Loki's Rule ~ An Literate Avenger's Roleplay

bunnyshadow • 15 September 2012 at 8:02 PM

@jupiter_hollow @asi
~~~
"Nothing's wrong." Angel said, repeating Ray's words. "Nothing's wrong, Aizel." she said as sat up. There have been times when someone had tried fighting her power, but always- ALWAYS- they gave in.

"Nothing's wrong." Angel repeated once more, as she stood.

asi • 15 September 2012 at 8:31 PM

"Aizel!" Ray cried out, shocked, forgetting to lower his voice for the Chitauri...
She sounded hurt! She LOOKED hurt... For some reason, this woke Ray up far more than any of the violence Angel had previously endured. Again, his hand reached out instinctively towards the shaking, tormented Aizel, hovering by her hair as if to stoke it, comfort her, until a shadow flitted over his blank, scared, and very Ray-ish expression. His face darkened, and became... Un-Ray-ish.
His cold gaze fell upon Angel. He was no longer troubled by doubt. He didn't need his memories to tell that someone who hurt Aizel like this was the bad guy.
Right and wrong? Up and down? Everything was wrong if Aizel was suffering like this.
Not bothering with speech, he merely let his eyes- not reflecting dark fires but torrents of water, burning with not with heat but ice- bore into Angel's, saying everything he needed. There was no chance of her overpowering him with her persuasion, because there was no way to hold on to water; just slipped through one's fingers.
If she didn't leave, he'd kill her.
Simple.

dada_dragon • 15 September 2012 at 8:37 PM

@meixiaotian
@leafpelt
@bunnyshadow

Aykay watched as Pyra joined them and took in the spectacle. She made her way over.

"I'm sorry." she said, coughing. "I wasn't paying attention to what I was lighting. We should move up, right?"

All of her earlier calm was gone. She was panicking.

-Not very good in stressful situations, are you?- taunted the voice.

"Have you seen Frost?" She asked.

jupiter_hollow • 15 September 2012 at 9:10 PM

@bunnyshadow @asi

'There's nothing wrong..... nothing wrong.... wrong... ong.. ong...'

The blonde's back had increased in volume and now was inches from making Aizel's head explode. She bit back a scream - the least they needed was the Chitauri's attention (somehow, past the pain, she'd remembered Margot's words to be quiet). Her tanned, slender fingers gripped her head, nails digging into her temples.

God, the darkness seemed so tempting now, she acknowledged with relief - it was so warm, comfortably nuzzling her in a tight embrace of safety. "Nothing's wrong.." she chocked out to herself. She was safe now, what else was there to worry about? There was a piece of her mind that hadn't surrendered yet. Part of her refused to give up, despite the pain. "Nothing's w-wr ... wrong..." her own voice pierced her mind now. She was persuading herself to surrender...

Ray's scream penetrated her ears suddenly, mixing with Angel's voice and her own voice. Despite the volume of the blonde, Ray's screech still stood out most. Aizel hiccuped in surprise, completely taken aback... Angel's voice had lost volume, now that Aizel was distracted by Ray's. Her mind snapped - a distraction, that was what she needed...

aizel • 15 September 2012 at 9:12 PM

@bunnyshadow @asi

Her options were limited - she couldn't ask Ray to talk again, she herself wasnt't capable of voicing out anything but Angel's chant. She also found herself unable to rip her gaze away from the blonde. So, without further ado, she scrambled up somehow, tipped to the left and bashed her head against the wall, full-force. The hit made her dizzy and black spots appeared in her vision. But she had managed to break Angel's deadly eye contect. Leaning on the wall, with blood trickling in a single small river don her forehead, she smiled. The blonde's voice began to fade away, completely replaced by pure reality. Aizel stood up straight, looking at Ray. All eye contact with Angel was avoided as she warned the boy. "Don't look her in the eye!" she whispered, loud enough for him to hear.

bunnyshadow • 15 September 2012 at 9:13 PM

@asi @jupiter_hollow
~~~
Angel's gaze left Aizel's only to meet Ray's. One look at Ray told her that she was screwed. Still, she kept her composure. "What?" she asked him. "What is it?" she asked nervously, as she took a step back. Her eyes kept shifting from Ray, to Aizel, to the group of chitauri nearby.

