Can't fix you

Cyan monitors flickered through the dimly lit laboratory, casting their sickly light across the darkness and over Travis’ skin. Faint clicking sounds went off through the air, his fingers working over a keyboard with a rapid pace that seemed like it would cause the normal persons fingers to cramp. Various books, beakers and tubes floated through the air as they rearranged themselves in a fashion that seemed to make no sense. His mind worked over the myriad of thoughts that caused his own brain to focus incredibly upon the small screen flickering before him. Letters and words gathering together in intense collections of sentences that composed his thoughts.

This dismal veil of activity was broken through with a click of a switch, causing light to flood into the room. A brilliance that caused his eyes to sting, low hiss working through lips pressed tightly together. ”Thought you needed a little light in this den of yours.” Chris noted with that faint, pleasant smile while looking Travis over.

Did he do something with his hair?

”I don’t like it being bright in here. Really messed with my nonsensical writing.” He grumbled, giving a few more keystrokes as the screen collapsed in upon himself as he  let the laptop close down with his own hands. ”Need something Chris?” He queried looking at him in a fashion that was almost innocent, cocking his head to the side akin to a puppy.

”Something like that. You wanted to do something with Zeke today.”

”That’s the one that’s always fidgeting around right?”

”Yes, him. Just don’t point it out. I don want him getting self conscious about it.” Travis hopped from his seat, flooring feeling cool even through the soft socks.

”Lead him to one of the labs with the cozy couches. Also...i’ll send a message for the weird bug thing Gravity Man has apparently.” Withdrawing his phone from his pocket, he ended up settling into said lab and sat into a large white comfortable couch. Taking a reserved sitting position, knees resting against his chest and waiting.

The darkness was a welcomed thing for the creature. Despite the fact that it's transport had been a large U-haul trailer, it truly enjoyed the journey to the new land it had never seen. While it's beady eyes stared straight ahead, it began to wonder what the world outside looked like. Was it exactly as it envisioned? The beautiful glacial blue mountains with pristine white snow spread across the ground. It yearned to feel the bitter cold air upon it's oozing form, though it knew all too well the complications and risks were far too great.

    The call to action was a favor today, but one that came from the most unlikely ally Proarden would have never expected. Travis Masters, the self-proclaimed Alpha of his group, the very group his master had only referred to as "The Alphabet Soup Squad.". From the way Gravitas had spoken of them, they were not on the best of terms. After having reached out personally, upon taking over in Gravitas' absence, Alpha celled him a;  "Revolting, overgrown inch-worm". Proarden had heard Alpha had changed since he "kissed lead" as Gray had called it, but this was just proof of how much so he had.  

   The U-haul approached the complex, going down to the basement docking. Once there, the vehicle doors opened and four people poured out of the car. These people seemed rather normal to look at, however closer examination revealed a blankness in their eyes, a lacking of human spark or emotion. They opened the back of the U-haul and quickly began laying down tarp.

   "Please show us where you will have the consultation and examination preformed."  The voice droned on, the human staring blankly as they waited for whomever greeted them to lead them to the "subject". Meanwhile two others were still laying down tarp. Slowly Proarden began to slither and squish his way from the U-haul and meandered down the hallways, incredibly slow and agonizingly apparent. The servants of Proarden, once the tarp was fully laid, went back and attempted to divert any onlookers form the area, keeping their patriarch's self consciousness in mind.

   The slug took time to get there, but that was okay. It would take time for Zeke to be found. Not because he was difficult to find, but rather he was difficult to engage or pull from any semblance of focus. Currently he was to be found in his stale off-white colored room, the large black tank in the center of the floor with a pristine white workbench and a few cabinets. The twitchy little child always had special accommodations he needed when sleeping, the anechoic hydrochamber being a perfect example.

   He sat at his workbench with a few powders and oddly absolvable capsules pulled in half as he began to use a silver straight-edge to separate some powders off into a piece of tissue paper. His head jerked to the side a little and he let out a growl as he pushed his tongue through his lips and bit down slightly, lifting the paper carefully and placed it on the scale. With the success a wide smile came before his head twitched again, shutting his eye as he began to shake. His fingers found their way to his thigh and began rapidly tapping in a rhythmic manner. The scale gave him the result and he slowly crept towards the paper, backing away a moment as he felt a spasm coming on, his hands stiffening as his face crunched up, then letting him resume at his normal pace. He lifted the paper, and as he did the door quietly opened. Despite it being quite, Zeke dropped the paper, his feet came up off the floor and his head turned to the side, his eyes slammed shut.

