Rhea kept moving, looking like she was having a bit too much fun. Somewhere along the way, she focused mentally, refreshing the power that improved her agility and helped her keep pace with the rest of the group. "Well, this wasn't how I was expecting to leave the area..." she didn't seem too angry, though - the droid was interesting and she wanted to know more. Besides, you got used to the occasional change of schedule when you were in her line of work.
Zev Ronen's words prove quite true. As the entourage of the newly-met hustles down the curving corridor, the faint illumination provided by the recessed lighting is broken a bar of brilliant white that casts several shadows against the left-hand wall. Gogogo!!! is heard, and a squad as heavily armed as the departed Mandalorians begins to pour into the path to the ship, and escape. The front-runner draws up short and begins to look back toward someone with authority . . . .
Ah, I thought he was coming for me. I'll have my revenge next time.
No! Oh no, you don't!
Vadi hurries after the others, quite uncertain as to where they're headed, but determined not to lose her best shot at freedom. Those Mandalorians' little game was sure to alert the Exchange, and she wanted to be as far as possible when that happened.
Seeing the heavily armed squad pouring into their path, Kreshell takes a few steady breaths while continuing to run behind Zev. "Alright folks, your first way to pay for your trip. Line up and lets bowl over these mercs," he says precisely.
Tactic:
Tactics are coordinated battle plans that require continuing direction from the practitioner to maintain. A creature must have line of sight to, and be able to see, the practitioner to benefit from a tactic. Beginning a tactic is a move action, and it can be maintained each round as a move or swift action. Once activated, you may switch between any tactics you know each time you use a swift action to maintain an ongoing tactic. Tactics affect all allied creatures within a radius of 10 ft. + 5ft. per rank in Diplomacy you possess, and may be centered on any square you have both line of sight and line of effect to. You may recenter an ongoing tactic at a new location as part of the swift action used to maintain it. The benefits of your tactics end immediately if you are helpless, killed, paralyzed, rendered unconscious, or stunned.
When you first gain the Warleader sphere, you gain the following tactic:
Aggressive Flanking
While within the affected area of this tactic, allied creatures are considered to be flanking as long as they both threaten the same creature, regardless of their comparative positioning.
Spending a move action to begin the tactic, Kreshell will fall behind the crew slightly
Male Human (Corellian) Jedi Sentinel (Magus) 1 | HP 8/8; WP 24/24; FP 5/5 | AC 17; Tou 17; FF 13 | F +3; R +4; W +2 | CMB +1; CMD 15; MSB +1; MSD 15 | Init +4 Perception +4
Hayden charges forward with the group, a half-mad grin widening his face. His body begins to sing with thrill as he nears the cluster of bristling weaponry and hard variations upon steel, remembering years and miles traveled in the underworld of Coruscant. Years and miles spent redefining the idea of 'traversable surface' and the idea of 'vertical.' His body sang then as it sings now, with the thrill of the wind and it's guiding hand.
Ready to make Acrobatics checks as needed. Will take the path of least resistance if one is spotted by the team. Also, excellent tactic.
Rhea moved towards the front of the group. If nothing else, her strikes had a way of knocking people off-balance when she hit them like a landspeeder - and while she was a lady, she was not somebody who needed to be protected at the rear.
I see now where some of the doubt crept in on my previous post. I apologize for missing it; I double- and triple-check my posts, and I have no idea how I didn't catch those two glaring mistakes. Perhaps the following will help.
Fierfek!! What's the holdup, Stonn? A burn-scarred veteran, the left side of his face puckered into a permanent leer, shoulders his way through his squad to brace Zev face-to-malformed-face. Zev! What is . . . this? he asks, swinging a fire-marked arm to encompass those behind young Ronen.
Behind their leader, the security team eases into the corridor with their weapons readied, but not pointed at anyone. Stonn, the front-runner, sidles up next to his boss with his trigger finger resting on his carbine's trigger guard; the fingertip twitches with nervous energy as he raises his eyebrows, waiting for Zev's response.
For his part, Zev manages to keep his cool. He never adjusts his awkward grip on the blaster Kreshell tossed him, and utters five powerful words: Mandos! The tapcaf! Taking Jebber!! He jabs his left hand back down the passage, his tense body language telling the rest of the story.
