Vescrutia: Legacy

Zero departed Sol Gamera and started making his way to the northern ranges bordering the Freshwater Sea on the Jaida Coast. He kept that visit short, hitting most of the necessary plot points with his acquaintance and comrade...

The rabbit.

I keep forgetting to get her name...

Every time they met, they traded information and parted ways, a simple relationship and one that he felt close enough to at least know what to call them.

But if she didn't mind, he let it remain an afterthought, assuring himelf that he'd actually learn her name eventually.

Every step he took pulsed blood through his veins, or at least he felt like that's what was going on since his hands were still wrapped in bandages borrowed from the master mage's own recovery. Zeik didn't even assure them they would work, recovering their normal function and appearnce after being tainted with the energy that allowed the Herald to destroy the Traversing Mirror, but Zero felt better with them on. The pain reduced measurably with them on and kept the searing hot sensation to a throbbing warmth. It took the pain from screaming at the forefront of his mind to a low hum he could ignore with enough outside stimuli.

In their battle, Zero felt... tastes of the energy before the final strike. He felt the energy stifle his own, the power of his Cordo, Kaven Blight, faltered a few times clashing in that battle with the Arceneaux Corporation's guard dog. Though he felt the power of the Horsemen, their Herald on the scene, the abrupt change in the demeanor of the creature they fought made him wonder exactly what they were up against. With the Traversing Mirror destroyed, and one of the most crucial Bridgeworks now completely removed from the process of passing, he wondered how that affected the Unseen world and the passage of the departed from one realm to the next.

The Conservatory sated his curiosity when he returned without the Siege Weapon the rabbit's information guided him to, the Gafren Tribes reported that their hunts bore no fruit since the destruction of the Traversing Mirror, any kill they made disappeared before their eyes in what they described as a crimson-grey smoke before leaving only charred earth behind. Titanians reported similar, halting their combat ritual after their participants who fell in battle disappeared in the same crimson-grey smoke without being conferred to the world beyond, just vanishing leaving that same charred earth behind. The Atlanteans of Mares Vidas saw the quality of the water drop, not from pollution from the dry world, but from the same crimson-grey energy leaving a charred film that attached itself to anything it touched, a scourge on their populations that pushed them further away from the coast and into deeper waters.

He felt like he failed the whoel region by returning without anchoring the Traversing Mirror, but if the Jaida Coast experienced this in the time it took him to return home, the threat of the Horsemen felt that much closer.

Zero made a brisk looking, yet lazy jog from Sol Gamera in the Nogris Jungle, meandered through the Nonoir Mangroves, skated across Toscano Bay, and hiked up to the Jaida Heights to meet with the Gafren Tribes. They held the most familiarity with him and the various clans of urizen always made him feel like he was welcome to ask questions and get to know them when other tribes on the Jaida Coast kept him and The Conservatory at a social distance. The Gafren could provide clarity on the state of things with their bird's eye view from the highlands and lifelong connection to the wildlife around them.

"Hey! Hey!"

Virgil's voice called out to Zero watchin him skate across Toscano Bay in the directino of the Gafren Highlands. He waved wildly, jumping up and down, panting eagerley in hopes of catching the eye of the fearsome trickster, but realized that as quickly as he came into view, Zero was already dashing up the cliffside effortlessly and disappearing into the sky. .

"Gah, let's go, Simon!" Virgil said dashing off on the beach with a soft, metallic tone paired with each step.

"Hmm?" Simon groaned, cloudy, white eyes entranced over the horizon of Toscano Bay before taking off after the chiming footsteps of his departing brother.

The two of them stood no chance at catching up to Zero, the man ran literal circles around the two of them tons of times during their sparring sessions, but they descended from the Gafren Highlands specifically to find their mentor after his return from the End of the World.

The Second Annual Neo Festurus left the brothers eagerly waiting for Zero’s return, their high energy and boisterous nature often bothered people who couldn’t keep up with their social cadence. Virgil always took the first chance to speak, often making moves before thinking and Simon followed his brother in a more calm fashion, but the two together brought an energy to spaces that filled the room, often drawing the attention and ire of others. They held a special space in their heart for Zero, Virgil especially, as he often held space for them to exist unedited.

