Adrianna had been fascinated with online gaming since early childhood. Now at age 36, she earned a living beta testing and improving game prototypes. Her feedback and innovative ideas led her to becoming a highly successful and sought-after gaming consultant.
Her looks were also in big demand. She was stunning and recently became involved in AI modeling. When she wasn’t gaming or testing, she was hiking, cycling, kickboxing… she was more than a gamer in her mind. She was a character. She strived to be able to do in real life what gaming entities could do in fantasy. She practiced parkour, and while she had never been in a real fight, she was confident in her ability to take on up to three attackers simultaneously.
Today, she was wearing insanely tight and tiny yoga shorts. Her firm and full ass was prominent over her toned, tanned legs adorned with a floral tattoo on her left thigh. Her pin-straight blonde mane tied back in a ponytail under her faded ball cap. Her crystal blue eyes keenly focused on the scene in front of her. Her large, firm tits bounced slightly in her taught sports halter top. Beads of sweat formed in her cleavage as she dug her walking stick into the trail’s soft soil.
She had been hiking all morning. At times she would take a break to wield her walking stick as a staff in an imaginary fight against a small horde of orcs. She often had difficulty separating her reality from her gaming fantasies. She never really saw this as an issue or flaw, but often rationalized her own behavior as the reason she was still single.
She felt her phone vibrating on her armband as she carefully crossed a surprisingly rapid stream. She was able to answer just before the call would go to voicemail.
A voice she immediately recognized was excitedly giving her instruction, without even a hello, to report to the gaming lab asap.
She began to ask about the importance and frantic tone of the call, but was interrupted with a “just get down here!” before “Mario” (real name John Jones, a major game developer) hung up on her.
She hastily completely her hike and didn’t even bother with stopping to shower or change. The call seemed too important.
Adrianna was only one of two women who had achieved near celebrity status in the gaming consultant field. The other was Linda G.
Linda and Adrianna knew each other very well. They worked together on a few projects and mostly got along well. They experienced a few moments of tension while in disagreement, but always remained professional.
Linda had received the same the frantic phone call while poolside at her beautiful home about 45 minutes outside the city.
Linda, now 33, had married a game developer when she was 22. Prior to meeting him, she had little interest in gaming. Once they got to know each other, she became fascinated by the creativity and details of game development. The first time she offered some ideas for a game, he incorporated them, and the game became his first international hit. He tragically died in a plane crash four years earlier, leaving Linda millions and a beautiful estate. She got a dog and swore to never marry again.
Linda was a natural for finding new and innovative ways to improve scenarios, storylines, and character development. She was also a natural model for many characters. Linda was a physical gem.
Before the phone call, she was naked and tanning by the pool. Her oil soaked, deeply tanned body glistened under the sun. Her full, firm breasts and perfectly shaped body were succulent and were accented by her shoulder-length, wavy black hair and piercing green eyes. When she wasn’t poolside, she was in her gym. When she wasn’t in her gym, she was gaming.
Like Adrianna, Linda too would act out characters in real life. Linda was tough, agile and fierce in her roles as she shadow boxed, and beat up her life-size punching dummy. Remaining physically fit helped with character modeling and development roles.
She quickly threw on her bikini, which barely covered anything and a sheer sundress before hopping in her car and racing to Mario’s office.
Adrianna and Linda arrived only a few seconds apart to a nearly empty parking lot on a hot Sunday afternoon. Adrianna was climbing out of our doorless, topless Jeep as Linda pulled up in her convertible Porsche. Both women looked at each other with a sense of shock at how little they were wearing.
Adrianna’s pronounced cameltoe was eye level to Linda as she began to climb out of her Jeep. Adrianna had a birds-eye view of Linda’s impressively sexy cleavage as she began to ascend from car.
“Hey, Linda,” Adrianna said as the shock wore off. “Same crazy phone call I got?”
“Sure seems that way,” Linda replied. “Looks like we both left in a hurry.”
“Yeah, let’s go see what this is about.”
Both women were escorted through the front entrance by a security guard who was visibly impressed by the sight of these two tall, stacked, shapely, barely dressed bombshells. He had seen them before, but never like this.
Mario sat frozen for a few seconds at his desk. Mouth agape, eyes bugged as the two women entered his massive, luxurious office.
