[time to fight! the trees branches begin to descend and create sort of a shimmering barrier around delilah, a protective shield. pickles can summon a ghost, but on a 1 delilah will raise a hand and counterspell it away. however, she doesn't manage to get her shield up in time to avoid being hit with the icicle shard. it doesn't kill her, but it drives in, and there's a hiss of pain. she's not invulnerable, but she'll be difficult to damage.
geto, you're good! you can summon your smallpox deity. but even as you say the words "I'd rather not be some geezer's puppet," you feel some of your resolve crumble. It's easy enough to say that now, but you let her puppet you before. someone told you not to leave, and you don't want to abandon them, but... will that really end any differently than anything else? a world of worthless, cruel, petty people - does one person really make it worthwhile?
maybe it does, but right now, you just feel fatigue set it, a fatigue that's impossible to shake off. you've already given over control, so there's nothing left to fight for. and besides, you won't be alone. you won't ever be alone. you have delilah now.]
Will you take care of them for me, dear? Start with that one.
[she points to totty. geto, you can do whatever you want as well, but you're fighting against the group on delilah's side.
as for you totty, you don't have any powers and you aren't feeling the influence, but delilah certainly seems determined to keep you away from this place. you still feel that sense that you should turn and run, that you don't belong here, but it's emanating from her. maybe there is something you can do? you'll just have to find an opening to get near her.]
[ Welp, Geto is entering his Heto arc, because (looks at Delilah), whatever you say, beautiful.
Because it's true. He doesn't know how to live in this world, and even if he doesn't want to leave his friends (his family) behind, they're getting along just fine without him. He's the only one still drowning.
He's tired, and when he tilts his head toward the Smallpox Diety, the creature raises its hand and suddenly Todomatsu will find himself trapped in a coffin.
The curse lifts three fingers. Once it lowers all three, Todomatsu will be infected with smallpox, and slowly start dying. ]
Godsdamnit - [ alfyn doesn't know what this monster does? but now they're match for numbers, he guesses, seeing geto turn on them under delilah's control. he looks past her at those hanging in the tree, looks at her, and then - to the coffin that todomatsu is in.
they don't all know each other that well. barely, in some cases. but they're in this together, and he's not the kind of person to leave anyone to struggle alone. especially not after being alone for so long. ]
Geto, c'mon, you really gonna listen to her after what you said!? [ just. gonna run towards the smallpox deity with his axe drawn, he fuckin' guesses. ] Hang on, Tot, me and Pickles are still here!
[ While Alfyn goes to take care of the smallpox deity, Pickles goes over to where Totty is, trapped in a coffin. Can he break this? He tries biting on it, and gets out his fetch ball made of hedonism and it tries to bounce and smack the coffin, Geto, and Delilah (7). ]
[ YOU'RE GOING TO KILL ME WITH FUCKING SMALLPOX?????? AT LEAST STAB ME LIKE A MAN, JESUS CHRIST
he's going to punch and kick this coffin, or i guess maybe slash at it with his butcher knife if he's still holding it. muffled shouting can be heard from within: ]
[while this is going on, delilah is going to send a lightning bolt directly at alfyn. her aim is a little off; she's trying to strike his heart, but how it hits him exactly is up to snow. but it will strike the satchel he's carrying, hopefully making him drop it.
the hedonism ball will bounce off of delilah's tree branch shield on a 7, perhaps sending some splinters of tree bark back at the group. totty should be shielded, but geto, alfyn, and pickles can be hit however you want with shards of rotten, foul smelling wood.
how the ball affects geto and the coffin is up to spoon! also, spoon, if at any point geto wants to try and resist her influence again, let me know. he can try and shrug her off somehow, or he can simply give in to it.]
[ She's very convincing. He's pretty deep in the nihilism sauce now, and he doesn't see any point in fighting her—except to satisfy his pride, which he has a lot of.
