PLAYER
Name/Handle: Tarei
Contact:
AIM: xshadowyumex
PLURK: kagaminokakera
Personal LJ:
dreams_ofregret CHARACTER
Name: Ishtar
Series: Vampire Game
Canon: AU
Age: 17
Timeline: Vol 15 right after Duzell's suicide act, and fresh from the latest Facility Experiment: Mogwai.
World Information: ((optional) What's the world like? How does it work?)
History:
_:canon background:_
Let's start with the basics. Ishtar is the current Princess of Pheliosta, the capital of her country. She was fifteen with a bratty and bitchy attitude that drove everyone crazy. She was a direct descendant so she was considered a sacred symbol of her country. Pheliosta was named after her Great-Grandfather St. Phelios who perished in the War of Lost Souls against the Vampire King Duzell. He supposedly saved humanity from their impending doom. At that time also, the vampire king cursed him. He cursed Phelios saying that in a century both of them will be reborn and Duzell would complete his revenge. There was one small problem. Duzell was reincarnated as a harmless house cat and doesn't know where Phelios is. That's where Ishtar comes in. She adopted the kitten after he tried to kill her by possessing the larger kyarru. Ishtar coincidentally named him Duzell because he bit her soon after.
After that, the story progresses to the point where Ishtar goes through a series of tutor lessons and getting poisoned by one of her relatives. Duzell saved her claiming he needed her help. The girl then ditched as soon as she was better in the morning, leaving the guard to nod off still. Ishtar lost Duzell on the way and went to the meadow to play for a while. When she came back, she ran into Duzell a second time, but this time he looked exactly like her. The princess was surprised and shoved him into a room and scolded him but then hugged her identical look-alike and told him how she cared about him and that she would protect him no matter what. That led to Ishtar playing around with the legasarams and ruelle charms. She tossed them out the window. That brought even more trouble plus her current magic teacher, Yujinn was suspecting something.
Ishtar eventually finds out that her kyarru Duzell was actually the Vampire King Duzell reincarnated. What a shock that was for the girl but at the end of the volume, she decided to help him find her Great-Grandfather's reincarnation since she didn't like Phelios very much. She accepted the invitation to La Naan and hence their fun adventure begins.
Right before they reached La Naan, Ishtar ran off with Duzell disguised as her. She takes him to the martial arts ring and told him to register in her form. He went with the alias: Vampire King Duzell. Ishtar pretty much forced the vampire king into it by previously promising her aunt a hand in marriage for whichever son of hers out of the three princes of La Naan would defeat Darres in the martial arts tournament. She was certain that Darres would win regardless, but she sent in Duzell as a reassurance to that fact. He fought Vord. In the process he won the fight and then sampling the boy's blood. He was surprised and confused, telling Ishtar that Vord was unrelated to the royal family and Pehlios. After the first fight with Duzell and Prince Vord, Darres finally caught up to Ishtar and forced her to La Naan. There the girl greeted her aunt, Lady Sonia who presented her princes to Ishtar. The girl then allowed Duzell to take a bite out of her aunt and claiming that her cat was 'spooked' or 'scared.'
She later then spends time with Seiliez in order to lure the boy into her trap so that she can have Duzell bite him. The plan went sour since Seiliez left and Duzell was unaware of her plan. It was ruined, but that didn't stop them from continuing onwards. During the whole fiasco with the Martial Arts Tournament, Ishtar learned that all her cousins were adopted, but despite that, Seiliez was actually a descendant of Phelios. She then showed her aunt kindness and said that their conversation regarding her adoptive kids never happened. That led her to fighting Seiliez in the final match. She conveyed her true feelings to him and also pointing out that he was trying to replace his mother's love with Ishtar's love, but she didn't love him the way he wanted her to.
Seiliez then realized that, dropped the fight and walked off. Ishtar said she still loved him but it was a lot different from the love he was thinking. Before Ishtar had left for La Naan, Duzell found his way back and told Ishtar that Laphiji was severely injured chasing a vampire and that he needed help. La Naan then went to get their injured prince. Ishtar was on the way back home with a gift from her aunt, a kyarru sized Duzie plush that she kept with her most of the time on her bed.
After their return to Pheliosta. Ishtar focused a little on her magical studies with Yujinn, but decided that since they didn't get to taste Seiliez's blood to see if he was her great-grandfather's reincarnation, Ishtar asked Yujinn about her Lilke Ring, and forced Duzell to dress up once more. She then used the Lilke Ring to transport them to an area that was close to Ci Xeneth and ways away from La Naan. Duzell was unhappy with the fact that the girl had bad directional skills, but he had no other choice. She also mentioned that she had an uncle and a cousin there, so they decided to take a break for Ci Xeneth first and then return to La Naan. Not long after their appearance in that valley, there were bandits trying to kidnap an old man. Ishtar jumped in to help without giving a second thought, getting a guy behind his back, and then pissing the bandits off.
She then handed Duzell her sword and told him to take care of the rest. Duzell, who was an amazing swordsman knocked them all out without even drawing Sidia, and Ishtar sustained a small injury from the bandits because they were trying to stab the old man and she shielded him. At the same time, the knights from Ci Xeneth had seen the battle was breaking out watched until Duzell subdued them. With that Ishtar and Duzell made acquaintances with the captain of the knights and the fellow knights as well as the old man. Duzell called the captain which was named Illsaide 'Phelios,' at that time and the young knight looked confused but asked if Duzell would be part of his posse of soldiers. When they were staying at the tavern a few hours later, Ishtar got a little drunk off the stuff they were serving and started babbling weird things that made Duzell face palm a couple of times and later when Ishtar sobered up, she told Duzell to go ahead and accept the captain's request on being part of his battalion and Duzell reluctantly agreed due to the fact that they needed to infiltrate the castle without drawing her uncle's attention.
While Duzell went off with Illsaide, Ishtar was invited to go monster hunting with the fellow knights. Her uncle had a thing for Ruelles and magical items. They needed monsters for experiments and such so Ishtar agreed to come along to see what it was like. There they saw a very beautiful Lilke who looked like she was about to give birth to her babies. Ishtar accidentally shouted by accident because she assumed they were trying to ask her to kill the creature. She declined loudly, causing the Lilke to see their hiding spot and then harm the guy next to her. It appeared that the Lilke was under 'The Guardian,' spell mentioned later. Ishtar drew Sidia and begged it to help heal the poor guy who lost his eye and the sword complied. After returning back to Ci Xeneth, Ishtar discussed her success with Duzell who told her not to use him as a magic experiment. Ishtar just grinned. The boy came back to tell Ishtar that he was fine and told Duzell that he was invited to Dinner with her uncle and such.
