HIATUS

private. selective. low activity. OSIAL from Genshin Impact primarily headcanon-based 30+. dark & mature themes. est. march 2023. written by min

[ozeanum]

private. highly selective. low activity.

OSIAL // OVERLORD OF THE VORTEX // HE WHO LIES IN THE DEEP.

portayal heavily headcanon-based. dark themes. not spoiler free. 21+.

affiliated (& exclusive) with YUELUN.

BLOG RULES down below ↴

No bullying, no drama, no cancel culture. I don’t care, get off my swamp.

Mutuals only. This counts for memes, starters, inbox calls, etc._

I only write with people over 21, no exceptions.

I don’t bite, but Osial might. If you have any questions or concerns, just shoot me an ask!

Memes are always up for grabs and welcomed.

Due to water snek boi having no actual face besides his hydra worminess, this blog will be mostly iconless. Any art of his human form posted originally on this blog is either drawn by me or commissioned. Do not reuse it without my permission.

[ozeanum]

@yuelun sent: "There is a home for every departed thing."

Haagentus; The Goddess of Dust. Everything comes from her and everything will go to her - such is the nature of all things in this world. Only that which opposes her in its element, of which there is few, is set apart, by definition disconnected from her and yet connected to her by that very opposition. Osial does not remember the beginning of his existence, only remembers being and perceiving, knowing and understanding; filling the void where something else was not.

But at first, only he was.

That void came with her, for there is no presence without absence, no half without a whole. Out of something became something else, something other, seen as such and changed thus.

He knows what she seems to imply, knows of the unification that the end of an existence brings. All that lives is destined to die, all that is is destined to not be once more. Each thing is slave, child and master of an element in its own way and to that element it must return. To call it a home.. is very Guizhong a notion. A home is that which welcomes you as you are and grants a sense of belonging; a place you are destined to find because it is made with a hole in the shape of your being. But since there is a home for each thing that passes on from the day it is born, how much meaning can their existence between coming from it and returning to it truly have? And yet when the mortals' ships crash against the rocks or are swallowed by the waves she pities their departure and refuses to accept the insignificance of their deaths.

To cry for them is a symptom of forgetting that Osial has noticed in Morax as well; forgetting what this world once was, forgetting that the truth of it lies so far beyond a mortal's grasp that they will not reach it before the Age of Man is over. Once in the past Osial was close to forgetting but the Heavens wiped that which was born from his love from existence and he remembered the way things are. Love is not in the nature of a god, to feel it is to become something else; so to their homes they must let them depart as their elements dictate.

--But what of them? What of that which has existed since before the world changed and will exist when it changes once more? What of that which by its very existence opposes all that is her, forever her counterpart, forever incongruous? That, which did not come from dust and cannot return to dust. "And where is the home of that which never departs?" he asks into the silence that follows her words. The sea calmly swashes against the shore.

Is it still with you?

[ozeanum]

@archoniic​​ sent: ❛   perhaps it is the greater grief, to remain on the earth when another is gone.  ❜  

Osial does not respond right away. He takes his time - time that was stolen from him as he lay in the deep, alone and banished - to look at Morax’s face and make note of every detail that differs from the image in his memory that was preserved inside him like an air bubble trapped underwater. Some days that memory was the only thing that retained his will to endure; on other days it was enough to incite a rage inside him that would have shaken the entire sea had his powers not been petrified.

Morax’ hair is different and yet the same, his eyes like liquid gold and amber, as captivating as they have ever been, but the look in them has changed. It neither carries the fondness it once held for him nor the anger he last faced before the world turned dark around him. There is wisdom in it that carries the mark of time - time lost to one and won to another - and sadness that carries the mark of loss and grief beyond imagination. The grief of one facing the solitude of eternity all by himself.

“There is no greater pain than watching that which you know fade away,” Osial responds. That which you know and that which you love, he’s found, in the end turn out to be the same thing. Whether it is another, who walks the same earth, or yourself who fades away, it leaves behind only a shell of what once was and can never be again. Pain fills the vastness of his being, a space once filled with wisdom, understanding and a curiosity for the ever-changing world. Pain for all that he’s lost and all that he is; pain for the dreams he dreamed in the deep and will never see come true.

