paixaorpg | They Come Runnin' As Fast As They Can [Active/Open]

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They Come Runnin' As Fast As They Can [Active/Open]

Character(s): The Master, anyone else who needs to get the right digs to get into places (or needs an AC buff XD)
Content: The Master convinces himself to follow suit...and buy a suit.
Setting: The Glass Bonsai [G5]
Time: Mid Morning
Warnings: Terrifying creepiness. And then there's The Master.

The sectional mirror showed his every angle. It was hard for him to swallow how even the most well-tailored suit could hang off his emaciated frame. Since being kicked out restaurants and kitchens for both the newly implement dress code and his insatiable appetite cleaning out entire stocks, he had only eaten what he could find. He grew hungry more and more everyday. Still, he had to attempt and go with teh crwod for a while, if only to appear as a wolf in sheep's clothing.

"Have two left hands? Fix it right so I can actually come into stores like your stupid mayor wants me to!" he yells at the pawn shop worker, attempting to customize the recently purchased suit to his specifications. The Master ached internally, and the flashes of his life decay were being kept down as though he prevented himself from vomiting. The vomiting would honestly seem more normal at this point.

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"That's no way to treat one of the few shopkeepers that'll tolerate us," Urd's smooth voice broke through as she appeared in the mirror behind the Master. Finally in her adult form once again, she wore an elegant and revealing dress, tight in the usual places, flowing over her long legs, the sleeves parting and draping from the elbow. Glancing at the terrified shop worker, she stepped closer to the Master and gently reached out to smooth out the suit over his slight form. A slight flicker that might have been worry passed through her dark purple eyes as she felt just how emaciated he was.

"Do you mind if I make some adjustments?" she asked lightly, glancing up at him under her eyelashes as her palms rested on the lapels of the suit.

He was pleasantly surprised to see Urd in a returned state of confident femininity. The Master was always a fan of such a kind, but even Urd knew that he was not the same playboy he was once. This same callousness that had developed in his time before and during Paixao resounded in his scoff, "Tolerate? They have to tolerate us? We're the ones who got brought here unannounced."

His anger simmered to a calm when she had caressed his suit with her delicate touch. His frame was bony and stiff, but it softened under her touch. "Looking at you, I suppose I would trust your sense of style. Have at," he said, raising his arms in offering to Urd's strange manner of adventure.

"Smart man," she murmured with a smile. She began to move her hands over his torso, gently but with a sure firmness. As she did, the cloth seemed to tighten and loosen in all the necessary places, manipulated by magic to tailor to his frame. "It's not the natives who brought us here," Urd continued as she adjusted his suit. "You know that. They're clueless puppets if they're anything." She smoothed out his shoulders, her bracelets clinking together with the movement, then stepped back to eye the finished result.

"Hmm...not bad. A suit does wonders for your whole appearance." She smirked a little, moving behind him to allow him a full view of himself in the mirror. The magically tailored suit fit much better now, filling out his slender form. Still, it was obvious he wasn't healthy. No suit could fix that.

"Now that that's settled, why don't we get something to eat?" Urd took his arm with a wink, placing money for the suit on the nearest surface.

Edited 2010-08-18 00:35 (UTC)

The Master was not finished with being surprised. Not by a long a shot.

The fabric of the suit had suddenly constricted around him like a snake, but instead of devouring him, the suit felt precisely comfortable. It was the most he had felt like Harold Saxon since his visit to Halloweentown. Feeling like the former Prime Minister/ruler of the world brought his shoulders higher than they had been since his resurrection.

At the same time, the person he saw in the mirror wasn't him. It was felt like a costume more than what he was. He knew of himself as a master of disguise, but he was in a place where he didn't want to have to hide.

The very mention of a meal ached his bones with excitement. "You have no idea how hun-"

It was happening again. He ducked to one knee and a flash of blue flew over his flesh, leaving a translucent silhouette of a skeleton inside the suit. The drums grew louder instantly and the effect of his hunger made the suit feel like it was choking off his hearts.

