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 Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 6:04 pm
Ah, excellent! Just as Elae had been hoping, the Records was alive with the movement of people, every single one rushing around to check details, cross-check others, and make notes on the Hatching. There were even a few Harpers attempting to write down their thoughts and feelings upon seeing a true rags-to-riches story in the Impression of Yansanth and Annelie. Elae grinned at that, rather liking the story herself. Despite all of the bustle, the room was still oddly silent. The only sound was the occasional academic cough or someone shushing someone else. And it was oh-so-easy for two Candidates to slip into the place. After all, it was hardly restricted!
Well, most of it. There were a few restricted sections, but that was mostly because the articles were delicate and could only be handled by Master Scribes. Those would hardly hold what she and Nan were looking for: the Records of Searches and, perhaps, Flights as well. Anything to shed a little light on this interesting mystery at their feet.
What she hadn’t counted on was the sheer size of the place. The Scribes of Ista Weyr were absolutely meticulous about noting things and it showed in their Records Room. No flames or candles were allowed in the room, of course; only baskets of glows, carefully placed, provided illumination for the place. Elae grabbed a small basket----just enough to allow her and Nan to see what they were looking at----and then whispered to her friend, “Well? Where do you think we should start? Should we start looking at the Hatching Records to see what his name was before he Impressed?”
It had only just occurred to her that he hadn’t been born C’ren. Once they had his original name, they ought to be able to find him through the Search Records. “And maybe we should do some research on Kallista as well. See what makes her different. And Raena.” Just in case, you know? Besides, it would be nice to have some extra information on the girls!
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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 6:24 pm
Nandeli loved the Records. It was a pity her handwriting looked like wherry scratch otherwise she would have at least tried to learn to be a Scribe. All of that information at one's fingertips was practically dizzying. Still, while she couldn't be a Scribe, she could make use of the Records like all the Weyrfolk, which made up for the fact that she couldn't be in charge of writing it all down (which was probably for the better). She slid in after Elae, light on their toes as their moved through the near silent room. No doubt all the Scribes were furiously writing down all that had happened today. She would have to get a look at that list of newly Impressed when she had time.
"Hatching Records, I think. We'll start there. If we can't find anything that could be his name then we'll have to assume he Impressed elsewhere and was sent here." That would be incredibly disappointing. She doubted they'd be able to find a complete listing of all the dragonriders at other Weyrs, much less have their Hatching Records as well. At the mention of Kallista she nodded her head. "Definitely. Raena, too. Maybe we should pop into the Healers and see if they know anything about Raena. As for Kallista… it's a pity we didn't know before the Gather. We could have gone to see the runners in the station down there." Nandeli pouted. Getting down the Hold would not be easy. Candidates weren't allowed to just n** over on dragonback, and she had no excuse to go. Her mother was all the way up at Red Sands Hold, so she couldn't even lie and say she wanted to visit family. Alas.
"Let's have a look…" She beckoned Elae and made her way through the Records, looking in the dim light for the Hatching Records. "He mustn’t be more than thirty turns I'd say, so he can't have Impress too long ago…"
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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 6:40 pm
“…I didn’t think of that,” Elae answered with a small pout. What if C’ren had Impressed somewhere else and was transferred here? Well, they would cross that bridge when they came to it, as Momma used to say. “Let’s assume he’s thirty then. If he Impressed at ten----not very likely, but we ought to err on the generous side----then we have twenty years of records to look over. Cheoth is a new Queen. She hasn’t had any clutches yet. And I think the one who recently laid eggs---the ones that haven’t hatched yet---has only been fertile for a few years…” This was lowering things down tremendously. Well, not really… but it did give Elae a moment to show off her mad math skills!
