Nicholas (Revamp/Done)

[nicholas]

OOC/MISC CHARACTER NOTES

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^{Cbox Name:} Spartan291
^Nicknames: Slate, Spart, Sparto
^{Main Account:} Nicholas A291
^{Who else do you play?:} Samus Aran, Dark Samus, The Corruption (NPCs), Hei, the Meta
^{How did you find us?:} Through the Gates

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^Category: OC
^Ranking: Anti Hero
^{Reason for being on AM:} Because. 8V

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Nicholas Iacoe
Nicholas, Nicky, Sierra, Spartan, any of the above with the suffix "A291" or simply "291", Alphas' "ghost"
***NOTE!If you want to switch spots for the titles with name, THAT'S FINE TOO. I REALLY DON'T CARE.


Face under the helmet

Basic Details

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^Age: 35 solar years (subjective age of 27, with 5 years spent in cryo sleep in the 24th century, and another 3 spent in the 21st)

^Species: Human

^{Physical Appearance:} Outside of his armor, Nicholas would be all but unremarkable except for three simple things, but things that set him apart from the vast majority of the human race - his height, build, and the sheer number of scars covering him. Standing at exactly 7 feet tall outside of his armor due to the augmentation process every Spartan candidate went through as a final test meant to make them into the ultimate soldiers, Nicholas towers over virtually everyone else with only a few humans and other species actually standing taller than him, and usually not by much. While his choice in clothing usuall tends to hide it as well, Nicholas also appears to be in what many would consider peak physical condition for any normal human, another desired effect of the augmentation process as well as the brutal training he underwent during his early years. In terms of distinguishing markings, Nicholas bears a small number of facial scars, usually no more than any other professional soldier or mercenary, although the rest of his body are covered by them. Nicholas has dark brown hair, worn about as long as military regulations would allow out of habit and brown eyes, with a light complexion.

Inside of his armor Nicholas is much more intimidating, standing at a full 7' 4", and his weight increased from 297 pounds to 728 while encased in his jet black Mark V MJOLNIR armor. The armor itself is still in near pristine condition, with only a scuff mark here or there or a spot of scratched off black paint or two to show that it has indeed seen use since Nicholas obtained it. The visor itself stands out in sharp contrast, a gleaming gold color compared to the jet black of the armor plating and matte black of the lightly armored undersuit, and several pockets are attached to the chestpiece, along with a larger softcase attached to the armor's left thigh and yet another softcase attached to the back of the armor's waist.


^Personality: The consumate soldier and survivor, Nicholas has changed a great deal from the person he used to be before the demise of Alpha Company, having long since lost a part of himself along with them. Painfully blunt and to the point when interacting with others save for when the need for discretion and tact is a professional matter, it will probably prove to be a bit much for most people, and as a Spartan he'll prefer to speak only when needed unless with other soldiers and military professionals. Another one of the side effects of his training, however, is his need to belong, to work in a group - while he is perfectly capable of working on his own, Spartan IIIs were trained from the start to view the other candidates as their brothers, their sisters, family, and encouraged to work with them rather than alone. While his abilities and skills are the envy of virtually any combat oriented group, his behavior in combat makes many people wary of working with him, as he shows a brutal, meansured aggression and ruthless behavior in combat that few sane, balanced individuals are capable of, and when combined with his rather intimidating appearance most people, even professionals, tend to avoid him when possible.

As a result of his cumulative life experiences as well as the fact that Spartan IIIs were not conditioned to deal with many of said experiences as the Spartan IIs were (as most IIIs were not expected to survive to begin with), Nicholas has obtained a rather unhealthy tendency to push himself beyond what even other Spartans would have considered unreasonable to protect those around him, his actions bordering on what many may view as a death wish or survivor's guilt. While not quite the case as Nicholas still carries a very strong liking of life and still holds the same drive that kept him alive on K7-49, he himself regonizes the obsession and accepts it, viewing it as just another tool he can use to make himself better.

