Dear Diary - Shadow Play

May 30th, 2025

Dear Diary,

Fuck... my legs are tired. I'm absolutely cooked and I'm going to feel today tomorrow. I may have bitten off more than I can chew this time. I thought I could do this, but now I'm not so sure. What I am sure of... is that I should have trained more with a loaded bike. These hills with a load are absolute ball-breakers... or would be if I actually had balls. Thank God I went with my lowest gear cassette, or I'd be pushing.

I'm only three days into the trip, so I'm not willing to give up yet. I made my fifty miles today, if barely, and if I can make at least fifty miles again tomorrow, I should be able to hold that pace all the way into Cherokee. If not... I have a few extra days built into the schedule, but I NEED fifty miles a day! I just need to average five miles an hour! Five! That's all! I can do that, even with a loaded bike! I know I can!

I sat in the opening of my small, lightweight tent, blowing cool and nibbling at my reconstituted chicken and dumplings. I was on one of my bucket list rides, bikepacking the entire length of the Blueridge Parkway. I'd taken two weeks of vacation, driven down from DC, and was doing it.

The parkway was almost five hundred miles from its northern end at Rockfish Gap, Virginia, to its southern end in Cherokee, North Carolina. I wanted to average fifty miles a day to ensure I had enough time to complete the entire length, while leaving a couple of days at home to recover before I went back to work. That was a big ask with all the hills, but I'd been training for two years for this ride. I was three days into the ride and was averaging sixty-three miles a day. If I could hold that pace, I'd make it easily, but today the hills had humbled me. Knowing I had to, I'd started strong leaving Rockfish Gap. After the first day, just as I knew it would, my daily average had been steadily dropping as I made the climb into the mountains. Even though I'd pushed, almost to the point of chewing the handlebars, I'd only managed fifty-four miles today, and the climbs were only going to get tougher.

I was already in the pedal, eat, sleep grind, and despite my training, my legs were feeling the strain. I'd done a few long weekend bikepacking trips before, but this was my first truly ambitious journey. I'd selected the southbound route because it gave me a chance to work out any problem with my gear early, when the going was still easy. If I was going to run into trouble and have to bail, I wanted to know sooner rather than later, while I was still relatively close to home, plus as the ride got tougher, I was lightening the bike's load as I ate my food. Each dehydrated food packet didn't weigh much, but I'd found out today just how much every ounce added up. I also had a friend that lived in Asheville, and she was going to give me a ride back to my Jeep... assuming I made it all the way.

I scraped the edges of the food packet for every last morsel. I considered opening another pouch, but I had to ration my provisions. I'd packed enough, plus a little extra, for the entire trip, but not if I was wolfing down two meals at a time. I'd always been trim and athletic, and I was even more so now after two years of fairly hard training, but I was going to drop some additional pounds on this ride because there was no way I was taking in as many calories as I was consuming.

As I cleaned my spork and disposed of my trash, my damn hunger wouldn't go away, so I ripped open one of my calorie dense protein bars. Savoring the bar, and giving my body time to realize I'd eaten, the sun was nearly fully set as I popped the last of the bar into my mouth and washed it down with water. I wasn't what I'd call full, but at least I wasn't hungry anymore.

I couldn't ride in the morning before sunrise, or in the evening after sunset, for obvious reasons, but I wanted to be rolling as early as possible tomorrow, so I checked over my bike using my small flashlight. I'd rather know now, so I had the luxury of fixing it in the relative comfort of my campsite, that I had something in a tire, or there was a problem with the pedals, chain, or gear cassette.

After checking my bike and giving it a clean bill of health, I crawled into my tent, closed the fly, and stripped. The tent was so small it required some contortion, but I managed. This campground didn't have showers, so I used a cloth, dampened with the remainder of the water I'd collected for my meal, to bathe as much as I could. Mostly clean, and slightly less smelly, I packed away today's clothes before pulling out fresh for tomorrow. Now all I had to do in the morning was pour hot water into my breakfast pouch and eat it while I packed my tent and sleeping bag, and loaded the bike for the day's ride.

It was a typical muggy southern summer evening. It wasn't particularly hot, but I felt that if I grabbed two handfuls of air and twisted, I could wring water from it. I'd closed the fly for privacy while bathing and changing, but now I flipped it open again for more ventilation. As a soft breeze wafted through the mesh, I settled down on top of my lightweight sleeping bag in my sports bra and panties. I'd probably have to close the fly and snuggle into the bag later as the night chilled, but for now I was enjoying the cool breeze softly caressing my flesh.

