The Elphelt in the Room

[The following story is a Guilty Gear Strive fanfiction, featuring Elphelt Valentine in a room full of micro-sized people. The story contains themes of unaware; feet/boots/footwear; crush/stomping; sweat/body odor; stripping out of clothes; ass/sitting; body exploration; vore mention; breasts; giant noises/voice.]

None of them were familiar with the band Speothos Venaticus, nor had they heard of the frontwoman that had forcefully given them all backstage passes for the concert that night. Yet whether they attended the event or not, they all found themselves together in the same room – a vast space, furnished with towering seats, cliff-like countertops, and massive mirrors high-up along the walls. It was the venue’s green room, but to them, it was a sprawling realm; with no recollection as to how or why, they discovered themselves shrunken and scattered around the lounge, mystified by their arrival and desperate for answers. They appeared across the floor and on top of furniture, gradually comprehending their surroundings, yet never closer to understanding what was the cause.

They all heard music. It was a distant rumble, but loud and chaotic, bleeding through the walls and vibrating the air. Before long, however, it ceased – with barely an applause afterwards. The concert was over, but what did that mean for them?

A few on the floor grouped together, trudging through a thicket of waist-high carpet fibers. They pointed out others, stranded on sofas or tables, and concluded their common factor of having strange, Valentines-themed backstage passes. Some could remember the eccentric woman that pushed the promo tickets onto them, but discussions ended suddenly, disrupted by a different rumbling – thundering and tremoring, far away at first, but quickly approaching. All heads turned to the grand door where the rhythm was increasing, anticipating it would open, but ill prepared for how it burst outward with a dramatic push from the other side.

“That turnout was incredible!! We had almost, like, ten people in the audience…! That’s so many people~ Next time, it’s gonna be a sold-out show for sure!!”

A sharp, feminine voice stormed into the room, as fierce as the wind of her entrance, a gale blown by the door that the floor-bound people weathered. A titanic figure filled the door frame into the green room, boasting pink frills and leather boots, debuting with knocked-knees and an obnoxiously cheerful demeanor. She grinned as wide as she could, shining brightly despite being dotted and dabbed with her own sweat, panting after a full-hearted performance. Her image was electrifying, and also familiar to the tinies all around the room – Elphelt Valentine, the frontwoman of the band, who had been handing out the mysterious backstage passes.

There was no time to be bewildered by Elphelt’s entrance as she stepped inside, bringing with her an atmosphere of active unease. She closed the door exactly as hard as she had opened it– wham! The volume was staggering, as were her subsequent footfalls as she marched into the green room, her legs lunging through the air like launching rockets, and earning just as much awe from those below. She wore heavy leather boots that strapped tightly around her thighs, yet her gait was light and mobile; no less did her steps crash into the carpet field like bombs, all cuteness disappeared as they neared a gathering of tinies with every bound, the studs along the toeline proving to be a devilish detail. They thought it was an illusion or some sort of dream – too late did reality set in, prompting them to turn and flee, as another step into the middle of the room came roaring close…

Booooom! The carpet flattened under an unforgiving sole, and so too were the people snagged in its fibers. Too slow to get away, they were heartlessly crushed under a building-sized boot, made into little stains that went unacknowledged by Elphelt. The few that had been spared were left knocked down just outside the footwear’s range, shell-shocked by the immenseness beside them; in the next instant, that disaster of a boot leaped away, as the rockstar continued innocently, humming her last-played song with her usual enthusiasm.

“Mm-mm-mm♪ That was a stellar show! I don’t think I’ve ever worked-up this much of a sweat~” Elphelt spun on her feet to face one of the green room’s mirrors, her reflection bouncing and swaying with everlasting energy. She posed for herself, reenacting her on-stage persona, pulling on her jacket and kicking up her legs. Her skirt flowed around her thighs, occasionally flapping high enough to reveal the spandex underneath, tightly wrapped around the fat of her thighs and ass. These were all small details to Elpelt, but she was oblivious to the show she was putting on for a line of tiny people that were on the mirror’s countertop. They hid among the jumbo-sized items of make-up around them, captivated by her gigantic movements and her looming personality. Focused on her reflection, Elphelt never recognized the micro-scale audience right in front of her waist, even as she leaned onto the ledge with both hands, hanging above like a bridge connecting through the mirror. “Could this face have charmed a fan into falling in love…? Oh, how romantic that would be~!” she sang to herself, rocking her hips side to side – unknowingly quaking the countertop of people.

