[He was lying on the couch playing a game, and the knock startles him upright in a flash. He's not expecting anyone. Who could it be? He's torn between fantasy scenarios of it being some cute neighbor girl who saw him come in earlier and decided to come "introduce herself" and nightmare scenarios of getting thrown into a van again and dragged off to some sort of CERES event he won't be able to escape for the next ten hours . . .
But he's not going to just hole up in his apartment either way. He swings his legs off the sofa and walks over to crack the door open and poke his face out.
[He has plenty of time to think about the wrong idea later, don't worry.
Right now, though, he has other things on his mind. It's Kirigiri! Kirigiri is here at his place and oh crap is everything presentable? Dammit, how messy did he leave things--
He holds up a finger, beaming at her. There's a light flush touching his cheeks.]
No no, I mean yeah, you can, oooone sec! Just lemme--ha ha--
[He doesn't close the door on her, but he turns and steps away from it to scan his apartment and make sure there's nothing . . . embarrassing in immediate sight. At least he's not rude enough to just leave her hanging there for long; a quick looksie doesn't turn up anything, so he steps back and opens the door wider, standing aside.]
Sorry 'bout that, you know how it is . . . I guess you probably don't, actually, but--ah, forget it! What kinda information?
[He's a little surprised, and blinks at her as he moves to close the door behind them--and lock it, just because. He's not nearly secure enough with this place to assume it's safe to leave open, even for a quick visit. On one hand, this sounds like official business--inasmuch as anything is official business, for his class--and while he does want to know, he's not thrilled about the prospect of serious informational meetings, that sounds boring . . .
But then again, he's kind of flattered she would actually think to come to him for one, and maybe that makes it worth it. And he does want to know.
He closes the door and leads her over to the sofa. His apartment's not huge by any means, and he has no sense of interior design; it's been furnished by someone who went through the catalogs and picked things they thought looked cool, rather than things that went together in harmony. Cool or useful, that is. A lot of what's here is stuff that Leon didn't realize he needed until he went to use it and didn't have one, so he went and added it wherever he could, in whatever style caught his eye. It's a mishmash of contemporary, industrial, and . . . tacky, that's one way of putting it. And despite all that, it's a little sparse, too, as if he has no idea what sort of thing one uses to fill the space in one's own apartment--because he doesn't, of course.
But everything's comfortable, on the other hand, because what's the point of not being comfortable at home? There's a black leather sofa that's plush and oversized, definitely big enough to sleep on (or, possibly, do more active sorts of things on). In front of it there's a coffee table on casters, some coasters, and then everything he hasn't cleaned up after himself yet: a videogame handheld, his CereVice, a drained but unrinsed coffee mug from earlier, and a photograph.
He heads that way and nods to it, and then rather than stop at the sofa himself, steps around it and into the kitchen area.]
Hey, you want anythin'? I don't drink a lot o' tea, but I've got other stuff. Coffee?
[ Kyouko takes a moment to look around his apartment, and it's decorated exactly as she'd expect Leon to decorate it. Despite the mismatched furniture and decor—and how tacky it looks together—it's not an uncomfortable apartment.
As she heads over to the couch, the photograph he has out catches her eye. She's immediately curious, wondering if it would be fine to get a closer look at is. Normally she isn't one to shy away from snooping around, but usually she only does it in case of necessity. If it were something Leon didn't want her to see, then it'd simply just be impolite to look. ]
Yeah, got it! Just a minute! So did somethin' happen?
[If she has information about ViVid, he's a little curious as to how she came upon it; he knows it was glitching recently, along with everything else, including the coffee maker he's programming right now. Even though all of that seems to have passed by now, Leon's still been wary of using it himself lately. Is Kirigiri using it? Did something happen to her? Maybe she just heard something . . .
The photo is face up, but it's on the edge of table, like he'd pushed it a bit away after whatever he was doing with it. Probably to get it out of the way of the water rings left on his coasters. It's not close enough to make out for someone sitting back on the couch, but it is close enough to get at least a glimpse of it you crane forward some.