The Gafren brothers bounded up the rocky cliffside on the trail of Zero’s unique scent in perfect unison, Simon following every step of his brother in identical sequence. Normally, they’d be chasing after him with beaming smiles painted across their faces, ready to get into the next round of sparring and mastering the deeper levels of the Cordo. They chased him this time with solemn stares, frustrated they didn’t catch the man in time before he disappeared over the Highland steppe. Virgil especially grumbled under his breath the whole time they ascended the cliffside, unsure of what to address with their mentor first.

I know he heard me. He had to…

Since the Second Annual Neo Festurus, the Gafren Tribes worked closely with their neighbors, the Kha’Azzran Queendom to bolster their ranks to fend off the coming B’halian invasion and the cooperation between the tribes fared well for a time. They hosted coordinated workshop and military drills, leveraging synergy between their cultures to maximize their offfensive and defensive options, but lately development of their forces took a turn.

The emergence of that crimson-grey energy that absorbed the bodies of the dead put a pause on some of the exercises, but the tribes recalibrated over the next days after its emergence to accommodate ethe unknown force that seemed to befall the whole world around them.

Then, a separate force showed its face in a parties of undead thrall that began to emerge in the dead of night and laid siege to to the Gafren villages. Only a few days passed, but without any concrete explanation of where these forces came from, the Titanians withdrew most of their presence from the highlands and the Gafren retreated to their villages to better prepare for the forces at hand.

The sun was setting and Zero’s trajectory pointed him in the direction of the last village attacked by the mysterious forces.

Virgil only hoped that they could avoid a repeat of the previous night.

Leaps and bounds took Zero up the side of the cliff face into the Jaida Heights heading straight for the Gafren Highlands, a sprawling steppe of lush, lowland grasses and spread out trees home to the myriad clans of the Gafren tribes. The wind sheared past his face sending a familiar tingle through him, it almost quoted the painful stinging in his fingers getting a lung full of the high elevation cross breeze. Though the climate differed greatly, the ample green surroundings and the way that the Gafren lived close to the land reminded him more of home than anywhere else he visited on Vescrutia.

A tap of his toe leap thrust Zero into a bird’s eye view he shared with a passing flock of Jaida doves and once their formation passed, he made a spiral with his body and a tuft of wind gathered to give him a perch to stand on. Above his northern neightbors’ expanse, Zero peered down quietly, searching for the familiar villages and homes to his allies and pupils in The Conservatory. With the wind whipping past him, his jaw tightened, his eyes widened, and Zero heaved a nervous sigh from his lofty vantage.

“No way…” he said to himself, looking down on charred and ruined remains of at least three Gafren villages, most of which he visited personally and was welcomed with far more regard than elsewhere on the Jaida Coast. The Gafren Highlands felt like a home away from home and witnessing this destruction made his heart stop.

His mind raced through possibilities, wondering if the B’halian Empire initiated their assault sooner than they promised. Zero assumed they still had half a common year to prepare, but if covert agents remained on Madeira, who knew when their attack would truly begin.

All’s fair in love and war and in the language of conquerors, all strategies speak of conquest.

“I thought we had time… But something seems off…”

In the distance, Zero could see the central Gafren village just as bright as he expected. It glowed with a special bustle that reassured him that the destruction he witnessed wasn’t widespread, though he still worried that the Empire went back on their word they had no real incentive of keeping in the first place.

Then his ears piqued, hearing the faint sound of a familiar voice carried on the winds. He looked to the direction of the sound and saw two of his Conservatory pupils on his tail, bounding up the cliffside toward him.

“Oh, I guess some answers are on their way,” said, dropping from the tuft of air back to the elevated ground level to meet his crew. From the looks of their eager tailing, they probably had some great info to share.

Simon and Virgil bounded over the edge of the cliff and made a beeline for Zero who had fallen just on the edge of the nearby ransacked Gafren village. The Gafrens lived in interesting homes, most often a single, wooden home that housed the whole settlement with multiple families and familiars within them. The the inner rooms were large enough to keep everyone close while giving enough people their space, with a small sprawl that took up a modest amount of real estate without sticking out from the surroundings. Though the highlands consisted of rolling hills, and sparse tall vegetation, each of these wooden homes were built partially into the ground complete with a grass covered roof that could hide it from the uninitiated eye. The homes were built with protection and harmony in mind, opting for function over design but still providing enough space for the families to live together without crowding one another.