They finally stopped on Aizel, and she watched as the girl bashed her head against the wall nearest to them.

asi • 15 September 2012 at 9:38 PM

"..." His cold stare remained fixed on his prey, unwavering and unrelenting; like the tidal wave, it could not be stopped. He calmly ignored Aizel's caution, clearly unneeded, and as Angel retreated, he advanced, keeping the distance between them unchanged, and in doing so, purposely stepped between the two girls, shielding Aizel from the other's sight.
"Five," he finally spoke, just a single word. If his gaze was like a tsunami, then his voice was steel.
He continued to look into Angel's eyes, challenging her with cold confidence quite unlike himself. This was a fight he would not lose, not if he could help it.
He'd been useless so far; now he'd show them who he really was.

bunnyshadow • 15 September 2012 at 10:00 PM

@asi
~~~
Angel bit her bottom lip, and took another few backward steps. It was obvious that Ray would stop at nothing to get rid of her. She stopped her backwards walking, and narrowed her eyes. "I can fight him." she thought to herself.

jupiter_hollow • 15 September 2012 at 10:19 PM

@bunnyshadow @asi

Aizel had managed somehow to push herself away from the wall, half-stumbling over to Ray. Angel's voice still echoed in her head and that, combined with her encounter with the wall, made everything blurry. Ray's shoulder was a little faded but she managed to grasp it, not to thank him, but just to hold on. With her other arm, she wiped the blood from her forehead, brushing it in her top.

'Man up, you moron.' she mentally cussed herself. Both her and Ray were faced with a psycho b****, a few dozen Chitauri hung out by their block and they were probably in for a big beating if any of them made a mistake. Now, needless to say, it was a time to take things seriously without whining. And there she was - acting freaking helpless and whiny.

Snarling at Angel's direction (only at her feet actually, she didn't dare look her in the eyes), Aizel let go of Ray's shoulder, bending down to pick her fallen Baby Eagle Magnum Guns. Savoring their cold metal feel in her hands, she raised them to aim for Angel's knees. She didn't have to worry about making noise - her babies had silencers. As for the blonde - Aizel was sure she wouldn't be able to live enough to even scream...

asi • 15 September 2012 at 11:03 PM

Above them, her sapphire eyes glittering, West crouched silently on the roof, in a pose reminiscent of a stone gargoyle humans of the bygone days had adorned on their grand old-fashioned buildings; though of course, no one could compare the pretty Asgardian to such a thing as far as looks.
Her sensitive ears had heard the human children's argument from blocks away, and, curiosity arosed, as was easily the case with West, she'd scaled a building in order to get a good seat, and watch the show unfold, only missing popcorn.
She looked down on the three with a slightly quizzical look, a cute little frown appearing upon her usually dead face. They puzzled her in the same manner a math equation would. West tilted her head to one side, as was her habit, and observed with an unfathomable expression hidden beneath her dark hood.

~

"Aizel...." he didn't dare break his concentration to look at her, but addressed her quietly. She was going to shoot? Admittedly... This wasn't turning out quite like he'd hoped or planned. Angel didn't seem like she was going to back down anymore- that confused him; just what did she hope to gain from this confrontation?- and with Aizel clinging on to him for support, it would be a little more difficult to fight Angel his way.

smilies • 17 September 2012 at 1:31 AM

A chill ran down West's spine; her eyes narrowed, vision blurred, and the colours seemed to drip away, leaving only a greyscale world behind...
This was West's talent; her sixth sense; premonition.
In this cold washed-out plane, intentions, the future actions of others, lay scattered over the floor, just waiting for her to pick and read like an open book. Talk about spoilers; now West knew exactly how the brawl would end.
Returning to her body, she scowled, like a little girl who'd had her lollipop taken away. There wasn't much she disliked more than knowing the future. Without surprises, this world was so boring.
That thought in mind, she sprung, landing lightly on her feet (cats always land on their feet, am I right?) beside the little blondie, with her back to the other two (having been on the building behind the latter). As she did so, West passed by the boy, and she noted with some satisfaction that the sudden ripples in the air marking her passage shocked him into stumbling back a bit; oh, how cute, she liked him. Now that she saw him, with those icy blue eyes and feathery black hair, yup, he was kinda cute~.
Through all this, however, she did not allow her absent expression to alter, or her relaxed posture to tense. Luckily, the wind had been in her favor during her jump, hence her hood remained down, hiding her face.

skylark • 20 September 2012 at 6:31 PM

