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October-November 2024 Test Drive Meme
October-November 2024 Test Drive
Introduction
Welcome to Folkmore's monthly Test Drive Meme! Please feel free to test drive any and all characters regardless of your intent to apply or whether you have an invite or not. All TDMs are game canon and work like "mini-events". For new players and characters, you can choose to have your TDM thread be your introduction thread upon acceptance or start fresh. Current players are also allowed to have in-game characters post to the TDM so long as they mark their top levels ‘Current Character.’
TDM threads can be used for spoon spending at any time by characters accepted into the game.
Playing and interacting with the TDMs will allow characters to immediately obtain canon items from homes especially weapons or other things they may have had on their person when they were pulled from their worlds! There will always be a prompt that provides some sort of "reward" to characters who complete certain tasks.
🦊 New Star Children meet the Fox still in their worlds, and she brings them into the new realm of Folkmore. As you follow her, your body begins to change and new characteristics emerge. These may stay for a while, or perhaps they will hide away after. And during all of this, the Fox explains to you where you will be going: to Folkmore. Then you fall like a shooting star, falling to the land in a burst of starlight.
🦊 Experienced Star Children are already familiar with this time of the month. There are shooting stars all across the sky, and some fall to the land, which means the Fox has brought new arrivals. These newly arrived Star Children will face some tests, but Thirteen wants the more seasoned residents to participate as well.
Content Warnings: Natural Disaster/Natural Disaster Relief
It seems as if the Star Children will be restricted to Amrita Academy forever, when nothing changes at the one month mark. Yet, after another week has stretched endlessly past, a morning dawns to show that the moat of Lorasses has vanished. The way is clear to discover what the chaotic storms have left behind.
Most of Folkmore's resident spirits return. Good thing Catbus is among them because the train is not operating. Debris litters the tracks throughout the land. Someone's going to have to work to clean all of that up before normal schedules can resume... within the first week or so, everyone fervently hopes.
That is far from the only wreckage from those storms. As Star Children have seen, even Amrita Academy hasn't really been spared; between the Lorasses moat and the various structures built to weather the storms, the past weeks have left a mark on the school.
The rest of Willow shows signs of extreme growth and age, as if decades, not weeks, have passed. Epiphany and Tides suffer major flood damage, and Exile is entirely soggy and saturated with a sense of sorrow. Avalanche debris covers Wintermute, and the mountains aren't in the same place. Cruel Summer is even dryer, cracked, and in part of it littered with exploded, partially melted robot parts. Never Fade may be the best off; the ground has leveled off, and only the unsecured outdoor items have crashed around or dropped off the island. In general, all regions show signs of warping.
Talaria has been outright knocked down (once again) and will need to be rebuilt (once again). The contents of Talarian homes have been thriftily saved by Thirteen (yet again). They'll be back as soon as the homes are ready to be redecorated! There's also a new elevator connecting Tides to a platform in the ocean at surface level, making it a little bit easier to get in or out of the neighborhood. Fly, swim, or use a boat from Nereid marina to reach it.
Many of the buildings throughout Folkmore, businesses and residences alike, have been damaged, some past the point of habitability. For better or worse, some residences will wait unclaimed, as their resident spirits have not returned from wherever they went while gone from Folkmore. Newly arriving Star Children (or those interested in relocating) just might find those residences awfully appealing. As with all unoccupied homes in Folkmore, they're free real estate.
Each neighborhood has a new (and structurally-sound) building near its center: a hospitality station of sorts, stocked with basic foods (to suit a variety of dietary needs, relevant to the known local residents), clean water, personal protective equipment, basic tool kits, fresh clothing, and clean linens. For those ill equipped to cook for themselves for whatever reason, there's also a canteen/soup kitchen area. The canteen tends to collect idle spirits and Star Children who might be willing to assist with any cleanup tasks too big or too complex for one person to tackle on their own.