Gods do not die when when mortals cease to remember them; what a foolish notion to have. How could a thing as fickle and frail as human’s memory hold the power to wipe them from existence? It is the gods themselves who must forget and only then will they be forgotten.

For one last time Osial reaches out, with a hand he never quite learned to see as a part of himself but an extension of his being nonetheless; yet he does not touch. For centuries he longed for his warmth, his forgiveness, his apology. For centuries he whispered and screamed about them to himself in the dark, until rage turned to acceptance and he began to understand. He could be trapped for a day, a thousand years or all of eternity: the world would keep changing and racing against time. There is no need for him to be in it and perhaps there never was. A god may move heaven and earth but in the end he, too, only is because he knows himself to be.

This world has changed and left him behind - or maybe it is him who has changed and become something beyond being a part of it. Recognition tugs at his limbs and his thoughts and as he looks at those golds and ambers, warmer than the sun, for the last time, he ceases to fight and allows it to pull him apart thread by thread.

“Maybe we will meet again, my friend; when the stars above have faded and this world is born anew.” Osial pulls back, and as he does the skin of his mortal form begins to turn pale, the tips of his hair curling up into clusters of white foam. “But I think not,” he ends and before it disappears forever his voice fades into an echo inside of Morax’s heart. Where he stood is but a pillow of seafoam that clings to the sand at Morax’s feet before it is taken by the next wave and washed away, insignificant and fleeting.

And the sea remains, forever silent.

[ozeanum]

Am I putting elements of the last unicorn turning into Amalthea into Osial taking on a human form? More likely than you think.

[ozeanum]

for @archoniic​

For as long as he can remember Osial has watched the waves roll up to the shore and crash against the stone or wash over the sandy beaches. Sometimes they’re gentle and slow, sometimes they’re fast and violent. Like him. Though he pondered on many things regarding the lands untouched by the waters he never pictured or wished himself there. All things were one and yet uniquely separate and he was content, for the longest time, to remain in his sphere of existence, touching upon the territories of the sovereigns of stone and air only peripherally.

That is, until his thoughts and desires became mingled with that of the Lord of Stone, and his understanding of himself became irreversibly completed only by setting it in opposition to all that Morax was. The water that shapes the stone which forms this world; a force only recognized as such by its power over the other; an element seen as such only in contrast to one it is not.

And these changed thoughts brought with them new desires, new dreams that spoke against Osial’s very nature and yet occupied his mind like foam floating on the surface and refusing to disperse. There was never a reason for him to walk on land - or walk at all - until he watched Morax turn away from the sea, and him, time and again, his steps carrying him deep into the heart of that land so foreign to Osial. It awoke a longing inside him that grew over time like a small swirl that turns into a maelstrom, powerful enough to swallow every instinct that speaks up against this affront to his nature.

The idea of himself in any other shape than the one he knows himself to be was not born from his own mind. There is no room in his concept of self for an aspect of himself so human-like that he could have created the image all by himself. It is modeled after Morax’ own form and after what he might desire; after what he might picture if he had to shape Osial in this form.

It feels odd.

It’s neither here nor there; not human enough to be mistaken for a mortal body and yet too fragile and feeble to remind of the great god it holds inside. It doesn’t take long for him to take on this new form but once it is done Osial finds himself trapped in wonderment and contemplation to the point of immobility. The moon draws its course across the night sky and gives way to the warming sun as he sits on the beach, watching the waves from a new-found perspective. Fingers and toes dig into the damp sand beneath him, senses of touch and smell developing in ways he never experienced before. His skin still bears the color of shallow waters, long hair cascading down his shoulders and back, getting washed against his legs each time the waves catch up to him. It shines in the sunlight, changing color like the sea as it moves ever restlessly.

Osial feels small in a world that never felt bigger and for the first time in millennia he is uncertain of who he is.

[archoniic]

❛   i didn’t leave because i stopped loving you. i left because the longer i stayed, the less i loved myself.  ❜  // @ozeanum

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄 𝐇𝐈𝐌 𝐏𝐀𝐔𝐒𝐄; slowly he turns, amber gaze falling onto him. For the briefest of moments there was obvious shock. Of all the things Osial could have spoken; that was nowhere on the list. They made his stomach twist, uncomfortable; his chest ached. He recognised what it was; regret. He had not been there; there had once been a time where it was simply the two of them. Each had their own role to play even then, but the more Morax became ingrained in the world of the mortals; the more it put distance between the two of them. He had not noticed that, had not paid it any mind at all. 

