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prof-peach · 4 years

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Forgive me for asking another question but you mentioned a core 10. Are they your main pokemon you keep around to help maintain the island?

My core team are are allocated specific tasks, I’ve trained them over many years to perfect their skills, and excel in areas they show interest in.

First up, Valka, vulpix, my quiet, stealthy shadow. She’s got eyes everywhere, networking with many other Pokemon to get a clear picture of events that go on around the island. She is incredibly strong now, being 27 years, older than me, and when we get Pokemon in without pokeballs, her telekinetic abilities are how we move large bodies about without moving any damaged limbs or areas. This is especially true with spinal injuries. She also commands a lot of respect amongst new comers, exerting pressure in the atmosphere to put aggressive Pokemon in a more submissive state of mind.

Booker is the muscle, a teddiursa with no limits. He has in every sense gone above and beyond everyone’s expectations, mine included. He organises the island patrol squads, and occasionally will oversee sports days, though begrudgingly. The patrol squads are teams of 4 Pokemon that keep an eye out for goons trying to poach rare species, and generally protect the visitors from any danger, and maintain island order. He makes sure each squad is evenly balnced and can see potential where others may not. He is a very loyal, very grumpy, very sweet boy.

Minerva the lopunny is the queen bee so to speak, she clashes with Booker as she’s very showy and flamboyant. She uses her feminine appearance to deceive any obnoxiously aggressive Pokemon and fights with me and my team to maintain order and balance in the grounds. She is also a handful, and can be seen slacking off a lot to sunbathe or eat snacks. She probably the least reliable of the bunch but comes through when it truly matters. She’ll happily run errands, likes to stroll about keeping an eye on things.

Quintin the scizor is my go to guy when I need to clear forest for new trees, or handle damages during storms. He’s got a green...thumb? Claw? So he helps me maintain the grounds, growing many species along side me, making sure everything’s watered and healthy while I’m away. He is the leafy heart of the island, and will jump at the chance to do some gardening, despite his bug-type nature. Very charming, very polite.

Summer a ‘summer skies’ variant of a Meganium, with double petals and a pastel purple and white color to them. She’s very sweet, and matronly, looking after little ones with a soothing presence. She is great with guests and uses her abilities to help those who come in with severe injury. Her smells can help those recovering from injury of the mind and body. You can often find her walking between the greenhouses, caring for those inside, and making sure visitors are safe and not too close to anything too dangerous.

Potato an old bulbasaur, unevolved but very durable. He helps Summer out a lot, but has a much more prominent irritability. He takes on stroppy young Pokemon to train them in battle, enjoying the challenge of difficult students, having been one himself. He will offer guests help should they need it.

Apollo a noctowl with people skills and comedic timing. He’s the islands messenger, running notes about the place, and bringin in deliveries and mail from johtos mainland. He is a very strong flier and certainly fast.

Dutch a polygon-z with a nack for technology. Being given a patch disc, he is stable and relativly glitch-free. He helps peach with the island technology as she is terribly impatient with computers, and seems to fry anything that is within range fro unknown reasons. She chalks it up to bad luck. Dutch is key to anyone finding anything in the chaos that is their labs filing system, and usually has good memory for where items were last found.

Iggy an Eglyem, he started off as quite the trouble maker, erasing people’s memories, and trapping people in otherworldly states of existence. I decided to investigate when one of my own team members went missing, having been taken by him. He is who I go to when I dust the ol’ ranger badge off and go out to bust some dumbass crime circle up. He helps me trap humans and see the intentions of people and Pokemon within range. A clever little thing for sure. On the island he’s happy to be left with a number of species, though he’s happier with the bigger ones, sitting atop shoulders for good views of the groups below. Since we bonded his trickery has become more controlled.

Donut my mount, a stantler whos size and strength is huge, the leader of the herd we have on the island, who oversees the woodland areas, and helps me get places fast. He’s gentle and will enjoy any scratches given out. If he likes you, the rest of the herd will too. Can scale almost vertical mountain sides without trouble, potentially got a little gogoat DNA in him, but i]he looks pretty ordinary bar the larger horns. Good jumper.

These are the core 10, but there’s odd little ones who help out all around the place. Everyone who works at the labs has a team, and has been on adventures of their own, gaining friends and family. You can identify one of these helper Pokemon by the lanyard they wear, and they’ve all received enough training to aid any visitor with issues, apart from Iggy, who is still naughty.

#pokemon #prof.peach #peach talks

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abalonetea · 4 years

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I'm new to your worldbuilding and ocs. Could you steer me in the direction of who everyone is and what's going on in the stories? thank you

HELLO ANON

I NEED YOU TO KNOW I LOVE THIS QUESTION and also! welcome to my blog! i have a lot of minor background wips, and several main ones. i’m gonna throw this under the cut!

GROUNDHOG DAY - 60k words into the first book, outlining the second half of the first draft - part of Cat House Productions Verse

This is my MAIN wip. The heart and soul of everything I write. Groundhog Day is set in two versions of the same classic rpg video game, one the gritty reboot of the other. But when glitches start to wreck the original games’ codes, several characters begin retaining memories of their past lives, realizing their kingdoms are trapped in a time loop. It’s even worse when another glitch strikes, switching the games of one of the characters with his counterpart—Red and Blue—prompting a race to get home amidst the formation of friendship and family and the threat of a new war.

It stars Bolte, Locke, Red, and Blue. Secondary mains include Captain, Celeste, Aba, and Midnight! You can find art of most everyone HERE! Locke is the goodest good boi to ever exist, the literal embodiment of Hope. Bolte is a very hurt, angry desperate knight just trying to keep himself and Red alive. They’re the two “Official Mains” of the wip. Celeste is one of the most popular side characters - they’re a spider bard!

It’s a “worlds collide”, power of friendship and love story set in two candy kingdoms; one already fallen and the other on the cusp of war. The main themes are learning to accept help, making your own family, and understanding that there’s always time to make a better life and a better self. Hope, love, and compassion are the main driving points. It’s a highly emotional story, and the first of an eventual series.