Aaron tried to help pull both of them over the edge, but resulted in giving himself pathetically bloody scratches. He forgot Margot was wearing gloves and his skin was too fleshy for anything, really. Grimacing a bit, he wiped the blood off and quickly healed the skin. Raising an eyebrow at Margot's flimsy screwdriver, Aaron walked over to the ventilation grate and swiftly gave it a resounding kick, careful not to hit Margot. The grate broke under his heavy foot and revealed a vent(obviously), with something inside the darkness whirring rapidly.

@silver_winged

silver_winged • 21 September 2012 at 6:20 PM

Margot had two screws out by the time Aaron made his way over to the grate and kicked it through. She reflexively flashed him a frown and checked for rough edges, but thankfully, the rusted piece of metal had come away cleanly. At least she wouldn't cut herself on the way down. "Thanks," she muttered, although it was difficult to tell whether she was being genuine or sarcastic. Then, she pulled her goggles over her eyes.

"I'll go down first," she explained, guiding her feet over the vent. She slid down to her waist, then to her elbows. Then, she let herself fall.

For a breathless moment in absolute darkness, she was free falling. Then, her feet hit solid metal, and she bent her knees to absorb the shock. Dropping to her hands and knees, she crawled forward to allow Aaron enough room to jump down. "Go!" she called behind her, then flipped the switch to activate her goggles. The air vent came to life in a wash of color. She could hear in the distance the whirring of a fan, but it wasn't in their particular vent. She made a mental note to watch out for it.

bunnyshadow • 22 September 2012 at 1:40 AM

Angel was ready to roll or jump out of the way the second she saw the guns in Aizel's hands. She knew it was probably hopeless, but still, she spoke. "What are you two doing?" She asked. "Put down the weapons, I am no danger to you." She added towards Aizel as she looked at a confusesd and probably mentally disturbed Ray.

A flash of movement out of the corner of her eyes, making her curious enough to look up. When she looked up, she saw nothing, so she turned back to Ray only to see him stumble back.

A look of surprise was on her face when she saw the hooded figure besides herself. She hid her surprise quickly, before snapping out at the figure. "Who are you?" She asked.

dada_dragon • 22 September 2012 at 1:57 AM

The flames burned higher. Aykay knew better than to stick around here. It was nearly impossible to breathe.

She headed towards the staircase, choking on both smoke and fumes. She took the steps two at a time, dropping the lighter somewhere along the way. Oh well. She transformed into her tiger form. It would be easier to fight her way out if she needed to, but even then, she didn't like her chances.

-What about the others?- asked the voice in an almost amused tone. -Are you going to leave them behind?-

She hesitated, but then kept moving. They were more than capable of taking care of themselves. She needed to get out of here. She shouldn't have agreed to help these people.

She cleared the last of the stairs and came face-to-face with a few machines. They must have been sent to check the source of the fires. Seeing them, Aykay froze.

Outside, she was not afraid of the machines. Anywhere but here, and she would not have hesitated.

But here, in the place where she was last captured, the machines only triggered the fear she felt the first time. The machines raised their weapons and she whimpered.

-Maybe you should have gone back to the others after all.- laughed the voice.

@bunnyshadow @leafpelt @meixiaotian @asi @silver_winged

asi • 23 September 2012 at 1:06 AM

@jupiter_hollow (No caps ONLY because I used the ping button! XD And am lazy)
@bunnyshadow

"..." West's hand, gloved with claws retracted, slipped out from the cover of a lengthy sleeve and softly closed around one of Angel's. It was a motion decidedly too smooth and gentle to be considered hostile from any way it was looked at. All body language open to West's disposal from the depths of her trench coat said, 'this is my friend'. She hoped the girl would trust her and follow her lead, but she made no move to convince her with words.
The dark hood swiveled back so she could look for a moment over her shoulder at the other two kids. Now she'd changed the situation, she wondered what their reactions would be. Now it was interesting. Would they fight now that it was even? West didn't plan on fighting herself, if she could help it... She'd see them again, later, she reassured herself, looking forward to it. That was her main motivation for not speaking; West hoped that next time they met, whatever took place here wouldn't put any dirt on the quality of conversation, as they seemed an interesting duo. Midgard. Such a... Unique, place. No wonder he chose it.
Without warning, she stepped forwards, inevitably yanking Angel along with her, and with the full intent to keep up her fast stride, so long as no one got in her way.

smilies • 23 September 2012 at 1:08 AM

