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astrid-beck · 8 months

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a random headcanon that is not supported by the text? a random headcanon that IS supported by the text? also, thoughts on astrid and schools of magic? i think fanon consensus is that she's an illusionist because of how she uses changeable glamors at the dinner (and mercer twitter lore is that glyph chant is reskinned bladesinging, so she has those stats when her glyph chant is up) and illusionist astrid is compelling so why not, but i have seen arguments for why other schools would also be interesting.

weirdly i haven't thought very much about astrid's subclass. i'm instinctively fond of evoker astrid because i love when she does big ugly damage and i like the idea of academy bren and astrid in direct collaboration/competition but. okay let me spitball for a minute. misogyny is obviously a little different in exandria, but from a real-world perspective illusion is a very feminine kind of magic. In a lot of historical contexts it is the worst thing a woman can do, see "art" and and artifice as signs of deceptiveness, moral degeneracy and promiscuity, feminine lack of mental fortitude, "God hath given you one face and you make yourselves another", etc. Illusionism makes you femme fatale coded by default.

So there's something very interesting about illusionist astrid bc i don't actually think we have any reason to believe she relies on weaponized femininity. She's hard and mean and severe and handsome and she goes by "Master". I think Bren was far more charismatic (and prettier), and far more reliant on it--Caleb in-campaign has that 16 CHA, he actively uses essek and lucien's attraction to him to get what he wants, he is a con man when we first meet him, he can really turn on charisma and charm when he wants to. Caleb has to consciously turn it on, but i don't think Bren did, I think he was just a very charming and pretty young man.

So what that would mean for an illusionist astrid is that bren left, and she sort of became a mechanical imitation of him, not naturally suited to that kind of soldiery but she's a good wizard, she's a quick study, she can put her mind to it. In a lot of ways Astrid was forced to be a less-good version of Bren, the second choice, not the son student her father master wanted. And she knows this. Trent says it to her face in 110. It's true right up through the end when she gets the assembly appointment only after it is offered to Caleb.

To answer your supported-by-the-text headcanon question, i think maybe she expected to be an evoker and switched paths, probably at trent's behest, because ultimately her magic and study is not for her personal interest, she doesn't get to be a self-obsessed wizard like wealthy mages do. she's an employee. her magic is a weapon and it is owned by the man who writes her paycheck, it will be developed in whatever way he thinks is most useful for the empire.

(i just finished c2 ama)

#i have the hubris to think a lot of my astrid headcanons are textually supported #she told me herself personally and i know everything about her now #also i was wondering about glyph chant mechanics (and volstrucker sword carrying) that makes a lot of sense!#filing that info away for later use #lena watches cr #asks #cr2 #astrid becke #critical role #meta

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fourth-quartet · 3 months

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So you said you were working on a few wips...talk to me. Tell me everything

okay okay okay okay so (pulls up the last time i referenced any of my wips to remember what i even posted about)

Original WIPs:

Since I just started working on it tonight. I'm taking a playwriting class this semester so I started working on what will be my end-of-the-semester project (the semester starts tuesday) because I already know what my project is going to be. It doesn't have a title yet, but it is going to return to my roots of leaving two actors on a stage basically going through emotional hell as their stories intertwine in the form of interrogations (gotta love a barebones interrogation room scene on a barely lit stage).

"#WhatHappenedToTennysonBeatty" is (hopefully) going to be the project I focus on moving forwards with my fiction courses. It's written in script form, as a podcast breaks open and exposes the mystery of a disappearance from ten years previously.

I have a new adult fantasy book I've been working on for a minute too, and I just had a breakthrough literally tonight about it, so I'll probably be working on that on/off as well. The book is split between three major POVS: Felicity 'Fix' Brion (married to a diplomat and maternal figure to her orphaned nephews, in her husband's country following an assassination of her sister-in-law), Roel Devani (former prince, former spymaster, turned war criminal), and Cealin Ecgwine (essentially a priest in the church, escorting what may possibly be an actual god reborn away from his death).

