I see. It was definitely just to fix grammatical errors as I type a million miles a minute and often skip entire words. Usually if I do any edits it will be immediately after because I read my posts for that exact reason. I'll try to remember to put it in the OOC when I do so.
Lupita stands tall even for a human woman at 5’9 with a slender build more fit for dancing at extravagant feasts than navigating the dangers of the blood coast. She has long, silky brunette hair with streaks of gray, the only indicator to her age. Well, that and her laugh lines. Her eyes are a starlight blue and her skin is mocha colored.
Personality
Lupita is a kind and spirited person. She finds something to be passionate about in most things and has a knack for making the people around her passionate as well. In her younger days she would leap into a problem head on and figure it out as she went. Age has made her a little more cautious, though that flame still burns deep in her chest. Indeed, her life experiences have taught her to use that flame in different ways. She’s manipulative when she needs to be. Decades of entertaining castles full of pompous nobles and ignorant kings will teach you a thing or two about working a room. It will also instill a gauge of character in a person and a healthy amount of distrust. Still, if one can win Lupita over they will have a friend for life.
Background
Profession: Minstrel, Entertainer, Jester. Lupita’s profession has many different names.
Class: Bard
Heritage: Lupita was born to artisans in the service of Vrettonian nobility. Privileged enough to have a meal in her belly every night but still poor enough to have to dance to the whims of those who were born lucky.
History
Lupita was born in a bustling city in the heartland of Vrettonia. Her father was a rather famous elven musician who had decided to settle down for a few years in a place with steady pay. Her mother was a human painter and family friend to local nobility that ruled the city. So Lupita grew up in a better environment than most. From a young age she was taught music and literature and her parents took her along to many social event among the nobility. That is where they made their living after all.
Lupita’s brother, Verzan, was born a few years after her and together they learned the ways of the noble court. Lupita took to it like a fish to water. She was a natural extrovert and had a talent for picking up on the moods of the court. Verzan was more like their mother, quiet, contemplative and extremely talented with a brush. Lupita’s early years were good. Her family became widely regard as some of the best artists in the city and this opened doors all across the kingdom to go and perform.
Lupita took up the violin though her father favored the harp. She thought the violin had a much more grounded sound while the harp sounded too…well, elven. A little pretentious, which always made her father fume when she told him. Lupita spent her mid to late twenties traveling across the kingdom and then the continent, playing for royal families and filthy rich merchant clans. But her fame and skill also made her a target. Among the muscians of Vrettonia there is a sort of unspoken danger. In the nation’s history, many bards had doubled as spies and assassins. This translated over to their…professional life.
Lupita soon found out that to truly be a successful musician, she had to learn to defend herself. There were a number of attempts on her life going into her late twenties and all of those ended with a knife in the throat of the assassin. They were usually some young thing, no doubt new to the business and trying to get a leg up without doing the work. By the time she was in her early thirties, Lupita found she was getting tired of the game. Constantly looking over one’s shoulder didn’t exactly contribute to a relaxing life. Then she met Logan. A traveling Thaegar warrior. He was all muscle and mystery and they hit it off instantly. Initially he was only passing through town. Then he stayed a week. Then two. Then three. Soon the pair was dating regularly and the wandering warrior was looking for work in the Lupita’s home city. Her father tried to dissuade her from marrying a human. She could understand where he was coming from. Lupita’s mother was graying and having joint pain. Her father looked like he hadn’t aged a day in thirty-one years. And in comparison to a human life span, he really hadn’t.
Still, there was something about her traveling warrior that she couldn’t shake. A year later they were married. Two years and they had a son. At four years a daughter. Before she knew it, Lupita had a whole family. And she didn’t mind it one bit. Life was good again. Lupita performed in her home city for the noble families and her now husband, Rothan, served as a bodyguard for a merchant. They made decent money together and their kids had a good, peaceful life. Occasionally Lupita had to dodge an assassination attempt but by this point she had become skilled in recognizing would be killers and handled the issue before it got out of hand.
For many years Lupita lived with her family without incident but as she got older, she began to truly understand what her father was warning against. By the time their kids were old enough to make their way in the world, Rothan was almost sixty years old. Lupita looked barely a day over thirty. But she ignored it, this passage of time. She still loved him and that was all that mattered. Then before she knew it, she was burying the love of her life. He was seventy when he died. A disease had swept the city. It was over in just a few weeks but it had done its damage.
