Stories of Tie Up Games

by civpl » Sun Apr 17, 2016 9:33 pm

Chloe

Chloe was getting herself ready to go, she had packed all her bags the night before and now all she had to do was put on her clothes and head downstairs.

At thirteen years old she was a huge acting fan. She had been to tons of acting and drama lessons, participated in school plays and went to acting camps for almost every holiday in the last six years. For as long as she could remember she had wanted to be an actress; and now she had finally done it, she had been selected to go to Eternal Performance the most prestigious acting camp anywhere in the world.

Kids who went to Eternal Performance eventually went on to star in Broadway or West End productions, some of the biggest movie stars had started their careers there. There were a bunch of prerequisites in order to even be considered for the camp, training in multiple styles of theater were a must as well as at least beginner levels of stage combat, and of course practical experience in plays or films.

Chloe stood in front of her mirror taking a last look at herself before heading downstairs. Her blonde hair flowed down past her shoulders, and her hazel eyes contrasted nicely with the light blue t-shirt and shorts she wore. Pleased with how she looked she grabbed her small suitcase and backpack and ran downstairs. Her mother was waiting for her at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal.

"Ready to go?" her mother asked.

"Yes!" Chloe squealed in excitement.

Her mother smiled, "Alright head outside and put your stuff in the car."

Quickly dashing outside Chloe stuffed her things in the truck and rushed to the passenger door opening it quickly and strapping herself in. Her mother came out of the house locking the door behind her and got into the car. It would be just over three hours before they got to the camp, so as they started driving off Chloe leaned back into her seat and thought about the camp she was going to spend the next five weeks in.

The reason why Eternal Performance was so sought after was because of the level of difficulty involved in making it through. The camp specialized in long term acting; it pushed kids to the limit of how long they could stay in character. The sheer scale of the camp made things even more challenging; with over a hundred kids and teens participating it brought a significant level of competition to the table as well.

Chloe was really excited about this year's theme, an Old West setting. All the participants are given a randomly selected character overview and breakdown, the first of the five weeks is spent getting to know the layout of the camp, practicing for the role and familiarizing themselves with the rules. The next four weeks is where the real challenge began; they would have to remain in character for the entire duration of camp and any major character breaks will result in getting sent home by the Camp Director.

Chloe had done a lot of research on the camp, she felt really prepared but she was also glad that even though there would be returning campers they wouldn't have too much of an advantage since the camp changed things so drastically from year to year. Every summer a new set was built this year it would be a western setting but last year the camp had an alien invasion theme. Returning campers wouldn't recognize a thing about the new set even though they had participated before.

As Chloe’s eyes began to close she dreamed about what character she would be, imaging a gun-slinging hero. With those thoughts in her head she drifted off to sleep.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lia

“Welcome to Eternal Performance!” exclaimed the Camp Director as Lia looked on.

The Camp Director was standing on the stage in front of Lia and about a hundred other eager campers, but this was mostly old news to Lia as a third time returning camper she had already heard the same opening speech before.

Lia was fifteen years old having first come to Eternal Performance when she was thirteen, this year though promised to be different and very exciting. As one of the select few campers who had made enough of a good impression on the Director to keep being re-invited she was considered something of a veteran; which meant that this time around she would not have to select her role from the general pool which is available to everyone. Instead, she would have the opportunity to take on a Starring Role and all the perks that come with it. Starring Role is really just a fancy name given to those campers whose character was a leader within the camp; last year Lia had acted as secretary to the President of their ‘country’.

As the Director droned on, Lia took the chance to look out over the crowd of campers assembled in front of the stage. Being one of the older ones present Lia definitely had a height advantage over most of the kids present. Her sparkling green eyes swept over the crowd from left to right and back again, then Lia frowned, something was odd, it looked like the vast majority of campers were newbies; usually the divide was more equal with the experienced half showing the ropes to the new half. Then again last year’s performance was such a disaster that it didn’t really surprise Lia that the Director decided a whole new crop was better than re-inviting some of those ex-campers.

In fact now that Lia took a closer look she only really recognized ten or so other experienced campers, which led her to believe that it is extremely likely that the Starring Roles this year will have significantly more power than usual. Lia grinned it likely meant that she would have even more people answering to her than she first expected.

“And now if everyone could please form a line in front of the bowl, it is time to select your numbers!”