“Wow, ummm… oh, please, take a seat,” Mario stammered. “Uh, you two really did rush here, huh?”
“Sounded important,” replied Adrianna as Linda nodded. Both women took seats next to each other on the comfy leather couch across from Mario.
“It is. We developed something that I only trust you two to beta test,” Mario said as he rose from his chair, totally forgetting he formed an erection a few seconds ago. “Oh, sorry. Anyway, check this out.”
The women blushed and smiled at the sight of Mario, a relatively short, gangly guy in his late 20s sporting a chub in his pants as he stood and retrieved a box from the side of his desk.
He opened the box, and pulled out what looked like two full-body see-through nylons and two pairs of thin, nearly weightless virtual-reality goggles .
Both women looked confused but interested.
“No one can know about this,” Mario loudly whispered to his two-person audience. “We developed full-body sensation virtual reality. What your character physically feels, you feel.”
“What?” was gasped in unison.
“Yeah, you are sensationally immersed in the game,” Mario explained. “From your hair to your toes, you feel every sensation your character experiences. The goggles and body suit give you every sensation. But check this out….”
Mario reached into a drawer behind his desk and took out two suits, one with a dildo and butt plug and the other with a vibrating vagina.
“These are the advanced prototypes for sexual gaming,” he said.
Both women blushed.
“Ummm, interesting,” Adrianna said. “But let’s talk about the non-sexual ones for now.”
“Yeah, I agree with her,” added Linda. “Are there prototype games for these suits?”
“Well, right now we only have one prototype game, and it’s only two player right now,” said Mario.
“Interested…” said Adrianna.
Linda hummed and nodded in agreement.
“Ok, but it’s a fighting game,” Mario started to explain while realizing both women might hesitate. He studied both expressions and was shocked nothing had changed. He cleared his throat and continued. “A fighting game is the easiest prototype as you both know because there is no need for any additional objects or features, especially when it’s a full immersion VR game. We assume the game is going to be exciting enough without bells and whistles.”
Both women turned toward each. They had experienced tension with disagreements in the past, but not with any animosity. However, now they looked each other over as gaming competitors.
The room was dead silent for several long minutes as the women looked each other over in a new way. A new tension formed. The idea of virtually challenging each other with life-like sensation stirred reactions and feelings they had never felt before. It also felt erotic. They ran their eyes over each other’s toned legs, arms and abs. They studies each other’s breasts and stared into each other’s eyes. Both expressed a sly grin as they realized they were now sharing similar thoughts.
They rose from the couch simultaneously, and turned their bodies to check out each other’s asses and back muscles. They were equally impressed, and feeling a bit turned on.
Mario’s mouth was wide open as he massaged his cock through his pants while seated at his desk.
Adrianna shook her hair quickly, breaking the stare-down , causing Linda and Mario to also snap back from the moment and move on with the conversation.
“Well, wasn’t that something,” Linda said while clearing her throat.
All three looked a bit flushed, and with knowing looks, returned to the task at hand. They took their seats on the couch, but closer together. Their thighs slightly touching.
Mario was hoping there would be no reason for him to stand for the next few minutes.
“Ok Mario, how do these suits work?” asked Adrianna. “Explain it to us.”
Marty was desperately trying not to touch his cock as he cleared his throat to explain.
“Well, first we need a full-body AI mold of each player,” Mario started. “Once we have that, the mold is meshed into the millions of microscopic sensors in every inch of the suit. The suits are tailored to the player. This is why you two are here. You have modeled for so many games, we were able to create AI molds and suits for only two so far. These are basically your skin suits.”
“So, what about the sex ones?” asked Linda.
“Oh, those are simply nylons we are testing accessories with,” Mario said while hiding the fact both suits were fitted for himself. “Anyway, how these suits work; well, you only get one suit. It’s yours for life. These look like nylon but they are actually a new material made only in this lab. It’s tough and durable, and potentially could outlast you on this planet.”
“Interested,” Adrianna interrupted. But it goes over our whole body, to include our face: eyes, nose, mouth?”
“Yes,” Mario answered. “You are completely covered, but this material allows you to breathe normally. There is nothing else like it anywhere.”
Linda made a matter-of-fact “huh” as Mario continued.