Her chipperness dimmed, however, as her nose wrinkled to a lingering scent. Her smile went away when she smelled herself; “Oh! Wow! I really did work-up a sweat!” Elphelt announced, proudly addressing the humidity under her jacket. Lifting her arms allowed more of her body odor to waft free from her sleeveless shirt – released openly over her shrunken onlookers, casting upon them an atmosphere of salt and hormones. Even more of that aroma was unleashed when she flapped her leather jacket, the cause of so much personal heat, the pits of which were darkened with stains without sleeves to first absorb her sweat. “Heh, maybe this thing should come off,” she admitted, curving her shoulders to let the jacket slip down her arms. Indifferently, she laid it out over the mirror countertop as a messy pile, simply relieved of its weight – a burden that was passed onto the unexpecting tinies. They were suddenly swamped under the leather material and its metal studs, which brought with it the bulk of her smell, so thick and overwhelming that it warped their shrunken senses, limiting their breathing to only that of Elphelt’s intimate air.

“Woo! I feel so much lighter now~” From the mirror, Elphelt moved to another corner, each step swung in front of the other like a dance. Unbeknownst to her, each step was another airstrike of her gigantic leather boots, crashing down again over the open span of carpet that so many shrunken people were lost in. Her directionless and sporadic gait made it impossible to predict where the pink obelisks would land next, and so victims were obliterated underfoot at random. The groups that had originally come together for aid were then scattering everywhere as the footfalls boomed, taking to hiding under furniture and nooks, if they could possibly reach such shelters. Even if they were far from the giant frontwoman, they were yet buzzed by every step, emphasized with earthquake-level power wherever she went.

But a more momentous impact was about to strike, targeted at a stool – where some shrunken group had appeared, stranded on a towering cushion high above the floor. Limited to that round range of red velvet, the speck-sized people had nowhere to flee to when Elphelt came to loom over them. Some jumped and yelled out as her figure grew closer, but failed to get her attention; she was preoccupied wiping the sweat from her brow, then the sweat from the side of her boobs, flicking the wetness off onto stray stragglers across the floor. By the time she was upon the stool, she had already turned around, pointing her rear outward; both hands grabbed the edges of the seat, holding the stool still while she lifted her ass high, then–

Booooom! All of Elphelt’s weight pressed into the cushion, dropped upon it with an overdramatic effort, as she did with everything. Her face glowed with glee and her legs kicked wildly in front of her. “I can’t get that last performance out of my head~! My heart is still beating like crazy!” she giggled girlishly, rocking the chair back and forth on its legs haphazardly. Beneath her enthusiasm, however, was a massacre – just under her spandex-clad butt were lost lives, gone in an instant when her meteoric ass came rushing down, with such speed that her skirt fluttered behind like a banner. They never stood a chance under Elphelt, but a random few had survived; astray in front of her crotch was one fortunate soul gawking up at her tremendous thighs, like snowdrift walls of flesh that could collapse the moment her thigh-high clasps failed – another couple were blown aside but clung to the seat’s back edge, unable to pull themselves up while Elphelt’s mountainous ass occupied and bulged over the seat, every shift of weight a threat to their lives.

No help was her constant energy, shaking the stool around as she kicked her legs reliving stage maneuvers. Practically dancing in her seat, Elphelt drummed at the air, strung an invisible guitar, and pumped her legs as if stomping around the set. “The crowd was so into it~! I was on a rampage – a rampage of love and hope…!” she squeed, her eyes closed tightly as she remembered the crowd of nine-or-so people sometimes cheering or headbanging. She had no idea that a wider audience was watching her reenactment, storming atop the skyscraper-stool like an idol of chaos. They saw her eccentric personality as a forthcoming disaster, more attuned to the frontwoman’s fate than she was of herself, anticipating an inevitable collapse of dangerous magnitudes. Elphelt laughed as she hummed aloud a hard-rock melody, building-up vocal momentum; “Dun-nuh-nuh…!♪ Dun-dundun-nuh-nuh!♪ And finally…~”

She breathed deep, loading her lungs, then lunged forward– “OOOUUUUUHHHHHH!!!♪” A guttural sound of incredible volume bellowed from her throat, an extra-low pitched death metal scream. Of course, Elphelt had no restraint, even in the green room; she vocalized as hard as if she were at the mic, which she imagined one in her hand as she jolted in her seat. It was a blast of noise for anyone around, but to the tinies around her, it was a deafening, vibrating cacophony – a sweep of sound that broke eardrums, rattled bones, and shocked senses. The amplified effect was more than Elphelt could have dreamed of her voice doing, yet she chanted onward through the song, thinking herself alone; in reality, dozens were almost dying to her guttural scream, begging for her to stop.