This part was always exciting; the campers all lined up and drew a number from inside a bowl placed on a table in front of the stage. With their number firmly in hand they would proceed to the Casting House where they would receive the character overview and breakdown that they would be playing as for their time at camp. Lia however mostly ignored this because she knew that the announcement was coming.

“Starring Roles please make your way to the Map Room inside the Casting House,” said the Camp Director from his place on the stage.

Most of the new campers looked confused at this particular announcement but for the people who had received their invitations with Starring Role printed at the top there was no hesitation. Lia quickly made her way through the crowd and towards the Casting House, a large beautiful building with massive floor-to-ceiling windows encircling it. The Casting House was the centre of this portion of the camp; it housed all of the camp administrators and the famous Map Room which only SRs ever got to see.

Surrounding the Casting House was a circle of the stereotypical wooden camp bunkers, the first week of camp would be spent here, adjusting to the new roles and familiarizing campers with their counterparts. It would also serve as a place where instructors would go over some unique skills with some campers if their roles required it. Lia recalled her first year in camp had been medieval themed, so all the campers who had been selected as Knights were given a crash course in Knightly honour and fighting practices.
All campers usually received some form of lessons from camp instructors revolving around their role; Lia along with some thirty other campers had been taught how to act as servants to the Lords and Ladies, going over everything from how to address them to performing other duties like cleaning or cooking.

Lia finally made it to the Casting House, entering it she found herself in the lobby where a large sign read “Starring Roles this way” with a large red arrow printed beneath the words pointing to the left. Lia quickly turned down the left-hand hallway, at the far end she could see a set of big wooden double doors with golden lining engraved on them depicting an image of the famous Hamlet scene, a man kneeling talking to a skull held above him.

Lia grew more excited as she approached, she had of course seen these doors before but this time she would finally be able to enter. Grasping the golden handle Lia swung the door open and strode into the room closing the door behind her. Turning around, she first had to blink a few times to adjust to the dim lighting of the room, when her eyes finally adjusted her breath caught in her throat, she had never seen so many screens in one place in her life! Lia certainly had not been expecting this nor were any of the others judging by the looks they were exchanging. All the screens were blank right now but the entirety of the three walls not including the entrance wall were covered in screens, with absolutely nothing in the centre of the room except for a small circular table that had two chairs around it.

Looking around at the people gathered here, Lia did not necessarily know any of them very well, there were six boys and four other girls all around her age but Lia knew that there were at least two others not yet here so they had to wait for a bit. Standing in the corner of the room Lia spotted a black-haired girl she recognized from her first year that she had a good relationship with. She spent a moment trying to remember her name before recalling that it was Katie, she made her way over to her.

“Hey Katie, how are you?” asked Lia.

“Lia? Hey, I’m good, it’s been a while” Katie responded with a smile “I didn’t see you last year, how have you been?”

“I was mostly hanging around in the President’s office so we wouldn’t have come across each other, I’ve been great! I am so excited for the Starring Roles!”

“I know me as well, did you notice how few of us there are this year?”

“Yeah I noticed that too I hope-“ Lia was interrupted by the door opening behind her.

One boy and one girl walked in followed by the Camp Director and the Head Acting Coach. The two administrators made their way directly to the small table and stood next to it. The Camp Director was a tall man with a full black beard trimmed very close, his hair was unkempt as usual and his green eyes stood out in the darkness of the room. On the other hand the Head Acting Coach was an awfully short woman with straight black hair and a set of glasses that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the 70s. In fact, the Head Acting Coach was significantly older than the Camp Director but it had always been that way so Lia knew that they always did a good job.

“Good morning everyone” beamed the Director smiling at everyone present “I hope you’re as excited as I am to get started this year.” To which all the kids nodded eagerly.

“Good, because we have a lot planned for this session, it’s going to be very interesting. Ms. Abbott will now take over for a moment.”

Ms. Abbott voice spoke up from next to the Director in her traditionally high squeaky tone, “Thank you, Mr. Davis. Everyone if you would please turn your attention to the screens directly in front of us.”

