driftfleet | dreams in digital

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dreams in digital

[ Calibration Rooms ]
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ROOMS BY CHARACTER

A - C

Connor

D - F

G - I

Haggar

J - M

Lup

(last updated: 1/21/19)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Don't. You. Dare.

[If these weird mind zones are like Parlay, then he can be killed and Taako is not about that un-life at all. He flips her a double bird with both hands and starts dancing from foot to foot, trying to figure out which way she's going to come at him.]

I'll stop if you admit defeat~

[She singsongs a challenge, forgoing a particular direction and just straight-up parquoring over the damned table, using Magnus's chair as leverage. Her leg knocks the bottle over, so good thing that's still capped.]

Neve-- SHIT!

[He sees her vault over and Taako drops to his knees, scrambling under the table. He shoots through and starts running, looking around in a panic for anywhere to go. Other than the kitchen, the only other place here is that black curtained room. He's trapped otherwise, so Taako does the only thing he can think of and runs for the curtains, bursting through to the other side and hoping it isn't a wall.]

Wh- Taako--!

[Her voice calls out to him, all mirth suddenly gone from her tone, instead laced with worry and- fear? But by the time she speaks he's already on his way through, too late to stop it. As soon as he passes through the curtain the air hits him like a bucket of ice water. Cold, so cold he should be able to see his breath, though he does not. The chill permeates through every inch of this place, deeper than skin, tendrils winding through his body to find the weakest parts of him and bring them to the surface. To pull him out, to draw him in.

The room he finds himself in now isn't nearly so domestic as the kitchen. There are no decorations, no furniture, no windows or doors. Every wall is draped in that same black fabric, soft and pliant but impassable, the floor a single layer of black material, like the glass left behind by the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet. Any attempt to search beyond the room is futile- even the path he'd come in from is suddenly gone, lost in a sea of identical fabric swathes. The atmosphere of this place is also... oppressive, steeped in negative emotions: there's fear, there's anger, there's loneliness.

There's so much loneliness here.

no one comes here

no one finds me

YOU SHOULD'VE--

There's no voice, but those thoughts, those feelings, linger nonetheless, bouncing around him like a specter trapped in this place. The room is empty, save for him, a frozen chamber of isolation. Lup is, for the moment, gone from his sight, and he's trapped.]

[It isn't a wall that greets him - although as soon as that bone-deep chill hits him, he thinks it might have been. The contrast between the Starblaster kitchen and this place is so stark his brain can't register the change at first. It's dark and cold and so cold he has to wrap his arms around himself and it still doesn't ward it off. The darkness recedes as his darkvision kicks in and he realizes this room isn't just dark, it's black. It's completely made of black fabric.

His footsteps are muted, all sound cut off. Taako turns and tries to go back, but the door's gone. He pulls at the curtains, but nothing gives. It's just endless rolls of fabric everywhere and he begins to panic. He has to get back. He needs to get out of here. This isn't where he's supposed to be. The panic deepens when the emotions start to hit him and his breathing goes ragged, ripping at the curtains to no avail.]

Haha? Very funny? Okay, joke is over...

[There's no answer. Just that oppressive loneliness and anger and fear. His ears stand straight up, goosebumps forming on his arms.]

Okay! I'm done now? Let me out! Lup? Lulu!

[He knows loneliness. He knows this feeling. He hates it. He thought it was gone when he remembered Lup, when he got his sister back. Why is it back?]

Lulu!? Lup, can you hear me?! Let me out of here!

[For a little while it feels as if she isn't here, or as if she isn't coming. His calls echo through the chamber and silence is the only response he's given. Finally, though, a quiet, ethereal voice is heard at his back, wherever he isn't looking at the time.]

I don't know how.

[And just like that she's with him again, but not like before. Her body is gone, leaving only the spectral lich form, a hooded figure in a red robe standing at the edge of the room near one of the curtained walls. Skeletal hands are visible below the sleeves, and eerie, glowing red eyes peer out of the shadow of her hood, any other features half-formed and buried in the dark around them. Even with darkvision, no amount of squinting can chase it away.