   "GYAH! WHATHTEHECKMAN!?" He shouted as he opened his eyes, looking to see who was in the doorway. His heart was racing, and hislipbegan to quiver as he looked down at the powdered substance he dropped. His jaw clenched and a worried look came to his face. His heels dug into his chair as his knees came to his chest. He waslike that for a moment before his hand came up and he started pulling his hair. "JESUS! I gottastartallovernow! It'sgotta be perfect man!" He whined as he flopped down to the ground from the chair, tying to salvage the precious substance of...whatever it was.

Zeke's Meter:

Chris made the winding walk down to Zeke’s room, taking the few shortcuts that would expedite the process and past a few of his family wandering through the compound. Aaron and Robert oddly enough being one of them, as if returning from their wanderings in the surface as a few had come to call it. Eventually he would find the room, easing the door open and peaking into it with a slow deliberance that came in dealing with the young male. The smallest unwarranted sound appeared to make him freak out, which more than anything was not his goal. Unfortunately this time around was not anyone lucky day as white powder began to spread over the floor accompanied by a flurry of motion.

The young male showed his dismay in usual fashion, drawing his knees to his chest and making mention that his experiment had to be perfect. Omega offered a small apologetic smile as he stepped further into the room, eyeing the bag of sugar nestled onto his work bench.

Well, at the very least he wasn’t trying to feed any other addiction.

”I’m sorry Zeke, I didn’t mean to ruin your project.” His tone bore the same apologetic air that his expression did, carefully approaching and offering to help scoop the scattered sugar. ”So what did you have going on here?" He asked, showing an interest that he hoped would be capitalized upon and perhaps prevent any further attempts at hair removal. Of course he had a reason for being here beyond asking niceties but then again Omega was always one to give them when he thought it was needed.

”Oh...I was supposed to bring you to Alpha when you’re not as busy. He apparently needs you for something."

Zeke tried to calm himself down, but to no avail. He  looked to Chris with wide eyes and sighed, nodding his head before it twitched twice. With a deep breath in he stood up and brushed himself off,not that the white sugary powder was going to be something noticeable when it came to his white clothes. "I-It's okay. J-just sugar pills! T-trying a new binding agent for capsules to lock them in." Zeke explained, though that explained the rather sub-par behavior of trying to salvage sugar from the ground. Sadly, by the time he had finished with Chris' help, he managed to alert eke that Alpha wanted to see him. Immediately the violent shivering returned and his jaw clenched as his head cocked to the side and his arms began to tremor.

"Ah! Whattdidido?! Was it the lounge area? ItoldPsithatitwasn'tfunnybuthediditanywayandnowi'mintrouble! GGGGYYEEEEE!" His words blurred together as he began to pull at his hair again, the already tossed about mess was only shocked when he actually managed to tear a few out. The noise caused another person to step into the room, and it was none other than the devil himself. Psi looked in and arched an eyebrow at Omega.

"I heard my name?" He asked, as if looking for verification that it wasn't in fact what he had heard. Once he saw Zeke in the middle of a meltdown he quickly wiped the surprised look off of his face and let out a loud, ear-piercing whistle; which caused Zeke's eyes to widen. Zeke's arms dropped and he fell backwards, blinking as he was staring at the ceiling. "Damn man, what happened here? Normally he's calmest around you." Psi asked Omega, shocked as Zeke's blinking got faster for a moment, and his fingers began twitching as he sat up.

    "R-right. Alpha..." Zeke said as he looked to Chris, getting ready to meet up with Alpha in the room. He would get there and just moments later he would witness a rather shocking appearance.

    Proarden arrived at the room where his childr had been instructed to escort him. A viscous pool of slime left in wake of the large creature. It had arrived in the room with Alpha, immediately all attention in the room would stop and look to him, staring. The emotion displayed on faces would be vastly ranging. It was certain that this was  likely one of the creepiest, strangest and most repulsive things to evolve on this side of reality. Ugly might have very well been this creature's power.  

    "C-cool." Zeke said, almost breathless while Psi looked on in horror, then looking to Zeke. He wasoften wondering if the meth-baby's long-term damage. Perhaps that was impairing his judgement of this creature.

