ᴛʜᴇ ǫᴜᴇᴇɴ's ᴄᴏᴜʀᴛ ♕ closed; started

[champ goldie]

┌────────────────┐
♔.x...x𝙲𝙰𝙼𝙸𝙻𝙻𝙴 𝙲𝚁𝙾𝚂𝚂.x...x♔
└────────────────┘
the royal tailor ✷ tagged cordy ✷ where still in the rad studio aye aye

camille's job was good for him. he liked the creative outlet and he enjoyed being a valued member of the castle. but there was no denying that some of his work came with a heavy amount of boredom. there were only so many holes or loose threads he could fix in a king's glorious, magnificent, radiant white blouse. take note that all of those adjectives were sarcastic in nature, and should be taken lightly. it was a plain blouse.
so, to remedy his boredom, camille came up with an absolutely ridiculous game of 'how did this hole happen?' which involved him examining the ruined piece of fabric for a full ten seconds followed by truly absurd fibs and tales he could make up about the events that led up to the tear.
he poked his finger through the white shirt and stick his tongue out, examing it closely. "ahh, yes. the king was definitely practicing his heavy duty dance routine, again." he joked sarcastically. a dense silence hung in his studio and he looked at the wall of paintings again. his favorite painting of a woman with a face of disdain looked back at him. he acted offended. "sorry, gertrude dear, but i'm afraid i've ran out of creative lies about our king." he began threading the needle through the shirt. he looked back at the painting and sighed. "it's becoming painfully obvious i need to get out more," he decided.

a nimble and gentle knock echoed from his door and he perked up, nearly dropping his thread and needle. "oh! uh, one moment!" he called out. he popped up from his chair and left the shirt on his desk. he reached for the buttons on his own shirt and closed it to cover his previously exposed chest and abs. he fumbled with a couple of buttons which pulled an eye roll or two out of him. when he was finally prepared, he rushed to the door and before he opened it, he composed himself and pretended like he was the cool, calm, and collected guy he should be. he finally reached for the handle and swung the heavy wooden door open and plastered the usual welcoming smile on his face before he saw the individual outside in the hall.

cordelia?
his expression very obviously lit up as soon as he saw her. his entire demeanor became more relaxed and yet alert. "cordelia! what a pleasure. what brings you by?" he asked, stepping out of the way and gesturing for the girl to come inside his studio.
as she stepped in, he noticed the scarf that was most likely concealing a loose stitch. he quirked a brow for a second and closed the door. "have you popped a stitch?" he asked, completely unphased by the concept.
he's been known to sew her back up a few times. it wasn't a super regular occasion, but he wasn't weirded out by it in the slightest. you see some odd stuff in the castle, and this sort of thing didn't often compare to the truly outragious events. plus, if he was being totally honest, he kinda sorta possibly totally liked cordelia. not like like. it was more of a deep appreciation for the girl. it was merely a complete coincidence she was as pretty as the nicest painting on his walls.

"come, take a seat." he gestured to her again, pointing at a comfier sofa chair toward the corner of his room, away from his desk. "can i get you some cocoa, it's really good tonight." he offered, walking over to the desk to pluck the required supplies before he would get the cocoa if she desired.
"it's marvelous to see you--how have things been at the castle? i think i'm in dire need of a catch-up," he spoke very effortlessly with the girl. he was usually the type of guy to speak with people in a genuinely friendly manner right off the bat. his conversations usually felt like two people reconnecting as long lost friends. it was just part of his personality. some people liked that aspect, other people thought it was rude. camille didn't care either way, in all honesty.

he pulled up a small wooden chair beside the sofa cordelia sat in and opened his sewing kit, ready to get to work. he finally truly looked into her eyes, the two of them being at nearly perfect eye level. he stopped a moment, letting a nervous smile slip before he looked down again, waiting for the beefy gossip to be dished.

[meadow.]

C O R D E L I A

tagged: camille

Pretty. Pretty. Pretty. Pretty. Cordelia's breath caught in her throat as the pretty tailor answered the door, and she couldn't stop the word's circulation in her mind. Pretty pretty pretty. He was so pretty.

It was so refreshing to find someone who not only answered the door, but was overjoyed to find the corpse girl standing on the other side.

Ahem.