I ALSO have a near-future dystopian book I've been working on in a very on-and-off way that deals with some pretty heavy topics I don't want to super get into. But its got some queers and some magic realism, so that's fun.

TDJ WIPs:

"What if Yohan simply didn't?" I've mentioned it in passing, I think, but it's an AU in which Yohan's plans are waylaid by chronic pain and trauma. Soohyun's meddling ends up with Gaon going to visit the house in which Yohan and Elijah are bottled up, and though initially the Kangs are both cold to him, it takes very little for them to warm up to Gaon.

"????" is an Elijah-centric 5+1 of emotions as she experiences them over the course of the show. I know the emotions are 'anger, bitterness, reluctance, hesitation, hope + happiness' but I've written exactly one sentence of it.

"Another ?????" is an exploration of Yohan's trust in Gaon through the eyes of the people around them: K, Jinjoo, Elijah, Jungho, Soohyun, etc.

SFH WIPs:

I can't talk about the SFH WIP for legal reasons (again, I'm a mod of the zine, I know what the topic/theme is gonna be months in advance lmfao)

Critical Role WIPs:

Nicknamed "Tilly" with the working title "regret informs only the living," it jumps between ~C1 and C3, in a world where Percy and Laudna had met as children and did know one another. It jumps between their childhoods, immediately after reclaiming Whitestone, and when Bells Hells bring Laudna to Whitestone to revive her.

Originally nicknamed "Life 5," now its own fic titled "obsessively, incessantly, to a point of suffocation", it's an alternate history in which the Empire made a severe push into Xhorhas as the perfect moment. Asarius falls, and Dens Olios, Thelyss, and Tasithar are captured. The citizens of Asarius are split between four internment camps. Switching POVs between scourger Bren and survivor Essek, it's an alignment flip.

"friends on the other side," also called "Kingsley is Confused™," is immediately post C2, following Kingsley as he tries to piece together some semblance of identity and life, while Mollymauk and Lucien simply do not shut up in his head. It's enough to drive anyone mad, really. But maybe, just maybe, King is smart enough to figure out how to get them out of head and into bodies of their own.

"kindness is a dish best served" is an alternate C2 ending, in which it is Lucien pre-Nonagon who wakes up when the Wildmother brings him back. He lies through his teeth, claiming he doesn't know any of them. Only Caleb (visibly) sees through the lies.

Currently nicknamed "Vesper de Rolo's Very Bad, Not Good Day," it's a retelling of C3, in which Vesper de Rolo is a member of Bells Hells.

Currently only nicknamed "the consecution fic," the only thing I've written is this: 'thirty years after Essek Thelyss of No Den is executed for treason, Lirik Thelyss of Den Thelyss begins to go through anamnesis and realizes he can tell nobody who he truly is.'

And that's not including two 5+1s I'm sitting on for more Thelyss family dynamics because there's something so fun about locking Essek, Verin, and Deirta in a room together and poking them to see what happens.

And, now, lastly. The one I can't forget. "The Fickle Nature of Time's Children," suffering under the weight of my 22k word outline. It's a Caleb/Essek time travel fic with a twist, dealing heavily with themes of depression, a lack of fulfillment and unhappiness, with a massive redemption arc for the Tombtakers because they deserve it.

*exhales* okay that's it. Mostly. I have a couple of other original pieces of writing I didn't touch on because I haven't been working on them as much.

#took writes #took writes a LOT #fic stuffs #original writing #took answers #moot tag #sass tag #i will talk ENDLESSLY about all of this

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masterqwertster · 3 months

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Send an AU for 5+ headcanons: Consecution Quest AU please.

🔮 Laudna/Adeline does retake the Warlock class, but this time her Patron is Ashton. Having a new life granted new perspective that made it easier to say 'No' to Delilah and 'Yes' to Ashton when the idea of a Patron swap was brought up. And I feel like it does have to be a Patron swap since it's been revealed that Delilah basically entwined their souls, so I'm not feeling super confident about saying consecution would separate them. Unless it brought them back into separate bodies... Oh shit, that could be kind of cool with a bit of a Ted-and-Opal-ish type of situation for the Warlock aspect, except Delilah has a body. For a while. Will expand in the next point.