At least not until he turned around and realised Osial was no longer by his side.

Had he taken it for granted? Of course he had, Morax’s focus had shifted. Where he’d gone, Osial could not easily follow; had voiced his concerns and opinions more than once and Morax had simply shifted them to the side. He’d had very little interest in hearing them, never once did it occur to him in not listening, he would inevitably lose him.

“I see.”

Two words; gaze shifting from that of molten amber to the colder gaze many were accustomed to from him in the throws of war. Arms folded about his chest; he could not change his mind – he did not hold that level of power yet more to the point; why should he? Osial’s decision was his own to make, not his. Had Morax always been that way? It had never been truly shown to Osial; never having a reason to. Back then, Morax had only him to consider; only him to think of. Now, taking up this mantle; he had so much more to consider. The trifling feelings of the heart were not something he had the liberty of playing with. 

Unaware he would come to regret that choice many years later.

“You have made your decision, I will respect it.” 

He could not show any sign of weakness; not even in the face of someone who had once known him best.

[ozeanum]

@yuelun​ sent: Whether her imagination altered the reality that surrounded them or not, she could swear, as clear as day, that she could hear the waves sing. And so when she closed her eyes for just a moment, she smiled. One could almost imagine that she stood on the shore of Liyue as she'd done countless of times before, with one of the starconches pressed to her ear. The sound was, somehow, truly rather identical. How could a god, truly, be taken aback by anything within this mortal world? And yet, here she stood, wholly enraptured by the waves that tickled her toes as they washed onto the shore of this isle they'd found themselves on, isolated from the Guili Plains. The chuckle it drew from her released her from her reverie, as she glimpsed over her shoulder— "Are you certain that you won't join us, Osial?"

And before he managed a response of any kind, she would, ever quietly as she kneeled, disrupt the silence around them with a hum, as if to sing along to the harmony of the water that enveloped them here. Was it his song, perhaps? But it was only for a moment, as fleeting as all else in this world. "Then I shall leave a piece of myself here," and there, her smile grew further, and warmer. With the brush of her palm to her other in a gentle sweep, the smallest specks of dust seemed to form there at her behest, before they fell and scattered onto the sand before her. Mortals would surely deem it magical, but for them, surely, it was anything but. "To keep you company," raising her hand to her lips, she blew any remnants of dust off her skin before a gaze of grey finally returned to him. "—until I return for our next round."

There are times when Osial can bear the presence of others for several days and nights without getting weary of their company - and there are times when he can barely stand a single other being intruding his space in this world. The shift in tide comes and goes, is near impossible to influence or change and oftentimes as surprising to the Lord of the Vortex as it is to those he associates with. He may crave company one moment and reject it the next, all at the mercy of a whim, a word, a single thought.

It has been a pleasant day they spent together on the little isle - arguably the smallest patch of land they could have chosen for their day of games and leisure - and Osial’s thoughts are filled with moments passed and words spoken that float away in his mind like pieces of wood on the waves. He had felt a consuming ambition in the beginning, determined to win at this game or the other, but was long eliminated by the time the final round was played. It didn’t bother him. Winning, losing - there is no point to either in such meaningless competitions and the joy felt throughout it counts far more than the result.

Besides, it is always more entertaining to critique Morax’ ridiculous set of rules than to actually adhere to them.

The last hour before the sun began to set Osial spent watching her delicate fingers move pieces over the board, gentle as if she’s handling dried petals of a flower, fearful of them crumbling. --A sentiment he wouldn’t even know without her. Dried flowers are dead, their reason to exist only given in their beauty and that beauty is a thing only worth the fleeting memory it creates in a mortal mind. His kind can appreciate beauty too, but nothing will ever compare to the things he’s seen when his eyes first glanced at this world, and nothing will ever compare to the things he’s yet to see when all things end. The constraints of time and imagination that create understanding and superiority of one thing over another in a mortal mind do not exist in an immortal one.