_-_-_-_

STARBOY - 13 chapters in, posted over on patreon.com/abalonetea for the $10+ tiers, excerpts and art frequently posted here, goal of finishing by december

The crew of the Cosmic Pearl have been on the run for years now, their ship set in a permanent course towards chaos. It’s just that they’ve never really gotten into a mess like this before.

When they find a ship idling in a part of the galaxy no one else should be, Rumi orders it to be docked. What sort of pirate would skip a chance to plunder, right? It’s just…the ship isn’t abandoned. And the single man they find on board isn’t…exactly how he should be.

Judges cast the first stone, but hunters throw the knives.

And captain’s? Well, they’ll protect ship and crew to their dying breaths.

Rumi just hopes he’s not about to take his any time soon.

An epic space adventure following the pirate crew of the Cosmic Pearl. Main characters are Rumi, Starboy (Jude), Jaxon, and Carmelo. Rumi is the captain, and he’s got a really hard time keeping track of his pants. It’s a running theme for him. The basic idea is that a concept called “Judges” exist in this world. It’s random who ends up as a Judge. Jude is a Judge that managed to escape from Unity, where he was being held, and who accidentally gets picked up by Rumi and his crew.

The smart thing to do would be to just turn Jude in but...Rumi’s not known for being smart. What follows is an epic chase across the galaxy while they try to get Starboy home, find their own treasure, and avoid being caught by Hunters. Heavy themes of found family, learning to be yourself and not what other people want, friendship matters, and also poly-relationships.

_-_-_-_

PASS YOU BY - almost done the outline, hopeful nano story

Axel and Wrench have made a living for themselves in the Fallows; the wasteland left behind after a magical nuclear explosion. They aren’t expecting for a doll to show up in their dreams and rip them into an entirely new world. They really aren’t expecting for a bunch of children to show up in their bedroom closet, talking about how they’re the only ones that can stop the Melt from destroying their world.

Despite having been content finally making an easy going, relaxed life for themselves, they can’t let literal children try to save the world. So they take up that task instead...and find the same doll from their dreams at the heart of it all.

Main characters are Axel, Wrench, Blanket and Doll. Secondary mains are Ruin, Russet, Wren, and Melt. Wrench is literally a walking lamp post, and Axel has a floating cow skull for a head. It’s a hardcore fantasy with magic, alternate worlds, and a “Studio Ghibli” vibe to the designs.

The running theme is that Axel and Wrench, an unofficially-married married couple end up adopting a bunch of kids because the other adults in this world are useless. Culture clash, Food With Importance, found family, and making a place in the world are all the main themes. The first in a two part set, with a spin off planned called Take It To The Grave.

_-_-_-_

Dandelion Fluff - gets published on the 15th

A casual read about the prince of the Land of Monsters and the monster he finds trapped in the basement of the Royal Labs. Running themes are making wishes reality, it’s never too late to find a friend, standing up for the people you love, and dealing with grief in your own way.

The prequel to the upcoming book Quilted Blanket, in the outlining stages presently.

_-_-_-_

You’ll also frequently find me posting about my background wips -

NeonPnk - set in a post apocalyptic world where radiation has caused people to develop “glowderm”, causing glowing colored patches on their skin. It follows the members of a strip club trying to locate one of their missing employees and accidentally over throwing the government in the process.

The Business - animal mafia, set in the video game world of The Business

Catharsis - all about vampires, soul mates, and dealing with grief

Wings Of War - set in a CHP video game, starring the winged members of the Compass Team.

Swimming In Stars - four young adults take the road trip they were never able to go on in their youth

I also make new wips every three or four days and will frequently post about them here! I LOVE answering questions, so feel free to ask any questions about the wips or characters if you would like!

A lot of my stories have food as a central theme, and about half of them are set in the CHP verse, meaning they take place in various video games.

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mrhelicoprion · 4 years

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Non-primes for the writer asks

1. Something magic, something science, something fun, something less than pious

4. 3 in 1, I've got a world within which I can place three current projects, one of heroes, one of chocolate, one of the strange

6. I'm not good at finishing/pacing myself in detail

8. That's a very good question, though the only bit of actual heartfelt dialogue I've written was stolen from me (like the paper on which I wrote it on was stolen (and probably burned now))

9. Nothing I write is "hard" for me, but that might well be because I'm not pushing my boundaries

10. Easiest was "Chronicles of the Demon King" which encompassed 3 (complete) books and 2 incomplete stories

12. I don't know about that. Probably something from Dirk Gently

14. To plan everything out before you start writing

15. All of them! But more specifically the hero one (has to do better than DC amiright?)

16. Johnrezi (historically I suck at writing relationships, but we'll see how things go)

18. Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets, my computer notes app, my phone notes app, sticky notes, journals, and plain paper

20. All by myself!

21. Never published! Didn't know how, didn't know where, and wasn't allowed until like, 2 weeks ago

22. Drake sat in the passenger compartment of a transport ship, one of only several hundred in existence. Space transports were extremely expensive to manufacture and a lot of the technology used in them had not been approved for public use so flying cars were still not a real thing, and besides, it was illegal.

Drake had been in a space transport once before when his parents had paid for him to go to space camp among the colonies around the earth. The trip back to earth was taken in an escape pod when the sector had caught fire and several parts exploded. Of the original 457 participants, 386 escaped. It was the most recent and worst catastrophe in the 21st century not involved in the third world war.

Last time Drake had been on a space transport he was having a great time, he was with some friends (who all survived the fire), he was on his way to space, and he was on his way to a fun vacation camp.

This time things were different. Drake was on his way back to earth, he was with his sister and a whole bunch of kids he’d never seen before, and he was basically being sent to his death.

The thing is that the earth was infested with monsters. Thin, black, indestructible, and ancient monsters from a civilization that time forgot until explorers accidentally released them in a blunder that would throw the future (which is very predictable due to the world’s great progress in all things worth getting better at) to the winds of fate.

24. See 21

25. A beta? (Only betas I know are fish and sburb)

26. Beta...? Oh! I go by BlaiddBeta on Steam, does that count?

27. Would be nice, but my attempts haven't gotten off the ground

28. Uh... Diane Duane...?

30. Sure

32. It's got a place in the world, I don't create it

33. Don't do bad drugs people, I guess

34. Absolutely no clue what that means :)

35. Yeah

36. I only know about A03 so

38. One time I had an acquaintance read "Interplanar" and that was a good thing

39. Not really, but it provokes thought

40. Y'all don't know what this means but ;)

Samantha slammed her fist on the ancient console, two cubes of tungsten popping into existence and clattering to the stone floor.