But for now, he doesn't turn his hurt ego on resisting her, instead turning his ire on Alfyn for pointing it out. ]
Shut up. I'm not listening to her—
[ And then he gets hit in the face with a hedonism ball, which knocks him flat on his ass just in time to get a spray of rotted wood flying into his face. It leaves him winded and dizzy enough that he can't summon any more curses to go after Alfyn.
The ball can also slam into the coffin, and though it's not strong enough to shoot through the wood entirely, it damages it enough to let Totty stab through and make a small opening. So congrats on your hole! You have two fingers left. ]
[ the bolt hits him in the shoulder, too high for his heart and less deadly for it, despite still hurting like hell; but the strap of the satchel is damaged, the thing sturdy but worn leather that's been used for years, now, and it doesn't stand up to him jerking at the shock of electricity.
it rips. the satchel falls as he fumbles at the familiar pain of lightning magic.
zeph's satchel. matilda's doll. all the medicines that he's been working on for the village. every concoction that he can throw at delilah and the others alike. ]
No. [ todomatsu still has time, so he dives for it, because he needs it now, too. he doesn't even realize that he's been hit by something else until he feels a blossom of warmth and pain across one side of his face. ]
[ Pickles uses this time to try and bite around the hole of the coffin to make an even bigger hole and summons the ghost-looking thing again to try and attack Delilah (12). He's glad that the ball delayed Geto a little... ]
[ todomatsu is still in this fucking box!! cool that he managed to stab through, at least, but his follow-up blow doesn't do a whole lot, and then he doesn't want to try it again and accidentally stab pickles in the snout when he comes over to bite at the hole. so. he's just waiting, he guesses!!! ]
[please tell me what the ghost thing does! it will manage to attack her, yes. she's focused on something else in all of this. as alfyn goes for his satchel, the little doll with spill out. delilah turns and focuses on it.]
Bring that to me.
[she's going to have two of the bodies - primrose and rondo - lower down from the tree. they're just mindless thralls, but they will both shamble towards alfyn to try to steal away the satchel.
meanwhile, the bodies of charlton and marina will climb down and stand between delilah and the ghost pickles summoned. mindless thralls, but protecting delilah with their bodies if they must.]
[ One more finger folds down, and Todomatsu will probably start to feel the effects of the curse. The box starts to grow darker despite his newfound hole, and Pickles' efforts to chip away at the wood. There's a ghostly pain, not anywhere in particular on his body, but just a whisper of what's to come when the disease sinks into his body.
There's one finger left, and I'll leave it to Eric to roll/decide if Todomatsu busts out in time!
Geto, meanwhile, catches sight of his own curse, and something hits him in that moment: if he lets this curse kill Todomatsu, he will officially be a curse user. And though he'd taken lives already, something about that knowledge stops him short.
He shuts his eyes, muttering, ] I'm not listening to her.
[ He doesn't have the will to call off his curse yet, but he's going to start resisting her influence. ]
[ looking back, seeing primrose and rondo come down from the tree, along with the stranger and marina protecting this heinous woman, alfyn scrambles to gather up the satchel and its contents. he's not sure why she wants this doll, but he knows evil people by now. she'll have a reason, and it won't be great - will be terrible, probably for all of them - so she can't have it.
the only decision, then, is to man through the pain, digging out and quickly preparing one of his enfeebling concoctions. addlewort, ruinous dust - a light attack that could blind (confuse) them just as much as it can cause holy damage.
he throws it back at the thralls (17) and hopes that it can at least inconvenience delilah in some way, only warning the other three at the last second - ] Watch your eyes!
[ Pickles is trying so, so hard to free Totty from the coffin. He is biting as hard as he can to make a bigger hole. Tear off the wood. Do it before he loses someone again.
In the meantime, the ghost channels Pickles's emotions. Charlton is dead to him in both ways and Marina? Well, she's literally dead. Pickles remains largely unaffected to fighting zombies if he must, even if they look like his precious people.
The dead do not live again.