In other words, it depends on how nosy you are.]
You didn't have any more weird ViVid stuff, right?
[ From her place on the couch, she can't see anything, so Kyouko decides to give up on trying to figure out what it's a picture of. She does wonder where he got it, though, but decides to leave any questions about that for later. ]
You may not have heard, but CERES offered a tour of their facilities earlier today. My group was able to see ViViD in its beta stage.
Oh yeah--yeah, you went to that? So it wasn't a trap or nothin'?
[He'd heard about them, and had decided against going for that very reason. After all the weird glitch stuff? No thanks! He hadn't known ViViD was involved in any of it, but he's not surprised to hear it; at least Kirigiri seems to be all right. If he'd known she was going, he might have been spending today half expecting a text from the hospital instead.
He brings the coffee around and sets two full mugs down on the table--at which point he notices the photo himself. Shit, I left that out! He grabs it and flips it face-down, kind of awkwardly. There's no graceful way to get that out of the way. But he doesn't say anything about it; he just flops down next to Kirigiri and sinks back into the sofa.
She looks okay . . . but maybe taking a longer look to make sure's a good idea.]
You okay? I thought it sounded pretty shady when it came up, so I decided not to go. Sooo . . . you went into ViViD?
[ Her eyes lingers on the photo as he flips it over, and she sends a curious glance his way. But when he brings up ViViD again, she nods. ]
Yes. We were in a group of four, and when we got to the stage, we decided to split up. Zero and I went to the town, while the others went off to find the source of a loud roar.
The town itself looked normal, from the outside. However, when we went into a building, it was completely white and unfinished. There were people inside, as well, but one passed through Zero and he almost glitched out completely.
[ Just thinking about it sends fear through Kyouko—the thought that a program a lot of people here used every day could do something like that... It was terrifying. ]
[He notices the look, and wonders if she's going to ask; when she doesn't, he's pretty relieved, though he tries not to make that obvious. It's stupid to be embarrassed to show that to Kirigiri, but--the way he looks in that picture--
Well, whatever. That's for thinking about later. This is worse than he expected it to be.
As for the ViViD talk, Leon's only kind of aware of what all of it means. He likes video games sometimes, but he's not a "gamer," per se. And he's been avoiding ViViD almost entirely--first since arriving here, then again since all the glitching out. He can only somewhat grasp all of the implications here, but it doesn't take a gamer to know they're pretty bleak.
He watches Kirigiri with a little frown.]
You mean like--thrown outta the game, or he got hurt? I heard about weird stuff happenin' with people getting hurt. That was in the real ViViD, so it'd probably be even worse in the beta . . . right? Damn, that's creepy.
It was as if his data itself was compromised. [ It's hard to explain, without being able to see it. It was almost like Zero glitched completely out of existence for a moment.
But that wasn't the only thing they felt, either. ]
The longer we stayed in that level, the harder it became to breathe. I was sure we were going to suffocate there, to be honest. My fingers were beginning to disappear at the edges as well, almost as if my data was being corrupted just by existing in ViViD.
[ Thinking back on it, it's worse than it seemed at the time. When she was in the level itself, she was so focused on getting out that she didn't have time to stop and think of the implications of her body slowly disappearing along with almost suffocating. ]
[He looks at her hands immediately--as if she might only have half of them, suddenly, and he just hadn't noticed before, and she just hadn't thought to tell him sooner. It's a silly thought, but hearing "my fingers were disappearing" doesn't exactly encourage him to be rational about this. And of course she's wearing gloves again . . . but at least they appear to be full of fingers. Not half-fingers, or anything else.
Still, that was a quick rush of adrenaline. Leon's lips tug down into a frown, and after a beat, he reaches for one of her hands. Slowly; she could pull it back if she wanted. But it's more than curiosity. He wants to feel it for himself.]
