Ammokkx

Re:Unison

alright with that situation out of the way I'm gonna go zonk out now. I was going to drop an update of some kind today of what I'd be doing, but it fell flat because I got sidetracked with a million other things. I'll tell y'all the deets tomorrow(or, technically, later today) if I don't forget again.

Re:Unison

The name is 'Hugo', which is at least formed of syllables that exist in Japanese. I'd reason that somewhat crazed, supremacist characters might choose names for their kids that set them apart, and also that a kid who explicitly wants to get away from his family might disavow his last name, but I can certainly add one in, and if you do really want a normal Japanese name, I can do that too.

@Lugubrious

alright so

I admit my wording was super fucky on this one because I'm writing at midnight and my brain is running out of juice. What I meant to say is that it's not a very common name. Even then, the syllables you're describing are "Hi" "Yu" and "Go" since "Hu" is actually more a "Hyu," a mix of the "Hi" and "Yu" sounds. "Hu" does not quite exist on its own in ye olde nihongo. It's "fu". If I want to be anal about it, technically his name should be "Hyugo" and I think a general "Yugo" works much better in that regard, but I'm not going to be on your ass about it. The lack of a surname + the fact he fled made me think of a westener, though. It was just unclear in that regard, I'm fine wit the name.

I'll admit that I overreached in the multi-constructs thing. I knew that it was supposed to be an extraordinary phenomenon, but I hadn't quite comprehended the degree. I can strike the whole thing from the record. Are those all the issues you have?

@Lugubrious

Yeah, pretty much. Sorry for being on your ass about it; there's just certain factors I'm much more hesitant on allowing you guys to play around with than others.

Re:Unison

<Snipped quote by Ammokkx>

Whoa, I didn't realize I was treading such dangerous water. I had no idea that we weren't supposed to make NPCs. You might consider adding that to the rules. Anyway, it's no problem for me to just eliminate the whole last paragraph.

@Lugubrious

It's pretty common etiquette, my man. I've never ran into a situation before where someone just casually drops 3 NPC's on a GM without asking. I also said "no more than two characters" per person- I didn't want people creating more populace in my world than I could be reasonably asked to handle.

Either way, removing the last paragraph doesn't really get rid of the crux of the issue. The backstory is still implied as having a lot of them flee together. I should apologise again, though, because there's a few more issues I failed to touch upon in my last review because I was taken aback by the suddenness of the issue I described above.

Firstly, the name "hugh" isn't all that commonly Japanese. Is he someone born in the American area, fled by boat and transferring? Because that would make an amount of sense, as long as you could also justify him knowing the language. Ayesha gets away with it because she was named by a hermit and doesn't even have a last name, and the constructs get away with it even more because they're not humans. Speaking of which, you're also missing a last name.

And I'm also going to go more in-depth as to why I'm not accepting the genetics idea. Simply put, genetics are not an absolute given. While it's possible to have a controlling set of parents who might have those traits, it doesn't necessarily grant their children the same. Even if we ignore how incredibly unlikely it is that two people being able to handle multiple constructs meeting and breeding is, their offspring would have no guarantee of being able to hold the same traits. Genetics are a construct of many, many generations, including ones with lesser or more diluted genes that are still present. You also have to keep in mind that life force is akin to stamina, and closely linked to it, but not entirely the whole cake. It's also intrinsically tied to your magical ability- something inherently supernatural. It's an almost uncontrollable force.

It'd be more accurate to say that with a mix of intense training, the right genes and a much higher-than-average magical affinity, you'd have a shot at wielding two constructs and an exceedingly rare chance at 3. This isn't something you can achieve via simple aggressive breeding. While it could be that his parents were very abusive and tried their best to get this as a result, and be delusional enough to think it works, I wouldn't count on it working with any certainty. It'd give him enough reason to flee, but I don't feel comfortable in using it as a justification for why we have a multi-construct user running around.

It also seems like a weird goal in general to set, because the ability to wield two, while extraordinary, is not exactly a world-shaking event by itself. It wouldn't suddenly make them some kind of messiah, and the person in question would still need to have two constructs willing to follow them. While people like this would obviously be valued in peace-keeping scenarios, there's very little utility it would give outside of that. It's more akin to an abusive parent who never got the chance to be the best pianist in the world specifically raising their child to be just that. Just having lots of kids doesn't make for the best pianist though, you have to nurture it carefully and methodically with purpose.