“Two things: one, you must shower prior to putting this on, and you must put this on immediately; don’t even bother drying off. Water doesn’t affect sensations but any type of dirt or lint will. So, the suit must remain in its case until you are ready to put it on. You can wash it, but don’t dry it. Again, lint or dirt will fuck it up. So, two, obviously you wear this suit completely naked, got it? No jewelry. No nothing. If you have a bandaid or something you can’t do anything about, that’s ok. You just won’t have sensation there.”
“Umm, what about piercings?” asked Linda with a slight sense of bashfulness, a side rarely - if ever - seen before.
“Uh, umm, well, yeah, what about them?” Adrianna also asked a bit sheepishly.
Both women side-eyed each other, certain they understood what area of concern each had.
Mario, now completely red-faced and painfully erect, stammered “uh, yeah, they, umm… well, that depends on what sensation you want. A piercing may block a sense….”
“Ok, coming off,” said both women hastily and nearly simultaneously.
“Wait, you two are ready to try this now?” asked Mario with a tone of surprise but deep anticipation. “I thought you might want to try these on at home and in private.”
“I’m actually kind of excited to check this out now, if we can,” said Adrianna.
Linda was visibly in agreement.
“Umm, sure, ok,” said Mario. “But the lab is not private, and I will need to be in the room to observe since you will be in a new and unfamiliar environment, and obviously together, which wasn’t expected.”
“I’m ok with that,” said Linda.
“Me too,” Adrianna immediately said in agreement. “Let’s check this out.”
Mario stood from behind his desk, no longer caring about his raging boner. It was not going away anytime soon.
The women blushed and smiled as they followed Mario to the testing lab.
Once inside, the women noticed how sterile the lab was. All-chrome desks, massive computer towers, and a spongy, cushioned floor. It was like walking on a cloud.
They noticed the sign that said “Showers” and declined any further instruction from Mario.
The women entered the room only to find two shower heads sharing one drain, an enclosed toilet area, a sink, and a row of three lockers. Almost zero privacy.
“Well, this is cozy, huh?” observed Adrianna while making brief eye contact with Linda.
“Yeah, no room for modesty here,” Linda replied as they made their way to the lockers.
Both removed what little they had on, and simultaneously placed a foot on the bench to remove their clit piercings.
Facing each other, legs spread, with one raised on the bench was quite the sight to behold. To perfectly shaped bodies, naked, pussies spread, on full display before each other.
“No room for modesty,” repeated Adrianna.
“Nope,” replied Linda.
Neither woman was gay or had ever been with another woman, but both could not help eyeing each other, making comparisons, and feeling a bit jealous.
Sensing the tension, Adrianna made somewhat of a show in removing her piercing; sliding her hand down slowly, provocatively from her navel over her smooth, beautiful pussy while keeping eye contact with Linda. Linda mirrored Adrianna’s move, drawing a sense of competitiveness, jealously, and sexual tension.
Without saying a word, both women removed their piercings, placed them in the locker and made their way to the showers.
There was a shared soap and shampoo dispenser against the wall for both to use.
“Well, it’s obvious they put all their investment into the lab,” noted Adrianna as she cupped a handful of shampoo.
“Yeah, this room seems like an afterthought,” Linda acknowledged while also reaching to get shampoo, her breast slightly bumping against Adrianna’s.
Neither woman outwardly acknowledged the sensation while internally having a sense of intentional challenge.
As they showered and retrieved soap, both women began to become brazen and open with their physical contact. It was clear a contest was growing as two shapely and taught asses would bump cheek to cheek, thighs smacking against each other, and finally meeting breast to breast, face to face as the shower concluded.
“Seems like someone is ready to start this beta test, huh?” asked Adrianna, breaking the silence, her heart starting to beat rapidly.
“Seems like I’m not the only one,
Adrianna,” Linda shot back as she shoved her tits in Adrianna.
Adrianna shoved back with her tits. They then met with equal pressure until the slickness from the shower forced them to separate beside each other.
Both women glared at one another.
Adrianna made a hand gesture to the suits and Linda followed her to get dressed.
The suits were completely transparent, the material seamlessly bonded without zippers, meaning you could put the suit on and take it off every way imaginable. The material would simply reform. It felt as if nothing was actually worn at all. Both women immediately noticed their hair still felt free and not covered by anything despite being totally encased. Breathing was not at all encumbered.
The only thing not worn were the goggles, which were still in the lab.
“You ready?”