Working with the neighbors has an additional benefit, of course: sooner or later, whether while helping clear the train tracks or fixing up someone's home or business (including a Star Child's own), shifting the debris will reveal a weathered container of some sort, locked up tight, that will only fall open at a touch if and when the right Star Child finds it. There is only one chest per Star Child. Inside, is an item from home, either that of the resident whose house/business it's found in or the one keyed to the lock. It may even be a magical item or weapon.
There's some good news as well, in the midst of all the chaos: most Star Children will find that their homes are wholly unharmed; their pets, companions, Pokémon, etc. are all hale and hearty, having spent the entire time cozily asleep in their boxfoxes — which can be reused if kept, and just as easily abandoned now that they've released their occupants.
It seems as if the Star Children will be restricted to Amrita Academy forever, when nothing changes at the one month mark. Yet, after another week has stretched endlessly past, a morning dawns to show that the moat of Lorasses has vanished. The way is clear to discover what the chaotic storms have left behind.
Most of Folkmore's resident spirits return. Good thing Catbus is among them because the train is not operating. Debris litters the tracks throughout the land. Someone's going to have to work to clean all of that up before normal schedules can resume... within the first week or so, everyone fervently hopes.
That is far from the only wreckage from those storms. As Star Children have seen, even Amrita Academy hasn't really been spared; between the Lorasses moat and the various structures built to weather the storms, the past weeks have left a mark on the school.
Other regions show clear signs of the warping they have endured similarly.
- Wintermute alternated between blinding light and pitch blackness, with mountains growing and crumbling away alike. Cabins were transformed into igloos.
- Willow experienced all the seasons in a matter of days multiple times, growing crops and new trees, losing old ones, and its buildings weathered as though through decades.
- In Epiphany, the streets ran with water so high it was difficult to walk, and the buildings shifted to reflect related settings.
- Cruel Summer grew hotter and more oppressive, so that survival away from the Selkie River was impossible. On the 13th, there was an explosion, and it rained robot parts.
- Exile was swallowed entirely by the Swamp of Sorrows, leaving no dry land.
- Tides filled with water, dark deep water that could not readily be seen through.
- Never Fade became even more purple, with a thick haze that erased visibilty of borders. It also became steeper, so there was no flat ground.
The rest of Willow shows signs of extreme growth and age, as if decades, not weeks, have passed. Epiphany and Tides suffer major flood damage, and Exile is entirely soggy and saturated with a sense of sorrow. Avalanche debris covers Wintermute, and the mountains aren't in the same place. Cruel Summer is even dryer, cracked, and in part of it littered with exploded, partially melted robot parts. Never Fade may be the best off; the ground has leveled off, and only the unsecured outdoor items have crashed around or dropped off the island. In general, all regions show signs of warping.
Talaria has been outright knocked down (once again) and will need to be rebuilt (once again). The contents of Talarian homes have been thriftily saved by Thirteen (yet again). They'll be back as soon as the homes are ready to be redecorated! There's also a new elevator connecting Tides to a platform in the ocean at surface level, making it a little bit easier to get in or out of the neighborhood. Fly, swim, or use a boat from Nereid marina to reach it.
Many of the buildings throughout Folkmore, businesses and residences alike, have been damaged, some past the point of habitability. For better or worse, some residences will wait unclaimed, as their resident spirits have not returned from wherever they went while gone from Folkmore. Newly arriving Star Children (or those interested in relocating) just might find those residences awfully appealing. As with all unoccupied homes in Folkmore, they're free real estate.
Each neighborhood has a new (and structurally-sound) building near its center: a hospitality station of sorts, stocked with basic foods (to suit a variety of dietary needs, relevant to the known local residents), clean water, personal protective equipment, basic tool kits, fresh clothing, and clean linens. For those ill equipped to cook for themselves for whatever reason, there's also a canteen/soup kitchen area. The canteen tends to collect idle spirits and Star Children who might be willing to assist with any cleanup tasks too big or too complex for one person to tackle on their own.