While she muttered under her breath to try and figure out how many clutches they had to look through, the girls slowly found their way to the Hatching Records. This was an area of extreme interest at the moment, naturally, which only made it easier for two Candidates to slip past. It was amazing, this place. It was just the sort of place that Elae thought Nan would naturally gravitate towards, and not just for the vast amounts of information at hand. It was also, according to rumors, a great place to hook up due to the amazing variety of dark nooks and corners. Teenagers loved that sort of thing. At least the older Hatching Records were abandoned, leaving the two in peace to conduct their ‘studies’.
“Alright… let’s start out by assuming he Impressed five years ago. And then ten, fifteen, etc… that way, it’ll only be a small load of work instead of lots. If we’re lucky, we’ll be out of here in half a candlemark! And his dragon’s name is Ceylith. I don’t know if it’s an S or a C. Keep an eye out for a name like that though. His name will have changed, but hers… ah, hers won’t have. Also, we should check the Flight records, just in case! I think only Gold Flights are recorded, but we might get lucky. See who C’ren has as a stand-in, if he does lean towards girls.”
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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:30 pm
Urg, twenty years of records. Not that she didn't like reading, but reading over that many years was asking for distraction. She would start finding out things she hadn't even started looking for, and that would just spiral out of control until she couldn't remember why she had come to the Records in the first place. Luckily for Nan, Elae seemed to be doing some very good math, and the young woman nodded along with her friend as she worked things out. Well, that definitely cut down on the years a bit. Excellent! The faster they could get this information the faster they could do any other research and confirm their suspicions.
As they wove they way through various shelves of records, Nandeli couldn't help but let her gaze wander, eyes gravitating to every dark corner they passed. Just because she was looking for something specific didn't mean that she couldn't keep her eyes open for any new material. So far, it seemed that the Scribes were all work and no play, and the teenagers were frolicking elsewhere. She sighed mentally. It was too bad really, but that was life. She would have to drop in another day to see what she could find, but for now she would focus on C'ren, Kallista and Raena. Love triangles could always hold her attention.
"Sounds good to me. Flight Records might be harder to get, but I can stop by the kitchen tomorrow when things have calmed down and see what I can get. The girls down there will know which green flights involved girls from the Lower Caverns." The Kitchen staff was always useful in that respect. "What do you say you start with the first five years, I'll take the next, and we'll see who finds what?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:54 pm
“Ohh… that’s a good idea with the kitchen girls! I hadn’t thought of that. We should check with the Lower Caverns girls too, just in case. Actually…” she paused a little, something suddenly occurring to her. “I think I remember something about how Raena was a Lower Caverns worker before she decided to become a Healer. More pieces of the puzzle clicked together neatly, in a way that absolutely had to be true! She whirled on Nan in a flurry of delight.
“By the first egg, Nan! I’ve got it! Raena was a worker in the Lower Caverns before she became a Healer! And, guess what? She has a blue flit. Spearkeek’s the name. Remember how I said it was a huge mystery how she got her firelizard? Remember that? What if it was a gift from C’ren? That would explain the secrecy and everything!” Oh, it was too perfect! Her shoulder pointed out that Vox was extremely heavy for a flitt and thus probably wasn’t likely to produce a clutch with any but the slowest of Greens… but maybe it was a planned breeding or something. Stranger things had happened before.
With this new drama playing out in her mind, Elae went to work, pouring over the old Clutch records. The first few years----she was reading through the records backwards from today’s Hatching----were the worst. Ugh. The queens had been Rising twice a year, more or less. Things got easier as Elae developed a technique; just look for any S’s or C’s in a dragon name---and only the Greens---and then the record would be shelved.
“I always had him pegged as a kind of man who enjoys the company of other men,” she said while perusing one record. “I mean, he’s so… you know. Formal and everything. I bet he was Holdborn and never got over it.”
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Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 4:20 pm
"Good thinking." They would have all of their bases covered that way. If the girls in the Lower Caverns and the kitchen girls didn't know about it, then chances are it hadn't even happened. That, or the person was a ninja. Sneaky little buggers. Nandeli's ears practically perked when Elae told her that Raena was a girl from the Lower Caverns. Aha! So she had been down in the Lower Caverns then? Oh how things were fitting together perfectly! She really was very lucky to have Elae on her side. The two of them made an unstoppable team.