Deedee was speechless as the blonde invited her inside and offered her a seat. And cocoa— an offer she simply could not refuse.

"That sounds so pretty," she answered, before catching her mistake. "I mean!! Lovely, that sounds just wonderful... Wow."

Smooth.

Cordelia sighed, her face flushed with embarrassment as Camille pulled up a chair.

Weren't his eyes just lovely? Wow...

Cordelia looked down quickly in the same instant that he did. What was that, she wondered.

She shook her head, reminding herself to keep focused as much as possible. A catch-up, he'd asked for. Well, that, Dee could surely deliver. She slowly removed her scarf as she spoke, feeling acutely embarrassed by her clumsiness.

"You didn't hear about the murder?" She asked, her eyes wide. "One of the royal guards was stabbed to death. The body was found only a few hours ago, my—"

She stopped herself. My what?

"I mean... Darcy... he's been working on the autopsy. It's a bit frightening, but overall people have been dealing with it quite well I suppose. I don't think I really know how these things are usually dealt with, but... I mean, this seems good to me."

Cordelia paused for a bit to let this information sink in before making her closing statement. "Other than that, I'm not sure anything at all has happened that's worth reporting on."

[champ goldie]

┌────────────────┐
♔.x...x𝙲𝙰𝙼𝙸𝙻𝙻𝙴 𝙲𝚁𝙾𝚂𝚂.x...x♔
└────────────────┘
the royal tailor ✷ tagged cordy ✷ where among beauty

cordelia's warm cocoa quietly sat on the small end table along with the sewing kit that camille currently had his fingers in, trying to fetch the right type of thread for the job.
from the corner of his eye, camille watched cordelia slip the scarf off her body, its fabric sliding across her unusual flesh in the smoothest of displays. he ignored his instinct to openly stare and began to thread the needle before he got to work. he listened intently to her as she spoke. she had a very charming way of doing so. she was still fairly 'new' so there were some errors in speech that made her more endearing. that was lucky on her part. darcy could have made something much dumber. especially since he usually did. oops, it suddenly got a little shady in the studio.

camille stopped what he was doing and looked at cordelia's eyes. he blinked a few times, unsure how to proceed. "wait, a death?"
he asked in disbelief. no, it was a killing. not just a classic, good 'ole fashion death. in the words of a beloved character who camille would never see, 'zoinks'. he returned to his work, pondering the news. he also noted the mistake in her sentence. the way she caught herself with the 'my' in regards to darcy. he outwardly ignored it and focused on the task at hand.

"well, this castle is ridiculously morbid," he said, looking at deedee again. she was proof of the statement. "i guess it can't be helped when there are so many types of--" oops he was talking to one of the things he was about to mention "--uh, people." he gave another nervous smile.

he was just about finished when he started to speak again. "it seems the reaper is following me. everywhere i go, there's a funeral." although technically he was called to attend one the week before, he still said what he said to be on the dramatic, theatrical side.
he tried to remain as gentle as possible as he continued fixing cordelia's shoulder. he expertly used his hands in the most crafty and polite manners. and when he was really, really working, his eyes never left the spot. he could still talk and continue, but almost all of his energy was honed in on his work.

he completed the stitch and smiled wide at cordelia. "alright, we're all done." he announced, setting his tools in the kit beside them.
"you've outta be more careful. we mustn't keep meeting each other like this." he joked. he definitely didn't mind meeting like *this*. camille couldn't help himself from the small fliratious advances he made toward her. he knew it was a little impractical and maybe even unethical in the work environment, but have you seen cordelia? wow.

"so is there any word on who killed our dear guard?" he asked randomly, standing up from his spot and walking over to the kitchen area to get a new cup of cocoa. he looked over his shoulder, continuing the conversation. "i sincerely hope there's no murderer among us, after all." camille was allergic to cold-blooded killers. every time he was around one his legs would start to run.

[Ghostarriver]

We can end this war at Yorktown, cut them off at sea- no precious birb oops.
Avis Savant
Monsieur LafayetteBook Keeper♢Male♢Age: 27♢Wereraven♢Location: The Garden♢Tags: Living is easy, love is harder Lilith, our next victim!