Working with the neighbors has an additional benefit, of course: sooner or later, whether while helping clear the train tracks or fixing up someone's home or business (including a Star Child's own), shifting the debris will reveal a weathered container of some sort, locked up tight, that will only fall open at a touch if and when the right Star Child finds it. There is only one chest per Star Child. Inside, is an item from home, either that of the resident whose house/business it's found in or the one keyed to the lock. It may even be a magical item or weapon.
There's some good news as well, in the midst of all the chaos: most Star Children will find that their homes are wholly unharmed; their pets, companions, Pokémon, etc. are all hale and hearty, having spent the entire time cozily asleep in their boxfoxes — which can be reused if kept, and just as easily abandoned now that they've released their occupants.
- The moat is gone! Freeeeeedom!
- The train is not operating for one week until October 27th due to debris over the tracks.
- Every region of Folkmore shows scars from the past month's extreme disturbances. Things have not reverted to before.
- Most spirits have returned; some remain absent. Claim the free real estate, if quick or bold enough.
- Hospitality stations have appeared in each neighborhood stocked with food, water, clothing, and linens.
- The canteens serve as a social hub and place to ask for/volunteer assistance.
- One time only, cleaning up or moving debris will reveal a container holding an item from home: yours or the person's you're helping.
- Most Star Children's homes will be unharmed; any damage should match the region's damage flavor. The level of destruction is up to you.
- Creatures in boxfoxes are out, fine and dandy! Boxfoxes can be kept/used again.
Offshore near Agrona Academy, there's something new. Something bewildering, maybe. Something growing. There's also something swimming up to any Star Children near the coast: a very large sea turtle, not willing to come far ashore. She's singing and chirping to get attention, in case being big enough to have a six-foot-long shell isn't quite good enough for some reason. (Or the way she has a blue-green bioluminescent glow when underwater, as becomes quite visible around dusk.)
She's happy to explain that she needs a place to lay her eggs. She doesn't have eggs to lay, just yet, but she wants to have her place all ready anyway. To that end she's busily building a brand-new island not very far from shore. It's just over there, visible once she indicates it with a flipper, barely any higher than the waves cresting around it. Here's the sad part: while she's used a great deal of cleverness in building it, from rocks and sand and bits of broken reef, she's all out of construction materials that she can reach! So she needs help: more construction material for the island.
It seems she's got a very loose definition, though, so pretty much anything that can later be covered in sand or dirt is fair game. Lucky that she wants it now. There's a perfect place todump all that debris in the ocean recycle all the debris, anything not structurally sound enough for a repair-in-place job. Bigger is probably better, too. Work together with other Star Children to haul up the big stuff. It brings more and more joy to her songs as she finds the exact place for each and every item, making her island grow bigger and bigger.
Anyone who actively participates will be rewarded five (5) spoons by the turtle directly, as a thank you for helping her to keep her eggs safe. (If anyone asks, she'll explain that it's the number of limbs she has, so she thought it was perfect!) In addition, she gives each person a smooth and shiny sea rock that fits in their palm perfectly! If the island gets big enough to be more than a sandbar, anyone who helped with the construction will find it far more welcoming than those who didn't. She isn't expecting to use anything but the beach.
She's happy to explain that she needs a place to lay her eggs. She doesn't have eggs to lay, just yet, but she wants to have her place all ready anyway. To that end she's busily building a brand-new island not very far from shore. It's just over there, visible once she indicates it with a flipper, barely any higher than the waves cresting around it. Here's the sad part: while she's used a great deal of cleverness in building it, from rocks and sand and bits of broken reef, she's all out of construction materials that she can reach! So she needs help: more construction material for the island.
It seems she's got a very loose definition, though, so pretty much anything that can later be covered in sand or dirt is fair game. Lucky that she wants it now. There's a perfect place to
Anyone who actively participates will be rewarded five (5) spoons by the turtle directly, as a thank you for helping her to keep her eggs safe. (If anyone asks, she'll explain that it's the number of limbs she has, so she thought it was perfect!) In addition, she gives each person a smooth and shiny sea rock that fits in their palm perfectly! If the island gets big enough to be more than a sandbar, anyone who helped with the construction will find it far more welcoming than those who didn't. She isn't expecting to use anything but the beach.