Nan nodded eagerly when Elae divulged her theory, already enjoying the connections. Indeed, with C'ren's pretty blue he could have arranged for the flit to fly a green and given an egg away to Raena. "Or maybe he was offered a flit when he came here but turned it down in favour of giving it away to Raena, since he already had one." This really was a scandalous affair. Blue flit secret gifts, runners thanking greenriders for treating them well, and C'ren being so cranky when they interrupted his little tryst. There just had to be something going on.
With her assigned Clutch records in hand, she found the nearest table and began flipping through them. She could see why they were having overcrowding problems by just looking at the records. So many dragons in each clutch! If they weren't preparing for something then the queens clearly needed to get control of their hormones. She dragged her fingers down her list, looking for S's and C's. Ceylith just had to be in here somewhere. She didn't look up when Elae spoke, but nodded her head to show that she was listening.
"I'd assume he was Holdborn, just by manners alone. They're so much more into formalities there. He probably does like men, but he might be hiding it or he can't get over his first Flight. Maybe was too much of a shock for him." It happened. "Wonder why he's got two girls though… even for a greenrider that seems a bit much. We're looking for Ceylith, yes, not Selth?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 7:15 pm
Hmm… Elae had stopped reading records for a moment and was now tapping her fingers against the hide, clearly deep in thought. Why had Raena gone into Healing? The most likely explanation was that she just didn’t want to be a Lower Caverns girl any more---and, really, who would want to serve others their entire life---but something didn’t quite fit… she waved her thoughts away, feeling fairly certain it was just a coincidence. Maybe she simply hadn’t really thought about becoming a Healer until she met one or something, much like Elae herself had never considered becoming a dragonrider until she met one. That made sense.
“Ceylith, Selyth, Selth…” she spoke thoughtfully, trying to match the words to the sounds she remembered. “’Ith’ for sure at the end. Or maybe with a ‘y’. It’s hard to tell, sometimes. People get really creative with spelling.”
Little did either girl know that the record was hiding in Nan’s pile. A boy of eighteen, Cegern, had Impressed at Ista Weyr ten years previous, to Green Ceylith. The records were rather plain and not much into details.
Color and Name: Green Ceylith
Impressed To: Cegern (18 )
Other records included similar names though, Sellith among them. There was also a Selth, a Celyth, and even a Celath.
Hmm… she briefly wondered if maybe they were on the wrong track. Maybe he wasn’t interested in both girls. Maybe it was just one. She discarded that almost immediately, mostly because it wasn’t sufficiently dramatic. A more interesting thought wormed its way into her mind. “Well, you know… men love to watch women make out with other women… maybe he’s looking for a threesome.” She grinned and giggled, but had to admit it didn’t sound too likely. It was dimly possible, but not too likely.
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Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 7:39 pm
"Gotcha." Nandeli moved aside a stack of already viewed documents as she perused one in particular. She hadn't really thought about dragon names before, but now that Elae mentioned it, the hatchling probably didn't introduce itself to its rider and then spell its name. Not that that wouldn't be funny. She giggled a little to herself at the mental image of a dragon standing like a kid before his teacher, spelling out his name. It wasn't surprising that dragonriders got creative with their charge's names. They could spell them however they wanted to.
Elae's idea came as a surprise to her, having not considered such a possibility. "Men watching women with other women? I didn't think of that," she admitted, pausing to chew on her fingernail thoughtfully. "A threesome might definitely be in his future, if he can get Kallista and Raena to co-operate. Not bad picks either. I suppose it's always possible he wants to have children." Though that wasn't nearly as exciting. She likes Elae's idea of a threesome better.