She could feel the pulse run through him right before it happened, a rush of power that tightened his muscles and coursed just under the fabric of the suit. Urd gasped, going down with him, watching in quiet shock as the horror show of his skeleton flashed in blue light. She could not only sense the gnawing hunger in him, but also that the power revealing itself was consuming him...or so it seemed. Time Lords remained a mystery to the goddess -- every time she thought she got a handle on their elusive race, something new popped up that threw her for a loop. Like this.

Leaving him kneeling on the ground for a moment, she stood up and quickly took stock of their surroundings. Out in the open street, some of the townsfolk were milling around. Across the street, a woman was carrying a cloth sack of groceries. It wasn't much, certainly not for the ceaseless hunger the Master had to be feeling, but it was a start.

Urd shot her hand out in front of her towards the woman. "Sorry, ma'am!" she shouted. "Emergency!" The bag of groceries flew out of the woman's hands and towards the goddess, who caught it in one smooth motion. Ignoring the outraged shriek of the native, Urd went back inside the shop and crouched down to the Master and quickly shoved the bag into his view.

"Quick, eat this," she said urgently, not even certain he could hear her in his current state. The bag was mostly full of vegetables and bread, but luckily enough, there was a hefty parchment-wrapped stack of luncheon meat.

Edited 2010-08-19 18:45 (UTC)

This has never hurt as badly as it has. What is so different? Why now?

When the flashes finally stopped, it was hard to understand how badly he had troubled everyone around him. Feeling his eyes roll back into place, he peered around the room, feeling contempt for all the various peoples staring back at him. Urd was gone momentarily, but in that moment she was gone, he bit back at the hungry eyes. "Did you enjoy the show?" he screamed at those around him. His hands pressed against the temples on the side of his head, hoping to mute the drums that had drowned out the voices around him.

When Urd returned and presented the struggling Time Lord with the food, he made of a face of near disgust, as though they pity she showed him had turned his stomach. He instantly snatched the food from her hand and forced it down. When he was finished, he put his back against the mirror that had been smudged his handprints sliding down.

"You have this effect on men often?" he said through a smirk and a pant.

"I have been told I'm pretty electrifying," she quipped back easily enough, though her own smirk was tight around the edges. Still facing the Master, Urd glanced sidelong to the people observing them. Or, she noticed suddenly, desperately not observing them. Like they were afraid to notice the Master. She supposed she couldn't blame them, but a wash of frustration and her own contempt for their cowardice in general went through her.

"Time for a walk, I think." She stood, attempting to help him up as well, though under the circumstances, she wouldn't have been surprised if he fought to stand on his own. "Let's get out of here and get something decent to eat."

Edited 2010-08-19 18:52 (UTC)

There was a slight pause of hesitation when Urd offered help in getting The Master off of his hands and knees, but he eventually succumbed to give at least one hard to Urd's offer of friendship. He used the other hand against a step by the mirror to give himself leverage. When he had put his feet back in place, he shook off the cobwebs in his head and returned back to himself. "Good," he sounded off.

He began walking with her, holding a face of contempt for those around him. He slammed a pile of money onto the counter on the way out and didn't bother even looking the owner in the eye all the way to the exit.

Urd kept quiet as she walked alongside him, only pausing briefly to glance at the money he'd put down. With their money combined, the suit had been greatly overpaid for, but it wasn't worth mentioning at this point. The Master clearly had no stomach for anything resembling pity -- if she protested, insisting on paying the bill, there was a chance he'd balk completely. He was just way too unstable at this point to predict.

A few more moments of silence passed and she watched him from the corner of her eye. "So...what was that, then?" she asked casually, eyebrow raised.

The Master could feel the question coming from Urd, the concern for him producing a lead weight in his throat. He could feel the toxicity of the situation infecting him. He hated the pity, the feeling of having to be forgiven. He had it enough from The Doctor. He didn't feel like having any more of it from a woman who he thought would only be a part-time companion.

He had figured she had done enough to help keep him alive, so he also figured he could explain...

"I was dead. Doornail. But I had those who took my words and turned it into exactly what I wanted from them: a second chance. They followed my directions and resurrected me. With that, I had the opportunity to never die, to be forever immortal, even among the Time Lords. Then, the same woman who killed me turned me into this shell."