It's Lup, but... too reserved to be Lup, at the same time. Too quite, too still. Even as a lich Lup is usually so full of fire and energy, moving about, playing with her magic, hovering close to people so she can have a good-natured laugh when they're startled by her ghostly presence. The lich in this room carries none of her usual body language, none of her spirited nature. Like an empty husk, it watches him blankly.]

[The longer he's in here alone, the more difficult it becomes to tamp down on that rising panic. What will happen to him if he's stuck in Lup's mind forever? Will he cease to exist? Will he go into a coma? Shit - what will happen to Lup? There has to be a way out of here, right? He's not stuck here forever, right?

And then the answer comes and Taako jumps, almost used to the silence everywhere. The voice is so familiar, but it's...not. When he sees the lich behind him, he almost feels relief until he realizes something is wrong. He'd gotten used to Lup being a lich over the years, but there was always that fear in the back of his mind of what would happen if she ever lost control. Liches were insanely powerful and very unstable. Seeing her dab right after becoming one had done wonders for Taako's nerves, but seeing her here like this?

He feels all that fear and worry come rushing back in, leaving a copper watery taste in the back of his throat. He has to be strong though, especially now. If Lup is losing herself here, then having him lose his shit will only make it worse.

Deep breath in, slow and sure, then he steps forward, hands out.]

Lulu...? Are you okay? What's going on?

[A crackle of lightning courses its way through her body, making her shudder, similar to what she'd experienced when she'd first become a lich, and just like back then it fades a moment later, though this time there's no silly dab to reassure him- only her voice again.]

You weren't supposed to be able to come here. I didn't- [Another flash of arcane energy, and she backs up a step, away from his hand.] I didn't want you to get hurt.

[A sudden wind rushes through the room, brief and brutal, carrying with it an angry howl, a scream of desperation and terror. The sound echoes, Lup's voice but... not. There's something wrong with it, something alien. She's never made a noise like that before--

nononononoNONONONONONOnonono

no one knows

where are they?

please let me go

As if summoned by the wind, faint lights glimmer at a series of points around the room, wisps of energy, not yet formed. There are five points in total, and their presence lends some light to the place, though there's nothing else to see aside from the room itself and the two of them.]

[He can't help but flinch when the lightning crackles around her. It's a bad sign, a very bad sign, and it worries him for her. How did she go from being fine in the other room to this? Where did her body go? Rather than stepping back though, he moves forward, not sure what he can do other than maybe hold her? Reassure her? Barry knew this shit better than him.

When she backs up though, he lurches to a halt, frowning.]

I'm not hurt. I'm--

[He claps his hands over his ears as an inhuman howl rips through the room carrying despair in Lup's voice. She's afraid, she's in pain, and it rips Taako's heart straight from his chest. He's only just gotten her back but it feels like he's losing her already. Panic rises in him again and he reaches for Lup, brings his hand back, then does it again, holding her hands out to her reassuringly.]

I'm not hurt, Lulu. It's okay. You're safe. I'm back, see? I'm not going anywhere.

[She doesn't move away this time, though she does... hesitate, and she doesn't reach back for him.]

You're not back. You're not. As soon as you leave here, you'll forget again, won't you?

[The lightning comes again, bolts of it shooting off her body and striking each one of the little dots of light now decorating the room, and as each hits that light becomes an object. First comes the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet, then the Umbra Staff, then the Animus Bell. Aside from the relics there is also a human skull and a paper note, folded and sealed with her kiss. They don't have the same call as the objects in the other room, but they still cast that same light, making themselves known.

The lich in the room calms again, the sparks fading, but she's trembling, the robe rippling softly in the air.]

You'll forget, and I'll be here. Like always.

[He doesn't have an answer for that. He has no idea what triggered his memory coming back in the first place, or what would take it away when he left. If that's how it is though, he doesn't want to leave. He'll stay here with her as long as it takes for them to figure this shit out and bring her back to her body and his memory back to him. They've been running from the Hunger for a century, they made the Grand Relics, they fucking survived and that's exactly what they were going to do now.

He jumps at the bolts of lightning and sees the objects form out of that spooky energy, and realizes that this? This is still a part of his sister's mind; something in her that is full of fear and uncertainty and loneliness. And it hits him like a brick wall: this must be what she's been feeling since he can't remember her.

Is this all his fault?]

You aren't. I won't. I--can't promise it, but I can... Fuck, Lulu, do you think I want to forget again? You think I won't fight back? We'll figure something out, like we always do.