Well... how was the bookkeeper to respond to that? He was lost for words, with no idea how to formulate any kind of reply. The glossy sheet over her eyes, threatening to let tears loose only prompted Avis to slide closer and drape one arm across the vampiress’s delicate frame and rest her against him. His gaze remained over the garden, as he tightened his arm slightly, in a half hug, while Lilith’s usually melodically and sweet voice was tainted by sorrow and sadness. Avis could do nothing more than bite his lip, his hand sliding to the chain tucked safely away in his pocket.
“I suppose... we’re both wishing for things we’ll never have...” The Wereraven said, eventually. The chain was now in his hand and he looked at it, for a minute, chuckling. Things they’d never have. Lilith had a better chance of getting things than he did. At least Lilith could speak her mind so eloquently, without a problem, she could communicate with anyone she so wished. Meanwhile, Avis could barely say ‘Hello’ without stammering and stretch it for thirty seconds. He couldn’t approach people when he needed to, not until he thought they weren’t busy and they were on their own. And that took a while. The only person he felt at ease with, was Lilith. He sure as hell couldn’t talk to Darcy on a personal level, or Vixen, or Michelangelo, or Cordelia. He just couldn’t. That was something Avis was incapable of. But, his free will always left him wishing for what he didn’t think he deserved. He felt he was too cowardly. He was too afraid to even step foot outside the castle. For the first few years, he had allowed himself peace. He couldn’t have stopped what had happened. It just had.
Soon, though, it had begun to plague his conscience, gnaw at him at every twist and turn. While he had been privileged enough to be the bookkeeper, have a roof over his head, people that accepted him, the family he had left behind were still suffering. Avis couldn’t absolve himself of the guilt, tell himself it wasn’t his fault, he had no control. He could have- should have gone back. But since that day, Avis had never dared, always feared to leave the castle. So he had to lock himself away in his mind. He was blessed enough to have Evanna to talk to, to share his thoughts to, even if she didn’t care, she made an effort to look like she was listening. But an animal companion could never be enough for him, he’d never be satisfied. The one man he felt some inexplicable thing for, had other priorities, more important things to attend to.
“Lilith... I- I know th-that I am no equal to what you want, wh-what you deserve, b-but your company is sufficient enough for me. So, even if you don’t th-think that you can receive love, as you see it, just know that I-I do care for you, as a good friend and a cherished student. A-and I’d think that’s a special bond, but... maybe it isn’t to you. Either way, you know you will always have a friend in me.” Thus was Avis’s pathetic attempt to try and cheer Lilith up, assure her she was loved. He sighed internally, at his uselessness.

He closed his eyes, letting his arm drop to his side. He felt at peace. Until a snapshot from Evanna sent him jumping out of his seat. Glancing in the general direction Evanna was in, Avis quickly made him way over. He gasped, back pedalling when he reached the bushes. Laying there was the King, the several wounds in his chest all bleeding into one stain.
“Wh- Evanna what happened?!” Evanna showed him everything she knew. She showed him everything she had. Evanna had been eating a squirrel, when she had heard a blood curdling cry and went to see what it had been. Eventually, she had found Yeong-Suk, lying on the ground, no trace of who or what had killed him.
Avis backed away a bit more, until he was leaning against a wall, hyperventilating. He began to feel light headed, the sickly smell of blood attacking his mind, his lungs and suddenly he couldn’t breathe, images flashing before his head. He had seen those wounds a long time ago. And he had hoped to God he would never see them again. Yet, there they were.

[feather_light_flight]

╔════════╗

║
║
║
║
║

L I L I T H
12/ 123- female
D A R L I N G
garden
V A M P I R E
THIS WORLD
WILL BURRRNNN

║
║
║
║
║
╚════════╝

Avis's stumbled comforts brought a small, almost sweet smile to the delicate woman's face as she nodded, a silent thank you for his kindness. It was true that Avis was one of the people Lilith had always been closest too, indeed she was fond of the librarian beyond words. The only person who took precedent to Avis was the king.

Evanna's cawing drew Lilith's attention and she rose, closing her umbrella after making sure the sun had finished setting, and pacing patiently over to the bushes where Evanna perched. It was a the calm before a storm, Lilith's body composed, her skirt fluffed around her knees. She was the image of purity and light. And then came the body. Her king's body....sprawled across the bushes.
While it was hard to kill a vampire, it was no where near impossible, and evidence of extermination were written all over the hard form of the corpse.