Luck seemed to be with her, and as she moved onto her next record page her eyes landed on Cegern. Pausing, she tapped her finger thoughtfully on the name. "Elae, I have here somebody by the name of Cegern, to a green that could be the one we're looking for. C-e-y-l-i-t-h is the dragon's name. Cegern could definitely be shortened to C'ren, and if my calculations are right…" She did some math on her fingers. "He would be around thirty years old now. Do you think we have our man?" There were other dragons with similar names, but most of the riders who were listed alongside them had Impressed too young. This Cegern guy must be the one they were looking for. "There's not much on him though…." She beckoned Elae over to read with her.
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Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 8:44 pm
Perhaps it was because she herself had once been approached with the ‘offer’----more like demand, really----that the threesome idea had occurred to Elae. It was absurd; the moment a girl mentioned ‘oh, yeah, she’s hot’, a man’s mind immediately jumped to the whole threesome idea. “Him a father? Maybe if he feels some sort of an obligation to reproduce, like to make sure there are plenty of future Candidates. That would explain why he’s going after young girls rather than older ones. More chances of reproduction…” but, you know, the threesome idea sounded so much better, so Elae was willing to ignore that possible scenario. “But I bet he’d totally eat his own young, rodent-style.”
Ohh! Nan had found something? Elae promptly abandoned her own readings to scoot over next to Nan, looking over her shoulder. It certainly sounded promising, but the lack of information was just dismal. Ugh. Didn’t the Scribes here have any sense of what was important? “Ten years ago, he was eighteen then… so, yeah. Around twenty-eight, at least. Well! At least we have his old name now, and the year he Impressed. I wonder if they keep records under that name or his new name… that would be faster than trying to go through the Search records.”
Oh duh! Why didn’t she think of that before? They must have records on every dragon-rider or something, right? Now Elae just felt a little foolish… oh well. At least they had his original name and age now. That was something at least. “You know, even if he was Hold-born, you’d think he’d be used to living in a Weyr after ten years,” she said thoughtfully. “I guess he came from a really stuck-up Hold then. Are there records on specific riders? Maybe we should’ve started there…”
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Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 11:47 pm
Nan nodded. "Maybe he wants more Candidates from his bloodline. Thinks they'll Impress more easily or something. Especially if the kids' mother was a Candidate. Naturally inclination to Impress plus already Impressed and bam!" She clapped her hands together and earned a dark look from a nearby Scribe. Apparently the Records were under Library Silence Rules. Not that that had ever stopped Nandeli from making noise, and so she ignored the look. The clap had been necessary to her story. "Eating young would be possible I suppose… whichever ones were not pretty enough." Because prettiness mattered to all greenriders. This was a Fact.
"Well, if we want to know about his past we could probably look under his old name. Though it's possible they might have a brief history under his shortened name as well as anything he did while at the Weyr. Let's have a look under his rider name first and see what we can find. See if he has any children or anything." That would prove he was straight. Actually, not really. It would just prove he was really good at pretending to be straight, or that he was bisexual. There was a slim possibility he really was gay, but since that ruined their theories about a threesome it just wasn't acceptable.
Elae's comment about C'ren's age made her nod slowly. "Well, if he's been here that long, surely his green had Risen more than once. I wonder if they record that kind of stuff? Probably not. Too many greens Rising to keep track of who catches who. We should look and see what they got on specific riders. Hope he's done something important to warrant writing about." Back to the shelves! "You said he Searched you right? Did he talk at all?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:20 am
The clap certainly added an integral element to the tale, Elae had to agree. And the whole prettiness thing made her giggle loudly, earning her a glare too. She ignored it, of course, aside from flashing the glare-er a bright smile. Smiles made everything better! Apparently it confused the Scribe into silence. Well, that was good enough for Elae. “Well, let’s take a look…” she shoved the records back into their place haphazardly, paying only scant attention to their order. No doubt, someone would have a fuss-fit over that, but, again. SMILES. They were like the sparkles and rainbows of the face; they made everything better. Or at least confused people.