Lia and Katie along with everyone else turned to face where Ms. Abbott pointed, before being mildly blinded by the strong light coming from the previously blank screen. On the screen was a massive map with lots of small details labelled such as ‘bank’ or ‘saloon’, in the farther corners of the map Lia spotted another interesting label that caught her eye, ‘Indian encampment’. This was obviously going to be the area where the majority of camp will be spent in depicting the artificial set that had been specifically created for this camp session.

"As you are all aware this year’s theme is Old West, and all of you are experienced enough that I don’t have to repeat any of the rules correct?” She carried on without waiting for a response, “What you probably don’t know is that we have doubled the size of the set from previous years.”

There were a few gasps at the pronouncement because the field had been plenty large before but now to have doubled in size seems crazy.

“You will notice on the map that instead of simply having one central location as you are no doubt used to, we have added another smaller hub located up here,” she said as she pointed towards the small cluster of buildings labelled Indian encampment. “Because of this you can expect to find yourselves in either of these two areas, we predict that there will be conflict between all the opposing parties, so it is likely that if you ever do see the section that is not yours, it will be as captives.”

Lia nodded as she listened to the Head Acting Coach hostages and captives were not uncommon in the last two themes she had been present for, so it did not come as much of a surprise that the tradition continued especially considering this year’s theme.

“Very well if all of you understand this and its implications then we can move on to your Roles this year,” she said with a smile.

Katie put her hand up to get Ms. Abbott’s notice.

“Yes, Katie?”

“Ms. Abbott what are those smaller dots in the middle of the two towns?” Katie said indicating smaller areas located approximately in the middle of both towns but spread either at the extreme north or south of the map.

“Ah you are perceptive, yes; those are the living spaces of the other two factions in this year’s session. You will all understand more when your Roles are assigned.”

Mr. Davis stepped forward at that point “I will call your name then you will go to Ms. Abbott to retrieve your character files, after which you are free to leave. You will be staying here in the Casting House as is customary for Starring Roles and you may have free use of the Map Room anytime you which but remember do not under any circumstances allow anyone who is not an SR enter with you.”

Mr. Davis began reading down the list of names which appeared to be listed alphabetically but Lia was confused when her name was skipped. She saw Katie take her file and leave the room until it was only Lia herself and the administrators.

“Lia, you have a very special role this year,” said the Director “come take your file and follow its instructions very closely.”

As he said this he handed Lia the manila coloured folder. Lia began her way towards the door while slowly drawing out the files inside the folder. Printed at the top in big bold letters was:

Role: Masked Vigilante


*Do not show or tell anyone*

by civpl » Thu Apr 21, 2016 4:55 pm

Chloe

Chloe was feeling very confused, on one hand she loved camp so far, everyone was really nice and the acting training started immediately. Yesterday after receiving their character overviews everyone split up and put their stuff away in cabins based on who their character was. Afterwards, they got to practice shooting with a small revolver that looked very cowboy-ish; of course they weren’t real! They simply shot small pellets and all the campers that had shooting as a significant part of their role trained with them.

That was Chloe's dilemma because on one hand she loved everything they had done so far but unlike what she had been dreaming of her character did not turn out to be some awesome hero. Instead, she got stuck being a bandit, and just to prove it could be worse she didn’t even get into the cool bigger bandit group! No, she had to go with the small one.

Her cabin mates from the group though were really nice, their cabin had the smallest number of people in it due to the small nature of their faction, they only had seven campers including her.

“Hey Chloe, you coming?” said Kelly, a short twelve-year-old with brown eyes and the most vivid shade of red hair Chloe had ever seen.

“Coming where?”

“To practice did you forget already?” Kelly said followed by a short giggle.

“Oh right, of course, I’ll be right there” Chloe replied with a growing red blush at her own forgetfulness.

Kelly nodded and skipped out of the room heading towards the rest of their cabin mates. Today, they were working on their rope work because as bandits it was likely that they would need to tie up someone up. Chloe quickly slipped on her running shoes on before rushing out towards Kelly. As she approached the small group she could hear their rope instructor begin showing them some elementary knots. Chloe joined up next to Kelly and looked around indiscreetly hoping no one noticed her late arrival. Thankfully, it looked like no one had been paying her any attention instead they were all raptly focused on the instructor. Chloe wasn’t particularly worried about this portion since she had some minor experience with rope work from scouts a few years back.

Almost half an hour later the instructor announced, “Alright everyone please pair up and practice some of the knots I have just shown you if you have any questions I’ll be right here.”