So the ghost tries to smack Charlton and Marina with its arms (7). Out of the way!! ]
[ well, with an 18, totty (i was looking at the name charlton in your tag and almost typed charlie just now help) will in fact manage to (violently) break through the coffin now that pickles has helped wear it down so i guess we won't have to worry about whether he ever got a smallpox vaccine after all.
he takes a second to catch his breath and regain his bearings, but then he's going to return to watching delilah for any kind of chance he can find while everyone's busy with this big fight scene. can he kind of duck down and sneak around the zombie tree without getting noticed to get closer to her? or is she still weirdly obsessed with him and keeping tabs? ]
[geto, the apathy still weighs heavily on you. but if you want to try to break free, you can go ahead and try to roll for it. she isn't focused on you right now, since you've been doing what you're told. so you can go ahead and try.
alfyn, you throw the concoction in their eyes. it does blind them, and more than that, radiant damage does seem to be effective on these bad boys. is it worth it, when you see part of primrose's dead face burn and melt, rondo for a moment look lost and confused and horrified?
it won't stop them for long. rondo draws is sword, which is glowing with purple necrotic energy, and tries to stab it through alfyn's chest while primrose tries to grab the doll.
the ghost strikes charlton and marina. marina stumbles and falls back, but charlton will struggle. but they're both mindless and dead; they'll continue to defend delilah and fight the ghost but if pickles allows it, the ghost will tear them both to pieces.
totty, she's preoccupied with the doll right now. she isn't paying attention to him, and he can get closer to her.]
(he's going to have nightmares about this for a very, very long time.)
grabbing the satchel with the doll up in one hand, curling it against his body with a death grip, he reaches for his axe, white knuckling it once he's gotten a hold of it. that sword is meant to carry the sacred flame, isn't it? blue and warm and protective.
this is going to hurt.
he looks away from rondo and the blade, and instead swings his axe with full force at primrose to amputate the reaching hand from his lower angle, thinking on repeat i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry as he looks up at her and all that she's suffered. (16) ]
[ Oh, good. Totty is free! And the ghost will indeed tear them into pieces. No remorse. No guilt. Pickles lightly nudges Totty's side with his snoot.
The puppy is glad that you're okay.
Well, mostly okay. Everything about this is still traumatizing. The ghost continues on so try and fight Delilah's shield (14) while Pickles picks up the poisoned knife and goes to help his own ghost. ]
[ gives him a little smile and pats him on the head before he goes (he is still not good at petting dogs.)
he'll continue toward her before he loses the opportunity, then. he doesn't actually have a plan for what the hell he's going to do if he gets there and has an opening for attack; god knows his options as the lone normie here are pretty limited. for the moment, he just grips his knife harder. ]
[ Glad that Todomatsu is free! But the Smallpox Diety is totally unharmed, so he will summon another coffin, this time closing in around Pickles for foiling his plan. Pickles can roll to dodge if he wants, so we don't have to do 20 tags of Escape The Box.
Meanwhile, Geto is trying to break free of Delilah, but it's slow going (he rolled an 11). Every time that he thinks he's found reason, motivation, and something to run toward, his thoughts get muddled and lost again.
It's frustrating, and he's tired of the corpses and the rot, so his cursed technique splits open in space again, this time a litany of cursed spirits stumbling out, their distorted cries filling the air. They're low level at least, so they'll just be attacking the three of them physically. ]
[alfyn does manage to cut off primrose's hand. she can't reach out and take the doll, and her body crumples to the ground. but that means he doesn't do anything to block rondo's sword from piercing his body. the wound immediately burns, spreading the sensation of rot and sapping his energy.
pickles, the two thralls that look like charlton and marina continue to fight. what will you do with that knife?
totty, you creep closer to delilah. she turns and sees him and starts; she hadn't sensed him creeping closer, and she looks alarmed to see him there. but she will snap her fingers and two more bodies come down from the boughs of the tree. jyushimatsu and gojo, as mindless thralls, come after him. delilah herself doesn't attempt to cast any spell on him or touch him, but the two corpse puppets will try to grab him and restrain him.
geto, you fail to resist. the compulsion is still active, and you also sense a command - stop todomatsu. get the doll. do one of those things.
you can see the puppet of rondo trying to strike down alfyn, and the puppets of gojo and, who is that, todomatsu 2? trying to stop totty. will he go after one of them, or will he attempt to break free again?]