I was getting drowsy when I heard the heavy thuds of a motorcycle putt-putting its way through the campsite in my direction. My eyelids heavy, I watched as the motorcycle, towing the smallest trailer I'd ever seen, pulled into the plot next to mine, the headlamp flashing my campsite as it circled. Lighting up someone else's tent with headlamps was considered bad form, but it had been only a moment, and my tent had privacy mesh to prevent anyone from easily seeing me. The motorcycle with two riders aboard idled for a bare moment before falling silent. As the riders dismounted, I lazily watched the man and woman.

"Goddammit," the man muttered as he pulled off his helmet. He wasn't being loud, but the slight breeze brought his words to me clearly.

"I said I was sorry," the woman replied, though her words didn't match her tone.

"Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that we're going to have to setup the tent in the dark." The man opened a small door on the side of the trailer and then flicked on a flashlight, keeping the beam pointed at the ground. "Hold this. Don't shine it in anyone's tent."

The woman took the light. "I don't know why you're being such an asshole. If you want any this weekend, I needed my pills."

"I don't know why you waited so late to get them. Shine the light here."

The woman directed the light where he indicated. "Because I didn't know we were doing this until the last moment."

"I told you a month ago."

"Yeah... and I forgot."

My drowsiness was disappearing as I watched the man disconnect the trailer from the motorcycle and then drop four legs, one at each corner of the trailer. He then lifted a corner and kicked the leg straight. He pointed at the corner and the woman shined the light there. He did the same at each corner before going around the trailer a second time, lifting the corner of the trailer, kicking the leg loose, adjusting the length, kicking it straight again, and then checking whatever was on the corner of the trailer. After inspecting what I could only assume was some type of level indicator, he either repeated the process or moved on to the next leg.

The man had obviously done that before because in less than ten minutes, he had the trailer as he wanted it. "Close enough," he grumbled.

As the woman followed him, pointing the light where he indicated, he worked latches, snaps, and poles, and soon enough the tiny trailer had been transformed into a large tent. The tent had an enclosed sitting area at the side of the trailer, and a raised sleeping platform positioned on the trailer proper, the extra length supported by four legs to make it strong and stable.

"Dammit," the man growled as the woman entered the tent. "What did I tell you about shoes in the tent?"

"Jesus Christ. Is all you're going to do is bitch?" the woman muttered as she stepped out of the tent.

"I told you, it's hard to get all the dirt out, and I don't want dirt in everything when I pack up the tent."

"Okay, fine, but you don't have to be such an asshole about it," the woman complained as she unbuckled her boots.

"You're the one who said you wanted to come along," the man replied, holding the flashlight as the woman removed a boot before stepping into the tent with her socked foot.

"Well excuse the fuck out of me if I wanted to spend time with you," she grumbled as she removed her other boot and reentered the tent, shoeless this time.

With the flashlight dancing crazily, I watched as the man bent and pulled something from beneath the bed where the trailer's cargo door was located. He flicked it on and hung it from the top of the tent. The lantern providing plenty of illumination, the flashlight disappeared. I continued to watch as the man and woman shrugged out of their jackets. The couple appeared to be ten to maybe fifteen years older than my own twenty-nine years, and though I couldn't tell that much about the man, other than he was tall and appeared to be powerfully built, it was easy to see the woman's two most obvious assets.

The man bent again before rising with a roll of foam that he spread on the sleeping platform. He bent a third time before two sleeping bags were tossed onto the sleeping deck and unrolled. After squatting a fourth time, two folding chairs appeared that the woman placed in the sitting area. As she was doing that, the man bent a final time before I heard the sounds of ice and water. Rising, he handed the woman a bottle.

"Thanks," she muttered as she accepted the beverage. She flopped into a chair. "Setting up didn't seem so bad. You made it sound like it was going to be a pain in the ass."

"Yeah... well... it helped that you were here to hold the flashlight," he rumbled as he sat in the second chair.

"So you're glad I came along?" the woman wheedled.

He took a pull from his bottle before he looked at her with a teasing smile. "I guess."