Duzell tried to get out of it, but Ishtar insisted that he wear a dress and be who he was since he wasn't her at all. She also mentioned dhow her uncle had a dark sense of humour and wanted her dead so she couldn't exactly be parading around his place as a girl. She would immediately be screwed. While Duzell was at the little dinner party with her uncle. Ishtar went and tried to raid her uncle's wine cellar, except she ran into Roy who scared her instead. Roy led her down the wine cellar but there wasn't anything to steal. In fact, all Ishtar saw were a lot of monsters. She was a little repulsed by it. The Archmage, Diaage (Sharlen's alias) told her about the monsters and explained to her why they needed them in the first place. Ishtar was shocked with the explanation and disturbed at the same time. She ran off though, when she heard that there were monsters attacking the castle. She wanted to find Duzell first, leaving the Archmage to his own musings.
When Ishtar found Duzell again, he was pissed and explained to her that Vord had followed her here. Ishtar at first didn't know which Vord Duzell was talking about, but eventually, she figured it out and before she could do anything, Ishtar and Duzell ran into Falan, who immediately recognized Ishtar. Since she was caught, they all ran back to her room to hide for the time being. Ishtar caught up a little with her cousin and then decided to take a small nap while making Duzell do other things. Other things as in seducing her uncle. Ishtar then shared some girl time with her cousin while the two of them couldn't sleep. After a meal, Ishtar was off and guess what she did? The girl decided it was the best idea to let all the monsters in her uncle's wince cellar loose and that's when all the monsters were set free and went after the people of her uncle's castle. Ishtar worried about the outcome didn't notice something trying to take a swipe at her.
To her luck Darres came to save the day and scold her at the same time. Ishtar confessed to releasing all those monsters from their cells. She also clung to him as if she was about to never see him again in which she admitted to as well. The greetings were done and Ishtar asked Darres carefully to help her save as much people as he could since it was her fault. He complied and the two made their way down the pathway. Ishtar noticed that familiar old man no distorted from the attack leaped into the scene of the crime and blocked the old man.
That's when her uncle mistook her Duzell, but Diaage who now revealed himself as Sharlen claimed no matter what Ishtar called herself, she was Ishtar. Her uncle laughed darkly and was glad to have her here. He wanted her dead and with that the Lord of the Sea. The old man that was known as the Lord of the Sea was surprised to hear that Ishtar was protecting him but even more shocked when she told him she was Ishtar from the House of Phelios. Her uncle ordered Illsaide to kill Ishtar and keep the Lord of the Sea alive. At the moment Falan came into the scene and she was shocked and had a break down when Ishtar's uncle said all that he was doing was in Falan's named. Shocked and hurt, she asked Illsaide to kill her father, and before he could actually do that, Ishtar stopped him and told him that she didn't mean it. He was an important person to Falan and she even made Ishtar promise not to hurt her father.
Illsaide, irritated but he didn't try again. Ishtar's uncle ran off while Illsaide tried to comfort Falan. At that moment Ishtar decided to scold Illsaide for playing with people's feelings and that he had hurt Duzell's feelings. After Illsaide apologized, Ishtar confessed that Duzell wasn't really a girl and that he was a guy who was also her cat. With that said, Ishtar learned that her uncle had been killed by his lieutenant and asked Vord to step in an represent Pheliosta as well since she wasn't comfortable with being around too many of her relatives.
After yet another trip home from Ci Xeneth a few weeks later Ishtar was tricked by her guardian Sir Keld on the spot, saying that her Aunt Sonia was very sick. Ishtar packed up and headed straight for Zi Alda where she met her aunt who told her at that time that she was unwell but she wasn't on her death bed or anything. Ishtar pissed off at being tricked once again started commenting on Sir Keld's sanity and then making her guard shut her up. After that, she asked her aunt about her pig son. That would be offending to most parents, but her aunt was a sweet lady so she let it slide and said he was around but not in Zi Alda. Ishtar triumphed that Sir Keld's plan to set her up with Yuujel had failed. Ishtar also met Ashley and his wife Leene. They were well interesting people. She even spoke to Duzell about it later. Duzell wondered if he really was a pig but Ishtar just said that just because she didn't like Yuujel very much.
She then resulted in a chat with Falan through Darres' magic mirror before falling asleep unguarded. Duzell at that time taking his true form had used that opportunity to take his true form and mess with Ishtar a little. Sadly to his disappointment, Ishtar woke up right away and was thrilled by his true form. She said that his hair was the scariest aspect of him. Duzell just gave her his usual look and said nothing. Later Leene invited Ishtar to go horse-riding the next day and she agreed while asking Leene if she was going to ride a goat. That pissed off the other girl and the fact that she was older than Ishtar didn't even occur to her until she said she was twenty-three. Ishtar with her smug look returned to her room. The next day she was ready for some horse riding. Only at that time, Leene had replaced her aunt's horse with a wild one.
Ishtar knew right away and Lucy one of the important people of Zi Alda told Ishtar it was a mistake and Ishtar replied she knew but she wanted to ride him anyway. A bad mistake on her part since as soon as she got on the horse, it started to go crazy and went off with her. Everyone tried to chase after Ishtar but they were not very successful. Leene only watched in amusement. Ishtar was luckily saved by Yujinn who she was surprised to see, but at the same time, Yujinn mused about the fact that he was called someone else here. He asked her if she recalled a boy named Yuujel. Ishtar immediately took that to shock and pointed as she realized that was him. Ishtar could have never been so dumbfounded. Her flirtatious magic teacher was her cousin, Yuujel. Ishtar proceeded in telling Duzell about her cousin and who he was, while trying to get him to understand it fully. Duzell was shocked as well. He also told her that her aunt's condition isn't very well off either that Lady Sonia would die around a decade give or take. Ishtar felt a little saddened but she was happy with it. Her aunt had a wonderful life. She didn't want to think about her death as much as she should.