A series of curses is ripped from the fighting force, and they brush past Zev and his six companions at a dead run. Stonn, though, hesitates a heartbeat, one eyebrow cocked in uncertainty. At last, though, he swings round to overtake the rest of his team, his boots beating a rapid tattoo on the metal flooring.
Male Human (Corellian) Jedi Sentinel (Magus) 1 | HP 8/8; WP 24/24; FP 5/5 | AC 17; Tou 17; FF 13 | F +3; R +4; W +2 | CMB +1; CMD 15; MSB +1; MSD 15 | Init +4 Perception +4
"I would demand my credits back for such an anticlimax, but it seems we got a happy ending regardless."
He breaks off at a trot in the direction of the ship, having stopped enough for the adrenaline to sour and wanting to shake off the chills.
"So does anyone know what this ship we're commandeering looks like, or are we likely to wind up finding a two person skiff and a rope to string up the droid atop?"
"...What KIND of rope?" Rhea asked, probably thinking of something a little odd as the group kept moving. Some people saw that as a silly question... but ropes were usually made from local plants or processed industrial materials and could have wildly different traits. You never knew when those traits - resistance to burning, say, or ability to also act as a power line - would come in handy.
Zev almost growls at Hayden's quip. She's a lot better than a two-man skiff! She's not flashy, but she does the job. . . . . And it'll be pretty obvious which ship is which . . . . His pace has slowed, now that the security team is no longer a worry. But only barely. And what kind of rope do you tie a droid with?
The group hustles along for another thirty seconds, and the youngster hooks a left turn out a cargo door. The portal (which appears caked into place, open, by millenia of pollutant deposits) opens onto a broad open-air bridge that branches into a triple-cluster of landing pads. The pad to the left dwarfs a much-abused crew shuttle that rests so close to the edge its rear landing struts might overhang some centimeters. The pad to the right is overrun with a host of swoop bikes bearing a red comet emblem on their front panels, tools and foodstuffs canisters scattered about. Dead ahead sits a light freighter -- Spice Rush.
Even through the perpetual haze that characterizes Nar Shaddaa, the vessel's features can be easily discerned. The underside is painted the blue of a sunny sky on some fairer planet, and the color scheme shifts to a mottled pattern of tan and grey shot with green detailing in odd places atop -- a fair attempt at a camouflage job. The "flying wing"-shaped craft has a centrally-placed cockpit flanked by three forward-opening cargo bays to both port and starboard. Those cargo bays are canted to sweep back toward the "wingtips" at the extreme ends of the transport's aft. A middle fuselage stretches back some forty feet behind the bridge to meet the compartments for two ion engines. A somewhat odd feature is that the hull has a pair of "cutouts", one to either side of the ship's beam, that turn its layout into . . . "all perimeter"; it seems likely that this feature was a thrust-weight concession made during design. Two forward-mounted laser cannons are located to either side of the front viewport, and two cannon turrets are positioned near the wingtips.
Our source material is anachronistic, being from over 4000 years in the galactic future, but I'm spinning this as a CEC UV-1540 -- precursor to the linked YX-1980.
Still leading the motley crew, Zev's hustle turns into a strange lope as he moves toward the docked ship. His feet swing freely, but a great tension is obvious through his neck and shoulders. Once he reaches the landing strut under the port side of the bridge, he rapidly punches in a security code, and the boarding ramp descends. He turns to Kreshell, stone-faced, and says, Well, captain, the ship is yours. A beat. Don't muck this up, eh? And he quickly looks away, into the ship's interior.
Rhea took less time surveying it, given their current status as... exiting stage left rather quickly. Explaining this one to her superiors was going to be interesting, but probably not as hard as some people expected. She carried her most important things with her at all times anyway - you never knew when you were going to find a lead that needed to be pursued. "How fast is the hyperdrive on this thing?" she asked as she started examining the systems.
Vadi hurries inside the freighter, hardly believing that she's about to leave Nar SHaddaa for the first time in her life. What am I going to do? Where am I going to go? There must be someone who could use me... right?