    "Greetings." The creature said as it's several beady eyes began fixating on Alpha, then Omega and Psi, and finally Zeke. Finally a tentacle seemed to branch off form the creature's side and it gave a little wave, acting as if it were the slug-creature's arm. "Does my countenance...disturb you?" The question was chattered out in a deep purr of curiosity as it looked at the residents of the room.

           "No n-not really." Zeke said, the initial shock already worn off. He hadn't gotten a breathing before Psi decided to speak up.

"Yes..." Psi deadpanned as plain as possible, causing Zeke and likely Omega to glare daggers at him. It was almost as if they were both chastising Psi for being rude to the creature.

Spoiler:

His expression shifted to perturbed shock as the male began to tear at his hair, removing a few strands in minute dirty blonde clumps. Despite relative calm around him, he had never been fully used to these sudden episodes and the helplessness that came with it never really faded with Chris. That was of course when psi made himself known, likely the cause of his breakdown to some degree, though whistling did help to some degree. ”You did nothing wrong Zeke. He probably just wants to check up on you.” He assured with a soft, telegraphed pat on the shoulder, giving Psi what looked to be a slightly annoyed glare.

As the three of them returned to Alpha’s current room, it would have been hard not to notice the horrific elephant in the room. That being the slimy, worm creature with beady eyes scanning its surroundings. Travis offered them a small wave, culminating it his fingers making little waggling motions before returning attention to Proardin, multiple processes split over the conversation and a half finished paper back novel in his hands.

Zeke sounded rather amazed by the odd creature in their midsts. ”Not particularly. You remind me of something from a Lovecraft novel, and that’s pretty cool.” Travis noted, making a casual flicking motion as a wad of balled up paper would fly off the side of Psi’s head. ”It’s polite to lie. Even if your guest is actually a horrific slug monster.” Motioning for those that entered the room to sit down on one of the many seats, his eyes fluttered up from the book and settled on his guest.

Travis, what’s with this...thing being here? Omega sent the mental message across the hive mind, though only the intended received it.

Thought I could do some good with my criminal contacts. The only response before he willingly removed himself from the mind.

”I’m glad you were so quick in arriving. I’d heard some things about you, mostly good and was hoping you could...use your particular talents to help me. Well...not me in particular but me indirectly.” Travis voiced, looking from Proardin to Zeke. ”Zeke, could you come here for a moment?” He motioned for the male to approach and hoped how he handled himself explained a lot.

"Oh dear. It seems as though you truly have had some mnemonic troubles. You were...not as courteous in our last encounter." The slug creature said to Alpha, though secretly wounded that someone brought up the fact he appears to be like a Lovecraftian horror. Travis was being polite, however, and the effort was not lost on the slug creature. Psi had been rude, but Proarden did not seem to mind, and the child was lost in a trance of fascination. The other one...Omega...they did not react, which in it's own way was a reaction. Proarden was not a fool, by now he knew that it took a special kind of resilience to pretend that he was normal.

Zeke didn't even hear Alpha, he was too busy looking at the massive slug monster, he was actually so focused that he wasn't twitching beyond his fingers. He had to be nudged by Psi, but immediately as the concentration was broken he began to twitch and jitter around, trembling as he approached Alpha.

"H-Hi! What-EEEErm-What's going on!?" He asked as he approached Travis, not seeming to be nearly as paranoid now.

”Yeah, I heard the old me was kind of a jerk. Didn’t like being like that so i’m making a change.” He explained, keeping a somewhat controlled tone despite the faint bubbling that seemed to come along with his personality. A sign of a mind that found everything he saw, even the hideous creature before him absolutely interesting. The etiquette of whatever Proarden was however was lost on him, and so he only attempted to apply his own strange courtesy to him, keeping attentive while omega seemed to have no response to their strange guest. He could feel a faint amount of disturbed tension from within his mind, but he didn’t expect his brother to react positively.

Zeke would rip from his trance, approaching him with twitching unease. His own half smirk shifting into a light smile, patting the couch beside him for Zeke to settle down. ”Well you see Zeke, I notice your...unique condition and it’s negative effects on you. So I thought to myself, who did I know that could fix such extensive damage?” Well going through my notes, I t was pretty obvious I couldn’t do it and Lucius couldn’t. Dressler was too much of a creep and so Proarden came up. His ability to manipulate and mess around with genetic structures...well it sounded like it was just what I was looking for.” His eyes scanned towards Proarden with an arced brow.