The next day Leene invited them to go on a night out of town drinking along with Vord. Vord was also paying. Ishtar definitely got a little more than just drunk.She was all over the place and calling Vord a bunch of names that he was seemingly amused with. He had recently learned about Ishtar and Duzell, so a little tipsy came onto Ishtar's cat. Leene assumed they were all crazy to some extent. Ishtar drew the line when she poured the mead onto Vord's head. Leene automatically freaked and slapped Ishtar, not knowing that the poison that was in the drink wouldn't work unless it was drunken. The next day Ishtar apologized to Vord and bowed her head in shame. After that, she went horse riding with Leene again and this time Leene had her mystery horse in which she named Pucentro. Ishtar still can't pronounced its name and was surprised at how stubborn Leene was in wanting to ride the horse but every time she tried to get on the horse would send her back. Leene kept going until she finally got on without being shook off.
Ishtar was proud of her and merely smiled in a goofy manner. That same evening, there was a get-together with some of the royal family and others. Ishtar was asking Duzell about the mysterious woman. Diaage, since he seemed to know her but the woman didn't remember Duzell. He left Ishtar to go and talk with Diaage. Leene then confronted Ishtar and asked about who she liked. Ishtar then gave her a list and Leene downgraded the list and Ishtar grinned while telling her she was in love with Yuujel. That totally threw Leene off. She then later proceeded to try to poison Ishtar, but her plan was soiled when Sharlen once again interfered and caused a whole ruckus with the masses. They were accusing Leene of treason. Ishtar told Duzell to counter the poison if it was poison and was prepared to drink it when Darres took it and drank it himself. He showed just how harmless the drink was but Ishtar was not convinced. She was very worried and even threatened Leene that if anything happened to Darres she would kill Leene on her own accord.
Apparently, before that Ashley had done a good job replacing her poisons with candy fakes. With another event done, Ishtar returned on home again. As soon as Ishtar returned home, problems arose once more. Yujinn carefully devised a plan that somehow got Darres to be his so-called older half brother. That didn't really help the party since her cousin Lassen was behind her previous poisoning with Leene and Sharlen who yet again took the form of Diaage and tried to end Ishtar's life. When the letters were sent out to all four corners of Pheliosta, Lassen was the first to rebel and sent his own people, Sharlen and a knight by the name of Hume. Sharlen made it even more complicated for Ishtar by pointing out the fact that Sidia was a holy weapon that was only able to be drawn by the descendants of Phelios. Ishtar was pretty much in a corner again. Yujinn did quick thinking and left with Darres straight off to Mil Seii while asking Ishtar's permission to send Sidia there after them.
They were planning on beating Sidia there. Ishtar thought it was ludicrous, but she and Duzell beat the two and Sidia to Mil Seii with Duzell's transportation magic. They ended up in the middle of the castle, in which one of the subjects there ushered Ishtar to leave while Lassen, her cousin was out and about. Ishtar agreed to leave afterward but returned secretly with Duzell. After that, she also met Lailis, who Ishtar learned was Rishas, one of Duzell's talented servants during his reign of terror. She left them alone for a few moments, before deciding to literally pay her cousin a visit while walking through the front of the gates and announcing herself with Duzell as her guard. She demanded an audience with Lassen. He clearly greeted her with a pleasant air, only whispering threats to her while the court was still staring in shock.
Lassen mentioned something about her king 'in check,' hence brought Ishtar to some anger. The girl shouted at Lassen and demanded that he release her guard and also stop hampering people like Lailis and that he should release them. After that fiasco, Ishtar ran back into Darres and Yujinn. She spent some time with Yujinn while they were still waiting for Sidia to come in. Ishtar spent some alone time with Darres and bonded with him while arguing how he was being careless. Sidia finally arrived and right before that Yujinn and concocted a plan that he thought might work. It involved putting Ishtar's blood in Darres' veins and vise versa. The success of that, Darres was able to draw Sidia. At the moment that Lassen gave them the okay to go home alive for now, Lailis staged an insurrection with Sharlen, sending her 'Once Fallen,' knights on the loose and anyone else who were from Lodoc were mind controlled into attacking the people of Mil Seii and kill Lassen. The crew got caught in the middle of it and ended up fighting them for some time.
Duzell eventually shouted that he had taken Ishtar's and Darres' blood and swapped them. They had to leave back to Pheliosta so that they could reverse it. Ishtar stubborn that her subject were getting murdered, and injured demanded to stay until Yujinn made a comment to her and Darres sending them on their merry way. It wasn't long after she returned that things got even more out of hand. Falan had been kidnapped it seems and Vord and Illsaide were going insane trying to find her. At that time, Vord and Yujinn set out for Rezenia, with the help of Selen who had just returned from her reign in Rezenaia. They all left quickly knowing Ishtar would follow. Yujinn mentioned to Vord that Ishtar would have a difficult time trying to get to Rezenia, since Duzell didn't know where it was. Which was the case as well. Ishtar tried to sneak out after that but got caught by Darres. from that point she took on some more sword fighting lessons with Darres and even apologizing to him about loving him.
Falan was already found at this point but she wasn't awake. Right after Vord and Yujinn left, she did and as soon as Ishtar got back from her fighting lessons, she and Duzell set off to Rezenia while detouring in Ci Xeneth to check on Falan. With some chit chat and questions about well-being, Ishtar was set off again learning that Illsaide had decided to side against Pheliosta. Right before they reached Rezenia however, Ishtar found Darres making his way there. Eventually, Ishtar, Duzell and Darres set off to Rezenia. When they got there, they heard a death detonation, and Darres broke off running. Ishtar followed right after. When they crashed into the room, Ishtar found that the current king of Rezenia had killed Yujinn. Ishtar enraged with sadness was close to cutting off his head, when Darres stopped her and when she learned that the man that had killed Yujinn was the King of Rezenia. That was a shocker of course. The sad thing was, everything was carefully plotted by Lassen. He had Sharlen possess the ill king, and kill Yujinn.
Ishtar didn't learn of that until much later. She eventually did meet the King of Rezenia and still accused him of killing her cousin even though he said it was out of defense. He then even asked Ishtar a personal question about why her great-grandfather wanted to be reborn. Ishtar selflessly said that if she were her great-grandfather she would want to be reincarnated to see her loved ones, that it would be something that she would personally want to be reincarnated for. That stirred up restless emotions int he sleeping king, while Sharlen who was possessing him at that time was surprised by the response as well. Right before Ishtar left the audience Hall, one of Lassen's guards went and told Ishtar that they had Duzell. Ishtar of course rushed to dangerous situations again to save her vampire king. When they reached the tower, Ishtar and Darres confronted Lassen head on and Lassen even had vampire subjects to defend him. Ishtar wanted to fight him herself, but Darres agreed to on the condition that when this was all over she had to tell him exactly what the hell was going on.