Chloe turned to Kelly and asked, “Partners?”

“Sure!”

They moved over to a pile of ropes set off in the corner and picked up a few lengths each before heading back towards their cabin so that they could practice. When they arrived Kelly set down her bundle of ropes on one the beds before taking off her shoes, exposing her green ankle-high socks, Chloe followed suit.

“So you wanna start or should I?” Kelly asked.

“Nah you can go ahead.”

“Cool, hands behind you please palms facing inwards” Kelly ordered.

Chloe did as she was told, Kelly came around behind her holding a length of rope she immediately grabbed a hold of Chloe’s wrists lifting them slightly before she began wrapping the rope around them. Chloe winced slightly at the roughness Kelly displayed as well as the unexpected coarseness of the rope itself. Kelly proceeded to tie a thick knot just out of reach of Chloe’s fidgeting thumbs.

“How does that feel?” Kelly asked.

Chloe took a few moments trying to reach the know, twisting and turning her arms any way they would go before slumping back and giving up realising the ropes hadn’t loosened a bit.

“Umm I don’t I could get out of this” Chloe replied somewhat abashed with herself before her expression quickly turned thoughtful “how did you get so could at this?”

Kelly smirked slightly before replying “Don’t worry not everyone here will be as good as I am, my father takes me out fishing a lot so he taught me a bunch of useful knots so I could help him.”

Then Kelly simply stood there watching Chloe, after a few moments Chloe began fidgeting under her gaze. “Are you gonna let me out of this?”

“I don’t know I’m thinking about it,” Kelly said with a pensive expression.

Chloe looked at her in disbelief, "Of course you should!”

“Yeah I guess I will,” Kelly said with a soft sigh before she proceeded to untie Chloe’s wrists.

Chloe stood up rubbing her wrists where the ropes had left red marks on her skin.

“That was really tight,” Chloe said to which Kelly simply smiled, “You do realise that I’m gonna get you back now right?”

Chloe was hardly new to this whole game when her scout group came around for sleepovers they always ended up tying each other to see who could make the best knots. Chloe easily counted herself in the top two or three so she was certain Kelly wouldn’t be going anywhere soon.

“You can do whatever you like to me, I’ll be out in less than five minutes!” Kelly said confidently.

Chloe smirked “I’ll tell you what if you can get out of my tying then you can have my dessert tonight” knowing from last night how much Kelly enjoyed the cheesecake, “but if you can’t then you’ll whatever I say from now till the end of the week.”

The chance at an extra slice of cake was too much for Kelly to resist, “You’re on!” she replied with hardly a moment taken to think about it.

Chloe laughed “Ok get down on your stomach hands behind your back.”

Kelly followed the instruction, her purple shirt riding up slightly exposing her lower back. Chloe knelt down and began wrapping Kelly’s wrist much the same way as Kelly had done to her earlier, except Chloe left a large portion of the rope dangling. She then used that extra rope to loop it around Kelly’s chest multiple times so that Kelly’s arms could not lift away from her back in the slightness. It was around this stage that Kelly realised that Chloe knew much more about rope work than she had expected.
“Are you flexible?” Chloe asked.

“Uh yeah I guess, I mean I do gymnastics…” she trailed off before looking up at Chloe apprehensively, “why do you need to know that?”

“You’ll see.”

Chloe then took another length of rope and looped it around Kelly’s ankles but not before she had peeled off both of Kelly’s green socks exposing her cute small feet. With Kelly’s ankles firmly tied Chloe attached the last piece of rope and drew it from her ankles to her tied wrists bending Kelly to form a really strict hogtie.

“How does that feel?”

“It’s really tight Chloe.”

“Yes I know that’s the point,” Chloe would be lying to herself is she said she wasn’t feeling a bit vindictive. “Anyway you have five minutes to get out of that, but first one more addition.”

Chloe then picked up the two discarded green socks balled them up and shoved them into Kelly’s mouth before she picked up a piece of rope prepared earlier; quickly and expertly knotted it around Kelly’s head holding the socks in her mouth.

“Well? What are you waiting for? Only four minutes and a half now,” Chloe said looking down at Kelly.