It was as if the world had fallen away once more. Lilith, in all her pale glory, was free falling through darkness, claws reaching out like tendrils to snatch at her back, tug her spine deeper into a pit of empty numbness. Outwardly, she was frozen, stuck staring at the body of her beloved king. And then...everything broke into shards of glass, ringing down onto the cobbles at her feet, leaking blood, his blood. A scream forced it's way up from her throat, breeching the calm night sky with a crawling note of horror that Lilith's delicate lungs sustained until they emptied completely. She hadn't registered dropping to her knees, but she found herself clawing at his body, hauling him into her lap as she desperately cupped his head, choking on bile and more screams. When had she started crying? Or was it raining? No...they were tears. The scene seemed to have broken something in Lilith and she sat, cradling her king desperately as tears dripped second after second off her face.

"No. No. You can't leave me, you're not allowed to! I need you! You gave me life, I need you, you can't leave, you were never supposed to leave!" The words, jumbled into babble, had crescendoed into more screams, and now she sat, screaming over her King's body, clutching him desperately one second, and slamming her fists against his chest the next. As if she could somehow beat his body back to life. "You can't leave me here! You promised never to leave me! You're not supposed to be dead! You can't be dead!" Her body quaked with the effort to breath in between broken sobs. Curled up into a cuccoon around the King's head, she desperately carrssed his hair, body racked with every hiccuping cry that came out. "You're the only family I have....you can't leave...you cant. You were supposed to stay..."

[RoselynBlackThorne]

✠ Ｖ Ｉ Ｘ Ｅ Ｎ ~ Ｌ Ｕ Ｃ Ｉ Ｆ Ｏ Ｒ Ａ ✠
𝔯𝔬𝔶𝔞𝔩 𝔞𝔡𝔳𝔦𝔰𝔬𝔯 - - - 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔨𝔦𝔫𝔤'𝔰 𝔩𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩𝔶 𝔩𝔦𝔱𝔱𝔩𝔢 𝔡𝔢𝔳𝔦𝔩 - - - 𝖙𝖆𝖌𝖘: Ave, Lillie, oMG MY KING

Vixen flipped through "Dorian Grey" as she lazily wandered the halls, completely forgetting about the dead guard at this point. It was just one human guard... Big deal. If anything, she would've preferred the entire human village to end up the same way.
Upon reaching the end of the book and skimming the pages that described the main character's demise, a smirk crept onto her face as she thought of how foolish humans were...
... Around that time, though, she heard noises outside.
Curious, she closed the now-finished book and headed out to see what all the fuss was.
"Oh, joy," she said out loud in a sarcastic tone as she approached the scene. "Was it one of those whiny maids this time?"
She saw Ave, Lillie, and his raven-friend nearby, but couldn't make out the body from where she was. "This is one of those times where I hate being slightly near-sighted," she sighed; walking closer and closer until she could clearly see the body...
... As the figure became more clear to her and Lillie's crying grew into suspicious upset screams of lament, her footsteps slowed...
... until she came to a complete stop upon seeing the body of her beloved king.
Staring wide-eyed at the vampire's corpse for a moment, her mouth opened slightly as she dropped the two books and her toy Cheshire that she held in her arms. Her hand moved to her mouth for a moment as many feelings rushed through her...
Then, with both hands moving to her head and tears trying to squeeze out from her eyes, she let out an ear-piercing scream to express all the emotions seeping through her mind.

[meadow.]

CORDELIA

tagged: darcy, camille, lilith, mufasa (long live the king)

"I don't know if they've found any leads," Cordelia admitted, stretching out her shoulder a bit between sips of her cocoa. "It seems like everything is fairly normal, so maybe the killer got away with it this time."

Cordelia opened her mouth to say something more, but before she could speak a bloodcurdling scream tore through the air, and the corpse stood up so fast she nearly spilled her drink. She set the mug down with shaking hands and looked fearfully at Camille. "Something is wrong." She said gravely. "We should go."