Re:Unison

Here is my concept for Hume's human partner. I hope you enjoy.

Whipped Worrier

Name:
Hugo

Age:
20

Appearance:


Personality:
Regrettably, Hugo has not been able to prevent his most notable trait from defining him, which is his anxiety. Possessed of a anxious disorder, he is irritable and prone to worrying, tires easily, and is near-constantly on edge. Stressful situations can escalate this anxiety to panic, causing sweating, heart pounding, difficulty breathing, shaking, and crushing feelings of imminent doom. Naturally, he tries to avoid situations where his anxiety will come to a head, giving him an impression of aloofness, shyness, strictness, and superstition, the latter of which stems from his own personal tendency to see things as omens. Missing or failing things sets him on edge, but landing difficult attacks or other achievements provide him great relief, as does hugging things and the sensation of cool water.

However, this is not ultimately who Hugo is. Without his disorder's clutches, he's a genial and compassionate fellow, never particularly outgoing but always considerate and polite. While he doesn't have an artistic bone in his body, he likes drama and music, and is a staple figure at whatever concerts or plays crop up every now and again. A certain sense of pride in his ability to live for himself despite his disorder gives him an independent streak, prevents him from asking for help or really working well with others. This is only compounded by his tendency to cut people off that he deems unhealthy for him, leaving him a friendly if cautious loner. His aspirations are, in a roundabout way, heroic. He does, after everything, want to relieve suffering and better humanity's condition.

Background:
While he believes more in nature than nurture, looking back on his early life, Hugo can pin down a solid explanation for his anxiety. His parents were, in a way, visionaries—they thought they understood the problems with the world and how to fix them. Hailing from a line blessed with extremely healthy genetics, an extra-large portion of life force that made multi-construct partnerships commonplace, and distinctive physiological traits, they maintained the belief that their genes were best suited for the world. As such, they continued in the tradition of having lots of kids, and among all of his brothers and sisters, Hugo was simply one of many faces given from birth the purpose of strengthening humanity.

Every sibling suffered from their parents' negligence and high expectations, given punishment and correction instead of attention and encouragement as they were made to work with constructs from an early age. This sort of treatment evoked Hugo's anxiety early, and with the pressure on, he disappointed his family severely. Many of his siblings, eager to escape their elders' wrath themselves, tormented him also. A few showed him kindness, and eventually, it was with them that Hugo ran away. With nobody to turn to and the everpresent threat of their family, the whole bunch found refuge at long last with Geiru institute. Hugo's compatriots retained their respective constructs, but he remained alone until he happened to meet a construct by the name of Hume, forlorn and in need of someone to love. Hugo and Hume found one another, needed one another, and became an inseparable pair.

Years later, the runaways remain attendants of Geiru, collectively claiming the honor of its longest-enrolled students. There's Ken, stern but self-conscious about his height, with his noble constructs Falx and Spetum; there's the free-spirited but short-tempered younger sister Mari and her monstrous construct Smoky; there's the oldest, Rita, sharp-witted and authoritative, with her loyal construct Bellagusta. And of course, there's Hugo and Hume. Altogether, they make a potent if slightly dysfunctional bunch, with nothing if not each other.

Magic:
Hugo has the ability to create magical cords, white in color, somewhat translucent, and glowing just a little. He can alter their length and manipulate them to a slight degree as long as he's touching them. While a strange magic, it's one that comes in handy, whether for binding, sealing, repair, or fighting. Specifically, he uses it with a metal hook in order to create a sort of chain-hook that he lashes out with from afar to cut or capture. Because it's a difficult weapon to use that requires a lot of finesse, he gets a great amount of satisfaction and courage from its successful application, but is quick to stress if he misses or fumbles it. He also often uses it to make bolas with rocks or or whatever else is lying around.

@Lugubrious

Years later, the runaways remain attendants of Geiru, collectively claiming the honor of its longest-enrolled students. There's Ken, stern but self-conscious about his height, with his noble constructs Falx and Spetum; there's the free-spirited but short-tempered younger sister Mari and her monstrous construct Smoky; there's the oldest, Rita, sharp-witted and authoritative, with her loyal construct Bellagusta. And of course, there's Hugo and Hume. Altogether, they make a potent if slightly dysfunctional bunch, with nothing if not each other.