Kelly went into a frenzy squirming and twisting every which way; soon Chloe could notice a sweat breakout on Kelly’s forehead. For all of Kelly’s struggling though, it didn’t appear to be working because the ropes held as tightly as ever and there were only seconds left on the timer Chloe had set. As soon as the timer ticked down Kelly stopped and looked up at Chloe a sad expression on her face.
“Oh would you look at that I guess you lost, I think I’ll just go grab some lunch then I’ll see you later.”

“Mphh mhpph mhhpp!” was Kelly’s unintelligible reply from behind Chloe’s back as she started to walk out of the cabin.

by civpl » Wed Oct 26, 2016 9:54 pm

Lia

Lia was quite annoyed; this is not at all what she signed up for. This year was meant to be her relaxed year, coming to camp as a leader so that she could boss around some younger kids. Instead, she ended up with possibly even more work than usual!

After she had left the Map Room with her character folder she had been in a slight state of shock. After a while, she had realized that for this particular role there was no better candidate; and the Director knew that.

In fact it was almost as if the character had been made specifically for her unique set of skills, knowing the Director she wouldn't put it past him to do something like that. It did definitely seem as if they had tailored the role to fit Lia's unique skill set.

You see unlike most kids attending this camp Lia did not come from an acting background; she actually trained for many years at martial arts, competing in hundreds of tournaments and winning most. In combination with that both her parents worked in the military so it was not uncommon to see them have family bonding time at the shooting range or practicing various military techniques. Her acting obsession came way later on down the line almost by accident.

Which is why Lia heavily suspected that had she not been here this character would not even have been created.

It seemed that the Director really wanted to make things interesting this year, she really couldn't recall a time when there was a character that was simply so.... Random? Lia couldn't figure out the best way to describe it. Her character sheet was titled masked vigilante but it had almost no information on that part of her role. It was however loaded with the other aspect of her character, her alter ego so to speak.

When she wasn't playing hero Lia would act as the sister to the Mayor of town. Her character's motivation for doing what she does is very simple really almost cliché. An attempt on her brother's life by one of the bandit gangs drove her to realising that the Sheriff is useless and there needs to be a new force in town to be reckoned with. All the bandits would be informed that a masked person might be out looking for them but only her 'brother' the Mayor would know what she was up to.
Lia definitely thought her character was going to be fun to play and she was very excited to get the opportunity to use some of here martial arts skills in a fake setting.

For the last three days since she received her character envelope Lia had been brushing up on her stage combat skills but today she thought a change of pace would be nice. Her first thought was to head to the small shooting range where she could she a bunch of campers trying and failing to hit the board less than fifteen meters away. However, she quickly changed her mind by noticing just how ridiculously more advanced she was than the people here.

By this time she had just made two full rotations of the cabins and nothing really stood out to Lia as something she had to practice immediately. So she just picked what promised to be most interesting. She made her way to the far end of the cabins almost directly opposite of where she had been. Earlier Lia noticed a small group of campers by the rope tying station attempting to perform the lasso. She recognized them as the Sheriff and her deputies.

The Sheriff was, in fact, Katie the black haired girl who she had briefly talked to in the Map Room three days prior. Closing in on the small group of eight, Lia noticed that Katie had already perfected the lasso. Having roped and tied two of her male deputies who were trying and failing to squirm out of the ropes that Katie had expertly looped around their wrists and ankles.

"Hey there Sheriff!" Lia said happily.

Katie looked over, turning her gaze away from the two boys on the ground "Hey Lia."

"Do you mind if I join you guys?" Lia asked.

"I didn't think being the Mayor's sister meant you had to know how to lasso people?" Katie replied with a questioning tone.

"Nah I don't I was just looking for something exciting to do."

"Well alright, do you know how to do any of this?"

Lia smirked, "Watch and learn Sheriff you might just pick up something new."

Lia walked over to the ropes lying on the ground before picking one up and giving it a light tug then draping the looped circle end of the rope over her shoulder. As she walked back towards Katie’s police group Lia eyed one of the deputies considering what she would demonstrate. Lia pointed at a short girl with black hair and green eyes, wearing a white blouse and a black pair of skinny jeans.

“What’s your name?” Lia questioned.

“Sophie” the black haired girl replied timidly.

“Well, Sophie can you please go stand over there?” Lia said as she pointed to a spot about seven meters away from where she is standing.