As they approached, Simon and Virgil realized that Zero already noticed the scar marring the inset domicile, a stampede of varied footprints scrambled outside the entrance, far more jostled than your everyday traffic. The door hang halfway off its hinges snapped in two, hanging on by only the fibers of the Gafren woodwork. The moss and grass that hung above was jostled as well, like a wild animal scrawled their enormous claws against it to enter the space.

Zero stood there unflinching, taking in the extent of the damage for himself, but Simon and Virgil recognized the signs of this skirmish, their noses turned up at the scent of blood and rot wafting from inside, a stark difference from the warm smells of hearth and home that accompanied the clan's regular, simple lives.

What happened here was a tragedy.

"Zero," Virgil said, jogging to meet his mentor shoulder to shoulder. "We've been looking for you since you got back. We don't know how it happened but--"

"The tribes are in trouble," Simon finished, stepping to Zero's other side with his nose pointed at the remnants of this village.

"Something's happening to the dead, they're either disappearing completely or waking up and attacking the living!" Virgil said, fists clenched tight at his sides. He started breathing heavily, gritting his teeth in frustration, like he'd been waiting to let a weight off of his shoulders, but the pressure remained. "We never should have believed the Empire would give us a whole year. They're liars!"

Virgil's heart was broken for his people, the Empire crashed the best party of the year and waited until they were at home to launch an attack sooner than they said they would. The pragmatic nature their envoys carried themselves only puzzled Virgil more since the people who were lost in this first attack weren't a part of the resistance crew, just regular people making it through their day to day lives. Virgil and Simon had been training especially hard with The Conservatory and tried to bring more of their people to the atelier to work with the Cordo while Zero was away, only to return to their homes under siege. But, the Empire normally would have invaded with flags and fanfare, bringing battle directly to their homesteads. This unforeseen, sinister unfolding of carnage across the Gafren Highlands was unprecedented to every village it came across so far and threatened to spread like a plague from homestead to homestead if they failed to find an answer to this new threat.

Virgil's clear unease and Simon's shivering body showed two men wracked with guilt, unable to see a path forward without guidance, hoping their mentor held some sort of answer for them.

With the two men standing alongside him, Zero sighed analyzing the destruction laid before them.

The guilt wracked him. He knew the Empire had nothing to do with this.

"Boys, I got some bad news," he said, stretching his arms over the shoulders of his two pupils, bringing them close to his face. He held them tight, just to bring some firm energy to their anxious trembling before stepping forward toward the door almost blown off its hinges. "This isn't the Empire. It's something worse."

Simon stared straight ahead, his cloudy eyes peering off into the distance while his brow furrowed curiously. Virgil looked more directly disturbed, his eyes danced wildly over the scene of carnage and his breathing grew ragged before he broke away from Zero's firm embrace. Zero felt a growl grow in his throat, but raised a bandaged hand to wave him closer again, just to keep him calm.

Since he and Zeik departed Iden, the End of the World, all of Vescrutia fell under a sinister spell, one that the Gafren Tribes faced head on for some time now. Their conflivt with the Arceneaux guard left the world's Bridgeworks in disarray without a channel to help the departed spirits travel into the Unseen and take on their next journey.

Explaining this to Virgil and Simon took a few moments and assuaged a bit of their uncertainty, Virgil's wild eyes quelled into a more determined focus as he reevaluated the plight of his people. Simon's distant gazecalmed, but he retained a quiet intensity, always over the horizon yet somehow still present.

"So that's why everything smells... funky?" Simon asked, his nose twitching to catch the familiar scent of rot on the wind. He stepped forward to escape Zero's arm and kneeled low to the ground, filling his nostrils with the pungent odor of spoil in front of the doorway.

"Unfortunately, yeah," Zero said wincing at the sharp pain that shot through his fingers as Simon brushed past them. "I acutally came this way to check in with Lady Saldy to let you all know what's going on, but the signs of the times got to you first."

"Lady Saldy's been busy coordinating the war effort, but the dead walking have kept her focused on safeguarding the Highlands from our own dead," Virgil said.

"Well, let's go give her a hand!" Zero said, waving both of them on as he took off on the cliff's edge overlooking Toscano Bay and the Freshwater Sea to the 'capitol' of the Gafren Tribes at Verspire, the highest point of the Highlands stabbing right out of the Freshwater Sea itself. There, he expected to meet with Lady Saldy and relay the same info he shared with Simon and Virgil to her to spread throughout the Highlands.