"You guess!" the woman cried softly in mock outrage. "If that's how you feel, I guess we didn't need to stop for my pills after all."

The man rumbled out a soft chuckle before taking another sip. "We'll see."

Closing my eyes, I listened to their good-natured sniping at each other as my drowsiness returned, the exhaustion from the day's ride slowly pulling me into the darkness of sleep.

"Show me those titties," the man rumbled softly, his words and the tone of his voice pulling back the veil of sleep's darkness.

I waited, eyes closed, teetering on the edge of slumber, when barely audible music with a boom-chicka-wow wow electric guitar, cymbals, and a heavy beat, began dragging me back from the edge. Annoyed that my neighbors were making so much fucking noise so fucking late at night when people were fucking trying to sleep, I grabbed my phone and glared at it. 9:42. I dropped my phone with a groan. It had been less than thirty minutes since they'd finished setting up camp. With another groan, I rolled over to face their campsite to see what they were doing, and to try to determine how much longer they were going to be making noise. They weren't being obnoxiously loud, nor was it that late, but I needed to sleep because I wanted to get up and get rolling early in the morning, giving myself enough daylight to make fifty miles and not have to set up camp in the dark, like they had.

"You like that?" the woman murmured as she bent over, holding her breasts up in a thick pillow of flesh as she wiggled her ass to the music that wouldn't sound out of place in a porn movie. "You like looking at my tits as I dance?"

"You know I do," the man growled as the woman straightened but continued to gyrate sensuously in front of him.

"You know what I want?" the woman cooed, running her hands seductively over her body as she wiggled her ass in her man's face.

"Yeah, I know what you want," he rumbled softly.

"You going to give it to me?"

"Yeah, I'll give it to you."

"I want it. I want it bad," she purred, her voice thick with sex and promise.

"I know you do, baby, and you're going to get it."

As the man stood, he pulled his shirt over his head, threw it into the chair he'd just vacated, and then bent over to grab the zipper to close the tent's mesh windows. I had only a glimpse of him before my view was blocked, but I saw enough to know he was built like a brick shithouse, with a powerful chest and muscular arms, and some type of tattoo on his chest.

My drowsiness receding, I watched the shadow on the tent wall of the woman jerking her shirt over her head, her big boobs bouncing with the removal of her shirt. I heard another long, fast zip as the man closed another window, and then two more while the woman finished undressing. I expected them to turn the lantern off, but they didn't, and though they were only silhouettes, very little was left to my imagination.

Jordan and I had gone through a bit of a rough patch before I left. He hadn't been pleased that I was taking a two-week vacation without him. I would have enjoyed his company, but he didn't ride and wasn't interested in starting, preferring weights to a bike. We weren't married and didn't live together, and I'd told him what I was going to do when I started training, but as my departure date neared, his attitude kept getting worse. Three weeks ago, I'd reminded him that I'd invited him to join me, but since he didn't want to go, I was going whether he liked the idea or not, and he could either deal with it... or he could fuck off.

We'd already made up, but between our fight, and then him leaving town for two weeks on business, and me already on the road when he'd returned today, I hadn't been fucked in three weeks. Because of my dry spell, and with nearly two more weeks to go before I could, hopefully, get some cock, I was unable to pull my attention from the developing scene in front of me.

My drowsiness rapidly disappearing, I watched as the woman knelt in front of her man, opened his pants, and then roughly shoved them down. My eyes opened slightly wider as the last of my drowsiness evaporated. If the size of his cock wasn't distorted by the shadows, he was hung like a fucking bull. Circus sword swallowers had nothing on that bitch, and the man threw his head back with a soft gasp as the shadow of his cock fully disappeared into the blackness of the woman's head.

Closing their tent had muffled their voices slightly, but not enough that I couldn't still hear them. His woman bobbed and slurped on his rod for a long moment before he roughly hauled her to her feet and pulled her lips to his with a deep growl of desire. Their shadows merged into a single black blob, but I could see her ass wriggling, and my imagination took care of the rest.

After a moment, they separated, and I could see the woman had a grip on the man's massive shaft. Ignoring the fact she was holding his member, he seized the woman behind the back of her head and, turning with her as he did, roughly shoved her toward the raised platform that formed the bed.

She crawled onto the bed as the man followed closely behind, and again their two shadows became one as the woman draped herself over her man. Listening closely, I could hear their soft gasps and growls of desire as they pleasured each other with lips and tongue.