[And fuck everything. Even if he gets blasted through time and space he's going to hug his godsdamned sister when she's having a bad fucking day. Taako reaches for her again, trying to grab her hand.]

I'm not going to lose you again.

...N...no... that's not what I...

[Her voice is growing increasingly torn, grief mixed with regret mixed with sorrow mixed with pure unfiltered pain, the sound reverberating through the room like the echo in a cave. It bounces off the curtains and brushes past his ears, weaves around his hands, lifts his hair. She's always had a hard time hiding how she feels, when she's a lich. The form itself is raw arcane power bound together by emotions, and just because she'd chosen joy and love as her centers doesn't mean she feels nothing else.

This place is... a collection. Ten years of sorrow and loneliness and impatience all wrapped up neatly into one angry package, and he's been thrown into the box.

When his hand touches hers, it phases right through and the chill returns tenfold; it's almost like when he touched Kravitz in the Chug & Squeeze, her body little more than the absence of warmth and tangibility. She hesitates, lingering close to him as if drawn to the heat and vitality he holds within him, then hastily backs away, instability coursing through her lich form with another jolt of lightning.]

It's not... it's not your fault. I never blamed you. And- and I'm okay. I'm okay, Taako.

[He shivers involuntarily at the sensation, but it isn't anything he can't deal with. He's been getting used to the clammy coldness that seems to cling to Kravitz, so why not this? It's a little weirder since she's not solid, but the way she lingers near him before drawing away is like she needs the contact.

This place is horrible. It drowns in its negativity, like a neverending spiral that draws every speck of light into an unseen center, funneling it through itself over and over again until it's like there's no escape. He can't imagine being in this place for more than a few hours before it drove him insane, but Taako gets the feeling Lup was here...a lot longer than that.

When she draws back, he chases after her, desperate to keep hold of her in case she somehow vanishes again. Especially since he can see that paper note out of the corner of his eye. He has a feeling he knows exactly what's written on there and with his memories freshly returned, that pain is back again as clear as the day he found it and she didn't come home that night. Or any night after that.]

How is this okay? How is any of this- [He gestures to the room around them.] -okay? You were just fine a minute ago and now you're--

[He waves both hands at her.]

What happened?

I'm fine when I'm not… here. No one comes here. No one's… supposed to. I hid it away for a reason. [She hesitates, and then repeats,] You weren't supposed to be able to come here.

[A ripple passes through her body, shaken to the very core by something unseen, and she retreats from him until her back hits the curtains and she can go no further. Despite her incorporeal nature, the fabric is impermeable, blocking her from moving beyond, until she has no choice but to face him directly. In the darkness of her hood, her face is beginning to form some definition and features, or at least the illusion of one, and she looks kind of scared. Her red eyes dart back and forth, looking anywhere but at him.]

You know what this is, don't you?

[It's not rocket science, and he's a smart guy. She knows that she can be grim on occasion but this… her heart shouldn't be this dark. She doesn't think it should, anyway.

She's growing less sure over time.]

[He might pretend to be stupid and simple to make his life easier, but Taako can figure some shit out. The red robed figured lying in a cave, Lup's strange disappearance, the Umbra Staff in the skeleton's hands, a power to eat the magic of defeated wizards, a lich being nothing but arcane power, the way the Staff acted whenever he was in danger.

The letters L U P burned into the cafeteria wall.

He'd found her. It'd been a decade of not knowing she even existed, but even so, he'd found her. If he'd known, if Fisher hadn't stolen his memory of her, he could have saved her so much sooner. Taako pulls his hands back, looking at the darkness in this room, the impenetrable wall of inescapable grief and loneliness pervading this space. It pains him to think of her trapped in a place like this. It has to haunt her nightmares even now.]

...I can guess. Y-you know that...Even if I can't remember? You can talk to me, right?

[He can't let her feel this alone ever again.]

Because, I- well, I'm still an asshole, sure, but even then I can't exactly refuse you. You know that, right?

[Of course he'd offer that. He wants to help, and she's glad for it, but at the same time it's an unintentional cruelty. More than anything, she wants to be honest with him, and this place, this fragment of her soul isn't... healthy, the way it is... but the risk is unfathomable.