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Powers & Abilities

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Spartan III: While all Spartans received the training to match the best shock troops and commandos from any military, their true strength comes from the augmentation procedure performed on them towards the end of their training and at the onset of puberty. While the process was excruciatingly painful and a large percentage of the Spartan IIIs were either killed or crippled by it, the survivors were transformed into the ultimate soldiers, living weapons without peer among other humans. Their perception, reaction and movement speed (unarmored Spartans were routinely clocked at running speeds of forty to fifty miles per hour) were incredibly enhanced to the point of bordering on precognition with adrenaline pumping, and their bones were made virtually unbreakable thanks to the ceramic carbide bonded to their skeletal structure. Finally, their eyesight was enhanced to the point at where they could essentially see in the dark, and their muscle density, already twice the human norm due to their training, was further increased - even without MJOLNIR, the average augmented Spartan II was capable of lifting upwards of 1000 pounds, with that number rising to uncharted levels when stressed. An unarmored Spartan, if pressed, can easily become capable of feats that would normally require MJOLNIR in controlled circumstances. While Nicholas prefers mid to long range combat, he, like all Spartan IIs, is brutally effective at any range, and is incredibly skilled with any firearm or melee weapon as well as hand to hand combat.

"You don't win unless your team wins.": More or less an extension of the above but pushed to levels of obsession by the loss of Alpha Company and numerous others over the years, when made to work with a group, Nicholas, like every Spartan, adopts the "No man left behind" policy, the first thing to be drilled into every Spartan to counter their aggression and turn them into an effective fighting force. If you are lucky enough for him to consider you an ally, he will make damn sure that you make it through whatever is encountered alive. If there's an enemy you don't see or can't fight, they will be dealt with. If you are about to take a hit that you wouldn't be able to survive, he will either move you out of the way or take the hit himself, and if you can't move quickly enough to keep up with the group, he will drag or carry you to the finish line. Never let it be said that Nicholas wasn't a team player, regardless of the fact that his best work was done alone.

Jack of all trades: Aside from the physical and mental augmenations as well as their tactical and strategic training and schooling Spartans were also trained to be able to use any kind of equipment they might have come across, to view enemy troops and bases as mobile supply caches, a philosophy that was emphasized even further with the IIIs. As a result Nicholas is able to wield most weapons as well as drive or pilot most vehicles with at least a certain degree of proficiency save for a few notable exceptions.

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Main/Important Equipment

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MJOLNIR Mark V Powered Assault Armor: First and formost is his armor, both one of Nicholas' sole personal possessions as well as the signature symbol of the SPARTAN IIs and the few SPARTAN IIIs good enough and lucky enough to be chosen. Incredibly durable, the armor not only increases his already astounding physical strength by a factor of five and beyond when stressed (Spartans have been routinely witnessed tearing battle tanks apart by hand), but it also boosts a Spartan's reaction time, already less than 20 milliseconds under controlled situations without the armor, to near uncharted speeds that may appear to almost border precognition to the uninformed eye - during the initial field tests of the Mark IV suits the Spartan IIs literally dodged live rounds as easily as they sidestepped physical blows during hand to hand training. The armor itself is a marvel of engineering, and is composed of several overlapping layers. The armor plates, made of a unique, incredibly strong non reactive alloy that isn't magnetic, also have a refractive coating capable of dissapating light energy attacks and lessening the impact from heavier strikes. Underneath the plating is a lightly armored bodysuit, which is completely sealed, protecting the user from both toxic environments and vaccuum. Underneath this is a gel layer capable of reactively changing it's density, and protects the user from either environmental pressure, G forces, rapid temperature changes or ballistic weapons. Between this and the inner layer composed of moisture absorbing cloth is a network of reactive metal liquid crystal, which while responsible for the user's enhanced strength is also capable of transporting a ship class smart artifical intelligence - it is also this layer that is responsible for the user's reaction time when combined with the suit's neural interface. Finally, the Mark V version of the armor is equipped with both a UNSC developed second generation shield system. It also features several external clips, magnetic holsters and pockets for carrying gear, leaving the Spartan's hands free at most times. Nicholas's suit in particular is also a hybrid of Mark V and Mark VI components following an incident in 2252, namely upgrading the suit's shields to recharge much more quickly than those of the standard Mark V. The armor does have some disadvantages, though - first of all, it cannot be used by normal, unaugmented soldiers, as they both lack the reflexes and increased perception rate needed to harness the armor without killing themselves. Also, a fully armored Spartan III weighs roughly 700 to 800 pounds when equipped with a MJOLNIR suit, not counting the other gear they may be carrying at the time. Nicholas' armor is also equipped with a officer issue tactical pad on the left wrist, although without the UNSC's B-Net and tactical satellites it is, for the most part, useless.