So anyways, like Fjord, Laudna/Adeline upgraded to a new Patron of greater strength. I lean towards the Genie patron/subclass because Baby Titan, but an argument could be made for Undying given consecution.

🔮 So about the above Delilah thing that just occurred to me. How it works is as follows: Bells Hells obviously isn't going to tell much of anyone of power about Delilah and her grip on Laudna for fear of Lord de Rolo coming for their asses with all his resources and the rest of Vox Machina. Bells Hells are also the idiots who sweep their problems under the rug and ignore them until they're actively problematic once more, so they're not going to consider what happens to Delilah if Laudna is bound into a cycle of reincarnation because she's under the rug at the time.

Because of the intertwinedness of Laudna and Delilah's souls, they both end up passing through a "Beacon" with all its possibilities to be reborn. Don't kid yourself into thinking for one second Delilah wouldn't pick a possibility where she has her own body instead of riding shotgun in Laudna's.

So Delilah is reborn. And since she's got wild necromancy powered by the babiest evil god, she doesn't really suffer the past life memory issues. Which gives her the side effect of knowing but being physically incapable of acting. But she's probably murdered the family she was born to and resurrected Sylas by age 10. Or maybe the family lives (probably in fear of their scary powerful necromancer child). It's honestly hard to tell how the madwoman would feel about having blood family given by the time we know her she's all-consumingly obsessed with Sylas.

And, of course, being the hateful thing she is, Delilah has to go after the de Rolos (and the rest of Vox Machina). She doesn't succeed and ends up dead again at like, 15. The only reason Vox Machina even really knows it was Delilah was the involvement of Sylas, back yet again after his last death at Dalen's Closet, and they've honestly got no clue how Delilah came back again since a) they thought Laudna was the last anchor and that was severed when Pike resurrected her and b) Laudna is dead now anyways.

Being disembodied once more, Delilah realizes she's still got a tether to Laudna, so apparently it's time to ride that wonky horse again. Also because she was too far from a Beacon to be passed into a new life by Laudna's consecution that she was riding.

Unfortunately for Delilah (and fortunately for most everyone else), a new blank slate of a life without her has given Adeline the spine and context to reject her and fall into safer arms.

Thus Delilah is finally put down for good.

🔮 Caduceus would definitely actually get to say "Someone please take this child away" about Ashton in this AU. Essek has definitely brought the Baby Titan to the Blooming Grove as an escape point from danger or just because he needed a breather from all this baby-sitting and Search Quest travel

🔮 I don't know if I want Imogen's reincarnation to be an eisfuura or a centaur more. On one hand, flying dates with Laudna (and fun tension with Ruz/FCG because of bird trauma). On the other hand, literal horsegirl and riding your girlfriend.

🔮 Because Fearne now has the Spark of Rau'shan, she'd be reborn as a fire genasi. I was planning tiefling previously to keep her horns and a bit of a fire theme, but oh well.

Send an AU (new or established) for 5+ headcanons

#MQ&A #MQ AU machine #consecution quest au

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stygius-cr-sideblog · 10 months

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for the fanfic writer asks - 5, 29, 38, 75

hi katie!! thank you for the ask!! ❤️

(writer asks meme here)

5. have you ever made a playlist about something you were writing as an elaborate means to procrastinate when you could have been actually writing and if yes drop a link, son

I have!! Usually at very early outlining stages of longer fics, in an attempt to get a vibe down—and maybe create some kind of Pavlovian association in my brain to shift more easily into writing that project when listening to that specific music.

The most recent playlist I made like this was for my (first!) NaNo last year, which I finished the rough 50k-ish draft of but still need to clean up. It's all instrumental music, vaguely mysterious tracks for a CR fic (the first I wrote!) in which Essek, fearing discovery due to rumors in the Dynasty, goes to Rumblecusp after the peace talks and winds up losing all his memories and becoming a villager, then meeting the Nein anew when they arrive.