"Why is it still falling? We sent them the materials they needed to fix this!"

Herin tilted their head in a shrug, crawling over to get a better look at the monitors.

"They've misapplied the sealing foam, they didn't have enough in the end"

Samantha groaned and covered her face with a hand

"Any change in the collision trajectory?"

"It should strike the school in 1 hour"

Samantha spun around and conjured up a radio and began to add modules and several batteries, the materials appearing out of nothing.

An LED flicked on and Samantha yelled into the microphone

"There is a space station on a collision course with the school, get out of there now!"

------

Over the school's PA a voice crackled, telling the occupants to get out, and had this message happened on a day that was not today they might have been able to listen.

This was not that day.

The Angel, her fists bloodied and with red spattered across her wings stalked across the cafeteria to the small group of people armed with various weapons one might expect to find in the apocalypse. None had proved very useful.

Behind the bloody Angel lay a demon clutching his stomach, lying in a small pool of red blood turning black. Another demon stood over him, her skin burning red and with sightless sets of yellow eyes, and behind them lay an angel with shadows clutching her neck.

"Leave us alone!" Andrew yelled brandishing a shovel

"No" the Angel said simply

Andrew disappeared and then reappeared over and over again in the act of whacking, landing blow after blow until she lashed out with a clear green energy and Andrew fell to the floor his chest slashed up

"It sounds like this blasted school is soon to be destroyed" the angel smiled, "now the question is whether you'll be in here or with me when it is."

Nobody moved

"If that's how it's-" she began before being engulfed in a stream of fire from Drake

"Quick! The windows!" He yelled straining to increase the temperature

A hail of gunfire shattered a few windows and there was a mad dash for them

A second later Drake fell, his arms scratched up heavily

The Angel darted forward after the ones who were cutting their arms and shoulders on broken glass in their haste.

"No. You. Don't" she yelled, grabbing a chubby girl by the leg and throwing her back before grabbing a boy and doing the same to him

A fist connected with her shoulder with the force of a train, sending her flying back at a wall, but before she could hit it the shadows jumped forward, catching her.

The boy who punched her punched the wall, opening a hole barely large enough to squeeze through. He winced and punched it two more times before pushing people through the wider hole.

Almost everyone was out now, besides the 4 unconscious bodies.

The Angel ran to the windows and lashed out at them as they ran, cutting their backs as if with a whip, but they had escaped.

She snarled and turned in time to see Drake patching up Andrew.

"You!" She yelled, lunging for them, but they vanished before she could reach them, the other two bodies disappearing shortly later.

She stood, fists clenched, in the middle of the ruined cafeteria. Before turning to face her .

"They'll pay later. Let's get out of here. As much as I hated this place I don't want to be destroyed with it."

The red demon lifted the bleeding demon and the shadows enveloped the other Angel and followed her out.

---

Samantha watched as the station hit the atmosphere and began to burn. Her shoulders slumped and she sat back on a chair she'd created for herself.

She crossed her arms on the desk and put her head down. Defeated.

"There's a good chance they escaped" Herin said, their animated expression glitching on their screen face. "Your radio functioned perfectly"

"Just leave me alone" she groaned "I'll find them in a bit, just let me sit here..."

Herin stared at her for a beat before crawling away to talk to the other Datans about this.

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gotyourtongue · 4 years

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c a t g o t y o u r t o n g u e ?

the question prompts several stunned blinks.

“ why the fuck would i want your tongue ? ”

( brigette lundy-paine, witch, they/them + she/her & gender neutral ) is that ( stray cat strut ) by ( stray cats ) playing? ( marjorie codere “nyx” ) must be nearby! heard folks say the ( fifty nine ) year old ( full-time meower & part-time interpersonally challenged bowling alley clerk ) was not at the letum falls thanksgiving fair because ( they were too busy flossin’ their teeth with the laces of nova’s favorite kicks ). as a result, they weren’t present during the glitch but ( aurora and nova were caught in the mayhem, so now nyx needs to figure out some way to annihilate an enemy they can’t even see. )

b a c k g r o u n d .

born in 1927 to the codere’s, a witch ‘n warlock duo who fucked with dark magic and accidentally fucked up their whole no children plan... marjorie got her name because her parents asked the first person they say in the herb aisle at letum falls’ local grocer... after she was born. sounded like margarine, which made ‘em laugh, and voila. marjorie codere was named two weeks after her birth.

the codere family was cold. townsfolk would squint at the two mysterious individuals with their quiet lil girl in tow, and their common comment was: “ those codere’s, y’know. they’d be better off as cat people. ”

just before marjorie’s third birthday, their parents got wrapped up in some messed up magical schemes, and needed to skip town. to kill two birds with one stone, they saw it as their opportunity to rid themselves of their three-year-old daughter.

the dynamic duo disappeared. but not before hexing their own child into a cat. the idea was to give her a normal cat lifespan, maybe a generous 8-10 years or so, but nope. because these two never stuck ‘round long enough, they failed to realize marjorie had inherited their gifts, and their own powers interacted with the spell, rendering them a cat with infinite lives.

this orange fluff roamed the town, before finally winning the hearts of the local thrift shop owners. they lingered in the store for years, long enough that locals would grow up, move away, visit, and still find them there. the shop owners named the cat binks.

nova caligo accidentally siphoned away the spell when she picked binks up one day, and managed to convince her grandmother to keep the cat as their own. nova and aurora renamed binks nyx and kept their secret –– now able to shift between cat and human on command, the witch lived comfortably with the caligo family.

then gramma found nyx in human form hangin’ with the twins, and their human name was born –– nicole. they absolutely hate it, but it’s close enough to nyx that they’ve been able to uphold that as a nickname instead

works as a bowling alley clerk / cashier, renting out shoes, serving soda, etc. and they struggle to be, well... interactive? they roll into shifts randomly. late. sometimes they hiss at customers. but her supervisors / coworkers ( wanted connections ) get a kick out of it.