That's . . . shit. Was it just like normal when you came out? You didn't have to see a doctor or anythin'? I know some people got hurt pretty bad, but--I dunno if that was in ViViD. I thought we weren't supposed to get messed up for real in ViViD! If it was some beta test ViViD that means they totally knew it was unsafe and they just--shoved you guys into it anyway!
[ She's surprised when he takes her hand, her eyebrows going up a little. But she doesn't pull away, watching him carefully instead. ]
I was concerned that the effects were going to carry over once we got out. The moment we left, though, all of us were breathing normally and our data was back to normal. [ It still doesn't erase the fact that it had happened while in ViViD in the first place, though. ]
It has made me wonder if ViViD may possibly be more dangerous than we think.
It's these assholes who got us here who're dangerous.
[He looks up at her face, briefly, glowering. But then he frowns down at her hand again, holding it carefully in his. Holding hands with Kirigiri, huh . . .
But this isn't that. He's done that with plenty of girls before, and there's no way to mistake that for this: he rests her hand on his upturned palm, and then gently pinches her index finger between his other finger and thumb. When the finger feels normal--so far as he can tell under the glove--he's relieved, along with feeling kind of silly for even checking, and lets out a little sigh.
It'd just been weird not to be able to see for sure that she was okay.]
[Unfortunately for her, Leon is. It keeps slipping his mind how deprived he's been of contact until he gets some, and then it's like a tiny jab to the gut; how long since he's hugged anyone? Put an arm around a friend? Touched hair? Rested his head in a girl's lap? He lets go of Kirigiri's hand, but not before briefly, gently squeezing it between both of his, because he just can't help himself.]
Yeah, or feel, I guess. Don't worry, I ain't gonna touch your lungs though.
[ Her eyes dart up at him at the squeeze, confused by it. ]
Good. I wouldn't want to have to pay for your hospital bills. [ She says it with a smile, even though her tone sounds serious. But no need to worry, it's a joke. Mostly. ]
[He's definitely kidding, though. His interest in physical altercations with his classmates is even more in the negative than it was back at Hope's Peak, maybe not surprisingly.
(But he's sure he could totally take her.)
He does feel a little better at the joke, though, sitting back with his hands on his knees.]
You're really okay, huh . . . I mean, you seem fine. You really freaked me out with that stuff! I owe someone in CERES an ass-kicking for makin' you go through that!
[Of course Kirigiri's way of processing this stuff is probably for the best anyway; it's not like Leon can do much for her except offer her a seat, some company, and something to drink. It was all virtual anyway! She seems fine, all things considered. But it's definitely disturbing to hear, and Leon's pretty impressed--and maybe a little confused--that she's so easily able to put it aside and focus.]
But yeah, no kiddin'. The whole thing already kinda weirded me out, but this is way beyond that! Even if that was a beta thing, that means they could just--do that to us whenever they wanted, right? Make us disappear . . .
[ It's true, she doesn't focus on herself. Not when she has things she needs to figure out. It's easier to focus on other things, anyway. ]
I believe so. They brought us into this world and they can take us out, as they say.
[ She crosses her arms. ] I plan to find out just what they're aiming for. They told us they want us to aid in the fight against the Flamines, but I'm beginning to doubt that. [ Actually, she doubted it from the beginning, but her doubts are getting stronger. ] I wonder why they haven't had us do anything yet, if they need our help so badly.
[He's been suspicious of that since the beginning himself, and every day that passes the way these days have passed just makes him more sure of it. There's a building frustration with everything happening here that he can't easily get out; sometimes he thinks about trying ViViD again, working off some aggression that way, but how can he do that when things like this are happening? Even ViViD's suspicious!
He could probably stand to throw a few pitches. Ugh . . .
He tips back against the couch dramatically.]
None of it makes any sense! It's supposed to be like we live our lives normally to give 'em chance to work on the code, or whatever, right? But then why do they keep fucking up our lives? It's all wrong! Do they think we're stupid?!
