the Rift


[OPEN] The world might not know

Isopia the Mountain That Knows Posts: 780
Dragon's Throat Apostle atk: 6.5 | def: 10 | dam: 8.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: 3 - is now aging slowly HP: 90 | Buff: NUMB
Hubris :: Royal Bronze Dragon :: Shock Breath & Frost Breath & Babel :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Fire Breath Odd
#1
Isopia


The devil is not as black as he is painted.

The night sky flared brightly above.

Orangemoon had brought with it prolific and violent storms, but at night the skies seemed to swell and clear, revealing a host of stars. It was on one of these particular nights that Isopia had wandered away from her silent and secluded grove. The Falls, for as densely forested as they were (which Isopia liked, for it afforded her the privacy she coveted), also blocked away much of the sky. And so the expanses of the Endless Blue called to her, and she readily obeyed.

The air was warm enough, but every so often a chill would gust through, stroking Isopia's blood-patterned coat, and reminding her of her mortality. Her body at least, was subject to the elements. And, she had recently learned, her heart was subject to a torrent of emotions that she thought herself immune to.

Heart ache. Jealousy. Longing and the associated loss.
Isopia had never really expected anything out of life. She took life as it came at her, allowing it to roll off of her shoulders with the sweeping justification of a determined universe. She sanctified her outlook by dogmatically believing that desires, needs, wants just led to despair and grief. Only death would satisfy her curiosity and her longing. While she lived, she would merely navigate the world as she saw fit, with no expectations, no box that events needed to fit into for her to understand them. Her mind was large enough to accomodate that.

But then ... she had expected. Silently, lingering somewhere in the fertile soils of a garden that she didn't know her mind even had, seeds were planted. Tendrils of life grew, of desires and wants. Isopia hadn't tended to them, but nor had they been eradicated. She watched the pulsing of warmth that flooded her veins in Volterra's presence with a clinical and detached interest. Only once or twice had the feeling enveloped her so fully that she became mentally distracted, but that was all it took. Roots coiled themselves tightly around the cockles of her heart, and infected each thought and every breath. Her love for him (for truly, that's what it was), let seedlings blow and billow into other aspects of her mind, and she unintentionally and unassumingly created obligations and expectations of the ruby-eyed stallion, that she didn't even know existed until those seedlings withered and died in his presence.

She was not special to him, not unique. But she thought she had been. She had expected him to drown out the roar of the world for her.

How ridiculous.

You're being ridiculous, she thought to herself. Pain, of a mental sort, gripped her as tears began to form in the corners of her golden gaze. We all know the pin-prick of pain that can come with tears, but to Iso, this hurt was worse than any other she could imagine. Worse than Abraham's dragons, of Kaj's kicks and blows, of the poison of the Rift Gods. It was worse, because it was caused by her own weakness; worse, because her mind couldn't stop it.

And so a tear slid down her death-marked face, over her clenched jaw, and onto the moonlight grasses which were already, magically, sliding up her long forelegs.

Image Credits

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Mesec the Nightwind Posts: 476
World's Edge Glazier atk: 5.5 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Tribrid :: 16.3hh :: 7 years old HP: 76 | Buff: NOVICE
Lucius :: Royal Zephyr :: Roc & Lyra :: Common Kitsune :: Dreams Sarah
#2
Dark as it was on the beach, as Mesec flew along the shore he recognized the figure standing alone on the beach. It would be hard to mistake the earth demigod for anyone else - she was rapidly gaining her father’s size. He was glad that when she had dive-bombed him from the sky she was still relatively foal-sized. A smile grew in his silver eyes at the memory and it was that which encouraged him to angle his wings and land on the beach down from where she stood. It was the memory of the filly he had met in the Thistle Meadow, who he had given a flower that only bloomed at night (a memento of that meeting clanging in his mane against the other charms as he landed).

Mesec had been… uncomfortable with their last meeting, but even more so with how he had left it. He had done nothing, lingered there in awkward uncertainty - not stepping in to defend either of his friends in the confrontation between Ampere and the earth daughter. It was easy for him to add it to the pile of regrets and troublesome memories that bothered him - it slipped in there without him noticing, waiting for the opportunity to be remembered and cause him to hesitate before going to go say hello to someone. He was so tired of living in uncertainty over things that should be so simple, things that were simple - or so it seemed - for everyone else.