grappling with gender identity at the moment. i mean, they spent so long as just a cat? just binks? so expressing themselves is... difficult. they kinda know they’re not 100% a girl, but... they don’t really have a comprehensive knowledge of what else they could be. haven’t opened up to many people, if at all, about it. so they’ll respond to she/her pronouns no problem. they just feel... kinda icky.

currently also discovering what crushes are? and liking girls? the heck! emotions are stupid. ew. help.

loves singing. as a cat, binks was always vocal, and that carried through to nyx, too. they’ll meow a lot in cat form and will hum / sing in human form, when they think no one’s listening.

loves shiny things. ooh, sparkly.

she is a witch but. never had proper training or anything? so sometimes she sneezes and shit appears. one time, she turned a bird she was playing with into a brick. oops.

t h e f a i r .

wasn’t at the fair because they were super busy flossin’ their teeth with the laces of nova’s favorite shoes. but they can tell whatever happened really affected the twins and therefore... it must be killed. as soon as she can, like. y’know. find it.

side note: i would love for her to be more affected by the glitch. friends who died? friends who changed? like. huh. why do you smell different –– oh wait you’re not human. hit me the heck up.

c u r r e n t c o n n e c t i o n s .

caretakers / best friends / intermittent crushes – aurora and nova caligo. living with the caligos is the first dose of compassion nyx has ever got. these three are thick as thieves and nyx would tear anyone to bits who so much as looks at ‘em funny. and... maybe they’ve got a little crush on nova. maybe.

harmless crush from afar – julia . julia comes to the bowling alley to people watch and nyx... watches... her. and julia knows something’s up with this whole nyx figure showin’ up out of the blue. no surname. no origin. no school record. sus.

shiny jewelry plug / innocent lil crush – duffy freely. it all started with a pendant sparkling in the sun, and that’s all nyx needed to get hooked. duffy’s kinda sparkly like the jewelry she makes, too. they’ve got a cute little friendship going. and nyx always forgets how to, like. function.

w a n t e d c o n n e c t i o n s .

coworkers at the bowling alley. they see nyx struggle to be a human being and maybe they know the depths of why. or maybe they just find it hilarious.

perceived threats. if you encroach on their bond with nova and aurora, watch out. this cat bites.

adventure pals. give me unlikely peeps who introduce nyx to new wonders all the time. sour patch kids. coke ‘n mentos. they missed out on an entire life, folks, so let’s... teach them some bullshit they’ll never need to actually know.

unrequited crushes. i would. love. for someone to be into nyx and nyx just be... totally oblivious. like. 100% casual, so chill, doesn’t know anything’s up. because if you’re not nose booping or forehead touching, you don’t like them. right? because that’s how it all works. ( in cat form, this doofus. )

idiot life coach. nyx needs guidance and advice, and... who better to get it from than this person? the one who clearly doesn’t have jack shit together?

someone who they met and bonded with wandering in cat form, who doesn’t know their human face. they’ve got a connection. they gave nyx snuggles and food and a warm place to stay when they wandered too far from home. their visits likely tapered off after the caligo’s took nyx in, but they still managed to sneak away now ‘n then. i’d love for this person to think nyx looks familiar but... be unable to put their finger on it.

#othqintro #intro.#let's just admire #she emphasizes the YOUR tongue... not the TONGUE #my naive lil bean

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sailor-cresselia · 5 years

Text

The Great Ex-Aid Rewatch: Episode 10

When last we saw our hero, Emu kicked his own ass by way of not being able to control Drago Knight Hunter Z. Said gashat will be referred to from here on as Drago Knight, because that title is just too danged long.

We start off with him being half-carried into CR, Asuna supporting him. He is not in a good way, almost immediately collapsing on that couch. Like, he’s bruised and bloodied, and covered in what looks like soot. It probably is, given the amount of fire that was going on back there.

Despite this, he says that he’s fine as Asuna wheels over a supply cart to start patching him up.

–––

(Also, there’s a brief segment with Kiriya, watching people being brought to the hospital, and knowing full well that this is Zero Day all over again… and he’s not gonna let that happen.)

But the virus is spreading throughout the city, and people are panicking. So Emu tries to run off, to go stop Graphite.

Even as Asuna is telling Emu that his own treatment should come first. Even as Dr. Kyotaro staggers out of the room, asking if the virus is spreading… and then asking how Emu got so many injuries.

He tries to play it off, moving the secretaries hands away. “It’s nothing. I’m fine.” Emu looks away as he’s saying this. He knows full well he’s lying, but also doesn’t want to worry anyone. Doesn’t want to worry his hero. To his visible shame, Asuna tells Hinata that Emu tried to use Drago Knight by himself.

Emu is desperate to save him, because he feels like he owes him. He’ll do whatever it takes, regardless of the risks.

Hinata’s not okay with that.

–––

Cut to the still ongoing battle of Hiiro, Taiga, and Graphite.

Hiiro is taking way more hits than either of the others on the field – mostly from Graphite, because Taiga’s way out of reach thanks to Jet Combat. But the miniguns on Jet Combat don’t discriminate, and I’m fairly certain a lot of those shots at least winged Hiiro. So, Brave is the one taking the majority of Graphites attacks, and occasional splash damage from Snipe.

And the two of them are fighting each other all the way, even actually attacking each other – Hiiro actually goes at Taiga with a fire attack to get him out of the way, so that he can be the one to take down Graphite.

A shot from the Gashacon Sparrow interrupts them.

Kamen Rider Lazer has joined the fray.

–––

Back at CR, Dr Kyotaro basically chews Emu out for thinking that only one doctor can do any work alone – there is always a team at work. He also warns Emu about knowing his limits, about not overestimating his abilities.

Emu’s basically frozen as Asuna helps the secretary back into the room.

“Some Genius Gamer I am… Going on about not losing at any game. I was just being full of myself. I never tried to trust anyone.”

Emu, hon, it’s definitely not that. Well, okay, the first part about being arrogant, yeah. Yeah, you were. But it’s not that you haven’t tried to trust anyone. It’s that the others have pretty much thrown any attempts you’ve made for the four of you to work as a team back in your face. What was happening was that you got fed up, and when the case got truly personal, you snapped. Started acting like Hiiro and Taiga. You got reckless, and not in the usual Made Of Iron/Determinator way.