While Zev waits for the remainder of the group to board the ship, he lets Rhea's question hang in the air. As he trudges up the ramp and seals it with a perfunctory fist-bump to the activation plate, the Hapan woman (and any other being paying attention) notes a look of faint embarrassment. She's only got a Class Three hyperdrive. . . . The story I heard from the previous captain was that the first owners -- three Twi'lek brothers who'd as soon argue with each other as breathe -- burned out the stock Class Two trying to make the Kessel Run about six years back. Caandra bought the hull off of 'em by not dumping 'em off a pedwalk: they headed back to Ryloth, and she had that relic put in. Me and Bharal were the first to put her to any use . . . . He shakes off a memory, visibly, before collapsing into the pilot's seat and throwing the startup switches. Better get strapped in, people -- I hope I can get us outta here before those fighters scramble!
There are four stations in the cockpit: pilot, copilot, and two multipurpose stations to each side of the room. The astrogation/navicomputer bay is to port (left). Hands-on engineering efforts should be performed in either of the engine compartments (aft).
The multipurpose stations can be tasked for sensors, shields, weapons, and comms. All vessel functions can be performed (save Mechanics/Repair checks for engineering) from the pilot/copilot seats, but action economy will dictate that a division of force is a good thing, especially in dicey situations.
Hopefully within the next few hours I will have a baseline 'Starship Ops' spoiler posted at the top of the page. For those of you with access to the Revised Edition ruleset from WotC, that's our baseline -- just about word-for-word. We've got a bit of a learning curve ahead of us, so just hang in there! :)
Male Human (Corellian) Jedi Sentinel (Magus) 1 | HP 8/8; WP 24/24; FP 5/5 | AC 17; Tou 17; FF 13 | F +3; R +4; W +2 | CMB +1; CMD 15; MSB +1; MSD 15 | Init +4 Perception +4
"Ideally, a rope that could argue in redundance, causing enough distraction that the droid would be occupied with anything but freedom. Hard to find a rope with AI, though. I'd just tell him it could and that it doesn't like him. He would likely keep talking at it all day."
Hayden bounds aboard the ship happily. Not really at home in a restful state, he is immensely happy to be going anywhere or doing anything. Though still aware of his mission, he knows that all paths lead to the center.
He takes this opportunity to do a quick circuit of the ship, jumping upon the opportunity before someone tells him not to do so or that time doesn't provide for it.
Correction: the primer is in the Campaign Info tab, and it is heavily abridged, at the present -- peruse it, consider your skillsets, and get ready for a wild ride!!
Alas, Rhea wasn't any kind of pilot. Her skills learned from Hapan Intelligence tended to lend themselves to very specific uses, not all of which were compatible with flight systems... though she had been meaning to learn a few things that could help with that.
Alas, I'm not sure any of my talents actually apply... XD Unless I can roll Perception as a spotter to navigate/aim?
Male Human (Corellian) Jedi Sentinel (Magus) 1 | HP 8/8; WP 24/24; FP 5/5 | AC 17; Tou 17; FF 13 | F +3; R +4; W +2 | CMB +1; CMD 15; MSB +1; MSD 15 | Init +4 Perception +4
"I'm an excellent pilot!" Hayden hollers from somewhere in the back of the ship. He jogs up with a grin.
"I was under the misapprehension that I was a passenger, but if we need a pilot, I can certainly get us places. It will definitely alter how I view the circumstances of my being here."
Zev completes the startup sequence in the comfort of muscle memory, even ensuring that the shield generators are online, ready to activate in a split-second. As he brings Spice Rush up off the pad with the repulsorlifts, he angles the nose downward and activates a powerful floodlight mounted below the viewport. Craning his neck, he reports: Yeah, the pilots are just now getting mounted up, but they'll be able to hot-start. The pit crews were on their game today. Several levels below, a retractable dome is yawning wide, revealing a quartet of snubfighters being swarmed by frantic personnel. I'm gonna need every bit of power we can get out of the engines if we're gonna clear the grav well before they blast us to pieces! They'll shoot first, and ask no questions after! Need somebody in the engine room!!
Having been almost totally silent during the rush to the ship, the cloaked Zabrak murmurs: Flying is one thing; knowing where to go is another. What is our destination? Because I can help with the navicomputer . . . . He trails off, looking expectantly at Zargro.
Everyone understands that jumping to hyperspace is the safest place for the ship. Especially so once Zev looks over his shoulder and fixes Kreshell with frank appraisal -- So. Vogga ordered the bounty on Lofkte? Same day you had a meeting with him, huh? . . . . I saw the look on Fliina's face -- the two of us hafta step carefully here, Kresh. Are we doing the job?