“Are you?”
Neither woman responded as they headed back in to the lab.
Mario froze at the sight of the two virtually naked women made their way to their goggles.
“Just take your pants off, Mario,” said Adrianna as she pointed to the pitched tent below his waist. “That can’t be comfortable.”
“Yeah, and besides, we’re both basically naked so, you should be too,” added Linda.
As self conscious as he felt about his scrawny frame in the presence of these two goddesses, he obliged. He really was in discomfort.
He said nothing as he discarded his clothes.
“Well, you can certainly be proud of that fat dick, Mario,” Linda said as Mario bashfully turned back toward the women.
“Um, yeah, nice dick,” Adrianna added.
Neither woman was physically attracted to Mario, and not even his 8” dong was going to change that.
“Fuck, man,” Mario thought to himself. “My dick just got friend zoned.”
“Uh, thanks?” Mario responded honestly as he started to explain the game play.
“You’ll notice the two 8’x10’ glass ‘pods’ on opposite sides of the lab,” he said. “We need to be able to see and hear testers obviously, so there isn’t any privacy. I think you both fully understand. Anyway, once inside the pod, put your goggles on, and the pods will instantly become your battlespace. You will be free to move within the pod. You are not physically connected to anything. We are testing our wifi-enabled capabilities as well. If you get too close the glass. you will hear a high-pitched, annoying alarm. It is our hope you acclimate yourselves to learn your space limitations very quickly. Other than that, once you are in, unless you have any questions, we’ll get started.”
“Umm, how do we ‘feel’ what we are doing to each other?” Adrianna asked as the women looked at each other - both ready to make sure their opponent “felt” every bit of this experience.
“I’ll let you two figure that out,” Mario replied with a slightly evil grin. “Let’s get you started.”
Each woman picked up a set of goggles and entered a pod.
Mario took his seat behind the observation desk for the best view of both players.
Adrianna and Linda faced each other from the 15 foot distance between the pods as they slid the goggles over their eyes.
The sensation of a new reality was overwhelming. The smell, feel and transformation of physical being was instant and intense. They were standing tit to tit, face to face and could feel each other’s hot breath in their faces as they panted from the excitement. Their forms in this virtual world were so real, the women momentarily confused their virtual and physical realities.
It took a few seconds for the women to realize their virtual location.
“Why are we in my bedroom?” Linda yelled out to Mario.
“Our AI is programmed to find a location known to both players,” Mario called back as his heart raced. He started stroking his cock under the desk.
Adrianna’s heart was also racing as Linda yelled out her next question: “Why does this bitch know what my bedroom looks like? Oh my God, were you fucking my husband?”
While Linda was yelling out her questions, Adrianna could hear them through the suit’s sensors as if Linda was in her face.
“Yes Linda, I was fucking Tom - for years, and he loved me,” Adrianna spoke back knowing Linda had the same aural sensations.
Linda reached up and grabbed Adrianna’s virtual face as their breasts pressed together.
“Ummph,” Adrianna let out a stifled grunt as Linda gripped the area around her mouth. The pain was real. Adrianna could feel it.
The suit’s material compressed against Adrianna’s face with the same pressure Linda was using in the virtual world. These suits were basically alive. Their tits were physically mashing as the suits compressed against their flesh. This was a real,
physical fight in a virtual setting.
“I’ll kill you, you fucking bitch,” Linda rabidly and loudly whispered as she began shoving Adrianna backward by her face.
Adrianna dug what little nails she had into Linda’s wrist attempting to free her face from Linda’s grip. This was real rage. As she stumbled back, Adrianna launched and connected a wild slap Linda’s face and kicked out at Linda’s abdomen.
Linda yelped as her suit stretched away from her left cheek and violently snapped back as Adrianna slapped her. The material did the same with her stomach to a lesser degree as Adrianna’s kick grazed her.
Mario could not believe his luck. It had taken months of planning to make this happen. He sat in amazement watching and hearing two beautiful naked women move around their see-through cages in torturous battle movements. He finally brought to life his greatest fantasy.
He secretly developed advanced AI technology able to scan their memories and emotional responses as the women modeled for games. The data was used to develop this explosive scenario for Mario’s self gratification. While the “living skin” suits had been in development for some time, Mario made Adrianna’s and Linda’s suits without anyone’s knowledge.