–––

Meanwhile, with Graphite and the other three riders, everyone is getting their asses kicked. Taiga seems to have been pulled out of the air finally, since he’s fighting on the ground now. Graphite lands some solid hits on all three of them. This knocks Taiga down momentarily, and he drops Doremifa Beat and Gekitotsu Robots – the level three gashats he took from Hiiro and Emu in episode 8. Hiiro quickly reclaims his, and Kiriya grabs Emu’s. Taiga, being Taiga, takes great offense to this, and to Kiriya’s jab about it being better than letting him have all of them. So now the three of them are bickering about this, because they are all clearly children.

Hiiro isn’t looking too hot, actually. He’s the only one here who isn’t in level 3, and it looks like he had a harder time getting back up from the last attack by Graphite than either Kiriya or Taiga did. I mean, yeah, there’s probably a decent difference in how good their defenses are with the extra armor, but still.

But yeah. The three alleged adults are bickering, and guess what? Graphite doesn’t like to be ignored! Named attack, GO!

–––

Well, looks like everyone got kicked out of the battle stage and onto a roof. I think it’s the one Emu was on earlier, where he confronted Graphite.

…Hiiro. Hiiro, sit down. The others have the right idea. At least try to catch your breath while you blame the others for getting in your way.

To set the scene: Hiiro is staggering, leaning on a wall with one arm. Taiga is crouched, and pissed that they’re getting in his way. Kiriya is just sprawled out on the rooftop, is really sick of these guys bickering, and would really like it if everyone would just shut up for a while.

Emu approaches, apologizing for trying to do this on his own, and saying that they should be able to work together – and is promptly shot down by everyone.

Taiga, please. Quit saying you don’t want to play at being a doctor, it’s only episode 9 and we can already tell you’re lying through your teeth.

Oooh, and Taiga’s finding out that he wasn’t just pulling thoughts from nowhere, Emu really hasn’t had the compatibility surgery. I think he had only suspected it before, but now Kiriya’s said it plainly.

“How can you transform into Ex-Aid without having the compatibility surgery?”

Emu can’t answer, because he has absolutely no idea what anyone is talking about.

And Kiriya goes on – Emu’s only had one operation, the one when he was eight. Kiriya’s suggesting that maybe… maybe Emu had it performed on him then, without his knowledge by Doctor Hinata. And he’s not going to play a part in saving a guy who would do that.

–––

Okay, see, this thing here. With Kiriya accusing the secretary? I like this. He knows that nobody trusts him, but also that this is, technically, information that Hiiro at minimum can access. Secretary Hinata is the government official in charge of CR, ergo, he would know about the compatibility surgery. Hell, he might even have been the one to do it for the others.

So, with all of these aligning, it’s incredibly justified that he’d be willing to accuse the secretary. The fact that Emu has no clue what anyone is going on about only makes the situation more damning.

Of course, as we find out later, Kiriya’s technically not that far off. Emu was, technically speaking, given the ability to become a Kamen Rider 16 years ago. Well, the start of it, anyway. It was just… you know, maybe a few months earlier than they’re thinking right now.

–––

Parad is bored out his mind. They won’t be able to get any data if the doctors are just griping at each other.

Kuroto’s all like “Eh, if they don’t work out, we can just find some new users. It’s fine.”

Parad smirks. As if he’s going to let Kuroto get rid of M that easily.

Elsewhere, Graphite says that all he has to do now is wait for the outbreak.

–––

It’s nighttime. Emu sits on a rooftop, crying, because he can’t do this. He can’t convince them all to work as a team. He can’t save anyone like this.

Asuna asks him if he’s really okay with this – with just stopping.

She believes in him.

He reaches into his pocket, and pulls out his phone.

–––

Cut to Hiiro. In a hospital room. Which I’m sure is just cautionary, he came out pretty poorly in that last fight, after all. I’m sure it’s fine, the IV is just in case, there’s nothing wrong.

Anyway, his two early-show assistants are here, and he snaps at one when she says to make sure he gets some rest. Because Hiiro is an asshole.

The phone rings. It’s Hojo.

Like, Emu specifically introduces himself that way – formally and everything. He’s saying that Hiiro was right, he can’t do this. But a genius surgeon like Hiiro should be able to… so he’s going to give him Drago Knight.

–––

Daytime, probably early morning. Emu sits in stony silence on a skyway, Asuna asking if he’s really giving the Gashat to Hiiro.

Hiiro approaches, saying that Emu’s finally realized that he’s not cut out for this job, and should just hand over the gashat.

Taiga approaches, asking why the pampered little surgeon is here. After all, he’d been promised the gashat.

Kiriya approaches, wondering what’s going on. He’d been told he could have the thing!

All four of them seem to start to realize they’ve been played.

Emu’s still hunched over, until Hiiro asks what he’s planning.

His eyes flash a reddish-pink, as a breeze blows back his hair and he smirks. “If you want this so badly, you’ll have to go through me to get it. That is, unless you think you’ll lose.”

As Asuna points out to herself… he’s gotten aggressive, but a game hasn’t even started yet.

Area intern is channeling his internal competitive gamer tendencies.

(Meanwhile, the physical embodiment of his external competitive gamer tendencies watches from a distance, getting a kick out of realizing Genius Gamer M’s plan.)

Emu’s in the Drago Knight armor, which he’s still having trouble handling. There’s visual glitching every now and then, and arcs of electricity keep going across it, even as he continues to cream the other riders.

He’s taunting them, too. Don’t they feel just humiliated, losing to a mere intern? He’s practically growling. Whether that’s just a side effect of not being quite able to handle the full armor, or if he’s putting on an act, it does it’s job of aggravating the others well enough.

Though Kiriya has to admit, Emu knocking the Gekitotsu Robots gashat out of his holder by barely deflecting an attack to get behind him is well played.

They launch attacks at him, as he tells them to come at him. The Dragon armor seems to take the brunt of the attack, breaking off of him and forming back into its robot form, which they then shoot down with a trio of finishers…

And the Drago Knight gashat divides into four.

Four gashats for four players. It’s supposed to be a co-op game.