This was a friend, or at least he considered her a friend - there shouldn’t be any hesitation about going over toward her.

Resolving to get over himself he moved toward her, walking along the shore just where the ocean lapped against the sand with each wave. He folded his wings against his sides and covering up the faint glow of silver that shone from them. There really wasn’t anything he could do about his muzzle - stealthy approaches at night were not Mesec’s strength.

“Hey there, Little Earth.” The words were soft, another breeze in the ocean air, as he came to stand beside her - wondering if that was the track of a tear he saw on her skull-marked face, or perhaps just a little bit of ocean spray. “Would you mind some company?”



while the rain water washes away who you are
we'll go over the mountains and under the stars


:D hope you don't mind
please tag Mesec in replies
non-life threatening force is allowed at all times

Isopia the Mountain That Knows Posts: 780
Dragon's Throat Apostle atk: 6.5 | def: 10 | dam: 8.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: 3 - is now aging slowly HP: 90 | Buff: NUMB
Hubris :: Royal Bronze Dragon :: Shock Breath & Frost Breath & Babel :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Fire Breath Odd
#3
Isopia
The devil is not as black as he is painted.

As soon as the silvery glow of her cousin pulled her attention away from her self-pitying state of mind, Isopia immediately drummed up the watery magic at her disposal. It was a ploy, of course, so that should Mesec see the indications of wetness on her face, he would think it was merely a splash from her watery creations, rather than tears. A rough and ready dragon of water billowed before her, and Isopia dipped her nose forward, miming the motions of drinking, before letting it splash at her hooves, watering the ground beneath her.

Isopia was nothing, if not deceptive. She would let no one see her tears.

"Okay." Her acceptance of his company was soft. The emotion she felt had apparently lodged itself in her throat, and there was nothing that her watery magic could do to hide that betrayal. Gritting her teeth, 'Little Earth' looked out across the waves, and inhaled deeply. Iso's death marked skull tilted slightly as her golden gaze moved to spy her cousin in her peripheral vision. Had he always glowed like this? Perhaps it was just the nighttime that brought it out, or, simply made it more apparent. Together they stood, each barring the signs of their parents - Mesec with his moon-lit glow, and Isopia slowly disappearing into the earth.
"Do you ever feel ... the weight of who we are?" She asked, her hardened stare still fixedly watching the waves. Iso wasn't sure that he did - perhaps Mesec, like so many in the world - simply accepted their cosmic fate with an apathetic reluctance.

With a low warble, Hubris looked to the zephyr with a sad shrug. He knew the inner thoughts and heartache that Iso felt, knew that her question were merely a veiled attempt to shift the conversation away from whatever outward display of sadness she might have been expressing, but was unable to communicate any of this to the dark bird. Hubris was too young to even speak into Iso's mind, much less communicate with another species. Still though, he wished he could.

Image Credits

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Mesec the Nightwind Posts: 476
World's Edge Glazier atk: 5.5 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Tribrid :: 16.3hh :: 7 years old HP: 76 | Buff: NOVICE
Lucius :: Royal Zephyr :: Roc & Lyra :: Common Kitsune :: Dreams Sarah
#4
With her soft acceptance of his presence, Mesec relaxed - silver eyes moving from her to the ocean. He would have been happy to stand here in silence, enjoying for the moment just the simplicity of not being alone on the beach. From the corner of his eye he saw that even here on the sand of the beach her legs were melding with the earth, slowly disappearing into it. His mind was already seeking something to say - narrowing it down was more of the issue than coming up with something to stay.

But she was the one to break the silence and Mesec couldn’t help it - a small chuckle was his first reaction to his cousin’s question, a quick and humourless laugh. He had learned quickly not to make assumptions about her but on their first meeting she had seemed so much more confident, so much more at ease, with her existence and identity than he had.