Lady Saldi was the respected matriarch of the Gafren diaspora spread across the Highland steppe, revered by each tribe in their own way for her steely resolve, gentle touch, and encouraging word. Before Skyfall, Zero met Lady Saldi only once, sharing a dinner with her, Simon, Virgil and some of the remnants of Arcturus that joined him in placing the first stone that would come to grow into the Neo Arcturia Citadel. A towering woman over most average men, Lady Saldi welcomed Zero and his band of misfits to the table when most of their future neighbors at the time kept them further than arm's reach from fear of the wrath of Mares Vidas.

Zero felt it odd that she hadn't joined them at either of the Neo Festurus-es after being treated so kindly initially, but also understood that her position probably required more of her at home while her people could enjoy themselves. Lady Saldi descended directly from the leader of the Knights of Jaida himself, Garland Gafren, and had a reputation to uphold as do most people occupying a seat like hers in their communities.

That position made her the single person to talk to when the unburied dead rose again.

His fleet feet took off expecting Simon and Virgil to follow in his footsteps, but a sudden sense of dread crawled up his spine.

Zero heard the creaking of boards from within the village and slid to a stop, heels ripping up the loamy grasses while he turned to see what might have emerged that made his hair stand on end.

The creaking of the boards from within the nestled village quickly grew into snapping arbor, loud thumps that shook the earth beneath them. Even from his distance at least a hundred meters away, Zero smelled the foul odor of death waft out of the building, the front door with its bisected door began to glow a sinister crimson with a light source from deep within the village, the frayed wooden beams rattled as what laid hidden inside stirred awake.

The broken door, the whole wooden frame, and the front of the village entrance nestled into the grassy hill all exploded in a cloud of crimson-grey smoke cascading over the cliffside over Toscano Bay, rolling down the hills that stretched into Emerald's Ascension. The Smoke engulfed Simon and Virgil, obscuring them completely from sight while Zero inched forward to jump into the fray instinctively. Even without his hands, he couldn't let his boys get caught up in a battle without him, but without laying eyes on the threat he wasn't sure exactly how to engage.

"Simon! Virgil!!" he screamed while a blazing glow emerged from the vaporized entrance to the hollowed out family home.

Loud footsteps boomed across the grassland, compressing the crimson-grey smoke cloud as they cascaded from the epicenter of the explosion. A Orange glow steadily grew as the footsteps became louder and louder, accompanied by the creak and snap of boards from within the thrashed village.

Another burst of energy emanated from the ruined village and peeled back the blanket of soil and grass from its top, blasting wooden shrapnel and debris sky high, dispelling the billowing clouds with a terrifying roar coming from a bear-like creature clad in flames, outfitted with long, saber-like teeth and powerful paws crying out to the open sky, awakened to sheer violence.

The shockwave rushed past Simon and Virgil guarding their faces from the shrapnel cast by the destruction of what remained of the cliffside village. As the flaming creature emerged from the wreckage, booming footsteps shaking thr ground as it lumbered toward the brothers, Virgil looked into its angry, distant eyes without wavering while Simon took a half a step back feeling the warmth emanating from their adversary.

Zero Venkage wrote: Fri Nov 07, 2025 10:43 pm
"Simon! Virgil!!" he screamed while a blazing glow emerged from the vaporized entrance to the hollowed out family home.

“We’re fine!” Virgil said, extending a hand toward Simon so brought his hand up towards his brother in unison. “Ewan owes us one more round!”

Simon and Virgil recognized the flaming form of the Gafren Sabrebear before them, the Pyromuse Familiar of an old friend of theirs they knew from earlier years in the hills. He was older than the brothers and often teased them for lacking the bonds that the rest of their tribe came by so naturally. Ewan hailed from the northern cliffs of the Highlands, bordering the Fosfe Crags and adopted his Urizen bond with the Sabrebear, a predator that few Gafren opted to pursue with its high likelihood of dismemberment. Ewan’s larger build and arrogance led to multiple run ins with the pair over the years. They rarely amounted to more than scuffles for bragging rights between them, but Ewan challenged them both every time, the inseparable pair against his “indomitable strength.”