“GGAAAAAAOOO…~!♪ Yeah!” Elphelt completed her shout with a chirpy cheer, a total turnaround of her tone. She celebrated with a wide split of her legs and thrust of her arms, as if she were leaping off the stage to crowd surf – but too much of her motion was acted out, and she genuinely flung herself ahead, tilting the stool’s legs past the point of being balanced. Elphelt’s expression of sheer joy snapped to that of flamboyant fear as she fell face-forward to the floor– “Wuah!!”

Another boom struck the green room, the heaviest yet of them all, with the stool crashing shortly after her. Elphelt’s stumbling left her wiped out on the carpet, gracelessly splayed out with her limbs all outstretched and crooked – a cartoonish failure that was magnitudes more devastating to the shrunken people. All across the floor, they were staggered by the shockwave of her collapse, if they were not already flattened beneath her front; some survived due to the softness of her chest and the plushness of the carpet, only to be pinned in place, stuck to her bosom and the fat that seeped out the sides. Her legs were a different nature of trouble, spread apart like a valley of leather, in which survivors felt dangerously confined between them. Trapped under a studded thigh-high were some unfortunate victims that others tried to help pull free, only for the terrain to suddenly change mid-aid – a rumble of activity changed the scenario as Elphelt rose embarrassingly butt-first, craning her hips up on stilted knocked-knees, shivering and wavering while her derriere spiked high into the air. Her skirt rolled up the roundness of her ass, plainly putting her spandex on display, itself made visibly tight on the flesh as she awkwardly sat-up – a position that revealed those that had been stoolbound, having since been tossed right onto her rear, every sway of imbalance causing them to tumble around its distinct shape. The safest were those stuck on the nearby couch, merely staggered but otherwise standing well enough to approach the edge of the mesa-like furniture. What they marveled upon was a mountain of a woman bent flat on her face, her upright ass like a dawning sun, the curl of her back like a sloping cliffside – as majestic as it should have been shameful.

“Oof… I-I missed…!” Elphelt whimpered, lifting her face off the floor. Her nose was only inches away from a shrunken person, but dazed as she was, his speck-like scale went overlooked. He trudged backwards in the carpet fibers, gazing upon her marvelously gigantic visage, touched by her weary exhales; he witnessed her huge eyes blink, her eyeshadow granting an especially sharp appearance, yet her lips were more intimidating, that despite their bright-pink coloring, were nonetheless a portal to the dark world of her mouth. It was from that very place that her words barreled forth, “Good thing nobody saw that!

“What I meant to do was this…!” Elphelt practically jumped from her prone position, lifting up abruptly with her confidence automatically restored. The unseen people around her became dots upon her body, if they were not thrown aside or crushed under her movement; glued to her by sweat, they were dragged along with her vibrant personality, launching upwards as she stood on her feet. She wobbled and shook her head, but immediately took aim at the lounge sofa beside her. “Banzai…!”

All went breathless as they watched the giant frontwoman bounce into the sky, completely removed from the floor, her massiveness in flight as she hopped dramatically onto the sofa. It was a celestial sight, until her gravity returned and had her weight plummet fast across the landscape of cushions. Her impact was not quite a boom, but a heavy fwomph, her whole body landing backside-first. Her width consumed every corner of the couch, with her head and legs hanging off the armrests, laughing as she relaxed into the furniture’s shape. That impromptu action spelled tragedy for the tinies on the couch, once safe from one collapse, only to become victims of another. Elphelt crashed over them like an avalanche of sweaty fabric and flesh, so sudden and overwhelming that nearly no one was spared; some slipped between the cushions, avoiding Elphelt’s fall but then becoming a crumb squished beneath her weight, while others were missed but instead bounced into the air like dust, scattered over her lap or thrown off the couch entirely. Their panic went unheard as Elphelt sighed satisfied in her seat, grateful for the green room’s accommodations.