She won the game and Morax showed little emotion about it, as expected. All rules were followed - once Osial was disqualified - and that pleased the Lord of Stone more than any victory might have. The place to celebrate and eat together would be another one but Osial voiced his lack of intention to join in before even prompted. He had enough company for a while. The calm sea began to ripple with thoughts half-formed and desires of a whole other nature, and how long it would take for it to calm again one could not say.

One by one they left and as silence fell over this random little isle Osial felt no sorrow about their disappearance. He would see them again soon, or maybe he wouldn’t. It didn’t matter, it was only time.

He’s looking out over the water when her humming meets his ears, the note like a soft breeze harmonizing with his - for just a heartbeat. It leaves him surprised and silenced, the only sound around them now the brushing of the waves against the shore - a sound as primordial as Osial himself. His eyes find her form but he doesn’t respond. She would always ask one last time and he would never change his mind. And yet his eyes widen as he watches warm silvery dust spring from her hands and fall on the ground like stars may fall from the sky, glittering in the setting sun like shattered pieces of a window into another realm smaller than grains of sand.

“Until then..” he finally speaks, his cold blue gaze melting against her warm grey one. With that she is gone as well and Osial is left with her gift. He guards it until rays of gold turn to silver and back again to gold, guards it still when he leaves the little isle behind to be forgotten - against nature’s wrath as well as his own, like a small patch of peace preserved in immortal memory. Until her return, he thinks as no foot is set on the isle for the time it takes to watch seeds turn to trees and mortal things be born and die. Until her return, he thinks as the sky turns dark and that single note that resonated with his own forever fades.

Until her return, he thinks as he sinks into the deep and a small wave washes over dried ground for the first time in living human memory, stopping just before the little patch that glistens in the sun like ground silver.

[cowboahs]

quotes that broke me starters

feel free to adjust pronouns / names as needed !

quotes taken from random sources or tiktok. i claim no ownership whatsoever.

❛   i’m supposed to be the one who protects you from monsters. i’m not supposed to be one.  ❜  

❛   if i could make a deal with god, and i’d get him to swap our places.  ❜  

❛  no one heard our screams for a long time.  ❜  

❛   i know so many last words. but i’ll never know hers.  ❜  

❛   there is a home for every departed thing.  ❜  

❛   it reminded me that i will never truly know you.  ❜  

❛   i also buried a part of myself alongside them.  ❜  

❛   after you died i could no longer hold a funeral. so my life became the funeral.  ❜  

❛   you don’t have to be awake to cry.  ❜  

❛   forgive me, for all the things i did. but mostly the things i didn’t do.  ❜  

❛   the human eye is the loneliest creation of all.  ❜  

❛   fairness is for happy people.  ❜  

❛   the things we lost will always be heavier than the things that stayed.  ❜  

❛   perhaps it is the greater grief, to remain on the earth when another is gone.  ❜  

❛   you stain the pages with yourself.  ❜  

❛   tears will not wash away the sorrow.  ❜  

❛   beautiful things grow a certain height and then they fall and fade off.  ❜  

❛    who in all these centuries has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?  ❜  

❛   i have scars on my hands from touching certain people  ❜  

❛   despite everything, i believe that people are really good at heart.  ❜  

❛   you tried to change, didn’t you?  ❜

❛   you can’t make homes out of people. someone should have taught you that.  ❜  

❛   i hid my deepest feelings so well, i forgot where i placed them.  ❜  

❛   we have no scar to show for happiness. we learn so little from peace.  ❜  

❛   i didn’t leave because i stopped loving you. i left because the longer i stayed, the less i loved myself.  ❜  

❛   at every moment in our life, we have one foot in a fairytale & the other in the abyss.  ❜  

❛   there are too many sad eyes on happy faces.  ❜  

❛   it’s strange, i felt less lonely when i didn’t know you.  ❜  

❛   things change, friends leave. life doesn’t stop for anybody.  ❜  

❛   it takes a lifetime to die, and no time at all.  ❜  

❛   i am deathly afraid of almosts. of coming close to what i want and then falling just a little short.  ❜  

❛   i felt your absence.  ❜  

❛   what do we do now, now that we are happy?  ❜  

❛    you honestly thought anybody would love you? purely and truly love you?  ❜  

❛   don’t stop looking. he deserves to know someone saw his end, that someone noticed him.  ❜  