@Lugubrious

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh no

Luge, I feel bad for you, but I'm not going to allow you to just casually decide what NPC's are around without asking me beforehand. While I suppose it's my fault for not saying this, I was going to use that reserved post in the characters tab as a log of any NPC's you guys encountered. Further, I was going to have last-years too. While I'd maybe be fine if you'd asked me ahead of time with one of those running around, and me writing it in to the best of my ability, I'm not really okay with you casually dropping 3 NPC's(7, if counting constructs) on me like this.

I'm especially not okay with creating this particular dual-wielding construct user either, as while they'd come into play, I very much have an idea of my own for them. You're right in assuming they'd be a last year, and of course you'd be privy to the surface-level information required to make interacting with them not a nightmare, but it's very much not this character. Making multi-partnerships 'commonplace' also really stings for me, as it should be an extremely rare trait. Technically any human could do it, but the amount of stress you'd be putting on your body would be akin to exercising beyond your limits every day. At some point, you just break, which is why it takes both a trained and talented mind to be able to pull this off. I really wish you'd asked me this beforehand, because it feels so awkward to have to casually dismiss a big crux of your backstory.

As it stands, I really can't accept this character, I'm sorry.

Re:Unison

The way I understand it, what humans perceive is sound is a result of a pressure wave - whether audible or not to the human ear. That pressure wave then creates vibrations as it travels through a medium, thus disturbing it and creating those vibrations. Those vibrations are then translated as 'Sound'. As an example, a Sonic Boom travels at different speeds and sounds vastly different in air than it would in water, which is the result of the pressure wave moving through a different medium.

If that's not how it works then welp, everything I know is a lie and that's how I've always been using this sort of power in my like, ten plus years of RPing and boy do I feel silly.

That said, to make things a bit easier and less confusing, I'll just come up with something a bit more appropriate after I get some food in me.

@Rune_Alchemist

Yes, sound is a type of pressure wave, but sound is the result of something, not the causation factor. You could say "She has the ability to cause vibrations that manifest itself as sound" but not say "She has the ability to create waves of sound that manifest themselves as something like an earthquake"

Sound is the result from the earthquake, not the thing that causes it. I think that's where the confusion lies for me. Your power shouldn't be to manipulate those waves, it should be to create those waves. The method you use to create those could then manifest itself as a sound.

I got caught up in the wording where you implied you could change sounds somehow, while in actuality, you're just creating general shockwaves. To call it sound is a bit of a misnomer, in my opinion.

I think laying out the exact science behind a power is the exact wrong way to go about it, though, because if we go into the technicality of how it physically happens, then it becomes a bit too grounded in reality for my taste. Try tweaking it a bit so it's not so scienc-ey.

(Also I might be off-base on some of this- if I'm wrong, apologies. Also apologies if I missed the point entirely. I am not smart cookie.)

Re:Unison

@Rune_Alchemist
*looks at Chidori's image*
*realizes she doesn't seem to be wearing anything under her jacket, no skirt or pants*

Hmm... could it be?

@Hammerman

She wears shorts.

Re:Unison

A rash decision mostly, bought on by a desire to particularly just get herself away from her family. She's smart, but doesn't have a lot of world experience and just did what seemed like a good idea at the time. A big factor was simply a desire to see constructs up close, even hostile ones. She also probably assumed a place like Geiru would have like an R&D department or something she could get into.

If not, well, she'll have to deal with that.

@Rune_Alchemist

Yeah, this makes enough sense to me. Doesn't have any R&D you can get into as a regular student though; it's a standardized course for every enrollment. Again, though, it's not like she's screwed out of academics forever even if she does spend the rest of her formative years there.

Whoops. Dropped the ball on that bit.

It'd be hard for her to make an earthquake, but it would certainly be possible. Dive her talons into the ground, amplify the resulting vibrations downwards, and you get an earthquake. More realistically, she'd probably use something like the beating of her wings to generate directed blasts of pressure towards targets, and as you said her 'voice' in a way similar as a constant stream of pressure to blast something.

If you're not sold on the power though and don't think it fits her visually, I don't mind changing it. Just felt like doing something like a standard thunder or wind bird would be a bit cliche and a change of pace from what I normally do. I wasn't particularly going for a siren feel at all, though. The whole thing about finding her voice was simply a metaphor for Chidori's lack of confidence and Nehls excess of it.