The rider records were easy to find; they filled up the bulk of the Records room anyway. “C… the name did start with a C, right? Of course it did…” at least it was at the beginning of the alphabet! And, look! The file was right there! Conveniently left in the open for them. And, even more important to Elae, it looked considerably thicker than some other files. Looked like their boy had some sort of history after all. She turned the power of her smile up to 100 watts and grinned at Nan, pulling down the record so they could read.
“Yeah… you’re probably right. They probably wouldn’t record it because it’s not considered ‘important’, since no eggs are produced. Honestly, can you believe that?” Did these people have no sense of drama? She scanned C’ren’s record a bit, frowning slightly. “There are some Mysterious Spills,” she announced, pointing at what was probably klah but looked a good deal more suspicious to her, hence the capital letters. “Do you think he’s trying to hide something?”
Oh, she could only hope! “No, he didn’t talk too much. Mostly he just told me that Ceylith thought I could Impress. He was very definite in that Ceylith thought I could. Not him.” Her smile vanished into a frown as she tried to remember what had happened exactly. “He’s not much of a talker, really. He got into an argument with someone there, I remember that. I don’t know what it was about though.”
“Hmm… no kids. Crackdust.” That was a bit disappointing. “OH! Right here! Place of birth…” it was a little smudgy, but she could just barely make it out. “R…Riventor?” She paused for a moment, her lips moving around the name again. “I’ve never heard of it. It must be a really tiny hold. Maybe even a cothold.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 11:16 am
Of course the Scribe shut up. Who wouldn't, after being smiled at by a pretty girl? It was probably more attention than he'd received in his whole time at the Weyr. Nandeli had heard rumours in the Lower Caverns that some girls liked Scribes because they had dexterous fingers, but since no scandal had ever happened she had chocked it up to the wishes of teenage girls. Of course they would like to think the Scribe had something appealing about them. Girls loved nerds until they got into bed with them. Then everything changed.
They were really very lucky that the dragon name in question started with a C. Not to mention the next letter was 'e' which put it fairly close to the beginning. Clearly it was their destiny to pry into the exciting life of greenrider C'ren. It just had to be. Nandeli matched Elae's megawatt grin and turned her attention to the record in her friend's hands. "I know right? Green flights are sooo much more interesting than the gold ones. I mean Weyrleader business aside, green flights have so much more potential!" Who cared about who become the Weyrleader anyways? Everyone knew how many guys a greenrider was seeing as totally more important.
The Mysterious Spills made her frown, imagination working in overtime as she digested the information. So he wouldn't even talk to Elae, and he was clearly hiding something in the klah stains on his records. There was more to this man than she had ever imagined! "Riventor? Cothold sounds about right." Instantly the ideas began flowing. "Maybe he really is gay! But keeps in frequent contact with his family, so they cannot know what he is doing up here. And what better way to say that he's hanging around the girls? Even being with a couple? That's definitely going to set his family's mind at ease. And if he were to have a child with one, well. That would settle it, wouldn't it?" Nandeli's smile was so bright it was practically a glowbasket of its own. "Perhaps something happened to him while he was at the Weyr though… something he's trying to cover up so that if his parents ever came they couldn't check up on him. These Mysterious Spills…. I wonder…" She looked at Elae for suggestions.
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Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 11:37 am
Clearly, Nan was a genius. Only a fellow genius in gossiptry could understand why Green Flights were so much more important than Gold Flights. Gold Flights were merely politics, as far as Elae was concerned. Not very interesting at all. But Green Flights, on the other hand, were all about personal relations! Quite literally, actually. Sociology, psychology, the human mind… far more interesting and important than stupid ol’ politics. A cothold, huh? Elae almost felt sorry for C’ren at that. Everyone knew cotholds were a bit more… conservative. But only ‘almost’; his rudeness canceled out Elae’s kindness for the time being.
“I bet he is gay. Just, you know. Hiding it for the sake of his family…” she rifled the hides a bit, looking for any information, preferably on his family. “Maybe he’s an only son. My parents don’t put a lot of pressure on my brother or anything, but I bet they would if we lived in a cothold or something. Lots of need for help in the fields and everything. We should try to look for information on this Riventor eventually.” Course, her little brother was also still too young to really think about reproducing. He was still in the ‘girls have cooties’ stage.
