her? She was everywhere! What would be the trigger to one of her unreasonable, immoral destructive mode? Who knew?
The horror…
During this mental barrage of panic and more panic he stood completely still with his mouth hanging open. The women stared at him.
"So," Myrna broke the silence. "You must be the one Baralai said could help us out."
"Oh, yeah, the thing with the Order!" Sus said. "Ya'll are probably wanting to stay off the streets right now."
"So I hear," Myrna said. "Huh, politics. Go figure."
"Yeah, politics. But I'd love to help you out!" Sus bounced, making Baralai's head swim. "Me and Bari were really, you know, on, but then he had to leave on account of my getting knocked up–"
Myrna's eyes flew wide open at that.
"Excuse me?" she choked.
"It turned out to be a false alarm, and I knew, he was just in shock, and that he's so sweet and so forgiving he'd come back to me one day. Right, Bari-bear?" She laid her head gently against his chest.
Myrna gave him a deadly look, hell, he could practically see the little flames dancing in her pupils.
"But he's back now," Sus said. "Don't think badly of him. He was just scared! He's like a wittle bunny..."
Baralai's mind was stuck in neutral. If he said the wrong thing and angered Sus, she'd run to the City Guard and both he and the Mayor would spend the rest of their shortened lives getting racked, burned, beaten, and worse.
"I think he's in shock," Myrna said. She looked so indifferent.
"Let's take him to my house, it's not far." The ladies led him up the street to a lovely cottage decorated with art nouveau nymphs and a hedge of vibrant flowers.
"How long ago was this pregnancy scare?" Myrna asked as they led him in the front door.
"Oh, it's been, what? A little over a year," Sus said.
"You poor thing," Myrna said. "You weren't all alone, were you?"
"I have no family, if that's what you mean," Sus said. Myrna gave him another look that could sterilize a man in concentrated doses.
"I can... explain?" he said weakly.
"Baby, you don't have to explain, all is forgiven! I'm so glad to see you again," Sus said and she kissed him.
They found themselves in the costume department.
"Alright, disguises!" Chappu dug through the wardrobe in a matter of minutes. "Hey, pirates! We could disguise ourselves as pirates!"
"That wouldn't work," Locke said. "The pirates are part of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Methinks people would look askance at a bunch of buccaneers wandering around in the general area."
Sus squealed and pulled out a couple of extravagant gowns.
"I suggest, if you want to get your moogle back and then sneak back to your ship in Paradise Cove, that we dress up in these!" Locke held up a large furry duck costume. The Altoona's crew groaned.
"These are too tall for me," Chappu complained after he stepped into the feet part of the giant duck costume. Wakka lifted Lilo and set her on his shoulders. Stitch hopped onto Zidane's shoulders. Locke set the giant heads on the costumes and appraised them.
"Hmm. We got a duck, a dog... Wakka, you'll be the jerk in the middle." He threw the slammed the giant cartoon head on top of the hapless Captain.
"What are you dressing up as?" Lilo asked.
"I have the best costume," Locke said, zipping up his jumpsuit. "I'm a janitor."
"Ouch! Stop kicking your feet! And you're pulling my hair!" Chappu said to Lilo from inside the stomach of the Duck costume.
"It's tickling my nose! My arms don't fit in the arms of the costume," Lilo complained.
"Just let 'em hang limp," Zidane said.
Two security guards ran past them towards the jail.
"Let's go," Wakka said quickly. "Sus, are you coming?"
Sus stepped out of the racks wearing a huge blue ball gown. She patted her hair.
"What do you think? Am I too bosom-y for this thing?" She patted the dress down to show off her curves to their full advantage.
"Uhhh..."
"Hey! Keep it together," Locke slapped Wakka and snarled at Sus. "And you. Knock that off! It's show time!"
"I don't feel as if I've adequately prepared for this part–" Zidane began.
"Move!" Locke pushed him towards the stairs.
They wandered out into the organized pandemonium that was DizzyWorld.
"This place is huge," Wakka collapsed on a bench after they spent three and a half hours weaving through the crowd and putting off children who wanted to talk to the Princess.
"I can't take any more! It's too hot. I'm taking this stupid costume off," Chappu yelled. He and Lilo desperately tore their way out of the duck costume gasping for air.