”Think you can help there?”

Zeke listened to Travis and all he had to say. He even sat next to Travis, still jittering but not afraid in the slightest. Zeke never had any issues with Alpha, he just knew that Alpha used to like to yell at people, and Zeke hated yelling. Travis was great, just fine and dandy. He knew how to run things and get it done. If he could just have Chris' voice, he'd probably be one of Zeke's biggest idols. Unfortunately Travis didn't realize that he just said something that horribly alarmed Zeke. The second that Travis said the word "Condition" Psi could FEEL Omega's eyes widening as a glare. Psi's hands went up as if to signal Travis to stop, alas it was too late.

    "Wh-What condition? Wait, c-c-condition! I have a condition!? WHASAA! AMIGONNADIE!? I-I DO-DON'T! Eh! GGGGGGYYYA" Zeke began to spazz. Thunder could be heard from the world above. Proarden watched curiously as the boy began to pull at his own hair again, nails sinking into his other arm and clawing at his own skin, eyes darting back and forth as he was wracked with panic.

    "Oh my... Shhhhh, Shhhh child. Please." Proarden said softly. A black tentacle seemed to branch out as it wiggled before the couch, trying to get Zeke's attention, but there was no use. After a moment a tentacle shot out and wrapped itself around the boy's wrist and started lacing through his fingers, applying pressure until he released his hair. The large creature began letting out curdling, the soothing clicking of the creatures natural noise seemed to calm Zeke a little. "You will be fine. A bit balder at this rate, but fine..."Proarden then looked to Alpha as if waiting to hear him chime in, likely fill him in on what exactly he was trying to do or work with.

Spoiler:

Travis didn’t quite understand the ramifications of what he said until he noted the look Chris was giving him and Zeke beginning to fall into what could be described as a panic attack. Panic colored his thoughts, as he began to claw at his skin and rip at his hair. The faint sound of thunder could be heard, though he was unsure what that actually meant so his eyes stayed on the male, despite scooting a few inches from him. The horrific slug monster seemed to be the one to stop the fit...mostly.

”This mostly. Apparently while he was developing someone thought it was a funny idea to lace a few of the development tbes with heroin. Most of the generation died but a few survived, Zeke here suffering the worst side effects.” His eyes kept on Zeke, wondering if even the wrong wording would do something to him or set off another episode. ”I was hoping you could help him in that respect. Fix whatever causes the sudden bouts of well...self mutilation and whatever else.” He shrugged, hoping his intentions were rather obvious.

Not that he expected to be misunderstood, considering that he was forward enough with the suggestion. ”We were able to remove the addiction portion but he’s...well constantly in a state of withdrawl. It’s not pretty as you already saw.” However Omega was looking at him, he did not seem to notice. More interested whether anything could be done or not.

Proarden listened to Travis intently and simulated a nod, however because of his lack of social experience... well let's just say what SHOULD have been a small nod ended up being a very large up and down motion looked like a massive slug head banging at an excessively slow rate. Zeke was still freaking out, but Proarden seemed to pull the child from potential self-harm. Psi looked at Proarden and then to Zeke, his eyes arched in a repulsed form of curiosity and a slight arch in his lip before looking to Chris.

  "I-Is he-is he not at all disturbed by the slimy tentacle that's in his hands." Zeke obviously heard him, but seemed to remain timid, silenced for some reason. He simply watched as Proarden and Travis discussed the issue at hand. "Dude, our little brother's into tentacle stuff." Psi whispered to Omega. He said this and in the next moment, Proarden seemed to let out a chittering noise, looking to Alpha.

  "These are all neurological conditions, they are not an issue of genetics. This is not my area of expertise...I cannot help the poor boy. Even if I could, my practice has been very much a process of trial and error, where the error almost always ends in fatality...But you...Travis." Proarden had to confess, looking to Zeke and then to Alpha once more. "Travis, I am not a scientist as much as I dream to be. Travis, if your expertise can identify the substances to help dull his neuropathic hypersensory, chemicals, then I could engineer a micro-parasite to interface harmlessly with his nervous system. It would be safest that way."