"Who...?" he stopped, seeing as Angel had beat him to the question. The figure had their back to him, but it was no hard matter to identify the gender at least. It seemed that while Angel didn't know the (women, girl? he couldn't tell age, though the size indicated the latter) either, whoever this was, she was on Angel's side, that was purposefully made clear.
Hoody made to leave, and Ray was still undecided, in fact, he hadn't even gotten around to asking himself the question. This chick didn't waste time. (Wait a second.... Was she holding a stuffed cat? What was she, six??)
Maybe he ought to let them go. There was no way of knowing the newcomer's abilities, even if she was six (she had just jumped off a roof), and they could get hurt and endanger the mission. They'd already lost one comrade, and a lot of time.
But... Ray's eyes narrowed. It was in his own best interests, his personal ones, if a fight were to take place... He glanced at Aizel. He didn't wish to obviously instigate a fight, so maybe she could make it easy for him...

jupiter_hollow • 23 September 2012 at 2:27 AM

@asi OMGOSH I'm so proud of you! ;o; @bunnyshadow

If she'd been furious before, then now, Aizel was ready to blow top. Narrowed black glowers - she didn't know who to glare at, at the annoying know-it-all behind her that apparently had plans of his own (involving either trying to heroically fight or leave that all to her and God forbid she leave him alive and healthy after this...), the miserably failed spy, who's knees she'd watched ever so intensely for the past minute; She was apparently trying to prove herself innocent, even though all odds and Aizel's guns were against her. And last, but not least, she could choose to glare at the newly come strange girl as well. Pink-haired little girl, seemingly possessing the abilities of catwoman, that had randomly decided to ally with Angel. She snorted quietly, slightly amused how things were being pieced together... She - the one with the guns and Ray - guy unaffected by Angel's hypnotization against Angel and little girl. Strange how easy it all looked to her - shoot the guns. Left gun bullet for the girl and right gun bullet for Angel. They were in range and were both occupied by each other... So why was it so difficult for her hands to keep a firm grip on the guns. She wasn't sure on whether to make a move, a rare occurance, since she was fairly bash-headed, never reluctant to dive in trouble head first. But now it was different somehow. The little girl intrigued her for some reason.
-c-

aizel • 23 September 2012 at 2:30 AM

-c-
She looked and acted like a small child, but had showed off some inhuman abilities. She had powers, that was sure, but Aizel desired to know to what they were limited, if they were limited at all...

Of course, curiousity had lasted only a minute, before the stranger headed to leave. She highered her Desert Baby Eagle Guns. God forbid the little brat get away.
"I'm shooting them, any objections?" she mumbled out to Ray, surprising herself of how much like Madge she could sound.

asi • 23 September 2012 at 7:45 AM

@jUPITER_hOLLOW You're so silly... Why do you say that?! XD

Sheeshka, now why was Aizel giving HIM the stink eye? Did she honestly expect to run forward and beat up two fleeing young girls? With his fists? Surely she had some kind of moral code that said WRONG. They were supposed to the good guys, right? (Those were his excuses, at least. Yes, he wantsd a fight, but he didn't want to be in it). But about Aizel; what her problem was escaped him.
"No, no problem," Ray shrugged. Wow, he'd just been talking about standards, and now it was okay to shoot them? Oh, but Ray had every confidence that the bullets would not hit their mark. There was something about that mysterious cloaked girl... Definitely something about her. But if the bullets could force her to stop... Besides, he wasn't about to tell Aizel NO and start another argument. She was already mad enough and he hadn't done anything yet!

The confusion didn't last as long as she'd wished for, though it lasted longer than she'd anticipated. West didn't need her power telling her that Buttercup was going to shoot her, nor did she need her special ears to overhear it; it was already as common a fact to her as the sun setting in the west.
She only had to wait.

jupiter_hollow • 23 September 2012 at 8:07 AM

@asi 'Cause I know how hard it is for you not to capitalize XD Dude, I have a feeling Ray will be in love with Kitty for some reason 😋

Snorting with a smirk, Aizel nodded at Ray's confirmation - either ways, she would have fired the gun. Always taking a maniacal glee in killing everything and anything, Aizel smiled faintly - a feathery quirk of lips that touched her previously tense expression. The steel weapons in her hands were highered, outstretched so they'd obviously point the target. Pitless black eyes locked onto the tuff of light pink hair through the hindsight. The other gun aimed towards Angel, ready to be fired right afterwards.