“All the time.” The smile faded as he quickly explained, hoping she wouldn’t think that he had been laughing at her because he hadn’t been - it was the question. It was hard not to be mindful of who his mother was, she was easily the most disliked of all the gods. Had a day gone by when he didn’t feel the weight of it? If there had, they were few and scattered - or they had receded back into the memories of foal hood when it hadn’t seemed so hard at all. “I’m still trying to live with it - been hoping that by finding a purpose it’ll get easier. You know, maybe there’s a reason that we’re here, why our parents felt the need to have us.” And beyond that, beyond any divine reasoning, he just wanted to find what he was good at - aside from overthinking and sulking. Mesec was surrounded by friends that lived with passion, that knew exactly where they fit into Helovia and herd - or at least one of the two. He had hoped that joining the Throat would help as well as joining the WHATCH but they both felt as though they belonged to someone else. He was just a visitor, a helper, which he didn’t mind - it would just be nice to have somewhere that felt like home.

He tilted his head a little as he turned his attention from the sea to the earth child at his side. It could have simply been a question, and he wouldn’t be surprised if it was just a question but he felt concerned - why was she feeling the weight of who they were now? “Did something happen?”


while the rain water washes away who you are
we'll go over the mountains and under the stars


@Isopia
please tag Mesec in replies
non-life threatening force is allowed at all times

Isopia the Mountain That Knows Posts: 780
Dragon's Throat Apostle atk: 6.5 | def: 10 | dam: 8.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: 3 - is now aging slowly HP: 90 | Buff: NUMB
Hubris :: Royal Bronze Dragon :: Shock Breath & Frost Breath & Babel :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Fire Breath Odd
#5
Isopia
The devil is not as black as he is painted.

Once Isopia thought that she had a purpose. She knew that she did, deep down in the marrow of her bones. It sung there, haunting her every step. Bring balance, that was her lot in life. And yet ... was it? She was not importantly different from the mortals around her - nor was Mesec. Oh sure, they were capable of more, and their blood sung with potential that the mortals had to work to achieve...but they were not so different. Nor was she importantly different from the Gods, in many respects. They had the same disparity in power that she had with the mortals, but was that all there was to it? They were bigger and stronger and would live longer, just as she was bigger and stronger and would live longer than those around her?

And if that was the case...

"Maybe they just wanted to have sex." She spat bitterly, her mind revolving back to her conversation with Volterra about lust and need. She had to swallow hard to keep her body steady, and to not let her mind begin to imagine all the ways in which Volterra had satisfied that particular itch.
She couldn't help but see Mirabella in her minds-eye, and extrapolate to all the others that surely there were. "They're related, and so it can't be with each other ... so maybe every few decades they just ..." Her massive shoulders shrugged, full of contempt and jealousy. "And now here we are." Her hard golden gaze remained fixedly on the sea. Oh sure, she didn't really believe what she was saying. But could there be some truth in it?

Possibly.

Was she still letting thoughts of Volterra's sex life pervade her every thought?

Definitely.

"Nothing happened." She exhaled softly, having just realized she had been holding her breath. She turned her gaze towards her cousin, forcing a smile (although she had gotten markedly better at faking emotions), and shook her quad-horned skull. "I was just thinking. The Riftian wars .. our parents were there to fix it. I remember hearing of once when the Gods left, and it was just us - Well, the original four anyways - who had to keep things going, but even then, what did you all do? During the darkness? I don't mean to blame you, it's just that ... we aren't strong enough to do anything on our own when our parents aren't here. And when they are here?" Again her shoulders shrugged. "We're ... what is our purpose?"

Did Mesec know? Wasn't he the oldest of them? Maybe if he could put her back on track .. maybe then she could forget about Volterra once and for all.