Lupita was a grandmother now but she looked the same age as her kids. Maybe even a little younger. But she wouldn’t abandon her family. She would look after them as long as she was able to. Which brings us to the cause of her exile. Lupita’s great granddaughter, Elizabeth, was following in her footsteps. She wanted to be a famous musician just like her grandmother. But unlike Lupita, Elizabeth chose to gain fame through more…violent means. Like so many bards who attempted to kill Lupita in her youth, Elizabeth tried to kill a rival. Her target, who was a bard, also happened to be the heir of a noble house.
Obviously Elizabeth botched the assassination and was captured and was sentenced to beheading. When Lupita learned of this she rushed to her friends in the nobility, asking for an audience with the assaulted family. Pouring every bit of charm she had in her, Lupita bargained for her great granddaughter’s life. The best the family could do was exile. Lupita knew the young thing wouldn’t survive on the blood coast. So she offered herself instead. It was a bold move the family had no choice but to respect it. Reluctantly, they agreed to the terms. Elizabeth was returned to the family. And Lupita was put in chains and got on a carriage bound for the blood coast…
Reason for Exile To save her great granddaughter from beheading, Lupita offered herself to clean the slate. The offended nobles exiled her to the blood coast.
Motivation At this point? Survival. Lupita would like to eventually return to her family but she is unsure if that is even possible. Regardless, she’s survived assassins and the perils of dealing with nobility. And negotiated her and her grand daughter out of a beheading. The blood coast won’t take her. Not without a fight.
Capabilities
Attributes You've 9 to choose from. Once you do, put them in the correct area. Combat
Daggers
Intelligence
Literacy
Culture
Linguistics
Charisma
Musical Instrument
Singing
Charm
Health
Faculties
Intuition
Agility
Stealth
Mysticism [0/1]
Equipment
You will leave this blank, since you are a prisoner.
Money
For simplicity's sake, we're doing 3 types of coinage. Royals (Gold), Lordlings (Silver), and Commons (Copper). They each measure 20 of the previous coinage. 20 Lordlings makes a Royal and 20 Commons makes a Lordling. You have no money as of yet.
Languages
- Vrettonian Northern
Character Relationships
Your characters have only known one another for the week it has taken to move your wagon through the Inner Kingdoms, with only a marginal time to speak. This is where you put your initial thoughts of each character, and you edit these as their opinions change. This also includes the Merc NPC.
Avonshire was about the farthest one could get from the coast, Alastor imagined. He hiked his pack up on his back a little further. He had been walking all day to get this...Fort Darenby or whatever the hell it was called. The quaint charm of the countryside had been lost on him some hours ago, when he lost his way down one of many identical country paths. Now it seemed he was finally on the right road and as a gust of cool autumn wind buffeted his cloak, Alastor's mind wandered back to the coast. The tiefling had many mixed feelings about his home but the sea, the sand, and that endless blue sky was always a place of comfort and peace to him. And maybe a scantily clad belly dancer enjoying a drink on the beach with him as well. Alastor smirked at the image. It brought him a little warmth.
'Still, I suppose this place isn't so bad.' he thought to himself as a halfling fishing on the river waved to him with a grin. Alastor gave a good natured wave back. He was surprised at the friendly reception thus far to his kind. There are those in big cities who would quickly ostracize him for being a tiefling yet these simple country folk seemed to hold him no malice. Yet another lie nobles tell themselves about those "less educated". Alastor pushed aside his disdain and pulled out the note Zern had passed him. Zern was his contact for work in a bustling city about a week's walk away from Avonshire. Alastor almost laughed when the gnome told him to look for coin out here. But it wasn't like he had many options and he figured it'd be good to get out of the city. Now he wasn't so sure it was worth the trip.
It was all very mysterious. A sheriff of a tiny fort town asking for hired swords? Alastor hoped, if nothing else, the meeting would be amusing. As he got closer to Darenby, the packed dirt turned to cobblestone and his surroundings began to resemble something of a modern town. Now all that was left to do was find the Infamous Pear.