Now that the fight was on, Mario walked up to each cage to observed the skin compressing into flesh; pulling away and snapping back, eliciting grunts and screams of pain and rage from the physical “players.”
Mario quickly ran and grabbed the suit he made for himself and removed the pussy attachment. He wouldn’t be needing that. Once inside the living skin, he grabbed his goggles.
Screams, snarls and grunts, mixed with stinging slaps and thudding punches filled Mario’s ears as he was now sitting on the love seat in the far corner of Linda’s bedroom. The women frantically and rapidly punched, clawed and kicked at each other without noticing “Player Three” had entered the game.
Both women screamed as the living skin tightly clamped around hair. The skin felt like iron as it pulled away and snapped back against faces, ribs, backs, thighs, and abdomens.
They were now trying to throw each other around the room by their hair.
Mario reached up to his goggles to make some adjustments. He changed the game setting’s intensity and speed.
The women were now fighting at a slower speed, with greater pain impact. The living skin made Adrianna and Linda feel like they were nearly dream fighting, like moving through quicksand as the skin expanded and contracted with greater force with each punch, squeezing tighter with each grip.
Bent over, with hands buried in each other’s hair, the spinning slowed but the screams intensified. Their gorgeous asses rippling as they circled in front of him - their breasts swaying - Mario had reached peak excitement and immediately came in his skin while moaning loudly.
The women both landed a powerful uppercut to each other’s faces, forcing their bodies upright slowly, fluidly, and allowing Mario to see every ripple of muscle and excess jiggling of ass cheeks and tits.
They pushed apart with slow, powerful shoves. Their faces contorted with rage. Intense fires raged in their eyes. They knew Mario had joined them. They didn’t care. They knew he came. They didn’t care. They were here for war. The slowness only frustrated them and angered them to the point of greater fury.
They slowly charged each other again with long, drawn-out howls of rage and began grabbing and punching at any vulnerable areas.
Tits were gripped like squeeze toys. Pussies were punched, kneed and kicked. Hands landed all over each other’s bodies.
Mario found the slow and deliberate movement incredibly erotic. The sounds of flesh slapping flesh in sustained sound was enough to keep Mario in a permanent state of erection.
The women closed in to a bearhug, gripping and craning their faces toward the ceiling by the hair as punches slowly but crushingly impacted each other. Their slowly rattled and contorted faces tried to reset and focus on the enemy.
With thighs intertwined, breasts flattened into each other, bellies pressed tightly together, the combatants finally took each other to the floor.
They slowly rolled back and forth in attempts to overpower one another for top position.
Seated behind them, Mario was mesmerized by their pancaked pussies and shapely asses as they slowly thrashed around the floor. The elongated grunts, groans and screams were almost too exciting for him as his erection returned full force. It was almost two much for the women, as the slow movements of grinding their bodies together had an erotic sensation neither of them wanted but neither could ignore. Their smashed pussies were becoming wet through contact.
His movements were not affected by his controls as he further slowed the fight to near frozen. He stood from the loveseat and made his way over to the virtual, yet hyper-realistic women.
He leaned over and studied every aspect of their intertwined, frozen bodies. His eyes were wild as he slowly and deliberately stroked his cock. He wanted them both, and had them right where he wanted them. This was the moment he waited for.
Linda could see what was about to happen as she was able to see beyond Adrianna’s shoulder. Adrianna landed a long, slow, hard punch to Linda’s ribs. Linda realized there were about to be two struggles, and she needed Adrianna’s help to avoid one.
“He’s going to rape us,” Linda spoke out in a long, slow tone as she tried to push Adrianna off of her. Adrianna slowly turned to see the impending attack herself.
At this point, both players attempted to remove their goggles and leave the game. The attempts were excruciating. Piercing noise mixed with migraine-level pulsations nearly induced vomiting.
Aware of the women were attempting to do, Mario explained his power. “I own this game,” he said. “I created this game. I created your AI bodies. I created my goggles so that I can control play. Removing your goggles without my permission could cause permanent blindness and leave you deaf. I own you.”
Linda didn’t care about his threats, and through a pain she could only image worse than childbirth, ripped the goggles from her face, leaving her neither blind nor deaf, but horse from screaming.
“Take yours off,” she screamed at Adrianna in a thick, raspy voice.