Finally, after a full-on performance and after her post-show outbursts, exhaustion reached Elphelt. Panting through her smile, she once again swiped her gloved hands across the sweat of her temple; steaming from burning so much energy, she ventilated further by grabbing the torso of her blouse, unleashing her boobs and the heat that was trapped there. Bare mammaries flopped outward on either side while the fabric was choked and tucked between them – another sloppy look that Elphelt cherished in her supposed loneliness, happy to cool down in any way she pleased. “Sooo much sweat~ That’s just proof I put all my heart into the show, right? Eh-heh…”

Above her place on the couch were a line of onlookers, drawn to the ridge of the back cushions that they had spawned on. Rattled by Elphelt’s earlier dive into the seats, they at least kept from falling by hunkering down during the impact, surviving to see the advantage they possibly had then, potentially able to get her attention. One brave soul beckoned to her with shouts and calls, and some joined him by waving wide over their heads, but their efforts waned when the air of sweat rose to their level. She truly had kept a show’s worth of heat stuck under her clothes, and with her chest bared, that warmth spread freely to them, a humidity much more intense for tiny people. The change in atmosphere left many faint at the worst moment, when Elphelt began rolling side to side, exerting another reserve of her energy – squirming in the sofa’s softness, obnoxiously joyful to be living a hard-working rockstar life.

But that unbridled joy made for unpredictable quakes that riddled the world of shrunken people. They wavered back and forth struggling to stay balanced, but one at a time, they were knocked from the ridge, tumbling down the fabric or otherwise in a freefall, dwindling down into Elphelt’s form. Like loose lint, they were scattered across her body, dropping right upon her exposed slices of skin. Droplets of sweat quickly washed over them wherever they landed, sticking them to the fat of her breasts or the muscles of her abdomen, both locations a uniquely living terrain that continuously turned and twisted. Most stuck of all were those that plopped onto her boobs, for as mountainous as they were, Elphelt’s excitement made them flip and flop, and thus so too were the tinies upon her. They clung as well as they could, but gradually were they displaced, slowly slipping into harsher climates. Some dripped down the globes’ roundness and into the underboob or into her armpits, dank crevices that saw them tackled over by tidal waves of fat; others were funneled to her cleavage, where her sweat-soaked shirt was bundled, primed to keep tinies wedged against the flesh; a rare few were perhaps safest of them all, having fallen or slid to her pink nipples, landmarks that could be hugged and held onto while enduring Elphelt’s titanic twists. Universally, however, were they all battered by a constant thumping – the strength of Elphelt’s heart beating below them, the source behind her seemingly endless stamina.

Without warning, the frontwoman sprung up into a seat – a sudden rotation for those dusted on her body. Sitting up, she stomped the floor heartily with both boots, unknowingly casting an explosive shockwave that stumbled every shrunken person on the floor. The power reflected her surprise; her hands clapped over her cheeks as she was struck with a realization, “The backstage passes!” She looked side to side, reassessing the room – confirming, indeed, that no one was present, that she could see. “I completely forgot I was handing those out earlier…! A-Ah, wh-what happened then?! Did no one decide to come? Did everyone’s tickets fly off in the wind and fall at the feet of someone they meet-cute with?! Not knowing is the worst…!” Her worries were shared with the unseen folks, those very people she had pressed backstage passes onto, as the nervous shaking of her legs spelled nonstop tremors through the carpet and up all the furniture. “Maybe I forgot to print the venue’s address on the tickets again… I might have messed up…”

Elphelt sighed dramatically, dismissing all of her adrenaline through that breath. She mulled over her dilemma, determining what it meant for Speothos Venaticus that nobody came with a backstage pass. Defeatedly, she stood off the couch, too dismayed to even fix her blouse back around her boobs; even in that dimmed condition, no less did her boots thump over the floor, still very much the pair of demons that they were when she entered like a wicked whirlwind. It was hardly a mercy when she stopped to remove her heavy footwear, unclasping the thigh-highs and pulling them loose – discarded behind her, they blindly crashed onto the coffee table, becoming huge hills of leather for those on its surface that emanated a steamy aroma from their shafts. Elphelt’s bare feet were just as dangerous as before, however, and her continued footfalls stamped onward, posing a threat to tinies that had spread far and thin beneath her; without boots to contain her sweat, a dominant fragrance was cast with every step, the scent sweeping out in a radius that gagged those fortunate enough to avoid being stomped under her soles.