❛    i can bear my pain so long as it has meaning.  ❜  

❛   i dont have a single friend - not one.  ❜  

❛   i’ve had more than enough pain in my life, what’s a little more going to do?  ❜  

❛    it would have been you if i met you first.  ❜  

❛    i really thought he was going to be my forever.  ❜  

❛    maybe in the next life it would work.  ❜  

❛   in spite of everything, you’re still you.  ❜  

❛   the dead have it easy.  ❜  

❛   there’s an ocean of silence between us, and I’m drowning.    ❜  

❛   there have been countless times in my life when i thought i’d be better off dead.  ❜  

❛   what on earth… have i become?  ❜  

❛   don’t look at me! i don’t … i don’t want you seeing me like this.  ❜  

❛   i wish i could’ve been like you.  ❜  

❛   your fate was sweeping you away, like a flood.  ❜  

❛   the future should know the mistakes we made.  ❜  

❛   of course you have. you feel guilt. you want redemption.  ❜  

❛   i’m here because you can’t accept what you’ve done. it broke you.  ❜  

❛   even now, after all you’ve done, you can still go home.  lucky you . ❜  

❛   you’re all that’s left, and we can’t live this lie forever.  ❜  

❛    prometheus gave us light, and warmth, and eternal damnation.  ❜  

❛   take a gamble that love exists, and do a loving act.  ❜  

❛    i know i ruined your life. i suffer for it every day.  ❜  

❛   don’t let yourself get killed for… for pride. i’ve seen it kill too many folk.  ❜  

❛    you and me, we ain’t decent… but those folk… they were.  ❜  

❛   we’re more ghosts than people.  ❜  

❛   despite my best efforts to the contrary… it turns out i’ve won.  ❜  

❛   i gave you all i had … i did.  ❜  

❛   this whole time, I’ve blamed myself for that decision.  ❜  

❛   do you think even the worst person can change…? That everybody can be a good person, if they just try? ❜  

❛   i don’t want to break their hearts all over again. it’s better if they never see me.  ❜  

❛   please leave me alone. i can’t come back. i just … can’t, okay?  ❜  

❛   no matter the struggles or hardships you faced… you strived to do the right thing, you refused to hurt anyone. ❜  

❛    people like you don’t ever want to be happy.  ❜  

❛   i don’t want to let go. i’m not ready to say goodbye yet.  ❜  

[ozeanum]

@worldly-diversity​ sent: "You've been spending quite a bit of time with Cloud Retainer." Menogias muses, his lips lightly quirked as he regards the other from the corner of his eye. "There's a bet going on that the two of you do more than just tinker in her abode. Care to confirm~?"

Osial’s head turns and for a long long moment he simply looks at Menogias - as if he’s trying to pierce right through him with his gaze. An urge to groan tickles in his chest but he’s not a beast that growls and hisses so instead he remains quiet, expressing his dissatisfaction over the inappropriateness and stupidity of this particular question.. by not expressing it.

Yes, he’s been spending time with Cloud Retainer and yes they do more than tinker in her abode. But are they doing what Menogias is implying? Him and whoever else has nothing better to do with their time than chatter about juvenile things like that.

“No,” Osial says finally, before turning his attention back to the spectacle before them. Two birds chasing each other through the grass, fighting over the same piece of sunsettia while quacking angrily. Yeah, the similarities are undeniable.

[archoniic]

❝ Tears don’t fix anything. ❞ @ozeanum

𝐀 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐅𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐊, hardly worth such a statement. His jaw clenched as he looked at his friend; although in that moment he half debated causing him the same gut wrenching agony that he, himself was feeling. Had he taken the required form; of course. For now Osial was safe – but Morax’s memory was long. 

One day. I shall.

Leaning against the side of the cliff, somewhat slumped as it became obvious then why those mortals wore such ridiculous things that covered their feet. To stop unnecessary injuries such as these.   ❝ I do hope you are finding your amusement. ❞  He half grumbled, the Lord of Geo felled by something as simple as a stubbed toe. How shameful.  ❝ Consider this a promise that once you take mortal form, Osial. I shall ensure you feel this very same torture. ❞  He could see the way the waves rippled around him; raising then to his full height – which in this form was not nearly as impressive as his. ❝ I do hope, for your sake, you are not laughing at me. ❞

[ozeanum]

If you’re reading this, Guizhong, I don’t like you.