Suppose I could go for a more Siren angle, but I don't really know what that would entail at the moment.

@Rune_Alchemist

I'm honestly even more confused than I started.

This doesn't really bring up the image of her specifically manipulating sound in my head. Sound manifests itself in waves, yes, but they're not the only kind of waves. Light is a type of wave, too. Just vibration on its own is not sound, it's a specific type of vibration that our ears are sensitive to which causes them to pick it up and convert it to something audible.

If her powers are to manipulate motion in a more general fashion then, yeah, what you described could work in some fashion. The idea of being able to remotely control the vibration or motion of your feathers could work to that end; by having them spazz out in mid-air you could create a current or, indeed, if done at a certain frequency, create a sound. Spin them around on their own axis and you might even have something that can cut while making a hellish shrieking noise from slicing through the air like that.

It just sounds like you want to use the force rather than anything audio-based, is all I'm saying.

Re:Unison

Chidori

Kaji Chidori

Age:
17

Personality:
Kind of a klutzy wallflower.

Chidori easily blends into the background of places, not having very much of a presence, especially when compared to her constant companion who easily overshadows her in both terms of beauty and general presence. She absolutely loathes being the center of the attention, wanting nothing more than to not stand out in any significant way.

When around others, she tries her best to be cheery, to let herself try and actually make friends, but her clumsiness and pervasive sense of self doubt is utterly detrimental to any sort of social ability. Stumbles over words, doesn't like arguing and tends to choose the path of least resistance when doing things.

Despite all this however, Chidori is blessed with an acute mind - vastly intelligent and easily outshines most other people her age. While she isn't quite a prodigy, she has poured her heart and soul into studying the sciences and Constructs and will easily, if given the chance, talk your ear off about nuclear power, hover boards and her general love of constructs in general.

Background:
Born and raised in the Shinchi region by a fairly normal somewhat well off family, Chidori didn't have what one might call a happy upbringing. Her parents gave her plenty of love. Plenty of support growing up, and couldn't have asked for a better child. Her parents were the owners of a rather well off construction company and from an early age she was expected to pick up the mantle.

Yet, that was something she never wanted.

When she was old enough, she expressed her interest in the sciences to her parents. Of course, doing something like that when they considered the family company far more important was simply absurd to them.

So the fights started.

Chidori tried to ignore it, and focus on her own studies into the more academic fields. Sciences, atomic energy, constructs...but she could never shake the feeling she was in the wrong. She was the one who messed up. It wasn't exactly bad, was it? but...she couldn't do something like run a company. Her parents constantly pressuring her wasn't helpful. She wasn't cut out for it, she knew that much. And school wasn't much better - constant harassment and bullying in the typical fashion. Her clumsiness didn't help and made her an easy target for some of the less nicely inclined kids.

Finally having enough of it all, she decided she'd do something about it. She made herself a construct and applied to the Geiru institute. Making it in secret was no easy task, but she managed to without her parents finding out about it. When everything was said and done, a creature with an almost ethereal grace stood before her, and simply said.

"...to timid to sing yourself, are you? Very well - I'll sing for both of us until you find your voice."

Magic:
Chidori's magic focuses heavily on creating and manipulating an objects gravity, mostly focusing on her own, personal gravity so she can float, fly, fling herself at high speeds in a direction, create fields of denser or lesser gravity, and creating 'gravity wells' that cause anything around them to be drawn towards it. Strength varies, and stronger and larger wells are rather tiring.

Song Bird

Name:

Nehla

Type:
Humanoid

Personality:
Perhaps where Chidori doesn't quite so like herself, that's why Nehla was created with something she doesn't want to quite admit she has. That is faith in oneself.

...though it manifested in a slightly antagonistic tendency.

Nehla is a rather forceful, cold individual. Proud, confident in her abilities, and utterly disregards most everything unless it is of a direct interest to her. While she is typically civil and polite in her mannerisms, the only human she seems to ever get along with in some degree is Chidori.

Core:
Faith

Abilities:
A construct with the ability to manipulate Sound Waves. That is, the pressure waves which make up the phenomena known as 'sound'. A versatile and deadly tool if used correctly. By releasing such waves into the ground, one could cause large scale earthquakes. By generating an uninterrupted low-frequency pressure wave, it could prove fatal to living beings by causing internal bleeding, whilst high frequencies can be used as a Sonar like effect.