  "Y-you can really do that?" Zeke asked, looking to Travis with wide eyes, his shivering and spasming had seemed to temporarily vanish.

   "We can. We can do absolutely anything. What would you like, more than anything else?" Proarden asked Zeke, whose eyes lit up and he began to ramble off something, so fast in fact that no one could really catch the answer. Proarden just blinked before he looked at Travis,as if expecting a translation.  

  "Talk normal dork." Psi said, irritation through his voice, causing Zeke to realize that he had gone a little too fast. He looked to Travis and as plane as possible he said:

  "I want wings."

The odd nod that Proarden made didn’t really bother Travis, and in fact he thought it was normal for odd slug creatures. Granted this was the only example of such creatures he could think of, so such was the assumption. Omega appeared to give a disapproving look to Psi, but said nothing beyond that. Zeke seemingly unaffected by the tendril that had interlaced with his hand in the same way that a human one would in that odd gesture of comfort. Luckily some fix had been mentioned, but it required his own expertise to be done. Not to say that he couldn’t do something like that.

”I can do that,” He said with a nod. ”I do run a Pharmaceutical company afterall. Also know quite a bit about the stuff so it shouldn’t be too hard.” He stated, appearing rather sure of his ability to help Zeke should things come down to it. What was required to actually do so, well that was another story entirely. Likely a few hours of working on a drug that could perform the task. Just using the term drug felt a little odd, considering what had caused things in the first place. Substance worked much better.

His thoughts were interrupted by Zeke proclaiming that he wanted wings. Travis looked at him, almost as if silently questioning the request. That was followed by a chuckle working from him.”You can be a weird little guy sometime. I like that. Let’s get this out of the way first and then if you still want wings, sure.”

”You’re not serious, are you?” Chris spoke up, giving him that glare showing he was annoyed.

”Of course I am. If Proarden can actually do that. Sounds like a pretty big change to a human body...or body that resembles a human one anyway. Would also mean he would need clothes that support wings, which meant exposed backs.” Travis fell back into deep thought.

Proarden nodded when Travis essentially posed the contingency of Proarden being capable of doing something such as adding wings to a human being. It was actually a rather simplistic edit, and something he had tried to achieve quite a few times. He had attempted to make angels previously, and while he could never stabilize the genetic structure between so many different genomes, he was always able to attach wings without too much difficulty. As Travis began to fall into thought, so did Proarden as he essentially fantasized about how he could perhaps even incorporate a concealing metagene he previously observed to make the wings retractable.

"The actual process of altering your body will be a complicated one. Especially if you are going to do this all on your own, without a Matraxian Progenus." Proarden stated, completely leaving them in the dark regarding what he was talking about. He then continued his instruction to the child, but oh so often looking to Travis and Chris to make sure they understood as well. "You will need to drink milk, eat meat, as uncooked as possible for your stomach to digest. Almonds and other protein sources will be mandated. This next part is very important... Exercise 30 minutes a day, walk and pace to music. Enough to elevate your heart rate, but do not attempt to build muscle mass at this time. You must sleep for at least 12 hours a day, this gives you approximately 8 hours of personal time. The period of time you need to do this will range between ne day and one week." He ended with his eyes on Travis and Chris.

"Wow T-this is awesome!" He shouted as he jumped up and then fell back down, not sure of how else to react. He started to think about it though and it was clear that now he was beginning to panic again. He didn't want to freak out, but he knew all too well that there just HAD to be a risk of complication. He wasn't looking forward to that. "B-but, oh God. What about complications nyeeeggg?! Okay, okay freakin' out....I-I I think I needa lie down." He eventually retreated to whimpering a little, obviously more aware of himself at this moment. It was probably for the best. Psi excused himself to escort Zeke back to his room to sleep and calm himself. Travis, Chris and Proarden remained.

"I will need a very, very cold environment. Somewhere to preserve a body...during this process, the child will need to be cold and his heart near static. This is a lot I'm sure, and entrusting me with the life of your So...Brot....Smaller human of your clan, must not be an easy choice. Please, ask me whatever you wish. I want to prevent any discomfort or anxieties now, before we begin." Proarden stated, transitioning to letting the others ask questions, maybe even figure out why or how he did what he did...or why he needed what he needed.