The thrice-orphaned Mandalorian deftly weaves the ship between a pair of skyscrapers and begins to push the engines in earnest. Who just volunteered for engineering duty?! Gotta have that power NOW!!
And a reply springs from a surprising source.
Placating Insult: I shall go converse with the engines, if only for the hope of blasting meatbags another day. It would be quite disturbing to fall prey to further . . . organic weakness. Servomotors whir and Hayden's droid compatriot clanks down the central passage at a quick rhythm.
Kreshell, surprisingly calmly says, "Yes we are doing the job, but lets not head there right away. Zabrak, take us to the Parlemian Trade Route, which should take us near or passed Kashyyyk. Twi'lek, get on one of those turrets and shoot at the fighters if they get close enough. Do not hit them, we don't need to add anything more to the bill. Human boy! Go get on the other turret and do the same. And as for you," he turns to Rhea, "I'm sure that if you apply yourself you could be useful too." After he calmly, but forcibly issues commands he sits down in the co-pilot seat and buckles in.
Hmm.., he thinks to himself, surprisingly efficient auditions.
Male Human (Corellian) Jedi Sentinel (Magus) 1 | HP 8/8; WP 24/24; FP 5/5 | AC 17; Tou 17; FF 13 | F +3; R +4; W +2 | CMB +1; CMD 15; MSB +1; MSD 15 | Init +4 Perception +4
"My name is Hayden and it would benefit you to learn it and use it, my friend. You may at some point call for it in earnest. It would be a shame to have it escape you."
Hayden heads to the appointed gunner's seat with with a frown, but quickly relaxes, opening his senses. Altercations required patience and calm rather than annoyance.
Well, different people had different sorts of talents. With that, Rhea scooted further back in the ship and began looking around, checking to see if anything seemed legitimately out-of-place or needing care. Most spaceships were fairly resilient things, built to keep people alive even if rather damaged, but it never hurt to go over the systems when you were on a vessel for the first time.
Male Human (Corellian) Jedi Sentinel (Magus) 1 | HP 8/8; WP 24/24; FP 5/5 | AC 17; Tou 17; FF 13 | F +3; R +4; W +2 | CMB +1; CMD 15; MSB +1; MSD 15 | Init +4 Perception +4
Finding himself at a moment between moments, Hayden considers an idea as he learns the controls of the gunner's station. Figuring he has a few moments to spare, he quickly focuses his mind and attenuates his perception to the temporal flow of the force permeating the ship. He feels the past of the ship, flowing back as a spawning fish upstream.
-1sp Divine Time as a standard action, Localized to only the ship as a location.
Flow Walk:
...you may divine the events that happened within medium range (100 ft + 10 ft per caster level). You can only divine what occurred up to 1 hour per caster level ago. When you divine time you are only given the following details: The number of creatures that were in the area, their size, how long they remained in the area, and any movements they made while in the area. In addition, if objects were left unattended or unattended objects were moved during this time, you learn the size and vague shape of such objects.
Le Za-deen ducks into the nav bay and takes a few moments to acquaint himself with the system. More options than I'm used to seeing . . . . He pulls up the holochart and notices that it is nearly two standard days out of synch with the current time, but proceeds with the calculations anyway. Should be no trouble at all . . . .
Astrogation Stuff!:
Course: Nar Shaddaa -> Perlemian Trade Route via Kashyyyk
Base DC: 15 (2-day-old data)
Regional Modifier: +4 (Outer Rim)
Hazard Die: 1d6 Hazard:1d6 ⇒ 5
Final Check DC: 20 (15+4+5-4)
Rhea paces down the central passage in the droid's wake, noticing a series of passenger dorms to either side. The last one on the row to her right, though, has a heavily modified control panel; with just a cursory examination, she determines that this door only opens from the outside. Unusual, she thinks.
Then the passageway opens out onto a surprisingly spacious combined galley/rec deck. A holodejarik board, a pazaak table, comfortable bench seating, and a well-stocked kitchen make for a nice place to while away the time in hyperspace. Pretty simple fare here, she notes as she examines the packaged foods, but it can keep us well-fed . . . .
In the starboard engine compartment, she hears metallic clangor as the HK unit opens an access panel and plugs into the drive system computer. Considering it better not to distract the droid for the present, she makes the turn onto the promenade that grants access to the cargo bays.