[ The sight of Gojo—puppet or otherwise—suddenly down from the tree snaps him back to focus. Right, he has to stop Todomatsu. He can't foist that responsibility onto Gojo, or even Rondo. The Todomatsu clone can... do whatever he wants, I guess.
Leaving the curses to deal with Alfyn and Pickles, he follows after Todomatsu, intent on grabbing him from the back of his shirt to throw him on the ground, and trap him there with a foot to the chest. ]
but that's one problem taken care of, even if he yells out in pain at the second problem and will be haunted by the first. geto is going elsewhere? that's not good. and he needs to do something about the rot that's draining him - so he grits his teeth and backswings his axe with his eyes tightly closed, bringing the shorter blade around towards rondo's face/head/neck region.
[ The ghost companion disappears and Pickles scampers to dodge the coffin. He slashes at Charlton, Marina, and the low level spirits' throats with the poisoned knife and leaps, dropping the knife from his mouth, and crunching the ever loving shit out of the smallpox deity. Pickles is going to savagetown today. He hates the taste of blood and whatever else in his mouth, but this is what happens when most things don't matter anymore.
His body count rises. He wishes he could go to Alfyn, but he cannot. He will right after this if the situation doesn't change though. ]
[ well. todomatsu does indeed get yanked back and thrown to the ground, though he's also gripping a butcher knife and will make an attempt to swipe at geto's arm in the process.
he winces hard as the foot steps down on his chest; he doesn't even have a damn plan, but he's furious that his chance at getting his revenge — at doing something worthwhile — might be getting shot down just like that. he coughs, but manages to get out: ]
Well, it's sure not to turn into the vampire queen's little bitch.
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[time to fight! the trees branches begin to descend and create sort of a shimmering barrier around delilah, a protective shield. pickles can summon a ghost, but on a 1 delilah will raise a hand and counterspell it away. however, she doesn't manage to get her shield up in time to avoid being hit with the icicle shard. it doesn't kill her, but it drives in, and there's a hiss of pain. she's not invulnerable, but she'll be difficult to damage.
geto, you're good! you can summon your smallpox deity. but even as you say the words "I'd rather not be some geezer's puppet," you feel some of your resolve crumble. It's easy enough to say that now, but you let her puppet you before. someone told you not to leave, and you don't want to abandon them, but... will that really end any differently than anything else? a world of worthless, cruel, petty people - does one person really make it worthwhile?
maybe it does, but right now, you just feel fatigue set it, a fatigue that's impossible to shake off. you've already given over control, so there's nothing left to fight for. and besides, you won't be alone. you won't ever be alone. you have delilah now.]
Will you take care of them for me, dear? Start with that one.
[she points to totty. geto, you can do whatever you want as well, but you're fighting against the group on delilah's side.
as for you totty, you don't have any powers and you aren't feeling the influence, but delilah certainly seems determined to keep you away from this place. you still feel that sense that you should turn and run, that you don't belong here, but it's emanating from her. maybe there is something you can do? you'll just have to find an opening to get near her.]
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Because it's true. He doesn't know how to live in this world, and even if he doesn't want to leave his friends (his family) behind, they're getting along just fine without him. He's the only one still drowning.
He's tired, and when he tilts his head toward the Smallpox Diety, the creature raises its hand and suddenly Todomatsu will find himself trapped in a coffin.