“This sucks~ I need a drink…” Elphelt mumbled, arriving at the green room’s mini-fridge. It had been stocked well with refreshments intended for a backstage gathering – a reminder of her failure, making her grimace as she opened the door and picked out a water. Always on the lookout for her next massive movement, the tinies around the room studied the scene carefully, gazing upon her bent-forward stature, her butt bouncing rhythmically in spite of her despair – from which at least one straggler fell from, unable to stay clung to the planet of spandex for so long. Elphelt remained poised that way for an extra moment, leaning on the mini-fridge’s top so that the coolness from inside it drafted up onto her chest. “Feels good~” she sighed, “maybe I should just lock myself up in there until I don’t make dumb mistakes anymore~”

Though she spoke to herself, her rambling spilled directly onto a single shrunken woman, her volume pouring over where she had strangely appeared on top of the mini-fridge. All alone, she had observed how Elphelt terrorized the green room unknowingly, having witnessed the carnage of each step and every stumble. Her looming arrival over the fridge left her fallen over afraid, expecting doubtlessly some disaster would happen to her next. With wide-eyes did she stare at the giant, from the thickness of the thighs that were level with where she stood, up to the breasts that hung out from her blouse, wobbling with a great weight that threatened to fall at any second.

She was wise to be wary of exactly that, making her prepared to jump when Elphelt’s chest spontaneously descended– wooomph! The shrunken woman dashed away, yet was blown down by the impact; looking behind her, she was greeted by a vertical valley of cleavage, a landmass that carried with it the struggles of other shrunken survivors, mired in the flesh and the wad of fabric. It was a terrific view, but more impressive was Elphelt’s exhausted expression, her face having careened so close that every detail was distinguishable, from her lipstick to her eyeliner. Every aspect was worthy of reverence, if only for how huge it all was to someone the size of a grain. She flinched when Elphelt took a drink from her water bottle, a grand feat from her perspective, how the volumes of water drained into her mouth and was guzzled down her throat – such casual motions that meant so much for a tiny onlooker, ever fearful of what the giant would do next The shrunken woman cowered behind her arms, accepting her lowly fate and bracing herself for her own personal disaster.

“Mmm~ The cool air feels so good~” Elphelt moaned shiveringly, adjusting her bust to let the fridge’s chill rise onto her underboob. Refreshed and relieved from her stresses, her eyes popped open with new life, ready to re-seize the day with her smile returned. “I’ll just double the number of promotional tickets for the next show~” she cheerfully decided. “That way, the math works out the same– eh? Hm? Oh?” Elphelt’s eyes flickered with wonder – having pointed upon a diminutive dot on the mini-fridge, a speck that she soon deduced to be a woman. “Oh! Oh?! Wh-What’s this? Wh-Who are you?”

The shrunken woman shuddered as Elphelt erupted into the sky, suddenly ascending to her unhindered height. Her heart sunk as she gazed upon her magnificent scale, the frontwoman’s visage now so far away, yet even more was her personality swirling and overwhelming now that she had been noticed. Torn between feeling either saved or condemned, the woman barely fidgeted, speechless beneath Elphelt’s questions.

So Elphelt came up with her own answers, coming to a conclusion after looking down upon the woman at a variety of angles. She gasped, “I remember you~! I definitely, definitely shoved a backstage pass into your hands!! Wow! I didn’t realize how small you were at the time~” Her joy rushed close to the little woman, her face overbearing – “You came! You made it after all! Yay!!”

Every accented remark was a cannon blast of a powerful voice that nearly rolled the woman over with each word. At that point did she speak up at the frontwoman, stuttering but otherwise explaining her situation – as well as those of the others that Elphelt had never noticed. Expecting her voice to be hard to hear, she communicated also with wide gestures, pointing to the floor and the furniture, expressing her overall confusion if her fluster was not clear enough.