29. give us a spoiler for one of your stories.

I will give you a spoiler for my current active WIP I've been working on lately! Beacons get stolen in it (two of them!), and also there is very messy Essek/Adeen, because I'm fully obsessed with Adeen to a truly unhinged degree. "Still together and feeling some measure of feelings, but all twisted up into toxic exes energy" is one of my favorite romance dynamics ever.

38. how many stories do you work on at one time?

[bitter laugh] I mean. "work on" is such a strong term. I have many WIPs but the truth is progress happens mostly in bursts of (possibly) ADHD-fueled fixation on one particular idea, and it cycles until fics are either complete or I feel that I've outgrown my interest. That said, I do have some outliers that I add a few hundred words to now and then on the side.

75. do you know how your story ends before you start writing?

Yes! Always. I need to have an end point in mind, whether it's a particular line or mood or character choice or even just a singular word; otherwise I can't write at all. I can't do the meandering discovery thing, I need a goal fixed in the distance. Sometimes the ending shifts once I'm halfway through, but it's usually given me enough direction by then that I don't feel lost while putting words down.

The ending, as a general rule, is usually the polar opposite of the beginning in some way, a kind of mirror. If I'm imagining a positive story development, I'll imagine how problems might be visually solved, words and scene settings that contrast the tone of the first one; if it's a more somber arc or more based in disillusionment and not breaking free of whatever has been ruining the characters lives externally or internally, then I look for ways to convey we're back where we started or worse off.

Somewhat relatedly, I was terrified of the movie Jumanji as a child. Yes, it's very campy, and I can appreciate that as an adult, but I watched it when I was maybe nine, and the last beat of the board game being abandoned—the knowledge that anyone else might find it, and all of those scary things would happen all over again, maybe endlessly in a cycle—really freaked me out. I guess when I think of the ending in advance, I'm trying to find the Jumanji final image: what am I feeling as I walk away from this story? And then I write toward that.

#writer ask meme #answered asks #thank you friend!! these are so fun to think about!!

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planerider-ryn · 1 year

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@lawful-evil-novelist tagged me on this and it seemed fun. Don't have many mutuals to tag, but i will tag @girlcaligula and @agapantoblu (only if you want to obv)

Do you play an instrument? I do not, though I did some piano lessons as a child. I actually have a terrible ear for music if every music game I have ever played is any indication

Favourite book character? My current favourite is definitely Kimmuriel (Legends of Drizzt), even though I have not been reading much lately; my first favourite was Jasmine (Deltora), but the one that's in my heart and probably overall favourite is Ian Maayrkas/Jean Marc de Ponthieu (Hyperversum)

What's your star sign? Rather not say

Favourite colour scheme? I love gradients and I love black+red/purple combinations. Night sky vibes.

Naps or long sleep? Both. I sleep all of the time.

What languages do you speak? Italian and English fluently, I spent some years studying French, Latin and Chinese but I would barely be able to put sentences together

Dreams/aspirations? I want to go into academia, do research on Algorithm Theory and Logic, publish and maybe teach a new generation

Long hair or short hair? SHORT HAIR. Absolutely. I am ashamed to admit how much simply trying to grow my hair stressed me out last year

Tea or coffee? Tea (warm fruity green teas with lavender honey). I drank coffee once and it tastes horrible + makes my hands shaky so I do not recommend it.

Bring a book character to life or go into a fictional world? If I could bring my friends with me, clearly the second, though I do not know which world we would go into. Possibly professor Layton, I think we would all incredibly enjoy a world where most people just like puzzles. Recently though I have become obsessed with Persona and I feel like that's the one I would pick. But if I had to be alone I'd rather bring a fictional character to life; I'm going to say Essek or Caleb, to round up my current fixations and also because I would LOVE to see how magic and real world physics would interact

#tag game #i cannot give short answers as usual lol

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justalittlebluetiefling · 3 years

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"Essek morality and Jester morality line up a lot for me" dude I had not considered that. like it's this almost complimentary inverse where Jester is "it's okay if you're evil. just don't be evil to me" and Essek is "it's okay if I'm evil, but I won't be evil to them." sorry that's just absolutely fascinating.