Like before, she'd felt advantage in her hands - icy cold steel against her burning hot flesh was a sensation she adored. It meant having someone's life gathered in one single movement of your fingers. Abusing that advantage was what she was born of. With a faint click and one wheezing sound, the first bullet was fired, not making a soudn loud enough for even the girls to hear... In another milisecond, the other bullet followed. Both were aimed towards the targets, she was sure nothing more was needed, since it was far too late to be able to evade any of the bullets. She was sure of that...

asi • 23 September 2012 at 4:38 PM

@jupiter_hollow Just for you ._.
Really? Because have a feeling Ray'll be in love with half the girls in this RP sometime or another X3 Because they're all so pretty X3

West knew that she wasn't fast enough to consciously dodge a bullet, but moving too soon would mean the girl would have simply moved her aim; she'd had to wait until it was too late for a change.
If she'd been by herself, West probably could have avoided her bullet and kept running. But she wasn't alone, and the reason she'd interrupted was to save this little girl, not get a corpse. She slammed her other palm into Angel, cat plushie and all, pushing the blond to the ground and in doing so moved out of the danger of her bullet; but into the path of Angel's.
The metal tore into her back, and West cried out; her hood slipped off in the movement to reveal her startlingly pink hair, while she dropped to her knees.

smilies • 23 September 2012 at 4:40 PM

What happened next stunned Ray. Firstly, the girl's hair was PINK. What was that?! Dye? They didn't sell that in shops anymore! It didn't look fake, it looked... Well, very pretty. But that wasn't the point.
Second, she was FAST. Not nearly as fast as him, but for a human, quick...
But strangest of all, the stranger, who'd been brought down by the bullet she'd took for Angel and had sounded like she was in such pain; then reached out to her wound, on her back, below her right shoulder, and simply ripped the bullet from her flesh, as if it was no more than removing a bee stinger. This time, not only did she not make a sound, but now that he could see her face, no pain registered on it. And... Was it just him, or was there... Very little bleeding?
Being shot there should definitely result in serious injury, no doubt. Whereas this little girl only seemed to have a scratch. Ray was shocked.
The pinkhaired, bulletproof girl shot the two of them a quick, mischevious flash of a smile, before grabbing Angel and springing upwards, onto a roof; an impossible jump, and disapearing from sight.

meixiaotian • 23 September 2012 at 7:59 PM

Pyra ran after Akyay, ignoring if anyone was behind her, and leaving behind the flames. She turned into her tiger form. That was good. She seemed to be ready to fight. That is, until she hit the end of stairs. She froze. What?! Pyra frowned. Then she saw the chitauri behind tiger-girl. Well, technically in front. Why did she freeze up? Was she passed out or something?
"Move!" She yelled at her. She might've helped, but tiger-girl would do better, and she was blocking her way. It wasn't like she could do anything anyway. She glanced behind her to check if anyone else was backing her up. None had rounded the corner yet. Or maybe they didn't follow. Her head swung back at problem.

leafpelt • 23 September 2012 at 8:07 PM

Frost ran up the steps, trying to catch up with everyone. It was burning up on one of the floors, with a strong smell of...aerosol?, but Frost managed to avoid the flames. She ran faster as she saw Pyra and Aykay slightly further on. She finally caught up to Pyra and muttered, " What's going on?" Aykay seemed frozen, almost shell-shocked. Chituari were in the way, blocking their path.

dada_dragon • 23 September 2012 at 9:09 PM

Aykay heard the other two come up behind her. She was frozen at the sight of the machines. She heard Pyra yelling at her to move and she happily complied.

She couldn't do this... this was far too much for her to handle...

She knew that one level up was the place where they had captured her. Three floors above that was where they'd interrogated her, and... and the top floor was where they had brought her before... before HER.

@bunnyshadow
@leafpelt
@meixiaotian

bunnyshadow • 23 September 2012 at 9:22 PM

@leafpelt @meixiaotian @Jupiter_hollow @asi @leafpelt
~~~
Fang hissed with distaste. He was never big on commotion. His eyes scanned the burning room, searching for a way to save them all. What was Aykay thinking? There were chitauri in all directions, and they almost had no chance of escape. And on top of all that, Aykay started the fire. What were they supposed to do? Magically teleported themselves out of a burning room surrounding by aliens?
-
Angel let out a slight breath as the hooded girl took her arm and started to lead her away. She took a few steps after the girl before Aizel shot at them. Angel watched with surprise as the hooded figure jumped in front of herself and took the bullet. Pink hair. The figure's Hood had fallen back when she was shot, and Angel saw pink hair. Angel was about to make a comment, when the pink haired girl took hold of her and jumped towards a rooftop.