Ewan came out of most of their encounters victorious, even though the brothers teamwork surpassed their opponents’ urizen bond with brotherly force. Now that they had been training under Zero for a year and a half, Ewan hadn’t challenged them since their journey bore fruits.

Simon and Virgil’s hands glowed with Vermeil light and a spark appeared from within each of their outstretched palms. They floated toward one another and began to orbit one another like Vescrutia’s own solar system. The binary lights swirled around one another faster and faster, casting golden sparks off until they disappeared in a flash and a golden sheen ignited from within Virgil and Simon from their hearts, spreading across them like fire and seething from their aura into the crimson-great clouds roiling around them. Simon’s grey corneas cleared up in a similar golden swirl and he finally moved his head to look directly at the enemy before them, the poor departed soul who needed to be put to rest.

“Arwooooooooooo!”

The brothers howled in unison and their Mythrilink activated in full effect, morphing their auras into a pair of Highland Hounds staring down Ewan’s Pyromuse Familiar with impunity. If they could end this undead beast here, they might be able to save more villages on the steppe.

Virgil stepped forward, one glowing paw landing in the grass, and Simon leaped forward with a flying punch thrown at Ewan. His Mythrilink Aura made a fierce swipe with the hound’s claws as he followed up with another flurry of punches, letting his aura swing fiercely at the fiery foe to cut him down to size.

Virgil’s next step sent him into a hasty strafe around Ewan and next into a drill like spin with his whole body. His aura glowed brighter, turning into a violent whirlwind of slashing, crushing force carving through the loamy soil to strike Ewan and blow him away. Once he was put down, they planned to catch up to Zero and see what Lady Saldi had to say.

The Conservatory wrote: Sun Nov 09, 2025 7:47 pm
“We’re fine!” Virgil said, extending a hand toward Simon so brought his hand up towards his brother in unison. “Ewan owes us one more round!”

Looking back at the pair of wolves geared up and ready to go, Zero’s eyebrows raised curiously watching his pupils launch into the fray against this mystically undead opponent. If they believed they could make it out alive, he trusted them to join him with Lady Saldi when they finished. Zero turned around and dashed off leaving nothing but a trail of kicked up grass behind him.

The battle he left behind ensued with Ewan bracing his lumbering beast of a body for impact with Simon’s glowing paw. The burning bear raised one of its paws to meet Simon’s and the impact slid its feet through the scorched earth beneath them. With Virgil’s spinning attack approaching his other side, Ewan aura flared right before impact as the giant wolf drill bashed into him, grinding his blazing body into Simon’s paw.

Ewan roared as he bore the onslaught, shining sparks and flaming embers spewing every which way off his Sabrebear hide. He stood, enduring the strikes while the flaming hairs on his back bristled, its hackles igniting a crimson-grey pelt pattern flowing from his shoulders down to his clawed paws.

Ewan roared again as the flaming aura and his burning paws gave him a burst of strength to spin once and send two circular slashes to his opponents that recoiled Simon’s swipe and let Virgil’s driving drill slide past him. In the next ferocious movement, Ewan swiped down on Virgil hoping to catch his body in motion and crush him with the weight of a crimson-grey-flaming strike arcing far above his head and burning claw marks scrawling across the air into the dirt before them, lumbering on one foot from the force of putting all his weight into it. The strike itself roared like a towering funeral pyre crumbling under the weight of its own torched lumber.

The beast within Ewan completely took over and left him with nothing but carnal intent.

Virgil's brazen spin slipped past the blazing hide of Ewan's Pyromuse Familiar and right into his line of sight where a flaming claw wracked his body against the ground and bounced it off the scorched ground outside. The Golden, wolfen aura protected him from most of the brunt of the attack and he recovered his composure quickly to land on his feet behind Simon. His glowing eyes and golden form's hackles bristled as he took aim at Ewan in the split moment between his mindless movements.

A burst of golden vapor flattened the grass where Simon took flight, lunging directly at Ewan's exposed throat with his golden aura clamping down on it with as much power as he could. Ewan's lumbering body seemed to be alive and if there was enough energy left in it to bring his dead body to animation, maybe the same rules applied to these damned corpses.

Virgil, perfectly poised behind his brother, had his glowing fur waving in the fire-licked winds, emanating small, glowing orbs of gold and Vermeil from its rustling fur. He made a few quick hand movements from within the aura before forming what looked like a wolf's open mouth with both hands aimed straight forward.