"Dreadful name." he said aloud to no one in particular. He referenced the letter again and noticed it had no specific instructions save for 'outside of town'. As he walked, he glanced up and caught the eye of a handsome half-elf who was leaning against one of the storefronts. He had long strawberry blonde hair and emerald green eyes with a shock of freckles across the bridge of his nose. His simple clothing suggested farmer, maybe he was in Darenby just for business? Alastor couldn't help but notice that the hem of his shirt was a bit high, exposing a portion of his midriff. When elf saw Alastor had noticed him, he gave him a shy smile. But he didn't look away. Alastor couldn't help but grin in response and approached him.
"Hi, maybe you could already tell but I'm a bit lost." Alastor said, pretending not to feel the ache in his lower back. "Well it seems you've found me. How can I help?" replied the elf. His voice was calming and pleasant, like a spring rain.
"I'm looking for a place called the Infamous Pear. Do you know it?" he asked. The half-elf nodded and bounced up from his spot against the store. He pressed against Alastor's side as he pointed north. "You'll just take the main road to the other side of town, ya can't miss it. But the pear is kinda...well, sleepy. Only the merchants and cagey guards drink there." he commented. It almost sounded like there was disappointment in his voice. "I've no doubt but I'm afraid I have some business there... I didn't catch your name." Alastor responded. The half elf smiled again. "Veneth."
"Alastor, pleased to meet you."
"The pleasure is all mine. Well...Alastor, if you have time after your important business, my friends and I are gonna be over at the Dancing Mare. It's a lot more fun than the sleepy ol' pear." Veneth stepped away as he said this and Alastor felt their hands brush for the briefest moment. "Cool...maybe I'll see you there." Alastor replied.
"Maybe you will." Veneth said with a flirtatious wink as he walked off. Alastor watched him walk down street for a few moments before continuing on. Maybe Darenby wouldn't be that bad after all. He followed the road through town until he saw a swinging sign that featured a pear with a mask. Stifling a chuckle, he opened the door and found it was just as sleepy as Veneth said it would be. He navigated his way through the tables to the bar and asked about the Arbalest party, just as the letter instructed. The cartoonish conspiratorial barkeep pointed him to a reserved table. It seemed he was the first one here. Well, at least he would get to sit down. Alastor ordered a drink and walked over to the table, dropping his pack and sword and plopping down in one of the chairs. He sipped on his Avonshire mead as he waited for the others to arrive, a certain flirty half-elf farm boy still in his thoughts.
Lupita stands tall even for a human woman at 5’9 with a slender build more fit for dancing at extravagant feasts than navigating the dangers of the blood coast. She has long, silky brunette hair with streaks of gray, the only indicator to her age. Well, that and her laugh lines. Her eyes are a starlight blue and her skin is mocha colored.
Personality
Lupita is a kind and spirited person. She finds something to be passionate about in most things and has a knack for making the people around her passionate as well. In her younger days she would leap into a problem head on and figure it out as she went. Age has made her a little more cautious, though that flame still burns deep in her chest. Indeed, her life experiences have taught her to use that flame in different ways. She’s manipulative when she needs to be. Decades of entertaining castles full of pompous nobles and ignorant kings will teach you a thing or two about working a room. It will also instill a gauge of character in a person and a healthy amount of distrust. Still, if one can win Lupita over they will have a friend for life.
Background
Profession: Minstrel, Entertainer, Jester. Lupita’s profession has many different names.
Class: Bard
Heritage: Lupita was born to artisans in the service of Vrettonian nobility. Privileged enough to have a meal in her belly every night but still poor enough to have to dance to the whims of those who were born lucky.
History
Lupita was born in a bustling city in the heartland of Vrettonia. Her father was a rather famous elven musician who had decided to settle down for a few years in a place with steady pay. Her mother was a human painter and family friend to local nobility that ruled the city. So Lupita grew up in a better environment than most. From a young age she was taught music and literature and her parents took her along to many social event among the nobility. That is where they made their living after all.
Lupita’s brother, Verzan, was born a few years after her and together they learned the ways of the noble court. Lupita took to it like a fish to water. She was a natural extrovert and had a talent for picking up on the moods of the court. Verzan was more like their mother, quiet, contemplative and extremely talented with a brush. Lupita’s early years were good. Her family became widely regard as some of the best artists in the city and this opened doors all across the kingdom to go and perform.