Darres managed to fend off Lassen for quite a while, but the guy who was rather skilled in poison, he had some poisonous incense in a closed off room. It was really weakening Darres, though through a miracle one of the vampire subjects broke ranks and managed to unseal the door for Duzell. The vampire king at that time freed as Darres collapsed. He used a holy spell. That shocked the masses, but he explained that it was the legsarams and ruelles that weakened his vampire magic and energy that allowed him to use holy magic. Lassen smirked and said that he could use it but it was wholly useless against someone like him. Duzell corrected him and replied with the fact that there was one spell that could kill him. Ishtar realizing what spell that was right away screamed for him to stop, but it was too late. Duzell had used 'La Gamme,' the suicide spell eliminating him and Lassen at the same time. Ishtar broke down into a strangled cry.
Five years after Duzell and Lassen's death Ishtar finally managed to put herself back together and did marry Darres. They even had two beautiful twin boys in which Ishtar named the blond one Phelios and the dark haired on Duzell. Ishtar is now the current Queen of Pheliosta at the crisp age of twenty years old. She is very much very happy now, but she would definitely not forget the things that happened with Duzell. They were what brought her up as a Queen.
_:additional a_facility background:_
Early October Ishtar found herself in Facility. It isn't anything strange. Ishtar is surprised and doesn't know where she was. She asked for help and received it from Duzell who was currently there a while longer than her and another person. The important of this month, she met a few people and got brutally tormented by Duzell during Amnesia week where he had forgotten who she was. He threw her against walls and cut her up pretty badly.
Ishtar was pretty much immobile for a while, but she also managed to try to save a boy from Duzell's grasp, but failed to do so and hence more injuries ensue. Ishtar them learned what experiments really were at Facility. It wasn't anything she experienced before and she was exposed to a new level of pain and mental testing. A majour event of that month was the Black Water Plot that was going around. Ishtar ended up drinking some of the water that the silver haired men ushered her to drink and she became pretty much a servant of him and his brothers for a short amount of time wreaking havoc and mind controls. She was not happy about the outcome later. Ishtar was really angry that she had left herself vulnerable to that point. Ishtar had to learn to be more careful and not do many dangerous things, but it seems danger always seemed to attach itself to her on a daily basis. So that didn't help her.
The first Facility 3 Experiment Ishtar experienced was 'Death City.' She stuck with Duzell most of the time and offered to help here and there. Ishtar also gradually used her magic a bit more then. The girl wasn't involved in anything too important, but it seems that there was a never ending fights between the fellow residents there. There were zombies on the loose as well.
Ishtar was cornered and then Duzell saved her poor butt in the process. She then tried to convince him to help out people at the clinic that was set up. He reluctantly agreed and Ishtar was running around trying to help people as well. The following week after the whole Zombie fiasco Ishtar got her sword back thanks to Duzell and the experiment this time was the Hinamizawa Syndrome which caused a lot of crazy going about. Ishtar was paranoid and easily angered. She almost pointed her sword at someone. It wasn't very pleasant. A lot of people died that week. At the end of the month, Ishtar asked Duzell to teach her about fighting and holding a sword correctly. She wanted to help others out but with proper training. Duzell agreed and they started out. Ishtar was practicing by herself for a while, but she was failing miserably at it.
Someone wasn't happy with her klutzy actions, asked if she wanted some help. Ishtar agreed but he made her get up early and go to the bio dome. Ishtar agreed and went there. He trained her for a few good hours, though it didn't go as planned in the end when she tripped on a rock doing a task and landing a cut on the current teacher. He was unhappy, but she also learned something shocking. Duzell was also there watching silently, and Ishtar was unaware that he was a little more or less angry at her...or the person she was getting help from. At least she was training right. That's what she asked him. The following week she got body-swapped and learned what it was like to be a man. It wasn't a very pleasant experience either. She had to help Duzell corner the guy that had his body too since the guy was evil and if he could access Duzell's magic it would be fatal for a lot of people.
'Wish Week' experiment rolled around and Seiliez ended up being sent there for some time. Ishtar was racking her brain trying to protect him while at the same time keeping Duzell away form him. To relieve some stress she and her beloved cousin got in to a cake fight with the food in the cafeteria. Someone made wish for Duzell to be his old self and he was around mutilating and killing people. Ishtar once again became a victim to his torments. Duzell used a knife this time and cut her up pretty badly. Ishtar was covered in wounds for a while along with bite marks. Duzell was very guilty about it and he spent most of the time helping Ishtar get better.The 'Sin Week,' experiment hit Ishtar with the sin of 'Pride.' Ishtar was being much of a princess at this point ordering Duzell around and the like.
'Dinosaur Week,' Ishtar was stranded in the middle of a massive jungle. She was swinging her sword left and right blindly. It was a failure for her to even do that. She was saved, though by two people. She was grateful to them for it. After that Duzell found her and she pretty much stuck with him for the time being. She even slept in the middle of the jungle a few times and had poor Duzell carry her back and being a creeper he was, stroking her hair and touching her face. It was a small bonding time between Ishtar and Duzell. There was a massive fight right before they got back to Facility 1 and pretty much anything within the premise was destroyed completely. The following week was an event that had the residents think they could escape. Ishtar wanted to squeeze some information from those doctors but she didn't get a chance to. She to injured again in the process with a broken ankle and such things. Yes, Ishtar gets into a lot of trouble. It's fairly canon.
Duzell at that time felt rather guilty so he kept an eye on her and healed her in various places. Ishtar then fell sleep on his shoulder while he watched her silently. The following week was an 'Age Regression,' experiment in which Ishtar had turned back into a five year old. The significance of this event was the fact that Duzell got even closer to Ishtar Ishtar actually had a chance to live a childhood she never really had. She played with the little children and made friends with a lot of them. She even created messes that she wouldn't usually be able to do. It was a relatively fun time for her, but as soon as she was returned to normal, Ishtar hid herself in embarrassment since she had called herself a princess a thousand times as a little girl. There was a good chance that everyone knew that she was a princess by now.
It was Valentines Month and Ishtar made Valentine cards for every one of her precious friends and family since she had no access to chocolate or anything to make it with. She stuck with the simple stuff. She bonded some more with more of her friends and Duzell well being a creeper definitely enjoyed her card the most. Ishtar still seemed ignorant about his feelings for her. She was attached to him even more at this point since he was all that she had for the time being.