- A large sea turtle—with a 6 foot in diameter shell and about 3 feet tall at the shoulder—starts building an island off Cruel Summer.
- She needs help getting more building supplies. Bring your debris, bigger the better, here!
- All Star Children who help will be rewarded five (5) spoons and a shiny and smooth rock from underwater that fits in their recipients' palms just so.
- Star Children who help find the island more welcoming than those who didn't.
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"Yeah, sure." He sets down the edge of the large chunk of metal flashing he was in the middle of moving, and down goes the pile of garbage on top of it. "Knock yourself out. What kind of stuff are you looking for?"
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Mizu approaches the wagon and the unstable pile of things inside it. Sometimes it's hard to tell what something once was. She guesses the idiom's meaning, though she won't follow it to the letter. "Metal, mostly. Some wood. Anything of the right quality."
Which possibly sounds presumptuous to a stranger. If it does, not her problem if he thinks she's an asshole. Probably. "We may as well not forget what happened." Mizu pauses. Everyone or nearly everyone was at Amrita Academy. She's come to know most people's faces, if not their names. She doesn't recognize his that way. "Were you here for it?"
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"Nope, I just got here. Sounded like a real shitshow though." It also looks like it was a real shitshow, but Nero's forced to guess what anything looked like before he landed on his face out in the desert. "Do you know if anybody got hurt?"
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"Good enough description for it," Mizu says. She finds misshapen metal she cannot guess the origins of, pulls out a tool (half of a lock picking set, as it happens), and hits the side of it to hear the sound of the metal. She's quiet for that moment and sets the metal aside. Whatever it was, it will get to become a sword.
"Some people were injured, out here or because the animals freaked out like it was the end of the world. A couple people died, but here that doesn't mean what it does other places. They came back fine, as usual." Mizu supposes anyone new will have questions. "There was a healing team looking after anyone who got hurt."
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Not that the smith has any reason to lie to him. Either way, he decides to change the subject.
"What kind of stuff do you smith? Weapons, or armor, or what?"
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"Swords, primarily," Mizu answers. "While we were fending for ourselves at the academy, it was knives and other tools." It is the way of the artist where she's from to do one thing and one thing only, but swords would have done little good. In some ways, she's still a bad artist. Looking at it another way, it all feeds into her art, except her art in that case isn't swords.
"Do you use a sword?" No one shows up with one.
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"Yeah, I do, actually." He rubs the back of his neck a bit awkwardly. "Hard to tell by looking at me, but I used to be a knight. My sword's been customized for me and everything. I'm gonna be pissed if I don't find where it went."
Not that he's needed it for anything, or would even need it to defend himself. But it's lonely without his trusty Red Queen at his back. (To say nothing of his beloved gun. Something tells him that won't be super practical to use here.)
"Which academy is that? You were stranded there the whole time this was going on?"
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She sorts through more useless garbage in the cart, disappointed but not surprised it will not work for her. Scavenging is hardly her usual means for finding what she seeks. "Sometimes people are gifted items from home, so you may be in luck. If not, there's Lore. Save enough of it up and buy your sword back."
"I made myself a new sword." He's a knight, not a smith after all.
She looks up and gazes toward the direction the academy lays in. Mizu had never been there before being stuck there. "Amrita Academy in Willow. Unlike the other schools here, it teaches survival and has the grounds to support people. It was the logical place for the fox spirit to take people she wished to protect, but I'm sure many people are glad to be free of it. Myself included because yes I was there the whole time. I saw no more of what happened where we stand than you have."
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Given the bits and pieces he's heard, he's starting to figure out the gist of what happened. Stranded at a college campus? That wouldn't be too but, but it almost certainly got old quick. Especially for those who had to leave everything behind in a disaster zone and flee there.
"Guess I came at exactly the right time. I may not have a clue what's going on, but at least I can help out."