[ What if they've been lying to them about their worlds being destroyed too, and everyone just went along with it? That'd be enough reason for CERES to think they're all stupid, in Kyouko's opinion. ]
They may just find sending us into chaos entertaining. [ It isn't beyond the realm of possibility, after all. Kyouko and Leon both know someone who's done that just for the sake of entertainment. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
action; 1/26 IC really backdated sorry!
She doesn't have a whole lot of information to share but at least it's something, right? ]
NO PROBLEM o>!!
[He was lying on the couch playing a game, and the knock startles him upright in a flash. He's not expecting anyone. Who could it be? He's torn between fantasy scenarios of it being some cute neighbor girl who saw him come in earlier and decided to come "introduce herself" and nightmare scenarios of getting thrown into a van again and dragged off to some sort of CERES event he won't be able to escape for the next ten hours . . .
But he's not going to just hole up in his apartment either way. He swings his legs off the sofa and walks over to crack the door open and poke his face out.
Oh. It was a cute neighbor girl after all.]
--Kirigiri?
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[ And so he doesn't get the wrong idea— ]
I have information you might be interested in.
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Right now, though, he has other things on his mind. It's Kirigiri! Kirigiri is here at his place and oh crap is everything presentable? Dammit, how messy did he leave things--
He holds up a finger, beaming at her. There's a light flush touching his cheeks.]
No no, I mean yeah, you can, oooone sec! Just lemme--ha ha--
[He doesn't close the door on her, but he turns and steps away from it to scan his apartment and make sure there's nothing . . . embarrassing in immediate sight. At least he's not rude enough to just leave her hanging there for long; a quick looksie doesn't turn up anything, so he steps back and opens the door wider, standing aside.]
Sorry 'bout that, you know how it is . . . I guess you probably don't, actually, but--ah, forget it! What kinda information?
[Right, information. Information. It's probably important.]
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It's about ViViD. It isn't much, but you want to know more about this world as well, so I thought I may as well share it with you.
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[He's a little surprised, and blinks at her as he moves to close the door behind them--and lock it, just because. He's not nearly secure enough with this place to assume it's safe to leave open, even for a quick visit. On one hand, this sounds like official business--inasmuch as anything is official business, for his class--and while he does want to know, he's not thrilled about the prospect of serious informational meetings, that sounds boring . . .
But then again, he's kind of flattered she would actually think to come to him for one, and maybe that makes it worth it. And he does want to know.
He closes the door and leads her over to the sofa. His apartment's not huge by any means, and he has no sense of interior design; it's been furnished by someone who went through the catalogs and picked things they thought looked cool, rather than things that went together in harmony. Cool or useful, that is. A lot of what's here is stuff that Leon didn't realize he needed until he went to use it and didn't have one, so he went and added it wherever he could, in whatever style caught his eye. It's a mishmash of contemporary, industrial, and . . . tacky, that's one way of putting it. And despite all that, it's a little sparse, too, as if he has no idea what sort of thing one uses to fill the space in one's own apartment--because he doesn't, of course.
But everything's comfortable, on the other hand, because what's the point of not being comfortable at home? There's a black leather sofa that's plush and oversized, definitely big enough to sleep on (or, possibly, do more active sorts of things on). In front of it there's a coffee table on casters, some coasters, and then everything he hasn't cleaned up after himself yet: a videogame handheld, his CereVice, a drained but unrinsed coffee mug from earlier, and a photograph.
He heads that way and nods to it, and then rather than stop at the sofa himself, steps around it and into the kitchen area.]
Hey, you want anythin'? I don't drink a lot o' tea, but I've got other stuff. Coffee?
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[ Kyouko takes a moment to look around his apartment, and it's decorated exactly as she'd expect Leon to decorate it. Despite the mismatched furniture and decor—and how tacky it looks together—it's not an uncomfortable apartment.