The procedure sounded like it would need a lot of prep work before anything could be done with Zeke. Milk, mostly raw meat and almonds among other things. There was a mention of a term that made little sense to Travis, though he didn’t seem to make a big deal out of it. Bring it up when the spastic child wasn’t in the same room to tear away at his skin and hair. It sounded as if a strict regiment was required, and so he made a mental note of everything that was needed, nodding ever couple of seconds as if to give the image that he was understanding everything that was being said. ”One day to one week.” He hollowly muttered, furrowing his brows and wondering if that meant somewhere in between the two spans of time. Trying to grasp the oddly alien mind of the creature before him was always difficult.

”Normally I wouldn’t trust the lives of my son with a perfect stranger but...well I have few options if I want him to live...normally. As normal as someone born from a test tube can anyhow.” He scratched his chin, seemingly in thought before saying anything else. ”So why do you need the cold room? Need to halt his vital functions or something along those lines?” Travis was quick to question, likely not the utmost concern for Chris thought he let the question be asked before he said anything.

”And I am curious why the sudden shift in his diet towards protein and dairy? Does that aid whatever you plan to do in any way?”

"Preciesely. Slowed vital signs will allow me to slowly make the necessary alterations to his nearly cryotonic body without any interference from his immune system. Once I have extended myself into the child, I can take root. I will then have them secrete hydrogen peroxide in trace amounts, to dilute and reduce an immunothereputic crisis." Proarden explained as it seemed to address Alpha's thoughts on the nearly frozen room. Then Proarden would find itself barraged with a question from Chris, the Omega of the group. Proarden eyed this "Omega" cautiously, uncertain as if it were to answer the question provided. It began to chitter, looking to it's servants, which opened their human mouths and began to chitter back at him. Proarden then looked to Chirs and then to Travis.

"Forgive me, but I am uncertain if I am supposed to answer him. His is your...Omega, no? I am simply confused as to if this is merely an identifier, or an actual social designation within your hierarchy." It stated, attempting to be polite. Proarden wanted to do things by the book, and didn't want to address Chris if he were in fact a social omega, because that would insult the Alpha, by forcing the Alpha to negotiate with a lower classed ally. If it were just an identifier, or "just a name" then he could respond without insult to himself or Travis, granted the sheer question itself was likely offensive to everyone else. He would no doubt be given the same question over again, so he would acknowledge whatever Alpha said and continue on.

"This reconstruction of the body will NOT be easy. I cannot simply create resources in the boy's body. Whatever resources I use, I will need to break down from what is already in his body, or what his body is intaking. With my own Progenus Parasites, I can simply implant my own fluids into the subject and reorganize or generate the required resource...I will not do so with this child, as it will pose a risk. Calcium and Protein will be synaptic discharge and structural support for the boys body. You can expect him to gain a substantial amount of weight in the next two weeks, but after two weeks the weight will shed rapidly, as he reconstructs. It will leave no visual remainder." It explained as it looked back to Travis, wondering if he had any more questions or if he would simply begin diving into research.

Travis listened absolutely interested, giving a few nods as further explanation about the cold room was given. There were mentions of extending himself into the child, which within itself sounded odd but then again the creatures very existence was odd. It seemed very simple, slowing the body down to avoid any exaggerated reaction within him and causing possible death. Nothing that he would have wanted, especially from someone that had already gone through a lot within his short lifetime. That was when Chris would as his questions, seemingly putting Proarden at some manner of discomfort likely due to his moniker. From an animistic mindset, someone called an Omega would likely seem like the bottom of the social ladder. ”You can answer him. Our naming conventions aren't anything like a wolf pack.” Travis could feel what irritated tension that had risen within the air deflate, likely once his answer had sided with his sibling.

Despite loss of memory, he knew he would not want to piss off Chris of all people, if only because he had to deal with it later. Resting his chin on one of his palms, and fully closing his novel Travis would consider the rest of the explanation. The possibility of weight gain came about, but he doubted that the child was overly vain. If that was the case, then the reassurance that he would lose the weight would smooth that small bit over.

Travis hoped that was the case anyhow.

He hadn’t that much exposure to Zeke compared to Chris, so he only went on what he knew. Which was admittedly limited compared to a neurological expert. ”I just have one more question. What are the risks or potential complications that could come up? Operations, especially ones as invasive as these always have the possibility of going wrong.”