Sophie simply nodded obviously quite shy over all the attention, when she arrived at the spot indicated she turned around to face Lia and the rest of the Sheriff’s group. Lia looked behind and noticed that everyone within the group was watching her intently; even the two boys who were still tied on the ground had stopped squirming to watch Lia’s presentation.

“Ready?” Lia asked Katie cheekily.

“Get on with it Lia, I can’t wait to see you fail,” Katie said playfully.

With a soft scoff Lia once again turned and faced Sophie, she began by spinning the rope at waist level. Slowly she began moving her spinning arm from her side to over her head all the while speeding up the spinning. By this point the noose end of the rope was simply moving too fast for anyone to accurately distinguish its position over her. When she was ready Lia loosened her grip on the rope and allowed it to soar towards her target. Sophie flinched and moved her arms to cover her face when she noticed the rope flying towards her. Lia simply had to move her wrist slightly to account for Sophie’s movement. The noose slipped perfectly over Sophie, and Lia finished the action by tightening the rope around Sophie’s chest.

“What was that you were saying, Sheriff?” Lia cheekily asked the shocked Katie.

Lia felt the rope moving in her hands and turned around to see Sophie attempting to loosen the noose tied around her.

“And what exactly are you doing?”

“I’m removing the rope...” Sophie trialed off as she saw the expression on Lia’s face.

“Why are you doing that?”

“Because I thought we were done?” Sophie asked uncertainly.

“Well, I’m done but you are under arrest and we simply can’t have captured criminals running around now can we?” Lia stated.

Katie now catching on chimed in “Why you are such a good citizen Lia, apprehending such a dangerous criminal as this.”

Lia smirked “Yes well I think these binding are much too simple to hold someone as infamous as Sophie. So I think I’m gonna to have to fix that.”

Marching over to where Sophie was standing Lia kneeled down so that she was at ankle level and threw her end of the lasso over Sophie’s ankles. She quickly looped the rope twice over and tied it off with a complex knot. At this point, Sophie was squirming annoyingly, and looked as if she was about to start complaining so Lia taking the initiative simply stuffed her mouth with a dirty piece of cloth which was the only thing she had on hand with her at that moment.

Katie looked a bit surprised when Lia produced that gag from seemingly nowhere, and for a second Lia was afraid Katie was going to force her to untie Sophie but when Katie simply shrugged Lia ran back to the pile of ropes on the ground. Picking up a few of the shorter options Lia marched back over to the struggling girl and wrapped one of the ropes around her head pulling it tightly through her mouth to ensure the cloth stayed in.

Sophie moaned in frustration at this new development as she had almost managed to push the cloth out of her mouth, “mphhh mphh!”

“Oh hush you,” Lia said playfully.

Taking her two shorter ropes Lia tied them together before wrapping one end of the line around Sophie’s wrists which were still pulled against her chest because of the lasso. Grabbing the other end of the rope Lia started pulling the bound girl towards the signpost reading “Rope Tying” forcing Sophie to hop or else she would tip over. Once they arrived Lia looped the rope around the sign and tied it off, effectively attaching Sophie to the post.

Stepping back Lia admired her work, watching the black haired girl struggle against the ropes; she could already see that Sophie’s white blouse would need to be washed immediately as it was stained by something that was on one of the ropes. Sophie was moaning liking crazy trying to get some sympathy from the people watching, her green eyes stood out over the gag and Lia had to admit that she looked really cute tied up like that.

“Well that was unexpected,” Katie said from over Lia’s shoulder.

Looking back at Katie Lia smirked and said “Well I guess my work here is done” while pretending to dust herself off.

Lia started walking off leaving Sophie to her fate, “See ya later Lia!” Katie said from behind.

“See ya Sheriff!” Lia replied.

Lia certainly couldn’t wait for the week to wind down so that they could finally get into the camp proper and start playing out their Old West town. Thinking back to what she just did Lia definitely was much more excited about her role now as she ran through in head everything she could do to unfortunate campers who displeased her.

With that thought in her head Lia headed over to the mess hall for some lunch.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Author's Note: So really sorry, I have a fairly hectic schedule so unfortunately updates will be sporadic at best. Thank you all for the great comments so far though I hope you enjoyed this latest post :big: I have some interesting things planned for this story I just hope can get to them.

And let me know if there's anything that you are hoping for.