In a less massive scale, the pressure waves can be used to knock back foes, generate 'shields' of pressure waves around an area, and other such applications.

Quite agile, and she is able to fly.

Heyo, here we go.

@Rune_Alchemist

So I thought I recognized that girl, and I was right. It's Hoodier's girl!

Obscure source hunting aside, I'm about 90% okay with this. I need a few clarifications before I can feel entirely comfortable accepting you, though.

1: While it's technically possible to earn a scholarship through an institute like Geiru and transition back to a normal, higher education if you take some competency tests, it still seems like a weird choice to me. It doesn't look like Chidori is particularly interested in protecting the nation and it's not like the institute itself will delve particularly deep into science, which is her forte. Could you explain this a bit more?

2: Nehla's power is a bit too vague for me, and doesn't seem to match up too well with her visual design. A friend of mine suggested you might be going for a "siren" angle since the one line of hers mentioned singing, but if that's the case, how does she release shockwaves into the earth? Face-plant and yell into the ground? There needs to be some more explanation on *how* her powers work, I feel, not just what effect they could have.

Give me some more of that and I'll prolly be fine with this, most of this seems alright to me.

Re:Unison

Yuuto Kagawa

Name:
Yuuto Kagawa

Age:
16

Appearance:

A young man, fair of face and long in stride, he stands at a height of 5'7" and has a rather lithe figure. His hair is usually a feathered mess of lilac, though at formal occasions he'll tie the back into a ponytail and comb the front and bangs back. The mark of his contract is placed on the palm of his left hand.

Personality:
Flamboyant to the extreme, Yuuto is a man of eccentricities and focuses so heavily on appearances and status, one would be forgiven for calling him shallow or a Narcissist. Or rather, he at least acts in a manner befitting one. He's a very self-assured kind of person, possessing complete faith in his own abilities and judgement, carrying himself with a peacock's grace and refinement. Despite how self-centered he comes off, he worries about others' well-being and health when they're clearly down in the dumps, but comes across as very pushy if his help isn't accepted.

Background:
What can one say of one born into the lap of luxury? From birth, Yuuto was blessed with wealth, a future already paved at his father's company, and the unflinching confidence that he was god's greatest damn gift to Earth. It was the kind of confidence that came naturally in his position, the spoiled rich kid that had everything going for him, and every desire answered. Naturally, he was an insufferable brat that was generally awful to everyone around him. So life would continue, until, as it always does, something went awry.

No, nothing needlessly tragic like a death in the family or some kidnapping. Rather, his father's company tanked. Hard. Like, comedically hard. Now out of money and forced into a "normal" suburban life meant that all the kids he had picked on naturally turned around and picked him apart. Going from having everything to comparatively nothing wasn't really "humbling" for him. Rather, it was infuriating. Humiliating. And also getting beat up really, really hurt.

Through enough beatings and complete social rejection by his peers, he would grow somewhat. Enough to go from a spoiled brat, to a slightly-less-spoiled-but-still-kind-of-a-dick young man.

One day though, something would change his life forever. As strange as snow falling in summer, ice caked the ground of one of the more dilapidated buildings lining Shinchi's slums. Having come seeking rumors out of boredom, he found a girl collapsed on her side, red caking the white planes of ice beneath her.

With a single, honest question that would start everything, he would ask:

"Do you need help?"

Magic:
Yuuto's magic is a form of magnetism, allowing him to polarize objects to be attracted to one another. While he isn't limited to metal objects only, he cannot polarize living things, and polarized objects will only start getting attracted within thirty feet of one another. The longer the two objects stay within that range of each other, the stronger the magnetic pull will get at a rapid rate.

Fubuki

Name:
Fubuki

Type:
Humanoid

Appearance:


Personality:
A quiet girl that is completely passable for human, Fubuki is largely inconspicuous. She is calm, reserved, and generally about as normal as a high school girl could be. Y'know, minus the whole not being human thing. She is easily startled, and is an incredibly sore loser, which in turn gives her an oddly competitive side beneath her reserved exterior.