She took off as fast as she could toward the garden, where the noise seemed to have originated. She was rounding a corner a bit too sharply, nearly there, when she crashed completely into Darcy. She went sprawling to the floor, but caught herself before too much damage could be done. She heard the stitching in her right knee and wrist pop, but nothing appeared to have totally snapped. She dusted herself off quickly and looked up at her Darcy, eyes wide and petrified with fear. "What happened?" She asked. "What's going on? We heard a scream..."

She could hear wailing now, crescendoing sporadically like phrases in 12/8 time.

"That sounds like Lilith," Dee observed. "Is it her? Is she okay?"

[The Grey Stuff]

ᴅᴀʀᴄʏ ᴠᴏɴ ᴇᴄᴋʜᴀʀᴅᴛ
〖Mad Scientist〗〖Human〗〖25〗〖Form〗〖Location: The Library〗〖Tags: Evanna, Avis, Cordelia〗

"𝓲 𝓴𝓮𝓮𝓹 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓹𝓲𝓬𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮 𝓾𝓹𝓸𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝔀𝓪𝓵𝓵. 𝓲𝓽 𝓱𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓼 𝓪 𝓷𝓪𝓼𝓽𝔂 𝓼𝓽𝓪𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽'𝓼 𝓵𝔂𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮."

Darcy couldn't help but wonder if delirium had finally overtaken his senses, when he saw first Evanna and in turn Avis rush past him, the wind of their momentum whipping his clothes so that his unbuttoned lab coat billowed and he had to grab the wall to steady himself. What on Earth was that about? He did a quick double-take over his shoulder, but the two avian creatures were already long gone.

Trying to shrug it off, the scientist continued on down the hallway. It was pivotal that he get this newfound information to the King as soon as possible. Or at least, it was, until a chilling shriek pierced his train of thought and subsequently, his priorities. He froze in his tracks, head perking up like a meerkat on a prairie. There was a brief interlude, and then the screaming resumed, although this one sounded less like a wailing child and more like a full grown woman.

Cordelia?

was, for some reason, the first name that popped into Darcy's mind, along with an emotion that quite resembled concern. But no...she didn't sound like that. It must have been one of the others. His sharp mind, even in this sleepless state, was quickly able to deduce that someone else must have been murdered. Another guard? Yet the cold, icy stone in the pit of his stomach told him this was not so. It was worse. So much worse. How, exactly, remained to be seen.

He fully intended to turn around and investigate, but before he could get the chance, a flesh-colored blur bowled right into him, and he promptly became acquainted with the floor. His shoulder impacted the hard surface of the stone as he fell on his back, and his notes took flight like a kaleidoscope of white butterflies. The pouch he'd been carrying skidded into one of the walls. "Helvete!" Propping himself on his elbows, he narrowed his eyes at the culprit, none other than... "Cordelia," he sighed, momentarily pushing aside his annoyance to deal with the matter at hand. "So far, no one has taken the time to inform me of why there's been such an abundance of screams," he explained, "but if I had to guess, I would say someone else has fallen prey to our mystery murderer."

He tilted his head as he honed in on the distant wailing. That did sound like Lilith.

"Is she okay?"

Darcy glanced back at his creation with an impassive expression.

"Does she sound like she's okay to you, Cordelia?" he replied, in a softer tone than even he had expected. He asked it not mockingly, but in the way that a schoolteacher might ask their student when trying to help them reach a certain conclusion.

[Ghostarriver]

Every action has its opposite n’ equal reaction- no precious birb oops.
Avis Savant
He didn’t mean when he said ‘Casse toi’...Book Keeper♢Male♢Age: 27♢Wereraven♢Location: The Garden♢Tags: Lilith I have so much work to do..., Mufasa, sept, huit, neuf. Sept huit... Vixen, Darcy Who did this, Darcy do you knooooow , Cordelia she gotta rise up, Camille Thrown head first into a treacherous abyss!


Avis was trying to stand, but his legs refused. Though, the death of the King wasn’t what had hit him so hard.
Granted, he was upset that his master, the man whom had offered him one of the best lives possible, was now dead, murdered by some merciless plotter. Regicide was never a matter to be taken lightly, the perpetrator deserving the worst penalty.
Yet, what affected Avis most, was what came next.

He had seen this scene before. A child, begging the one they loved most to return to the living, reminding them of promises they had made. Trying to bring them back, knowing all the while it was futile. They had now gone to a better place.