To every thing she said, Elphelt blinked, then laughed. “You want to rock’n’roll, huh?! I see you have the spirit! The raw power of metal is contagious, isn’t it?” Her misunderstanding was emphasized with a thrust of her arm, a hard motion that silenced the shrunken woman’s stammering. “You came all the way here wanting to rock out, and here I was, about to totally look past you! Oh–! Doesn’t that sound like the beginning of an exciting romance?!” Elphelt’s face went red and her eyes sparkled with imagination. “A passionate rockstar that falls in love with a teeny-tiny little fan~! Aww, the best couples have big differences, but overcome all obstacles in the name of love…!!”

The tiny woman was mystified anew, lost in whatever world the giant frontwoman was going on about. Barely recognizing the romantic inclination, she was then ambushed by a leather gloved hand, surrounded in an instant by three thick fingertips that plucked her off the mini-fridge and into the air. So tight was the grip that she could not even kick or squirm; the next second saw her face-to-face with Elphelt, brought near to her vibrant eyes, her whole being examined keenly by sharp pupils. It was impossible not to infer the immense love radiating from those eyes – but the puckered lips made Elphelt’s emotions that much clearer. The shrunken woman squealed as she was carried to that passage, which proved bigger than she predicted, wide and all-encompassing, yet surprisingly soft and tender, as she learned when she was pressed into the gigantic kiss. An amorous hum buzzed from Elphelt like a new song, surrounding the little woman the same way a coat of lipstick was dressed over her front, coloring her face and clothes the same shade of pink. Officially marked by Elphelt’s obsession, the woman felt depleted and hollow – transformed into a belonging.

“How was that?” Elphelt chimed, tilting her head with curiosity. “Kissed by a rockstar in the green room~ A dream come true, right? Oh, I’m going to love having a little thing like you around!” She celebrated with bunny-like hops, taking with her the shrunken woman, oblivious still to how her energy resonated all across the floor and affected dozens of others. She had the spark to dance, jump, and sing, and so she was struck with brilliance: “I’ve got it! Since I screwed up this whole backstage pass thing… how about a private encore?!”

Elphelt spun and jumped with glee, bombarding the tinies with her romantic outburst, all channeled towards the one woman in the grasp of her fingers. She was ready all over again for another performance, posing in front of the mirror, where she paused and considered; “A VIP needs a special place to enjoy the show! Here~ Nice and close to my singing voice~” As if taken in by her shadow, the shrunken woman was brought to Elphelt’s neck – to the studded choker she wore, pulled forward to make a tiny-sized opening. An air of sweat was let loose, and a pinkish mark along the skin hinted at the accessory’s tightness, details that greeted the woman as she was placed within the ring and strapped into place. Bound right up against her throat, she slunk over the choker, cursed to hear vividly every breath the singer took. She saw herself in the mirror when Elphelt shimmied towards it again, admiring her “VIP” the same way she would a new necklace.

“A perfect fit! Like an engagement ring~” Elphelt cooed, becoming dizzy from her romantic imaginings. The woman in her choker squirmed, but she misunderstood the effort as a signal of reciprocation. “I’ll sing to my fullest knowing I have an itty-bitty fan right at my throat~ You’re going to get the closest, most intimate Elphelt-experience imaginable!! I can’t wait any longer – let’s go to the stage…!”

Elphelt sprung towards the door initially, but spun and backtracked when she remembered she was forgetting something – only one thing she remembered, and that was her leather jacket, a staple to her death metal persona. She made sure to swipe it off the counter from before and fit her arms back through the sleeves; making it snug on her body, she had no clue that she was forcing some amount of tinies to be baked against her body, unaware of those that had been rifling through her jacket after it was unceremoniously dropped upon them. They were dragged along suddenly as accessories as well, stuck with Elphelt and her volcanic personality, where they would experience her sweat and aroma most directly. Just from getting worked up in the green room, the frontwoman had already begun to get hotter, her temperature certain to rise once she was performing with all her heart.

Yet despite retrieving her leather jacket, it did not cross Elphelt to also reacquire her boots, nor did she think to undo the strangled shape of her blouse between her breasts, absentmindedly letting both be bare as she zigzagged out of the room. She was fully focused on the encore show as she returned to the microphone, petting her choker-bound captive for good luck before kicking off another song, convinced she was inspiring hope and love. Truly, Elphelt was head-over-heels for the shrunken fan she had found, even if she might slip her mind only just after the show – a show full of grueling gutturals and heavyweight dances that the tiny woman, and all of Elphelt’s passengers, would have to endure.