As she heads over to the couch, the photograph he has out catches her eye. She's immediately curious, wondering if it would be fine to get a closer look at is. Normally she isn't one to shy away from snooping around, but usually she only does it in case of necessity. If it were something Leon didn't want her to see, then it'd simply just be impolite to look. ]
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[If she has information about ViVid, he's a little curious as to how she came upon it; he knows it was glitching recently, along with everything else, including the coffee maker he's programming right now. Even though all of that seems to have passed by now, Leon's still been wary of using it himself lately. Is Kirigiri using it? Did something happen to her? Maybe she just heard something . . .
The photo is face up, but it's on the edge of table, like he'd pushed it a bit away after whatever he was doing with it. Probably to get it out of the way of the water rings left on his coasters. It's not close enough to make out for someone sitting back on the couch, but it is close enough to get at least a glimpse of it you crane forward some.
In other words, it depends on how nosy you are.]
You didn't have any more weird ViVid stuff, right?
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You may not have heard, but CERES offered a tour of their facilities earlier today. My group was able to see ViViD in its beta stage.
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[He'd heard about them, and had decided against going for that very reason. After all the weird glitch stuff? No thanks! He hadn't known ViViD was involved in any of it, but he's not surprised to hear it; at least Kirigiri seems to be all right. If he'd known she was going, he might have been spending today half expecting a text from the hospital instead.
He brings the coffee around and sets two full mugs down on the table--at which point he notices the photo himself. Shit, I left that out! He grabs it and flips it face-down, kind of awkwardly. There's no graceful way to get that out of the way. But he doesn't say anything about it; he just flops down next to Kirigiri and sinks back into the sofa.
She looks okay . . . but maybe taking a longer look to make sure's a good idea.]
You okay? I thought it sounded pretty shady when it came up, so I decided not to go. Sooo . . . you went into ViViD?
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Yes. We were in a group of four, and when we got to the stage, we decided to split up. Zero and I went to the town, while the others went off to find the source of a loud roar.
The town itself looked normal, from the outside. However, when we went into a building, it was completely white and unfinished. There were people inside, as well, but one passed through Zero and he almost glitched out completely.
[ Just thinking about it sends fear through Kyouko—the thought that a program a lot of people here used every day could do something like that... It was terrifying. ]
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Well, whatever. That's for thinking about later. This is worse than he expected it to be.
As for the ViViD talk, Leon's only kind of aware of what all of it means. He likes video games sometimes, but he's not a "gamer," per se. And he's been avoiding ViViD almost entirely--first since arriving here, then again since all the glitching out. He can only somewhat grasp all of the implications here, but it doesn't take a gamer to know they're pretty bleak.
He watches Kirigiri with a little frown.]
You mean like--thrown outta the game, or he got hurt? I heard about weird stuff happenin' with people getting hurt. That was in the real ViViD, so it'd probably be even worse in the beta . . . right? Damn, that's creepy.
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But that wasn't the only thing they felt, either. ]
The longer we stayed in that level, the harder it became to breathe. I was sure we were going to suffocate there, to be honest. My fingers were beginning to disappear at the edges as well, almost as if my data was being corrupted just by existing in ViViD.
[ Thinking back on it, it's worse than it seemed at the time. When she was in the level itself, she was so focused on getting out that she didn't have time to stop and think of the implications of her body slowly disappearing along with almost suffocating. ]
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[He looks at her hands immediately--as if she might only have half of them, suddenly, and he just hadn't noticed before, and she just hadn't thought to tell him sooner. It's a silly thought, but hearing "my fingers were disappearing" doesn't exactly encourage him to be rational about this. And of course she's wearing gloves again . . . but at least they appear to be full of fingers. Not half-fingers, or anything else.
Still, that was a quick rush of adrenaline. Leon's lips tug down into a frown, and after a beat, he reaches for one of her hands. Slowly; she could pull it back if she wanted. But it's more than curiosity. He wants to feel it for himself.]