He was her only connection from home. At this point during the Valentines' week, people were randomly dying and it was becoming problematic to Ishtar who was very protective of people and their lives in general. It made the usual cheerful princess very upset and worried. She was scared that they might no return, though Duzell reassured her that they certainly will and that she shouldn't be too concerned with them. IT was easier said then done of course. Ishtar was after all different from most of her family. She cared about people no matter who they were.
The beginning of this month was an experiment that caused most of the residents' left or right hand to have a mind of its own. Ishtar being unable to control situations as she wanted to was being forced to run around with her sword frenzied right hand. She was stopped by Duzell and a few others, but she wasn't able to stop it herself. She also had yet another vampire encounter with someone very close to her. She was worried about his hand and almost got bit in the process of fixing that hand. Still, Ishtar wasn't very scared of him or worried that she might end up screwed. She was more worried about that person than herself.
The following week, she spent her time relaxing and learning how to use a Karaoke machine. It was fun and she had a good time with the friend she spent it with. The experiment for Facility 3 was 'London,' and that's when Ishtar learned about a Corset for the first time and how it killed her when she was put in it. During that time she also managed to dress up little kitten Duzie for her own twisted amusement. He looked adorable but Ishtar wanted more frills and what not on a the vampire cat. IT didn't last long but Ishtar had fun. She then had to ask Duzell personally to remove that evil Corset on her back because she really couldn't move the way she wanted with it on.
The next week was an unpleasant week that Ishtar wanted to forget. All the residents were hit with a 'Disorder' which caused them to behave out of character for the week. Ishtar didn't care about her safety and the more people that were worried, the more eager she was to defy and do reckless things. Ishtar apologized for her behaviour and spent most of her time in her room cursing the doctors that kept doing things like to her. She really hated it. The week following that was really bad. For some odd reason the experiment was turning everyone into vampires physically. They had fangs and craved blood, but only half of the residents were vampires. The rest were humans or pretty much prey. Ishtar refused to drink anyone's blood and someone else was very unhappy with the outcome of the situation for her. It didn't help that Ishtar figured out she was a vampire for the week by meeting Yujinn who had just recently found himself here.
Duzell obviously wouldn't let her get away with it so he demanded she drink his blood. Ishtar refused and coiled into a little ball. The vampire king eventually forced her to drink his blood by cutting himself and shoving the bloodied wrist towards her direction. Yujinn even offered a cup of blood so she didn't have to bite him. It was a hard situation for Ishtar and she refused it until she couldn't any longer. She eventually did feed from Duzell fro the duration of the week and while doing that, felt rather guilty. Ishtar then dreamed of her own home from way back when she was La Naan. A small dream brought out an interesting conversation with one of her friends. Ishtar enjoyed speaking with them about her world mainly because they knew of it already. Ishtar then had a nightmare after that and totally was shaking out of surprise and anxiety. She really didn't like it but she had no choice but to deal with it. Duzell comforted her as well as Yujinn who refused to leave her alone. The other few who cared deeply for Ishtar also tried to comfort her in their own ways. It was very kind of them.
There was an off week during this month and the worst part was, all the people that were recently terminated were seen in a video that ridiculously disturbed Ishtar beyond comprehension. Ishtar had a small breakdown and started to cry. She even lost her usual self. She was pretty much quiet and disturbed for the remainder of the week. Duzell had to check up on her daily and made sure she wasn't breaking too easily. Ishtar was definitely going to through an emotional turmoil. She was the type that cared about the people that had been terminated and seeing them in the state of incinerators and discarded as if they had no use, made her upset and angered that she couldn't do anything for these people. She felt so utterly useless this time. She wanted to become stronger.
Ishtar had been affected by the 'OOC Experiment' where the characters act the opposite of how they usually were. Ishtar was a bit creepy on her own accord but it was pretty much something she didn't like as well. Ishtar had fun poking fun out of Gaara and making some since remarks that she usually didn't make on a daily basis. Ishtar actually had manners that week and was pretty much talking formally for the whole week. She even graced one of the vampires with dinner where he supposedly made a meal out of her as well. Oh the fun of being a vampire's victim. Ishtar really needed to stop being a vampire magnet but that didn't really matter since she was always attracting things like vampires and demons. Anything that was supernatural, Ishtar pretty much attracted. Ishtar broke out in a frenzy of worry after that wondering where Yujinn had went. She even asked for help from some other people.
They gladly agreed. Even Duzell assisted her in helping find Yujinn. She was glad that she had them to help her find the man. When Yujinn responded to her that he was okay and in his room, Ishtar carried over water and food for him. She made sure that he ate and wanted to heal him if he needed ti as well. There was a doll experiment and Ishtar had a really cute doll that looked exactly like one of her friends. She even asked them about it, but in the end she kept the doll for herself since it was useless when the experiment was over. IT sat over the top of her bed along with the other plushes she kept from the 'Voodoo Experiment.' Ishtar was subjected to sexual harassment by one of the Shinigamis there and in exchange for not making her feel so uncomfortable, she agreed to be his friend. The other people didn't approve but the Shinigami was happy that she agreed. He stopped molesting her doll and Ishtar was okay with it for a while.
She actually learned quite a lot about this person as well. She threw a fit before she actually got the guy to agree. She didn't like her doll being in the hands of a stranger so she had to make sure he wouldn't do anything too bad with it. She refused to remember the fact that he bathed with her voodoo doll and she was shivering the whole time while he bathed with it. Ishtar was sent home from Facility for a while with a canon update to the whole showdown with Duzell and Lassen. Ishtar came back a little disoriented and covered in a few bruises from comforting someone really close to her before she had been taken home. As soon as she got back to Facility, Ishtar was frantically searching for Duzell and Yujinn and worried that they weren't here any longer. She was reassured that they were fine, though. It was a good relief for the princess.
Someone secretly put some sand into her anklet while she wasn't looking. Ishtar was surprised by it but it protected her from impending doom. The owner of the sand clearly had a fun time explaining it to her and that it was his doing. Ishtar was very much glad that she had extra defense mechanism for her own safety. The girl pretty much thanked her friend for the protection and spending some time with him chatting before he left to do his thing. As soon as the experiment of 'Rapture' was over in Facility 3, Ishtar was returned to her room with an extra pair of ears and a tail. Needless to say a certain butler had a fun time serving her tea and stroking her ears and tail. He really enjoyed her alterations, while Ishtar wondered why she even had a tail and ears in the first place, but of course it was an experiment. She didn't complain about it too much.