He turned in front of her to let her know the seriousness of his situation. "These moments are my life force draining away from me. My body is cashing the last of my checks. It's scary to you and to everyone else. Maybe, it's even scary for the Doctor. BUT, I AM THE MASTER!" he said, pointing as though he were dictating an entire country. "This is nothing compared to what I have already lived and died through. I have been ended and begun over and over again, and I am still here."

He was growing more and more irritated no matter what tactic Urd used. She listened attentively even as she looked ahead, her expression neutral as she took in the half-sane words of the Master, trying to piece together the truth from his fragmented sentences. She stopped short when he moved in front of her, unable to look away from the intensity of his expression. At least one of her suspicions was confirmed -- he was dying, albeit in bursts.

There was a moment of silence after his tirade as she stared at him, not in shock or horror, but in curiosity. Then she moved towards him, placing her hand flat on his chest. She leaned down and put her ear to where a heart would usually be, pulling a way with a look of surprise before moving a little more to the left...then the right. "How many hearts do you have?" she asked, moving away just as suddenly, without any segue or acknowledgment of his previous rant.

The intensity of the situation dropped harder than his heart rate when Urd pressed her head against his chest.

The fact that she hadn't concerned herself with anything else he had mentioned was almost disconcerting. However, it was her natural curiosity in his nature and being that made the act seem less selfish and absent-minded and more angelic. There was something like a child inside her own spirit and she saw past his own misfortunes from the time before she knew him. It was something he needed, even if he didn't know it right then and there. It was as though she was trying to not only make sure he stayed alive throughout this new regeneration, but she was also trying to keep his sense of identity alive in the face of being extinct.

He held up two fingers.

"Hmmm," she murmured in response, taking his arm once again and linking it with hers. She began to walk again, not with any hurry, but because she wanted to move. "That's a first for me, finding a species with two hearts. Just one more for me to break, right?" Urd grinned, her cat-like eyes shaded by the heavy-lidded glance she shot his way. "You Time Lords are an interesting race. You don't normally have the kind of power one would expect from such a grand title, but you still somehow manage to be a force unlike anything I've seen. Why haven't I heard of your kind before?"

She had no idea what he was thinking, only that he seemed to be calmer now. She'd been fascinated and drawn to him since he first appeared, first as a threat and now, she had to admit, as a friend. The Doctor wasn't exactly tight-lipped about what he was or where he came from, but she found it easier to ask this man, the apparent villain, the lost child of time.

He grinned back at her "one more for me to break" comment, but only long enough for Urd to notice he dropped it immediately afterward. The Master never felt great when his hearts hurt but even the playful flirtations by the goddess left him aching inside.

Now, the aching hurt even more when the politics of the Time Lords came into the conversation. He was in no mood to discuss the likes of them, but he also wasn't in the position to deny Urd who had just saved him from an unknown fate. "That's just like them. The whole of time and space is their child, and they're meant to be seen but not heard. They oversee everything that happens, make sure nothing goes wrong, and duck away with nothing to show for it," he explained as though the very idea of it turned his insides into a monkey's fist.

"I was meant to be different though. They had purposefully made me to be a one-size-fits-all solution. I was to be the greatest warrior the Time Lords had ever seen. Meant to fight races like Daleks and Cybermen and conquest them all until I expired. But I never did. I made sure I never had to. While ones like The Doctor meddled, I was forced to find purpose in my own life. I was forced to divert my powers to keeping myself together. And now," a brief chuckle interrupted him, "Now, I have trouble even gathering myself."

A small flash occurred again. It didn't hurt him, didn't change his expression, but his downward glance was made all the more honest by the empty look of his bared skull.

It took a surprising amount of will not to tighten her grip on his arm as the energy flashed within him. He didn't seem hurt or even bothered by it, so Urd thought it best not to comment on it...though every time she saw it happen, she could physically feel the surge of power like a vibration on her skin.

She focused instead on what he had said. "Sounds like my people," she remarked, gaze focused on pathway ahead of them. "We're meant to govern time and space as well, keeping reality in check, but we're not supposed to be in any other dimension for long or things begin to unravel. So the only other species that knew about us were the demons and lower spirits. Occasionally a human would be chosen and the Goddess Relief Office would grant them a wish, but all for the sake of order."