----------
Hayden:
As he reaches out with his senses, Hayden quickly dismisses the multicolored blur that constitutes the ship's exterior, and he hones in on his immediate surroundings. The vessel has been entirely silent and still over the previous hour -- with one exception: one exceedingly small creature crawled through the cockpit not long ago, slipping beneath the portside station at which the Jedi sits.
Male Human (Corellian) Jedi Sentinel (Magus) 1 | HP 8/8; WP 24/24; FP 5/5 | AC 17; Tou 17; FF 13 | F +3; R +4; W +2 | CMB +1; CMD 15; MSB +1; MSD 15 | Init +4 Perception +4
Hayden nods forward with a jerk, blinking away perspectives. With a curious look, he swivels in his chair and lowers his head to the floor, bending more than sideways in his seat.
As she made her round of the ship, Rhea eventually came back to the area with the modified control panel. It seemed like some kind of containment area, or perhaps a brig... and she was very curious to find out if it had been used in the recent past. If there was something else on this ship, she wanted to know - if only to ensure it got fed. Or spaced. Whichever was appropriate.
As Hayden peers under his station, he notices a small gap between the bulkhead and the support bracket. Some lint-like debris is strewn out from that gap, and it appears more of the same lines the crevice into which the critter crawled. His best guess is that some mammalian creature has been nesting within that tiny space for an extended period -- how it survives is a mystery that only thorough investigation might determine.
----------
Rhea
The modified dormitory door opens easily enough, and it is clear that all door controls were roughly removed from the interior and the empty spaces welded over hastily with on-hand materials. As she examines the door more thoroughly, she sees that a thin, horizontal hatch has been cut in the durasteel, likely serving as a means of delivering food to anyone held within. Strange marks mar the inward-facing door -- as though some clawed beast made repeated attempts to tear through the hardy metal . . . .
The room itself is shockingly bare. Another, larger sheet of durasteel has been welded onto the far bulkhead in order to support a sleeping mat. That mat is so thin and worn that it would do little to provide comfort, but it is intact. Every other surface bears more sign of harsh abuse by whatever defaced the door -- walls, ceiling, and floor all have overlapping tracks where the flat grey of the metal has been scored away to gleam faintly with reflected light. And as Rhea is about to lean into the room, her olfactory sense is assaulted by a pervasive, heavy stench of animal musk that seems as much a part of the bunk as the horrid scratchings . . . . Nothing else is here, now, but what once occupied this room was large, strong, and, perhaps, feral . . . .
As Zev continues the climb to get Spice Rush out of the moon's gravitic grip, he suddenly gives a wordless cry and slews the vessel to port and steepens the angle of ascent. There is a brief flash of a much smaller vessel in the transparisteel viewport, moving in a herky-jerky non-rhythm.
Pilot check to avoid Collision:1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12
I'll get this adjudicated as soon as I have all my reference material handy -- out of the house at the moment.
EDIT: Okay . . . . Will have to do it tomorrow. Gonna pause Rhea and Hayden for the moment, but if Kresh or Vadi want to do anything in the moments leading up to our collision, please feel free to post!! :)
Not knowing about the collision, Vadi moves towards the dormitory, where she finds Rhea. Unable to resist, she asks the question that's been running through her mind for several minutes now.
"Pray tell, why and how did you punch that Mandalorian? By the by, I'm Vadi."
Kreshell sits down in the copilot seat and buckles in. Without looking over he speaks to Zev, "Listen, I need you and you need me at the moment. 'Debts' are something I am good at getting rid of. If you partner with me we can solve both of our 'problems'. I warn you though, it is a partnership wherein we live or die together. If you doubt me, I will tell you that to stab you in the back will cause my own death as well...and I don't plan on dying anytime soon. And," Kresh shrugs, "who knows, maybe you'll find out that keeping me alive can very lucrative for you."
A loud CLANGGGGG! resounds through the ship as Spice Rush clips the airspeeder.
Collision Damage:2d10 ⇒ (8, 10) = 18
Apply hull plating DR 15, total damage to Spice Rush = 3
While the freighter is barely nicked by the contact, the airspeeder is not so durable. Its portside thruster/stabilizer assembly takes significant damage, and the tiny craft begins to descend in an uncontrolled spiral, belching smoke and sparks from its fuselage. With some luck and sudden sobriety, its pilot might be able to survive . . . .