Emu, internally: Now, if we could all act like the mature adults we are supposed to be for five minutes…

Emu, externally: Time to take out Graphite.

As Emu warps everyone to the battle stage, Parad turns and walks away. “That’s how it’s going to be, then.”

–––

Holy shit, when we get to the game area? We can see that everyone is going into this battle at half health.

Yo.

I saw that Emu was at half when the dragon came off of him, but since the others were in level three, their gauges weren’t visible. But each and every one of the four doctors is at half.

When the armor divides between them, all of them going to level five, most of them start at level two. Kiriya starts at level one, because he doesn’t exactly have a choice if he wants to transform on his own. And then he’s the bike aNYWAY before he receives the Claw portion of the armor. Because of COURSE he has to be the bike before he can get limbs.

Kiriya and Poppy both think that this is pretty damned cool – though Poppy would never phrase it quite like that. Fifty-fifty odds that Kiriya thinks it’s sweet primarily because he DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A BIKE RIGHT NOW.

Then the fight begins… and yet again, half of it is the Riders bickering and shoving each other out of the way. Poppy’s a bit embarrassed, and Graphite is really sick and tired of these assholes ignoring him.

Hm. As everyone prepares their finishers – the four riders and Graphite – we get a good look at everyone’s rider gauges again. They’re all back to full. Interesting. I wonder which was the production error.

But Graphite is defeated. The armor parts pull off of the riders and reform into the dragon robot, as the Game Clear announcement plays.

(Also, Kiriya is a bike again, because this is just his life, he supposes.)

–––

On the roof, Parad picks up the Proto-Drago Knight gashat. “Nice work, Graphite.”

(‘See you in a few months.’)

He walks off, just as Poppy teleports in with her back to where he was standing.

They just missed him.

At the other end of the skyway, the four riders stand a distance apart from each other. Emu’s looking at the gashat, and then back up at the others.

Emu: ‘So, which of them is going to try and punch me for this first…?’

There’s some stoic ‘discussion’ over who should get the Gashat, and when Hiiro just goes up to take it from Emu, Poppy stops him, saying that they should all just call it a draw. They can all work as a team now, right? Right? RIGHT?

No. Sorry Emu and Poppy, but no they won’t. Because all three of the ‘senior’ riders are stubborn and refuse to see reason.

(Even though Hiiro has the most reason to be agreeable to working together. You know. Because he’s a surgeon. And we just got done going over how one person cannot perform a surgery alone.)

Everyone walks off as Poppy and Emu just wind up disappointed in all of them.

–––

Hiiro looks out over the ocean. Yes, he’s technically avenged Saki but… it feels hollow. This was never going to bring her back, after all.

–––

Back at CR, Secretary Hinata is being discharged, and says that the ministry will clean up the incident. It’s fine, because none of the infected had their cases truly break out.

(Of course, by ‘clean up’ we mean ‘cover up’, but regardless.)

He goes to thank Emu, but Emu tells him not to. He was only able to pull this off thanks to Hinata’s guidance, after all.

Emu please develop some self worth, I’m begging you.

–––

At Kuroto’s office, we find out that they’ve accumulated the data they need to move on to ‘the next stage.’

That’s the combat data acquired. Next up…

Well, we don’t know just yet, now do we?

See you next game~

––––––

Well, that’s ten episodes in the bag!

I am enjoying this so much, guys! I hecking love Ex-Aid.

–––

Last time I watched the show, I hadn’t really started writing fic yet. That was why I was watching, actually, to focus on Parad so I could write Event Flag XX.

This time around, I’m really data gathering. I’m getting all the info I can. Partly for ReUnited purposes, partly because I love knowing all I can about these shows.

And partly because a friend and I got to talking about how Ex-Aid’s advertised secondary is Brave, but… well, both Taiga and Kiriya fit the mold far better than Hiiro. In fact, there wouldn’t really be that much of a difference in the story if Hiiro wasn’t there at all.

And can you imagine how much of an uproar there would have been if the advertised secondary was written out? Like, say he had a battle that was incredibly personal. And he just… doesn’t make it out. Or maybe he does, but is just a little too injured to go on afterward.

You may have noticed the particular attention I’ve paid to Hiiro and his overall lack of polish in the fights in the past ten episodes.

Basically we accidentally a whole-ass AU and now I’m writing the whole damn show over. One of those ‘events parallel to canon except where they’re not’ deals.

It’s not nearly polished enough for publishing yet. But eventually I’ll be able to start releasing what we’ve been referring to as ‘The Hiiro-less AU’ to the public. Eventually.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still doing the liveblogs, this wasn’t just an extended sneak preview.

–––

(Highlights of what I’ve got written thus far include:

“Wow, if Emu’d just had one of his coworkers die, that’d explain a lot about how frozen he was during Dr. Pac-Man, since that takes place between episodes 10 and 11.”

“Oh shit, hey, Hanaya, wanna help me keep an eye on the Ace? I’m getting real worried about him zoning out all the time.”

“Oh shit now there’s only two of us please do not use that gashat this is not how I wanted to be the only rider around here.”

My having ZERO IDEA how to adapt the Gashat Gear Dual, because by the time it comes into play in canon, one of the gashats that it got data from hasn’t been in use for QUITE SOME TIME. However… “That sure looks like Brave… but in purple. And there’s only one gashat there, so that can’t actually be the visor from Doremifa Beat, right?”

Kenzaki being Aorider never really sat well with me, since he is alive, after all, unlike the others… but now there’s another blue rider available, isn’t there?

“Looks like the cartridge for Kamen Rider Chronicle works in these things, after all. I was hoping it would. That’ll make clearing this a whole lot easier.”

“She left the driver behind – after all, she can't use it. It’s meant for humans only. And her bugvisor is fairly distinct. …Best to cover it up, then.”)