He has to understand that.]

Taako... would you trust me? If you knew what I am, if you knew where I'd been while you carried the staff? Without these memories, would you still want anything to do with me?

[She chose this life- or unlife- and it's a decision she'd make again, if she were forced to. The fact that she and Barry were liches and basically got one free death each cycle had saved all of their asses a few times, until they made it to Faerun. It helped them to survive and it meant that she could still exist back home, even if it was just as a spectre, after she died. Otherwise she'd just be a corpse in a cave, and Taako might be dead, too, without her to control the Umbra Staff when he needed it most.

But the thought of telling him here, when he still doesn't trust her- the thought of him rejecting her? She can't. She can't.]

[His instant reaction is an emphatic YES because why wouldn't he trust Lup? She was the only person in his life that stuck around until the Starblaster. Even then, he'd relied on her and loved her and still loved her more than them. He'd break the world in half for her and put it back together if that's what she wanted. She's his sister, his family, his heart, so why wouldn't he say yes?

But...without those memories, without the safety that Lup provided, the assurance that she wouldn't leave, wouldn't hurt him, wouldn't betray him? He can't be so quick to jump to that conclusion, which is a realization that hurts him worse than the cold in this room. She's been reaching out this entire time and he's been treating her with suspicion and mistrust, which is how they treated everyone, sure, but never each other. It was always the two of them against the world, but without that memory of her, he'd become callous and hard and withdrawn. He is slow to trust and even slower to like people.

He'd been afraid when she'd turned into a lich, not because liches were scary, but because he was worried for her. He didn't want her to lose herself in the pursuit of a safety net to keep all of them alive. He didn't want to live in a world where his sister was dead or lost or gone forever, pulled apart by arcane energies too powerful for him to comprehend or fight. And with all of Lucretia's stories about the Red Robes being dangerous and deadly only to find out that Lup was a lich?]

I mean...

[But did that matter? Lup had been there when he woke up in the First Breath's infirmary. She'd made him laugh when they pranked the junk planet. She'd taught him how to use Fly. She'd made him that bangle. He'd bought her a Candlenights gift without saying as much. They shared clothes. He worried about her in his own way when she was upset. He brought food to her ship. He spent the days after their fight angry because he thought he'd lost someone he'd started to care about.

Even without the memories, Lup was still Lup.

Taako shrugs a little and waves his hands in the air, trying to chase away the bad air.]

I'm literally dating Death right now, so it wouldn't be that weird to have a lich as a bestie? Memories or no, Lulu. It might be awkward as fuck for awhile, but with all the other messed up shit I go through, do you think having you be a lich would be the weirdest thing I deal with?

[It's subtle, but as he says those words and waves his hand about, a waft of warm air drifts through his fingers, there and gone again. The cold is quick to rush in and drown it, but the sensation is unmistakable.

Lup hesitates, taking a small step forward, moving back again a moment later. The air coalesces around her, her form slowly gaining more features; the brightness of her eyes flickers like fire, bright and dim, bright and dim, a candle in the wind. With each tiny flare her face becomes visible before vanishing again, and the conflict between what she wants and what she fears is all too visible on her expression.]

I can't... Taako if I lost you again, I don't think...

[Tentatively she lifts a skeletal hand to her chest, pressing it over her heart as if it hurts. After another moment of hesitation, she reaches her other hand out towards him.]

[The wisp of warm air is so searingly different from the frigid air in here, that even with his attention elsewhere, he can't miss it. It's the feeling of hope taking root where there was none. It's fragile and it's small, but it's so very important. It's more like Lup, the real Lup - the heat that is her heart always so much more loving and open than his, the flame of her passions hot enough to carry them through their entire lives - and Taako wants to cling to it.

If he truly will forget in the morning, he wants it all to burn him so deeply that something in him will remember. He wants the memory of his sister to scar his psyche so he can't help but reach out to her again when they meet in the morning. He can't let her think she's alone in this. They were always outcasts, but they were never alone.]

Dummy. You never lost me.

[He reaches out for her hand, his warm fingers pressing to her skeletal ones. It's a shock of cold, but he's used to it. He can endure this and give his heat to her for once.]