Even so, with Zev's panicked maneuver and the impact contributing, everyone aboard the transport vessel not securely seated is thrown about a bit.
As Rhea is turning away from the odorous room to answer Vadi's question, a sudden change in inertia flings her into the doorframe, and she rebounds into the tarnished bunk. The stink that drove her out becomes somewhat more unbearable, and she winces in pain at the bruise that will soon develop along her left arm. That hurt! What in space is going on?!
Nonlethal Impact Damage:1d6 ⇒ 6
Vadi, though, manages to catch herself on one of the braces that arch over the walkway, and so avoids any damage. Za-deen grabs the navicomp board with both hands and manages to keep his feet. And waaay back in the engine room, Theta-Zero wedges his feet into opposite sides of the access hatch to stay in place -- his vocabulator, however, loosens considerably.
----------
Back on the bridge, Hayden spots a diminutive tan-hued snout protruding from the stowaway's nest just as he is jostled about. The tiny creature scurries back into the relative safety of its burrow before he can determine what it is. Turning back to his station, he quietly listens as Zev's exchange with Kreshell continues.
The young pilot mutters a curse and levels the ship out once more. Stang, but that was close! He levels some side-eye at Zargro before managing to say, politely: If we're gonna look out for each other, . . . maybe you could . . . ummm . . . start running some sensor sweeps? We don't want to get surprised by anything bigger than a drunk-piloted speeder . . . . He toggles the comm switch to the engine compartment and hollers, Have you gotten my power sorted out, yet, droid?
Disturbed Retort: Have you determined how to plot a proper trajectory yet? Our drive system computer is . . . confused. But I will presently be shutting down the nonessential interior lighting and other systems to divert energy to the engines. Pray make good use of it? A series of beeps, warbles, and chirps carries over the open channel, and Theta-Zero continues to speak. Puzzled Interrogative: And is there any particular reason why the engines are reporting an impending 1500% overload in output demands? Please inform me that we are not attempting to make a hyperjump before exiting the gravity well . . . .
A gravelly voice, tinged with chagrin, floats out of the nav bay: Ah. Yes. . . . . Didn't reduce the gravitational constant of Nar Shaddaa . . . Recalculating . . . . Just get us to clear space -- the jump will be ready by then. The Zabrak leaves his response at that, and before the connection is severed from engineering, Theta-Zero can be heard to exclaim: Organics.
Vadi's habits trigger faster than her logical part can quench her, as she shrieks towards the cockpit. "Which drug-addled, brain-damaged son of an inbred mynock made you a pilot?"
It is only a handful of seconds after her outburst that she remembers how the ship is her only way out of the hellhole that was her home, the one where some minor Exchange bosses want her dead. Looking to get allies, she reaches out to Rhea, offering her a hand to rise.
Rhea winced as she stumbled, not used to losing her footing after all the training she'd had... but she reached up to take Vadi's hand. It was a kind gesture on the Twi'lek's part, and Rhea certainly wasn't the kind of lady who was rude enough to spurn such a thing. "Flyboys." she muttered as she got back to her feet. "I struck that Mandalorian because his group was threatening someone that interested me." she added a moment later, grabbing onto the wall in case there were any more jolts. "The rest of it's just training and physics, really. Their armor may be good, but it has limited ability to stop the transmission of physical force, so the right type of blow can get through to hurt their insides. Not every species is built for it, but most can do well enough with the right training." A lady never revealed all of her secrets, though - a little mystery was a key point of one's charm.
Male Human (Corellian) Jedi Sentinel (Magus) 1 | HP 8/8; WP 24/24; FP 5/5 | AC 17; Tou 17; FF 13 | F +3; R +4; W +2 | CMB +1; CMD 15; MSB +1; MSD 15 | Init +4 Perception +4
Hayden's generally amiable disposition dampens into a full-body frown as he settles back into his seat, upright now instead of laid out. He shakes his head and decides that the small creature can keep until relative safety has been reached.
"...although the company I keep seems the detriment of that goal," he raises his voice, projecting it back through the ship, "Don't take it too personally, HK. We can't fly the ship alone!"
He peers out his viewport alertly, the frown having simmered from the rest of his body to rest solely in his eyes.