@Mesec
Image Credits

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Mesec the Nightwind Posts: 476
World's Edge Glazier atk: 5.5 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Tribrid :: 16.3hh :: 7 years old HP: 76 | Buff: NOVICE
Lucius :: Royal Zephyr :: Roc & Lyra :: Common Kitsune :: Dreams Sarah
#6
Mesec was going to have to shake the idea that his cousin was still a foal, a mindset he easily slipped into despite the fact that she was now taller than him. Her words shocked him but a quick glance at her reminded him she wasn’t the young filly from the Thistle Meadow anymore. He might have laughed but for the bitterness in her voice - thinking it better to keep his laughter and questions about the matter to himself (just why she was so bitter). His silver eyes turned from the sea to look at her, the corner of his mouth tugging into a wry grin. “Maybe. I don’t know about you though, but I’d rather not think about my mother satisfying her decade-long cravings for sex and which of Helovia’s bachelors she’ll choose from.” He meant it as a joke, hoping to get a smile if not a laugh out of his cousin, though he certainly would prefer not to think about it. Besides, if it was only about sex then why weren’t there more demigods? Why stop at one each? “So I’m going to hope that it’s not just that.” Perhaps it was also because sex remained a mystery to him, it was hard to consider it such a powerful driving force.

He kept his calm silver eyes on her as she talked through the problem of their existence. It certainly didn’t sound like there was any reason for them when she put it like that. Now that their parents were all around and active again, there really didn’t seem to be any use for the demigods.

But he’d try to answer her questions as honestly as he could, despite his own confusion over the matter. “It’s always been about balance, that’s the word my mother always loves to use.” He didn’t know how many times he had heard her say it, but enough that he knew he used the same accent and inflections on the word that she did. “No, I don’t think we were strong enough then, during the darkness, but we tried to be. Tried to help everyone keep the faith that the gods would return, tried to keep the chaos from breaking out when everyone found out the gods were gone. I’m not going to say we succeeded by any means...”

Mesec didn’t know what their purpose was, even though he had some suspicions. He wasn’t sure anyone knew. “We’re so young and it feels like there's so much expected of us without any guidelines as to what that is. Half god but half mortal too and all still learning. You say we’re not strong enough but I think we could be.” It was nice to think that there was a reason for everything that they actually had a reason for being here. Perhaps they would be stronger as the demigods were now, a different combination than there had been during the darkness. Mesec had faith in his cousins even if he had none in himself.

But another, darker, thought had formed in his mind surrounding this topic and he frowned with it. “Do you think our parents are truly immortal? Or like those creatures from the Rift…”



while the rain water washes away who you are
we'll go over the mountains and under the stars


@Isopia
please tag Mesec in replies
non-life threatening force is allowed at all times

Isopia the Mountain That Knows Posts: 780
Dragon's Throat Apostle atk: 6.5 | def: 10 | dam: 8.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: 3 - is now aging slowly HP: 90 | Buff: NUMB
Hubris :: Royal Bronze Dragon :: Shock Breath & Frost Breath & Babel :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Fire Breath Odd
#7
Isopia
The devil is not as black as he is painted.

Isopia shrugged.
"I don't see why it would bother you. It's perfectly natural." She commented, though there was no judgement in her voice, only a little confusion. Though what he said did make some sort of sense ... why weren't there more demi-gods running about? The four of them seemed to be under no sexual-embargoes, at least as far as she could tell. If they wanted to procreate, they all seemed free enough to do so. Would their offspring be mortal? Or perhaps mortal+? But that wasn't the point...

...and now Mesec was saying something else...

Isopia certainly agreed that balance was a foundational part of their existence, but what exactly did that mean? Hadn't the Moon Goddess implied that she took the lives of all those Helovian's, because it was what was needed? And she had been all but crucified for it. That Mesec thought that they could be strong enough, wasn't helpful. It implied that as of now, they were not yet strong enough. What if their parents decided to fly off into another rift? To disappear again? What if Mesec's mother decided that Helovia's population needed more pruning, as she had before? If they were not strong enough now, then what was the point?

Growing up was the worst
"I guess we won't truly know how useful we are, until something happens." Isopia replied, noncommittally.

"Everything is immortal in a sense. All of our atoms are merely repurposed once we die. In that sense, all we are now is some unique arrangement ... immortality is context dependent." But of course, Isopia knew that wasn't what her cousin had actually been asking her. "No. I don't actually believe that they are." Isopia replied after pondering Mesec's question for only a moment or so. "Those who appear to be immortal but aren't, have a weakness. It varies. But I've heard of those who must have their hearts removed, who must fall from somewhere quite high up - etcetera. With our parents I think...I think that they're just very hard to kill. They're so old, perhaps even they've forgotten how to do it. But those creatures from the Rift ... they didn't seem like our parents. They died too easily, too quickly. Why do you ask?"