No, I love it! It’s one of the reasons that I find the friendship between the two of them to be so compelling. I feel like I want to ramble and write extensive meta on this, but I’m also tired, so I’m just going to post this and say YES. 1000% this.

#i seriously have the BIGGEST soft spot for the jester & essek friendship #and i want to read more about this #i want to write more about it but my brain's tired today #critical role #essek thelyss #jester lavorre #the mighty nein #maybe because i'm also obsessed with essek #i'll do more of an essek deep dive when i rewatch the campaign again #so i can have more articulate thoughts on this #redjennies #erin answers things #jester and essek

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eve-is-obsessed · 2 years

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everything I know about critical role campaign 2 (I have not watched it)

hi! I'm a new Critter who as of now has not watched any of campaign 2 aside from random clips in compilations and shit, but thanks to The Internet and also my friends, I know some things now. so before I start watching c2, here is all the stuff I know about it!!

I realized I knew a lot less about c1 than I thought (post here), but I definitely have more c2 knowledge so let's go

here there be spoilers!!! for the whole campaign!!! are they all CORRECT spoilers? probably not. but I do not know! be careful!

player characters

Jester Lavorre is my beloved and she’s played by Laura Bailey. she’s a blue tiefling cleric who worships a god called the Traveler, who I think is just a dude in a cloak who started a cult. I thought she was like 12 but apparently she’s actually an adult, weird. she does sendings that are very funny, and I mimic her horribly every single day bc her voice fills me w joy. she’s from Nicodranus (do I know what or where that is? nope!) she's rich but had a shitty family, and her mom is apparently the best lay ever? not sure what that's about. also I think her spiritual weapon is some sort of baked good bc she really likes them?

Beauregard Lionett, Marisha's character, is the definition of hot monk shit. she is gay and sexy and buff and represses emotions like no one's business. despite my deep love for her, I actually know very little about her backstory or literally anything she does. I do know the important thing though, which is Lesbian.

Yasha Nydoorin is Ashley's character and she's a fallen aasimar barbarian. I pronounce her last name like the Pokemon Nidoran because I have no clue how it's supposed to be. she wears badass makeup but it also might be tattoos or just her skin patterning? also she has skeletal wings sometimes but then through the Power of Love they heal. and she's very buff. she is in loooove with Beau and very shy and awkward. OH she has a dead wife who someone killed because homophobia or something, and she really likes flowers and doesn't know where her wife is buried so she can't bring her flowers :'(

Mollymauk Last Name Here is a funky purple tiefling, Taliesin's first character. he has cool ass clothing and he is so gay. magic??? he is flamboyant and maybe a fuckboi and then he dies in like episode 20. rip. he's friends with Yasha and I think was in a circus.

Caduceus Clay is Taliesin's second character. he's a pink firbolg and he likes tea and I want him to hug me. he worships... somebody... because he's a cleric and heals people. I think he's aroace confirmed? "help, it's again" is the only scene I've seen with him in it.

Caleb Widogast (?) is Liam's human wizard and his last name sounds like a Pokemon. my roommate is obsessed with this man, which makes sense because he is an angsty gay guy. German, apparently doesn’t eat? I am worried for him. he has a cat named Frumpkin and a boyfriend named Essek eventually. he has fire magic and killed his whole family. rip. OH ALSO he grew up in the Empire and was part of a gay polycule???

Nott the Brave/ Veth is Sam's character, and she's a goblin. I do not know if she's 7 years old or a mother, but it's one of those two. also I think she was a different race originally but got turned into a goblin and also hates goblins and also is an alcoholic. sure.

Keg (is that really her name?) is a guest character. she’s a dwarf? and a lesbian and has the hots for Beau. mood.

Fjord ??? I straight up forgot about this man. he's a green guy played by Travis, maybe a half-orc? and he's a pirate. warlock. does he have a last name??

non player characters

Essek is Caleb’s boyyyyfriend and he’s a purple drow. I think he starts off bad and betrays the party but over time becomes good or something. he can float and is hot!