Do you think I share my closet with any yahoo who shows up asking for a spare skirt? Or that I bring your dumb ship food because I accidentally made too much? When have I ever accidentally cooked anything?

[He looks up at her now, floating, daring to hope, and smiles at her in the most genuine way he can muster, trying to push the darkness in this place away.]

You've never been one to give up, Lulu. Even when it pissed me off, you always stood your ground. So I know you and me? We'll figure this out.

[A sudden thought strikes him out of nowhere, bubbling up unbidden. It isn't a memory per say, not something he can really put a finger on except to say that it's right. This is a feeling that the Taako without his memories has and he has to tell Lup.]

He wants to remember you. I want to remember you. We're gonna get through this if I have to give myself head trauma to do it.

[Nothing happens for a long, long moment; she's frozen in time, the bones of her hand almost tangible as it curls around his, their fingers entwined. Her lich form twitches, almost like a glitch or a patch of static, the room recalibrating something, triggered by the unexpected gift his words have given her. It's an alien feeling, one that the room is trying to decide whether to absorb or expel. Something that doesn't belong here, usually.

Hope.

When the tremor halts a sudden burst of fire and heat flares up around their joined hands, traveling up her arm, to her body, down each limb and towards her head. Tongues of flame surround her, burning away the robe, the shadows, the cowed nature she'd possessed since he found her here. It burns with a heat almost too intense to endure but for some reason it doesn't cause him any pain at all.

She burns away the cold. She burns so brightly that every corner, every shadow flees behind the curtains, and the items that had appeared around them are pushed outwards, as far as they can go without vanishing entirely. Soft, twinkling stars begin to appear along the surface of the black cloth, traveling up towards the ceiling. The whole room has come alive.

And Lup? Her heart is pure arcana, and she's been set on fire. And she smiles, and he can see it, now.]

Dingus, wait until we find ourselves a cleric before you go and do that. [It sound more like her again, as she was in the kitchen, rather than the scared miserable creature she was just moments ago. Her fingers tighten around his, tangible for real, now, but still with a lingering desperation in her grip.] ...Listen, it... it might be bad for a while. If this is all we get, if I remember this tomorrow, my lichy tether's gonna get fucked up for sure. I've been... kinda toeing the line for a while.

[It's not his fault, but she'd bound her soul and her sanity to their connection, and it's frayed right now, a rickety bridge across the chasm of unknown that lies between them in the waking world. She doesn't want to tell him, but he needs to know- while she can still tell him here, while it's safe to say it. While he remembers enough to understand.

She'll need his help and his patience if she's going to make it through this without losing her mind.]

I won't give up, though. I promise- I'm not going anywhere. So if you're gonna wake up remembering anything, then remember that you can trust me, okay?

[The heat is intense, like a bomb going off against his skin, flaring from him up through her and exploding through the curtained room. It's so hot it should be unbearable, but seeing her light up like the sun - like she's supposed to be, brilliant and burning - brings him such relief. The flames swirl through the room, pushing away the darkness, returning Lup to herself and Taako feels his heart swell at the sight of her smile and again at her joke.

She's back.

She clings to him and he squeezes her fingers back, the feel of her a reassurance that he didn't just fuck this up and hurt her. She told him once that she was his heart, but Taako never really got to say it back to her, never thought he'd ever need to say it. But this past decade, the life he lived without her, however false it might have been, shows him that she's as integral to him and he is to her. Without her, he'd become cold and callous, hard and uncaring. He'd leaned hard into thinking everyone was dust, even when he lived among the people. Without her, he'd been incomplete.

He listens as she warns him of the dangers. Losing her anchor - him - is going to majorly fuck her up for awhile. A frown flickers across his face before he forces it away, moving back toward a smile that's meant to reassure her even as fear starts to creep back into his mind.

If she loses it completely here, would she be able to come back? Magnus is here and Kravitz, but it isn't the same. If Barry were here, he could help, but... Taako bites his lip and nods once, decisively.]

It's not gonna be easy, Lulu. If I forget-- [Gods, the very words coming out of his mouth make him sick to his stomach. He can't bear the thought of forgetting her again. She's been ripped from him once, how could he survive a second time? How could she?] --do you have someone? Can anyone here help you? Keep you safe? I know-- I know you won't wanna come to me. But you have someone, right?