@Mesec
Image Credits

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Mesec the Nightwind Posts: 476
World's Edge Glazier atk: 5.5 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Tribrid :: 16.3hh :: 7 years old HP: 76 | Buff: NOVICE
Lucius :: Royal Zephyr :: Roc & Lyra :: Common Kitsune :: Dreams Sarah
#8
‘It’s only natural’ she said and Mesec snorted in response, seeing her point but still. “Is it?” Although he spoke the words, quiet as they were, it was meant as an entirely rhetorical question. A natural thing it might be but an all but foreign concept to Mesec and there lay his discomfort with the notion. Perhaps he didn’t want to think about his mother (or really, anyone) doing that because he was still trying to figure it all out. Was he supposed to be surging with hormones, chasing every piece of tail that wasn’t related to him? It sounded exhausting - and Lucius emitted a quiet noise that might have very well been a laugh at the notion. Hormones were no match for the powers of Mesec’s worrisome mind.

But, thankfully, the topic of the gods having sex was abandoned for the topic of them dying.

He shook his head with a smile as Little Earth started to take his question quite literally - giving him an answer that was both oddly poetic and completely to the point - before answering his actual question.

She then asked him what had prompted the question and his gaze shifted to the moonlit ocean - silver eyes bright as he took a moment to contemplate what she had said. Mesec agreed with her, it made sense. Their parents were unlike the Rift creatures - they weren’t likely to be taken down so easily in a fight. But it could, theoretically, happen. “I was just thinking, about our purpose…” He was wary about continuing this train of thought, about speaking it out loud but took some comfort in the idea that if he was going to spew a ridiculous idea to anyone, Little Earth was a good pair of ears to hear it. He didn’t think that she would judge him for his words and perhaps she would be able to poke some holes in the logic - he was rather sure that he did not want what was bouncing around in his mind to ever happen after all. “What if we’re their replacements? What if we’re here as a security measure so that if they die, we’ll be able to step up… and in the meantime we’ve got to learn as much as we can so that we’ll be able to...”

That he was born to be groomed - indirectly or otherwise - as an heir unsettled him. Refusing to meet her eyes as he continued the thought - going on to explain why he hoped this idea was false. “You might think it silly, but I’m afraid of that being the truth. Afraid of what it will mean for me if it is.” Mesec feared his part in the balance of Helovia, feared that in the end, his part would be to bring out darkness and death to balance the light and good. Had that been what his mother meant, when she talked of balance? Things had been too good, the population was growing too strong. And his own thoughts unknowingly mirrored those of the other demigod beside him - what happened when another purge was needed?
while the rain water washes away who you are
we'll go over the mountains and under the stars


@Isopia

HAPPY 300TH POST, MESEC
please tag Mesec in replies
non-life threatening force is allowed at all times

Isopia the Mountain That Knows Posts: 780
Dragon's Throat Apostle atk: 6.5 | def: 10 | dam: 8.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: 3 - is now aging slowly HP: 90 | Buff: NUMB
Hubris :: Royal Bronze Dragon :: Shock Breath & Frost Breath & Babel :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Fire Breath Odd
#9
Isopia
The devil is not as black as he is painted.

Truly it wasn't often that those she spoke with said things that surprised her. Well, perhaps things said were surprising in their utter stupidity, but never in their acumen. Or at least, rarely ever.

But this?

The words that left her cousin's lips were not ones that she had expected to hear uttered from him, or from anyone else. It wasn't that she that her eldest cousin to be slow, only a little ... short sighted perhaps. After all, if the talk of their biological function with regards to procreation stifled him, that he would contemplate their existential existence, seemed a stretch.

But of course, Iso being who she was, was absolutely delighted with what he had to say.