Urd glanced sidelong at the Master. "...you know, I was forced to find purpose in my own life, too. I wasn't what anyone in that strictly ordered world of laws expected." She smiled with an odd mixture of pride and self-deprecation as she looked ahead again. "I'm no Time Lord, but I know what it's like, being the freak in your own little circus." She burst into laughter. "And I know what it's like trying to keep yourself together, literally!"

Edited 2010-08-30 05:43 (UTC)

The Master stopped looking sullen when Urd had finished explaining the similar experience in her lifetime. Instead, he took on a look of incredulity that had started the moment she used the phrase "I know what it's like." His eyes had grown when he spoke, showing the whites again. "Oh? I wasn't aware goddesses would know what it feels to be mortal. Tell me, can you die? Do you ever hunger or want?" he asked, suddenly skeptical of Urd's abilities and status, "And if not..."

He paused as he rubbed his hands on the sides of his head and massaged away the pain of the drums.

"...how can I become like that?"

"That's not what I meant. Though anything can die," she replied after a moment of silence. "Even gods, given the right circumstances." Urd smiled apologetically at his expression of incredulity. "I had been forced into two separate beings who were both me. We were able to fix it, but for awhile, two Urds were in one body and I slowly started to forget what made me who I was." She shrugged, looking ahead again. "It's not exactly the same, I know."

She hugged his arm closer, her expression thoughtful and soft. "But we do want. Sometimes we want so much, it makes us crazy."

He felt her snug return to his side. It was hard for him to read at first, but after gaining a slight idea of the message she was sending to him through words, The Master began catching on. It troubled him greatly.

And for good reason. His last real "companion," not counting the billions of copies of himself, had shot him to death. While the means of death was his own choice as he refused to regenerate for The Doctor, the cause for it was brought upon by the frustrations of a woman deemed pet and concubine. He was a different man now, but having already experienced the scorn of a beloved, he was also more cautious.

"Telling me something?"

"You're thinking too much," she said, chuckling not unkindly. She bumped her hip against his, looking up at him with a small grin. "If I'm telling you anything, it's that goddesses aren't paragons of perfection anymore than Time Lords are." Urd also wanted to tell him that he wasn't alone, that she would be his friend even if the Doctor would warn her against him, but she could feel the shift in his mood, the odd discomfort. Best not to push.

"Ah, here we are. The Cheap Prayer. Have you been here before?" Urd released his arm and approached the door of the run-down building before them.

"Time Lords don't admit to being perfect or acting like they are," The Master scoffed, "Then again, some of us do." He offered an endearing smile, hoping the jab would pass for something humorous, even if he had been less than friendly just before their encounter. It helped ease of the tension of companions' past n his mind. It even helped with the drums. They were still there, but they had grown quieter as though the score called for a piano for a measure or two.

The Master didn't want to acknowledge how the place's title had irked him, but it still came through. "Prayer is cheap, no offense," he said with an exasperated tone. "As for this place, I've seen it, but never went in."

"No offense taken." Urd grinned at his exasperated tone and opened the door. The interior was dim, despite the brightness of the day outside. It was not a polished, pretty place inside; it was much of a shack inside as it was outside. But there was still a certain kind of charm, comfort in the ease of it all. "The gypsies run this place," she explained quietly, grabbing the Master's hand and pulling him. "Let's find a corner and get some food."

She lead them to a corner booth that had seen better day, gesturing toward a nearby waitress to serve them.

The Master was a little put off that he was brought from a place where he had to confine himself to the local costume of high class to a new place only blocks away that had the aesthetic appeal of a shanty where he had previously lived before coming to Paixao. The shack appearance hardly settled him, but the company did help. At least in a corner booth, they wouldn't be totally subject to ogling from other subjects.

As the Master made no secret of his distaste of the place, Urd chuckled softly at his reaction as they sat. "I know it's probably slumming for a Time Lord and a former mayor, but you'll have to indulge me." She sat back in the booth, fingers tracing the subtle line of her collar bone, revealed by the low collar of her dress. "As you can imagine, I'm not a fan of dressing appropriately."

The waitress, for lack of a better term, approached. As blonde and blue-eyed as the rest of Paixao's natives, she lacked the refinement and placid expression the more common townspeople possessed. She was even a bit surly as she asked the pair what they wanted. Urd leaned forward, placing her chin in her hand as she smirked at the Master. "Probably meat, huh?"