#kamen rider ex aid #sailorcressy says #i will ride this inspiration train until it runs out of track

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throwupinyourplate · 7 years

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Exclusive: Crystal Castles reveal that new EP will be “very noisy and intense”

By Indran P • May 22, 2017 in Music

Exclusive: Crystal Castles reveal that new EP will be “very noisy and intense”

Have you ever screamed? Have you ever let out a primal, from-the-depths-of-the-soul yell that shakes the foundation of your psyche and leaves you on your knees with a storm of feelings in your head? Crystal Castles has been doing that since 2003. With its lo-fi, pitch black wall of glitch-laced shrieking sound, the Toronto duo of producer Ethan Kath and singer Alice Glass were the musical equivalent of Edvard Munch’s The Scream. But though their debut self-titled album and its follow-up Crystal Castles (II) were name-making and imitator-spawning, Kath and Glass were not philosophically static. They came of age with their focus and unraveled a musicality that evolved breathtakingly on their third album (III). After Glass’ controversial departure in 2014, Kath linked up Iowa-born singer Edith Frances, and armed with a new siren, released the band’s fourth album Amnesty (I) last year. In our chat with the pair, ahead of its upcoming show here, we found out that it doesn’t say very much – because, well, that’s what its music’s for.

(I)

It’s 5am on a Sunday morning here when our call gets patched through to Kath and Frances. We find out that they’ve just played at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival under much different conditions than their Neon Lights 2016 stint here. Back in late November last year, the pair went on at night, just after a ceaseless spell of rain, which was the perfect staging ground for its dark, brain-battering stylings. But at Coachella, the band went on in the late afternoon when the sun was at its zenith. When asked about whether the band found this odd, Ethan replies matter-of-factly, “It’s all the same; it’s about connecting with people”.

Rewind to 2008 when the first self-titled LP had come out. The band that made those 16 songs didn't sound like they wanted to ‘connect’ with you. In fact, it’s Internet lore that when asked by an interviewer about why the song “Xxzxcuzx Me” was so grating to listen to, Kath responded with, “To weed out the wimps [and] annoy the posers. We are saying, ‘We are not for you.’”

That wasn’t mere macho grandstanding. That was a warning that Crystal Castles offered something confrontationally original and new. At the time, the bright, bouncy nu rave aesthetic pioneered by the Klaxons was all the rage in the indie dance world. But with it’s frenzied mix of shoegaze, hardcore, no wave, techno, industrial and chiptune, Crystal Castles kicked down the doors of that party and blacked out the room.

There was absolutely no one making the making music then. And to this day, Kath remains alone in his singular altitude. Almost 10 years on, the impenetrable alienation evoked in “Crimewave” is still the soundtrack of the digital age. Maybe, that’s what connects us.

(II)

By the time the band’s second self-titled album slashed its way into the ether in 2010, it had acquired a rep that was as subversive as its music. This was a band whose merch once included an image of pop deity Madonna depicted with a black eye. And this straight-for-the-jugular angst coloured the world of its sophomore album in wholly new ways.

More than an update of its predecessor, Crystal Castles II was a refinement and sublimation of its ethos into an infinitely more spectacular whole. Instead of simply rehashing its serrated glitch-tronica, Kath mined from shoegaze’s constant juxtaposition of beatific transcendence and overpowering noise and surfaced with a broader, more dynamic sound. In this respect, the lead single “Celestica” is a bona fide marvel. Besides its trancey sprawl, which was the canvas upon which Glass’ sombre-yet-sublime vocals gave vent to the existential freight that band seemed to bear (and still does), there was a bass-y heft to its trebly arsenal.

When an fundamentally inaccessible band unfurls a slew of single-ready cuts without compromising on its edge, you know its got its sights set on horizons that beyond any particular niche. That’s why The Cure’s Robert Smith gets a spot on the album, covering a hit by Platinum Blonde, no less. Perhaps this is why no one should be surprised when Kath later reveals that he’s loved New Order his whole life and that his favourite song of theirs is “The Perfect Kiss”.

"Amnesty International asked me if I could contribute a song to a charity album. I told them I’d do a lot more than that; I’d rather do a whole album."

(III)

“Every time we start an album, we want fresh sounds”, Kath offers. Like everything he says to us, it’s a subtle summation of the world that informs each piece of music we inquire about. Crystal Castles’ third outing, 2012’s (III), was superlatively ‘fresh’. It was a widescreen masterpiece, crafted with a sense of precision though its wellspring was something as abstract as noise.

‘Synth-pop’ connotes a boxed-in sound that leads lesser bands to max out two albums in. But Kath and Glass escaped that fate with a distinct and devastating panache. On (III), the band’s signature of capturing panoramas of the apocalypse through a filter of reverb was twinned with a social consciousness inextricable from its makers’ hearts. Though consummately bleak, the band’s worldview now brought to bear the inescapably tangible issue of systemic oppression faced by disenfranchised groups. (III)’s cover art was the photograph of a hijab-clad mother cradling in her arms her son who was tear-gassed at a 2011 protest against the dictatorial former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Like its predecessors, (III) took place in a scorched earth, bereft of love and humanity. But rather than copping out with some vague pretense of hope, Kath and Glass affirmed their solidarity with the oppressed with an empathy both powerful and poignant. On the ravaging “Kerosene”, Glass coos emphatically, “I’ll protect you from all the things I’ve seen / And I’ll clean your wounds, rinse them with saline”. If the band’s outsider ethos’ proximity to social justice wasn’t obvious before, it was now undeniable.

(IV)

And then Glass left. Besides being old news, her departure – though regrettable – should not be the focus of how the band should be perceived now. When she knocked over Kath at a mosh pit during a gig by hardcore vets Negative Approach in 2013, Edith Frances affirmed her place as the mouthpiece of the reconfigured Crystal Castles. Three years later, the band’s fourth album Amnesty (I) was released.

“Amnesty International asked me if I could contribute a song to a charity album. I told them I’d do a lot more than that; I’d rather do a whole album”, Kath says of its genesis. Besides containing the most nakedly emotive track in the band’s body of work “Char”, it’s an enchanting display of how the its patented wall-of-teeming-noise fares when directly interrogated by its antithesis. Sugary and lilting, besides its capacity for a bloodcurdling shriek, Frances’ voice afforded Kath’s questing sounds more space to roil. This is a jumping-off point from a band famed for its leaps.

As our time with the band winds down, the pair reveals that it’s working on a new EP and that we can be assured of “hard songs”. “Amnesty was hard but this is going to be very noisy and intense. We’re very excited about it”, is all that is offered in the way of elaboration by Frances. This is proof that Crystal Castles aren’t just a constant presence but a credible one. Like its forthcoming EP, you can surely expect a compromise-free performance later this month.