Ishtar also found out during the last week of 'Rapture' that Duzell had been canon regressed to an earlier point. He doesn't have any memories of their time together, but Ishtar did and felt saddened by it. She was strangely getting attached to Duzell in ways she had never thought of before. She really cared about the vampire king, but she hadn't thought about her feelings towards him for a while. She was in love with Darres after all. It took more than a Facility of experiments to stop her from loving the man she loved but still the girl felt a strange attachment to Duzell, despite him not remembering anything that was important after all. She supposed it was for the best. Ishtar didn't complain too much about it at this point. She just went with it.
The next experiment that happened was the experiment that tested people's mentalities. There was a bomb in everyone's heart and they had to survive by controlling their emotions. If they grew too angry or too upset, they would explode into nothing. Ishtar's communication device was confiscated by Duzell and she was forced to remain in a vacant room with Duzell on watch so that she didn't end up dead from all the people exploding. Ishtar made a few visits to one of her good friends while he was asleep but that was it. Yujinn also had assisted in keeping her in check as well. Ishtar got caught up in vines as soon as she was out of her room after the previous experiments. The bio dome just didn't like her this week now did it? She was definitely not a happy girl. She was saved, however. Ishtar then lost yet another very important person to her. She was not as upset as she would have been, but she had said her farewell to him sincerely while remaining in his empty room for some time.
She started to speak to her best friend again and he was asking her about her home. Ishtar went into detail finally about her home world and what it was like living there. She even told him about Duzell and everything they did together. She left the cat part out since no one knew about that, yet. She trusted her friend to this extent because he had always been a big help to her and she was happy that he was there for her. She didn't know what else to do without him and the countless others that had pushed her through the hard times such things like that. After that She ended up speaking with her best friend again about her love and interest. She also learned that Duzell despite what form he had taken right now had been in love with her. She was really shocked to hear this and denied it for the longest times since she refused to believe it was true. She didn't think that Duzell of all people would fall in love with her.
He was the proud and merciless vampire king. Why would he want to be in love with a princess who was the great-granddaughter of his enemy? It just didn't make any sense, but still she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Ishtar then
started to think about the situation in her own mind and wondered if it was really true. If she wanted to know more she had to ask Duzell about it. She really had to. Ishtar took a very long time to think about it before she decided what time was the right time to ask Duzell about such things.
When August rolled around there was the 'Giant Spiders Experiment' in which all the subjects were surrounded by poisonous spiders. Ishtar doesn't kill things without a good reason or if she was in a lot of danger. Since there was neither in her case, she just kept backing up into a wall and tried to shoo them off to her best ability. Sadly, it wasn't helping her and she definitely didn't know what else to do but run. She didn't get a chance to do that but someone did come and save her from the spiders. Ishtar was really not getting used to needing protection since it was even more here than it was at home. Ishtar proceeded to help him clean off the gunk that was in his hands. It was a fun interesting conversation. She managed to make her friend walk off in anger, but she was happy nonetheless. The 'Gender Swap Experiment' rolled around and Ishtar was forced to be a man for the week. She was pretty much very unhappy about it but adjusted to it almost the same as always.
She was used to this. Ishtar wasn't too surprised about it anymore. She had interesting conversations with her friends and helped other people here and there accordingly because they didn't know about female traits and what not. That same friend that had saved her from the spiders was a girl for the week and she needless to say, had tons of fun teasing him throughout the whole event up until he threw her into the river for revenge. Even then, Ishtar was a giggling idiot and didn't seem to even care about being soaked from head to toe. She just enjoyed her time and moment of rare happiness with her friend who was now more like a brother to her than anything. She even teased Duzell a few times about his gender problems as well. She got in trouble later for allowing herself to be thrown into the river but it was worth it so very much. Yujinn burrowed her clothes that week and strutted happily as a woman while Ishtar just giggled her head off. She helped one of the residential kids into a dress as well since they didn't want to walk around in male clothes because of the ethics of his world.
Ishtar was more than happy to assist. She had a fun conversations with a few others. During another Facility 3 Experiment Ishtar was lost and she had some people help her find her way around the place. At this point Ishtar knew fairly well about fighting and could decently fight her way through enemies if she so chooses to. Ishtar then was kidnapped by a bunch of slavers during the second week of 'Abyssal Facility 3 Experiment.' Her friends did try to get in contact with her quickly and save her as well. She managed to give useful information to the people she cared about and only prayed that she would get out of this in one piece. When she was saved, she was pretty bruised up and mentally unstable from all the pain and stuff that she had to go through. Ishtar had a ton of wounds that would require a lot of time to heal. She was not prepared to die just yet, so she had to hold on while Yujinn and Duzell broke the front lines and made their way to come and protect her. Amazingly they all managed to rescue her and get out in one piece. Yujinn was injured pretty badly, but it wasn't that bad.
They were wounds that could be healed in time. Ishtar was grateful that her friends were okay and that they weren't too injured. She was also grateful to them for saving her the way they did. It was a dangerous situation. The slavers were mutated human beings and they were pretty strong, but luckily not strong enough. Ishtar had to take some time to recover from her trauma. During her stay in her room, Ishtar had some assistance from a boy she never knew but he was kind enough to heal her remaining wounds that Yujinn didn't get to yet. Ishtar thanked him and she realized she had made a new friend as well. Ishtar was a little content on that. While she was still recovering they had terminated Duzell and Ishtar was in a lot of pain from losing someone that was so close to her. She was curled up in a fetal position for some time and tried to regain her own sanity. She was comforted by a few people, but she didn't accept it as much as she should have. Ishtar then also lost her brother figure and best friend that she had been just as attached to as Duzell and then she lost another, her best friend.
Ishtar pretty much couldn't talk for the remainder of the week and just stayed in her room quiet and trying to be a strong person. She again, felt an overwhelming pain of uselessness. She wanted to be able to protect others, but she couldn't. She wasn't strong enough. She really regretted that at this point. After that suffering for a few days, she actually managed to get back up and ask Yujinn to help her with his magic abilities. She wanted him to teach her more magic. She was determined to learn as much as she could from her magic teacher and cousin. That way she would be strong enough to protect people. It was a bad week to do so because, Ishtar accidentally turned Yujinn into a woman by the wrong incantation from her lips. Ishtar thought that she was fine that everything wasn't as bad as it looks, but when she was collared to another man she didn't know during the 'Collared Experiment,' she broke down in front of him. The man tried his best to comfort her and later she had thanked him fro helping her out. She proceeded to learn a bit about the man during the week.