The Master took a careful note of Urd's obvious flirtation as well as comforting. "That's well and good. A fan of indulgence myself," he said with a smirk. He certainly enjoyed what he saw so far, and the fact that someone was treating him to a meal without insults or a lecture was inviting.

The Master nodded in agreement and looked to the waitress. "A plate with meat, please. All the fixings, if possible. No allergies or pickiness, so don't worry about upsetting my stomach," he said, almost sounding jovial. It was similar to the ass-kissing he had to do in order to get the Archangel network set up when he was on his way to becoming Prime Minister. He also kindly asked for their cheapest wine. All of it. He was also very thirsty.

However, while he was ordering, his hand was shaking. Slowly at first, it grew in its tremors until it seemed he could not control it. Luckily, the waitress couldn't notice. Finally, he gave in. Four taps on the table at a time, his hand become steady again. Tap tap tap tap. Tap tap tap tap.

Her chin still in her hands, Urd's gaze slid down to the Master's hand. Her face neutral, she watched it shake, a subtle movement that grew until...there it was. The four beats he always mentioned. She felt her heart clench -- if only there was a way to help him. If only she could hear those drums, find out if they were anything more than his own madness.

"Your strongest drink," she said to the waitress when it was her turn to order. When she had left, Urd glanced back to the Master. "So how did you become Mayor? You don't seem the type to do thing conventionally." She could only hope the chance to reveal more of himself would distract him enough.

Edited 2010-09-26 14:13 (UTC)

The drumbeat he produced with his fingertips slowed to a stop only moments after Urd had finally addressed him. He could feel her gaze against his skin, almost burning through the tension that had rippled through his skin. It was hard enough to feel his body stretched so thin across a needy frame, but it was all too easy in comparison against fighting off his body's wanting to expire.

"A cult of personality, you could say," he said while snatching away a cup of water for himself and chugging it down his gullet.

Urd smiled slightly, turning her head. "A vague answer that could be interpreted however I like. You are suited for politics." She glanced back to him without turning her head, the same mild, nearly serene smile curving her lips. "So what happened with Praetoris, anyway? Did you get to meet with him?" She could only hope he was still in one piece. The mayor had been fairly quiet lately.

The Master sighed through his teeth at Urd's request. "That won't do much," he sneered, "I'm not from around here, if you can recall." He recognized that she was wise enough to know, but even then, in his mind, she wasn't able to even begin comprehending the pain of his existence.

He pressed the back of his head against the wall behind him, feeling the pressure around his brain divert and part ways. It was almost relieving, if it weren't for the new pressured pain on his already fragile scalp. He even anticipated a lecture from the keen goddess and let off on his sadist relief before beginning his histories.

"My political reign was less driven by how I got elected, but how I came to power. The humans were so easy to manipulate, the work was almost already done when I came into the picture. They wanted paradise, and I gave it to them. One ruler for all people. When they denied me that, with The Doctor, I gave it to them again. One people for all rulers. I was everywhere at once and I was happy, therefore everyone was happy. Then, the parents came home and took away all the toys. They were ready to burn it all down and leave me with it, only for their stupid aspiration. I was the one who deserved it, not them. The Time Lords were nothing more than armed robbers in a king's court."

The mention of Praetoris, however, went unaddressed as he finished his perspective on meeting his elders.

Urd listened closely as he spoke, sounding to anyone listening like a raving lunatic. But reading between the lines, however tricky it was to do so when the Master was involved, happened to be something she was good at. Yet one line eluded her...one people for all rulers? What did that mean? Some kind of ethnic cleansing? He had no love for humanity, that much was true. But he seemed, if not above, apart from such petty aspirations.

The food arrived before she could ask him to elucidate. And honestly, asking for clarity from the Master would be a waste of time. She took an appreciative sip from her alcohol. "So that's why you despise the Doctor? Because he stopped you from ruling?"

The Master didn't hestitate in foregoing his manners and springing into a primal frenzy when the meat hit the table. He dug into some kind of bird and sucked down all the tendons he could in a single bite. After the legs were devoured, he immediately moved to the rest of the cooked beast, pulling apart meat from bone and sucked every scrap of it away from the skeleton. Within a minute or two, he had managed to eviscerate and consume every edible bit on the plate.