"Fuck... you're eating my pussy so fucking good," the woman hissed before his rod disappeared into darkness.

The man said nothing, but his grunts, whimpers, and growls grew louder as the thick, dark line of his cock slowly pistoned into the shadow of the woman's head.

"Fuck! I'm going to come on your fucking face," the woman snarled as she began working her hips while furiously spit polishing the man's rod.

After a long moment of bubbly slurps, gasps, groans, and soft cries of pleasure, the woman reared, her big tits easily identifiable in their shadows as she arched her back, making soft, stuttering, bird-like calls as her hips pumped furiously.

"Fuck..." she gasped as she collapsed over him, the two shadows becoming one again.

She was still for a moment before she rose to her hands and knees and turned in the bed. Hovering over her man, she balanced on her knees, holding his long, thick cock erect as it began to vanish into her darkness.

"Fuck!" the man hissed softly as she lowered herself over his manhood, his hands lost in her darkness near her breasts. "You're so fucking tight!"

"Oh God! Oh my fucking God! Your cock is so fucking big!" she gasped as she slowly worked herself down his length, her words almost lost as the breeze died for a moment. "Shit! Fuck!" she hissed as the last of his shaft disappeared in her shadow. "Your cock is so fucking deep inside me."

With a soft groan of my own, my left hand slowly slid down my body, my fingers finding their way beneath my panties to touch my womanhood as I watched the erotic scene playing on the nylon tent walls only a couple dozen feet away.

"You like my cock?" the man rumbled as his hand surrounded the shadow of the woman's head to pull her to his chest. "You like the feel of my cock deep in your pussy?"

The woman began thrusting her hips. "I love the feel of your cock deep in my pussy so much," she whimpered in reply, almost as if she were going to cry.

She rode him for a long moment. When the breeze was still I could hear nothing, but when it picked up again, I could easily hear their passion, pleasure, and effort. As I watched, the woman's hips began thrusting with more vigor as her sounds of euphoria grew slightly louder.

"Shit! Fuck!" she squeaked.

I didn't know if the woman lunged upward to jam her pussy into her man's face, or if the man pulled her there, but it was clear from her soft, whimpering cries, the woman was coming like a bitch. Balancing on one knee, with her other foot planted near the shadow of his head, she gripped her breasts as her man held her by her hips or waist. Moaning and crying out softly, she furiously rocked her hips, and I wondered if she was squirting all over his face as she did.

Moaning, I teased my bean with more force and speed. She'd barely fallen silent before she slid down his body, grabbed his cock, and rammed it inside herself again. Her head hanging, her breasts sloshing, she braced on his chest as she fucked him furiously. I couldn't tell where his hands were, but I assumed they were still on her hips so he could help her fuck him as his panting growls grew louder, and then louder again.

"Shit! Stop!" the man begged. "I'm going to come! You're making me come!"

I groaned slightly, his announcement pulling my orgasm closer. I stilled my finger, not wanting to come. I wanted, needed, the release, but I wanted to time my orgasm to his.

"Please don't come!" the woman panted as she stopped fucking him to collapse over his chest. "Please! Not yet!"

My need consuming me, I quickly squirmed out of my underwear, my eyes never leaving the couple's shadow as they grunted, panted, and kissed.

As I settled again, the couple changed position. As I watched, the man moved to the foot of the bed as the woman followed. With her lying on her stomach, her ass at the edge of the platform, he adjusted her position slightly, before his massive cock slid into her as they gasped and moaned. He began to piston into her, each disappearance of his cock into her shadow accompanied by a soft slap of flesh against flesh.

I moaned as I touched myself again. As I watched, the man threw his head back with a snarling groan as he began fucking his woman harder and faster. "Fuck!," the man hissed softly, shaking his head violently, as if to deny the pleasure he was experiencing. "Your pussy is so fucking wet!"

Watching him battle his need caused my rapture to rush toward me. With a gasp, I forced my fingers from my pussy. "Fuck! Shit! Motherfuck!" I hissed softly, my ass rising from my sleeping bag to fuck the air as I grunted and strained, my will in an erotic struggle with my body to stall my climax. "Fuck..." I growled as my ass crashed back to the sleeping bag. Never before had I been able to fight off my rapture when I was so close to coming.