Core:
Perpetuality

Background:
The life of a Construct begins much like any other being's, not in a biological sense, but in that its "parent" has the desire to create. What most separates the birth of a Construct from a Human's is that upon formation, their brain is already fully developed. Memories remain intact from the first time their senses alight and consciousness is granted. This memory of her birth was one that would stain Fubuki's personality. The sight of her creator already bathed in blood, the last of his life force spent in a desperate attempt to generate a guardian against his assailant.

For a being that knew nothing beyond that it existed, Fubuki struggled with the concept of death as she held her creator's body limp in her arms. It was as if a newborn was left with the ability to ponder the death of a mother in labor. It was an empty sort of sadness, one filled with nothing but regret that was unreasonable. After all, how could one lament the death of someone they'd never even met while they were alive. Yet still, tears clouded her vision as she craddled the man's dying form. His life force spent and now within another Construct, the Rogue assailant left, departing with the words:

"Decide for yourself if they're worth crying over."

---

That scene etched into her heart, Fubuki would wander clueless to her own existence as a Construct, a ring of frost tracing her through the wilderness. Her core of Perpetuality encouraged stagnation, the same thing repeated over and over again, resulting in a daily pattern of the same wallowing again and again. A pathetic sight, she was often chased away by residents of the slums as she neared due to her obvious nature as a Construct. But, due to her habit of repeating again and again that which felt natural, she returned again and again, merely watching the people living in the outskirts of Shinchi before being chased off again. Sometimes there was violence directed towards her, and sometimes there were simply harsh words. Both stung deeply for the woman with the worldly knowledge of an infant. It was a final act of violence that culminated in a gunshot to her stomach would shatter her peaceful existence.

As she was angered and frightened, that would be the first of Fubuki's Ice Ages that manifested. But, it was left at that. She ran, pained and injured as she collapsed in an abandoned building. Looking at her hand stained with her own blood, she would come to her own opinion: Humans were most certainly not worth crying over. None would weep for her, the Rogue Construct that never took a life, the wandering icy maiden that would die with her name barely seeming real in her mind. Her eyes grew heavy, and the frost began encroaching on her body as she opted to choose her own way out.

...That was, until footsteps approached. A young man who had been undeterred by the cold appeared before her. His eyes weren't like the others. Rather than see a Construct that had no master, he saw someone in trouble. Someone dying. Regardless of circumstance, regardless of intent, he was here, much like how she had been for her dying master.

"Do you need help?"

A question that demanded an answer that would bring tears to her eyes. The water from her eyes hardened into ice before it reached the ground, and, with one word she would answer honestly.

"...Please."

Abilities:
Ice Age: An ability that causes the entire area around Fubuki to freeze immediately, causing an extreme drop in temperature as well as the formation of ice crystals over nearly every inanimate object in the area. Once an Ice Age zone has been created, Fubuki is capable of freely manipulating the ice around her. The longer the zone remains active, the greater the area it will cover, but this also causes the drain on Yuuto to increase exponentially. Theoretically, if she had enough life force she could cause a permanent Ice Age across all of Japan. Once an Ice Age is no longer supplied with magic, it will immediately begin thawing, causing any frozen objects to be damaged from the rapid temperature shift. Weaker individuals are likely to succumb to hypothermia due to the shock of a temperate environment suddenly reaching below 0.

Default Range: 120ft/~36 meters.

Swan's Grace: In addition to creating the zone, Fubuki is completely unaffected by the normal physical inconveniences of ice. She does not grow cold, does not lose her balance upon slippery footing, and can in fact sprint faster than her normal top speed so long as she is within the boundaries of an Ice Age zone. Her physical strength also increases by a moderate amount.

Finally finished my stuff. Sorry for the delay!

@The Irish Tree

Welcome aboard bay-bee

Re:Unison

Well this seems interesting to give a shot.

Got room for one more here? Dunno quite what I'll be making yet, but just to keep things simple, probably a human/construct pair, unless someone has need of a partner of either or here.

@Rune_Alchemist

Lugubrious was still looking for a human partner, even if I'd said he was probably best off making one himself since nobody was showing interest in playing one. Otherwise, though, I'm still accepting people as I've not reached what I'd call my personal limit on players I can handle. Even if I had, there wouldn't be any guarantee every person who showed interest would get in, anyway.

That is, to say, you do you man. I'll accept pretty much anyone that can impress me.