Zuala I don't think actually shows up but she's Yasha's dead wife. [sobs forever]

Marion Lavorre is Jester's mom and she's a red tiefling who I'm pretty sure is a prostitute?

The Gentleman is apparently Jester's DAD and every time they sent him a message, I thought they were speaking to multiple gentlemen but it turns out it's just one.

Astrid I-don't-know-her-last-name is connected to Caleb somehow. I think she's also a wizard and has tattoos but I know nothing else

plot points

Jester almost gets her hands cut off, but then she persuades the hand-cutter to eat a blueberry cupcake and then casts Modify Memory and avoids getting her hands cut off

Keg and Beau have sex

Jester helps Yasha write a poem for Beau and I have the whole thing memorized

at one point, Fjord, Jester and Yasha got kidnapped but it was because their respective cast members were all gone. I think this is when Keg came in to help the rest of the party find them

clearly I have a very good grasp on the plot of this show /s

that's all folks! vox machina post here :)

#critical role #cr2 #mighty nein

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essektheylyss · 2 years

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Ok, I haven't read a ton of fic so I don't know if this is normal to ask but I have been absolutely obsessed with luminous worlds for the past three days and just spent ten hours yesterday finishing it! It is one of the best things I have ever read! But a question has been driving me crazy since I finished it. Why did Essek have to sleep for a thousand years? What made 1000 years in the future a better time to try to kill Leylas? Wouldn't she have still been reeking havoc for all those years?

First, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Also I hope you slept, that's a marathon, WOW. Thank you!!!

So, if I'm being honest, the real answer to this question was that that's how I wanted it to be, but also I'm incapable of simply handwaving something and moving on, so I did think a lot about this in order to conceptualize why, so there is also a narrative answer. (under a cut cuz it got long lol)

The reason was that Deirta, Abrianna, and Quana are the only ones who were confident enough in their standing to challenge Leylas, and had she been able to find them in rebirth and kill them before they'd undergone anamnesis, it would've been very difficult to rally the rest of the dens around anyone else. (This is also why Quana's sword is so crucial in the end.) At the same time, their deaths created enough uncertainty that Leylas was insecure in her own standing, so for a long time she couldn't threaten another nation without a significant reason (the fact that another beacon was uncovered in the Coast). So putting the beacon that Essek brought to court into stasis kept them from being reborn, and he may have remained asleep were it not for the threat to the Coast.

On a deeper level, the Luxon is the only entity involved who knows how every possible decision will play out, because that's way too much for a mortal to comprehend and hold onto in their mind, and even when it's offering this course of action to Essek, there's a split second in which Essek can see also that this is the only choice that turns out well for everyone involved, which is why he agrees—but he doesn't necessarily retain that knowledge, because it's far too much for him to know.

(At the same time, this is also "turns out well" as seen by the Luxon, which is conceptualized very differently from mortal considerations. And it's also very focused on balance above all! It's possible that if Essek didn't do this, he could've lived quietly and happily with Caleb in the Coast, Caleb could've moved on without being reborn, Fjord could've gotten to rest with Jester centuries ago. But it's far more likely that would've meant Deirta, Quana, and Abrianna being killed permanently and Leylas encountering no challenge, and both Leylas and Deirta earning death rather than any healing.

And when Essek agrees to this, he is very caught up in what the Luxon wants to show him, how the Luxon wants him to imagine these futures and potential timelines, so maybe if this had been asked or conveyed in a different manner, he'd have made another choice. This isn't to say the Luxon maliciously manipulated him into choosing this, but the Luxon is operating on a very different level.)

#I hope this makes sense! it's only alluded to in the fic #mostly cuz it's something essek is aware of very implicitly because of that last point #what luminous worlds await #do I have a tag for that? dunno. probably should lmao #this is long solely because I literally did start the fic like 'I'm handwaving it. cuz I want to.'#and then immediately being like 'gdi I need to have a reason for this. fuck.'#cuz I'm incapable of handwaving.

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