As my attention returned to the couple, the man was leaning over his woman's back, braced on stiff arms as he fucked her hard and fast, their grunts and snarls of pleasure clearly audible. I was starting to perspire from my own, solo, erotic romp, so those two must be sweating buckets. Not only were they working harder, but they had to contend with their combined body heat and the closed tent blocking the breeze as well. I touched myself again, hissing softly in sizzling pleasure, but I didn't dare tickle my button. I wasn't sure I could fight off another orgasm.

"I'm going to come," the woman moaned. "You're fucking me so good, you're going to make me come all over that big fucking cock."

"Do it," the man snarled softly. "Come all over my..."

I lost the rest of what he said when the breeze died, but I'd caught the meaning. After a moment of silence, the woman struggled to her knees, her man straightening with her to give her room to rise. As she sat on widely spread knees, he pulled her into his chest and wrapped her in his arms before sliding one hand between her legs. Unable to hear anything, I watched as the two remained in that position for a long moment, the woman squirming and writhing, before the man shoved her farther into the bed as he climbed onto the sleeping platform behind her.

As I watched, the woman braced on hands and knees as the shadow of the man's cock disappeared into the erotically curved darkness of the woman's ass. Their shadows suggested he was gripping her hips as he began lunging into her hard and deep, each impact of his hips against her ass causing her massive breasts to swing. After several dozens of the man's deep, powerful thrusts, she shoved hard back, driving his cock as deep as possible, before lunging away to collapse into a dark, misshapen lump. As the breeze resumed, an almost inaudible wail of a woman mired in crushing pleasure reached me. The man was fucking the absolute shit out of his woman... the lucky bitch.

Unable to keep my fingers still, I tickled my button, my head tipping back and my mouth opening in a silent scream of my own. I barely stopped my soft strokes in time, and again I writhed in erotic agony while fighting with everything I had against my encroaching rapture. After dancing on the knife edge of ecstasy, I blew out a long exhale as my climax slunk away a second time, and I began to relax as my attention returned to the tent next to mine.

The couple's shadows showed the man was on his knees at the edge of the bed, his giant cock easily identifiable in his shadow, while the woman was propped on her elbows with her head tipped back. It took me a moment to work out from the shadow's shape that the woman's legs were draped over her man's shoulders, and that could mean only one thing. I'd only just realized he was eating her alive when he quickly rose, stepped into the shadows of her legs, and judging by their soft barks of pleasure, plunged his cock deep. He tipped forward, bracing on his arms as the woman grabbed his neck to pull her shoulders off the mattress. Sitting at the edge of the bed's platform with bent legs, clinging to him with her heavy breasts mashed into his chest, the two fucked hard and fast, their grunts, gasps, whimpers, and snarls easily heard as the breeze resumed.

"Shit! Fuck!" the man grunted after a long moment of effort. "I'm going to fucking come!"

Before the woman could respond, he threw himself back with a soft gasping bark. The woman was jerked upright before she lost her grip and fell back to her elbows. Snarling softly, the man gripped his cock as his hips thrust and bucked to fuck the air over her pussy. With a soft snarl of her own, the woman lunged upright to grab him by his head or neck.

"Don't fucking come!" she hissed, dragging him over her as she fell backward to the mattress. "Don't you fucking do it! You hold that shit, you fucking hear me? Now, get that big fucking cock back in there, and fuck me with it!"

"Fuck! You bitch!" the man snarled, speaking over her as his enormous, stone-hard cock plunged into her shadow. "Stop fucking me or I'm going to come, you cunt!"

"That's it! Make it personal! Fuck me like you fucking hate me!" the woman sneered in return, holding her man around the neck and by the ass while repeatedly grunting and snarling as they strained and squirmed against each other.

Their harsh, demanding voices suggested they were in their final sprint, and thank God for that, because I didn't think I could take much more. As I watched, the woman released him before quickly scooting back in the bed as the man piled in after her. Both barked softly as he settled while guiding himself into her shadow. Braced on one arm, his other hand appeared to be at her neck. Snarling softly, he fucked her with incredible fury, while her hands gripped the hand at her throat. My fingers teasing my nipple and dancing in my wetness, I imagined his cock inside me, stretching me out as he fucked me with the same animalistic fury.