[At that, she hesitates, unsure for a long moment. Does she? Magnus is here now, he would support her through anything if she asked him, and Kravitz would surely know a way to keep her from becoming… dangerous. Even without his scythe he's been chasing down undead and necromancers and liches for gods know how long. That isn't what Taako is asking, though. He's asking how to keep her safe.

So… think, think. They've been here for a while, and she's made some solid connections, but it's also them, and they've always been bad at trusting people- it takes a long, long time for that to build. Not something they can change all at once. Those she could depend on with all of this is a pretty short list.

She frowns tightly, worried, but trying to work through it. The list is short but not empty.]

Might steal Mags for a bit. And if Kravitz can still be convinced not to kill me for this, he might have some ideas on how to contain it. Um, tell your other self not to get too jealous for borrowing your dudes, okay?

[She thinks of the tree, then, spilling out her secrets to a particular audience and then, after, that same audience helping her work through it.

Not as short a list as she would have thought. ]

I can… talk to Haggar. I think she'll understand.

[At least she hopes so.]

Don't worry about Kravitz - I think. [Taako takes a breath, threading his free hand through his hair.] I think he knows how much shit he'd be in if he ever tried to hurt you.

[Not just from Taako, but from Lup. There's that future thing going on, the part that he neither wants to ask nor Kravitz wants to tell. It's the same problem he has with Magnus. They're both from a time where...well, it seems like they know things about Taako, about Lup, about everything. And right now, that's fine. Taako knows things too, maybe not the outcome of whatever is waiting for them, but he knows the past now and has a more complete picture so it doesn't bother him.

But when he doesn't? Gods, he's been pushing Magnus away since he arrived and he realized that he spouted static the same way Lup did. It hurt and it wasn't a hurt that was going to be healed anytime soon if he forgot as soon as he left Lup's dream world.]

I'll do my best to keep from being all green-eyed jealousy monster. But uh, definitely talk to Mags, huh? I've- [He frowns, hating how his memory loss has created such a phenomenal gap between him and everyone else. He might pretend not to care about any of them, but how could he not? Over a hundred years together makes you more than friends. Taako lets out a slow heavy breath.] Fuck, I've been kinda being a jerk to him without realizing it.

[But Haggar? That's...surprising? Not really? Sort of? Taako's ears perk up at the mention and he's confused for a moment. But then again? It's not for him to judge. It's weird, sure, but Lup has always been better at making those precious connections than he has. Maybe that was why Haggar had come to his rescue after his massive fuck-up: Lup.]

And if you think she, if you think Haggar can help, go for it.

[He wishes he could help, but if he could, they wouldn't be in this mess in the first place.]

...Do whatever you need to be safe, Lup. Please, just- don't let this [Don't let me] be what breaks you, okay? I'll kick your ass if you do.

Dingus, if you weren't a jerk he would wonder what's wrong with you. [She smiles, playful, and elbows him gently. She knows what he means, so a moment after the dig she adds, more softly,] We'll have a talk. He'll understand, you know he will.

[She uses their joined hands to pull him closer again, her free hand lifting to touch his face as she presses their foreheads together, closing her eyes and just breathing in his presence for a moment. She had needed this, in her heart and soul- to be with Taako, to have him know her again, to feel their bond pull tight and strong again, the way it ought to be. They'd both been adrift and alone for far too long.]

I promise… I won't break. If the Umbra Staff couldn't do it this sure as hell won't. And… you're here. Even if you don't remember me yet, it means a lot that you're here.

Good thing I've always been an asshole then, he's probably used to it. [Taako rolls his eyes and then leans into her touch, willing to be sappy because it's just her here. No one can disturb them and he thinks they've earned a little sap all things considered. She closes her eyes, but Taako keeps his open, watching her from up close. He wonders if he can see enough of her, experience enough here in this black curtained room that he can't forget her even with the voidfish's magic reaching across the planer realities.

He hopes this leaves something behind in him like he's remembered other rooms he's been in. He wants to remember this more than anything. This is important. She's important.]

...Yeah, just- I know we don't say it a lot or like...ever? But uh...I'm sorry. If I don't remember for awhile. If-- [Taako sighs and finally closes his eyes.] If I'm an asshole to you of all people. It's hard to be...well, me when I don't have you.

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