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He reminds her of most people at the school with how eager he is to help out and to make things better for people. People, generally speaking. Not people he's personally connected to. Having only just arrived, how many people could he know here? Folkmore is filled with people like that. Legends, yes, but there's plenty of Familiars and even Myths who helped each other out like it was the most natural thing in the world. That hasn't been Mizu's experience with people. It feels strange, not entirely to be trusted.
"There's plenty of work to do and no reason to get bored. Nothing's forcing secrets out of us, so it could be worse."
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Remembering his manners, he offers a brief wave in lieu of a handshake, since his are filthy with dirt and debris. "Nice to meet you."
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Manners being cheap (and she's already stared), Mizu gives a small bow. "I'm Mizu." She considers him.
"I know your father. We're sparring partners, friends, and..." She shrugs. Best she explains how she knows his name. Vergil could readily know someone a long time without talking about his son. "We've participated in some of the trials together. Better someone you know than a stranger."
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"Vergil has friends?"
Whoops. That slipped out. And is a little mean. But so is ripping your son's arm off, whether or not you're aware he's your son at the time.
Alas. He's not about to get started on his brand new daddy issues with a stranger, much less one who considers Vergil of all people a friend.
"So he's mentioned me? What did he say?"
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When Mizu and Vergil sat at the bonfire in May, informed that something nebulously bad would happen if not enough people confessed something there, they each chose to tell each other something. Mizu spoke about her mother. Vergil spoke about Nero. All of it his business who he tells and not Mizu's to go passing it along, not even to the son in person. As someone who's killed people for information about her fathers (who she, admittedly, wants to kill, which is not the understanding she took away between Vergil and Nero), she understands the interest in what Vergil's said about him.
"He complimented your fighting. I'm curious to see how good you are. Would you be interested in sparring sometime, either before or after you get Red Queen back?" Anyone who's fought Vergil and walked away would be of interest to her as a sparring partner. She still hasn't sparred Dante yet, but perhaps Nero will be more interested. The only thing better than sparring—and one day defeating—two sons of Sparda would be to spar and defeat three.
no subject
Fortunately, Mizu keeps the subject heading down a path he's interested in, much more than ragging on his mangy, transient asshole of a father.
"Yeah, sure. I like a good spar. Rather have my sword back first, but I can do plenty without it." And if Mizu apparently keeps up with Vergil, Nero's fascinated to see what kind of a fighter he is.
Though he does feel the need to clarify one thing. "I don't know how much Vergil told you but, uh... we kind of just met." As in, Nero found out he both existed and was his father approximately three days ago. "I don't know him that well."
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"I have a spare sword you can use in the meantime," Mizu says, "I drew it from a book my first day here." Back then, they drew weapons from books and fought spirits from stories with them once they got out of detention. A far cry from the manual labor before them now. Folkmore's different, and Mizu's not sure where it will wind up. She thinks it's better not to hope it's like before. That's a way to get one's hopes dashed.
She nods. Vergil mentioned that too. She doesn't mind parting with that information, solid facts, compared to what Vergil confessed he felt about the matter. What he wished for. "He didn't know you existed until recently. Being here could be a chance to change that." A shrug. "If you're interested."
Mizu huffs a laugh. "Or if the fox spirit is interested."
no subject
He goes through a brief variety of facial expressions at the further mention of Vergil. He didn't know... and neither did Nero. Hard to hold that part against him, even if Nero still vividly remembers being the loner kid at the orphanage, up late at night wondering why his parents didn't want him.
It's all the other shit that's easier to be wary about with him.
"Maybe," he mutters. "If he's interested. And willing to eat a little crow."
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That's why she's willing to lend the sword she didn't make, rather than one she has. She's proud of her work making swords, and it's a terrible blow to have one's sword break. Mizu knows that steel breaking under the kind of demonic power they have is not an insult to her, but she cannot help but feel she ought to be able to make a good enough sword. Vergil's been so focused on earning Yamato back and using Mirage Edge in their sparring sessions she'd never consider making him a sword. It didn't come up, but Dante and Nero without weapons and Dante calling it no fun to fight without his weapons reminds her of the issue.