The next Facility 3 Experiment was 'Venice.' It was a beautiful place and as soon as she got there, Ishtar wanted to spar with someone. She managed to get at least three or four people to agree to do that with her and she learned quite a bit from them while getting her butt whooped for a the duration of the time. Ishtar then spent some time with Yujinn on a small mini date with her cousin. They ate good food and toured the rest of Venice. The second week in Venice, there was the 'Evil Twins Experiment,' where most of the residents had evil twins and they were out to kill their original. Ishtar didn't run into her twin yet, but she did get caught up in a lot of things. She managed to get stalked by and Anti, and then ran into the middle of a fight between a bunch of Shounen fighting characters that were about to blow off a large portion of Venice. Ishtar needless to say was trying her best to stay out of the way or help out to the best of her abilities.
Ishtar then proceeded to end up being attacked by Yujinn's evil twin and almost got killed. She was covered in a lot of wounds but managed to take down the evil clone for the time being. Ishtar frantically looked for the inn she left Yujinn at so that the two of them could get away from all the craziness of the evil twins. Ishtar had to be careful since she had to find her own twin and also run away from evil twins and stalking Anti-Sora. It was a hectic week for Ishtar most definitely.
Their return to Facility 1 was as usual. The week was simply very calm and collected. Ishtar herself didn't do much for that week except catch up with magic lessons and some self defense. She spent her time speaking and getting acquainted with the new people that found themselves in Facility. After reset again, Ishtar was faced with poltergeists that were throwing her things around and trying to literally kill her. She managed to shred some of their attacks but apparently it wasn't very pleasant.
Personality:
_:canon personality:_
Ishtar can be a bit of an idiot, though most the time she is. She's rude, with an intolerable personality, and no manners. She likes to speak her mind. She doesn’t like being told what to do, and often had a tendency to ditch her classes every now and then to go play in the fields. She always getting herself in dangerous situations, and coming up with ideas that are just downright stupid, and sometimes allows her ass to be saved by her lovable kitty vampire king, Duzell, or her bodyguard and crush, Darres. Despite that, Ishtar is very kind towards a few people. She cherishes her loved ones and does not wish for anything to happen to them. She would fight for them, even though she was a lousy fighter, and for the most part, she tries her best to help make the people around her happy.
She is seen as a tomboy, sometimes by the way she speaks and acts. She is the least lady-like character you can meet. She is very sweet when she can be and would possibly die to protect the ones she loves. She believes that the people of her kingdom love her only because she carries the sacred blood of their saviour St. Phelios, her Great-Grandfather, which has slowly drawn her to despise her ancestry. Ishtar can be charming and sweet at times, as well as goofy and sarcastic. She can be serious, when it involves her people. Ishtar wants to protect her people, as a Princess, even though she doesn't act up to it. What she says goes, and she often never takes no for an answer. She despises the fact that she was born as a descendant of Phelios, would gladly "spoon out his eyes and flay him herself, instead of waiting for some moldy old vampire to do it." as she would say in the first volume.
Ishtar is someone anyone could get along with, and at the same time, she poses trouble to all who are involved with her.
Though she can't bear to see the people she cherishes in danger, she often does things that are deemed dangerous to people around her to protect them. She doesn't realize the severity of the action, until it's too late and someone would have to help her clean it up, in certain cases,it's Darres, others Duzell. Darres is the person that Ishtar loves the most. As said by Yujinn, Ishtar loved Darres as child and as a young woman. She would would kill anyone that poses threat to her guard, and would kill herself for his safety. At some point in the Vampire Game world, she did claim that she would prefer him a vampire if Duzell could change anyone, so that she would not have to watch him grow old and die.
Ishtar in the past, had felt guilty for loving Darres, because she knew that he wanted to be a normal human being. He wanted to remain as a bodyguard and captain of the royal guards, not a King. She knew that very well yet, she couldn't stop herself from loving Darres the way she did.
Ishtar is selfish at times demanding things she knew she shouldn't have or be allowed to have, but she is loving and caring all the same. Each of her relatives, whether it was Falan, or simply Falan's father, Ishtar cherishes them at some point and does not want them to suffer because of her. Though she hates Lassen, because he had attempted to assassinate her under poor circumstances, Ishtar despised him even more for using people as his pawns. Ishtar will weep for those who have died, especially if they are close to her. Despite not having parents to look after her, she was able to establish and love her adopted family as if they were her true family.
Ishtar has a darker side that often comes out when people are threatened a bit too much. She might threaten someone along the lines of 'killing' them if anything were to happen to her most cherished. Ishtar doesn't usually show this sort of personality, but she does it when she needs to. Ishtar also has a pretty angry side to her when it concerns humans being used as human pawns for other people. She hates that idea and she won't accept it. She'll do anything within her power to prevent it or stop it. People are living breathing creatures. They shouldn't be subjected to such cruelties and her views on vampires in general is along that category. Unlike some of her relatives and the masses. Ishtar isn't afraid of vampires and she knew that there are good ones out there to contradict the bad ones. She's quick to run her mouth as she would to chase after Darres and Yujinn. Sometimes her use of language is hardly fitting of a lady her age, and often she has quite the mouth of the sailor, using cuss words words and calling people vulgar names.
The princess also has a thing for food. She loves gourmet food so if it smells good and tastes good, expect her to have a fork and a knife ready to eat it all up. Food makes her happy sometimes. She did raid the kitchen in the past as well for food. She can eat more than a normal girl. Ishtar is a drinker... not like a drunkard, but she's pretty much had alcohol before despite being underage. She did get drunk those few times and often she doesn't remember what had previously happened. That is also something that isn't too princess like about her. She has an interesting personality when she's drunk though. A little more free spirited and hyper. She'll definitely even pour the alcohol over anyone's head if she's wasted.
a_facility personality
Ishtar learned a lot of life lessons from this place. She isn't as bratty as she would usually be and matured in the past year due to her constant gain and loss of important people. She has more respect for what little she has and the people she learned to trust and love are even more important to her now then they were in the past. She also has a lingering attachment to Duzell, much stronger than her canon with him because Duzell had always been there for her no matter what so she always had those unknown feelings developing in her heart. Ishtar also isn't as stupid as she was in the past. She could think through situations a little better and she isn't much of an airhead, though she still has her dumb moments, she actually tries to learn and manifest her abilities from home.