He dabbed at the sides of his mouth with a napkin in mockery. "The Doctor actually saved my life more times than I care to mention. I had once tried to destroy the entire galaxy with the both of us in it. I even was near death from the Time Lords' intervention in my plan. And he'll probably tell you that I saved his life once. And that's why I hate him so: he'll hold that over my head for the rest of time. He'll be the hero, and I'll be the foiled villain for only doing what I was made to do."

He continued sneering as he took a sip of the strong beverage before him. He smacked his tongue inside his mouth and raised his brows in approval. "That'll do nicely," he said. He brought up a glass to toast. "To...?"

So it had been a matter of pride? No...no, there was more to it than that. The Master had been painted a villain, whether he deserved it or not, and he had apparently embraced the title with vigor because no other course of action was available. The Doctor, being the Doctor, had wanted to save him. Had saved him. Urd knew at this point that pity and compassion grated on the Master.

She watched him take a drink, struggling to keep the empathy from her own expression. Maybe it was presumptuous, but she felt she could understand him a little more now. His reasoning, however flawed, was relatable. Given a bad lot in life, he wanted to use his own strength to excel anyway he could without the help or pity from beings who held themselves higher. He was no one's charity case.

"To strength," she said finally, lifting her glass as well with a smirk, even as her fist was clenched on her knee under the table. "Sometimes it's the only thing we can rely on."

Edited 2010-10-04 15:33 (UTC)

"To strength."

He clinked the rims of the glasses together, and took another deep sip, thinking about strength. The drums continued in the back of his mind, yet they still rang loud enough to disturb him. It was though he could see ripples in the strange drink.

Despite the disturbance in his mind and his spirit, he decided to make a mental commitment to letting Urd have, at least, a more charming experience than before their arrival at The Glass Bonsai.

"So, goddess, any ideas?" he asked in a more friendly tone.

The easy, friendly tone of his voice intrigued Urd. She took a drink, eyes still on him. "Any ideas about what?" she asked with a slight smile, hooded gaze trailing over his expression. "Or are you talking about Praetoris' new law?" She leaned forward, chin in her hand once more. "The ideas I have for that are works-in-progress."

The Master smiled. It was finally the point where he could prove himself. He tore off a piece of bread that was on the table next to the empty plates he had handled.

"If I wanted to know what you're doing about Praetoris, I'd just watch from afar. Besides, he's not a concern for now," he boasted, chewing quietly between his words. It took a lot to reserve his primal instincts, but he was handling it more easily with food in his belly.

"Actually, I meant for the night."

Urd drew back in surprise, her expression unguarded and open. A beat later, she smiled softly -- he was making an effort. Before her affectionate gaze made him too uncomfortable, she glanced to the side, her smile quirking into an amused smirk. "I don't really make plans," she said easily, leaning back into the booth and crossing her arms behind her head. "Why? Now that you're dressed for success and we've completed dinner, all that's left is the show."

She finally looked at him again, eyebrow raised.

"A show, eh?" The Master inquired with his tongue sliding across his teeth. He looked around the place for anybody watching them. Unfortunately, there were more than a few eyes that gazed back at him, likely because of his inauspicious behavior from the moment he came into the cafe. He felt the creepy anxiety from being seen again, just like he was when he was a wiry and worn post-Harold Saxon freak on Earth. Even if he was burnt, mutated, and left in a pile of ash, he couldn't escape the fact that he was nothing more than a problem. He was a problem to the Time Lords, a problem to humans, and a problem to himself. And there were always the damn drums.

"Perhaps another time."

"Hmmm," she hummed softly. "Rain check it is." Urd stood, pushing herself off and out of the booth after placing payment for the meal and drinks on the table. "Then I suppose this is where our little date ends." Standing in front of the Time Lord, she bent down and placed a kiss on the top of short blonde hair. "I'd say keep out of trouble, but what fun is that?"

She backed away and turned gracefully, waving over her shoulder as she made her way out of the establishment.

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They Come Runnin' As Fast As They Can [Active/Open]

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GAAAH I'M TERRIBLE :( sorry for lateness

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How do you not hate me? I am so freaking late!

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