As an added bonus, Nicholas's MJOLNIR is equiped with the same camouflage plating as the Mk. II SPI suits typically used by the rank and file Spartan IIIs, rendering Nicholas all but invisible to the human (or other creature's) eye. Developed as a counter to the Covenant's active camouflage systems, the plating reactively changes to match the user's surroundings, achieving the same effect as the Covenant's light bending technology, albeit through different means. Unlike the Headhunter units' SPI suits, which could only generate a fraction of the MJOLNIR suit's power output, Nicholas does not need to deactivate his suit's shields to use the camouflage.



SRS 99 Anti-Matériel: A high grade sniper rifle produced by Misriah Armories and used by the UNSC's Army and Navy, this weapon utilizes 14.5 calibre, armor piercing sabot discarding rounds. Equipped with a Oracle scope and night vision capabilities (which are redundant given the MJOLNIR's VISR mode), the weapon is capable of tearing through both armor and enemy soldiers with vicious ease. The smart linked scope, in addition to allowing both long range combat and range finding, also features a built in electronic compass. The weapon itself is limited by both large size and low ammunition capacity, able to fire only four shots before needing to be reloaded.

BR55HB SR Battle Rifle: A multipurpose rifle employed by many branches of the UNSC, this weapon can be fired in single shot, triple shot, or full auto mode, and features a 36 round magazine. Equipped with a smart linked scope mounted on the weapon's optics railing, this weapon is capable of both long range and close quarters combat in addition to the optimal mid range scenarios. The weapon's accuracy suffers slightly when fired in burst mode while moving (which tends to splinter each shot in the group), and due to recoil the weapon's full auto mode is highly inaccurate unless used in close quarters.

M6C/SOCOM: An upgrade to the standard M6 series sidearm employed by the UNSC, this variant is virtually exclusive to the UNSC's Special Operations and NAVSPECWEP divisions, namely the ODSTs and Spartans. Equipped with a integrated sound suppressor, muzzle brake, x4 smart linked scope and an extended 12 round magazine typically loaded with 12.7 mm armor piercing rounds, this weapon is quick, silent and lethal. While highly accurate and capable of long range combat, the sidearm lacks the sheer offensive power of most other weapons - it is more powerful than most pistols, but no match for a rifle unless used at far range (and assuming the rifle is meant for CQC).

Combat Knife

Weaknesses

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^{Psychological Flaws...}

Trained from childhood to work in a group, Nicholas tends to get nervous when working on his own in enemy territory - while it doesn't impact his combat performance much, it does make finer, more specialized objectives more difficult for him to achieve as he is aware of this weakness and as such diverts most of his attention to keeping an eye on his surroundings and armor's motion tracker, detracting from the attention he can pay to what he can focus on. Another problem is that while ruthless and brutally efficient in combat, Nicholas is not used to working with individuals who aren't Spartans, and while he will trust them with technical or logistical work, for the most part he will tend to view them as weak links in combat until proven otherwise. While not a true limitation on his part, it does mean that Nicholas will be wary to leave them on their own in dangerous situations, and as such will be possibly even more nervous and singularly focused on one thing at a time than he would be if working alone.

Another notable flaw are symptoms of what might very well be post traumatic stress disorder resulting from Nicholas's time on K7-49 as the sole survivor of Alpha Company's action against the Covenant shipyard. While all Spartans were typically tasked to give priority to the safety of civilians when possible, Nicholas brings this to a near obsession to protect any and all allies near him, taking unreasonable risks to do so in the process if his normal efforts simply prove to not be enough.