"Fuck! Fuck!" he barked, louder than he'd been all night. "I'm going to come!" he growled as he removed his hand from her throat.

"Do it!" the woman sneered. "Empty those balls! Spray that big load of come deep into my pussy!"

With a gasp he fell over her as his hips began churning with even greater speed and power. "I can't hold it much longer, you fucking slut!" the man growled.

"Do it!" the woman growled, her voice harsh and demanding. "I want to see come! I want you to come all over the fucking place! Come wherever you want! Fuck!"

The man began to wail softly as he fucked her with incredible passion... and it was easily the sexiest thing I'd ever heard.

"Keep fucking me!" the woman panted, her voice almost lost in his soft, moaning keen. "You're fucking me so good I'm going to come again!"

"I'm going... I can't... Ah fuck... Shit! You're pussy...!" the man said, his voice harsh and ragged as he spoke over her. The man's tortured moan ending as he spoke, they were silent for another long moment, the only sound the soft slap of flesh against flesh. "Fuck! I'm coming, baby!" the man snarled... and then an instant later he grunted long, hard, and deep. It was by far the loudest sound either of them had made all night, and everyone in nearby campsites knew a man, somewhere, was coming his nuts off. Never had I heard a man come so hard, or sound so sexy.

As the man's loud, wailing grunt filled the air, the woman added her own voice to his. Her cry of completion was softer, audible only between the man's loud, deep, and painful sounding cries of release, but it was clear she was caught in the teeth of a massive orgasm as well.

My face twisting, I moaned softly as my climax began to take me. My hips lunging furiously as the couple struggled against each other in bliss, I imagined the man's come gushing into me until I overflowed. Twisting onto one hip, I began to twitch and jerk as I fought my pleasure. I needed to feel his cock inside me! Moaning, I released my breast before jamming two fingers into my pussy. With my furiously rocking hips fucking my fingers, my other hand continued to sweetly maul my button. My eyes crushed closed, my face a mask of carnality, unable to move except for the furiously rocking of my hips, my orgasm swept over me like a great wave.

"Fuck!" I gasped with the explosive release of the breath that I hadn't realized I was holding.

Panting and damp with sweat, I jerked my hands from my womanhood to end the searing pleasure that was destroying me. Rolling fully onto my side, gripping my sleeping bag with both fists to prevent myself from exploding, a soft staccato groan escaped me as I quaked in ecstasy. I was tossed and swirled in the eddies of my rapture, helpless in my sexual devastation... and then it was over.

"Fuck..." I sighed as I slowly relaxed and flopped to my back.

When I'd recovered enough strength, I looked too my camping neighbors. While I was coming like a fucking bitch, the man had risen to his knees and was positioning himself over the woman's enormous breasts.

"You want to fuck my tits?" the woman cooed softly. "Does your big cock need a titty fuck?"

"Yeah, baby," the man panted softly in reply. "You know my cock loves being fucked by your big tits."

He was still hard as he slid his cock into her mouth before slapping his amazingly stiff manhood against the large lump in her shadow. After a few slaps, he must have slid his cock between her breasts as his rod disappeared into the dark mound. Huffing and grunting softly, he fucked her breasts slow and easy. After a few strokes, his cock went back into her mouth, probably for lubrication, before it returned to her tits.

After many long moments of slurpy cock sucking, slow titty fucking, and soft mutterings, the man toppled to the bed with an exhausted sounding groan, their two shadows merging into one. The man was still semi-hard as the shadow of his cock vanished into the darkness of his woman's leg as she rolled over and snuggled in close. With sleep pulling hard at me, I could hear, but not make out their pillow talk, catching only a word now and again... pussy... fucked... cock... love... glad... hot... tits... came... loud...

Totally relaxed, I closed my eyes to block the light from their lantern, my thoughts a sluggish morass as slumber began wrapping me in its dark cloak. As my breathing slowed and deepened, I wondered if I could get away enough ahead of them, so that if the couple passed me on the road, I'd be able to chase them down. I wanted to camp next to them tomorrow night because I needed to know, I desperately needed to know, if they fucked like that every night.

My thoughts floating free in the twilight of sleep, my inhibitions already slumbering, I wondered if I did catch them... if they'd think three was a crowd. My thoughts sputtering to a stop, a tiny smile played on my lips as the last of my consciousness slid into the black.