Catch Crystal Castles live at *SCAPE The Ground Theatre on May 23. Tickets available at moonbeats.asia now.

Interview and images courtesy of Moonbeats Asia

Source: http://juice.com.sg/crystal-castles-reveal-new-ep-will-noisy-intense/

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mozillogames · 7 years

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Let’s Watch Over The First Year of Overwatch

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It’s odd to think that Overwatch has been out for an entire year, as of today. Well, officially out, let’s ignore all that time everyone spent in the various betas leading up to release. I think I alone spent about 100 hours in the game before it’d even come out, odd how things like that work. Regardless, Overwatch is a whole year old today, so it can probably walk and talk by now, I think. How do babies work?

Why is Overwatch turning a year old such a large deal? There have been millions of other games that have turned a year old, many of from the last year. That’s just how time passing works. For most of those games however, they’ve been resigned to be forgotten to history, left to be bundle fillers at any video game retailer. The Division came out last year, do you remember Tom Clancy’s The Division? Of course you don’t. While games like The Division and Uncharted 4 find themselves selling for the low end of £10, or less, Overwatch holds its value to this day and continues to be one of the more heavily bought items, even if there is rarely any stock of it available.

So let’s look at this first year of Overwatch and the trail it left, not like a gross slug trail though, a majestic… COOKIE TRAIL. Yes, cookies. When the game released Overwatch already had a well-established user base, mostly from this prenatal access to the game that seems to be all the rage with Blizzard. Launching with less of a bang than Heroes of the Storm, as there was no awkward and tedious launch event, Overwatch officially launched and all the servers exploded at once. Nerds, me included, played until the small hours of the night trying to be the very best, like no one ever was. The game was well received and everyone loved the game, even me!

With the eventual release of ranked Overwatch went from a delightful romp to an intense stress fueled competition, while it did lead to the normal gameplay being a lot lighter and less elitist, you’d probably be some low level scrub if you were caught playing in Quick Play. The start of ranked was a little shakey, to be honest. Not only was it delayed a bit, but the system had a lot of flaws. The coin flip method of solving ties was the main complaint that most players had, as well as just some fine tuning to the RP and reward system in general. An odd tiered system where it was reported that if you were ranked 50 or more you were in the top echelons of players, despite the ranking system going all the way up to 100.

The Summer Games event also graced Overwatch around the same time. Coinciding with the Rio Olympics, Overwatch released many new sports based skins, emotes, sprays and more. It’s sad to say that the event was met with a less positive attitude than I fear Blizzard expected. The special game mode that went alongside the event felt like an under developed Rocket League, which also suffered from a glitch or hack that allowed a rogue McCree to spawn instead and just kill everyone. The main source of community ire, however, was from the way the event lootboxes worked. The event items could only be acquired through boxes, and any duplicate event skins would go towards your gold coin count, used for purchasing items yourself. The main issue here was that event skins couldn’t be bought and any duplicate event items were ultimately worthless for the event. It all began to stink like Blizzard just wanted everyone to spend money on loot boxes.

As the event came to a close the second season of Overwatch came around. All the major upsets from the first season were gone, for the most part. In the unlikely event of a tie, you’re no longer rewarded with a waste of time, the sudden death system was reworked to work a lot better and no longer punishes fast winners with a coin flip of fate. Everything was coming up Milhouse, one might say. Confidence in the game began to rise once again as it became an increasingly stable and strong experience, they even released a new character, Ana, who managed to merge into the game seemlessly. This was further cemented with Halloween.

Overwatch’s second attempt at a seasonal event and boy did they go all out. Opting for a hoard mode defend-the-point style event, it became an incredibly fun event and, with increasing difficulties, quite a challenge if you were looking for it. The skins and relevant items that all came out felt somehow better and more well designed than the summer games ones and you could buy the skins if you had the gold built up, they were at 3x the price of normal items, but duplicates no longer felt like wasted money or time. All was well in Overwatch.

Since then it’s gone on to have more competitive seasons, continuing the stable gameplay that they settled on in season 2, and have had three more major events. Christmas, naturally, in the winter with cute festive skins and sprays for everyone, as well as the introduction of the Arcade, for those who wanted to play the game but with a few extra quirky modifiers. Sombra was finally released after a long and rather disappointing ARG, as well.

Chinese New Year saw Mei take center stage with new seasonal game modes and skins. Overwatch even went on to win numerous awards, such as Best Multiplayer at the Gaming Baftas, as well as other nominations, as well as even being one of my own games of the year, although I doubt that had any major impact on continuing to cement it in the gaming world like the other awards the game has won.

Most recently saw the release of the Uprising Event, the closest Overwatch has ever been to having any form of playable backstory. Players got to experience Tracer’s first mission with the Overwatch organization as you blasted through the streets of London as robots run riot, and it proved to be quite difficult, although a fan favorite.

Then finally we have today, well, yesterday! Overwatch’s one year anniversary! A simple party event that doesn’t exactly have any overall theme, outside of sweet dance moves, and not even any notable themed gameplay mode, however, instead, it was a wonderful time to reflect back on the year, as I have just done here, as Blizzard and Overwatch released a wonderful summary video that thanked the community for their support. The wonderful thing in all this was the inclusion of many, MANY pieces of art, animation and cosplay done by the community. It didn’t include the vast quantities of Overwatch based pornography, but that’s somewhat understandable. Instead Overwatch continues to show that it’s a game that’s based around its community. There’s a tremendous amount of communication between the player base and the developers and it shows with each new lot of patch notes. The ranking system wouldn’t have been changed so dramatically if it weren’t for the community having so much feedback, the same goes for the events and how they proceed.

That’s why it feels like such a big deal with the first birthday of Overwatch, it’s not only an outstanding game, but its strong connections to its community are what have made it such a favorite of the gaming community. Overwatch gets involved with its fans and I feel that they just want to show that. So here’s to you, Overwatch, you’re a good game.

#Overwatch #Anniversary Event #PC #Gameplay #Written Piece #Critical Critique #Look back #Tracer #Blizzard #Battle.net #Mozillo #Videogames #Video Games #Video #Let's play #Loot box opening

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