"Would that be for leaving your mother without knowing she's pregnant or for how the fight, the meeting, went down between you two?" Mizu asks. She knows more about the former than the latter. Nero bested Vergil, she knows that much, but Vergil hardly explained the details, only his opinions of Nero that came of it. That mattered more at the time. Nero likely has his own opinions on the matter.
no subject
He'd be happy to keep talking about swords, really. But then there's a bit of a bombshell when Mizu straight up asks what he's wanting an apology for. He blinks, visibly stunned (and Nero wears every emotion he has right on his face.) Apparently, they've discussed Nero at length. In far more detail than even Nero himself knows.
"I was hoping we'd bring up the time he came into my garage and tore off my arm," he says. "That was the first time we met, actually. But if he wants to tack on the rest of that too, I'd love to listen."
no subject
Except there's the whole matter of Vergil. Vergil and Nero, which much as Mizu wants to know about swords and could talk about them at length, is more important.
Her eyes immediately take in both of Nero's arms, firmly attached and looking quite natural and fleshy. So is that something Vergil and Dante do too, should they lose a limb? Impressive, but being well now doesn't make up for losing a whole arm. Mizu knows Vergil didn't know who Nero was when they first met—that description of knowing of his existence for months but who he was only for hours before coming to Folkmore. Vergil didn't know Nero from anyone, and he's done far worse than tear someone's arm off when they were in his way. Mizu's done worse herself, though unlike Vergil she need not worry she's accidentally maiming her own child. She has no children.
"Sounds fair," Mizu says. More than fair, really. It doesn't matter to Mizu what her fathers say. She's going to kill them. They deserve it, and they don't want or deserve the chance Vergil has here. "Why didn't you kill him when you beat him?"
no subject
So yeah. An apology would be nice. He's not holding his breath, but not waving it off as an impossibility, either.
"I didn't want to." He glances away. "I wanted the chance to talk to him. Him and Dante were going to take each other out, but I stopped them, too. Family killing family shouldn't be the first resort."
no subject
His answer stops her. Mizu'd only been going through the motions of checking out the debris now the conversation's gotten serious, but she looks at Nero, even as he avoids her gaze. Such a simple reason, those first four words. He didn't want to. Nero didn't kill his father, who tore his arm off first they met, because he didn't want to. It only gets more remarkable from there. Stepping between Vergil and Dante's no mean feat.
The last comment gets a small snort. "Tell that to my fathers," Mizu mutters. She focuses on Nero. Mizu won't tell him how much Vergil wants a relationship with him, but it seems like they'll both get a chance for what they want. "Vergil and Dante haven't killed each other here yet, so I'd say chances of conversation are decent."
no subject
He looks back at Mizu, trying to read his response. The guy knows way more than he's said about the situation, but Nero isn't going to grill him for answers. He wants those from his father and his uncle. But if he'd just said something unbearably naive or something Vergil would mock, he's hoping to read it on Mizu's face.
Nope. Can't make out a thing.
"Some fuckers are beyond reasoning with, and beyond mercy," he offers, regarding Mizu's fathers. "I didn't want him to be." This is, perhaps, unbelievably generous of Nero considering the extent of Vergil's collateral damage. But as he truly believes: "Everybody deserves a chance."
no subject
Vergil is a far cry from her fathers. However unreasonable he's been in the past, and Mizu would believe he has been in his pursuit of power, he's tempered and changed perspective. In many respects because of Nero and his choices. It may not have been possible, but he made it possible.
"I might have to kick his ass if he squanders it," Mizu says, "Course I plan on kicking his ass either way. That's a natural part of sparring."
no subject
So, clearly, not only does Vergil have a friend in Mizu, but a pretty close friend. He doesn't really seem the type to go spilling his guts to any random person. Mizu must be a reliable person for him to know all this, to have heard so much of Nero from his distant father. (A fact which Nero will fully grapple with later on. He talks about him... he's told people about him...)
"I'm glad you're friends with him," he says after a moment. "It's nice he has somebody he trusts, even a little bit. For whatever it's worth... I appreciate it."
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