"This could be okay, there are so many people here they might not be recognized," Wakka said to the others, "Besides, we don't want our two youngest to get heat stroke."
"You're so considerate and it's sweet how you look out for your friends," Sus said to him, "Do you handle children a lot?"
Chappu and Lilo looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Chappu froze.
"Hey guys," he said slowly. Wakka turned his head to see what his brother was looking at.
Cid Highwind stood with his back to them, chewing out the young ninja who glared.
"-too damn old for you!" Cid was saying.
"I'm old enough to not need a babysitter, Old Man," she shouted back. "How old could he possibly be anyway, and why would it matter? I'm just using him to get back at Leon!"
They were too deeply involved in their argument to notice the objects of their search just a few yards away.
"Let's get out of here," Wakka said, picking up Lilo and putting her back on Chappu's shoulders. Once they were back in their costume they scurried away through the crowd.
"Are we almost to where they're keeping Mog?" Wakka asked Locke.
"Look! We're almost to the monorail station," Locke pointed toward the raised track behind several blocks of buildings. "That's where they'd send him, this place is always hurtin' for maintenance people."
The group scurried as fast as they could.
"Ouch! Hey! Ick!" Zidane cried. A huge glob of ice cream slid down the back of the dog costume. The dog head turned completely around and roared. Stitch's glowing eyes peering through the holes at the little brat who had thrown the offending ice cream. The boy gasped and ran away screaming.
"Rahr!" Stitch growled.
"We extraterrestrial life forms have to stick together," ZIdane said.
"Ych!"
"I don't think Lilo's gonna stay conscious for much longer," Chappu said, the top of the duck costume leaned dangerously forward.
"I'm... okay... never give up... never... surrender!" Lilo panted. Locke and Sus grabbed her before she could tumble to the pavement.
"We could ditch the costumes and hide out in that crowd," Zidane said, meaning the crowd around the outdoor concert at the pavilion next to the monorail station.
It was a showcase night for the Butterfly Pavilion at DizzyWorld. As the crew neared the crowd they caught the last half of the strains of Cruel Summer by the Delta Sisters.
"Wow," Chappu said. He stared at the lithe girls as they rhythmically undulated on stage. "They look so, uh… clean and... uh-huh-huh-huh wholesome."
"Focus!" Wakka ordered.
"Aw-Yeah! Shake that moneymaker!" Chappu shouted and threw a gil onto the stage. Wakka was so embarrassed.
"You're sad," Lilo said.
"I'm appreciating their craft!" Chappu said magnanimously. "Burlesque dancing is highly underappre–"
"Sad," Lilo said again and tsked, "Sad, sad, sad." Zidane got a wicked grin and whispered into Lilo's ear. She giggled.
"What?" Chappu said archly.
"Nothing." Lilo and Zidane giggled behind their hands.
"Guys, I don't want to hear it," Wakka said in an attempt to head off an argument.
"I hate this place!" Chappu whined. "This place is spooky!"
"Yeah," Sus agreed, "And people here are too grabby." She slapped another hand away from her rear.
"I think I see Mog," Zidane said. "Up there!"
They pushed their way to the front of the stage where they saw Mog taping down a couple of wires. He looked as angry as a moogle could be, but helpless with a huge chain around his legs.
"Excuse me?" Wakka said to the oldest member of the DizzyWorld maintenance personnel. "That's our moogle."
The man turned to look at Mog and then looked back at Wakka.
"So?"
"So I want him back," Wakka said.
"Why don't you just get a new one. Finders keepers, you know."
"He's our friend!" Zidane said. "Not a thing."
"Moogles aren't exactly people," the man noted, "And besides, since he's been here we haven't had one single accident."
"Look, mister," Wakka said. "He's ours and we're not leaving without him!"
"Don't waste your breath, guys," Zidane said. "People like this aren't worth the trouble."
"Give us back our moogle!" Lilo yelled and kicked the man ineffectually in the shins.
The man laughed as Lilo tried to fight him. He just laughed and laughed.
"Oh! You've got moxie, little lady," he wiped a tear from his eye. "Okay. You want him that badly, you can have him. But there's one thing you gotta do first..."
To Be Continued