The curse lifts three fingers. Once it lowers all three, Todomatsu will be infected with smallpox, and slowly start dying. ]
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Godsdamnit - [ alfyn doesn't know what this monster does? but now they're match for numbers, he guesses, seeing geto turn on them under delilah's control. he looks past her at those hanging in the tree, looks at her, and then - to the coffin that todomatsu is in.
they don't all know each other that well. barely, in some cases. but they're in this together, and he's not the kind of person to leave anyone to struggle alone. especially not after being alone for so long. ]
Geto, c'mon, you really gonna listen to her after what you said!? [ just. gonna run towards the smallpox deity with his axe drawn, he fuckin' guesses. ] Hang on, Tot, me and Pickles are still here!
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he's going to punch and kick this coffin, or i guess maybe slash at it with his butcher knife if he's still holding it. muffled shouting can be heard from within: ]
HEY, WHAT THE FUCK!?
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the hedonism ball will bounce off of delilah's tree branch shield on a 7, perhaps sending some splinters of tree bark back at the group. totty should be shielded, but geto, alfyn, and pickles can be hit however you want with shards of rotten, foul smelling wood.
how the ball affects geto and the coffin is up to spoon! also, spoon, if at any point geto wants to try and resist her influence again, let me know. he can try and shrug her off somehow, or he can simply give in to it.]
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But for now, he doesn't turn his hurt ego on resisting her, instead turning his ire on Alfyn for pointing it out. ]
Shut up. I'm not listening to her—
[ And then he gets hit in the face with a hedonism ball, which knocks him flat on his ass just in time to get a spray of rotted wood flying into his face. It leaves him winded and dizzy enough that he can't summon any more curses to go after Alfyn.
The ball can also slam into the coffin, and though it's not strong enough to shoot through the wood entirely, it damages it enough to let Totty stab through and make a small opening. So congrats on your hole! You have two fingers left. ]
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it rips. the satchel falls as he fumbles at the familiar pain of lightning magic.
zeph's satchel. matilda's doll. all the medicines that he's been working on for the village. every concoction that he can throw at delilah and the others alike. ]
No. [ todomatsu still has time, so he dives for it, because he needs it now, too. he doesn't even realize that he's been hit by something else until he feels a blossom of warmth and pain across one side of his face. ]
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Bring that to me.
[she's going to have two of the bodies - primrose and rondo - lower down from the tree. they're just mindless thralls, but they will both shamble towards alfyn to try to steal away the satchel.
meanwhile, the bodies of charlton and marina will climb down and stand between delilah and the ghost pickles summoned. mindless thralls, but protecting delilah with their bodies if they must.]
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There's one finger left, and I'll leave it to Eric to roll/decide if Todomatsu busts out in time!
Geto, meanwhile, catches sight of his own curse, and something hits him in that moment: if he lets this curse kill Todomatsu, he will officially be a curse user. And though he'd taken lives already, something about that knowledge stops him short.
He shuts his eyes, muttering, ] I'm not listening to her.
[ He doesn't have the will to call off his curse yet, but he's going to start resisting her influence. ]
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the only decision, then, is to man through the pain, digging out and quickly preparing one of his enfeebling concoctions. addlewort, ruinous dust - a light attack that could blind (confuse) them just as much as it can cause holy damage.
he throws it back at the thralls (17) and hopes that it can at least inconvenience delilah in some way, only warning the other three at the last second - ] Watch your eyes!
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In the meantime, the ghost channels Pickles's emotions. Charlton is dead to him in both ways and Marina? Well, she's literally dead. Pickles remains largely unaffected to fighting zombies if he must, even if they look like his precious people.
The dead do not live again.