“No, Avery please! You promised we’d stick together ‘till the end! You said that’s what brothers did! You can’t leave me now! We need you! I need you! Y-you swore... you swore we’d always be there for each other! YOU SWORE IT!”

Avis shook head, trying to hold back his tears. He couldn’t do anything. He understood what Lilith was going through and for that reason he wasn’t going to go up to her and say ‘Oh sorry for your loss, I’ll always be there for you.’ No. He couldn’t say that to her, because then he’d be lying. Avis didn’t know what was running through her head, but every loss was different from person to person. You couldn’t say you knew what they were going through, because you don’t. The significance of the deceased varies from one to another, so you couldn’t say that just because your brother had died in the same way and Avis could see himself being replayed in Lilith, you couldn’t say that was like losing the man you had always loved. Because they were different people, with different meanings.
After a few minutes of panicking, Avis managed to balance on his two legs. He needed to... to...
To find Darcy.
Yes, the sooner, the better. The screams from Vixen and Lilith had begun to hurt his ears, it felt like they were bleeding.

Slowly taking a few backwards steps from the scene, Avis turned and leaped, transforming into his raven form, in order to look for Darcy, while Evanna landed on the ground next to Lilith, trying to appear sympathetic.

Flying at his top speed, Avis soared through the halls, hoping it was easy to find the scientist. Soon, he spotted Darcy, Cordelia and Camille and attempted to land, but the speed he was going at sent him crashing into a table, on which he skidded off of, soon crashing into a wall. He shouldn’t have kept his shape so streamlined, the idiot that he was. Quickly shaking off the disorientation, Avis sprung to his feet, returning to human form.
Looking at the scene, he didn’t have time to be worried and hearing Cordelia’s question, he shook his head vigorously.
“She is the opposite of okay and so is everything else!” He blurted out, quickly. Grabbing Darcy’s wrist to pull him up, Avis added “There’s been another murder, b-but this time it’s- it’s-” He needed a moment to catch his breath, he sounded like he had just run around the world. “It’s the King!” He managed to get out eventually.
Without hesitation, Avis began dragging Darcy to the garden, with much more urgency than Darcy had done so, when they had been searching for Cordelia.

When they reached the site again, Avis’s hand held Darcy’s for a second, as if Avis needed to reassure himself. He let go soon after, taking a few steps away, as Evanna perched on his shoulder. Unbeknownst to him, Evanna threw a split second glare at Darcy over her shoulder, as Avis went to put an arm on Lilith’s shoulder, though Avis knew it wouldn’t do any good.

[RoselynBlackThorne]

✠ Ｖ Ｉ Ｘ Ｅ Ｎ ~ Ｌ Ｕ Ｃ Ｉ Ｆ Ｏ Ｒ Ａ ✠
𝔯𝔬𝔶𝔞𝔩 𝔞𝔡𝔳𝔦𝔰𝔬𝔯 - - - 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔨𝔦𝔫𝔤'𝔰 𝔩𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩𝔶 𝔩𝔦𝔱𝔱𝔩𝔢 𝔡𝔢𝔳𝔦𝔩 - - - 𝖙𝖆𝖌𝖘: Ave, Lillie, die, die, we all pass awaaaay

After that VERY long and wailing scream, Vixen had fallen into a sitting position right beside Lillie; currently burying her head in her own knees and wrapping her arms around her legs and being absolutely quiet. What the heck was she supposed to tell her precious Lillie-of-the-valley?... This wasn't like those last few rare times where Lillie was disheartened and Vixen would just reassure her with "aw, don't worry, blessed precious; it'll work out somehow~"
... This was NOT going to work out.
Her own rage was brooding inside of her... Distrust. Anger. Overwhelming despair. Every last bit of negative emotion that any human could think of fueled her as she thought of how someone would stoop so low as to murder one of the only few people she actually cared about.
Heck; if it was anyone else except Lillie and maybe the lovely little corpse-girl, then she wouldn't have cared at all... But this... This was going too far.
As soon as Ave had returned with the scientist, she slowly looked up at nothing in particular with glowing eyes and bared fangs; a soft yet angered growl emanating from clenched teeth.
No one touched her king and got away with it.
Heck... She'd burn the murderer to a crisp personally if it came down to it.