Part of her approval danced across her face in a small smile, as she watched the moonlight reflect off of Mesec's contemplative gaze. "Well-" She began slowly, allowing her thoughts to gently take form inside of her vast mind before continuing. "That would imply that they would know that they weren't immortal. After all, contingency plans are only apt for contingent possibilities. We don't plan for the impossible, because it precisely is impossible. If we are their replacements, then they have led us to believe that they hold a grip on life which they do not.." Perhaps that in itself was prophetic and worrying enough, but Iso wasn't finished. 
"If we are replacements, then it is conceivable that this has all happened before. After all, why would they believe they would need replacements, unless they had been the replacers? And further -" Despite the pessimism of what she was saying, Isopia's voice grew in fervor as her mind knit furiously together the implications of what she was saying. "Now imagine that they disappear, and we take their place as replacements, as you've suggested. We are wildly unprepared at this moment, wouldn't you agree? Perhaps a few hundred years in their place would prepare us, but as it is now, we are poor candidates. Now imagine that is what they were like, when they replaced the Gods before them!"

Isopia's gaze practically glowed its own gold light as her dark lashes rippled over her bright gaze. "They would have been like babes taking the throne, as would we, should it happen now. And if that is all possible ... then perhaps...  Perhaps this world is not what we thought it to be."

Silent finally, Isopia turned to her cousin to see what he might have to say on the matter. If what she had said was possible - and it indeed it seemed to her plausible given Mesec's initial assumption - then what reason did they have to believe that their parents knew anything at all? Oh sure, they knew the things one could learn through a long-life, and they were moderately more powerful but ... already Isopia had a plethora of powers. Surely she, while no obvious match for her Father, would not fall immediately? Perhaps that was all it took. After all, they slayed the Riftian Gods easily enough - Mesec slaying the dark creature in the labyrinth, and she slaying the creature in the Isles.

Aithniel in the flats...

Ros in the Falls...

"We killed the riftian gods.." She said somberly. "Perhaps that was a test.."




@Mesec

HAPPY 300 TO YOU AS WELL.
Image Credits

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Mesec the Nightwind Posts: 476
World's Edge Glazier atk: 5.5 | def: 9 | dam: 5
Stallion :: Tribrid :: 16.3hh :: 7 years old HP: 76 | Buff: NOVICE
Lucius :: Royal Zephyr :: Roc & Lyra :: Common Kitsune :: Dreams Sarah
#10
Mesec had been hoping that she would laugh off his theory or, if not actually laugh, dismiss it. But he was quickly learning that he was no match for his cousin’s mind. Although he liked to think that he was getting to know her, it was pretty clear that there was no predicting her reaction to anything. She reminded him of his mother, truly, in the clinical and unemotional way she could discuss things. Which was a little unsettling but it was also, in a very strange way, actually comforting as well.

It had seemed like she would dismiss his idea when she started but suddenly the idea caught fire. Disturbing, maybe, but rather incredible to watch her as her voice grew in fervor as she expanded on Mesec’s thoughts with passion as she pulled at the idea and followed where it led. But while she seemed to be taking an interest to the idea, the more she talked and the more that it actually sounded plausible the more Mesec wished he hadn’t brought it up. She was actually making some good points and his vague, uncertain thoughts were starting to solidify.

“I suppose it still raises the question why aren’t there more of us - wouldn’t it make more sense to have a couple back-ups, see which combination of earthly and divine parents results in the best for the sun, moon, earth, and spark?” But far from her intensity, Mesec continued to speak haltingly - checking to see whether she agreed, whether he was even making sense.

As she continued, bringing up the Rift gods - or whatever those creatures were - and how they had each killed one of them. With help, but the final blow had belonged to the demigods. “Perhaps they were...”

Tests. Had they passed them, then? And would there be more to come? He hadn’t failed to notice her bronze dragon and wondered if her egg delivery had been similar to his own, a present and a task from his mother, something to care for.

Something to care for him, Lucius had quickly adapted to the self-appointed role of Mesec’s conscience and happily informed the demigod of everything that he was doing wrong.

“Makes me wonder what else is out there, if those were just tests.” His silver eyes moved from the earth child and back out to the dark sea, as though what was next was just going to rise up right then and there. What would have to show up to take out their parents, if the creatures from the Rift had just been tests for the demigods?

while the rain water washes away who you are
we'll go over the mountains and under the stars


@Isopia

I know a lot has happened since this thread started so if you want we could wrap it up! Like fade out on them discussing conspiracies until the sun comes up or something xD
please tag Mesec in replies
non-life threatening force is allowed at all times


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