Ein Kizuna: Devourer

Simon's maw planted into the throat of Ewan's Pyromuse Familiar quickly began to glow, casting sharp beams of light all around them while he held their reanimated rival in place. The next second, Virgil howled and the glow from Simon's aura's powerful jaws exploded with a blast of energy, shimmering and silvery like Vermeil. The recoil sent Simon's body sliding through the upturned soil back to Virgil's side, mouth seething with Vermeil wisps.

"You think that's enough?" Virgil asked from within his golden hound's cowl.

"A little more," Simon said with his eyes still locked on to the site of the explosion, still glowing with Ewan's Pyromuse Familiar dimly lit behind it. He wanted it to be over, but knew one solid strike wouldn't put their rival down for good, not if he was any semblance of the man they knew before. Virgil and Simon stood at the ready for what would come next.

~~~


Further out on the Highland Steppe, overlooking the Freshwater Sea

"Lady Saldi. i think Zero is on hi--"

There was a knock on the front door of the capitol village of the Gafren Highlands sharing its name with the leader of the Knights of Gafren. By comparison, the village of Garland occupied a space of five normal villages with a large wooden pair of gates engraved, emblazoned with an ornate carving of the Gafren Knight Beetle guarding the entrance. The large rings that allowed entry from the outside knocked heavily while the attendant at the door was cut off mid sentence. The party inside, Lady Saldi and some of her close family and retainers from other villages, were surprised by the knocking when they had all gathered near a window to assess the situation unfolding on the cliffs overlooking Toscano Bay. They heard the roars and howls, the flashes from the battle between Ewan, Virgil, and Simon flickered in the light of the passing twilight.

"Looks like he's already here," Lady Saldi said from her seat, rocking back and forth with a small child in her arms. "Open the door and get some food ready. We have work to do."

The doors to the Village of Garland creaked open, the sculpted Knight Beetle's carapace opening like it prepared to take flight and the doors to the village opened to Zero sauntering in with a big smile, open arms, and a small bouquet of local flowers bunched up in his mouth.

"Saldiiii, babyyyy," he said through the stems of the bright mix of flowers picked just before they closed up for the evening on the Highland Steppe. "It's been too long! We missed you at the Second Annual Neo Festurus."

Zero stepped through the threshold with the twilight of the highlands at his back, unfortunately noticing the influx of pungent odor from outside coming with him. He quickly hopped out of the doorway and greeted the various people waving to him in cozy, fireplace lit chamber and letting the doors close behind him to keep the stench of despair from infiltrating the peaceful space. With Lady Saldi in her grand seat, a veritable throne of a rocking chair complete with a quiet child wrapped in her strong, protective arms, the scene reminded Zero exactly why she held her position in the tribe, beyond any claim to power by birthright or battle scars. She sat beside the roaring fireplace with sweet child in arms and the rest of the room centered around her warmth rather than that of the hearth.

~~~

Meanwhile, back at the battleground...

With golden fangs stuck in his Pyromuse's throat, causing major pressure on his body, Ewan gnashed and thrashed at the golden dog locked on his throat. The more he flung his arms, the more the aura of flame grew around his Familiar, burning brighter and roaring more fiercely until the golden glow amped up around his neck. From through the beaming light, just for a second, Ewan was able to see Virgil further away orchestrating their tandem strike. His eyes swirled with flame, face scowled with rage, and used both his burly arms with flaming claws igniting into a searing white glow. Ewan made a swipe at the underbelly of Simon's aura, cutting into nothing but air with searing hot claws while Simon unleashed a blast of energy at the trachea of his Pyromuse form.

The explosion went off point-blank, mangling the face of his Pyromuse Familiar, crushing the fiery sabred teeth, unfurling the synthetic fire and flesh in the wake of the flash of Vermeil light. Ewan stumbled back, reeling on his feet, trying to keep himself from falling over with the massive damage they applied to his headspace.

He groaned quietly while the smoke cleared, the shockwave peeled more of the soil ceiling from the frame of the partially underground village. The smoldering flames of Ewan's Pyromuse Familiar waned gently, smoldering around his joints. The groans continued, morphing from animal, to human, to something even less recognizable as the sabrebear's body glowed eerily in the smokescreen, frozen in recoil.