[findingtamriel]

G E N S H I N   I M P A C T  |  T U R N I N G   P O I N T

[ozeanum]

WHAT'S YOUR ROLE IN A FOUND FAMILY ?

the silent sufferer

you love your friends, but the truth is, you go through most of the real things alone. it's better that no one sees you like this. you'll be fine, really, because you're used to feeling this way. it'll pass. it always does. that's what you believe, anyway. you're more likely to give someone advice on a lesson you've learned without telling them how you learned it. you've come to realize that, if they're coming to you for advice, they'll be too preoccupied to ask. it stings, but it's... that's just the way feelings work sometimes. when you're around others, most of these problems seem to vanish, and you're better able to love the person you are. only on the worst days do you continue to hear that insistent whisper that it's, "all a lie because they don't know what's *really* going on." it's not a lie. you are loved. those moments together are real. there are times when you can afford not to be so strong.

tagged: @worldly-diversity tagging: you!

[ozeanum]

@worldly-diversity​ sent: She squinted at him for the umpteenth time as she watched Osial idly browse her collection of parts and half finished prototypes, despite knowing she dislikes it when her unfinished works are being purveyed."If you insist upon making yourself at home within one's workshop, the least you can do is help." She huffed sharply, keeping half an eye on his reaction while pretending to return to her current project, something small designed more to prove to Guizhong that she could make more than just practically oriented machines. This one was a small bird she was designing to fly on its own power.

Endless numbers and lines on endless sheets of paper that cover the stone table she’s sitting at and even parts of the floor beneath it, like fallen leaves in autumn. She thinks and plans and calculates – every touch and turn is perfected before it’s ever carried out. ---It’s almost diametrically opposed to Osial’s own ways, guided by instinct, temper and opportunity – an approach that invites action for the sake of the act, content with any outcome, whereas hers dictates action to achieve an outcome set prior. One who seizes opportunities and one who creates them.

Not that he was watching her, of course. His eyes wander over the various creations standing or lying around in her workshop, some of which easy to guess the function of while others are quite mysterious. Knowing her, however, all of them are useful in their own way (to someone, anyway). Her scolding words don’t faze him, at best they cause a little curl of amusement on his lips. Something is bothering her but his guess is that it isn’t his company.

“Do the birds in the sky lack efficiency?” he taunts gently. “Have you grown tired of watching their erratic flight?” It can’t be the reason but even so Osial can’t fathom why she would create something so seemingly pointless. A mechanical copy of a real thing, as complete yet imperfect as anything else in this world, doomed to be inferior to its original by the very nature of its creation.

“You desire my help?” Osial asks, still amused but now with a hint of surprise mixed in. He steps closer to her table, regarding the little bird for a moment and then sitting down opposite her. His hand comes to rest on one of her drawings, a finger tracing the clean lines. “Last I recall you accused me of being destructive.” To prove her point a small wave of clear water springs from his sleeve, splashing over her hands and catching the bird so it floats and tumbles like a boat caught by a storm.

“What is the purpose of this?”

[genshinmp3]

Visit Original Link

Dance with the Great Vortex from The Shimmering Voyage Yu-Peng Chen, HOYO-MiX

[lagia-deactivated20240123]

Can we see you doodle Osial`s tentacles?? ;00

there were plenty of bastards in the archon wars

✺✳ ┅ ⑅ ┅ ✳✺

if you like my art, why not leave a tip?

twitter    +18 twitter minors DNI

[sonofbhaal]

       “The LORD OF MURDER shall perish, but in his doom he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos will be sewn from their passage.”                                             - So sayeth the wise Alaundo

INDEPENDENT  PRIVATE   &&   HIGHLY  SELECTIVE MULTIMUSE  BLOG FOR   BIOWARE’S    BALDUR’S  GATE   (FORGOTTEN   REALMS).    25 +. MATURE THEMES. CROSSOVER FRIENDLY. LOW ACTIVITY. FEATURING: SAREVOK ANCHEV    //     ANOMEN DELRYN     //    VALYGAR CORTHALA.