asi • 23 September 2012 at 10:59 PM

Once landing, albeit roughly, on the roof, which in response made a scary sound; West, although tiny in size, was an Asgardian, meaning her mass much more than should have been expected had she been human, and her weight combined with Angel made the roof of questionable safety tremble. She kept on running till they reached the highest point, then skidded down the other side's slope. At the bottom, West sat down and dangled her legs over the edge. By now, she was sure there would be no pursuit, and so for a few minutes West entertained herself by slipping off her coat and attempting a series of stretches (which demonstrated an unusually high and somewhat freaky level of flexibility) in order to view the damage from her hit. The shirt worn underneath the jacket was no problem for the simple reason that it was next to backless, a few mere straps; if almost like she'd planned it.
"..." Finally, she spoke, her voice soft and strangely empty of emotion; "That'll scar.... You owe me." The last statement was no threat, just a lighthearted observation. West untwisted herself slowly to turn and rake her eyes across Angel. "Okay?" she asked, voicing her concern in the least number of words as possible. It would immediately give anyone the impression that she was an icecube, which was partly true.

silver_winged • 26 September 2012 at 8:36 PM

Margot shuffled through the narrow vent on her hands and knees, feeling keenly for any kind of bump in the floor. Heat vision was great for spotting living organisms, but when it came to picking out specific patch of metal in a controlled pipe--well, that was another story.

Finally, she felt her palm hitch over a lumpy bit of metal, and she squinted down at the panel. They had found a vent that led into the building. With a bit of quick screwdriver work, she undid the grate and pulled it away. Then, after a stern look at Aaron that would hopefully serve as a warning to keep quiet, she stuck just her head through the grate.

The upside-down room was cloaked in shadows. Many of the walls appeared to be massive windows, but each and every blind was drawn. There was a fancy kitchen with a bar, and a set of couches gathering dust. Without a doubt, this was Stark's apartment. And it was completely abandoned.

"All clear," she reported, ducking back into the vent before sliding her feet through the opening. "I'll push a couch over once I'm down." With that, she leaped to the floor of the apartment.

The electric lights in the apartment suddenly glared at full brightness, and Margot glanced down to see a little red dot trained on her chest. She immediately sprinted toward the kitchen and dived down, but a voice rung out before she even landed.

"What are you doing here?" it demanded. The voice sounded like a British male.

jupiter_hollow • 7 October 2012 at 8:49 AM

Had the group of Chitauri not been standing a block from them (they were in range of human hearing and taken they were futuristic metal beasts with enhanced senses, it was all the more dangerous to be loud) she would have let herself rage. Being restricted to quiet cursing made her even more furious in her frantic flailing of arms. She raised a fist, keen on bringing it down onto something - the blood stained wall, the ground, Ray, anything... But instead, she let it fall to her side miserably and clunched her teeth in anger. She cursed, under her breath, but aimed the most colorful insults at both Angel and Pinkie. Her chest heaved intensely, eyends - clutching the guns in malice. She seemed like a confined wild animal.

After a while of silent rage, she seemed to be calming down. Drawing in a sigh of exasperation, she crouched on the ground, sitting down with her sight trained upwards - where Pinkie had disappeared to.

"I missed." she mumbled pathetically. Unprideful as she was (dignity was something she had lost a long time ago - around the time of her first murder), the humiliation of losing to a kid was a bit too much to take (a pink-haired one at that). To top it all off, she had snatched the traitor from their clutches and almost gotten them exposed hence the screaming she'd done. "It's your fault." the statement as directed at Ray but held no emotion - she was just stating facts.