Elae’s eyes bulged. “Wow… prolific family is prolific. Half-siblings and everything.” Half-siblings. That was important. In fact, in ‘recent’ years, it looked like there were only half-siblings being produced. “Ok… it looks like he only has two direct siblings. One older brother and one younger sister. The rest of these younger siblings are all halfsies. I guess he has a dead parent.” That made sense. She paused for a moment, feeling slightly more sympathy for C’ren now. Dead parents could do that.
Unfortunately, the klah stain covered up any truly delicious information, like any disciplinary records. It also conveniently covered up any Weyrmates that he may have had. Hmm… Elae scratched her chin and tried to look intelligent. “I think there was a scandal,” she announced, because it sounded possible and it would produce the most drama. “Think about it; what if he did have a male weyrmate and his family found out? He must’ve panicked or something and tried to cover it up. Then his weyrmate finds out, throws a hissyfit and leaves him. No wonder he’s so grouchy.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:06 pm
Rudeness did have that kind of effect on a good opinion of someone. Still, Nandeli had never let rudeness get in the way of information collection, and she wasn't about to stop for C'ren. He could spill klah on his records all he wanted, but she and Elae would get to the truth. Failure was not an option. She would even bribe one of the nice, handsome men in the Weyr to go talk to C'ren if necessary. If he really was gay he would be impervious to the charms of a tall, dark, handsome man. This, like prettiness, was also a Fact. She had solid proof.
"If he's the only kid he would definitely get all the parent's expectations. And especially if he's the only boy. They'd expect him to marry well and carry on a Craft, not become a dragonrider." She gasped, as a sudden idea hit her. "Maybe his parents don't like dragonriders! So he has to prove his worth to them by giving them a grandchild!" Over-demanding families had existed since the beginning of time. It was very possible that C'ren had once such family. Her (and Elae's) notion about him being the only child were crushed when Elae announced that he had a huge family. "Perhaps he has an older brother complex. You know, try to outdo his brother even though he's at the Weyr."
Nandeli nodded her agreement at the mention of a scandal. Elae's idea seemed very plausible, perfect even. "It's a pity the weyrmate's not listed here…" She dragged her finger along a stain. "But it would explain why he feels the need to cover up. Having women all over you and then on top of that producing children would totally win his family over. I wonder what colour his Weyrmate was…Brown do you think? He seems like the kind of guy who would like a brownrider."
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Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:20 pm
Aha! Nan had hit something certainly! It seemed perfectly plausible that C’ren’s family might not like dragonriders. Why, during the Gather, a fight had almost broken out between some Holders and a Rider! There were always strong feelings about such things flitting about, integrating themselves into the minds of others. Especially among cotholds. Everyone knew they resented dragonriders for taking their food and their children. “Nan… you’re a genius! That fits perfectly! An Older-Brother Complex… some homophobic and dragon-phobic family members… a desire to please his family once and for all… it all makes sense!”
As for the Weyrmate… Elae paused for a brief moment, her hand going to her chin once more. It was hard to tell colors sometimes. “Maybe a Brown. Someone who can put up with him, anyway. Certainly not another Green; he’d just walk all over them, I bet.” An idea popped into her head. “You know… if he had a Weyrmate, he might’ve made arrangements about Ceylith’s Flights, making sure his Weyrmate’s dragon was the winner. If one particular rider has a record of winning those Flights…” she let the sentence drift off enticingly, knowing that Nan would fill in the blanks.
Ha! As if a small thing like a Klah-spill would stop them! C’ren really had no idea what he was messing with, none at all. Pity about the lack of Green Flight records, though. But, there were ways around such things. “I wonder if his Weyrmate is still here. We need to find out who he is and ask him. Maybe even patch things up between them again. Wouldn’t that be adorable?”
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