Lupita took up the violin though her father favored the harp. She thought the violin had a much more grounded sound while the harp sounded too…well, elven. A little pretentious, which always made her father fume when she told him. Lupita spent her mid to late twenties traveling across the kingdom and then the continent, playing for royal families and filthy rich merchant clans. But her fame and skill also made her a target. Among the muscians of Vrettonia there is a sort of unspoken danger. In the nation’s history, many bards had doubled as spies and assassins. This translated over to their…professional life.
Lupita soon found out that to truly be a successful musician, she had to learn to defend herself. There were a number of attempts on her life going into her late twenties and all of those ended with a knife in the throat of the assassin. They were usually some young thing, no doubt new to the business and trying to get a leg up without doing the work. By the time she was in her early thirties, Lupita found she was getting tired of the game. Constantly looking over one’s shoulder didn’t exactly contribute to a relaxing life. Then she met Logan. A traveling Thaegar warrior. He was all muscle and mystery and they hit it off instantly. Initially he was only passing through town. Then he stayed a week. Then two. Then three. Soon the pair was dating regularly and the wandering warrior was looking for work in the Lupita’s home city. Her father tried to dissuade her from marrying a human. She could understand where he was coming from. Lupita’s mother was graying and having joint pain. Her father looked like he hadn’t aged a day in thirty-one years. And in comparison to a human life span, he really hadn’t.
Still, there was something about her traveling warrior that she couldn’t shake. A year later they were married. Two years and they had a son. At four years a daughter. Before she knew it, Lupita had a whole family. And she didn’t mind it one bit. Life was good again. Lupita performed in her home city for the noble families and her now husband, Rothan, served as a bodyguard for a merchant. They made decent money together and their kids had a good, peaceful life. Occasionally Lupita had to dodge an assassination attempt but by this point she had become skilled in recognizing would be killers and handled the issue before it got out of hand.
For many years Lupita lived with her family without incident but as she got older, she began to truly understand what her father was warning against. By the time their kids were old enough to make their way in the world, Rothan was almost sixty years old. Lupita looked barely a day over thirty. But she ignored it, this passage of time. She still loved him and that was all that mattered. Then before she knew it, she was burying the love of her life. He was seventy when he died. A disease had swept the city. It was over in just a few weeks but it had done its damage.
Lupita was a grandmother now but she looked the same age as her kids. Maybe even a little younger. But she wouldn’t abandon her family. She would look after them as long as she was able to. Which brings us to the cause of her exile. Lupita’s great granddaughter, Elizabeth, was following in her footsteps. She wanted to be a famous musician just like her grandmother. But unlike Lupita, Elizabeth chose to gain fame through more…violent means. Like so many bards who attempted to kill Lupita in her youth, Elizabeth tried to kill a rival. Her target, who was a bard, also happened to be the heir of a noble house.
Obviously Elizabeth botched the assassination and was captured and was sentenced to beheading. When Lupita learned of this she rushed to her friends in the nobility, asking for an audience with the assaulted family. Pouring every bit of charm she had in her, Lupita bargained for her great granddaughter’s life. The best the family could do was exile. Lupita knew the young thing wouldn’t survive on the blood coast. So she offered herself instead. It was a bold move the family had no choice but to respect it. Reluctantly, they agreed to the terms. Elizabeth was returned to the family. And Lupita was put in chains and got on a carriage bound for the blood coast…
Reason for Exile To save her great granddaughter from beheading, Lupita offered herself to clean the slate. The offended nobles exiled her to the blood coast.
Motivation At this point? Survival. Lupita would like to eventually return to her family but she is unsure if that is even possible. Regardless, she’s survived assassins and the perils of dealing with nobility. And negotiated her and her grand daughter out of a beheading. The blood coast won’t take her. Not without a fight.
Capabilities
Attributes You've 9 to choose from. Once you do, put them in the correct area. Combat
Daggers
Intelligence
Literacy
Culture
Linguistics
Charisma
Musical Instrument
Singing
Charm
Health
Faculties
Intuition
Agility
Stealth
Mysticism [0/1]
Equipment
You will leave this blank, since you are a prisoner.
Money
For simplicity's sake, we're doing 3 types of coinage. Royals (Gold), Lordlings (Silver), and Commons (Copper). They each measure 20 of the previous coinage. 20 Lordlings makes a Royal and 20 Commons makes a Lordling. You have no money as of yet.