Adrianna wailed as she tore hers off. The searing pain was almost too much to remain conscious.
Mario froze in fear, both in reality and in the game now realizing he had forgot to lock the women in their enclosures.
Adrianna and Linda wasted no time in kicking the absolute shit out of Mario. They wailed on him with fists, feet and knees until he lay nearly unconscious on the padded floor. Both women grabbed an arm each and dragged him to an enclosure. They tossed him in and locked the thick, shatter-proof glass door.
With Mario out of the way, and no longer in the game, the women now turned and focused on each other.
“We’re not done,” said Linda as she began to remove her living skin.
“Not by a long shot,” replied Adrianna as she too removed the material.
Despite all the pain they experienced during the game, it was as if they never experienced any once out of the suits. Not one scratch, not one bruise.
“Looks like we start fresh, bitch,” grunted Linda as she raised her firsts and began circling.
Adrianna didn’t respond as she mirrored Linda.
The naked women started throwing, dodging and blocking jabs and kicks.
Realizing this method of combat was not effective, they charged each other, gripping and ripping at hair, tits, faces, asses and pussies. Wild punches landed in ribs, backs, faces, abs and breasts.
Both women were shrieking in pain and rage as they pounded each other.
Now Bent over and gripping each other’s hair, they pulled their manes taught toward each other while swinging wild uppercuts at each other’s faces.
Muscles shook due to the intense pulling and tugging, causing their legs to soon give out, allowing the women to seemingly slide effortlessly into an unintentional scissoring position.
Legs locked around waists, breasts jiggling, brushing and mashing together, the women beat on each other anywhere fists could land with their free hands while gripping and tugging each other’s hair. Thuds emanated from each other’s backs as faces contorted from the intense pain. Grunts, groans, insults and shrieks filled the air.
As the struggle continued, their pussies inevitably made contact; smooth skin brushing and pressing against rival skin, at times mashing as their torsos swayed in battle. The women both noticed the sensations when clits made contact.
“You like this pussy, bitch?”
“Not as much as you seem to like mine.”
They were both seeking physical and sexual domination at this stage. As fists landed, the women thrusts their pussies at each other, eliciting screams of rage and ecstasy.
They pushed back from each other on to their elbows while still bucking and ramming pussy to pussy and, for the first time in many minutes, were able to survey the damage they had done to each other’s faces and bodies. Their hair was in disarray, faces bruised and long scratch marks accompanied red slap marks all over their upper bodies. The sight of the pain they inflicted was a source of extreme sexual excitement, causing their pussy war to increase in speed and intensity.
“Oh you fucking qunt!”
“Fuck you, whore!”
“Unnng!”
“Ooooh!”
“My pussy’s better!”
“No mine!”
“Mine!”
“Mi….”
ooohhh ooooh ooooooooh ahhhh! They cried out in unison as they both collapsed backward. They lay breathing heavily for a few minutes while still connected, lips to lips; smooth, creamy pussy juice coated their thighs.
The women eventually separated, both physically and sexually spent while neither proving who had dominated the other.
They stood, facing each other, legs spread, running hands over their still soaked vaginas.
“I don’t believe this is over,” Linda said almost seductively as she watched Adrianna.
“Nope, sure isn’t,” came the reply. “And I prefer real life to gaming.”
“Me too, bitch. You say when.”
“As soon as we heal up works for me.”
“Me too.”
They could hear Mario moaning as they made their way to the lockers. They changed back into what they showed up in, and walked side by side as they exited the building.
The guard had a “what a fuck?” look on his face but did not seem to act.
Arriving at their vehicles, they both eyed each other.
Adrianna blew Linda a kiss and waved her middle finger as she climbed in her jeep. Linda cupped her tits and returned the finger as she got in her car. They drove off knowing they would see each other again soon.
Prologue: Linda and Adrianna would go on to fight frequently. They were addicted to hurting each other.
Mario was found still inside the gaming pod on Monday morning. He was escorted off the premises in shame and humiliation. He was arrested after a recording of the day’s events were recovered. He was charged with sexual battery, endangerment, attempted rape, and kidnapping. He was sued for all he had while serving a 40-year sentence.
The gaming lab paid both women $millions for their character and game scenario. The game the lab created “Bitch Wars” became the hottest game on the market. Women with grudges were the main customers who would then stream their fights for money.
The end.