So the ghost tries to smack Charlton and Marina with its arms (7). Out of the way!! ]
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he takes a second to catch his breath and regain his bearings, but then he's going to return to watching delilah for any kind of chance he can find while everyone's busy with this big fight scene. can he kind of duck down and sneak around the zombie tree without getting noticed to get closer to her? or is she still weirdly obsessed with him and keeping tabs? ]
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alfyn, you throw the concoction in their eyes. it does blind them, and more than that, radiant damage does seem to be effective on these bad boys. is it worth it, when you see part of primrose's dead face burn and melt, rondo for a moment look lost and confused and horrified?
it won't stop them for long. rondo draws is sword, which is glowing with purple necrotic energy, and tries to stab it through alfyn's chest while primrose tries to grab the doll.
the ghost strikes charlton and marina. marina stumbles and falls back, but charlton will struggle. but they're both mindless and dead; they'll continue to defend delilah and fight the ghost but if pickles allows it, the ghost will tear them both to pieces.
totty, she's preoccupied with the doll right now. she isn't paying attention to him, and he can get closer to her.]
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(he's going to have nightmares about this for a very, very long time.)
grabbing the satchel with the doll up in one hand, curling it against his body with a death grip, he reaches for his axe, white knuckling it once he's gotten a hold of it. that sword is meant to carry the sacred flame, isn't it? blue and warm and protective.
this is going to hurt.
he looks away from rondo and the blade, and instead swings his axe with full force at primrose to amputate the reaching hand from his lower angle, thinking on repeat i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry as he looks up at her and all that she's suffered. (16) ]
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The puppy is glad that you're okay.
Well, mostly okay. Everything about this is still traumatizing. The ghost continues on so try and fight Delilah's shield (14) while Pickles picks up the poisoned knife and goes to help his own ghost. ]
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Thanks, Pickles.
[ gives him a little smile and pats him on the head before he goes (he is still not good at petting dogs.)
he'll continue toward her before he loses the opportunity, then. he doesn't actually have a plan for what the hell he's going to do if he gets there and has an opening for attack; god knows his options as the lone normie here are pretty limited. for the moment, he just grips his knife harder. ]
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Meanwhile, Geto is trying to break free of Delilah, but it's slow going (he rolled an 11). Every time that he thinks he's found reason, motivation, and something to run toward, his thoughts get muddled and lost again.
It's frustrating, and he's tired of the corpses and the rot, so his cursed technique splits open in space again, this time a litany of cursed spirits stumbling out, their distorted cries filling the air. They're low level at least, so they'll just be attacking the three of them physically. ]
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pickles, the two thralls that look like charlton and marina continue to fight. what will you do with that knife?
totty, you creep closer to delilah. she turns and sees him and starts; she hadn't sensed him creeping closer, and she looks alarmed to see him there. but she will snap her fingers and two more bodies come down from the boughs of the tree. jyushimatsu and gojo, as mindless thralls, come after him. delilah herself doesn't attempt to cast any spell on him or touch him, but the two corpse puppets will try to grab him and restrain him.
geto, you fail to resist. the compulsion is still active, and you also sense a command - stop todomatsu. get the doll. do one of those things.
you can see the puppet of rondo trying to strike down alfyn, and the puppets of gojo and, who is that, todomatsu 2? trying to stop totty. will he go after one of them, or will he attempt to break free again?]
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Leaving the curses to deal with Alfyn and Pickles, he follows after Todomatsu, intent on grabbing him from the back of his shirt to throw him on the ground, and trap him there with a foot to the chest. ]
What's the plan, Todomatsu-san?
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this hurts.
but that's one problem taken care of, even if he yells out in pain at the second problem and will be haunted by the first. geto is going elsewhere? that's not good. and he needs to do something about the rot that's draining him - so he grits his teeth and backswings his axe with his eyes tightly closed, bringing the shorter blade around towards rondo's face/head/neck region.
that's a 3, chief. ]
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His body count rises. He wishes he could go to Alfyn, but he cannot. He will right after this if the situation doesn't change though. ]
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he winces hard as the foot steps down on his chest; he doesn't even have a damn plan, but he's furious that his chance at getting his revenge — at doing something worthwhile — might be getting shot down just like that. he coughs, but manages to get out: ]
Well, it's sure not to turn into the vampire queen's little bitch.
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