Languages
- Vrettonian Northern
Character Relationships
Your characters have only known one another for the week it has taken to move your wagon through the Inner Kingdoms, with only a marginal time to speak. This is where you put your initial thoughts of each character, and you edit these as their opinions change. This also includes the Merc NPC.
Alastor cuts an impressive figure standing at 6'4 with a broad chest. He has short but well groomed black hair that he combs back and a thick, well trimmed beard. The only thing that breaks up the growth is a crooked scar going across his right cheek and ending at his jawline. His horns curl, not unlike a ram, and one can tell that they are maintained and looked after. His eyes are a dark blue, complimented by his lavender skin. This look gives him a refined aura, despite his younger age of 24. Alastor wears a custom fit breastplate with the insignia of The Kadosh noble house, which is a gold coin with a dagger through it. He wears a simple leather jacket over the breastplate. At his hip hangs a longsword with a black ribbed hilt and a circular pommel. The same noble insignia is on the pommel.
Alastor is a man whose had to make his presence known all his life. So he is confident and direct by necessity. Some might say arrogant but Alastor doubts they would say that to his face. He is a man who wears his heart on his sleeve, for better or worse. This makes him friends and enemies at about the same rate. With this boisterous nature also comes anger. Insecurity. A less than healthy family situation will do that to a person. Alastor doesn't think, he acts, especially when his pride is on the line. But on the flip side of this, he is incredibly determined and disciplined in his goals. He knows what he wants and he will stop short of nothing to achieve them. He is also intensely loyal to those he cares about and has a strong sense of justice. He will step in to help a stranger without a second thought.
That being said, Alastor likes to fight. So if someone needs help he's more likely to pound the opposition rather than look for a diplomatic solution. The same can be said about his own relationships. Alastor hates talking about himself or his feelings towards other people and will shut down until the topic is dropped. And if someone pushes too hard, there might be some "friendly" scrapping about to happen.
Though Alastor was born into an environment of privilege and money, his life has been anything but easy. Primarily due to the fact that he was born a bastard. His father, the head of the Kadosh Noble-Merchant House and his mother, a sickly servant. They fell in love in secret and the servant got pregnant. Though his advisors begged him to just give her some money and send her away, Lord Kadosh couldn't do that. There are some days where Alastor wish he had. Alastor's mother died during childbirth and Lord Kadosh took public responsibility for her child. And so Alastor Shore was born, unable to take the family name due to the circumstance of his birth, he was named after the coast on which his father's estate sat. Alastor had two sisters, Sharkaria and Leki. The heirs of the Kadosh estate. He got along famously with them.
It was his step mother that was the issue. Lady Kadosh had bright red skin and piercing yellow eyes and was every bit as terrifying as she sounded. And she despised Alastor. Not only was he a bastard and name but physically it was very obvious to anyone that there was no relation. Just the sight of him made her blood boil and as such she made his life as miserable as possible. One could be forgiven for thinking she never acknowledged him at all. That's what it felt like. And though his father and sisters loved him, Lady Kadosh had the most power due her extended family, all very powerful nobles. So the lord bent to the lady and Alastor had to suffer the aftermath. With less than zero prospects of advancement in his family, Alastor trained and served as a soldier in his father's retainer for a time, eventually becoming skilled enough to be announced as the official bodyguard of the Kadoshes. This backfired for Alastor however, as he was right back where was as a child, at the mercy of Lady Kadosh.
In the end, Alastor decided he had to find his own way. His whole life he had spent serving his half family, being treated no better than a common guard. He refused to spend his entire life getting tossed aside like he was nothing when he worked so hard to earn the respect of those around him. So he left, with nothing but a sword on his hip and a pack on his back. Where he was going, he had no idea. But for the first time in his life, he felt like the master of his own fate...
Alastor was never good with animals and though he can ride a horse, he doesn't exactly have the money to afford one.
Hobbies:
Recreational Archery (Specifically crossbow) Drawing (His favorite is landscapes) Tasting wines (Perhaps the only part of his noble upbringing that he actually likes) Singing (When no one is looking, though. Maybe if there was someone cute nearby and he was drunk enough he could sing in public.)
Likes:
Music Drinking Dancing A good bar brawl The smell of the ocean
Dislikes:
Classism Most Nobles Spiders Brussel Sprouts
Alastor would most likely be a frontline DPS style character. Or at the very least a really obnoxious distraction.