Facility really pushed her to the limit where attachment will be a little difficult for her, but also because it has taught her things that she would never know in her own canon, especially the love and care she has for many people. to dearly hate and the vampire king who she only felt a platonic love for. They were much more important. Ishtar is also more determined to change herself and be able to protect herself instead of always playing the 'damsel in distress.' As much as she loved Darres with all her heart. She also learned that she should try to love someone else the way she loved Darres, but that someone isn't there yet as well as her attachment and dire love for Darres is still there, but she doesn't freak out by the fact that Darres isn't with her. She's learned to slowly and gradually let that go as well. She's also on her way to becoming a better lady but her tomboy attitude still sticks for now. She has yet to fully outgrow that. After all she goes around swinging swords and climbing vegetation.
Ishtar learned how to depend on herself instead of others, even if she still depended on people, it isn't much. She now has a sort of dormant fear of losing people so she won't get as attached to them as she should canonly. This transition helped her become a better person. Ishtar at a certain point was able to analyze things carefully, and understand her situations. The most important part is her trouble making days aren't over. That is an aspect of Ishtar that never dies out even now. Ishtar still has her stubborn personality and hard headed until the end. She's always determined to see things through no matter what. It would take a long time convincing her not to do things when she sets her mind to it. She still has her usual goofy personality, but probably not as immature as she was before. She might let a snide joke out here and there but that is about it.
Ishtar has also gained a greater appreciation for her great-grandfather St. Phelios, because she can now understand his reasons for doing what he did. She also at some point tried to put herself in his shoes and observed everything from his point of view. She even mentioned that if there was any reason for her great-grandfather to be reincarnated, then it had to be the reason that he wanted to see his family again. Ishtar believed that very much because she too would want to be reincarnated to be with her loved ones. The girl now respected her cousin, Yujinn a lot more now. He isn't as bad as she originally thought he was, and what he had done for her, she could not repay him back for, due to his death. At Facility she was able to spend more time with him as well as learn a lot from his intelligence. Yujinn was indeed a very good strategist, teacher, and relative despite his popular scandals.
The girl also learned a great deal about having siblings. When these important people treated her like part of a family, it made her feel a lot more loved and cared for. She was treated like everyone else, so she had good taste of what it was like to be a normal girl living a normal life with interesting sibling figures to look up to. Ishtar respected that greatly and appreciated even more. She was glad that she had a chance to experience that. She certainly would never forget it and would one day want to make up for what these people had done for her. Ishtar was happy to know that she was cared for like sibling and protected like one as well despite the constant repetition of certain warnings such as: don't get into dangerous situations, don't attract enemy attention and so on.
Abilities/Additional Notes:
Fighting/Fencing/Sword Skills: She can't fight her way through a paper bag. Atinstances she is capable of stabbing pretty slowly and striking the enemy with a few minour blows, but she has no killer's intent and doesn't know how to properly wield a sword at all. Even with Darres' help she can't do much more than defend and hit when the enemy's back is turned.
Magic: From Ishtar's world there is something known as magic, and people can cast it. There is holy magic, blood magic, black magic, and elemental magic from what I seen. Ishtar can only cast holy magic that is wholly useless against anyone other than a vampire from her world. Though, she could use healing spells with the assistance of Sidia at times, and knows a few of them, she can't always remember them and use them correctly. Ishtar can cast a damage type magic, only when an enemy's back is turned. In short, she can't remember many spells. What she initially knows is La Gamme the spell that could obliterate any enemy with the cost of your life, used by St. Phelios against the Vampire King Duzell.
Sneaky/Sly: Ishtar's good at running around and hiding from people, ditching lessons and such, so evading the people is a good skill she had practiced while she was young. Ishtar usually finds strange maneuvers to escape the castle, but never really the best, but she is capable of running off and having people search her for a long time to find her. Note that she can jump out of two or three story windows with a rope and she can also climb pretty high on a tree. Ishtar's overall ability is similar to that of a 'cat' she even claims at times she has cat-like reflexes. Did I mention she likes raiding kitchens for food?
Ruelles:I have no idea where this would go, but canonly Ishtar has a pair of earrings, necklace, and bracelets that are known as ruelles. They're protective charms that protect her from harm as well. They were given to her for her safety due to being a princess in castle and soon to be Queen of Pheliosta. They have no fighting purposes, but these things are definitely high on defensive magic. They are also charms that are infused with Holy Magic to protect her against undead as well as other dangerous situations.
Facility Abilities
Sword Skills: At this point it's been over a year since Ishtar was in Facility. She's obtained a better grasp of how to use a sword and she can clearly fight her way through a paper bag now. Her hand and eye coordination isn't as bad as it was before. She had been taking good lessons from certain people as well as tips and tricks. She's working at this ability so she's getting better and better, but she isn't done with her training yet. She has a long way to go.
Magic: Ishtar can heal a lot better and memorizing incantations isn't as hard as it was before either. Ishtar can now use those healing abilities on people and heal them a good amount. Her defensive capabilities with magic are also getting better as well. She can also use Sidia as an amplifier for her magic as well. Ishtar's Holy Magic has improved. She can minourly use defense spells and some damage spells, but she is still learning so it will take some time. Ishtar's magic will eventually grow significantly if she keeps up her attitude for it, but incantations of course takes time to be learned.
Fighting: She knows basic self defense but it's still a little rough. She can punch and kick beware!
Anklet: (with permission from Gaara-mun) Ishtar has an anklet she usually wears, and it's usually just a piece of jewelry. Only at the moment there is some sand hidden in there by Gaara in Facility. The small amount of sand in there is used for Ishtar's defense such as when she is in a very crucial situation she can be protected from danger that would take her life. It's considered for defense purposes only, so it isn't exactly a weapon. The sand would only be useful if Gaara is there if not it's just sand. If this isn't allowed, I can delete this.
Third-Person Sample: (A sample to show us exactly how well you know your character. Think of it as a sample for the logs community.)
First-Person Sample Journal Post: (This is a sample journal post to the network. It can be text, voice, or video, and may also be an accidental post to the network as well.)