^{Physical Flaws...}

While he himself is in perfect physical condition and beyond what most people would consider humanly possible in both speed and strength, Nicholas is still only human when seperated from his armor - for all of his strength and skill, anything that would prove fatal to a normal human will kill him just as quickly. While his bones can't be broken, his flesh, tendons and organs can be, and there are very likely mutants and non humans out there easily capable of matching or surpassing his physical strength and speed.

While he is very well protected in his armor, the suit isn't perfect, and comes with yet another set of drawbacks. Nicholas is much, much heavier when encased in his MJOLNIR, and as such cannot be supported by many physical objects, and his sheer size makes moving in cramped quarters difficult, if not impossible, a problem further exacerbated by his shields when they are active. The armor itself is also vulnerable to a number of different environmental threats, which while not capable of destroying or breaching the armor itself, are capable of disabling or reducing certain key components or systems (the motion tracker, for example, could be rendered useless if the sensors in the shoulders are exposed to salt water for too long, as the salt will encrust on the sensors and disable them until they are cleaned). Yet another problem is that while the ballistics and gel layer are extremely resiliant, they do not protect the user from all kinetic energy - while potentially survivable, a drop from a plane would likely result in severe or possibly fatal injuries, and drops from low orbit are out of the question with the Mark V armor. Finally, the shields themselves, while very resiliant against kinetic weapons and attacks, are rather vulnerable to energy weapons and quickly depleted by them, and cannot recharge as long as the suit is taking fire from any form of attack. Large moving masses, like fast moving cars or objects of similar mass and size, also pose a sizable threat to the armor. In addition to the energy attacks and environmental weaknesses, the suit's motion tracker, while usefull, is far from infallible.

While it detects most moving objects within a 25 meter radius of the user, it will not detect slow moving or stationary objects, and does not provide detailed information beyond the size and distance of the object (does not provide exact elevation relative to the user, for example). The other problem is that unless an object or being is carrying a FOF tag, the tracker cannot distinguish between friend, foe or random objects - in locations where there is constant motion such as rainforests, the entire display will be covered in red, and it is possible to jam the tracker through similar methods. Finally, the motion tracker does not work in vacuum. Yet another weakness to the armor is the HUD's VISR system, although it can be turned on and off. More or less a low visability mode for the HUD, the user can be blinded by bright light or flashes that occur within their line of sight while the system is active, although said weakness can be countered by turning the system off, and it is partially negated by the reactive polarizing viewplate of the MJOLNIR armor, unlike the ODST variant of the technology.

^{Other Flaws...}

BLAH BLAH BLAH

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History....

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Sierra A291, like nearly every Spartan III, was born on a UNSC colony world, in his case as Nicholas Iacoe on the agricultural world of Harvest on March 3rd of 2520 at the very edge of space as humanity knew it. The first five years of Nicholas's life passed by in a fairly normal fashion as he was entered into the educational system at a fairly young age to begin preschool and later kindegarten, following an older brother and he himself followed by a younger sister at the age of two. Despite their parents' conflicting views on the UNSC at the time, all three children lived normal lives until Harvest came under attack at the hands of the Covenant in 2525, resulting in the complete annhilation of most of the world's defenses as well as the vast majority of the population, with the generally accepted statistic being that only one ship in six had managed to escape the planet. Nicholas, Anna and their older brother Jeremy had all managed to make it to one of those ships, urged on ahead by their parents at the spaceport before Covenant infantry could overrun the perimeter defenses - before the ship could take off, however, the perimeter broke, allowing the Covenant access into the facility and resulting in the death of their father and mother who had been helping injured refugees aboard a seperate transport.

From that point on Anna, Nicholas and Jeremy would become wards of the state, ferried deeper and deeper into UNSC controlled space as more and more colonies fell to the hands of the Covenant's genocidal campaign, the three siblings escaping the onslaught on Biko in the same year as Harvest and yet again on Madrigal in 2528 and later Eridanus II in 2530 - despite the overwhelming odds they managed to escape the same tireless war machine thrice when billions did not, a fact that inevitably came to the attention of the UNSC's Office of Naval Intelligence once they began searching for possible recruits for the at the time theoretical Spartan III project. When said project was finally greenlit, a representative from ONI approached the three siblings with an offer, a chance to get back at the Covenant for taking away the lives that they'd had - needless to say, all three accepted and were quickly taken into Section III's custody and transported to Onyx, the site of the Spartan III program's training grounds, arriving on December 7th, 2531.