That's . . . shit. Was it just like normal when you came out? You didn't have to see a doctor or anythin'? I know some people got hurt pretty bad, but--I dunno if that was in ViViD. I thought we weren't supposed to get messed up for real in ViViD! If it was some beta test ViViD that means they totally knew it was unsafe and they just--shoved you guys into it anyway!
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I was concerned that the effects were going to carry over once we got out. The moment we left, though, all of us were breathing normally and our data was back to normal. [ It still doesn't erase the fact that it had happened while in ViViD in the first place, though. ]
It has made me wonder if ViViD may possibly be more dangerous than we think.
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[He looks up at her face, briefly, glowering. But then he frowns down at her hand again, holding it carefully in his. Holding hands with Kirigiri, huh . . .
But this isn't that. He's done that with plenty of girls before, and there's no way to mistake that for this: he rests her hand on his upturned palm, and then gently pinches her index finger between his other finger and thumb. When the finger feels normal--so far as he can tell under the glove--he's relieved, along with feeling kind of silly for even checking, and lets out a little sigh.
It'd just been weird not to be able to see for sure that she was okay.]
Heh . . . guess you're all here.
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Yes. I suppose you needed to see for yourself, correct?
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Yeah, or feel, I guess. Don't worry, I ain't gonna touch your lungs though.
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Good. I wouldn't want to have to pay for your hospital bills. [ She says it with a smile, even though her tone sounds serious. But no need to worry, it's a joke. Mostly. ]
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[He's definitely kidding, though. His interest in physical altercations with his classmates is even more in the negative than it was back at Hope's Peak, maybe not surprisingly.
(But he's sure he could totally take her.)
He does feel a little better at the joke, though, sitting back with his hands on his knees.]
You're really okay, huh . . . I mean, you seem fine. You really freaked me out with that stuff! I owe someone in CERES an ass-kicking for makin' you go through that!
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[ She appreciates the sentiment, though. Despite having a rocky start when he first got here, they seem to be on stable ground for now, at least. ]
For now we should focus on processing this information. ViViD has the potential to be dangerous, that's for sure.
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[Of course Kirigiri's way of processing this stuff is probably for the best anyway; it's not like Leon can do much for her except offer her a seat, some company, and something to drink. It was all virtual anyway! She seems fine, all things considered. But it's definitely disturbing to hear, and Leon's pretty impressed--and maybe a little confused--that she's so easily able to put it aside and focus.]
But yeah, no kiddin'. The whole thing already kinda weirded me out, but this is way beyond that! Even if that was a beta thing, that means they could just--do that to us whenever they wanted, right? Make us disappear . . .
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I believe so. They brought us into this world and they can take us out, as they say.
[ She crosses her arms. ] I plan to find out just what they're aiming for. They told us they want us to aid in the fight against the Flamines, but I'm beginning to doubt that. [ Actually, she doubted it from the beginning, but her doubts are getting stronger. ] I wonder why they haven't had us do anything yet, if they need our help so badly.
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[He's been suspicious of that since the beginning himself, and every day that passes the way these days have passed just makes him more sure of it. There's a building frustration with everything happening here that he can't easily get out; sometimes he thinks about trying ViViD again, working off some aggression that way, but how can he do that when things like this are happening? Even ViViD's suspicious!
He could probably stand to throw a few pitches. Ugh . . .
He tips back against the couch dramatically.]
None of it makes any sense! It's supposed to be like we live our lives normally to give 'em chance to work on the code, or whatever, right? But then why do they keep fucking up our lives? It's all wrong! Do they think we're stupid?!
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[ What if they've been lying to them about their worlds being destroyed too, and everyone just went along with it? That'd be enough reason for CERES to think they're all stupid, in Kyouko's opinion. ]
They may just find sending us into chaos entertaining. [ It isn't beyond the realm of possibility, after all. Kyouko and Leon both know someone who's done that just for the sake of entertainment. ]
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