@Sigil Okay, I made the fixes. Apologies about the ability scores, I was a little confused about the point buy system. Lemme know if I need to reroll again in case I screwed it up.
Alastor cuts an impressive figure standing at 6'4 with a broad chest. He has short but well groomed black hair that he combs back and a thick, well trimmed beard. The only thing that breaks up the growth is a crooked scar going across his right cheek and ending at his jawline. His horns curl, not unlike a ram, and one can tell that they are maintained and looked after. His eyes are a dark blue, complimented by his lavender skin. This look gives him a refined aura, despite his younger age of 24. Alastor wears a custom fit breastplate with the insignia of The Kadosh noble house, which is a gold coin with a dagger through it. He wears a simple leather jacket over the breastplate. At his hip hangs a longsword with a black ribbed hilt and a circular pommel. The same noble insignia is on the pommel.
Alastor is a man whose had to make his presence known all his life. So he is confident and boisterous by necessity. Some might say arrogant but Alastor doubts they would say that to his face. He is a man who wears his heart on his sleeve, for better or worse. This makes him friends and enemies at about the same rate. With this boisterous nature also comes anger. Insecurity. A less than healthy family situation will do that to a person. Alastor doesn't think, he acts, especially when his pride is on the line. But on the flip side of this, he is incredibly determined and disciplined in his goals. He knows what he wants and he will stop short of nothing to achieve them. He is also intensely loyal to those he cares about and has a strong sense of justice. He will step in to help a stranger without a second thought.
That being said, Alastor likes to fight. So if someone needs help he's more likely to pound the opposition rather than look for a diplomatic solution. The same can be said about his own relationships. Alastor hates talking about himself or his feelings towards other people and will shut down until the topic is dropped. And if someone pushes too hard, there might be some "friendly" scrapping about to happen.
Though Alastor was born into an environment of privilege and money, his life has been anything but easy. Primarily due to the fact that he was born a bastard. His father, the head of the Kadosh Noble-Merchant House and his mother, a sickly servant. They fell in love in secret and the servant got pregnant. Though his advisors begged him to just give her some money and send her away, Lord Kadosh couldn't do that. There are some days where Alastor wish he had. Alastor's mother died during childbirth and Lord Kadosh took public responsibility for her child. And so Alastor Shore was born, unable to take the family name due to the circumstance of his birth, he was named after the coast on which his father's estate sat. Alastor had two sisters, Sharkaria and Leki. The heirs of the Kadosh estate. He got along famously with them.
It was his step mother that was the issue. Lady Kadosh had bright red skin and piercing yellow eyes and was every bit as terrifying as she sounded. And she despised Alastor. Not only was he a bastard and name but physically it was very obvious to anyone that there was no relation. Just the sight of him made her blood boil and as such she made his life as miserable as possible. One could be forgiven for thinking she never acknowledged him at all. That's what it felt like. And though his father and sisters loved him, Lady Kadosh had the most power due her extended family, all very powerful nobles. So the lord bent to the lady and Alastor had to suffer the aftermath. With less than zero prospects of advancement in his family, Alastor trained and served as a soldier in his father's retainer for a time, eventually becoming skilled enough to be announced as the official bodyguard of the Kadoshes. This backfired for Alastor however, as he was right back where was as a child, at the mercy of Lady Kadosh.
In the end, Alastor decided he had to find his own way. His whole life he had spent serving his half family, being treated no better than a common guard. He refused to spend his entire life getting tossed aside like he was nothing when he worked so hard to earn the respect of those around him. So he left, with nothing but a sword on his hip and a pack on his back. Where he was going, he had no idea. But for the first time in his life, he felt like the master of his own fate...
Alastor was never good with animals and though he can ride a horse, he doesn't exactly have the money to afford one.
Hobbies:
Recreational Archery (Specifically crossbow) Drawing (His favorite is landscapes) Tasting wines (Perhaps the only part of his noble upbringing that he actually likes) Singing (When no one is looking, though. Maybe if there was someone cute nearby and he was drunk enough he could sing in public.)
Likes:
Music Drinking Dancing A good bar brawl The smell of the ocean
Dislikes:
Classism Most Nobles Spiders Brussel Sprouts
Alastor would most likely be a frontline DPS style character. Or at the very least a really obnoxious distraction.