Over the next handful of years Nicholas, Anna, Jeremy and the 400 other children that he came to refer to as being his siblings every bit as much as his own flesh and blood would begin training under Kurt Ambrose and Franklin Mendez with the intent of becoming exactly what the former was, the ultimate weapons with which to strike back at the Covenant, and over those years they would become far stronger than they could have imagined. Anna, the very first candidate to take the jump from the Pelicans during that first night, followed almost immediately by Nicholas himself, Jeremy, who became their ace in the hole, the best tactician and strategist out of all of Alpha Company, and then Nicholas himself, their fighter, their sword, their will. When graduation came in 2536 all three were among the final 300 to survive the augmentation process unscathed and to be granted what would become the signature equipment of the IIIs, the SPI Mark I armor, with Jeremy being given command of the company as a whole upon the class's activation as an official military unit.

Following their activation Alpha would see numerous sorties and be deployed all over UNSC space within the course of a single year - putting down the Insurrectionist cells on Mamore, the Battle of New Constantinople which saved thousands of civilian lives as Alpha Company bought enough time for civilian ships to escape alongside the efforts of the rank and file UNSC troops as well as numerous other engagements against the Covenant, numbering in a total of eight major battles resulting in next to no casualties, a feat all but unheard of in the UNSC save for the legend of the Spartan IIs. By the time Alpha's first tour of duty had ended they had become the example among the higher UNSC brass, a proof of concept that the S-III program had achieved all of their objectives, and in July of 2537 the Company was tasked with Operation: PROMETHEUS, a mission to destroy a Covenant orbital shipyard on a volcanic asteroid too heavily defended for conventional forces to successfully attack, and on July 27 Alpha Company touched down on the planetoid at 0700 hours, delivered via stealth HEVs launched from slipspace.

Initial resistance to the Spartans was light, and after two days, seven of the thirty reactors providing building materials to the shipyards had been deactivated before the Covenant organized a proper counterstrike. These reinforcements were promptly destroyed. Over the next three days Alpha Company continued their advance, destroying 13 more reactors. The Covenant reorganized and attacked yet again, with the SPARTANs trading fire with Elites and Banshees. On the seventh day, further Covenant reinforcements arrived. This united force was finally able to deliver an overwhelming, crushing blow to the stubborn infiltrator unit. The SPARTAN IIIs had lost their unit cohesion due to heavy fire and enormous casualties with Anna and Jeremy listed among the KIA, while the surrounding Elites took up superior overwatch positions. By that point in the engagement, 89% of the planet had cooled due to the destruction of the nearby plasma reactors, enough for the Covenant shipyard to be permanently decommissioned. Alpha Company however, was completely cut off from their Calypso exfiltration craft, preventing the survivors from retreating. Nicholas, however, fueled by a cold rage and a desire for revenge that burned hotter than ever before continued to fight, having escaped the Covenant's encirclement by acting as both overwatch and a sniper for his squad and falling back on guerilla tactics rather than allowing himself to be forced into a head on offensive like the rest of Alpha, relying on diminishing hit and run tactics that utilized his armor's camouflage capabilities to their fullest. Eventually Nicholas began prioritizing the recovery of his teammates' dogtags and the burial of those he could reach in time over the destruction of the far superior military force, operating out of the many hidden Calypso exfiltration craft as mobile bases and resupplying from the Covenant soldiers he killed, refusing to leave until he could either recover what he could of his fallen family or destroy the monsters who had laid claim to them.

By the time that August 5th had arrived the Covenant, having encountered no more resistance and having given up on salvaging anything of use from K7-49, left the planetoid, allowing the UNSC to move in and recover what was left of Alpha Company for both archival and strategic purposes. The recovery forces were astonished to discover Nicholas still alive, the sole survivor out of three hundred other soldiers and in possession of nearly every one of his fallen brothers' and sisters' tags - upon recovery Nicholas was returned to UNSC space and almost immediately diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and ordered to therapy for several months afterwards, finally being redeclared as fit for duty in the summer of 2538.

In large part kept a secret due to being deemed a "distraction from their duties" had Ackerson or the other S-III trainers leaned of his survival but also deemed far too valuable to be redeployed with Beta Company upon activation, Nicholas was inducted into ONI as an independant operative, given the MJOLNIR Mark IV armor signature of the Spartan IIs to replace his nearly destroyed SPI Mark I suit from K7-49 and promoted to the rank of Captain, ONI's highest field rank to prevent any other UNSC personal outside of ONI from issuing him orders save for flag officers. From 2538 onwards Nicholas would serve ONI as their ace in the hole for field operations that were deemed far too sensitive in nature to risk letting outside troops deal with, usually recovering lost assets from behind enemy lines, terminating targets whose public standings made them impossible for known forces to touch as well as numerous other missions that would be labelled as black ops by conventional forces. It wasn't until the political climate within ONI changed yet again as a result of pressure brought to bear by the Covenant as well as the debut of the Mark V version of MJOLNIR in November of 2551 that Nicholas would be shuffled back into the slightly more well known divisions of Section III and deployed in more conventional roles against the Covenant.

During Nicholas's third field deployment of that year he would suffer his first major injury since his days training in Alpha Company, taking numerous plasma hits that compromised his suit's shield integrity, frying the shield emitters as well as damaging several pieces of the armor plate and delivering third and second degree burns to Nicholas inside of the suit, forcing his extraction and return to Earth's Songnam facilty for repairs on Earth on December 14, 2551. His Mark V armor, rather than being scrapped, was repaired and overhauled to meet the standards of MJOLNIR Mark VI armor which was currently under development at the facility. Upon completion of the repairs on December 20, Nicholas reentered active service to see several more sorties against Covenant forces until the Battle of Reach in August of 2552.

During the Battle of Reach, Nicholas grudgingly escaped to Earth under orders to evacuate Reach’s ONI personnel and assets from the main facility in New Alexandria alongside ECHO team, rather than stay and fight as he would have preferred. Managing to escape from Reach in one of the few military transports that managed to survive the battle, Nicholas would meet with misfortune yet again as the slip space drive, for whatever reason, malfunctioned, teleporting the entire ship to oblivion… or so the UNSC would believe from the lack of physical evidence. In reality the space bending properties of the malfunctioning Shaw-Fujikawa drive instead sent Nicholas back to the 21st century, although this would not be of much help to him – still kept in a cryo pod as much of the ship’s crew was during the slip space jump, Nicholas as well as the rest of the cryo stored crew survived, the pods and reinforced cryobay protecting them from the vacuum that killed those who weren’t sealed in one of the pods – the ship, while for the most part intact, suffered several hull breaches as well, venting much of the atmosphere. Stuck adrift and still encased in his pod, now running on emergency power, Nicholas can do little but wait.

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In Character RP Sample

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RP SAMPLE FOOLS!!!!!

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^{Theme Songs...?}

Diamond Eyes
To Galaxy
Machines and Might
Apocalypse
Tip of The Spear
Lone Wolf
Gun Pointed At the Head of the Universe
Mombassa Suite (Broken Gates)
Mombassa Suite (Encounter)
The Last Spartan
Delta Halo (Wage)
Unyielding
Ghosts of Reach
Follow Our Brothers (1:35 onwards)
The Menagerie from 2:40 onwards (On The Prowl)
Desperate Measures
High Charity Suite 2
Fortress

[Ridley]

*pretend this is my admin account please*

Alrighty. Everything looks just about good to me, but there are just a few things I'm going to nitpick over. While I know there are no actual defined numbers set in stone for the levels of strength, speed, etc, a Spartan is capable of, if you could provide some examples of what he's capable of in those areas, that should clarify things enough.

[Richard]

Alrighty, that's better. No further problems. Happy acceptance!